Entertainment For Lively Minds
When Did You Last Listen To A "Classic Album"
Posted by DrJ on 15 August 2011 - 11:17am.
Driving to work this morning REM's The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight was on the radio and I realised I hadn't listened to Automatic For The People in a long, long time - but it is an album I loved and listened to a lot when it came out.
It got me thinking that there are albums that come up over and over as "classics", "top 100 of all time" etc and I'm not trying to start a thread against these records, but rather highlight records where you might feel "yes, that's a very good record but I haven't heard it in a long time and I really have no need to listen to it right now, thanks"
I mean, I think I don't need to hear Pet Sounds again. Anyone know what I'm on about?
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'A Passion Play' by Jethro Tull...
I listened to this over the weekend, as well as Pink Floyd's 'Meddle', 'Rainbow Rising' by Rainbow and 'Argus' by Wishbone Ash. I tend to play more classic rock than new stuff, although I'm also listening a lot to 'Black Country Communnion 2' these days.
Nice choices sir!
and Joe Bonamassa's side project is the icing on the cake.
That's the album
where I lost interest in Jethro Tull, for some reason. The previous one, "Thick As A Brick" is just superb (I re-acquired it a few years back and I've played it a lot since.) I wish I still had the old spoof-newspaper cover of the vinyl album to read and chuckle at.
I haven't heard "A Passion Play" since shortly after it was released, so perhaps I should give it another try in case I have been missing out all these years.
Played it quite recently
Too much parping sax from Ian Anderson instead of flute, I thought.
This was
listened to 'My Sunday feeling' last week . . and found that everything I play now was influenced by Mick Abrahams. Intrigued but not disappointed
This Was
is my favourite Tull LP.
Remember in 2006 when Mick Abrahams appeared on the Identity Parade section of Never Mind The Buzzcocks (Series 19, Episode 1).
They stood him in a line up of decrepit old geezers and proceeded to take the piss mercilessly.
I know piss-taking is Buzzcocks' entire raison d'être, but in this instance I couldn't help feeling it was just a little sad and degrading to a great guitarist.
(Listen out for a rather good Sid Vicious/Bob Dylan gag at the start)
Bleep! Whoosh! Zoom!
I listen to Equinoxe by Jean Michel Jarre, beginning to end, at least once a week.
That said, I try to keep up with new stuff. (I'm buying Nero's new album on my way home tonight, I can't wait!) It is hard to find time to appreciate the classics.
Good call
It's now on Spotify and currently on the stereo.
Blue
I've listened to Joni Mitchel's “ Blue” last thing at night several times lately.
Similarly, Nick Drake's” Five Leaves left” gets occasional hearings in its entirety.
Caught myself listening to the Beatles “Revolver” last week too.
I think it’s a good habit to get back into.
Great question.
I can't remember the last time i listened to a "classic" album. I do know there are several i will never own as they are simply not for me. I got a new 5.1 Blu-Ray system on Saturday, my old DVD packed up three months back, and i took a selection of surround mixes downstairs to play. One was "Pet Sounds". It hasn't been touched yet. Played most of "Remain in Light" before i was reminded i had to stop arsing around and make the tea.
You can be so familiar
with something that you never really need to put it on, because you know every tiny little bit of it and can play it in your head at will.
"Unhalfbricking", "Forever Changes" & "Abbey Road" are a few such.
Here's "Autopsy" from Fairport Convention's Unhalfbricking
A great song, well sung by Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson's playing has seldom sounded better than he does on this.
With you on that, sir.
A slim but perfectly formed collection which includes my very favourite version of "Who Knows..." Never does any harm to hear it again from time to time.
I do find that I can live without listening to Gracelands these days, but have been enjoying returning to Bookends. Must be an age thing!
Wonderful Record
But for me it's the cover that makes it a classic.
First Fairport album I ever bought.
I first purchased this on the 16th October 1987 at Our Price in the Whitgift Centre Croydon.
How do I remember? - well it was the morning after the enormous storm that flattened a large part of Southern England. At the time I was living in Caterham (commuter belt on the Kent/Surrey border), recently married and had just started my first job in the City.
The storm coincided with a major financial crash that started the day before and I was woken at 5am of 16/10/97 by my boss in Singapore who called to inform me to get my arse into the office as it was going to be lively at work that day.
Despite being half asleep and not really taking in most of the twaddle my boss was talking I became aware that the trees on the other side of the valley were falling like nine pins and then there was the wind...... Fearing for my career in the world of Finance, I quickly got dressed and headed for the station to find that no trains were running beyond Purley. Returned home and asked the GLW to take me to Purley.
Finally set off for the City from Purley and got as far as East Croydon where all train services had stopped. Managed to lever myself onto a bus that got me to somewhere in Streatham and then it stopped without any explanation. I am not sure I recognise the person I was in those days,but I then walked down the A23 to Brixton hoping to catch a tube to find the Victoria line had closed.
Hung around trying to get onto a bus heading Londonward for some time before I cracked, gave up and walked back up the A23, all seven miles to Croydon.
By the time I got to Croydon my feet were in tatters. The pair of thin business socks and black Oxfords on my feet weren't designed for distance urban walking. Managed to find a cafe next to the recently incinerated furniture store for a restorative tea and thought I would hang around in the hope that public transport would surely have to restart sometime soon.
My usual haunt, Beanos record shop in Surrey Street, was closed and I hobbled over to a largely empty Whitgift where miraculously Our Price was open. Although I had already bought the one monthly album the family budget allowed for in those days (9% interest rates, huge mortgage, things were tight etc,) I was intrigued by the cover of Unhalfbricking. The contrast of the elderly conventional couple at the gate with the band frolicking in the garden behind was and remains wonderful.I didn't learn until much later that this beautiful evocative photo recorded Sandy Denny's parents and the band at her family home in Wimbledon.
At the time I had recently discovered Richard Thompson and was aware of his involvement in early Fairport. Across a Crowded Room was my RT entry point, a recent carefully chosen purchase and it remains one of my favourite RT albums. Leaving this aside I think I would have bought the record anyway , I really wanted to hear what was within that cover.
A really great record. Perhaps it doesn't quite the consistency and quality of Liege and Lief but each time I play it I clearly recall listening to it for the first time while I applied vaseline to my blisters having finally walked the remaining 8-9 miles back home.
I think we all have at least one record in our collection that will trigger a similar Proustian rush.....
Electric Muse
There's an excellent section in the book "The Electric Muse", which I recommend wholeheartedly, on that album cover. Evidently they tried taking pictures all over London without succes,s and Sandy suggested going to see her panents for a cuppa and to try pictures on the lawn. That didn't work either and someone suggested putting her parents in the foreground. Said parents were far from happy about her career choice, hence slightly guarded expressions. Getting the individual band members' heads in the trellis sections was entirely by accident, and apparently the photographer took quite a few shots. The shot they finally used was chosen by an unknown record company staffer. Ironic that it has become iconic. As Alanis might have said.
Pet Sounds...
...is still in the car autochanger, one of 6 CDs rotated whilst we were on holiday. So coincidentally, we've heard it very recently - but to be fair it had been a while since the previous listen. Not that it was the kids' favourite, though. That was no contest: the 1st disc of XTC's Fossil Fuel wins every time.
Fossil Fuel
is a fantastic collection.
When I'm in the mood for some jangle it's the album I usually turn to.
Yes, think I do, but on the other side of the coin
Was browsing the net earlier, and saw a thread asking what are peoples fave songs by Prince, this led to me thinking, 'I cant believe I haven't got anything by Prince', besides a dodgy greatest hits cd and a few badly scratched records.
Quick browse of Amazon, 'Parade','Sign of the Times' and 'Around the World in a Day' now winging there way to the house, all my fave Prince albums and at less than a tenner for all 3, bargainsville.
Think familiarity does bring a sense that you don't need to listen to Revolver, Pet Sounds, OK Computer etc any time soon, but once you do, the reason that they are considered 'classics' becomes clear.
Oddly enough, picked up 'Automatic...' from a charity shop a couple of weeks ago for a couple of quid, and didn't sound like the out and out classic i remembered it to be, indeed one of my very fave tracks of the album 'sweetness follows' now sounded like a dirge?
Not quite sure whether I answered your OP, but know where you're coming from
I listened to Definitely Maybe yesterday
(Dons tin hat)
Some albums are just too familiar
but the joy of putting on a record is in reminding yourself, occasionally, of a great unsung album.
This happened to me yesterday when I listened to my vinyl copy of Caravanserai by Santana. What a fantastic album - inspired composition and playing from beginning to end. It's probably not on most people's list of classic albums, but it deserves to be.
Being an LP person..
I've listened to Court of the Crimson King, Deja Vu, Axis Bold As Love, Morph the Cat, Copper Blue, Diamond Life, Weasels Ripped My Flesh and, yes, the great Caravanserai
plus (off CD) Liszt, Rachmaninov, Vivaldi, and John Zorn
in the past week
off the top of my head.
Also looking forward to hearing the one Euro bargains from Carpenters, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Alan Stivell, Chic, and Mendelssohn I picked up in the fantastically-stocked Record Collector in Antwerp at the weekend.
Don't Really Listen To Classics Anymore
I listened to a few Beach Boys tracks from Pet Sounds this morning but with the advent of playlists I'd rather listen to the best of a particular artist over a series of albums rather than just listen to one album It's a good idea though might have revisit a few classics in light of this thread
Good in theory but
over time I have found these kind of playlists to be an excellent way of getting sick of stuff you really like. So I have gone back to a) whole albums and b) pleasant surprises.
Five days ago...
... I listened to Carole King's Tapestry for the first time ever. An odd experience, I've heard about half of it before, just never in context. Taken as a whole I thought it was good but I prefer Aretha doing Natural Woman, The Shirelles doing Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow etc. None of it was as good as Dusty Springfield singing Goin' Back.
At around the same time I also realized that I've never played Thriller or Bad from beginning to end as albums. Obviously I know most of the songs, but I've never listened to them as albums. Perhaps that should be my next project.
'Breakfast in America'...
Two days ago.
No, Patrick, the OP
refers specifically to classic albums!
Ooh, harsh better than many
Ooh, harsh better than many so called classics.
often listen
It doesn't take much for me to listen to an early Elvis Costello album. I must listen to Fear of Music at least four times a year. I listen to the eponymous Fountains of Wayne album a lot and I'll ramp that up when, hopefully, they announce some dates.
Having everything available anywhere in the house helps a lot (not in the bathroom yet but that should be sorted soon!).
Exile
Listened to the whole of "Exile ON Main St." in the car on Saturday. Still the greatest thing ever in the History of the world. Listened to "Sign O The Times" in it's entirety last week, also the greatest thing ever in the history of the world.
Good question
I tend to listen to albums in their entirety rather than individual tracks or shuffle. I've listened to "Dark side of the moon", "Aqualung", "Tubular bells", "Pink moon", "Dixie chicken" "Henry the human fly", "Kind of blue" etc etc recently. And "Automatic for the people" funnily enough. Oh, and "Woodface".
I can confidently say I will never listen to "Pet sounds" again. Once was more than enough.
me too comment
Me too.
I have moved away from playlists/shuffle/spotify and now almost exclusively play albums in their entirety. Exceptions are radio and podcasts.
Classic albums listened to in the last week:
Substrata
Going For The One
76:14
John Wesley Harding
American Beauty
Black Snake Diamond Role
...could go on and on and on but don't want to appear an onanist.
I know what you're on about
You mention REM. When Murmur came out I listened to that solidly for about 2 years - I was pretty evangelical about early REM (it was all over for me by the time of Fables...). I have no desire to ever listen to it, or them, again.
Pet Sounds, ditto. Why on earth would I want to listen to Pet Sounds ever again? I know it.
Pink Floyd The Wall. Probably not a good idea for 14 year old to listen to that hundreds of times, but I did it. Thanks, Waters - there should be a mental health warning on that record. Have no wish to ever hear it again.
But Love's Forever Changes...there's a record that I can and will listen to until I die. I've had it about 20 years, regular rotation - and just a few weeks back, on a very long car journey - days long - I listened to it nonstop, at least 30 times, and I could have done more.
30 times!
Love Forever Changes but it must have been a hell of a journey or jam
I played "Romeo & Juliet"
(the Prokofiev version, not Tchaikovsky's) and Stravinsky's "Rites of Spring" yesterday morning. Marvellous!
Would've given you an "up" if...
...it was the Dire Straits song...
Yukk!
I like DS but that "R&J" piece is cack of the highest order. To my ears, it's by a mile their worst song.
NO
Walk of Life is the worst record by anybody.
No!
Twisting By The Pool is worst of all
I don't think so.
Lady Writer is more of a shocker than any of the above.
How about "Les Boys"?
That's a bit of a stinker, n'est-ce pas?
Worst of all
Heavy Fuel. It's pretty awful.
Last time I was sober, man I felt bad
Worst hangover that I ever had
It took six hamburgers and scotch all night
Nicotine for breakfast just to put me right
'Cos if you wanna run cool
You got to run on heavy, heavy fuel
Walk Of Life v Twisting By The Pool
Dire Straits had their moments but both Walk Of Life and Twisting By The Pool are firmly entrenched in my Top 10 of shit tunes...
Dare I mention
Badges Posters Stickers T-Shirts?
Non album B-side of Private Investigations?
For those who haven't heard it, the title tells you all you need to know about the way it sounds.
Saturday evening
On Saturday evening I listened to Depeche Mode's Violator. I enjoyed it so much and listened to it again, straight after...
As it 'appens
I'm listening to "Living in the past" by the Tull on vinyl right now!
Listened to the whole of Automatic the other Sunday
After coming back from being royally punished by cider at Farm Festival, there was very little I could do but lie down on a comfy sofa, listen to what is probably my favourite album or, if not, certainly my favourite hangover album, and continue having a bloody lovely weekend, despite the pain and the queasiness.
It's probably my fave
Jesus and Mary Chain album too.
Oof!
Yeah, I should've been less lazy and written out 'Automatic for the People' in full, sorry.
Are the Jesus and Mary Chain good for hungover listening?
Nooooo.....!
Put a proper drummer on those tracks and I'd agree. Drum machine kills it.
drum machine makes it you
drum machine makes it you mean.
Good question
Good question, and raises the further question of what people mean by a 'classic'. I have, like many others, found going back to what I thought were 'classics' a mixed experience. Often disappointing, they fail to deliver the charge that they once had. Which is not the fault of the album, merely the passage of time has changed how I listen to them. They recall the past, but in a detached way, and I can't inhabit them any more. Which makes me think that our whole idea of 'classics' is more ambivalent than it seems. Yes, those albums were groundbreaking/beautifully written/crucial to the time - but now they are parts of history and can't be listened to the same way. Conversely, when I have listened to a 'classic' which I never heard at the time, like Blue, I went through a major love affair with, because it was new and fresh to me. So over-familiarity dulls them I reckon. A few I love to hear again, but only particular tracks, and too much of it sends me desperate to hear something new and different. Pop, like all music, is ever changing and I think that's why it is so good, enjoy it for what it is, but don't hang on to it forever.
Good advice, but...
...the trouble is I love the music I grew up with and this coincided with some of the best albums released that we still listen to today. I was a kid during the period of the Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Animals in the 1960s. A teenager when Zeppelin, Floyd, Purple, Tull, Yes, ELP, Wishbone Ash, Genesis, Uriah Heep and Lizzy were doing their best work. I didn't much like punk, although did like Blondie, The Stranglers, Ian Dury, and The Jam. The 1980s ('The Dead Zone' as I call it) found me playing stuff from the 60s and 70s, apart from The Police and Dire Straits. Most of my rock listening therefore covers a classic period in the development of the genre. I'm actually happy to hang onto it forever!
This morning in the car on the way in to work...
Abbey Road
and it was just as brilliant as it ever was.
Isn't 'Here Comes The Sun' the greatest song ever to wake up to?
That reminds me, isn't the Cockney Rebel cover a strange affair?
If asked, I'd have remembered it as a straightforward cover of the original, but when it was on TOTP76 the other week I was taken aback by how 'odd' it was...
There's something about Harley's voice
...that's hard to love. Seems disconnected and displays the same vocal tic that Louise Wener did in some Sleeper songs. Judy Teen and Mister Soft just give me the willies...
All mannerisms and no voice.
Steve Harley couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. The songs weren't anything special either...
Sorry, CR fans.
Here Comes The Sun...
...can be found on Love's A Prima Donna. A record which is stuffed with so much wrong-ness that it ought to have been (but almost certainly wasn't) the catalyst for the Punk/New Wave backlash. Everything that was askew with rock music in 1976 can be found therein.
It is anything but a classic album - however, I own a CD copy and listen to it occasionally for the laughs. How this record ever graced the top 30 is a wonder in itself (although it did spend a long time in the bargain bins).
Real classics? I played Rumours all the way through the other evening. Wish You Were Here (the CBS/Sony Mastersound version, pop fans) recently had a complete airing. Not too long back, I played the stereo Beatles box all of the way through, two sittings. I'll do the mono version soon.
Tonight, I may fancy all of Teaser & The Firecat. But I may change my mind by then. I'm like that.
I saw it on TOTP2 as well
I was surprised by how much I hated it. As charmless as the original was charming, with strange shifts in gear and that mannered vocal style, which works on some songs, but oh boy, not on this one!
Oh dear.
Not good at all. Is there is another Beatles cover as bad as this?
Laydeez and Gennelmen... I give you.........CANDY FLIP
Candy Flip
Seems that their budget was low and bought the candles from The Police clip "Wrapped around your finger".
Modernish classics
revisited over the weeken:
Surfer Rosa/ Come On Pilgrim - Pixies
George Best - Wedding Present
De La Soul Is Dead - De La Soul
No disappointment, juts great songs invoking great memories.
With regards Pet Sounds, I wish I could listen to it but it saw me through a difficult time and it's hard to hear those songs without turning into a wreck. I miss them.
Sounds like
A great weekend.
Sounds like
earplugs needed.
Layla......
.... and Other Assorted Love Songs..... regularly (I'd guess about once a month on average).... and I can recommend it !
funnily enough
I played Rattlesnakes by LC & the Cs just last night and can't remember when I last listened to an entire album that wasn't a recent purchase.
Steely Dan - Gaucho
My recently-acquired GF had never heard Gaucho, and now, to my delight, insists on its appearance at least once-a-week, especially during 3am-Sunday-morning herbal interludes.
I have a similar attachment to ...
... Can't Buy a Thrill
Yeah...
...I could say the same of virtually any 'Dan LP.
The Royal Scam
I could never get on with this album. With the exception of Kid Charlemagne & The Caves of Altamira, there's nothing that I really care for.
Any other Steely Dan album including and prior to Gaucho is pretty much essential. Two Against Nature, Live Across America, Everything Must Go - naaaah.
A GF who likes Steely Dan?
A GF who likes Steely Dan? What are the odds?
Bryter Later
Since I first heard this album in the mid 80's a week rarely goes by when I don't listen to it at least once. Strangely I don't have such an attachment to Five Leaves Left or Pink Moon.
I'm with you there, Johnny.
Think I was one of the few who bought this (and the other two) when Drake was still alive - thanks to my mate Paul who sat me down and made me listen to Bryter Layter on his crappy little portable Dansette(?) record player whilst we were on holiday on a remote Scottish island.
It was just magic then, despite the poor sound, and it still is now (with somewhat better sound).
The one album I go back to again and again...
Also regularly revisit Traffic's Mr Fantasy a fair bit - same era, similar good memories, and some wonderful music (even the twee Dave Mason stuff).
Exactly
I love Bryter Layter. Listened to it on vinyl from soup to nuts on Sunday.
Always Listen
to a complete album I never listen to just a track or make a playlist. Every time I have tried to make a playlist I have liked the track so much that I have to listen to the Album straight away.
I listened to whole of Aja in the car the other day
I wasn't going anywhere specific. I just love driving around aimlessly and listening to whole albums.
6pm Sunday at the Big Chill last weekend...
...Black Cow emerged from a big tent being spun by one of the many DJs. It drew us in like moths to a flame.
A lot of classic Jazz albums
get regular spins. A Kind of Blue, Porgy & Bess by Miles Davis, A Love Supreme by Coltrane plus many others. I find they compliment painting. As for others Hissing of Summer Lawns,Graceland and Stormcock can often be heard wafting from the open windows of The Hovel. I never seem to tire of these no matter how many times I hear them.
Point of order, Mr Squeezer, sir
Miles's classic album is entitled "Kind of Blue", not "A Kind of Blue".
But yes, it is unutterably wonderful. I'm afraid I don't find that it complements painting, though, as I can't paint or draw to save my life.
Over the last two weeks
A couple of albums by the Doors (Waiting For The Sun and LA Woman) and a couple of albums by King Crimson (Court of the Crimson King and In the Wake of Poseidon), and a couple by Wire (A Bell Is A Cup and Chairs Missing). But I suspect they don't as "classic" or do they? Its so hard to keep up with these things.
But most of the time I listen to stuff recorded in the last ten years or so. I know, grievous!
Over the weekend, listening included
Damned - Black Album
Kinks - Arthur
Haircut 100 - Pelican West
"Queen Is Dead" and
"Meat is Murder" are regulars, "Sulk" if it counts, "All Mod Cons" definitely counts and of course "Waking Hours"
If
"Sulk" doesn't count, nothing does!!
Yes
I've played all these in the last week
Can't Buy A Thrill
Close To The Edge
Automatic FTP
Beatles 67/70
On The Threshold Of A Dream
Classic in my house
Listened to Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump yesterday afternoon mainly because they are about to release the 2 cd deluxe edition and I wanted to remind myself how good the original was. Very.
Definitely a classic
Definitely a classic although not wide enough known to be considered one by the masses.
I hated it
and gave my copy away after one listen. Now suspecting I may have acted somewhat rashly.
Over the last few weeks
Automatic for the people
OK Computer
Different Class
Speak & Spell/A broken frame/Some great reward
Master of puppets
The one positive thing about making daily trips to hospital was actually taking a CD to the car and listening to it all the way through, which reminded me of how rarely I actually listen to complete albums now, as opposed to odd tracks and playlists on Spotify/mp3 players/computer.
I'm kind of glad I don't have a flashy stereo or an mp3 input in the car or I might have forgotten completely.
A long solo car journey yesterday meant:
Nick Cave Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus
followed by
ELO Out Of The Blue
classic albums in the last few weeks?
Most recently I've listened to:
Miles Davis - Soundtrack to "Lift to the Scaffold"
Dylan and The Band - The Basement Tapes
Mott the Hoople - Mott
Sensational Alex Harvey Band - Live at the BBC
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
I usually only listen to classic rock, metal, blues and jazz stuff these days. I recently bought a 5 CD set of UFO's classic 70s metal albums with Michael Schenker "The Chrysalis Years". An absolute joy.
From time to time I stick on The Wall, any AC/DC Bon Scott album, mid 60s Bob Dylan, the first few Zeppelin records, the Rolling Stones Mick Taylor era ("Exile...", "Beggars Banquet" etc), Cream, Hendrix, Mountain, David Bowie's early 70s stuff, Iggy and the Stooges ("Raw Power" or "Funhouse").
Also, a few months back I collected the early Beatles remasters and worked my way through them while reading Ian McDonald's "Revolution in the Head". It was a sort of self taught course on the Fab Four.
Last Saturday night at the Orange County Fair...
when... 'Which One's Pink?' played 'DSOTM' in its entirety.
Far out, man.
I do try not to 'hammer' any
records too much..save them for a special treat I say.
I have some favourites which I come back to but I'm unlikely to play them twice in the same month..or indeed the same year.
However, I've been reading Geoff Emerick's book about his time engineering The HJHs. It's an odd book, half of it is utterly irritating and facile (George Harrison comes in for lots of stick mainly because he didn't have much time for Geoff, but Paul is great cos he liked hanging out with Geoff etc etc), but when he starts describing the Beatles sessions he worked on and revealing some of the tricks he got up to, and how much he bent and modified things at the incredibly staid Abbey Road studios (frequently risking the sack for breaking with protocol) as they were in the 60s it makes you want to go back and listen again. So I've mostly been listening to them this week...
Having music on my computer
had stopped me from listening to albums all the way through, so of late I've been making more of an effort to revisit some albums I loved back in my vinyl only days. Recently I've listened to the whole of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak", Sad Cafe's "Fanx Ta-Ra", (prompted by the riots) The Tom Robinson Band's "TRB1" and Zappa's "Hot Rats" and "Apostrophe".
Not classics maybe, but a great trip down memory lane.
Some very obvious examples
A year ago today (!), I bought The Beatles Mono box. After an initial blast it sat unloved for while, but in the last few months I have been working my way through them, in order, in the car, loudly. Revolver beckons...
And, my brother borrowed my copy of Highway 61 Revisited , and of course it disappeared into the ether. However the recent remastered version turned up for not much in Fopp.
Both examples have benefited from a rest from hearing them ages, plus a new buffing up on the remastering front, so they arrive back in my ears as fresh as paint. Happy days...
'What's Goin' On'
I played it all the way through on Sunday. And I quite often do. It never seems right to separate the tracks.
Dark Side of The Moon
Sounded pretty marvellous driving back from a restaurant recently on holiday in France. And Tapestry and Blonde on Blonde earlier on in the trip (latter not at a single sitting, perhaps too much of a good thing). Eldest daughter unimpressed by all of these but was converted to the hot stuff by the B-52s Cosmic Thing - a classic in our house.
This Morning. Rumours.
In the car. Great record. I think I'm going to learn Never Going Back Again next, with its mad drop tuning.
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Never tire of it - a great record.
Billy Joel - The Stranger
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Bob Marley - Exodus
My Dad used to play these over and over when I was a kid - they bring back happy memories.
Bridge Over Troubled Water?!
bring back happy memories?
I see . . . of your Dad
never forgiven Paul Simon for suing a UK punk band for recording '50 ways to clean your oven.'
Land of Grey and Pink today
Still can't understand how Caravan were never bigger.
Bigger Caravan...
...would that mean they could then call themselves 'Winnebago'?
(getting coat...)
yesterday
I listened to John Coltrane - Ballads, and Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue. I listen to both of them a lot.
I also listened to Exile On Main St, on vinyl, in order, a few weeks ago after I had rhapsodised about it to a friend then realised I hadn't put the needle on the record for a while.
Also in the last month or so - John Wesley Harding. It sometimes seems like sketches rather than a finished piece but that is part of its charm.
Excellent thread
& the answer is 'rarely.' While I've loved plenty of recognised classics over the years, once you've lived with them for a number of years, they're unlikely to delight you by offering something new. There's something to be said for returning to a record that reminds you of something specific, or which feels like an old comfort blanket, but it's not something I do regularly.
The fun for me these days is turning up gems which, for whatever reason, didn't get the exposure they deserved. Some of the stuff on the Delta Swamp Rock CD I've seen mentioned on here falls into this category - how many of these beauties will you ever hear on the radio? Pretty much anything released by Ace Records and its various labels is going to be worth a listen too.
Listened to J.S. Bach's Mass in B minor the other day,
and if that isn't a classic, I don't know what is.
Depends on what you call a Classic Album.
I'm not a great playlist listener. I listen to whole albums. And the albums to which I listen are, to my ears, classics.
Listening to one right now...
We Are Family by Sister Sledge.
Outstanding
Album!!
Another Side Of Bob Dylan
went on the stereo yesterday.
And do you know what, it bored me a little bit. Sorry, folk fans.
try Freewheelin Bob Dylan
its a better record. then get yourself Dylan Bootleg Series vol 1-3. mostly old folksy tracks.
I do like Bob Dylan, but I can't seem to get into "Another Side"
But then again, I'm most fond of his "World Gone Wrong" and "Together Through Life" albums, so I'm probably not the best Dylanologist around.
Well I consider these classic albums
I think I'd probably play these 3 at least once a fortnight.
Sailin'Shoes - Little Feat
Let It Be - The Replacements
The Greatest - Cat Power
I can't see me ever getting sick of them.
All the time
Albums like Dark Side of the Moon, Kind of Blue, Music for Airports, The Nightfly, various Bobby Dylan, King Crimson stuff, Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers, Tomorrow The Green Grass, Sgt Pepper, etc.
I play them constantly. Because I enjoy them.
I was heartened to see someone up there refer to Morph The Cat as a classic album. It's a bit too recent to be sure, but I think it could be a classic. Such a wise and wry album.
That was me.
Yes, it is only 5 years old but so well-loaded with high-quality songs, already has the shape and feel of something you'll keep going back to for as long as music means something to you. Wise, wry, and so cool.
My classics...
currently listening to Radiohead's "The Bends" a lot, also The Beatles' "Sgt. Peppers'" (actually that's more because the kids are demanding "When I'm 64" on eternal repeat).
Dark Side Of The Moon
I was listening to Dub Side Of The Moon (to the uninitiated, it's a brilliant reggae version of DSOTM by the Easy All-Stars) the other day while washing up. My daughter seemed to quite enjoy it, and I started to explain that another group had done the record first, only in a different style, blah blah blah; then I stopped, telling myself "shut up you sad muso, she's only 5!" Anyway, after it finished I thought what the hell, and dug out my vinyl copy of DSOTM and slung it on the turntable. We both enjoyed it, I think, but I thought I'd leave it at side one, didn't want to push it. But my daughter insisted on hearing side two as well.
That's my girl!
Not undisputed classics maybe, but the albums I return to again and again are Welcome Home (Til Tuesday), The Roads Don't Love You (Gemma Hayes), The Hazards Of Love (Decemberists), both Mummers albums and the new one by Julia Johnson. I usually listen to whole albums, whether at home or on the move, although I do enjoy the shuffle experience every now and then ("").
Listened to
'Computer World' by the mighty Kraftwerk this morning.
I can report that it is still brilliant, and not a little bonkers.
Kind of Blue
Of all the 'classics' KOB is probably the one I have listened to the most; does this make it the best ever? I have loved The Beatles for years and my kids also love them, a band who split up over 40 years ago still reach across the ages. Pretty unique IMO.
I have thousands of 'classic' albums
and I listen to them all the time. I'm talking whole albums, all the way through and greatest hits & compilations don't count. My ipod has 1200+ entire albums. I do random now and again but nothing beats the joy of listening to a whole album from beginning to end. And as I get older, my attention span gets longer and the albums seem to get shorter. There was a time when a 20 minute single side of vinyl seemed to last forever. Now, 40 minutes seems short.
As they go.
Not wanting to get caught out by another Franz Ferdinand.... I've only listened to classic albums recently. Working yer way through the usual lists to find stuff I've never heard, Listened to The Marble Index at the weekend - that's classic right? But I never ever need to hear Revolver or The Stone Roses again.