Oct 282010
This clip is courtesy of Townsman cherguevarra, who initially received the link from a friend.
What’s the greatest rock nerd gift you’ve ever given or received?
This clip is courtesy of Townsman cherguevarra, who initially received the link from a friend.
What’s the greatest rock nerd gift you’ve ever given or received?
Brilliant! I gave my brother this poster
http://beatlefans.com/post/beatles1968.jpg
. . . and a few months later some girl asked him “are those your brothers?”
Related Duran Duran note: I saw them a few years back on their reunion tour at George Mason University and Simon sat on some girl’s lap, asked her if she knew who he was, and she didn’t know his name. The difference between the 80s and 00s.
I got Squeeze by the Velvet Underground from one of my brothers for Christmas.
For a wedding present, I gave my friend a gravy boat and the Guided By Voices box set (not the compilation, the one that had all new songs, each with a different band name).
What’s cool about that Duran Duran present is the thought put into it – obviously those guys are loaded, so it probably makes it even harder to give each other gifts.
I don’t think I have received any great rock nerd gifts, beyond a box set (Zombie Heaven or Transistor Blast) which I’m not complaining about, of course. My family came to dislike giving me music, they said it was “boring,” but it’s all I ever wanted.
My parents bought me a drum set, that was pretty awesome, but it wasn’t a birthday gift. But in a way, wasn’t I re-born on that day? So it counts.
One of my most precious possessions is a 70s Telecaster Deluxe. My friend Nick had bought it, but once he got a Gibson ES-345 he didn’t want it anymore, and it came to me. So every year for his birthday I give him some kind of bootleg or hard-to-find recording, like some rare Charlie Feathers stuff last year or the original version of Beefheart’s Bat Chain Puller album this year.
It must be nice to put a lot of thought into the gift, and afterwards to have go-fers do the actual work of making it so.
One of my fondest memories was my friend Julie giving me Houses of the Holy. She admitted to me how embarrassed she was when purchasing it, what with all those naked butts on the front and all that. She hadn’t heard the album or really knew the group, so was very concerned about what I might be in to.
I love being given music, and of course foisting my tastes on others. Every Christmas, my brother, sister and parents get a disc of a compilation of what we think has been some of the best music of the year. What they do with it…that’s another matter.
I like the 50 albums thing – Mr. Royale will be turning 50 in another couple of years, so I could start scouting shops now. I see a potential post here: what would be recommendations for albums from each of the particular years? I could use some suggestions!
Good sub-thread idea, ladymiss. Let’s do it here. I’m terrible with dates, so I’ll have to do some research before making some suggestions, but 1966 has got to be represented by Revolver.
1970 – Santana “Abraxas”
1971 – Carole King “Tapestry”
1972 – Yes “Close to the Edge”
1973 – Pink Floyd “Dark Side of the Moon”
1974 – Steely Dan “Pretzel Logic”
1975 – Heart “Dreamboat Annie”
1976 – Peter Frampton “Frampton Comes Alive”.
1969 – The Band, s/t!
1980 – Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Get Happy!!
1972 – Exile on Main Street
1985 – Raindogs by Tom Waits
1967-The Jimi Hendrix Experience Are You Experienced
1969-The Who Tommy
1982-Michael Jackson Thriller
1983-R.E.M. Murmur
1984- Prince Purple Rain
1987-U2 The Joshua Tree
1991-Nirvana Nevermind
TB
Whoops! Mod already covered ’69 with The Band. Sorry. I lieu, I’ll offer up 1963 with The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
TB
1973 Oh La La by the Faces
Even though Exile is my all time favorite, I might have to swap it out for The Harder They Come soundtrack.
1967 – Moby Grape
1984 – Let it Be by the Replacements
1960-Elvis Presley Elvis Is Back.
I would feel The Who should be represented. With Tommy being a big deal, Who’s Next is more representative. Of course, that’s 1971 and Tapestry has already been offered there.
The 60s are so ripe that is would be inevitable to leave out so many GREAT bands/artists. The Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds. All of Mod’s favorites.
TB
1974 Radio City by Big Star
2001 Isolation Drills by Guided by Voices
What year are we starting from, Lady Miss?
Well, just because an album has been offered up for a given year doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s secured it’s place.
Also, I don’t think that the big marquee albums/groups necessarily need to be included. It’s fine if some of them are, but if that’s the sole criteria, then we might as well just copy the list from the local classic rock station when they do one of their Greatest Albums of All Times Countdown Weekends.
This is not necessarily a “first-come, first-serve” exercise, but thanks for your concern:) We do have to allow ourselves some space to disagree!
Hey, The Beach Boys through Pet Sounds are A-1 Steak Sauce as far as I’m concerned. I like Buffalo Springfield too!
I did this a few years ago for another blog. Time for an update!
1977- Low, David Bowie
1978- Cheap Trick at Budokan
1979- XTC, Drums and Wires
1980- Pretenders
1981- X, Wild Gift
1982- The Dream Syndicate, Days of Wine and Roses
1983- New Order, Power, Corruption and Lies
1984- The Replacements, Let it Be
1985- The Replacements, Tim
1986- Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Blood and Chocolate
1987- R.E.M., Document
1988- Eleventh Dream Day, Prairie School Freakout
1989- Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy
1990- Morrissey, Bona Drag
1991- The Pixies, Trompe Le Monde
1992- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Henry’s Dream
1993- Jellyfish, Spilt Milk
1994- Blur, Parklife
1995- Pulp, Different Class
1996- Wilco, Being There
1997- Cotton Mather, Kontiki
1998- Pulp, This is Hardcore
1999- Wilco, Summerteeth
2000- PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2001- Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, How I Long To Feel That Summer in My Heart
2002- Rilo Kiley, The Execution of All Things
2003- The Weakerthans, Reconstruction Site
2004- The Divine Comedy, Absent Friends
2005- Art Brut, Bang Bang Rock ‘& Roll
2006- Sonic Youth, Rather Ripped
2007- Emma Pollock, Watch the Fireworks
2008- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Dig Lazarus Dig
2009- Wussy, Wussy
2010- Emma Pollock, The Law of Large Numbers
more later
Yeah, but any opportunity I have to bring up your non-love for The beloved Byrds and “Kokomo”…
TB
I suppose your right, but then again, you could just about chock every year from ’64 on to The Beatles…
TB
I am impressed with Oats and his 1977 to the present. These years seem to be a bit tougher for RTH’ers.
How about 2 25-year blocks? If I’m doing my math right (big if), 1960-1985; 1986-2010 or 11.
I’m going to really enjoy the late 70’s through mid-90’s.
Here’s my attempt at suggesting an album from all 50 years (thanks to Wikipedia and some other sites for assistance/suggestions by year). I’ll try to stick with albums I actually own and add the occasional comment, but it may get tricky during certain eras!
1960: Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain
1961: Ella Fitzgerald, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Ella sings “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”!)
1962: Ornette Coleman, Town Hall 1962 (I should write this up as an Overlooked Gem of My Lifetime!)
1963: Charles Mingus, The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
1964: The Beatles, Meet the Beatles
1965: Bob Dylan, Bringing It All Back Home (narrowly beats out Rubber Soul on the strength of one of my favorite Dylan songs, “I Don’t Believe You”)
1966: The Beatles, Revolver
1967: The Who, The Who Sell Out
1968: The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society
1969: The Band, s/t
1970: The Stooges, Fun House (narrowly topping Let It Be)
1971: David Bowie, Hunky Dory
1972: Captain Beefheart, Clear Spot
1973: The Wailers, Burnin’
1974: Brian Eno, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)
1975: Neil Young, Tonight’s the Night (a year, it seems, when rock ‘n roll was first beginning to suck)
1976: The Residents, Third Reich ‘n Roll
1977: Television, Marquee Moon (the year rock ‘n roll begins to find new life for me)
1978: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, This Year’s Model
1979: Graham Parker & The Rumour, Squeezing Out Sparks
1980: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Get Happy!! (favorite album of all time)
1981: James Blood Ulmer, Are You Glad to Be in America? (before anyone dons the Pince Nez, the US version, which I bought, was released in this year; the UK version was released in 1980)
1982: XTC, English Settlement (narrowly edging Lou Reed’s The Blue Mask and Elvis’ Imperial Bedroom)
1983: XTC, Mummer
1984: Laurie Anderson, Mr. Heartbreak (man, the music world suddenly got terrible in my ears – I think all my faves who were making albums turned out absolute turds!)
1985: Meat Puppets, Up on the Sun
1986: Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Blood & Chocolate
1987: Big Dipper, Heavens (narrowly topping David Thomas & the Wooden Birds, Blame the Messenger)
1988: Nixon’s Head, Traps, Buckshot & Pelt (yeah, I know this may be in bad form, but my friends and I poured all we had into this EP)
1989: Beastie Boys, Paul’s Boutique
1990: Public Enemy, Fear of a Black Planet
1991: Matthew Sweet, Girlfriend (a nice ’60s-based poppy era kicks off for me)
1992: The Jayhawks, Hollywood Town Hall
1993: Crowded House, Together Alone
1994: Sam Phillips, Martinis and Bikinis
1995: Aimee Mann, I’m With Stupid
1996: Sloan, One Chord to Another
1997: Apples in Stereo, Tone Soul Evolution
1998: Neil Finn, Try Whistling This
1999: Wilco, Summerteeth
2000: Blur, The Best of… (so sue me – this is when I finally bought one of their albums!)
2001: Nick Lowe, The Convincer
2002: They Might Be Giants, No!
2003: Cobra Verde, Riot Industry
2004: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
2005: Stephen Malkmus, Face the Truth
2006: Midlake, The Trials of Van Occupanther
2007: Nick Lowe, At My Age
2008: Clinic, Do It!
2009: Nixon’s Head, Enemies List (again, sorry)
2010: TBD
Man, the 90s are weak!
All in all, an impressive effort but I am befuddled by:
1. the lack of Guided By Voices
2. the fact that you chose Tonight’s the Night over you beloved Red Octopus
3. the lack of Donuts albums
1. I didn’t feel like including another “greatest hits” album, in which case I might have included that 30-song GBV release from the end of their time together. There’s no single GBV album I like enough to have included.
I’m still thinking of my entries for the 90’s. “Loveless” will show up, as will Portishead. Darn it, I hate the way work gets in the way of these musical musings!
Here is the list from 1001 Albums to Hear Before You Die, in chronological order: http://www.radio3net.ro/dbalbums/albume1001/
You can also listen to them. I’m not sure how they get around the legal issues.
The book it’s taken from is interesting but anyone that lists the first Dexys album as something I need to hear before I die either assumes I will live to 500, or is just plain wrong.
Author Tom Moon is a neighbor. Good egg! I agree, this book is fine bathroom reading, but the scope…whew! While he was writing it he said he wanted to cover a bit of everything. I asked him what was hardest for him to assess and, if memory serves, he said opera and Celtic music.
Ah, this is a different book. His is recordings, this is albums. Same basic idea.