An Album for Each Year
What better way to pick up posting again than with following a meme. Nick Carr in Albums Going Steady describes the challenge to list "a favorite album for every year of your life." I actually do not have the problem described by Nick and others to really start with my birth year. The challenge has two restrictions: only one album per year and there can be no repeats of artists. I have added for myself the restriction that I should actually own the album, which restricts the set to choose from significantly and also makes for some peculiar choices.
Here is my list
1958: Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire
1959: Ray Charles, What I'd Say
1960: Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain
1961: Robert Johnson, King of the Delta Blues Singers
1962: Booker T & MG, Green Onions
1963: James Brown, Live at the Apollo
1964: John Coltrane, Love Supreme
1965: Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisted
1966: Cream, Fresh Cream
1967: The Doors, The Doors
1968: Johnny Cash , At Folsom Prison
1969: Rolling Stones, Let it Bleed
1970: The Who, Live at Leads
1971: Marvin Gaye, What's going on
1972: Deep Purple, Made in Japan
1973: Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon
1974: Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
1975: Led Zeppelin, Physical Graffiti
1976: Eagles, Hotel California
1977: The Stranglers, Rattus Norvegicus
1978: Herman Brood and his Wild Romance, Shpritsz
1979: The Clash, London Calling
1980: AC/DC, Black in Black
1981: The Police, Ghost in the Machine
1982: Steel Pulse, True Democracy
1983: U2, Under a Blood Red Sky
1984: Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense
1985: John Cougar Mellencamp, Scarecrow
1986: Run DMC, Raising Hell
1987: Guns N' Roses, Appetite for Destruction
1988: Public Enemy, It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
1989: Eric Clapton, Journeyman
1990: Angelo Badalamenti, Twin Peaks Soundtrack
1991: Nirvana, Nervermind
1992: Rage Against the Machine, Rage Against the Machine
1993: Live, Throwing Copper
1994: Neil Young , Sleeps with Angels
1995: Garbage, Garbage
1996: James Cotton, Deep in the Blues
1997: Erykah Badu, Baduizm
1998: DMX, Flesh of my Flesh, Blood of my Blood
1999: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Californication
2000: Eminem, The Marshal Mathers LP
2001: The Strokes, Is This It
2002: Richard Locker, Jewish Cello Master Pieces
2003: Linkin Park, Meteora
2004: Green Day, American Idiot
2005: Fiona Apple , Extraordinary Machine
2006: Matisyahu, Youth
2007: Foo Fighters, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
The hardest part was leaving Albums out; Too many masterpieces in the 70's for example. But also some other era were difficult: I really wanted Linton Kwesi Johnson in there but every time he had formidable competition. Madness got beaten by AC/DC, Beastie Boys by Run DMC, Nirvana kept Metallica out, The Stranglers win it from Jonny Rotten every time,. Honorable mentions for Traffic, Apocalyptica, Counting Crows and Nine Inch Nails; they almost made it.
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Nice list. As I don't listen much, I will start preparing this kind of list for my daughter starting from 2006 as she loves listening to songs and is a Beatles aficionado.
Jongen toch,
blijkbaar heben we een gelijkaardige jeugd gehad. Blij nog mensen te zien die zich niet aan een of ander stijltje hebben vastgeklampt.
The Stranglers over the Pistols? Nuh-uh.
Hi Werner:
Great post! I also checked out the Nicholas Carr and Phil Edwards Favourite Year blog posts. I think my tastes are closer to Nicholas Carr. For instance, 1991 - tough year. I would sooner list Matthew Sweet's Girlfriend as opposed to Nirvana's "Nevermind." (my jury is still out, same year as My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and Massive Attack's Blue Lines).
As for 1988 - my choice would be Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation (I just had to say this!)
That said, compiling a Favourites List since 1965 is a tough exercise. In part, until I was a teenager, I probably was not buying what-would-become-my-favourite album the same year it was released. More importantly what makes determining a particular favourite is separating nostalgia from hindsight. Do I pick an album as a favourite because I think it is superior to its contemporaries? Or was there something happening in my life (or just even just an experience) that I associate with a favourite album?
On a slightly different note, you should check out the Continuuum books 33.3 album series. Once again, great post.
Cheers,
Andrew
Rintoul: I am a bass player by nature. It is obvious I must pick Jean-Jacques Burnel over Glen Matlock. Although Matlock without any doubt was the best musician of the Pistols.
Andrew, 1991 was a though year indeed, but for different reasons, as the other high ranking album in my collection is Metallica's black album. 1988 was pretty clear cut, but 87 was much harder: U2 Joshua Tree, Prince Sign O'Times, Susan Vega's Solitude Standing, etc.
Thanks, Werner
Werner, I really like your list and the idea to create such a history. Just one questions, what happened to Frank Zappa? :-) I started to compile my own list and posted it on my blog. Well, it’s hard to make decisions and to leave bands out. By doing this, it was interesting to figure out that there were periods of high creativity (60s, 70s, 90s) and times like this (as the Foo Fighther’s would say)
@Maik: Zappa. Right, I liked Sheik Yerbouti, which I actually own, but I didn't like it enough to put it on the list.
with respect to the clusters of creativity I absolutely agree. I found even that some single years it was really hard to choose from 3 or 4 albums while for the next year I had to look hard to even find an album of decent quality.
Ook even iets in het nederlands. Ben het eigenlijk helemaal eens met je muziekkeuze. De link die niet werkte , een paar dagen geleden was Roy Orbinson en had ik je lijst nog niet bekeken.