1001 Albums
Another book of interest in the 1001 oeuvre is near and dear to my heart. Robert Dimery’s (Editor) 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die does a fairly straightforward job of indicating what the book is about. The list of albums has been helpfully posted online. You’ll need to read the book to find out why these 1001 records are culturally significant. I’ve been sitting on this list for a few weeks, padding my stats with some great albums that I would have missed otherwise.
If you’d like to measure your accomplishments against the list, I’ve taken the list (as posted) and made a spreadsheet that will tally your results. Just put a “1″ in the column next to each album that you’ve heard (not simply heard of), and your score will be waiting for you when you get to the bottom. I did pretty well on this one, scoring 351. Post your results in the comments section and/or any obvious omissions/grave lapses in judgment.
If you missed it. Be sure to check out our post on 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.
Books, To Checkout | Tim | 
November 10, 2006 6:43 am
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By Shaft, November 10, 2006 @ 9:49 am
An absolutely humiliating 249. If the question was which albums have you heard at least a couple songs off of, I could have chalked up over 500 easily. But I won’t cheat and pretend that I’ve listened to all of any of the Stones or Bowie albums, etc.
As for absurd omissions, how about Uncle Tupelo’s first record and Lloyd Cole’s first solo record.
By Herman Glimscher, November 10, 2006 @ 9:59 am
I weighed in with a hearty 72. And many of those I heard against my will.
Although this list is very subjective (Paul Revere and the Raiders? I loved them as a kid, but mostly for the uniforms), I’m not going to carp about individual performers (Justin Timberlake, Culture Club, Britany Spears) whose works I will gladly go to my grave without enduring.
Instead, I’d like to offer this caveat: This list excludes comedy albums, several of which have been near and dear to my heart. No Tom Lehrer, no Allan Sherman (whose “Camp Granada” was number 1 in, I think, 1962), no Bill Cosby (whose albums in the 60s outsold most music acts.
Most of all, I would object to the omission of the works of The Firesign Theatre. The Fab Four or Five made brilliant, surreal, multitracked albums, two of which (and perhaps as many as many as six) should undoubtedly be included on such a list because of the way they join comedy with the endless possibilities of the recording studio. No audiences, no laugh tracks. Just journeys into your mind.
For those who might care to sample their wares, the six referred to above are “How Can You Be in Two Places at Once When You’re Not Anywhere at All” (best known for its B Side, “The Further Adventures of Nick Danger, Third Eye”), “Don’t Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers,” “I Think We’re All Bozos on This Bus,” “Everything You Know Is Wrong,” “Give Me Immortality or Give Me Death,” and “BoomDotBust.” The first four are from their “Golden Age” back in the early 70s. The last two are from their most recent trilogy and were recorded and released in the late ’90s.
Coincidentally, they are celebrating their 40th anniversary as an entity this month.
Their works are available on Amazon and from http://www.lodestone-media.com.
Just remember, they were right about the comet!
By DJ Cayenne, November 10, 2006 @ 10:07 am
Shaft: Say it aint so! I expected to be humiliated by you in this category. Looking back, my college DJ stint in the 80s may have made the difference. You need to hear all of the Bowie. No excuses there. On the stones front, I downloaded Beggars Banquet the other day (bumping me up one notch). Not at all what you would expect. They were a blues band on that album. Just bizarre. Plus it has Sympathy for the Devil.
Herman: I had a co-worker who was a hige Firesign Theatre enthusiast. I always knew when he had it going in his office because I could hear him trying desperately to not laugh out loud.
By Beth, November 10, 2006 @ 12:47 pm
Oh, this is gonna be fun. I’m actually regretting having a jam-packed weekend because I’m ready to play. I’ll send you my score.
By Beth, November 10, 2006 @ 1:47 pm
To hell with deadlines. I blew off the last hour of work and ran through the list. My score is … 657. It pays to be old. I’m going to go back through and count the albums I own. I’m going to use this list to fill in some major gaps in my collection.
Hey, DJ — I’m gonna post a link to this, if that’s okay with you.
By DJ Cayenne, November 10, 2006 @ 1:52 pm
Post away. We bow to you in awe and amazement.
By Dr J, November 13, 2006 @ 10:59 am
[Cowering in the corner] 149. If I hadn’t grown up listening to 96 Rock, my count would be even lower (but slightly less embarrassing).
By DJ Cayenne, November 13, 2006 @ 4:29 pm
No need for shame, Dr J. Given the book’s title, you have more reasons to live than the rest of us.
By flavawheel, November 13, 2006 @ 11:59 pm
I’m somewhat surprised to find that my total is a measley 231 — I think I had only one in the 2000s!
A few caveats, however: I included only albums that I either own or have heard first track to last. If it were “heard a couple of tracks from” I’d have easily hit 850. Secondly, this guy has an uncanny ability to choose the one album by an artist I don’t have. I think I have four Jon Spencer Blues Explosion discs and he likes… the other one. Great.
Finally, the list kinda sucks. It’s not bad per se, but if you took the top 100 lists from any music magazine or Web site over the last 30 years and complied them, you could have guessed 990 of these; it’s safe and predictable. (I mean, what are there, 137 Nick Cave and The Fall albums listed? Yawn.)And the ones the guy goes out a limb for? Rush 2112? The Black Crowes? Slipknot?Justin Timberlake? Limp-please-jab-a-screwdriver-through-my-eardrums-Bizkit? Puh-leeeese.
That said, the guy DID give props to one of my all-time sleeper faves, the Boo Radley’s “Giant Steps.” A simply mind-blowing album that emerged from the otherwise tepid Manchester scene — check it out if you can.
By DJ Cayenne, November 14, 2006 @ 12:38 pm
Flava: I know what you mean about the “one album that I don’t have” syndrome. I also found myself missing out on corners of the sixties. The Nico album made it onto my iPod recently. I heard it. I’m not sure that I’m better off for the experience. She sounds like she is tone deaf. Was it a cultural touchstone? Dunno. Of more concern is your having only heard one album in the 00′s? You’ve got to get out of the prog-rock chat rooms man! There are some good things going on that don’t suck. Really.
By flavawheel, November 14, 2006 @ 4:15 pm
What, you don’t want to spend an afternoon listening to a two-hour long intergalactic-themed opus by an obscure French prog band who created their own language? You’re missing out. (And that would be Magma, btw, for anyone who has an extremely high threshold for pain.)
Yeah, my “not with the now” is alarming on the surface, but again, you have to look at the list. Unless you’re a 15-year-old girl, you could go 1,000 lifetimes without listening to about one in five of the 2000s list. Secondly, critics be damned, I refuse to care about Coldplay, Killers or Radiohead — not buying it.
Finally, the sad truth is I’m old — I just don’t care that much anymore. I like what I like, and while I enjoy and appreciate a lot of the new stuff, it either sounds a lot like something I already have or fails to inspire me to the point that I’ll buy. At this point, I’m happy to let the new roll in, do the do, and roll on back out.
So if you’ll excuse me, I’m right in the middle of a 45-minute bass solo.
By DJ Cayenne, November 15, 2006 @ 10:15 am
OK. I can see not buying the hype on Coldplay and the Killers. Radiohead can get a tad wearisome as well. But the White Stripes are just rocking. Outkast is worth your time. The Arcade Fire had one of the best live shows that I’ve seen anywhere.
If you like bands that make up their own languages, I highly recommend Sigur Ros’s Takk is highly recommended. And it’s not even painful.
And if you want to stick with the prog, the buzz around these parts is prog-metal locals make good, Mastadon. They sing songs about magical beasts and epic quests and all sorts of prog stuff. And if you can handle metal, apparently they are awesome.
By DJ Cayenne, November 15, 2006 @ 10:19 am
And I almost forgot…
Emmylou Harris’s Red Dirt Girl should be considered a mandatory purchase.
By flavawheel, November 15, 2006 @ 10:30 pm
Bass solo… can’t hear you…
Actually, though, I do hear you. The decade started with a few LEAN years, to put it mildly, but there is some choice material out there, for sure. Love the White Stripes (and the Black Keys, for that matter). Comcast had a five-song sample of the “Under the Blackpool Lights(?)” DVD for a while, and I probably watched it 25 times in two weeks. Ditto Wolfmother, although I suppose they are the bastard child of Sabbath and Purple, so that doesn’t count.
Of Montreal? Kick ass. Even down with the Sufjan, although the EXTREME twee-ness and the fact that he looked the cover boy of Honcho on the ASL performance kinda makes me squirm. Heck, I even dig Lady Sovereign — like watching Jackie from That ’70s Show cold rockin’ the mike, yo.
But I just that don’t have that obsessive drive to ferret out the latest and greatest emerging bands anymore. Now I’m a bit more passive; if they get to me, great; if not, I have plenty of other stuff to listen to.
Plus, it’s a practical matter as well — I just don’t have time to listen to this stuff. I don’t drive, I don’t have any time before work, I have a pretty active office and then it’s all baby at night.
And the biggest thing — in my day, we knew how to rock! These kids today, with the Mp3s and bling and the hard drives with the downloads — bah humbug!
By flavawheel, November 15, 2006 @ 10:45 pm
And if you were wondering, ASL is Austin Sity Limits.
By DJ Cayenne, November 16, 2006 @ 1:55 pm
I know what you mean regarding the strain of keeping up. I can’t shake the habit. I have a solid, but small, network of avid CD swappers/show-goers that help keep me current. It’s clearly too big a task for one person to tackle full time.
Speaking of the kids and their bling and their hard drives, etc….you forgot to throw in their on-line social networking. I decided to get in on that act a few days ago. Now you too can follow my iPod listening habits from anywhere in the world (woohoo). Check me out.
By DJ Cayenne, November 16, 2006 @ 2:32 pm
Daggum link above has been corrected. It should have (and now does) go here.
By Uncle Jam, November 26, 2006 @ 9:11 pm
I’m so disappointed in myself. A meesly 354. Shame on me.
By Senor Music, June 10, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
Hey, just saw this post. I really liked the excel checklist, went throught it and got like high 300s. The list is pretty good except for a few odd things like brittney spears and slipknot. Lots of the ones i checked are ones i havent actually listened to but are in my itunes library, and will get around to listening to one day. A few things that bugged me about the list was that there wer like 4-5 tom waits albums but rain dogs was absent!! Also, not enough zappa, only 2 albums were on there.