That Ten Albums Thing

You've probably seen this thing in your internet travels:

"10 all-time favorite albums that really made an impact and are still on your rotation list, even if only now and then. Post the cover, no need to explain, and nominate a person to do the same."

This is the sort of thing I rarely participate in when it's tag-a-friend activity, but I like to chew over on my own time. As I did so, I learned two things: (1) there are albums that have endured with me over the years - and most of them are on the list below, but (2) what was more interesting to me are the albums that - in hindsight - were the key ones in my musical/ personal development. Or the ones that helped get me through/over tough times. Problem with those last kind of albums is how often do you revisit them once you're over whatever tough time or period of growth they helped you with? It can vary and bears discussion. This made the second part of the instructions ("no need to explain") irritating; the only thing that's interesting to me about doing it is explaining it.

Oh, and (3) ten was way too few. So:

But after assembling twenty-five albums and sorting them all out, I decided that was too many. So (with apologies to Ace Frehley, Hapa, Richard Ashcroft, the Who, Sergei Prokofiev, Miles Davis, and more) without any further ado:

Honorable Mention 

aka Okay A Little More Ado:

Jimmy Buffet, Don't Stop the Carnival, 1998

I'm not much of a Jimmy Buffett fan. Outside of this album, I only ever had a couple of others, and none of them stayed with me. This one, though, is great - a commercial failure and virtually forgotten today, but a worthy attempt at a musical based on Herman Wouk's novel of the same name. (The book's pretty good, too.) More than worthy - I'd say it's inspired. Not just a collection of very agreeable tunes, but the story is rendered about as well as it would have been by Broadway professionals. Buffett's whole approach / persona was a good fit for it; too bad it didn't catch fire. (Except with me.)

First heard: Don't quite remember. I listened to it an awful lot driving back and forth to Poughkeepsie in 1998. I do remember getting the CD bounced from the stereo at the Oregon Emporium in Dayton the following year in favor of some (vastly inferior) G Love and Special Sauce. Nobody had time for my Jimmy Buffett bullshit. Same story today!

Favorite tunes: "Public Relations," "Island Fever."

15.

Beatles Anthology, 1995 - 1996

Technically, I don't really listen to the Beatles Anthology all that much anymore, something not true of the next fourteen selections. But for this to come out at arguably the peak of my Beatles hysteria in the early-to-mid 90s (thank you, Kevin Silvia) was incredibly exciting. Actually, the Beatlemania lasted with me from around 1992 through around 2000. But it never really went away - the Beatles still rule. I just ran out of their stuff to listen to. (Technically, there are always new Paul and Ringo albums, but I stopped with Working Classical and I Want to Be Santa Claus, respectively.) 

Favorite tracks: Too many to mention. The alternates for "And Your Bird Can Sing", "Ob-La-Di", and "Norwegian Wood" are pretty awesome. The deep tracks I'd been reading about for years (well, all two of them, but I read everything I could get my hands on about the Beatles in those years) were "Leave My Kitten Alone" and "What's the New Mary Jane". YouTube's kind of tough when it comes to the Fab Four, but here's the "Moonlight Bay" that's on part 1. I love that whole bit from start to finish. 

Shame on them leaving off "Some Other Guy," though. Had to get The BBC Sessions for that one, though not that one, aforelinked.

14.

Operation Ivy, Energy, 1989

Around this time (89) I started getting a ride to school in the morning with my buddy Ryan, and he's the one of the handful of people responsible for getting me out of my all-metal bubble. One of his big tapes was this Op Ivy one, which kicks so much ass, still, that it's difficult to believe it all came out of one band, let alone one album. When I want to remember what the late 80s felt like for me and my buddies in that some-of-us-had-our-license/some-of-us-didn't/we-all-liked-skateboards-and-southern-comfort-and-Metroid era, here it all is.

Favorite tracks: "Sound System," "Gonna Find You," "Smiling," "Vulnerability," "Bankshot," "Bombshell." They're all great.   

Could've also chosen: Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Devil's Night Out, Black Flag - The First Four Years, The Circle Jerks - Wonderful. Or the Ramones greatest hits tape Ryan had. Same impact, same love/ nostalgia for them now. But, of them, the only one I still listen to semi-regularly is Energy.

13.

The Doors soundtrack, 1991

I decided to use this as my Doors stand-in because when I did that one post on the Doors, I realized this does quite a good job of capturing the essential sides of the Doors. Less a soundtrack, more a primer. Of the many soundtracks that came into my life at key junctures (moving from one place to another, graduating from one thing to another, break-ups, new loves, memorable vacations, etc.) this one still casts a pretty long shadow. It was the siren call from the paths I'd been walking into the more beatnik-y realms. 

First Heard It / Favorite Tracks / Reverie: (from that post) "If you ever rode in my car 1990-1992, you'd have found one cassette that never left rotation: The Doors soundtrack, which had among other things, "O Fortuna!" Ten years later, it was in everything from Doritos commercials to movie trailers (especially movie trailers), but back then, I was the only guy in town who had it, and cranking it as I pulled into any parking lot announced me as a singular and fascinating fellow. At least in the adolescent fever of my imagining."

12.

1986

I'm not here to tell you this is the best metal album of the 80s, but it's my vote for the most underrated, maybe not just the 80s but of all time. I say this not really knowing what may or may not be an underrated metal album post 1992 or so, but FFS this one rules. I knew it when I first heard it, I knew it eight years later when I knew "hipper" music, I knew it in 1997 and in 2000 when I went through two of my periodic metal renaissances, and I've known it every year since, right down to a couple of months ago where listening to it put me in a good (and ridiculous) mood for days. Magical alchemy here - still works. 

Favorite tracks: Every last one. But possible favorites: "Call Out the Warning," "Cry Out the Fools," or "Shout It Out." ("Let me touch your soul I'll take you awaaaaaay....!") Holy frakking hell, friends - if that doesn't make you feel like a shirtless and deranged demigod lurking over a pit of lava at the end of all epochs, we're just reading from different playbooks. 

11.

First performed 1853. Maria Callas recording 1958.

I've really been into opera lately, so the importance of this one in my life has only recently revealed itself to me. Back in the late 90s, on the advice of my then-girlfriend's housemate I ended up buying this and making a sincere effort to learn the story. It was easy to listen to - there's a reason La Traviata has been continually performed around the world for over 160 years - but I wasn't ready. I liked it, but I just didn't understand opera. It laid, however, a foundation for the opera house I only began to build in 2017 and am still building now. 

One of these days I'll blog something up about all the opera I've been taking to the brain over the past six months. It's been wonderful. It's like I trained my entire life for it without even realizing. Of that training, the most essential was performed in the 1999-2001 era, and it was listening to this CD and getting an idea of what the genre was and getting the melodies in my head.

Favorite tunes: Here's the Violetta-Germont duet (and more) from the same run of performances captured on the EMI release - not sure if this is the exact same as the one on the CD but worth it just the same.

10.

1995

In 2000 and 2001, I was putting myself back together or perhaps fully-together for the first time in my burgeoning adult life after the relationship I had throughout the 90s ended. In retrospect, it was amazing it lasted as long as it did. More on this in a few entries. Music, as it often does, played a role in putting Humpty Dumpty back together again. Not just this album, but this one got an awful lot of airplay while driving around Rhode Island during this time. 

Since I first started hearing such things - let's say 1994 or 1995 - I was a fan of the "techno remix" genre. It kind of all reached a head in the late 90s and finally started petering out in the early years of the 21st century, but this techno remix of Blondie tunes scored twice with me: once as just a fun collection of remixed tunes ("Atomic," "Union City Blue," "Sunday Girl," * "Heart of Glass," "Dreaming" - are you kidding me? Blondie's tunes were made for this treatment) and twice as an evocation of all the Blondie I heard growing up, particularly when my Mom would enlist my help in cleaning the house on weekends and she'd play their Greatest Hits cassette.

* It's criminal there is no link to this, and even worse that there is a YouTube version listed as this remix but which is actually the remix from the same album as "Atomic." 

It's this latter memory that lingers with me now: this - as was discovering reruns of TNG on Saturday afternoons in the same period - was one of the first things to trigger nostalgia-time-travel in me as an adult, mainly because I was approaching thirty and had finally accumulated enough years to actually feel nostalgia for bygone ages and the lingering musical/TV ghosts they left in my psyche. 

9.

1990

On a short list of most influential/ life-changing folks in my life is Jello Biafra, former frontman (and main maestro) for the Dead Kennedys. A huge influence on my politics in the late 80s/ early 90s. Throughout the 90s, actually. And although we've drifted in political alignment somewhat over the years his musical legacy in my life - as well as his music's widening of my little suburban cable-TV world - is still celebrated. No moreso than this masterpiece he did with Al Jourgensen from Ministry infamy, which I still listen to fairly regularly. Just fantastic. How tracks like "Mate Spawn and Die" and "Drug Raid at 4 am" never became staples of any kind amazes me. "Drug Raid" especially is the best opening to a Cops spin-off that never happened.

"You can't throw me to the lions - I'm Charlton Heston! 

You can't throw me to the lions - I'M CHARLTON HESTON!"

Could've been: Jello and DOA - Last Scream of the Missing Neighbors. Similar impact, similar awesomeness, similar longevity in my life (right down to last week when I was singing "Full Metal Jackoff"'s ending refrain in response to the news that Ollie North was now the NRA President.) But Last Temptation of Reid gets the nod by a hair.

8.

1995

Ahh, Different Class. Absolute classic. And it doesn't even even have my favorite Pulp song on it ("The Trees"). During the 90s I learned hard truths about America's homegrown caste system via the relationship I was in for almost that whole decade. "Common People" isn't quite an on-the-nose-from-afar description of said relationship/ learning curve, but it's one of those songs that is specific/universal enough to touch a lot of people. It gave me some perspective I needed at the time and makes even more sense in the rearview. That Shatner recorded his own version the year I moved to Chicago seemed at the time like vindication, perhaps even destiny. But beyond McBiography, it's just a kick-ass anthem and an all-time classic. 

The other classic from this one (although every track in the album is great) is "Disco 2000," which was kinda cool to be into when the year 2000 still loomed in the future as some Galactic Barrier of some kind. What a tune, though, regardless.

Could've been: Britpop hit me pretty hard in the mid-to-late-90s. As far as impactful albums go, I could've listed Oasis' "Wonderwall" import UK single (with those killer B-sides), the Stone Roses first album (which was new to me at the time), or Creation Records seminal (and harder to find these days - wish I hadn't have traded it in to Gem City Records for beer money back in the day!) collection International Guardians of Rock and Roll. 

I considered putting in some kind of New Order/ 24 Hour Party People entry, as Madchester-music really took over my life for a year or two, but in retrospect, it was more an outgrowth of this earlier Britpop experience. So in terms of impact, it'd be Different Class over those, even if I arguably loved those more intensely. 

7.

1996

First heard it: When it was in constant rotation in the early days of the coffee shop (aka Java-storm at the Oregon Emporium, Dayton, OH) 1997. I couldn't believe my age were listening to country. There was a country station in RI when I was growing up, and my Dad and the other guys at the VFW were the only ones who listened to it. This changed over the course of the 90s - many theories abound and many more learned than myself have mapped the migratory patterns of listeners and demographics. All I know is: until I finally stopped resisting this album - and it was easy to stop, with its improbable cover versions of Soundgarden, Beck, and Tom Petty - the last country song I liked was "Queen of Hearts" by Juice Newton. (And I'm old enough where having to add "by Juice Newton" pisses me off; who the hell else sings "Queen of Hearts?" Juice Newton owns that.) 

This opened up the whole genre to me, although truthfully is was a brief affair. I discovered I only really enjoyed old country, and in small doses. But (a) the exception is Johnny Cash, whose entire career I love, and (b) it led me to Elvis. So, this one album is responsible for a good 20% of what I listen to, still, every year. 

Favorites tracks: "I've Been Everywhere," which everyone knows thanks to the car commercial or whatever it was, but for awhile was kind of off the beaten track, "Mean Eyed Cat," and "Sea of Heartbreak." 

6.

1984

I often wonder if I'd be as into symphonic music and classical composers had I not spent those 5 childhood years in Germany. Who can tell, but field trips to Salzburg and Vienna certainly left a deep impression. I'd say equal to them was the timely release of Amadeus when I was 10 years old. I loved this movie - still do, but for some reason it captured my imagination completely when I was in 6th grade. (It came out in '84, but I didn't obsess over it until the fall of the following year.) 

Was this the 2nd soundtrack I ever bought? (The 1st was Back to the Future, I know that.) It was not the first classical music I ever bought; that was a Deutsche Grammophone cassette of Beethoven's 5th and 6th symphonies, which still sounded flawless for at least 20 years after. (Easily the best constructed cassette I ever owned). But it was Amadeus that opened up pretty much all symphonic music for me, and it's an affection that has grown deeper within each year since. 

Favorite tracks: Look, friends, you can't get go wrong with Mozart. His music is the epitome of the enlightenment ideal, and it still looks and sounds pristine and heavenly and like nothing else ever created centuries later. I won't get into whether the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields (conducted by Sir Neville Marriner) is the best representation of the material, only that since this is what I first learned Mozart from, it is under Sir Neville's baton and as interpreted by that Academy that the material sounds right to me. There is considerable disagreement about who "gets" Mozart the best, conducting-wise, so I mention it only to note my own bias. 

Anyway, they're all favorites. If you like metal, then the "1st Movement of Symphony #25" is probably your jam. Also very metal: "Act 2, Scene 24" from Don Giovanni. But this is an excellent selection of Mozart, here, spread out over 2 discs. Whenever I see anyone with a "Best of" Cd, I wonder why they didn't just get this one.

Or, you know, everything. It's Mozart! FFS.

5.

1991

If I had to pick a single Sinatra record to represent the man's music, I'd pick his first one for Reprise Records, Ring-a-Ding-Ding (1961). To paraphrase Michael Cera's character from the criminally underrated Youth in Revolt, the world would be a better place if radio stations added this to its daily rotation. 

But it was this CD that had the actual impact (and led me to Ring-a-Ding-Ding, years later.) I don't listen to this CD very much anymore. It was the compilation disc of a Sinatra Reprise box from around the same time. Both were completely off my radar until I got to college and my buddy Andy down the hall introduced my to Sinatra. As with Amadeus and so many more of these selections, it opened up an entire genre to me (old time crooney and big band stuff) that seems to become more and more of a favorite with each passing year. 

Andy, by the way, used to drive this convertible Saturn that was a pretty sweet ride. He was one of those guys who played his car music at ear-splitting, punishing volume. I went to visit him in New Jersey once and he took me into New York City for the first time. As we crossed over the George Washington Bridge and descended into the skyscrapers, he cued up "Theme from New York, New York." Top ten moments of my youth, right there. 

Years Later: I've never listened to every Frank Sinatra record, but I once made an attempt. It gets a little squirrelly as you get into the late 60s and 70s (altho this disco remix of "All or Nothing at All" is pretty great) but I'm still a huge fan. I listen to his entire Capital Records era in order at least once every few years, and I've got my own mixes of his Reprise and Columbia years in even more frequent rotation than that. 

4.

1988

The message and ideology of Mindcrime has only grown more prescient in the 30 years since its release. But beyond its dystopian fatalism and the (considerable) artfulness of the story, it's just such a killer collection of music. Heavy metal opera at its finest. Side 1 is pound for pound (performance, Viking axe assault, intensity of message, theatricality, etc.) probably the greatest side of heavy metal ever created. (Wikipedia lists side 2 beginning with "Suite Sister Mary," but that's crazy: my copy and everyone else's I knew had side 2 starting with "The Needle Lies.") 

"I used to trust the media

To tell me the truth, tell us the truth

But now I've seen the payoffs

Everywhere I look

Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?"

Favorite tracks: "Speak," "The Mission," and "Spreading the Disease."

3.

1973

From the moment a young me (7 or 8 ish) heard the opening crunch to the title track, it was over: metal for life. Well, life-ish: for me, metal more or less ends in the early 90s. But the metal-lest of them all is Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. 

My brother had this on one side of a cassette, and Saxon's Crusader was on the other. Crusader also could be listed (along with Judas Priest's Sin After Sin) in this spot, for all the same reasons. But Sabbath has been one of those all-purpose albums for me that we all have that gets picked when you can't really figure out what else you want to hear; it fits pretty much any mood or situation I need it for. (Well, most.) It's great for road trips as well as quiet nights at home. It defines metal for me so precisely that I feel silly saying anything more; just crank it.

Favorite tracks: "Sabbra Cadabra" all the way; Ozzy's voice coming in when and how it does around the fifty-two second mark is a contender for coolest moment of the 20th century. 

2.

1978

Around the same time as I was listening to my brother's walkman copies of the above, I was listening to one he made for me of his double vinyl of this progressive rock masterpiece. This was my entrypoint into HG Wells and all the countless worlds beyond and for that alone it would be high up on this list, but not this high. Here it is at the penultimate spot for two reasons: 

(1) I spent a lot of time in the Germany years looking out the window of buses or cars at a landscape so utterly unlike the Pawtucket, Rhode Island one I'd known in the late 70s. I listened to this musical so much during those years that burned over my montage of Euro-memories is this riff, this sound, and this sound. I remain profoundly grateful for (and rather bewildered by) this. 

And (2) it became, through no planning for this on my part, my Thanksgiving album. When I cook or clean up or any part of it. Usually fits the time spent having to do any of that quite well, and I've come to look forward to it year to year.

The art that came with it was the equal of the production.

And finally:

1.

2004

It's impossible for me to describe the impact of this album on my life during the spring and summer of 2005. I will, of course, try.

The year before had seen me at a very low point. I'd arrived in Chicago the way shipwrecks wash up on the reef and was crashing on a couch, then finally got a job and could afford an air mattress and room of my own, and so forth up the long ladder back to normalcy. I turned 30 during this time and was working at the since-closed Virgin Megastore at Ohio and Michigan. It was there I first heard SMiLE, at a promotional release event of some kind, although mainly I just remember hearing something weird over the speakers and trying to figure out what it was. When it really clicked with me was months later on a hungover train ride home one Sunday morning - on a discman, no less - when a lack of sleep, hydration, rest, and somewhat random choice of musical accompaniment made it the backdrop of a deep epiphany: I was only getting more and more depressed and something had to change. It was a Larry Underwood Pays the Bills kind of moment.

Which he/ I did - but that's a story for another time. Brian Wilson's SMiLE * proved uniquely healing for me; it seems almost designed to piece back together a shattered ego in a more productive and sensitive direction. Whether or not this is all just my projection on it, who knows, but the music itself is undeniable. It's abstract, multi-layered, a masterclass of sequencing, innocent yet tortured, a sonata gone mad, and just a fun, fun record. 

And it fucking ends with "Good Vibrations!" My friends, if you're going to go crazy and then come back to reality - and here I refer to the work's author and not myself; nothing I've done equals the drama of Mr. Wilson's life - this is the wormhole you want to do it with.

* And it really could be called Darian Sahanaja's and Brian Wilson's SMiLE, so instrumental is Darian's contribution to the project.

A beautiful record that blows away any description of it I could give. The way it weaves in and out of sadness from "Our Prayer" on its hard-earned way to "Good Vibrations" can only be experienced. Favorite tracks: "Good Vibrations," obviously, but also "Wonderful," "Surf's Up," "Vege-tables," and "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow."

Quick p.s. Original post had a lot more about acid and my enduring love of the original Beach Boys famously unfinished Smiley Smile Sessions, particularly "Whistle In" and "Can't Wait Too Long." (Especially that last one.) But I wanted to keep the focus on Brian Wilson's specific 2004 version, bless it to fractals.

~

25 Prog Albums for Your Collection

The recent deaths of Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and John Wetton prompted me to break out some old records - so to speak, their external hard drive equivalent anyway - and re-acquaint myself with the wonderful, oft-maligned world of Progressive Rock. As per usual, this led in a few more directions than I'd intended and resulted in taking some notes and plugging numbers into a spreadsheet. Et voici! 

The header up there uses an image of Roger Dean's, who was to Prog Rock what Derek Riggs was to Iron Maiden. I think half of the reason I initially got into Yes was just for the album covers.  

We'll see some of those albums in the countdown to come, but here are some additional images. Google image the guy if you never have; you won't regret it.

Of course, that brings up another point - nowadays you can just google image it.

As a genre, prog is not to everyone's taste and can elicit strong negative reactions. I got into it because growing up on heavy metal trained me to seek out sci-fi-fantasy-themed material as well as to always be on the lookout for who was shreddin'. And prog generally attracted sci-fi-fantasy fans and classically-trained or naturally gifted shredders.  

But what is prog, exactly? Is it just fantastic themes and lots of solos? It's somewhat difficult to define. Two lists I looked at (here and here) do as commendable a job as you can probably do. Some criteria / confessions up front:

- You'll notice some of the genre's heaviest hitters well-represented below, otherwise known as "the usual suspects sucking up all the air in the room." Guilty as charged - I can't pretend those classic Yes and Crimson albums aren't my sincere personal favorites, so I didn't try. 

- Prog grew out of psychedelic rock and morphed into fusion and its own plank of heavy metal. The "pure" prog probably is limited only to one decade (the 70s). Those albums produced in the 80s and beyond will be dealt with in a subsequent post. (Here.)

- Beyond whether or not it was a personal favorite, my criteria for the below was a) Does it have a mellotron? b) Did it come out in the 70s? c) Does at least one song take up a whole album side? d) Does at least one song title resemble a Table of Contents? (Example: Rush's "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" from Caress of Steel: I) At the Tobes of Hades * II) Across the Styx, III) Of the Battle (further broken down into iiia - Challenge and Defiance, iiib - 7/4 War Furor, iiic - Aftermath, iiid - Hymn of Triumph), and IV) Epilogue. And e) Is at least one guy in the band a freak on his instrument? His or her, of course, but the prog under consideration is all dudes. Sorry, I guess.

* When I was a teenager I assumed Rush was just laying down some fancy unknown-to-me vocab; turns out, though, he was just making up words. 

- Even within these parameters, though, it's a total judgment call. Pink Floyd is usually referred to as progressive rock. But I only consider a handful of their releases to actually be prog. Dark Side is one of the best albums ever made, but to me it's just radio-friendly rock. Essential and exceptional radio-friendly rock, but not the stuff of "Sound Chaser." (Or Atom Heart Mother for that matter.) Beyond that, some things that aren't normally considered prog (such as most of Miles Davis' 70s work or Gary Moore's earlier stuff like "Flight of the Snow Moose" or so many others) fit my criteria comfortably enough. But, they didn't look right on the list, so I took them off. Conversely, my original list did not contain a few bands/ albums that don't fit said criteria but had to be included anyway. So what we have here is what we always has: a list that only makes perfect sense as to yours truly. As per tradition, I inflict share it with you!

- Ditto for Tangerine Dream and Frank Zappa. But I'm of the opinion that when you put out something like 500 albums, you become your own genre. 

Feel free to submit your own counter-list in the comments. Let us begin.

25.

HAWKWIND

WARRIOR ON THE EDGE OF TIME (1974)

In addition to their abundance of groovy music, Hawkwind is distinguished by a) being an intermittent collaborator of Michael Moorcock, whose body of work informs a lot of the band's output, b) once having Lemmy from Motorhead (like anyone needs "from Motorhead" as a qualifier) as their bassist, and c) their original drummer having suffered a nervous breakdown brought on by LSD, placing them in a rarefied circle of late 60s UK bands (Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, etc.) 

A serious Hawkwind fan can probably name a half-dozen other albums that belong on this list, possibly even in place of this one. But Warrior is the one for me.

"The wizard blew his horn... the wizard blew his horn..."  

24.

DEEP PURPLE

CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA (1969)

At the instigation of keyboardist and maestro Jon Lord, Deep Purple teamed up with the London Royal Philharmonic for this three-movement marriage of orchestra and rock band. It was apparently not a happy pairing, but perhaps that tension worked to the project's advantage. My favorite is the third movement, which sounds to me like it'd be ideal for a high seas adventure movie. 

It's amazing, really, how many times I think that when listening to prog. (Second place: "whales in space.")

Deep Purple's catalog could really use some digitally remastered TLC. The production quality varies wildly. It's possible this has already happened and simply hasn't filtered down to YouTube, which is where I attempted an album-by-album listen-through not too long ago. A great band - certainly not a traditional prog choice, but as a huge part of prog was this constant alluding to orchestral music, a sensible one. 

23.

THE ALAN PARSONS PROJECT 

- TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION (1976)

Another one I don't often see make many Best of Prog lists. I think opinions are mixed on Alan Parsons in general. I couldn't really tell you, though - all I know is this one, and I will forever hear this as the 14 year old I was when I first heard it, when basically if you referenced Poe, much less wrote a whole freaking album celebrating his works, you were cool. It's a movie of the mind and perfect for a long car ride or commute.

Favorite track is probably "Fall of the House of Usher" (here's a particularly cinematic excerpt) though "Dream Within a Dream" has narration from the one and only Orson Welles. This was recorded only for the 1987 reissue of the album, which purists decry is too far removed from the original vinyl. I like both. 

22.

KING CRIMSON

- IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON (1970)

Crimson's been a favorite since I first heard them, and they continue to put out challenging and worthwhile material. (They also seem to have lightened up a little in recent years. Which is appreciated. It seemed to me all they did from the 80s through recent years was complain (and at comprehensive lengths) about the industry, their fans, the current state of spiritual enlightenment of most earthlings, urban planning, photographers stealing their souls, you name it. It's good to see Robert Fripp smiling a little again. Maybe for the first time.)

Decades before such singular grumpiness, though, was this, the band's 2nd album, the showcase of which is "The Devil's Triangle," side 2's apocalyptic repurposing of Holst's "Mars Bringer of War" and the beatnik-y "Cat Food," sung by the band's first singer, Greg Lake.

"No use to complain / when you're caught out in the rain / your mother's quite insane - CAT FOOD! (cat food, cat food) / A-GAIN!" 

21.

CHRIS SQUIRE 

- FISH OUT OF WATER (1975)

In 1975 the five members of Yes each put out a solo record. Like Kiss a few years later, except very much not like Kiss. This is one I was never able to find back in the day. Until I sat down to listen to it a few times, I assumed this spot would be taken by one of the other solo-Yes projects, namely Jon Anderson's Olias of Sunhillow, his Vangelis-esque-moorglades-and-epic-fantasy debut, for which he's been working on a sequel since at least 2004, making it the Last Dangerous Visions of the prog rock world. I was surprised to find I liked this one the best of them all.

Outside of Olias, I never heard any of the others - Alan White's Ramshackled, Patrick Moraz's The Story of I, or Steve Howe's Beginnings - until this past year, as well. I assumed I'd love Steve Howe's, since I'm a huge fan of that guy's guitar playing. But he really shouldn't be doing his own vocals. The same thing sinks Alan White's album.  

Anyway, this is a strong album. I'm the type of guy if I see this (or even Olias) in your stacks I consider it evidence of a superior ir at least admirably unconventional mind. I rag on people for their virtue-signalling over political BS or after-school-sentiments, but swap in records and Criterion discs and books and I'm a serial offender.

 20.

KING CRIMSON 

- LARKS' TONGUE IN ASPIC (1973)

The title track for this one is an ongoing musical enterprise - I believe they're up to Part 5 or 6 now. Here, the album starts with pt. 1 and ends with pt. 2. Both are classics; each version captures some of the band's unique and dynamic energy, regardless of its incarnation. I'm trying not to link to too many long musical suites, but either is a good place to start to grok the band's approach.

Outside of those, my favorite here is "Book of Saturday," a moody little melody I still find myself whistling often enough.

19.

GENESIS

- NURSERY CRYME (1971)

One of the more bizarre opening tracks of any album I can think of, "The Musical Box" kicks things off very quietly with some understated guitar-and-vocal interplay between Steve Hackett and Peter Gabriel before kicking into high gear around the 4-minute mark. What's it about, you ask? Here's the plot summary from its wiki:

"The lyrics are based on a Victorian fairy story written by Gabriel, about two children in a country house. The girl, Cynthia, kills the boy, Henry, by cleaving his head off with a croquet mallet. She later discovers Henry's musical box. When she opens it, 'Old King Cole' plays, and Henry returns as a spirit, but starts aging very quickly. This causes him to experience a lifetime's sexual desire in a few moments, and he tries to persuade Cynthia to have sexual intercourse with him. However, the noise causes his nurse to arrive, and she throws the musical box at him, destroying them both. The album cover shows Cynthia holding a croquet mallet, with a few heads lying on the ground." 

Just your standard love story. This album gets mixed reviews from Genesis fans, but it was the first of the band's Peter Gabriel years I ever bought. "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" is historically notable for featuring the first tapping on record, a technique later popularized by Eddie Van Halen and the deluge of imitators that followed. The record has since been corrected - it was Steve Hackett - but that used to be something to argue about: who invented tapping, or at least got it onto record first. 

18.

PINK FLOYD

- A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS (1968) ANIMALS (1977)

Both of these are pretty solid examples of prog sensibility, I think. I like them about the same, so I decided to keep both entries as a tie. 

I first heard "Saucerful" as part of the band's Live at Pompei concert, which I'd link to but all I can find are audio-only vids. And since the entire point of linking to a concert video is to show the footage - although in this case it's just the band performing for an amphitheater of ghosts, which is pretty awesome - I trust the interested can find their own way to it. (Original name of the tune? "The Massed Gadgets of Hercules." I've always thought "Saucerful of Secrets" was a great title, but it may be a coin-flip between those two.)

Speaking of awesome titles, Saucerful also features "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun." It was recorded both before and after Syd Barrett's departure from the group. 

17.

KANSAS

- SONG FOR AMERICA (1975) 

This album is a start-to-finish classic. I was going to link to the title track, then thought maybe "Lamplight Symphony" was more emblematic, then wondered how I could have considered anything but "Hymn to the Atman?" Then I just said, meh, this is just a list, not my report to the Pentagon. When people think Kansas, it's probably one of their radio hits, and nothing against those, but when I think of the band, this is the one that comes to mind. Trust me and give this a spin sometime. It'll make you a better person.

Even better, the remastered edition includes "Magnum Opus" from Leftoverture. Which a Kansas fan probably has already, but it increases the already-considerable amount of prog power on Song for America by a factor of awesome. 

16.

EMERSON LAKE AND PALMER

- PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION (1971)

This is kind of a placeholder for all ELP. The problem with these guys is they never put out a full solid studio album of prog awesomeness. I mean, you could consider either volume of Works (1977) to be such an album, but there's so much filler on either, and really, with a couple of exceptions, their proggiest stuff lies elsewhere. See here for what I mean. I think I synched that up to the start of "Battlefield," which is one of the many chapters of the epic "Tarkus" from Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends *. Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer are synched up about as good as any keyboardist and drummer can be synched up on that damn track.    

* Which certainly is triple-sized prog at its finest, but I think I prefer Pictures, despite its dearth of original ELP material. Some people consider Tarkus (1971) or Trilogy (1972) to be their best work, but neither of those have aged well for me. This live version of "Tarkus: Battlefield" is probably my hands-down favorite thing the band ever did.

Not their proggiest work, either, but a) surprisingly good actually, and b) this cover! Wow.

ELP was one of the brightest stars in the firmament of the genre, and this album is definitely worthy of inclusion on a variety of lists.  

15.

GENESIS

- FOXTROT (1972)

Genesis fans always tell me Selling England by the Pound (1973) or The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974) are the best albums of the Gabriel era. I'm more of a Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot guy, myself, but this is almost certainly the result of it being these latter albums I drove home with one fateful visit to Luke's Record Exchange in Pawtucket, RI circa 1990. First impressions are hard to overcome. Each album has its delights, of course.

I've spent the last few months revisiting these albums and jotting down notes about each song, but I just discovered whatever notes I took for my Foxtrot revisit have disappeared. Ah well. 

Check out these more-proggy-than-prog subtitles, though, for side-2-spanning epic "Supper's Ready:" a. Lover's Leap b. The Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man c. Ikhnaton and Itsacon and Their Band of Merry Men d. How Dare I Be So Beautiful? e. Willow Farm f. Apocalypse in 9/8 (Co-Starring the Delicious Talents of Gabble Ratchet) g. As Sure as Eggs Is Eggs (Aching Men's Feet).

14.

JETHRO TULL 

- THICK AS A BRICK (1972) / A PASSION PLAY (1973)

These are less personal favorites and a concession to Jethro Tull's contributions to the genre. Thick as a Brick is perhaps the more accessible of the two. Passion Play was savaged, apparently, on its release, but over time it's been recognized as a great record. A heady affair and one that requires some cooperation from the listener, but worth it.

I saw these guys in 1991 and the show was way more metal than it had any right to be. People'd be surprised if they did an album crawl through the band's catalog. Whenever the "Jethro-Tull-won-a-grammy-for-metal?-Over-Metallica?" remarks get started, I always think of that. Besides, Crest of a Knave (the album that won) is pretty heavy.

Anyway, not the mellotron-y fantasy-epic side of prog, but it makes sense for me to make room for Jethro Tull on this list. 

13.

THE MOODY BLUES

- DAYS OF FUTURE PASSED (1967)

I hesitated to include this one, as I consider it more psychedelic rock than prog. But I think it's a pivotal record and - like ELP or #10 coming up - maybe this is more of an Overall Achievement placing. The Moody Blues produced plenty of prog over their career, but they weren't much for start-to-finish great records. 

This is the exception. Like I say, it might not exactly be a great prog record, but it feels right to include. And who's going to argue with "Nights in White Satin?" I read a poem once that took issue with that tune and remember thinking, "Who the hell has a problem with that song of all songs?" I remember no other line except "Why didn't he send the letters? What's up with that?" What kind of writer doesn't understand the idea of writing things you never mean to send? And the anguish this process involves? Meh.

12.

UK

- DANGER MONEY (1979)

I mentioned this project got started while reflecting on the passing of some of the genre's seminal personalities, like John Wetton. Of the many projects he lent his signature voice and bass-style to, my favorite is this littler-known effort, which was the first of the supergroups Wetton would form or join. (The subsequent one, Asia, tends to overshadow - in initial commercial impact and lingering pop cultural memory at least - all others.) I'm not sure any genre other than jazz or hip hop has as many crossovers and overlap as prog. (Raymond Bensen's Dark Side of the Morgue plays around with this idea pretty well.)

Of the two albums the band released, I vastly prefer Danger Money, whose title track has that celestial-synth/big-bottomed-bass sound I like so much. "Rendezvous 6:02", chronicling some kind of supernatural encounter at Waterloo Station, is another gem, but really, each track here is gold.

11.

RICK WAKEMAN

- THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII (1973)

That cover really cracks me up. Wakeman's got a wacky sense of humor - check out the inner sleeve for 1979's Rhapsodies for example.

I had no idea how many albums this guy has put out since the last time I looked, including a sequel to all of his big ones from the 70s. He's definitely on his way to if not already arrived at the one-man-genre designation I mentioned earlier. This one came across my radar on Yesshows, which is really the double cassette that got me into the band more than anything else. But I liked that solo showcase so much I made a point to track down the album proper.

Unlike at least half of these albums, this is one I've been listening to pretty consistently over the years, regardless of whatever other bands or genres commanded my attention. There are certain melodies that move me very deeply, and the motif for "Catherine Howard" is one of them. Watching him perform it with the Orchestra Europa for the 500th anniversary of Henry's ascension to the throne of England at the Hampton Court Palace - something he asked permission to do in the 70s and was told it was tantamount to treason! - was a treat. Not that I was there in person, just a nice thing to have happened I mean.

And side two's even better! 

10.

Here's another placeholder. No mellotron, but plenty of 70s multi-chapter-titled/ fantasy-sci-fi-themed goodness on a lot of those early albums. But no one album that strikes me as totally "prog" oriented.

Some get close - 2112 and Hemispheres, definitely, but my dilemma was: no album scored in my spreadsheet at a level that reflected the esteem a band like Rush should command, in any rankings but especially prog ones. This says more about my scoring system, perhaps - I won't bore you with the ins and outs of how I arrived at Rush coming in at #10, but I will tell you if they released a double album with "2112," "Cygnus," "The Necromancer," "Anthem," and a couple of other more traditionally-prog ones, that album would probably be up there at #1 for me.

(Further Dog Star musings on Rush can be found here.)

9.

GENESIS

- TRICK OF THE TAIL (1976)

Here's an oddity in the band's catalog - the first post-Peter-Gabriel album but still very much of the Gabriel era. The conventional wisdom on the band is that they had a prog era (Gabriel) then morphed into 80s synth-radio-pop (Collins.) The broad strokes are correct, but really, only the last couple of Genesis albums can be classified as synth-radio pop, and only intermittently at that. Most everything pre-Invisible Touch has a strong prog sensibility.

Every track here is gold, but my favorites are "Robbery Assault and Battery" ("Done me wrong! Same old song! DONE ME WRONG!") and "Ripples."

8.

JEFF WAYNE

WAR OF THE WORLDS (1978)

This rock opera based on the Wells book is narrated by Richard Burton and features the musical stylings of Phil Lynott and Justin Hayward. The original vinyl my brother came with these fantastic paintings by Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Michael Trim that illustrate the story.

It sometimes amazes me that people settled for fold-out cassette sleeves (and even less with CDs) compared to the gorgeous, huge artwork that came with so much old vinyl.

I have loved this since I was a kid and in many ways it's the definitive version of the story for me, even more than Wells original or the infamous Welles radio broadcast. Both of which I also love, but when I think Martians, I think of every sound and solo and spoken word on this double record, and especially this epilogue which spooked me as a kid and still gives me a thrill. An absolute treasure. 

"U-uuu-L-aaa!"  

7.

EDGAR FROESE

- STUNTMAN (1979)

I mentioned Tangerine Dream before. I've been a fan of their soundtrack work for years but it was only a couple of years ago (as a tangent of studying up on Kraftwork and all things Krautrock) that I came across this moody masterpiece from one of TD's founding members. (RIP, Herr Froese.)

If I'm ever on a long distance star voyage, this is the album I would program to wake up the crew from suspended animation, or just play on repeat for however many centuries we drift towards our celestial destination. I can't even single out one track to show you; just hit play and let the album sweep you along to the distant shores of your imagination.  

6.

YES

- GOING FOR THE ONE (1977)

If lurking in prog chatrooms for months has taught me anything, it's that the next 6 entries will provoke a lot of eye rolls. My taste in prog is perhaps too traditional for some, but like I said up there, I can't pretend any differently.

And really, traditional or no, who in their right mind is going to exclude Going for the One? Every track is a classic here, but perhaps none moreso than the two on Side B: "Wondrous Stories" and "Awaken." Which is my third favorite Yes epic-song-suite *, one of which is still to come while the other is the aforelinked "Sound Chaser" from Relayer.

* Technically, almost everything they recorded in the 70s could be described as an epic song-suite, it's true.  

5.

RICK WAKEMAN

- THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE (1975)

I've noticed something over the years. If you heard Journey to the Center of the Earth (1974) before you heard this one, you'd consider King Arthur a tad redundant. Fortunately for me, though, I had memorized King Arthur before I ever got to Journey, so I never had that problem. 

I've always loved the Arthurian mythos, so perhaps that accounts for some of my affection for this, but the music - augmented by the New World Orchestra and the English Chamber Chour and a dozen studio musicians - is epic and wonderful and fits the material perfectly. 2:48-ish through 6:02-ish of "Merlin the Magician" is some of my favorite stuff ever. If I ever do a walking tour of Arthurian England, you can bet this is what I'll have in the headphones. The whole album, actually, but I've always thought "Merlin" was pretty much genre perfection.  

Fun fact: Wakeman suffered a series of heart attacks in the 70s and his doctor told him during the recording of this album that he had to retire from music. He ignored this and went back to the studio to record "The Last Battle." And he's still kicking, so who knows what that doctor was thinking 40-odd years ago,

4.

PINK FLOYD

- MEDDLE (1971)

It's mainly the epic "Echoes", with its classical-like structure, that makes me consider this album as more traditionally prog than their others. "One of These Days" is perhaps the album's best-known track, but it's those four between them that define this record for me. Particularly "Fearless," which is the first place I ever heard Liverpool's famous "You'll Never Walk Along" soccer chant. It's since been seen as an example of Roger Waters' neocommie burgeoning social and class consciousness. 

Choosing which Floyd records strike me as prog and which do not is an arbitrary process, I grant you. For most bands, having a record as good as Meddle would be enough for the Hall of Fame; Floyd had at least 3 or 4 records as good or better than this this one. But: this is my personal choice for Proggiest. Although, if Wish You Were Here can be consdiered prog, then that would be tied with this one. 

Probably should've just done that to begin with.

3.

KING CRIMSON

- RED (1974)

For many years Lizard or Starless and Bible Black were my favorites of this period of Crimson. But slowly but surely the two already represented and this one in particular edged them aside. 

That Red is as fantastic as it is is odd, since its recording coincided with the implosion of the band. When Crimson got back together a few years down the road, it would be a totally different band exploring totally different music. This then is a fitting swan song for the earlier incarnation of the band. The title track is swaggering warlock-metal of the finest order. "Fallen Angel" has some of my favorite Wetton vocals. But my all-time favorite Crimson track (arguably) is "Starless," which is among the most wonderful and spookiest things ever made.

Fun fact: I got into this record the same summer Stephen King's expanded The Stand came out, and it was my soundtrack for reading it. I was also reading Night Shift that summer, and to this day when I think of adapting many of the stories therein - or particular stretches of The Stand - it's "Starless," particularly that amazing penultimate section that starts around the 4:30 mark and carries through to the end. 

2.

YES

- THE YES ALBUM (1971) FRAGILE (1971) 

What can you say here? A treasure trove of awesomeness. Look at the difference between these covers, too - wtf?

When I ranked the Rush albums, I felt a little too mainstream-y nominating Moving Pictures for my personal favorite. But really, objectively, how can you argue? Some do, but they're nuts. I feel the same here. (Incidentally, if Moving Pictures is a prog album, and I think the case can be made it is, despite its lack of 70s or mellotron, then this would be a triple tie for the penultimate spot.) 

Sure these are where you find most of the band's radio tunes. (And eternal damnation to those DJs who fade out "The Fish" after a spin of "Long Distance Runaround.")

If I got started, I'd link to every last track. I don't know if it's a favorite - they're all kind of favorites - but among the most essential things ever created and some of my favorite drum/bass/mellotron/guitar interaction occurs during the first 3 minutes of "Heart of the Sunrise."  

1.

YES

- CLOSE TO THE EDGE (1972) 

As with Fragile and The Yes Album, not much you can say here. Can't get better than any of the tracks here - the title track is the definition of prog rock for me, and Side 2 features two of the band's best: "And You and I" and "Siberian Khatru." I sometimes think it'd be fun to do a "Best Guitar Riffs" post. It'd be kind of impossible, but if such a list did materialize, I think that riff for "Siberian Khatru" (and "South Side of the Sky" from Fragile) would be right up there on it. 

~

NEXT: Whatever Happened to the Prog Men of Tomorrow? To the 80s and Beyond!