"Bowie - Diamond Dogs: the best concept album ever, to the point that even Rebel Rebel sounds a bit of a thrown-in afterthought. It's a great late night listen, immersing yourself in the sleazy visions of some after-dark dystopian hellscape. I believe Bowie played pretty much all the guitar on it too, which is unusual for him.
Television - Marquee Moon: always wrongly labelled as a seminal punk album, it's anything but. It just appeared at the same time. Incredible depth and breadth of expression from what's essentially a two-guitar bar band playing Fenders with minimal effects or studio cleverness. Verlaine and Lloyd's guitars winding around each other are just brilliant and have never been equalled.
The Band - The Band (brown album): the preceding Music From Big Pink is often credited as the album that stopped Clapton wanting to be a guitar god, but this follow-up is even better. All original songs but they sound old as the hills, like modern day folk Americana. Lyrically brilliant, often profound (you won't find a better short lesson on the history of the South than The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down) and just immaculately played, sung and arranged by a five man unit that was perfectly in tune when recorded, no matter how acrimonious things got later.
Beatles - Revolver: for my money their absolute masterpiece, every song a gem of superbly recorded instruments, ideas and harmonies (even if the extreme stereo spread is a little dated these days). In terms of capturing a band at the very peak of its creativity, when they'd evolved to full capability of using the studio but still keeping the songs direct and accessible, it's never been beaten. My absolute perfect pop album.
Love - Forever Changes: I could have picked any number of West Coast 60s albums as my heart lives there even if I was too young and the wrong side of the pond to experience it. But even alongside luminaries like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, The Doors and The Dead, this rather lesser known album is another all-killer and no-filler piece, much darker and more paranoid than its sunnier peers, with weird instrumental choices like ratty garage punk guitars and mariachi brass and soupy Mantovani strings, yet it hangs together due to the brilliance of (mainly) Arthur Lee's writing.
All five of these are albums that when I owned them on vinyl rarely ever felt the need to lift the needle and skip dead wood tracks; there really aren't any. "
Good choice tgere ,ive read rebel rebel was him trying out stones the stones ,it was also his last gkam rock single.
Love the album ,dont like rebel rebel ,i picjed david live because mainly i feel the diamond dogs songs are better version than the studio album ,and earl slick plays the guitar parts . |
