Desert Island - 5 Albums

LRP is the best R.E.M. album because I said so, and I have the best taste in music of anyone ever.

Also, I'd like to make a change to my Top 5. I'm swapping out Physical Graffiti for Zeppelin III because it has the greatest song ever recorded on it, Since I've Been Loving You.

 

I'm changing mine to five Pantera albums.

 

Live albums are just about all I listen to as well. In fact, I'd take five live albums to the island.

1. Ladies and Gentlemen ... the Grateful Dead, TGOGD — Four discs recorded over two nights in April 1971 at the Fillmore East. Just some epic versions of Dead staples.

2. Eat A Peach, Allman Brothers — Has the best version of "Blue Sky" and 33 minutes (!!!) of "Mountain Jam".

3. You Had To Be There, Jimmy Buffett — An older cousin gave me this double live album in 1980. I've wanted to live in flip-flops and shorts ever since.

4. Thelonious Monk Quartet with Coltrane at Carnegie Hall — This being undiscovered for 48 years is a musical tragedy.

5. Sinatra at the Sands, Frank Sinatra — With the Count Basie Orchestra backing and Quincy Jones directing, this might be the best live album ever recorded.

 

ya figure?

 

I'm sincerely a tremendous music snob, obnoxiously so I've been told. But most mainstream music just flat out sucks. And I would choose LRP 10 times out of 10.
And can I put Tim by The Replacements at 5A on my list?

 

And again, I find this argument just flat out absurd. It makes the basic assumption that any music that is somehow popular is good, and beyond that, that someone who claims to like something less popular is just trying to be cool because deep down they have to prefer the popular stuff.

I have a Pernice Brothers album on my list. I don't much care what you think of that. Really. I don't like Mariah Carey. I'm not looking to impress you with that, either. Mariah Carey sells more albums in a day than Joe Pernice will sell in a career. I still prefer that Pernice Brothers album.

And as for REM, why is it odd that devoted fans of a band with 14 albums would have a different favorite than a casual fan who has only heard 3 of their albums?

 

No, try to follow along here. I'm saying popular doesn't necessarily mean bad or necessarily mean good. To many, lack of sales seem to sanctify a work. And I think it's a sociological phenomenon, that one finds something that few others have, and there's some nobility to liking something that very few others do. I never said anything resembling a claim that Mariah Carey (perhaps not a great one to hang on the petard, since she's a classically trained singer and a legitimate musician, but I digress) or N'Sync were great because they sold a lot. Unless you're saying Document and Automatic for the People are N'Sync-esque.

 

Listen to this and calm down, dools.

 

Oh I'm calm. I just like pop sociological issues like this. And I've said before that PCLL has the best music taste on the board.

 

No, I do.

 

Ha!

 

I am astounded that anyone thinks Life's Rich Pageant is some kind of an eclectic choice for an R.E.M. album to be stranded on a desert island with. EVERY R.E.M. fan I know – every single one, myself included – has never had any doubt that that's far and away their best album.