Winner and still champion

[jducoeur]

One of the best things about getting the huge new iPod for my birthday is that it gives me carte blanche to rip our whole huge CD collection. But me being me, I'm going through it all, listening to each disc as I go and rating all the tracks. I don't actually tend to listen to albums much on the iPod: instead, I have three main playlists titled "Good", "Better" and "Creme de la Creme", based on how each track is rated. I leave the thing on shuffle, and pick which playlist I want depending on whether I'd prefer more variety or higher quality.

My musical tastes have gradually shifted over the years -- I do a lot more electronica and metal than I once did, following my fondness for kicky and loud music. But having inventoried something like 500 discs so far, I find that the head-and-shoulders Best Album of All Time in my book is still Between the Breaks... Live! by Stan Rogers. I mean, I am *very* strict about the Creme de la Creme list, but this one album has four tracks for it (Barrett's Privateers, The Mary Ellen Carter, The White Collar Holler and Rolling Down to Old Maui). The best album by one of the greatest musicians ever, still more powerful and beautiful than just about anything else out there.

(Just to drive home how eclectic my musical tastes are, my number-two album is Aqualung -- not nearly as pretty, but perhaps the best channeling of raw anger I've ever heard in music.)

So turning this into a good Friday conversation: do you have a favorite? I mean, the One Best Album Ever?

Comments

[jducoeur]

Crest of a Knave by Jethro Tull

Interesting -- while I think Crest of a Knave is a reasonably good Tull album, it's something like the fourth or fifth down for me. (That said, I am *very* fond of Tull, and have nearly their whole ouvre.)

After Bathing at Baxter's by Jefferson Airplane

Don't know if I've listened to this one, at least in album form. (I would guess that I know at least some of the songs.) One to look up.

Liege and Lief, by Fairport Convention

Not one I have -- I'll have to check this out. My first experience with Fairport wasn't a positive one (it was the wretched Fairport/Steeleye/Renaissance triple-bill 20 years ago), but they've been growing on me lately.

And a few Celtic albums by bands no one has ever heard of: "The Wizard and the Elven King" by Crwydryn

I've not only heard of this, we've got it around here somewhere. Unfortunately, only on cassette, so I haven't listened to it in years -- really need to transfer it over to digital.

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

I love a good story song, and Budapest is one. There are a lot of "oh, the burden of being a pampered rock star on the road" songs, but there are a few really good ones, and this is one of the best. Also, musically, this is really interesting and varied, and orchestral. I just love listening to it. I also like "Said She Was a Dancer", which, I admit, is very similar, but stands on its own nonetheless. And there are several other tunes here that kick ass as well.

"Baxter's" maybe doesn't seem that earth-shattering to, um, those of a younger generation %^), but you have to take these things in context. We were used to Runaround Sue and that ilk. The Beatles had started to shake things up, to be sure, but even they largely plowed the Fields We Know. Then came the San Francisco Sound, and specifically Jefferson Airplane. Surrealistic Pillow gave us an inkling of what was in the offing, but "Baxter's" just kicked over all the tables. Listen to a couple hours of popular music from the early to mid sixties, and then listen to "Baxter's".

Liege and Lief was the beginning of "British Folk-Rock". As Ashley Hutchings says on the video history of FC (which I have to loan you), their concert in which they first played this was a rare thing: the clear and indisputable beginning of a genre. Steeleye and all the rest: it started here. And it's marvelous stuff. I was at that horrible triple-bill too, and I agree. But give 'em another chance. They've waxed amazingly good and cringingly bad over the years, and you have to follow the personnel changes carefully, but the good is worth seeking out.