CSNY - Deja Vu
Joni Mitchell - Court & Spark
Steve Earle - I Feel Alright & Train A'Coming
The DBTs - Decoration Day. Best. Album. Ever.

This is just off the top of my head, nothing as organized as yours, but:

Prince- 1999 and Dirty Mind
The Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack (whenever I'm feeling down)
Brian Eno- Here Come The Warm Jets
The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
The Stooges- Raw Power
Kraftwerk- Computer World

on preview: Actually, Decoration Day should probably be on my list, too.

Pink Floyd - Division Bell For some reason the most hated of the Floyd albums, but one my parents would play regularly when I was a wee one. It sounds like home to me.

Yes - Going For The One
Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland (... but only in the Fall.)
Digital Underground - Sex Packets
Stevie Wonder - Music Of My Mind
Tom Waits - Closing Time
The Jam - Compact Snap!
Jeff Buckley - Grace
Radiohead - Kid A (... another primarily Fall album.)

I'm sure there's more.

Blue - Joni Mitchell
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
Songs of Love and Hate - Leonard Cohen
Beatles 65
Workingman's Dead - Grateful Dead

That is sort of off the top of my head also. Also, I have all of these on CD, so to shell out $$$ for the reissues means that I must like it enough.

Stereopathic Soul Manure by Beck. I like Mellow Gold, Odelay and One Foot In The Grave as well, but this album is completely unhinged. Remember 'Fun Beck?' To me this is Beck at his most fun. Psychedelic home-recorded Folk Music.

Yip/Jump Music by Daniel Johnston. I read about Daniel Johnston (in The Dallas Observer) before I heard the music, but when I finally sat down with this album I was completely blown away. Sounded like nothing else I had ever heard, ever. I had to hear more... More... MORE! To this day Daniel Johnston is one of my biggest musical influences. My buddy Ron and I formed our band Miracle Beard right before going to see Daniel Johnston perform live. At the concert that night, one of Johnston's lyrics burned itself into my brain: "Anyone can be a musician." Yes, I thought. Yes!

God Ween Satan by Ween. Another world-changing album for me. Music doesn't have to be perfectly pretty and polished, it can be raw and real and oh yeah, hilariously funny.

The Concert In Central Park by Simon & Garfunkel. Love it. Beautiful music performed for an incredibly happy crowd. I sink into this album the way some people sink into a hot bath. A soothing balm for my jangled nerves. I used to amuse annoy my friends by getting drunk and quoting all the between-song banter: "Well it's great to do a neighborhood concert! I hope you can hear us, I hope the sound is good! I hope we're blasting Central Park west and 5th Avenue pretty much away!" Etc, etc. I first started listening to Simon & Garfunkel in 8th Grade: Led Zepplin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, 50s oldies, Black Flag, The Circle Jerks, The Dead Milkmen, & Simon & Garfunkel. It was always interesting to answer the question, 'So... what do you listen to?'

Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix. What can I say? This album is Impossibly Good. It's like it's from another planet. 1983 (A Merman I Should Turn To Be) is one of the Greatest Songs ever. I remember sitting on the couch smoking and drinking beer during a rainstorm about ten years ago and throwing 'Rainy Day, Dream Away' onto the stereo. Perfect!

London Calling... yeah. I think it's been one of my favorites since high school.

I'm on my second copy of The Pogues's If I Should Fall From Grace With God, the first got so much use it's a plain shiny disk now with no print on it anymore.

Grabbingsand, I always thought of Floodland as a winter album... First and Last and Always is my fall Sisters of Mercy fix. But yeah, pretty much any sisters album other than Vision Thing has regular rotation in my house.

Tori's Little Earthquakes was a constant companion when I was in college. Now, not so much.

I'm kinda miffed since I'll eventually need to rebuy all my Pogues- the resissues have bonus tracks.

I just listened to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours a few times to commemorate it's 30th anniversary. It was the first album I ever bought with my own money.

REM. Yep.

Lots of Beatles, Stones and Clash albums.
Jim Carroll - Catholic Boy
Patti Smith - Horses
Bruce - Greetings

hmmmm, this list is getting too long, time to buy some new stuff.

This thread is useless without jonmc.

Exile On Main Street - The Rolling Stones. I always loved the music but now that I'm older I much more fully appreciate the spirit of exhaustion and fatigue behind them.

Blood On The Tracks - Bob Dylan. Again, these are an older man's songs so as I've aged, they only resonate deeper with me. "All the people we used to know, they're an illusion to me now.." hits like a ton of bricks these days

Darkness On The Edge Of Town and Born To Run - Bruce Springsteen. Darkness for a combination of the reasons of the preceding two albums. Born To Run because no matter how down or despairing I get, the youthful idealism and innocence of that record still recharges me. Even 30 years on, the way Bruse sings "Roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair..." still gives me chills.

Yeah, Blood on the Tracks is far and away my favorite too. There really isn't a bad or even mediocre moment on it.

also; The Band - The Band. Someone once said of this record "Here is where we find out if there are still open spaces out there," and to this day, this record assures me that there are.

Jim Carrol. . .I wore out the vinyl. .City Drops Into the Night. . People That Died. . .god I love those songs!

(not begging though)

Another vote for Blood on the Tracks. Probably the most perfect album ever.

That said, I have to court a little jonmc wrath. I listen to the Smiths' Louder than Bombs as religiously today as I did when I was 16.

What else?
Pontiac - Lyle Lovett
Paul's Boutique - The Beastie Boys
Amplified Heart- Everything But the Girl
and The Best of Leonard Cohen

Andrew Bird: Weather Systems
Tom Waits: Nighthawks at the Diner & Small Change
Soul Coughing: Ruby Vroom
REM: Fables of the Reconstruction
Liz Phair: Exile in Guyville
WAX: 13 Unlucky Numbers
Jeff Buckley: Grace
Violent Femmes: Violent Femmes
Steely Dan: Greatest Hits

...and on and on.

That said, I have to court a little jonmc wrath. I listen to the Smiths' Louder than Bombs as religiously today as I did when I was 16.

Heh. As another great musician once said: different strokes for different folks.

Wow jon, you totally stole 3 of my top 5:
Exile, Blood on the Tracks and The Band's second album. I also agree with what you said about them. Argh.

Okay, let's see...for numbers 4 and 5:

Daniel Lanois - For the Beauty of Wynona. This album is one that hit me hard when I was about 23 and never let go. To me, it's everything that's great about Lanois. I am a sucker for melody and decipherable lyrics, and in a way, this album is more ambience and sounds, but damn, it hits home.

Thelonious Monk - Solo Monk. I listen to this on repeat when I am trying to solve an issue at work sometimes. I swear, it raises my IQ. Plus, it illustrates soooo beautifully, just how wild and messed up and utterly perfect Monk's internal rhythm and musical sense was.

P.S. Born to Run is probably the absolutely best anthem EVER. It should be cheese, but dammit, it's not. It's perfect. It's too good to have become iconic.

A couple more:

From my kid/teenhood:
- Electric Light Orchestra - Out of the Blue

Collegehood:
- REM - Fables of the Reconstruction
- XTC - English Settlement

Young adulthood:
- DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
- Beastie Boys - Check Your Head
- My Bloody Valentine - Loveless

Hey, did everyone's copy of Fables of the Reconstruction have the title as "Reconstruction of the Fables" on the spine?

A couple more:

Echoing matildaben... DJ Shadow: Endtroducing
John Coltrane: Ballads
Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique
Luka Bloom: Riverside
Ani DiFranco: Ani DiFranco
Indigo Girls: Indigo Girls
The Cure: Disintegration

Richat: yes. The original LP cover had "Fables of the Reconstruction" on the front, "Reconstruction of the Fables" on the back; I'd guess they moved it to the spine on the CD to reduce confusion at the store.

P.S. Born to Run is probably the absolutely best anthem EVER. It should be cheese, but dammit, it's not. It's perfect. It's too good to have become iconic.

rich: if you haven't already get ahold of Wings For Wheels, the documentary of the making of that album. It's amazing how much work Bruce, Jon Landau, Steve and the rest put in on that. The title track took six months at intervals to complete to Bruce's satisfaction. He made that record like his life depended on it.

/minor tangent

#include

Elvis Costello: Imperial Bedroom
The Pretenders: First Album and Learning to Crawl
The Grateful Dead: Bootleg: 1977-05-08 - Barton Hall, Cornell University
The Byrds: Sweetheart of the Rodeo
Derek & The Dominos: Layla
Television: Marque Moon
Rockers Soundtrack
Chuck Berry: The Great Twenty Eight
Pink Floyd: Meddle
The Band: Brown Album and Big Pink

I've owned all of these on at least two formats, some of them three or four. Heck, I had the Band Albums on 8-track (CHUNK, CHUNK).

Oops, I meant to have #include <What Jon said> at the top there.

Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites (everyone likes August better except me)
Beatles - Revolver
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Radiohead - OK Computer
Nick Drake - Pink Moon

Without thinking too hard about this:

Tori Amos: Little Earthqaukes
Sarah McLacchlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Metallica: Master Of Puppets
Marillion: Seasons End
Eels: Electro-shock Blues

October Project - October Project, Falling Further In

Edie Brickell - Throwing Rubberbands at the Stars

Heather Nova - Oyster

The Gathering - Mandylion

Lacuna Coil - In a Reverie

Jane's Addiction - Ritual de le Habitual

10K Maniacs - Our Time in Eden

Depeche Mode - Violator

Kate Bush - most of them

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime, Empire

U2 - War, October, Zooropa

Bruce Springsteen - Human Touch (maybe not the most obvious choice but I have a weird attachment to it)

Tori's first three would almost qualify but I tend to listen to the same twenty tracks over and over rather than the entire CDs

I could do this for an hour, so I am quitting now.

The Bonzo Dog Band-Keynsham: it's the great mix of weirdness and wit from Vivian Stanshall and Legs Larry Smith, and smaltzy but heartfelt pop from Neil Innes that does it for me. This is my White Album. There's always a copy in my car.

The Residents-Duck Stab: funny, weird, still inventive and exciting 30 years after it was recorded and about 15 after I first heard it.

Royal Trux- first self titled album, 2nd self titled album, and Cats and Dogs: I love all three of these so much.

Sorta pretentious, but Beecham's recording of Elgar's First Symphony. A bit martial in spots, but beautiful. Nothing else by Elgar has every touched me quite as much, but I love this symphony.

It's sad to me that the music that meant something to me in my relatively recent youth doesn't really touch me anymore. I haven't listened to the Velvet Underground or Tom Waits or Pink Floyd or Laurie Anderson seriously in years, and haven't felt the urge to either. I don't like the person I was and I think sometimes things that were his signposts got thrown out as well. Or maybe I just don't like any of those acts anymore.

Cake - Motorcade of Generosity

I'm sure there are plenty of others but that album has been played hundreds and hundreds of times. I'm not so much of an album guy as I am a great song guy. I find alot of albums have alot of filler music that's annoying so I'll cherry pick what I want and forget about the rest.

For individual songs though.

Take a Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed
Eminence Front - The Who
Satisfaction - The Rolling Stones
Margaritaville - Jimmy Buffett
A Bitch is a Bitch - NWA
I Will Survive - Cake

Many more that I don't have time to fully explore.

* Steely Dan - Aja, but also Gaucho, Royal Scam, Countdown to Ecstasy, Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, the Nightfly.
* Electric Ladyland, of course.
* Van Halen's 1984.
* Bathory's Hammerheart. Good God, what an album. The first two minutes still make me shiver.
* Chicane - Far from the Maddening Crowd.
* GnR - Appetite for Destruction.
* The Cult - Electric.
* Monk - Straight No Chaser. I could listen to this album forever, it's so excellent and perfect and unexpected every time.
* RHCP - Blood Sugar Sex Magic. I dig Rick Rubin.
Orbital - In Sides and the first half of Snivilization.
* PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
* the Dining Rooms - Subterranean Modern
* War - All Day Music
* Kraftwerk - Computer World

Is that too many? They're in no particular order. I left off a few albums that I think will probably make the grade someday because I haven't actually known them long enough; the Allman Bros. live at Fillmore East, for instance. And I left off the Zeppelin because I don't think they ever put out a perfect album; they always had one or two tracks that were clunkers.

Another vote for REM. Anything up to and including Green.

Jane's Addiction-Nothing's Shocking is still the album I turn to when I feel like kicking ass for various reasons.

XTC-Skylarking is an actual album. There's attention paid to the flow and the songs all tell a story. Plus, I always have to crank up Summer's Cauldron on the first warm day of the year.

Tom Waits-Heart of Saturday Night makes me want a smoke and a whiskey.

These lists are interesting. In some cases, I have been proven wrong. For example, prior to ikkyu2's post, I might have argued that one person can't like BOTH Monk, AND GnR. Turns out I would have been wrong.

Oh, and yeah, I meant, on the back of the LP, not the spine, no...I had it on vinyl, wayyyy before I purchased Fables on CD. Yeah. I'm cool.

Dinosaur Jr - Green Mind. This was the CD I always turned to in my angsty pubescent years when I needed to mope about over a girl. But now I just listen to it because it's awesome.

Skinny Puppy - VivisectVI, Too Dark Park, and Last Rites. Skinny Puppy has been in the background during every shitty and wonderful event in my life and I'm really not sure that I could live without these three albums.

Antisect - In Darkness...There Is No Choice. The opening riffs of "Tortured and Abused" wormed their way into my head and taught me that it's OK to be angry.

A.P.P.L.E. - Plutocracy = Tyranny & Exploitation. I never really got into peace punk when I was growing up; the naive optimism just didn't sit well with me. But one day I picked this CD up along with an Autonomy 7" at a record store and rarely a month has gone by where I haven't listened to it since.

Oi Polloi - In Defense of Our Earth. One of the many bands that shaped my politics, but one of the few albums I still listen to. Only Oi Polloi could get away with writing a heartfelt song about whale slaughter.

Guts Pie Earshot - Distorted Wonderland. "Enemy Today" still gives me chills.

Naked Agression - Bitter Youth. The first time I heard Naked Agression was around 1995 in a friend's car. She was blasting "Killing Floor", the one with the wonderful scream-a-long lyric "Operation Rescue, what do you want me to do? Shove a coat hanger up my cunt?", and I thought "goddamn, I am going to drop out of school and I am going to squat houses and I am never ever going to grow up". Eventually, of course, I became old and middle class and boring, but I still rock the Naked Aggression to remind myself that I didn't used to be so soft.

Depeche Mode - Violator. This is the most perfect album ever recorded in the history of music.

Okay, I'm going to list some albums, then go back and read the thread:

Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants - Bags' Groove
Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan
Archie Shepp - Attica Blues
Burning Spear - Garvey's Ghost
Big Youth - Screaming Target
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
Swans - Children of God
Fela Kuti - Expensive Shit
Blackalicious - Nia
Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear

That's ten already? I should stop.

Nancy Sinatra - These Boots Were Made For Walking [the finest example of 60s female vocalists, probably THE album I have played most often]

Be-Bop Deluxe - Sunburst Finish [a 70s glam-guitar band from Britain. also one of Randy Rhoads's favorites]

Deep Purple - Made In Japan [cited as inspiration by more shredders than any other album]

Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare [the ultimate camp album]

Joan Jett - I Love Rock 'N' Roll [Pop\punk at its finest]

Live And Let Die (original soundtrack) - [Simply the best James Bond theme ever, and a great score by George Martin]

So many others but these 6 are definitely the top of the heap.

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking (The original Triple XXX release, not the re-release)
Ambient Temple of Imagination - Mystery School
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Hardkiss - Delusions of Grandeur
NIN - Down In it - single release (Halo 1, Halo 3, particularly Halo 1)
The Orb - Live '93
The Orb - Pomme Fritze, La Petite Orb.
Psychic TV - Turn on, Tune in, Drop out -OR- Jack The Tab. Just to remember my roots and remember how bad and new and raw and virgin techno used to be.


I could think of lots more. These aren't desert island discs, though the ATOI is, and perhaps Floyd's Meddle.

Here's a few...
Pixies - Surfer Rosa
Neil Young - Everybody Knows this is Nowhere
Minor Threat - Complete Discography
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Built to Spill - Perfect from Now On
Husker Du - New Day Rising
The Cure - Boys Don't Cry
Silkworm - Libertine
Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
New Order - Substance
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs

A few of mine, off the top of my head and in no particular order:

Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
David Bowie - Low, Hunky Dory
The Clash - London Calling
The Beatles - Revolver, Rubber Soul
Paul Weller - Wild Wood
The Jam - All Mod Cons, Sound Affects
REM - Reckoning
The Stone Roses - s/t

Jim Carrol. . .I wore out the vinyl. .City Drops Into the Night. . People That Died. . .god I love those songs!(not begging though)

danf: email me your address and I'll burn Catholic Boy for you!

U2 - Achtung Baby
October Project - October Project
New Order - Technique, Substance
Blondie - Parallel Lines
Squeeze - Singles 45s and Under
Bob Marley & The Wailers - Legend
ELO - Greatest Hits
Zero7 - Simple Things
Thievery Corporation - Richest Man in Babylon

scody - your email is not listed in your profile here OR the Metafilter profile you have.

However, through the kindness of another stranger, the itch as been scratched, as it were. But it is sweet of you to offer.

Jazz:
Ben Webster Meets Oscar Peterson
Getz Meets Mulligan in HiFi
The In Crowd
The Complete Ella in Berlin: Mack The Knife
I Like Men!

Popular (what I listen to most, when I listen to Rock/Top 40, picking for myself):
The Captain and Me
Chicago Transit Authority
Wheels of Fire
Green River
Surrealistic Pillow

scody - your email is not listed in your profile here OR the Metafilter profile you have.

Huh, that's so weird. On metafilter, I have my email checked as public on my profile page, and folks have contacted me off that as recently as the past week... curiouser and curiouser. I'll email Matt or Jess to see if there's weirdness afoot.

ANYhoo, glad you got the itch scratched! "Catholic Boy" always reminds me off careening around in my best friend's car in high school, screaming lyrics out the window. Very good times indeed.

oh wait, I may have figured it out... danf, are you actually logged in over at Mefi? If you're not logged in, emails don't show up on users' profile pages, even if they're public.

These are in no particular order, just a rambling selection:

MeatLoaf "Bat out of Hell". I wore out three cassettes, an album, and I hope the cd will last.

Michael Stanley Band - self titled and "Heartland". They were a local band from Ohio that my best friend's husband introduced me to. I can't find their stuff on cd without spending an astronomical amount.

Guns - N- Roses "Appetite for Destruction".

Joan Baez "Live From Every Stage". The only gift I ever got from my dad after he left us. I was about twelve when he gave it to me. I found it on cd a couple of years ago. Right now it's in the cd player in my van.

Shakira "Laundry Service" her first English album. I love her!!

Mary Chapin Carpenter "C'mon, C'mon". Great voice.

Bonnie Raite , I can't remember the name of the album, it's also in the van right now!

Marc Knopfler "Sailing to Philadelphia" and his duets with Emmylou Harris on "All The Roadrunning".

There's more, but this will do.

scody-

Duh. . it was there all along. .the AT threw me, plus my head is spinning from so many alluring valentines that I have not been myself today.

Jim Carrol. . .I wore out the vinyl. .City Drops Into the Night. . People That Died. . .god I love those songs!


City Drops Into the Night - best song ever recorded, any era, any genre - mine's a little burned out too. I guess it is time to buy the CD, but the vinyl sounds so good on my system.

jon mentioned dylan, oh boy, how could I leave that out, so many dylan albums remain in heavy rotation at casa caddis. Bringing it All Back Home is one of the ones in heaviest rotation, but I always skip Subterranean Homesick Blues, I guess it is just too overplayed in my brain from radio. The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Carroll has always been one of my favorite songs, and I know it isn't one of his best, but the emotion in that song is powerful. Springsteen's Sinoloa Cowboys similarly affects me. I guess I am just an emotional old fool.

Michael Stanley Band - self titled and "Heartland". They were a local band from Ohio that my best friend's husband introduced me to. I can't find their stuff on cd without spending an astronomical amount.

Ha! My friend Sandra from Cleveland loves them. I actually have 'My Town' on mp3.

A few people have mentioned XTC here so I thought I'd mention a new-ish English band called Field Music. Their new album has been getting great reviews and I've seen XTC mentioned a couple of times, so it might be worth checking out if you're so inclined.