Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Meme addendeme

Someone noticed (OK, OK, it was that Wilson guy again - I swear I do read other blogs) that some versions of the recent "Meme of Four" contain the question, "four albums I can't live without." Now, here we is a subject I could bore you with for days, music soothing the savage breast and all. I love writing and talking about music almost as much as I love drinking it in.

In fact, I've tinkered with the idea of a "10 albums I'd need on that desert island" post or series of posts, but it does seem that four recordings rise above even that group. Even with hundreds, perhaps thousands of selections in my home to choose from, you can expect me to pull one of these four off the shelf more often than the others.

1. "Smile" by Brian Wilson, preferably the CD dub of the DVD performance I made for when I'm in the car. Thirty-seven years in the making and worth the wait.

2. "Born to Run" by Bruce Springsteen. What rock music could be and should be more often.

3. "Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy" by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. The masterpiece by one of the coolest, most underrated bands of all time.

4. "Conversations" by Sara Groves. Simply the most thoughtful, melodic collection about living life as a Christian I've ever encountered.

Oh heck, I can't resist, here's the other six.
5. "Cosmo's Factory," Creedence Clearwater Revival.
6. "Songs from the Wood," Jethro Tull.
7. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," The Beatles.
8. "The Beatles." (white album)
9. "Add To The Beauty," Sara Groves.
10. "Thick As A Brick," Jethro Tull. or "Threshhold of a Dream," Moody Blues. or "Wildflowers," Tom Petty. or ... hmmm, that last slot will be problematic.

3 Comments:

Blogger Wally Conger said...

Uncle Charlie? I thought I was the only one who loved that LP!!!

10:44 AM  
Blogger B.W. Richardson said...

Nope, there's at least two of us. I still get chills when I hear those immortal words, "I was borned in Kaufman County ..." If the Dirt Band didn't invent country rock, they sure refined it as an art form.

"Some of Shelley's Blues," the definitive "Pooh Corner," and the way Charlie and Teddy crash into "Mr. Bojangles" - the album's full of great moments, innovations and terrific songs. I think of it as country rock's "Sgt. Pepper."

The downside of the CD is some idiot inserted random banjo picking behind Uncle Charlie's siloloquy. Talk about a mustache on the Mona Lisa ...!

8:59 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That last slot is always the killer, isn't it?

11:09 AM  

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