200 Reasons to be Happy!

There was a feature in Uncut magazine last month, listing the 200 Greatest Albums of All Time. Greatest, Best, Finest, Most Influential; no matter what how you want to define it, a selection like that is more than a bit subjective, isn’t it? Many of the Uncut selections were fairly predictable. Not that the albums themselves were boring —- most are pretty much classics that are guaranteed to please — it’s just that we’re all used to seeing familiar choices such as Pet Sounds, Blonde On Blonde, Astral Weeks, Forever Changes, Ziggy Stardust, Kind of Blue, Tapestry, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, A Love Supreme, Exile On Main Street, What’s Going On, Are You Experienced?, and After the Goldrush on these sorts of lists, so there weren’t many true surprises.

But the Uncut list got me to thinking about my own Top 200. By no means would I dare to label my choices as a “Best” or “Greatest” list, rather these are simply my favorite albums, those proverbial Desert Island Discs that I’ve played endless times over the years and ones that I could never willingly part with. In the realm of list compilers, I suppose I cheated a bit, picking some hits/best of packages, various artist collections, live albums, and even a couple of boxed sets. But hey, they are my favorites, so I won’t apologize.

Like most listeners, my taste in music was heavily influenced by the music that I heard when growing up, mostly songs on the radio. In my case, the “formative” years were in the 1960s when I started listening to the radio and in the early 1970s when I started buying music. But I’ve maintained a very heavy listening and buying habit in the ensuing decades, so you’ll see a smattering of more recent recordings on this list too. What can I say; I’m a music addict!

I own thousands of albums and I agonized over whittling this list down to “only” 200. I’m sure that I’ll kick myself for missing a few, but looking over the choices, I’m pretty satisfied with them. But confining the list to 200 meant leaving off many great albums, including ones by some of my very favorite recording artists, such as the Temptations, Drive-By Truckers, George Jackson, Allen Toussaint, Otis Redding, Sly & the Family Stone, Joni Mitchell, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, the Go-Betweens, Booker T & the MGs, Glen Campbell, Isaac Hayes, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, the Byrds, and so many others.

These albums are not ranked in order of most favorite, just alphabetically by album title. I’m certain that there are more than a few picks that will strike you as odd or perplexing. My choices could be as obscure as the great Tom Foolery album or the fantastic debut recording by Love Tractor, or something as mainstream as Bruce Springsteen, Led Zeppelin, or Agents of Fortune by Blue Oyster Cult, but these are the albums that remain the nearest and dearest to my heart.

The first pick on my list is a good example of my loose criteria: the first two albums by Big Star. I had both albums as a 2-LP import record back in the early 1980s, and now I own the 2-CD package, so in my mind these two albums are inseparable, just one complete blissful listening experience that can’t be divided.

Big Star	#1 Record/Radio City
20/20	20/20
Magnetic Fields	69 Love Songs
Jimmy Buffett	A-1-A
Blue Oyster Cult	Agents of Fortune
Richard Lloyd	Alchemy
Crack the Sky                    Animal Notes
Marvin Gaye	Anthology
Ramones	Anthology
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark	Architecture and Morality
Squeeze	Argy Bargy
Van Morrison	Astral Weeks
Cheap Trick	At Budokan
Allman Brothers Band	At the Fillmore East
NRBQ           At Yankee Stadium
Daryl Hall & John Oates	Atlantic Collection
B-52’s	B-52’s, the
Warren Zevon	Bad Luck Streak In Dancing School
Paul McCartney & Wings	Band on the Run
Band, the	Band, the
Bob Dylan & the Band	Basement Tapes, the
Various Artists                     Beat the Retreat: Songs By Richard Thompson
Hollies	Best of the Hollies
Kimberley Rew	Bible of Bop
XTC	Black Sea
Bob Dylan	Blood On the Tracks
Michael Murphey	Blue Sky Night Thunder
Swimming Pool Q’s       Blue Tomorrow
Ry Cooder	Bop Till You Drop
Bruce Springsteen	Born To Run
U2	Boy
John Hiatt	Bring the Family
John Prine       Bruised Orange
Style Council	Café Bleu
Lucinda Williams	Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
David Byrne	Catherine Wheel
Creedence Clearwater Revival	Chronicle
Neil Diamond	Classics: The Early Years
Jean-Michel Jarre	Concerts in China
999      Concrete
Steely Dan	Countdown To Ecstasy
Feelies	Crazy Rhythms
Echo & the Bunnymen	Crocodiles
Tom Petty	Damn the Torpedoes
Bruce Springsteen	Darkness on the Edge of Town
Dream Syndicate	Days of Wine and Roses
R.E.M.	Dead Letter Office
Neil Young	Decade
Utopia       Deface the Music
Sade	Diamond Life
King Crimson	Discipline
Atlanta Rhythm Section	Dog Days
Elton John	Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only the Piano Player
Brother Jack McDuff        Down Home Style
Nektar	Down To Earth
Waylon Jennings	Dreaming My Dreams
Josh Rouse	Dressed Up Like Nebraska
Bongos	Drums Across the Hudson
Squeeze	East Side Story
Wally Badarou	Echoes
Glenn Phillips       Echoes: 1975-85
Everything But the Girl	Eden
Jimi Hendrix	Electric Ladyland
Pete Townshend	Empty Glass
Gang of Four	Entertainment
Garland Jeffreys       Escape Artist
Isley Brothers	Essential
Rod Stewart	Every Picture Tells a Story
Yo La Tengo	Fakebook
Little Feat	Feats Don’t Fail Me Now
Snow Patrol	Final Straw
Heartsfield        Foolish Pleasures
Jackie Leven	Forbidden Songs of the Dying West
Crosby Stills Nash & Young	Four Way Street
Devo	Freedom of Choice
New Musik	From A to B
Nick Drake	Fruit Tree (Boxed Set)
Elvis Costello       Get Happy
Gil Scott-Heron	Glory: The Gil Scott-Heron Collection
Randy Newman	Good Old Boys
World Party	Goodbye Jumbo
Elton John	Goodbye Yellowbrick Road
Gordon Lightfoot	Gord’s Gold
Paul Simon	Graceland
Green On Red	Gravity Talks
Al Green	Greatest Hits
Chi-Lites	Greatest Hits
Wreckless Eric       Greatest Stiffs
Doll By Doll	Gypsy Blood
Pylon	Gyrate
Jimmy Cliff	Harder They Come, the
Smiths	Hatful of Hollow
Poco	Head Over Heels
Fleetwood Mac       Heroes Are Hard To Find
Rolling Stones	Hot Rocks
Stevie Wonder	Hotter Than July
Richard & Linda Thompson	I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight
Nada Surf	If I Had a Hi-Fi
Eurythmics	In the Garden
Velvet Crush	In the Presence of Greatness
Van Morrison	Inarticulate Speech of the Heart
Various Artists	Indestructible Beat of Soweto, the
Stevie Wonder	Innervisions
Ozark Mountain Daredevils It’ll Shine When It Shines
Jonathan Richman	Jonathan Goes Country
Steely Dan	Katy Lied
Mink DeVille	Le Chat Bleu
Wet Willie	Left Coast Live
Replacements	Let It Be
Elvin Bishop	Let It Flow
Railway Children	Listen On: The Best Of
Grover Washington, Jr.       Live At the Bijou
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band	Live Bullet
Bob Marley & the Wailers	Live!
Clash, the	London Calling
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen Lost in the Ozone
Kitchens of Distinction	Love is Hell
Love Tractor	Love Tractor
Horslips	Man Who Built America, the
Television	Marquee Moon
James Taylor	Mudslide Slim and the Blue Horizon
R.E.M.	Murmur
Long Ryders          Native Sons
Red Rider	Neruda
Rod Stewart	Never A Dull Moment
Gin Blossoms	New Miserable Experience
Charlie Daniels Band	Nightrider
Nils Lofgren	Nils Lofgren
Ronnie Wood	Now Look
Guy Clark        Old #1/Texas Cookin’
Peter Gabriel	Peter Gabriel (3rd Album)
Led Zeppelin	Physical Graffiti
Knitters, the	Poor Little Critter on the Road
Emmylou Harris	Portraits (Boxed Set)
New Order	Power Corruption & Lies
Shoes	Present Tense/Tongue Twister
Pretenders	Pretenders
Who, the	Quadrophenia
Jacobites (Nikki Sudden & Dave Kusworth) Ragged School
Tom Waits	Rain Dogs
Deacon Blue	Raintown
Jayhawks, the	Rainy Day Music
R.E.M.	Reckoning
Willie Nelson	Red Headed Stranger
Mekons	Rock ‘n Roll
Various Reggae Artists Rockers: Original Soundtrack
Ben Folds	Rockin’ the Suburbs
Tarney-Spencer Band	Run For Your Life
Jackson Browne	Running On Empty
Neil Young	Rust Never Sleeps
Clash, the	Sandinista!
David Bowie	Scary Monsters
Marshall Tucker Band	Searchin’ For a Rainbow
Dexy’s Midnight Runners Searching for the Young Soul Rebels
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Second Helping
Rosanne Cash	Seven Year Ache
O’Jays	Ship Ahoy
Ry Cooder	Show Time
UB40	Signing Off
Linn Linn       Sin Za Ba
Buzzcocks	Singles Going Steady
Records, the	Smashes, Crashes, and Near Misses
Interview	Snakes & Lovers
Robert Palmer	Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
Todd Rundgren	Something Anything
Jam, the	Sound Effects
Dan Fogelberg	Souvenirs
Spinners       Spinners
Graham Parker	Squeezing Out Sparks
Grant Green	Steet Funk & Jazz Groove
Talking Heads	Stop Making Sense
Lynyrd Skynyrd	Street Survivors
Curtis Mayfield	Superfly Soundtrack
Camper Van Beethoven	Telephone Free Landslide Victory
Atlanta Rhythm Section Third Annual Pipe Dream
Moody Blues	This is the Moody Blues
Replacements	Tim
Tom Foolery	Tom Foolery
Neil Young	Tonight’s the Night
Amazing Rhythm Aces    Too Stuffed To Jump
Reivers, the	Translate Slowly
Elvis Costello	Trust
Fleetwood Mac	Tusk
Pure Prairie League	Two Lane Highway
U2	Unforgettable Fire
Pongsit Kampee & Lek Carabao Unplugged (Plug Loot)
Fountains of Wayne	Utopia Parkway
Durutti Column	Valuable Passages
Ultravox	Vienna
Jerry Jeff Walker	Viva Terlingua
Joan Armatrading	Walk Under Ladders
Joe Strummer       Walker Soundtrack
Guadalcanal Diary	Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man
Ian Hunter	Welcome To the Club
Doobie Brothers	What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream & Other Delights
X	Wild Gift
Emmylou Harris	Wrecking Ball
Vulgar Boatmen	You and Your Sister
Tom Petty	You’re Gonna Get It

 

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Atlanta Rhythm Section

 

In the much neglected genre often dubbed “Southern Rock,” there were many fine bands that came to prominence in the 1970s. Some had a definite country edge or exuded a bit of soul, while others were folk influenced or had definite blues roots. Just because they came from the South didn’t mean these bands were all tobacco-spitting cowboys or hayseed rednecks. Thus, the term “southern rock” was not always a desirable label to be stuck with, and it certainly unfairly pigeonholed many an artist.

Artists such as the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and Poco enjoyed their fair share of commercial success and critical acclaim, but many other good bands like the Marshall Tucker Band, the Outlaws, Blackfoot, Henry Paul Band, and Heartsfield never experienced much more than regional popularity despite consistently producing memorable music.

A few other excellent bands from the South were lucky enough to have hit singles: “Keep on Smiling” by Wet Willie, “Jackie Blue” by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, “Amie” by Pure Prairie League, “Third Rate Romance” by the Amazing Rhythm Aces, “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band, and “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” by the Elvin Bishop Band, but these songs were not necessarily representative of the band’s overall sound. And having a bit hit, as many have noted, can be both a blessing and a curse. Such sudden fame only ended up burdening the band with expectations of producing bigger hits, caused their old fans to accuse them of “selling out,” or saddled them with the dreaded tag of “one-hit wonder” when they never charted again. Sometimes you just can’t win.

One of the more underrated Southern bands was the Atlanta Rhythm Section. Although they also enjoyed moderate success with hit singles such as “Doraville,” “So Into You,” “Imaginary Lover,” and “Spooky,” they never really gained the critical acclaim that they deserved, or were dismissed as “lightweight” by critics. But for the better part of a decade ARS had a run of consistently excellent albums: Third Annual Pipe Dream, Dog Days, Red Tape, Champagne Jam, and Rock and Roll Alternative. I own all those albums on CD and when I saw that the band’s first two albums —- Atlanta Rhythm Section and Back Up Against the Wall — had finally been re-released as a single disc, I eagerly ordered a copy.

Like many Southern acts, ARS were tough to categorize. Their musical palette consisted of southern boogie, more jazz influenced numbers (a cover of Grant Green’s “Blues in Maude’s Flat”), some blustery blues (“Outside Woman Blues”), soothing pop (“All Night Rain”), and even a western swing country piece (“Jukin’/San Antonio Rose”) or two. They were indeed a top-notch rhythm section, and Ronnie Hammond’s whiskey-smooth vocals only helped to make them sound that much better.  

Those first two albums had been extremely hard to find, even on vinyl, so I was delighted to find this reissue. The first album, released in 1971, featured Rodney Justo as lead vocalist. By the time the second album came out in 1973, he had been replaced by Ronnie Hammond, who handled vocals for the rest of the band’s run. Listening to these songs four decades after they were recorded, I was surprised at how strong the material still sounds. They could perform long guitar jams or short pop masterpieces with equal dexterity. Most of the band’s classic albums have been reissued by BGO as two-for-one packages, similar to this album. All are worthy purchases.