879 thoughts on “Thursday Night Bar Fight #4: Road Trip!”

        2. Then you shall earn an annoyingly pedantic lecture for your youthful impertinence!

          For Ethan and the other young ‘uns, music used to be sold on physical media. The medium that many of us knew in our youth were called “record albums,” or alternative “LP records,” in which LP stood for “Long Play.” These were discs of black vinyl roughly nine inches in diameter, upon which very precise grooves were engraved on both sides. A mechanical device would spin the disc, typically at a conventional speed of 100 revolutions every three minutes, and a very small needle would be set atop the spinning disc. Other electronic devices amplify the vibrations of the needle on the disc, which were then transferred via wire through more electronic equipment and ultimately to speakers, which would then emit the sound recording.

          “But that’s an analog device, it’s not even digital!” is the protest. Indeed. On the one hand, the media and the device were fragile and required special care to use. The record could warp if exposed to heat, and all manner of mechanical problems could occur with the turntable device, the needle, or the execution of play. On the other hand, many audiophiles insist that, even today, the analog recording produces deeper and richer sounds, with smoother transitions between notes.

          Because of the size and fragility of the discs, they would be sold within large sleeves, typically made of cardboard, and adorned with artwork. Much of this artwork was visually striking for its beauty and creativity. Later generations attempted to replicate the art with sleeves in compact discs but it’s not the same thing. Remember, though, this was before there were music videos — something that they used to show on a cable channel which today broadcasts only terrible reality TV depicting the lives of terrible human beings.

          The medium of a vinyl disc would hold between twenty to thirty minutes of music per side of the album, which means that when you bought one of these “albums,” you would get ten songs (sometimes more, sometimes less) of about three minutes each, which you would listen to in the sequence which they were recorded, stopping about halfway through to flip the disc to the other side. There were techniques for random access of desired songs, which involved picking up the needle and dropping it carefully at the right location on the disc to access the correct song. Which was, I will concede, kind of a pain.

          But, Tod’s question reaches a subsequent generation of music recording-and-playback technology, the compact disc, which bridges the gap between physical media and digital music. Surely even the younger folks around these parts remember what those are. They can still be purchased in brick-and-mortar stores even to this day, and many cars come equipped with devices capable of playing these things.Report

          2. You forgot the evil-monster part of the story:

            The ability of people to record their favorite albums and give them to friends who hadn’t purchased those albums or to record songs off the radio drove the Recording Industry of America into a tizzy.

            Then had laws enacted that charged an additional fee on every blank casette tape sold, with the funds going to the Recording Industry of America for royalties. So you bought some blank tapes to record a history lecture, you paid them.

            Another frightening chapter in the story is the switch from tape/LP to CD; much cheaper to produce, the The Recording Industry of America increased prices without increasing any payments to recording artists.

            Artists going direct to audience and peer-to-peer sharing is a karmic debt.Report

          3. I’ll pick a nit with “engraved”. Commercial LPs are molded in a hydraulic press — which could produce any other surface texture equally well. The original master disk is an engraving; the copies are not, at least as I define engraving.

            The LP vs CD arguments always amused me. Particularly when vinyl fanciers argued that the LP was somehow more true to the original. When cutting the master, the signal ran through analog filters to de-emphasize bass and over-emphasize treble to compensate for the limitations of the cutter and medium. On playback, a reverse of that filter restored the signal to an approximation of the original. Most people who claimed to prefer vinyl actually preferred a particular implementation of the RIAA equalization filter. That is, they preferred their music distorted in certain ways. I’ve seen some studies that suggest people who have grown up with low-bit-rate MP3 recordings prefer music with specific high-frequency distortions in blind listening tests.Report

            2. The LP / CD debate was perfectly valid, back when the first CDs were coming out. If it’s less-valid now, it’s because the old tapes have been hauled out and mounted on the old Studers and been remixed for the capabilities of modern amps and speakers.

              Every time I see someone wearing ear buds, I smile grimly. How anyone can tolerate the crappy speakers on those things I’ll never understand.Report

              1. If by “ear buds” you just mean the stock white iPod ones, I agree – total crap. But there are some decent in-ear ‘phones out there, even in the <$50 range.Report

              2. Over ear or hit the highway.

                The big part of the LP/CD debate was that a lot of the early CDs weren’t reprocessed. And truly, a bunch of those AAD discs sound worse than the AAA LP that was pressed from the same analog mixing.Report

              3. It depends. The best pair of headphones I have ever owned are wrap-around buds made by Bang & Olufsen. Like, no other pair is even close. They’re so good I don’t even bother taking my over-ear made-for-airplanes BOSE phones on airplanes anymore.Report

              6. Heh. I have already determined that the next speakers I buy will be Maggies. They have a “first taste is cheap” model, the MMGW’s, that are $325 a pair and go on-wall. I will go with these (particularly since I will probably need to upgrade my amp to drive them).Report

              7. Once you try Maggies you will never go back. They require gobs of power though. I bought a pair 26 years ago and they still sound amazing. There is something special to music projected by a dipole without that box sound.

                Oh, and move them way out from the back wall. This allows you to tune the bass reinforcement and minimize midrange smearing.

                I usually surf the Internet in my music room listening to my old maggies. Just finished playing Mozart and switched to Sonny Rollins on Way Out West.Report

              9. Yeah, I’ve heard the bigger free-standing models, and they are amazing, but they are so expensive and require so much space. The reviews I read on the MMGW’s lead me to believe they’ll be good enough for my purposes, they fold flat against the wall when not in use, and $325/pair is VERY reasonable for speakers.

                Of course, Magnepan is counting on me later getting richer and upgrading, but joke’s on them. I’ll never be any richer.Report

              10. The other thing of course is to buy used. I wouldnt recommend going too old, but you can get a 5 or 6 year old pair of 1.6′ s for under a grand. Older and they will be even less.

                If you don’t have a high powered, high current amp, the cheap way to drive Maggies is with Emotiva amps. The best bang for the buck in amps. They sound phenomenal on Maggies.Report

              11. Speaking of MP3 playback…

                The amazing thing is how many people allow their ITunes library to ruin their music with compression technology. The default setting is compressed to save space on MP3 players. Everyone neglects to reset it to Apple Lossless or FLAC.Report

              12. Any new freestanding speakers are far off in my future. I have little ones and space is at a premium, plus I don’t need them sticking a lightsaber through them (which is why wall-mounted, flat-folding speakers that are reasonably-priced seem a better bet).

                When I have a music room, one happy day, things will be different. Until then I may content myself with some decent headphones – there are some planar models out there (same basic idea as Magnepans).Report

              14. When I ripped all mine, I picked .mp3 format because it was more ubiquitous, and I did ’em at 256 because I needed to save disk space, and 384 vs. 256 is noticeable only on the occasional track.

                Now, admittedly my ears are starting to go, so maybe this is a “good enough for me, not for thee” thing.

                Yes, I know, uncompressed Ogg or FLAC is the One True Way.Report

              15. I believe you have to use Apple Lossless.

                If the quality doesn’t matter, it does save a lot of space to compress. And like Michael said, a lot of people are starting to prefer the sound. It sounds really smooth and liquid.Report

              16. I can barely tell the difference between 128 and 192. I finally upgraded my rips to 192 simply so that it plays at the same volume as the stuff I download from Amazon.

                I can’t tell the difference between 192 and 256. 384? Forget it. There are advantages to being hard-of-hearing.Report

              17. My digital software is old, and doesn’t allow me to edit FLAC.

                The other day, I was listening to an old demo cassette from ’97 of yours truly, amazed at how some of that stuff still holds up.
                Then I popped in a mp3 cd of the Presidents, and it made the crappy production value of the demo sound fairly good.
                It really shows in the brightness of the cymbals.

                The thing is, I typically hard shelf everything above 16k for recordings purposes.
                Most of what you hear above that is noise, which is generated naturally by the action of the speakers in playback.
                Where that’s missing, you can always add air back in with an exciter.Report

              19. Most people can hear up to 20 – 22.5k, but the drivers don’t go that far up.
                If you take a look at the Renkus-Heinz drivers and compare the cost of those that go to 16k with the ones that go to 20, you’ll see why 16k is an effective limit.

                I also hard shelf everything below 28Hz.
                That’s the rating limit for the 18″ JBLs. They produce tones lower than that, but those tomes aren’t rated for the same drive.Report

              20. I’m a Bose over the ear man, myself, though not the noise-cancelling variety. I swear by my AE2 headphones. I used to be a Sony MDR-V700DJ fan but they were just Hobnorkshus Heavy.

                I only ask of recorded music and playback systems to be clear, with full dynamic range and no sweeteners, please. The engineer went to a great deal of trouble at mixdown: don’t mess with what he did. He had his reasons. Those old Supremes records? All that Motown stuff? Berry Gordy would have it mixed down using a pair of car speakers so it would sound right, coming out crappy sound systems. When Bob Ludwig was mastering all that wonderful music, he knew the limitations of his machinery: the early square-wave synths would wreak hell on disc masters.

                Steely Dan tried using some of the early Dolby compression technology. Screwed up a whole album. Katy Lied.

                Don’t rely on compression or sweeteners or buy Dr. Dre’s Beats headphones. Such things will not improve the music. They always make it worse.

                Well, now we’re modern and lucky. We’ve sampled many of those old tapes. Hopefully future generations will keep those bits transferred forward onto media which can be played back. The tape won’t be there.Report

              21. I just attended the Chicago Audio show this last weekend and the rooms were about 75% vinyl. I would say the rest were primarily computer audio, with a couple CDs and one reel to reel.

                My preference is record dependent, though I have been starting to really appreciate digital lately. It is definitely easier to start inexpensive with digital.Report

              22. There are a few things that attracted me to digital.
                Splicing is a lot easier. And the glue never pops off.
                Application of effects is typically faster than spinning a tape in real-time.

                But I love my Tascam 4-track.
                Especially when I can expand it to 16 so easily with Cakewalk.Report

            3. “I’ve seen some studies that suggest people who have grown up with low-bit-rate MP3 recordings prefer music with specific high-frequency distortions in blind listening.”

              This is the sad state of affairs in pop music today. People are growing up listening to massively compressed, low bit rate music with a smoothed out top end and the dynamics squeezed out to result in maximal average loudness. So producers are mastering records with this sound. Most current pop is becoming unlistenable on a system designed to play accurately recorded music.

              Recent mixes of old classics, like Rush’s 2112 or Dire Straights Brothers in Arms are even being ruined o give the ear bid crowd what they love.

              Luckily classical, jazz, blues and such are not yet ruined. I have heard a backlash is starting to form on pop. Heck, there is no expense in recording it right and then selling a shitty version for more. We need some capitalist to save the day.Report

          4. Most excellent Burt. I think oldsters had a love affair with vinyl, and albums!, and all the wonderful rituals that were part of playing music. Kids Today just won’t ever experience that. Well, maybe ironically.Report

    1. +1 on Doolittle, except can we use a burned CD on which we have substituted “Wave of Mutilation (UK Surf)” for the album version? It would have broken up the album flow so much better.Report

  4. I am confused by the first and second rules. Should the first one be ten songs?

    My choices based on the ambiguity of the rules:

    1. Different Class-Pulp

    2. This is Hardcore-Pulp

    3. Chet in Paris-Chet Baker

    4. 69 Love Songs-The Magnetic Fields

    5.The White Album-The Beatles.

    6-Live at the Village Vanguard-Sonny Rollins

    7.The Kids are Alight-The Who

    8. If You are Feeling Sinister-Belle and Sebastian

    9. Dig Me Out-Sleater-KenneyReport

    1. “I am confused by the first and second rules. Should the first one be ten songs?”

      To clarify: You can nominate any number of albums between one and ten. If you choose to only nominate one single album, I am taking that as a sign that said album is really, really important to you and I am giving it greater weight (three points as opposed to one).

      So you can nominate ten albums and know that all ten each get one point, or you can push hard for one single album and know that it starts out with at least three.Report

            1. I don’t want to know who he is talking to in there and which one is the real decision maker in that conversation. But as an above-average libidoed male, I think I can reasonably speculate.Report

    3. Second on 69 Love Songs…it’s not my favorite MF album, but in sheer length and variety it should help keep us all sane.

      BUT, I’m’a downvote Sleater-Kinney, much as I love that record, because that one seems likely to turn non-fans against us (Corin’s vibrato is…divisive), and/or get us speeding tickets:

      http://youtu.be/L0uHxAHWyFM

      (Do you like Pylon? If you like S-K, you should check them out, they are a clear predecessor):

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdo3mw0Rx7QReport

        1. Look, I love that one too. But (and maybe I am misjudging our roadtrip companions) in my experience S-K is just nails on a chalkboard to some people.

          I just don’t want us all at each others’ throats (that’s what these comment threads are for!)

          But, saying “Hot Rock” is enough of an excuse to link “Get Up”:

          http://youtu.be/ubyVReV2gDc

          Janet Weiss is a terrific drummer live. Really impressive IMO.Report

  5. Golden Earring – Big Game (for Radar Love)
    The Sweet – Little Willy & Ballroom Blitz
    Trooper – Raise a Little Hell
    Kiss – Destroyer
    Joe Satriani – Surfing With The Alien & Flying in a Blue DreamReport

    1. This is not a vote for Radar Love, it’s a suggestion for a future bar fight:

      Radar Love was the soundtrack for my first serious boyfriend. Just the one song, not the album. That would make a good future bar fight; the soundtrack, the romance, and the outcome; or as much as one feels comfortably revealing.Report

    3. I really like Desolation Boulevard. It’s one of the classics of rock ‘n roll.
      This was the first album where the Sweet were permitted to play their own songs. Side One is the songwriting duo the label signed them to sell for (with studio musicians playing the instruments). I think “Hellraiser” (released as a single) was the first one they were allowed to play their own instruments.
      If you listen to the difference in the British & American versions of “Fox on the Run,” you’ll see quite a difference.
      They didn’t do so well at the live shows, because the kids were expecting something more like the Archies, and they got a band that was pretty heavy for the time.

      I like about every song from Side 2, but only a couple from Side 1. Side 2 is all the stuff written by the Sweet.

      And if you listen to “Love Is Like Oxygen,” you’ll see that there was a tremendous difference after the band got control of the recording of material.
      Those guys actually rock.Report

      1. No, I mean it is too many for me to think of while I’m supposed to be doing real work that I get paid for. That said:

        1. “Graceland” by Paul Simon
        2. “Demon Days” by Gorillaz
        3. “Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By” by Lovage
        4. “Flood” by They Might Be Giants
        5. “Pork Soda” by Primus
        6. “OK Computer” by Radiohead
        7. “Nevermind” by Nirvana
        8. “The Mouse and The Mask” by Danger Doom

        I feel like there ought to be two more. I don’t know. This is hard.Report

          1. Hear hear on both Graceland and The Score. (I’d upvote Pork Soda except I know Jay would kill you all on the 3rd or 4th time we listened to it… so just not downvoting it is my compromise between Primus-love and pragmatism. 😀 )Report

  7. 1) “Comfort Eagle” by Cake. Because the songs are awesome to drive to, especially “Love You Madly.”

    2) “The Globe Sessions” by Sheryl Crow. Because not only is it a legitimately great album in its own right (my favorite of hers, and I’m a fan), but it was the absolute best break-up album during a particularly bad break-up of mine and listening to it would give me a perfect excuse to gripe to everyone in the car about what an asshole that guy was. Also, all of my other ex-boyfriends.

    3) “The Immaculate Collection” by Madonna. Because screw your “greatest hits” prohibition, it has almost all of my favorite songs of hers in one place, and I like the version of “Express Yourself” on that album better than the original in “Like a Prayer.”

    4) “Pink Moon” by Nick Drake. Because we will need something lovely and peaceful to listen to in the background when we’re having more thoughtful conversations.

    5) “Extraordinary Machine” by Fiona Apple. Because Fiona is one hell of a songwriter and lyricist and “Red Red Red” is hauntingly beautiful. Also because I think the title song and “Waltz (Better Than Fine)” are as close as she ever gets to “cheerful.”

    6) The movie soundtrack to “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Because I can sing the entire score from memory, and I want dibs on Judas when we pick parts.

    7) Beethoven’s 9th symphony. I refuse to stoop to justifying this one.

    8) “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by the Beatles. Because we obviously need an album by the Beatles and this seems the one most likely to get everyone’s vote.

    9) “MobySongs” by Moby. I think it’s also a greatest hits album, but since I had no compunction about ignoring the rules with Madonna why should I now? (Maybe an exception can be made for one-named recording artists whose names start with “M”?) Because I like these songs a lot.

    10) “Warm Sounds” by zero7. Because the songs are really beautiful and I think people will like them.

    Edited (because I can): Sorry, Moby. I was apparently high on crack when I composed this list, and left off “Graceland” by Paul Simon. Someone has to go, my friend, and it’s you. Because “Graceland” is perfection in audible form.Report

        1. I love Pink Moon, but I have learned through hard experience that some music is just too hazardous to risk on long road trips. If that sucker comes up in rotation at 4 AM we’re all doomed.Report

    3. I will give votes to Sgt Pepper’s because it contains some of my favorite Beatles songs and Beethoven’s Ninth (but which conductor?)

      I am going to down vote Jesus Christ Superstar because I hate Andrew Llyod Weber with the passion of a thousand firey suns. Also I am generally not much of a musical guy with some exceptions. Yes I am one of those theatre people.Report

        1. I’m peculiar. Long ago I decided that if I had to pick one ten-minute piece of music that was the only one I could ever listen to again (but listen as many times as I wanted), Toccata and Fugue was it.Report

    6. I downvote Sgt. Peppers (and any other Beatles mention). If we play the Beatles, I’m leaping from the car at full cruising speed (which appears to be under 5 miles per hour). Sorry, Doc.Report

    7. +1 to Cake. I’ve already upvoted Beethoven and Sgt. Pepper downthread.

      If Tod allows voting on the Madonna collection, well, a guy doesn’t have to be gay to enjoy Madonna. In some ways, straight guys of roughly my age bracket can appreciate her more…Report

  8. I’m rather irritated that no game soundtracks are allowed. Guess I’ll have to settle for actually getting something in the mixtape (so far, no ones actually recommending something someone else has recommended, so I guess I win that bet… so far).Report

    1. That’s the one I really don’t care for — no songs that grab me. Unlike Aja, Countdown to Ecstasy, or Katy Lied, which I could listen to over and over.Report

  10. Okay, I could easily nominate about a hundred candidates.

    But with this crowd? On this site? With all the haterade?

    There is only one thing I can do.

    I will pick one album, ensuring at least three votes.

    Rush, “Moving Pictures”.Report

      1. Don’t worry Patrick, if that one doesn’t make the cut, we’ll just subject everyone to our two-part-harmony a capella renditions.

        (From the back of the van, starting out quietly, but for the 150th time):

        “Peeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww….A modern day warrior…”

        (From the front):

        “AUUUUUGGHH!”Report

        1. Not only am I Canadian, I once 100 percented the Rock Band version of Tom Sawyer on “Expert”. Which doesn’t mean I’m GOOD at singing it, but does speak to how much I enjoy doing so.

          UPVOTE.Report

          1. I’ve only ever 100% one song on Rock Band (I don’t play very often, and my voice is terrible)… Billy Idol’s White Wedding.

            I could probably nail a number of Boingo songs, too.Report

    5. I think Rush hit their peak before that; probably with 2112.
      Fly by Night is good, but I hate the title cut, and can’t sit through “Rivendell.”
      Other than those two tracks, the whole album totally kicks ass.

      Permanent Waves is a better choice than Moving Pictures IMHO.Report

    6. +1 for Rush Moving Pictures.

      I could easily do a two-month road trip with nothing but Rush. Pick any 10 albums and I’m good to go. I’ve had Clockwork Angels in the CD player of my commuter for three weeks now and I’m enjoying it more with every play.Report

  11. Point of order/clarification:

    Live albums do not count as compilations or greatest hits albums, if they are single session live recordings. Yes, or no?Report

    1. The judges is ruling is: Yes – mostly.

      For example, Cheap Trick Live at Budokan is eligible, even though it did indeed record a lot of their big hits. Same with The Kinks’ One For the Road. Tom Petty – All His Greatest Hits Live!, on the other hand, would be disqualified.Report

        1. Well, I’d think it has to be, but they’re actually… different, from the original recordings (and, IMO, all much better except “Dead Man’s Party”, which was better in the original than the version on Alive). It’s also a double-album, so there’s that kinda cheating aspect to it.

          Both of them find their way into the car when we’re going to Montana, every year.Report

  12. Native Dancer Wayne Shorter.
    Bitches Brew, Miles Davis
    Heavy Weather Weather Report
    Birds of Fire Mahavishnu Orchestra
    Return to Forever Return to Forever/Chick Corea
    Ah Um Charles Mingus
    Monk’s Dream Thelonius Monk
    My Favorite Things John Coltrane
    Houses of the Holy Led Zeppelin
    Zap Mama Zap MamaReport

      2. That counts as a positive vote for Bitches Brew, for the record.
        Monk’s Dream is an upthumb, too.

        We need some music to sit back and think to, some music to sing to, some music to rock out to, and some music to drink to.Report

    3. I will give you plus one’s for:

      Bitches Brew, Miles Davis

      Ah Um, Charles Mingus

      Monk’s Dream, Thelonius Monk

      Houses of the Holy, Led ZeppelinReport

      1. I love all these choices, but obviously am used to traveling with a lower class of people, as I never found a car load of people that shared my appreciation. If I was to choose one though, it would of course be A Love Supreme by JC. Second choice would be Saxophone Collosus by SR.Report

      1. You, sir, may not ride in my car.

        For I live on the edge of hard-core group improvisational music; art made in the moment, here and gone, ephemeral as the spring flowers. I’m not even convinced it should be recorded, but should be thought of spontaneous composition, released and let go; recording it seems a sin, but I revel in that sin nonetheless.Report

          1. I am astounded you didn’t make a joke comparing spontaneous combustion and spontaneous composition on a car trip.

            Sadly, I will be unable to make it to Chicago. There’s a pond in Maine that absorbs my summer. As you can see here, it’s currently home to a pond monster and some luckless fishermen.Report

    7. Once again, my knowledge of my spouse forces me not to upvote this list. My heart says yes, my desire for all of us to survive the trip says no. NEUTRAL WHINING IS MY SPECIALTY.Report

  13. Abbey Road — Beatles

    Collected Harpsichord Concerti — Bach (Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood)

    Who’s Next — The Who

    Aja — Steely Dan

    Piano Rags by Scott Joplin (Joshua Rifkin)

    Blonde on Blonde — Bob Dylan

    To The Bone — The Kinks

    Symphonies 35,39-41 — Mozart (Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell)

    The Wild, The Innocent, and The E-Street Shuffle — Springsteen

    Water Music — Handel (Bath Chamber Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin)Report

      1. Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet ?
        We sit here stranded, though we’re all doin our best to deny it
        And Louise holds a handfull of rain, tempting you to defy it
        Lights flicker from the opposite loft
        In this room the heat pipes just cough
        The country music station plays soft
        But there’s nothing really nothing to turn off

        Just gorgeous stuff.

        Also, the instrumental outtro from Incident on 57th Street and how it leads into Rosalita — just purely beautiful.Report

  14. Jethro Tull – A Little Light Music
    Dave Matthews / Tim Reynolds – Live at Luther College
    Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
    Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young – 4-Way Street
    Barenaked Ladies – Rock Spectacle
    Rush – Moving Pictures (I may have gone with Exit…Stage Left, but I’ve got to throw some support Patrick’s way.)
    Eric Clapton Unplugged
    soundtrack from The Commitments
    Beethoven’s 7th
    Tchaikovsky’s 4thReport

    1. Or maybe I should just hop in the car with Mike Schilling. I like his list and his blend. I would have gone with some Bach, but I was thinking it fell under “best of”.Report

              3. The numeric key to Beethoven symphonies:

                * The ones divisible by 3 have names (3 Eroica, 6 Pastoral, 9 Choral)
                * The best ones are *not* powers of 2 (3, 5, 6, 7, 9, not 1, 2, 4, 8)Report

        2. The Ninth ain’t bad. I like the Fifth because it has four great movements. I went with the Seventh because I like all its movements and it’s a little fresher for me. But 5/7/9 is really the same as Darkness/Born to Run for me; a slight change in my mood could bring any of them onto my top 10 list.

          A lot of people praise the Third, but it’s just never sucked me in.Report

    2. I also accidentally deleted “Darkness on the Edge of Town” from my list – I was wondering why I only had nine – then added The Commitments to make ten.Report

      1. I find Dave Matthews Band irritating. But on Live at Luther College it’s just two guitars and vocals, and none of the distractions. It turns out I like a lot of the band’s songs, just not as they were originally arranged.Report

  16. A lot of the above recommendations are great musical choices, but not all are necessarily great road trip selections.

    This is the perfect road tip collection:
    Frankie Goes To Hollywood — Welcome to the Pleasure-dome
    The Clash — London Calling
    Liz Phair — Exhile in Guyville
    Elvis Costello — My Aim is True
    Jack Johnson — Brushfire Faireytales
    Damian Marley — Welcome to Jamrock
    Stevie Wonder — Innervisions
    The Wailers — Burnin’
    Led Zepelin — How The West Was Won
    The final choice is either Live at Leeds or Abbey Road, whichever I can find firstReport

    2. Nice pick on My Aim Is True. Alison is one of the most beautifully-written songs of the modern era. London Calling, meh. They were right that Train in Vain doesn’t belong on that album, but stylistically I like Train in Vain more than anything else on it.Report

    4. +1 to Innervisions. Probably one of my top 5 favorite albums ever. Damn, now I wish I’d substituted it and maybe Gaye’s What’s Going On, but I don’t know for what.Report

  17. Based on the rules it seems to me what we’re looking for are albums to listen to all the way through and repeatedly for a long period of time. They should be fun and engaging and consistently entertaining for all the songs, not just the popular tracks (we’re listening to the whole album, not cherry-picking individual songs). So my nominees are:

    Beatles: Rubber Soul (but I’m good with Sgt. Pepper or the White Album too).
    Fleetwood Mac: Rumours
    Boston: Boston
    Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
    Journey: Escape
    Garbage: Garbage (Version 2.0 equally acceptable)
    Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon
    Adele: 21
    Delerium: Karma
    Eric Clapton: UnpluggedReport

    2. Rumours, Dark Side, Journey, Sarah McLaclan all upthumbs. I’ll give an upthumb to Rubber Soul, too, but The Beatles are suffering from scattergun effects on this thread.

      Boston: Boston… not if I’m taking a driving shift. If “Smokin'” comes on we’ll be going 119 miles an hour.Report

              2. “Stupid Girl” brings back memories of being stationed in Australia, flying down an outback road in the dead of night in my Aussie friend’s Ford Falcon with the windows down and that song at full volume. +1, indeed.Report

            2. The first album sounds like stuff people are doing today and critics are calling “innovative.”

              The second album is every bit as good and contains lots of energetic moments which Bach would have recognized as vorwärtsdrehenmusik — that propulsive momentum and structural symmetry that gives the listener an impulse to move her body in response to what she’s hearing.

              Both CDs have been in medium-heavy rotation in my car continuously since they were released.Report

              1. I’m gonna be that guy here and opine that Garbage’s first owes a LOT to Curve, IMO. But Garbage are kind of stylistic synthesizers, so, you know.

                But Version 2.0 is good, especially when she busts out the Chrissie Hynde impersonation at the end of “Special” (and that song also starts with a Byrds riff, which I am sucker for). I tend to like the slower songs best (“Medication”, “Trick”, “You Look So Fine”, though I like the Underworld-y spoken-word bit at the end of “Hammering”)Report

      2. Can we get Desiree’ Bassett playing with them (if you don’t know who she is [a] for shame; [b] check out the world tour of Cirque de Soliel: Michael Jackson — she’s the lead guitarist; [c] she’s AWESOME)?Report

    3. Dark Side is awesome, and I’m going to +1 it, but I hope someone picks Meddle, because while it may not be their best album, it is my favorite. My early internet screen name (back when everyone called them handles) was, at one point, Meddle.Report

      1. My dad had an eight track player in his boat and DarkSoftMoon was one of the three 8 tracks we owned. We must have played it a thousand times. The soundtrack for water skiing.Report

      3. I might be the only person on the planet who calls himself a Floyd Fan who hates Dark Side of the Moon.

        Hates it.

        I hate Time. I hate Us and Them. I hate Breathe. I hate Money.

        I hate hate hate that album.

        I try to be mostly positive when it comes to stuff because, hey, it’s all matters of taste, right? Getting pissed off at a matter of taste is like, crazy.

        Dark Side of the Moon is shrimp cocktail. Dark Side of the Moon is grilled salmon. Dark Side of the Moon is green and black olives.Report

        1. It’s nice every once in a while to get a stark reminder that we are not, in fact, even close to the same person.

          Who hates grilled salmon?Report

        2. She’s one of those people who is better at writing songs than singing them. Everyone I’ve heard doing her songs is 1,000 times better than she is.Report

            1. I think that might apply to Leonard Cohen. Brilliant songwriter, not so great as a singer. But the voice fits a lot of the songs.Report

      2. Disagree! (Well, obviously, I put the album on my list.) She has an extraordinary voice. Her delivery exhibits a playfulness with time that few other artists are able to pull off.

        Also, if you are the man who hurt Adele, know this: I am coming for you.*

        Well, I can’t make you like her, so vote as you wish, but I like her a lot.

        * Credit on the joke to trivia culture giant Ken Jennings.Report

        1. The singer in my husband’s band teaches vocals. He played accompanied her students for their recital this year; had to learn four Adele tunes.

          That, my friend, was enough of that.Report

    5. Down vote on Boston. Any 70’s band that can’t play live doesn’t deserve a slot on the playlist.

      +1 Dark side of the Moon, Sarah McLachlan.

      Luke warm on Clapton. He is a great guitar player, but there are many others I’d prefer to listen two for an extended road trip, and he’s 100% not the greatest guitar player that ever lived.Report

      1. “Any 70?s band that can’t play live doesn’t deserve a slot on the playlist.”

        Not sure if they’re 70’s or 80’s, but Alan Parsons Project?Report

    6. Beatles: Rubber Soul–Downvote
      Boston: Boston–Upvote
      Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstacy–Upvote
      Journey: Escape–Upvote
      Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon–UpvoteReport

        1. No, sir. I’m rabidly down-voting every Beatles suggestion, probably to the point that Tod sees fit to use his authority to simply cancel all my downvoting.Report

    7. Boston: Boston
      Sarah McLachlan: Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
      Garbage: Garbage (Version 2.0 equally acceptable)
      I heartily approve of the three selections above.

      BUT NO JOURNEY. And no Fleetwood Mac. I love that album but I tire of it fast.Report

  18. The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

    The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

    David Bowie – Diamond Dogs

    Fiery Furnaces – Blueberry Boat

    Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works vol. 2 (Note: This is NOT an anthology or a boxed set. It’s an album.)

    Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

    R.E.M. – Life’s Rich Pageant

    The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses

    Belle and Sebastian – If You’re Feeling Sinister

    They Might Be Giants – John Henry, although I’ll change my vote to their self-titled album or to Flood if anyone backs me up on those.Report

      1. LRP is also my Favorite REM album, as you can see below.

        Dang Jason, we had some overlap with that AND Stone Roses. But I prefer Aphex’s Vol 1. 🙂

        I almost went with a Bowie, but couldn’t choose, and choked.Report

  19. I’d love to see a final round on this game. There’s got to be some vote-splitting, like with Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.Report

    3. Maybe we should just take different cars. I’ll even chip in a little extra gas money. The guys in the Miles Davis car can enjoy themselves.Report

  20. CCR – Cosmo’s Factory (really, it was hard not just to fill this list out with CCR)

    REM – Life’s Rich Pagaeant (REM is great roadtrip music, CCR’s spiritual heir in the 80s)

    Guided by Voices – Under the Bushes, Under the Stars (and GbV were in some ways REM’s 90’s heir; fidelity-wise this one should be more palatable to my fellow passengers than Bee Thousand or Alien Lanes)

    Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream (guitars enough for both the Boston AND MBV camps; bonkers drumming for the Rush fans; angsty enough for the kids and musically-ambitious enough for the adults; lots of little psychedelic nooks and corners to get lost in – a mixed group listened to almost nothing BUT this on one 36-hour road trip)

    Stone Roses – s/t (and THIS was on the other side of that tape)

    Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One (long & there’s something for everyone; this one PLAYS like a mixtape).

    Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers (maybe their most varied record)

    The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me (again, long and varied)

    LCD Soundsystem – s/t (to get that dance party started, plus it’s long, plus it helps make up for the fact there’s not a good way to get New Order on this list due to the unevenness of their albums)

    T. Rex – The Slider (needs no justification)Report

    1. Siamese Dream is a really good album. Sticky Fingers is good.

      I’ll upvote Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me, but… oh, wait, I can’t make other suggestions.Report

        1. I was lucky to see them at a medium-sized club right as Siamese Dream was coming out – I was working at the radio station so I was able to get into the (way-over-sold-out-and-frankly-trampling-death-dangerous) show.

          They were on FIRE. Hungry enough to want the world, and confident because they had just made the record that would do it.

          To this day I don’t know if I have ever seen a more gonzo drum performance than “Geek USA” (and Chamberlin made it look EASY).Report

              1. Tod – I move that despite Russel’s decorum, this counts as a downvote against Siamese Dream; it’s only fair, since I tried to throw out his Pink Moon.

                Doc, if it helps at all – on SD Butch Vig had the eminent good sense to mix his voice way down, so it’s not nearly so nasal. It’s one reason why SD is great, and later albums (when Corgan pushed his own voice high up in the mix) are not so great.Report

              2. It’s been a jillion years since I listened to that album, so perhaps I’d like it better now. I just remember that musical era seemingly saturated with Smashing Pumpkins, and the vocals always set my teeth on edge.Report

              4. There’s one good album, in that two-disc set.

                But that one album is still improperly produced, w/r/t his voice.

                “1979” is the only song I bothered to rip into my library.Report

              6. Interesting note about MC&tIB:

                My friend who discovered Siamese Dream was the one who told me, “Take it back” when I told him I’d picked up Mellon Collie. I hadn’t opened it yet.

                On his recommendation, I took it back. It’s the only musical purchase I’ve ever returned.

                (except for an independent label band called “Freaky Fukin’ Weirdoz” who had an EP called “Bitch Make Sandwich”, which I bought because I was drunk and an idiot roomate egged me into it in the first place.)Report

              7. God I wish you had kept that last album.

                Remember that in the post-Nirvana major-label-WTF-is-going-on era, a band called “Butt Trumpet” could somehow release an album called “Primitive Enema” and get it into stores?

                Good times, good times.Report

              9. I almost kept it, just as a conversation piece.

                But while you get both good and bad conversations about an EP titled “Bitch Make Sandwich”, you also get a small percentage of very, very bad conversations, and no very, very good conversations to make up for it.

                I already have to explain Stormtroopers of Death’s “Speak English or Die”.Report

              10. DUDE. I used to have that SOD. They wouldn’t be topped for song titles until AC (no, I won’t type out their name) came along.

                I kept an EP by a band called Cheeseburger because it has THE WORST cover art you have ever seen (the music isn’t bad, it’s just sort of AC/DC party rock). The only way I will link an image here is if I can somehow rot13 it.Report

              11. The version of “Chromatic Death” on “Speak English or Die” is like, a thousand times faster than the version of “Chromatic Death” on Anthrax’s “Attack of the Killer B’s”.

                I didn’t even think that was possible.Report

    5. Can I swap one of mine out (maybe GbV, since it appears no one here would ever second it, you uncultured rubes) for The Velvet Underground & Nico (though the s/t third record would also be acceptable – I like White Light, but that one could be a bit abrasive for some)?

      How has no one (including my own idiotic self) chosen the Velvets?Report

  21. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, and maybe I’m the only one gleefully taking advantage of this fact, but I can game the system by waiting for others to suggest the albums I like and then I go and +1 them, therefore allowing myself to give more weight to more albums than the 10 choices I’m supposed to receive. I’m hoping this will not cause hard feelings during our time on the island together.Report

    2. FISH IT MARK, you gave the game away.

      Actually, I see “gaming the system” as “making up for not having seen the thread until late at night” in my case. I didn’t have the chance to grab that prime marketing location up top!Report

      1. Problem with this strategy is that if you submit your actual favorite albums too late, nobody’s going to up vote ’em and you’ll wind up with not enough votes to make the list.Report

    1. I deeply approve of this choice. Not so much because of the music, but because, yo. I am sure we would end up arguing about something different, and meaty, EVERY TIME we listened to the album. Hence creating the most League-like experience possible…

      +200.Report

  23. 1. Kind of Blue – Miles
    2. Blue Trane – Coltrane
    3. The Band – The Band
    4. Highway 61 Revisited – Dylan
    5. Doolittle – Pixies
    6. Illmatic – Nas
    7. Pastel Blues – Nina Simone
    8. Complete Brandenburg Concertos – Bach
    9. Rubber Soul – The Beatles
    10.The Boatman’s Call – Nick Cave and the Bad SeedsReport

  24. For road trips you gotta go heavy on the rock and country. The rock helps you stay awake, the country gets you thinking about dirt roads and honkytonks and beer. Some jazz to mix things up. Nothing too mellow or sad, otherwise you find yourself crying and thinking about exes and the poor choices you’ve made and all that.

    The Clash–The Clash.
    not gonna fall asleep during this one

    Stones–Exile on Main Street
    the best Stones album

    Johnny Cash–Live at Folsom Prison
    helps keep the speed up. turn it down if you get pulled over

    Lucinda Williams–Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
    greasy

    Joe Ely–Joe Ely
    a lotta traveling in this one. Also “Suckin’ a Big Bottle of Gin” which is a great driving song

    Mingus–Ah Um
    essential

    Bruce–Born in the USA
    maybe not his best but “Darlington County” is a great road song, album is solid top to bottom

    Pogues–Rum Sodomy and the Lash
    for the backseat drinkers

    Rod Stewart–Every Picture Tells a Story
    footloose and fancy free

    Joan Jett–GH
    total cheat on the rules, sorryReport

    3. Unfortunately, I am not going to upvote your individual choices (I went with a different Stones album, The Clash are best served by comps, and me and Bruce mostly don’t get along), but I applaud your impeccable introductory logic. 🙂Report

    4. Crap I forgot Warren Zevon.
      Can I leave off JJ and put Excitable Boy on there?

      Also I don’t want to be a curmudgeon but I am going to down vote Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper’s. Those are great albums, but not great road trip albums. They are too inward-looking. Road trips are about possibilities, horizons, bars, wind in your face, mud on your shoes.

      If I had to pick a Beatles album it would be early beatles.Report

      1. You must be an old guy, like me. The Early Beatles is a cut-down version of Please, Please Me (the original British album, and what’s now on CD), which omits (among other things) I Saw Her Standing There (because it was on Meet The Beatles) and There’s a Place (because Capitol didn’t recognize a great piece of proto-psychedelia when they heard it.)Report

  25. Fun topic, Tod!

    1. Leonard Cohen, Live in London
    2. Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky
    3. The Eagles, Hotel California
    4. Van Morrison, It’s Too Late To Stop Now
    5. Joni Mitchell, Shadows and Light
    6. Graham Parker, Squeezing Out The Sparks
    7. John Hiatt, Slow Turning
    8. Warren Zevon, Life’ll Kill Ya
    9. Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run
    10. Red Elvises, Drinking With JesusReport

    2. I do not have upvote privileges, but if I did I’d give ones to many on this list, especially Cohen, Browne, Parker, Red Elvises and the Boss. I’d also give bonus points for all of those save Born to Run (which I’m now kicking myself for not making one of my 10) for being so unexpected *and* awesome choices.Report

      1. I attended the concert where that album was recorded, which makes it a real sentimental favorite for me. Santa Barbara County Bowl, sometime in the early 1980s, I think.Report

      1. You clearly didn’t go to high school or college in Southern California in the 1970s. I’m pretty sure knowing the lyrics to almost every Eagle’s song was mandatory.Report

        2. You would be correct. If I was alive in the 1970s (I was born in 80), I like to think I’d be the kid into the Ramones, Talking Heads, Television, etc.

          The Eagles are all that is wrong and excessive with 70s rock. I can see why the punks rebelled.Report

          1. The Eagles are all that is wrong and excessive with 70s rock.

            It’s OK if you don’t like the Eagles (I personally think they are better than their current reputation suggests), but…have you actually HEARD much 70’s rock? The Eagles were downright conservative, restrained and tasteful compared to some of that stuff.Report

            1. True but I thought part of the punk rebellion was also against the ethos of what the Eagles preached in songs like Hotel California.

              There is just something about their stuff and the lifestyle it celebrates that really bugs me. I can look into 1960s rock culture, fashion, etc and see the appeal. Almost everything about the 1970s and what was considered cool mystifies me.Report

              1. Hmmm…maybe I misunderstand what “Hotel California” is about, but songs like that (and “Life In The Fast Lane”) seem to me to explicitly preach AGAINST empty party-time existence.

                (Of course, the drug-addled band undoubtedly knew whereof they spoke, and many fans surely missed the implicit critiques).Report

              2. I’ve long thought that the punk ethos was against what the Eagles were. Big-market superbands, empahsis on virtuoso instrumental skills, lots of marketing and packaging, lots of emphasis on personality and focusing attention on the performers, celebrity, money, affectations of world-weariness and outrage despite actually having it all (Don Henley was, and still is, particularly good at this).

                Punk said of the Eagles, “These guys aren’t gods. They’re just dudes like us. They don’t even look like they’re having fun or getting laid all that much. All they’re doing is serving up packaging for big record companies and selling out. You don’t even need to play your instruments all that well to be a musician — what, it’s three chords and go, right? Anyone can do that.”Report

              3. I’m not saying they weren’t a target, or part of the big-money machine…what I am saying is they don’t necessarily DESERVE the ire, the way that say Yes or ELP and all that faux-orchestral nonsense did.

                The Eagles wrote fairly simple songs that were basically country songs, and which had enough self-awareness to critique the lifestyle they were ensconced in.

                I know it’s hip post-Lebowski to bag on them, but they’re not as bad (taking the music alone) as their current rep suggests.Report

              4. I agree with Glyph. Musically, punk was a rebellion against generic, over-produced stadium rock like Journey much more than against Eagles-ish country-rock. Though, as the Eagles’ career went on, they became less country-ish and more “polished”.Report

              7. I sometimes think that the Eagles hate is less a result of the Eagles as a band, and more a result of Don Henley’s post-Eagles (but also pre-Eagles many “final” reunion tours) solo stuff, which was about as soulless and generic as it is possible to be.

                Plus, the songs are just stupid. My son, when he was 7 or 8, asked me, “Why does he keep saying that all she wants to do is dance, when she also once to make romance?”

                Joe Walsh is cool, though.Report

              8. “Boys of Summer” is ACES though, and excuses almost all other sins.

                Fun fact: that song was originally demoed by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell (who wrote the music/plays guitar on it), for Tom Petty, who passed on it due to the synths. You can kind of tell its origins in the melody.Report

              9. I hated the Eagles long before the The Big Lebowski.

                Hotel California and Clapton’s Wonderful Tonight are two of the worst songs of rock history.Report

    6. +1 on Joni Mitchell. Extraordinary writing.

      There was a time I’d have given a +1 to the Eagles because that album has fantastic guitar work. But I over-listened to that album in my teens and early twenties and now it’s more tedious than enjoyable. So no vote one way or the other on the Eagles.Report

      1. I so love 7os era Joni. Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter. Mingus. Hejira.

        Joni and Jaco were a great combo. So much better than anything Jaco did with Weather Report with the possible exception of Birdland.Report

    7. I don’t think there’s one Zevon album that would do it for me. He wrote perfect little three-minute songs – great for a greatest hits album, but I can’t think of one album that would give me the Zevon experience. And when he gets depressing, wow, I’d be worried that the driver would send the car off a bridge.Report

      1. His last two albums, recorded when he knew he was not long for the world, are bittersweet reflections on life and death. He does a version of Knocking on Heaven’s Door that never fails to bring tears to my eyes. Surprisingly enough, these albums are more playful and far less dark than a lot of his earlier stuff.Report

      1. We, along with half the other Jews in L.A., saw him in concert on that particular tour. It was amazing and every time I play that CD I remember how amazing. I can’t believe the guy is in his late 70s.Report

  26. Loveless by My Bloody Valentine
    The Sensual World by Kate Bush
    Blue Bell Knoll by Cocteau Twins
    Mezzanine by Massive Attack
    Protection by Massive Attack
    Pre-Millennium Tension by Tricky
    Homogenic by Bjork
    Kid A by Radiohead (maybe The Bends or OK Computer, if you want to argue about that)
    Boys for Pele by Tori Amos
    No Cure For Cancer by Denis LearyReport

    1. (My original thought was to pick 10 Elton John albums.)

      Elton John
      Soundtrack to Friends
      Tumbleweed Connection
      Madman Across the Water
      Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player
      Goodby Yellow Brick Road
      Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
      A Single Man
      Too Low For Zero
      The One

      Decided against it.Report

      1. Somehow I grew up without ever hearing Tumbleweed. I had a vinyl night get together with some friends recently and someone pulled out this gem. Amazing, especially at 33 and a third.

        I was just playing Madman last night for the first time in years. Also amazing.Report

        1. Artists who have produced 10 albums worth putting on a list like this one are few and far between, I tell you what.

          Elton John, Pink Floyd, Chicago (IF YOU LEAVE ME NOW, YOU TAKE AWAY THE BIGGEST PART OF ME!!! OOOOO OOOOO OOOOOOOO GIRL BABY PLEASE DON’T GO!!! OOOOO OOOOO OOOOOOO I JUST WANT YOU TO STAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY), Queen…

          Not that many.Report

              1. In fairness, all of the Queen albums have strengths and weaknesses. None of them are end-to-end home runs unless you’re just really into Queen.

                I mean, I *love* Queen. I could pick any one of five of their albums. But most people get stuck on not liking at least two songs on any of those five albums.Report

          2. One of the stations here plays a “Roll the Dice Weekend” from time to time. All artists in consideration must have at least 12 decent songs. It’s kind of surprising how many there are.

            These may not be from 10 different albums, however.Report

          3. Artists who have produced 10 albums worth putting on a list like this one are few and far between, I tell you what.

            Again, David Bowie, who is probably my favorite pop musician of all time.

            Maybe Madonna would count too.Report

            1. Bob Dillon. Not that anyone would pick one of his albums for this because, you know. He’s more of a “while we’re partaking” artist than a road trip one.

              Maybe we could have a “best ‘we’re partaking’ albums” barfight.Report

          4. I love Pink Floyd, but I wouldn’t consider them a 10-album band. Four would do it – Dark Side to The Wall. The Final Cut had its moments. I wouldn’t want to go earlier than Dark Side, although I know some Pink Floyd fans would say I’m missing out.Report

              1. I told ya! I told ya someone would say it!

                As it stands now, I have trouble believing that I’m not stoned when I look over my musical tastes. If I bought Atom Heart Mother I’d have to move to Colorado.Report

            2. Animals is a great album too if you give it some time.

              Ummagumma, both the live (“Astronome Domine”!) and studio portions, is friggin’ cool too. And Obscured by Clouds and the More soundtrack will get to you if you listen. Piper at the Gates of Dawn is definitely for the fans, though. But consider that it was recorded at the same time that Sgt Pepper’s was being recorded. I’m not of James H’s opinion about the Beatles (I love them), but if you talk to a real Pink Floyd fan about how innovative they were, they’ll probably tell you to listen to Piper. Oh, and Saucer Full of Secrets has some songs that anyone, even a non-fan, can love:

              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieQZoY9PQlY

              Yes, I’m a fan. Seeing them live, even without Waters, was a religious experience.Report

              1. I am an enormous Pink Floyd fan, and the pre–Dark Side material is frequently great. Boegiboe thinks Piper and Saucerful are both too derivative of the Beatles, if you can believe it. I have to say I find these two… sort of uneven.

                But the rest is just as good as their more commercially successful later work, and often more daring. I particularly like the soundtrack to More, in which they only sometimes sound like Pink Floyd. I used to play “Nile Song” to people who didn’t know the album and ask: “This is a band you’ve heard of. Can you guess who it is?” And no one would guess it. Ever.Report

              2. Animals is on my list: I go from Dark Side of the Moon, to Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall. My favorite? I dunno. If I were doing a road trip, I think that the theatricality of The Wall and even of Animals could be a bit much. But you can put in Wish You Were Here and listen to it for hours.Report

          7. I was thinking that you could do a pretty good 10-album list of Steve Winwood, if you tossed in Traffic and Blind Faith. Then I checked Wikipedia and he did session work on Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland and David Gilmour’s About Face. That’s a 10-album list with variety.Report

    2. +1 for Mezzanine, since it only just-barely missed my cut.

      I debated Loveless, but I tried to pick stuff that wouldn’t alienate my fellow passengers too much (you know…old people);-)

      A frothing ranty vote AGAINST OK Computer, which I can say with full certainty and without the slightest-fear of hyperbole is the #1 top most-overrated album, of all time and this and several adjacent universes as well. Where’s the tunes, man?

      For a road trip Bends would work nicely.Report

      1. Loveless is, like, the electronica Pink Moon.

        I could see not including it for that reason alone.

        That said, if you’re not fighting off sleep, it’s got stuff that can help keep you awake.Report

    4. How sad. Or perhaps pathetic. But I’ve never listened to any of the albums on your first list. The Elton John albums, however. . . well, let’s just say I’d give a big +1 to Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.Report

        1. I have heard some stuff by both Kate Bush and Tori Amos, although not from the albums you listed. I liked both but never followed up by buying any of their stuff.Report

      1. There are a handful that might be able to handle it.

        I also considered some Monty Python albums, an Eddie Murphy album or two (though some have aged better than others), Sam Kinnison’s 1/2 comedy, 1/2 rock album, and some Lenny Bruce.

        But No Cure For Cancer is like one long version of Axl’s rant from Get In The Ring. Eventually you memorize it and yell along.Report

      2. You know, I was sure of that too but when I checked the track listing to double-check, it wasn’t on there.

        It’s the opening track to the Protection album. That’s why I had to have two Massive Attack albums.Report

    7. I +1:
      The Sensual World
      Blue Bell Knoll
      Pre-Millennium Tension
      ONE Massive Attack (whichever one has more votes) and downvote the other one
      Boys for Pele

      -1 on Leary, Bjork, and Loveless (gasp!), all of which are good, all of which would have me breaking into the sealed cd player to MAKE IT STOP by week 3 or so.Report

  27. In the age of having an entire music library on hand at all times, it’s really tough to narrow it down to just ten albums. I chose based on my song ratings and play vs. skip ratio in iTunes. The winners have at least one five-star track each, and an average score above 4 stars. Unfortunately, some of my favorite tunes are left behind because they appear on an otherwise weak album.

    ABC: The Lexicon of Love
    Bill Hicks: Queen’s Theater Late Show ’92 (bootleg)
    Brian Culbertson: Long Night Out
    Chic: C’est Chic
    Larry Carlton: Fingerprints
    Michael Jackson: Thriller
    The Rippingtons: Weekend in Monaco
    Rush: Power Windows
    Steely Dan: Aja
    Steely Dan: GauchoReport

        2. And a down vote. It’s not a terrible album, but it’s not something I’d want to listen to for fear of visions of Michael Jackson grabbing his crotch lodging themselves in my brain.Report

    2. Note: I commend you on providing feedback to your music player. If I could ever settle on a real, single, everyone-accessible back-end transparent music player, I’d take the time to rate everything.Report

  28. New:
    Beethoven — 3rd Symphony.
    George Thorough[ly]good — any album (just look at his name!), but I’ll go with “Rockin’ My Life Away”
    Tom Petty — Largely same as George, but I’ll go with “Into the Great Wide Open”

    +1 for “Wish You Were Here” For an album with only 4.5 songs, it’s pretty awesome.Report

          2. Different tatses. I’d not heard the original before — now that I have, I’d still pick the Blackhearts.

            Oooh. Heart… [see below]Report

  29. I’m going to list off my ten nominations, but since I am the entire committee of judges no points will be awarded by my doing so. If people second them, however, I will count those as points.

    I will also note that I agree entirely with Burt’s musings above. If you’re planning an extended time limited to ten albums, you have to consider the entire album; you also have to think of the entire list of ten as a kind of meta-album that will take you different places. So not only are these my ten choices, I’m listing them in the order I’d place them in the carrousel.

    1. I love Everybody, Lyle Lovett. A perfect album to listen to as you settle into your seat, drift through the Starbucks drive-thru, and make your way onto the highway. (Most of the songs feel like a nice relaxed cup of joe on a breezy, sunny day anyway.) By the time we get to the track Penguins, we’re just about ready to start singing along out loud.

    2. Cosmic Thing, The B-52s. It’s time to rev up those engines and cover some ground. Cosmic Thing is one of those albums I would never put on at home, but as part of a long car drive it somehow feels essential. I defy you do so and not dance in your seat!

    3. Revolver, The Beatles. We need a Beatles album everyone can sing along with, and for me Revolver narrowly beats out Abbey Road for two reasons: One, it’s a little bit more upbeat and foot-tappy, which is good for a car trip (I may well get a speeding ticket when listening to And Your Bird Can Sing), and two, I Want You (She’s So Heavy) is so damn hypnotic that I could see myself driving off the road when the music shuts off unexpectedly.

    4. Punch the Clock, Elvis Costello. This is still my favorite total album from a man that’s made so many amazing ones. It also includes my favorite E.C. lyric of all time: Since nights were long and days were olden, woman to man has been beholden/She sends back his tribute of a rose and says this ring is better suited for the nose/he’s always fingering.

    5. Narrow Stairs, Death Cab for Cutie. Pretty much guaranteed to not only not make the cut, but to not get a single vote from that gallery. But I still wants me some Death Cab.

    6. Making Movies, Dire Straits. Not the perfect album, but for those that still remember vinyl Making Movies might well have boasted the perfect “Side One.” My opinion of this album grows with each passing year.

    7. Rhapsody In Blue/An American In Paris/Suite for Porgy & Bess, George Gershwin, Oscar Levant – Piano. We need some kind of orchestral music; if we’re traveling through America, why not choose the most American orchestral piece of all time? Besides, the middle section of Rhapsody sounds like it was made to be listened to while driving.

    8. Exile on Main St, The Rolling Stones. Greatest Stones album ever, and a great album for driving.

    9. Quadrophenia, The Who. It’s been a long day, it’s already getting dark, and it’s time to get a wee bit quiet, circumspect and maudlin. Quadrophenia is a perfect soundtrack for all of that.

    10. Blue Train, John Coltrane. Considered by many to be the last of the classic hard-bop albums. It may well be the perfect album to sip whiskey to; it’s a great listen when driving long stretches by starlight.Report

    1. I’ll upvote Revolver and Narrow Stairs. I’d rather have Who’s Next than Quadrophenia, though.

      Although Death Cab intro album was Jack’s “ZOMG he still won’t freakin’ fall asleep drive around for 30 minutes in the car album” for a good reason, and might deserve rejection on the safety concern for just that reason.Report

    2. OHMYGOD!!! What is WRONG with me that I left off “Cosmic Thing”!?!?!? (Unlike you, I would [and do] totally play it at home.)

      I’ve already edited my list once, so I’m not gonna do it again. But consider this a massive 1+ for “Cosmic Thing.” It is one of my all-time favorite albums ever, and I did listen to it (back in the high and far-off times of the Walkman) on family road trips, over and over and over.Report

    4. This is not a downvote – I like the album OK, and I know it’s the consensus “best Stones” – but I’ll never understand why people prefer Exile to Fingers.

      Exile‘s production and songwriting are so samey/monotonous in comparison – I get tired of it.

      Fingers has great/varied songs, AND varied production/arrangement touches. I never get tired of it.Report

          1. Yes. It may also be the only great rock and roll song I have heard Tom Jones cover and nod my head in approval as I listened. How great a song does it have to be to allow THAT to happen???!!!Report

            1. Ian McCulloch said that he used to have a tape of “Gimme Shelter” that he had recorded from the LP, and during the recording he had manually manipulated the levels for maximum dynamics, so that when the drums kick in after the spooky into, it just knocks you across the room.

              Always wanted to do that myself. Sounds like the only possible improvement that could be made.Report

              3. Andrew Eldritch (of the Sisters of Mercy).

                I rambled about Gimme Shelter here, a million years ago.

                If you haven’t heard his version, you will benefit from hearing it.

                If you haven’t heard Merry Clayton’s version? YOU NEED TO.Report

            2. Tom Jones gave himself a bit of a bad rap by jumping into the Engleburt Humperdink / Wayne Newton genre, but he’s an excellent singer. My opinion of him changed drasticly when he covered Prince’s “Kiss”. His cover of “Tennessee Waltz” with the Chieftans is great.Report

      2. I can agree on the production, most of EOMS is pretty muddled and dirty. Except for Tumbling Dice (there just Mick is muddled and dirty).

        But even if the songwriting is heavy on the country-fried, there is variety in the music: consider Tumbling Dice vs. All Down the Line vs. Torn and Frayed.Report

        1. I have a bootleg of acoustic Stones outtakes called “Unplugged”, and the “All Down The Line” on that is PHENOMENAL. I went though like a 10-day period of just listening to it on a loop.

          And I DO like the album, and they are great songs. I just like “Sticky Fingers” better. They never showed so much range as there (think of the end of “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking”, where they give jazz & Carlos Santana a run for their money).Report

      1. Genuine question from someone who only owns the first 2 B-52’s records – what makes Cosmic Thing better than the s/t debut, which has “Rock Lobster”, “Planet Claire”, “Lava” “Moon”, et al?

        “Rock Lobster” ALONE makes the album superior to 95% of the human race’s entire historical recorded output.Report

        2. Speaking of the B-52s, here’s a confession that I may have already shared on a Blinded Trials thread: When I’m alone in my house cooking, I play the music really loudly. If I’ve had a glass of wine, I may dance while I cook. But if I’ve had two glasses of wine, I may sing – and if I sing, I may begin to sing duet versions of the songs using Fred Schneider’s voice and Tome Waits’s voice.

          The best is when Baby It’s Cold comes up on shuffle.

          Tom: ireallymustgo

          Fred: BUT BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE!!!!Report

          1. I’ve been working on a post about Fred Schneider but haven’t been able to perfect it.

            The general gist of the post is this: it would not be possible to phone in a performance more than the performance phoned in for Deadbeat Club.

            Except for four or five paragraphs.Report

              1. Oh, when he brings the energy, he brings the energy. He was party rock before such a thing even existed.

                And I’m not even saying that I don’t like “Deadbeat Club” (it might be my favorite song on the album).

                It’s just… well, listen to that song again. Fred is not even phoning it in, he’s mailing it in.Report

              2. A polite dissent — that’s a deeply poignant song, essentially about the band’s beginnings. (And absent a founding member who died of AIDS.) It’s all about Cindy and Kate’s vocals, which are (as usual) lush and gorgeous. Fred’s typical contribution, which have kind of madcap quality even when the material is serious (see “Juicy Jungle”) would be all wrong, but since the song is about the band, leaving him out entirely would be wrong, too.

                Hence his minimal contribution, limited to the chorus.Report

          2. I do not believe you have ever shared this before. Because I find it so charming and adorable that I am certain I would have remembered it.

            (Note: It is of course possible that you shared it during one of my periods of scholarly exile, which are far too frequent.)Report

        3. Glyph, I love the B-52s something fierce. I love “Bouncing Off the Satellites” and “Cosmic Thing” best. As for the latter, it has “Dry County,” “Deadbeat Club” (which got me through my adolescence almost on its strength alone), “Roam” and “Channel Z.”Report

    7. Cosmic Thing is indeed a whole lot of fun. I can +1 it.

      Making Movies is good for that time of the drive just before sunset when a bit of self-hypnosis and alpha state in the brain is good for driving focus. And the guitar solos are ionospherically good. +1 there.

      I have a hard time picking between Exile on Main Street and Sticky Fingers if we’re going to rock out with Mick and Keef. Beggars Banquet is worth it for “Sympathy for the Devil” all on its own. Exile is a double album — what are the rules on that, does that count for one or two albums? In any event, I am totally down with the Stones for our road trip.Report

    8. Perfect side 1 is right. You’re doing something very right when a song as cool as Skateaway is the weak one.

      +1 for Quadrophenia. What’s better for a night drive past the water than Sea and Sand. (We’ll roll down the windows to get the sea breeze and picture being on our GS scooters.)Report

    9. Upvotes for Revolver, Making Movies, and Quadrophenia from here. More of my neutral whining for Blue Train (one of my favorite albums of all time that would likely lead to mass death by the 10th time through).

      And a very BIG upvote for Lyle Lovett, who is basically the best dude to play on any roadtrip ever.Report

  30. Which ten albums should we bring on our two month road trip?

    Oh, the photo album of my most adorable children, surely.Report

  31. By the way, Tod, I hate you for giving me the three vote option.

    Because I really, really, want to post a list.Report

      1. I’m thinking about checking the vote count at 11:59 on Saturday night and then posting the full list if MP doesn’t need the two votes to make the cut.

        Wait.. you said you’re calling the list on Sunday, but when does voting end?Report

  32. Fairly wide mix, some already mentioned.

    Israel Kamakawiwo’ole – Facing Future
    Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick
    The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s
    Cake – Comfort Eagle
    Metallica – S&M
    Paul Simon – Graceland
    Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers
    Mussorgsky / Ravel – Pictures at an Exhibition

    My thinking: wider mix helps keep it a little more interesting for longer. Yeah, there’s some modern pop in there, but I find the clever lyrics of FoW to be entertaining enough to overrule my classic rock preference (ditto with the funk baselines of Cake.). Also why I chose S&M over Metallica’s black album or Justice. And Iz… his take on Somewhere Over the Rainbow is one of my go-to songs for relaxation, I’m assuming needed at some point on the road trip, so I’ll bargain my ass off to keep that album, just for that one song (though it’s a great album overall.)Report

      1. I’d go with Songs from the Wood or Stand Up over Aqualung… just too overplayed, and I don’t want to start a road trip listening to songs I’m already sick of.

        Of which I’m already sick. Whatever. Point being Aqualung, appropriately enough, I suppose, makes me want to drown babies.Report

  33. In no particular order.

    1. Dead Kennedys: Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
    2. Lucinda Williams: Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
    3. The Damned: Phantasmagoria
    4. Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow
    5. The Cult: Love
    6. Guns n’ Roses: Appetite for Destruction
    7. Talking Heads: Speaking in Tongues
    8. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (I don’t care if it’s an anthology, your “no greatest hits” album doesn’t apply in the case of lost gone blues musicians who didn’t record actual albums.)
    9. Mississippi John Hurt: 1928 Sessions.
    10. Fleetwood Mac: RumoursReport

        1. As far as I’m concerned, everything interested done by Guns and Roses is distilled in “Lies”. All the rest of their albums are worse.

          I do like “Lies”, though.Report

          1. Sorry, threaded that wrong, this wasn’t in response to you, it was in response to myself.

            Anything by the Talking Heads would get a vote from me. But I like all their studio albums better than Stop Making Sense, because of associations.Report

        2. Stop Making Sense is great, and Remain in Light is very good, but I like Tongues better for listening straight through on a road trip.Report

        1. No, it’s very very right. Look, I used to like them. They obviously were very talented. But then I came to realize they actually weren’t that innovative, they were just really good–fantastic really–at picking up on trends and going that direction. And damn near every song is a test of wills between Lennon’s moralizing and McCartney’s pubescent sappiness. And they’re so goddamed overplayed that I want to drive into a ditch at 90 mph whenever I hear them on the radio. There’s so much music from the ’60s that’s so much better, like Traffic, CCR, the Stones (I don’t really like them, but they don’t irritate me like the fishing Beatles), Airplane, The Doors, Joplin, Hendrix, The Byrds,…

          You could choose ten great rock albums from the ’60s and never touch the Beatles.Report

    5. Up voting the Talking Heads.

      I will need to consult my mood ring and pet rock on Fleetwood Mac.

      Do the Damned and Fleetwood Mac cancel each other out? Talking about opposite ends of the 1970s spectrum here. Back then wouldn’t Damned fans hate on Fleetwood fans?Report

      1. I figure variety is what’s needed for a long trip. Loved the list of blues albums somebody posted above, and I’d be thrilled with any of them, but we need variety.Report

      2. The early Fleetwood Mac wasn’t so terrible. Warm Ways is a perfect song. Only later, as they all staggered through that blizzard of cocaine did things get hateful. I would lick the tires of the truck that took Christine McVie’s dresses to the cleaners.Report

  34. 1 Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
    2 Infected Mushroom – Classical Mushroom
    3 Wendy Carlos – Switched-on Bach
    4 Cowboy Junkies – The Trinity Session
    5 Joni Mitchell – Blue
    6 Saafi Brothers – Mystic Cigarettes
    7 Jethro Tull – This Was
    8 Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
    9 Various – Pi soundtrack (not to be confused with The Life of Pi)
    10 Bob Marley – Exodus

    That ended up being way less electronic than I would probably actually pack.Report

  35. I forgot the rules.

    So by zic’s unanimous consent, I hereby decree one downvote for each album by Springsteen. If he’s on, I’m out of the car; with the sole exception of that short and sweet song, I’m on Fire.Report

  36. mornings
    slayer – reign in blood

    middays
    will oldham – i see a darkness

    evenings
    boards of canada – music has the right to childrenReport

  37. Holy Shit comments!

    I thought I was an early bird!

    Anyways, I feel bad for whoever has to tally everything up.

    I put all points into CCR. CCR is the best music for road trips. There is nothing else to compare.Report

  38. 1. Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness – Smashing Pumpkins (was going to go with Siamese Dream, but I felt like I had to stand up for Mellon Collie)
    2. Are You Experienced – The Jimi Hendrix Experience
    3. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
    4. The Fat Of The Land – The Prodigy
    5. Until Now – Swedish House Mafia
    6. Texas Flood – Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
    7. There Is Nothing Left To Lose – Foo Fighters
    8. Elastica – Elastica
    9. No Need To Argue – The Cranberries
    10. My Dinosaur Life – Motion City SoundtrackReport

  39. 1. The Freewheelin Bob Dylan: Bob Dylan

    2. Willy and the Poor Boys: CCR

    3. Harvest: Neil Young

    4. The Covers Record: Cat Power

    5. War: U2

    6. Fear of Music: Talking Heads

    7. Up to Here: The Tragically Hip (only if we drive to Canada)

    8. Tattoo You: The Rolling Stones (weird pick, but I like it)

    9. No Need to Argue: The Cranberries

    10. “How to Avoid Huge Ships” Book on Tape: As Read by Lou FerrignoReport

    1. Interesting – CCR, Stones, Dylan and Talking Heads are all getting multiple votes, but they may end up getting split, due to choosing different albums.

      I thought of picking a U2 album, but War is one of my least favorite of theirs. I would have gone Joshua or Achtung.Report

      1. I think you might be the only person on earth who would construct S (the set of the best U2 albums) as {The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby}.Report

        1. Achtung is a weird case. It’s really an album. If you take it apart, the individual pieces are not all that strong (and good God, it has some of Bono’s worst lyrics EVER). But if you listen to it from start to finish, it’s got a real emotional shape and a flow.

          But hey, I even like Unforgettable Fire, and a lot of people don’t. And Zooropa is far better than it has any right to be; other bands would kill to make a record that interesting. It’s not until Pop that they really went off the rails.Report

          1. UF is awesome, but mostly because it sounds so unfinished. It gives these fascinating hints of a direction that they never really ended up taking, but damn I wish they would have. They’d be poorer, but I’d be richer.Report

            1. (from the back of the van, quietly, but for the 275th time):

              “Don’t move
              Don’t talk out of time
              Don’t think
              Don’t worry
              Everything’s just fine
              Just fine”

              (front of van):

              “That is IT, you two!”

              Heh. You two.Report

      1. It’s easy to forget because it was such a ubiquitous monster hit, but that is a phenomenal album front-to-back. I love that they casually dropped 3 singles in a row, right out of the gate.Report

        1. Kitty and I argue about this one.

          I think she’s/you’re correct, really. But Boy is really underrated as a premier album and War is just stupendous.Report

          2. Boy is terrific; not a wasted note, in that Joy Division-influenced way. I even like October; it gets a little experimental with the songs (even if the songs themselves are not quite as strong).

            But War leaves me cold (though I love the live versions of War songs on Under A Blood Red Sky – “Sunday” and “New Years” are MILES better there).

            War just sounds labored over – even when the songs are good, the tempos are too sluggish; no energy or life. It’s (IMO) their weakest album until Pop.

            But I am aware that I am in the minority.Report

              4. I’d allow for Rattle and Hum despite its grotesque self-indulgence because it’s wacky and most of the songs really do work. But no doubt Joshua Tree was their last really worthy album and everything since Rattle has been pretty trite pop stuff. I’m just waiting for Bono to go Sting and do nothing but boring ballads all the time.Report

    4. +1 U2; but I’m with Glyph on my favorite.

      +1 Harvest, combined with After the Goldrush the soundtracks of my teens (before I discovered Miles). Farm life of poverty in rural Maine was pretty bleak, musically speaking; Neil Young certainly captured that bleakness.Report

    7. HOORAY FOR THE HIP!!!!

      And my favorite (and only) Hip concert was here in Colorado Springs. There were like 300 people in attendance. I was in front of the stage the whole time. I had the two conversations below over and over.

      Me (to American friend): I went to a Tragically Hip concert this weekend! It was awesome!!! I was in front of the stage the whole time!!!
      AF: A what concert?

      Me (on the phone to Canadian friend): GUESS WHAT? I saw the Hip IN A CONCERT HALL! There were like 300 people there!!! I WAS AT THE FRONT OF THE STAGE!!!
      CF: OH MY FUCKING GOD I HATE YOU TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT.

      Just sayin’.Report

      1. I had pretty much that same experience at a No Means No concert. 300 people, right in front of the stage (knees bruised from the surging crowd continually bumping me into the edge of the stage), every Canadian I’ve ever met instantly knowing who I was talking about, and most Americans not having a clue.

        In fact if I hadn’t already used up my 10 picks I’d suggest “Why Do They Call Me Mr. Happy,” because who doesn’t want to be driving down the road singing, “Cats, Sex, and Nazis!”Report

      1. Yeah, all of their other albums are uneven, great mixed with blah, but that unplugged MTV dealey was really a great moment in music, IMO. Might be my favorite album ever, certainly of the grungy (I say “grungy”) movement.Report

        1. I listened to it so much that when a girlfriend added “About a Girl” to a mix-CD she made for me, I identified it within the first second of the opening applause.

          Maybe I’m crazy, but I always found the various covers to be the best part of that album, though all of it is really incredible.Report

    1. Now that made me want to put a bubblegum top ten list together.

      Lief Garrett – Lief Garrett
      The Osmonds – Crazy Horses
      The Partridge Family – The Partridge Family Album
      New Kids on the Block – Hangin’ Tough
      Hanson – Hanson
      N’Sync – No Strings
      Backstreet Boys – Millennium
      Color Me Badd – Time And Chance

      And I can’t bring myself to dig up two more.Report

        2. We used to sing Hanson together in the car. Also, Jaybird knows a lot of NKOTB dances for someone who supposedly only learned them because he thought it would be silly and cute given my 13-year-old swooning crush on the band… (er, crush when i was 13, not a crush lasting 13 years). A LOT. You could see him perform them. It would be memorable.Report

      3. For the love of God, this would have me driving an ice pick into my eardrum with a ball peen hammer. I guess there is some mercy there, though: no Shaun Cassidy.Report

  42. The rules are a bit unfair to those of us who don’t listen to “albums” much.

    In the interest of playing along, I nominate “Porgy and Bess”. I enjoy the Price/Warfield/Calloway recordings, but have a soft spot for the 1959 film soundtrack (Robert McFerrin and Adele Addison and Cab Calloway).

    Trivia: the Robert McFerrin who dubbed for Sidney Poitier in the 1959 film is Bobby McFerrin’s father.

    If you’ve never heard it, here is a link to a selection of 4 songs from the 1959 film soundtrack:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZsVMQSCXyk

    and here is a link to Warfield and Price:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hDtUNSrhqIReport

      1. I’ve been singing the songs to myself over the past few weeks, so it was fresh in my mind, Mr. Hanley.

        I keep thinking about this part:

        De folks wid plenty o’ plenty
        Got a lock on de door
        ‘Fraid somebody’s a-goin’ to rob ’em
        While dey’s out a-makin’ more
        What for

        I got no lock on de door
        Dat’s no way to be
        Dey kin steal de rug from de floor
        Dat’s okeh wid me
        ‘Cause de things dat I prize
        Like de stars in de skies
        All are free

        I think there’s something important in there that I need to hear. So, I’ve been singing it to myself.Report

      1. You may also be interested in the fact that Robert McFerrin was the first black male to sing at the Met, though Marian Anderson was the first black person (and first black woman) to sing at the Met. They both debuted in January, 1955.

        Mr. McFerrin was also the first black person to sing at both the Met and the NYC Opera. He only performed in opera for a few years, though.

        As one could imagine, he was a tremendous influence on his son, Bobby. Unfortunately, there are few recordings of Mr. McFerrin. I find his voice to be wonderful.Report

  43. Interesting question – it’s not really all time favorite albums at all. I see a ton of good suggestions above, so I sort of tried not to double up in case I have to hitch hike when the sun goes behind a cloud.

    Anyway, I think these need to be albums that pass the time or imprint a place passing outside. Sounds for daybreak, long hot afternoons, night alone, small windy roads and bumper to bumper traffic on the interstate loop. Music you can talk over, keep you awake, or just draw hours out of the ride.

    Weird that no female vocalists came to mind right away.

    1- Grateful Dead – American Beauty
    2 – Rolling Stones – Let it Bleed
    3 – Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
    4 – Primal Scream – Screamadelica
    5 – Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
    6 – Dark Was the Night – Blind Willie Johnson
    7 – Sublime – 40 oz. to Freedom
    8 – Pogues – Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
    9 – U2 – October
    10- Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin and Paco DeLucia – Friday Night in San FranciscoReport

    1. Wow, that’s a really great mix of genre.

      This is I think the third time someone’s thrown up the Pogues. I wonder if we’d done this a month from now or a month ago if they’d have still gotten nominations, or are they just in everyone’s head because it’s almost the 17th?Report

      1. I field tested this question once awhile back – driving many, many miles with just Rum Sodomy and the Lash, Prolonging the Magic, and Tea for the Tillerman. It could have been a lot worse. I have no idea what happened to the other 2 CDs, but I still have the Pogues.

        When I was 19 or so, I was backpacking around and for a six month stretch I was down to exactly 2 cassettes: INXS Kick and something by the Eurythmics. When it finally came down to that or Turkish music playing on the long distance bus to Lake Van…Report

    2. American Beauty is a great choice, though I only ever listen to half of it (Box of Rain, Friend of the Devil, Sugar Magnolia, Ripple, Truckin’)Report

  44. With an eye towards driving I’d pick:

    1. Beastie Boys – Check Your Head
    2. Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense
    3. Primus – Pork Soda
    4. Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here
    5. O Brother Where Art Thou – soundtrackReport

  46. I think I still have at least one pick, so….

    Heart — A number of contenders, but I’ll go with “Dreamboat Annie”

    =========================================

    I think an “Unplugged” album is awfully close to a Greatest Hits — should they be eliminated or downvoted?Report

    1. Upvote.

      Also, I would argue that both Clapton and Nirvana’s Unplugged albums are not particularly close to a greatest hits… or at least, they are a LOT closer to being “the band covering itself” which is a different thing, to me. There are Unplugged albums that are just greatest hits… but not those two.Report

  47. For Pat – I assume I will now get laughed off the thread but here’s my list (all albums that have been used for the road trips up and down CA, in the past and in the very recent, so well known and well loved by me) – chosen if I listen from start to finish without having to jump tracks. I only get to pick 10 so these were the visceral, gut choices that jumped to mind:

    1) Garbage – Garbage or 2.0 (Sherilyn is my goddess)
    2) David Sylvian – Gone to Earth (if I’m feeling melancholy and driving alone, not a family favorite by any means – listened to many times when driving away from the Bay Area when I was in college
    3) Pet Shop Boys – Very (sentimental favorite with husband, listened to many times when we were first dating)
    4) Imagine Dragons – Night Visions (proving to be a very solid go to of late)
    5) P!nk – Truth About Love (another recent acquisition with an insane level of air play in my car and children be damned – they gotta learn to cuss properly sometime)
    6) Peter Murphy – Deep (although Holy Smoke holds its own)
    7) Duran Duran – Rio (although the new one, All You Need is Now is a solid album and of course, their first album which just has nostalgia all over it!)
    8) Depeche Mode – Music for the Masses or Violator (but anything before that works too, more recent works are played a bit more sparingly, trackwise, as I’m not a fan of all the times that Martin Gore has started being the lead singer)
    9) Chicago Movie Soundtrack or Moulin Rouge (but there are two different versions of that and I prefer the first disk)
    10) Imogen Heap – I, Megaphone or Speak for Yourself (probably lean towards the latter)Report

              2. So you ironically like “Wild Boys”?

                Or do you hate “Wild Boys”?

                Because there are three types of Duran fans, those who un-ironically like Wild Boys, those who ironically like Wild Boys, and those who hate Wild Boys.

                The ones who hate Wild Boys are objectively correct, and subjectively wrong.

                Me, I *love* Wild Boys.

                But then, I’m also the guy who almost put Synchronicity on his list with the two editorial comments “WTF people, no Police yet?” and “… and yeah, you’re not allowed to skip ‘Mother’.”Report

    3. I somehow missed Moulin Rouge on here last time. Now I am singing Roxanne to myself in my very rusty baritone-falsetto. (My fake baritone range used to WORK, at least for harmony purposes. It doesn’t really anymore. But late at night, in the library? I still indulge.)Report

  48. Billie Holiday – Lady Sings the Blues
    Iggy Pop – Lust For Life
    Jesus and Mary Chain – Darklands
    Toy Dolls – Dig That Groove
    Are we allowed to pick ten and have unlimited up and down votes or do I only have four more votes since I’ve already up voted two?Report

    1. My reading of the rules is you can submit 1 (+3), or up to ten (+1 each), and you can also comment on other people’s suggestions for +1/-1 each, but you only get one +1/-1 per album.Report

    2. +1 on Darklands. Psychocandy is a DID for me, but I figured that one would never fly with this crowd (it’s STILL noisy, after all this time), so I didn’t include it. But I totally forgot that Darklands tones down the noise for my travelmates, while keeping the tunes.Report

    3. I’m gonna pull my vote for Toy Dolls since unless my car mates join me in breaking out into a roaring rendition of Nellie the Elephant, it just might make other folks crazy. Instead I chose Jazz Butcher – Bloody Nonsense. Chances are here someone will know “Drink” and I will have a singing partner.Report

  50. And I’m sure it’s prolly disqualified for being a compilation, and I haven’t read all 2,987 comments, but we cannot go that far with out Oscar Peterson – Exclusively for my Friends. A 4 disc set of magic.Report

  51. City of Angles soundtrack.

    I’ll come back another day and see if this thread has hit 1000 comments and decide if I want to add the other nine or leave it as is to give this one a fighting chance.

    BTW my sportscar is similar to Rtod’s imaginobile, it has a CD changer behind the driver’s seat where it is inconvenient as hell to get at. Worse it only holds 6 CD’s at a time.Report

  52. U2-The Joshua Tree
    Sam Phillips-Martinis and Bikinis
    Steve Earle-The Revolution Starts Now
    Johnny Cash- American IV:The Man Comes Around
    Warren Zevon: The Wind
    Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coletrane at Carnegie Hall
    Watchmen Soundtrack
    Beatles-Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club BandReport

  53. 1. The Clash – London Calling
    2. Steely Dan – Aja
    3. Rolling Stones – Some Girls
    4. Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
    5. Minutemen – Double Nickels
    6. Beatles – White Album
    7. Johnny Cash – American Songs
    8. Sufjan Stevens – Fell the Illinoize
    9. Talking Heads – Remain in Light
    10. Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear the Heart Beating as OneReport

  54. Here goes, in no particular order:

    1. Back in Black – AC/DC
    2. Appetite for Destruction – Guns N’ Roses
    3. Joshua Tree – U2
    4. Crash – Dave Matthews Band
    5. Under the Table and Dreaming – Dave Matthews Band
    6. Van Halen – Van Halen
    7. Who’s Next – The Who
    8. Led Zeppelin I – Led Zeppelin
    9. Live at Madison Square Garden – O.A.R.
    10. Metallica (Black Album) – MetallicaReport

    2. -1 on AC/DC. I had to listen to more than enough of that stuff with a former boyfriend. Makes me want to go screaming into the night. The same for Van Halen and Metallica.Report

      1. Porcupine Tree / Steven Wilson are completely unique. It’s always unfair to lump bands/artists into genres but Steven Wilson is what Roger Waters might have been if he had not become such a lugubrious smeg.Report

      1. The word baroque comes from a term for an odd-shaped pearl. If ever there was an odd pearl pulled from the sea, it’s Pet Sounds. The remastered version under the link is a revelation.Report

    1. Heh, where were you in the Fatboy Slim thread when I posted “Happy Hour” (I couldn’t find a video for “You Better Be Doubtful”)?

      Busted – now I know who else is MY age!Report

        1. No doubt…the whole comment started with me shamefully admitting that I had purchased Fatboy records, but trying to ameliorate that sin with my knowledge of his prior musical efforts in Housemartins.Report

            1. Fatboy Slim is excellent “we’re playing group-friendly video games” music. I think we logged about 100 hours of Twisted Metal with YCALWB as the soundtrack.Report

            2. Oh man. My friend saw whatever facsimile of The Beat that is still touring a few years ago, and he said don’t bother.

              No Saxa, no Glyph, that’s my motto.Report

  57. I’m a daily lurker, and sparing commenter. As someone who lives in the destination city, and would love to meet some of the faces behind the names, and one that absolutely loves music, here’s my list (and Oh, my gosh, so much good music left behind!):

    1. XTC – Skylarking
    2. Field Music – Tones of Town
    3. New Model Army – Thunder and Consolation
    4. Blur – Parklife
    5. Dave Brubeck Quartet – Take Five
    6. Kurt Elling – The Messenger
    7. R.E.M. – Automatic for the People
    8. Wayne Hancock – Tulsa
    9. Tally Hall – Marvin’s Marvelous Mechanical Museum
    10. New York Philharmonic under Berstein: Copland: Appalachian Spring~Rodeo~Billy the Kid~Fanfare for the Common ManReport

    1. +1 to Wayne Hancock! And I hope you’ll reveal yourself at Leaguefest. I’m not a huge Brubeck fan myself, but I respect him lots, and think anyone who likes both Brubeck and Hancock has to be a righteous dude.Report

    3. Slade:

      A few things:

      1. Totally stoked that we may see you in Chicago.

      2. Great choice on XTC. My favorite would be Apple Wasp, but since I didn’t even think to go there, kudos to you.

      3. You are the only human being I know other than myself that listens to Tally Hall. They opened for Guster a few years ago in Portland, and they were AMAZING.

      4. I now feel a sense of shame that it hadn’t occurred to me until I read you list to even consider an Ellington recoding! A travesty! What the hell was I thinking? I will now go out in the yard and pour dirt on my head.

      5. All in all, a great list. This might be my favorite list of 10 from top to bottom.Report

      1. Tod,

        Tally Hall put on such a great live show, and sadly the group is probably no more. It’s rare to see such joy on stage. I saw them close a show with an absolutely killer cover of Freebird. I did pass on my love of TH to my daughter and some friends here, so we’re not totally alone.

        Not Ellington, though Live at Newport was in serious contention, but ELLING. Jazz vocalist from Chicago. His early stuff is so inventive. So, no dirt.Report

    4. Oh God yes for Copland.

      And you broke my resistance to upvoting jazz with Take Five. Yes, plese, that one. (It’s not the best jazz in these comments. But it is the one I have listened to enough times to wear out TWO cassette tapes. Durable.)Report

  58. Wait, is Illimatic the only rap album so far… Ya’ll are some seriously… OK, I won’t say it.

    I feel I should link to this, and then feel guilty for linking to stuff I wrote (a long time ago).Report

      1. I nominated “The Mouse and The Mask” by Danger Doom, and holy goddammit, I just realized the album I’d spent all day trying to remember: “The Score” by The Fugees. Whatever. I’m an idiot. Can I add it?Report

      2. We need the funk.

        Our lists gotta get that funk.

        And as white as the lists are already, there is also fairly little country music, which is pretty popular nationwide. And there’s a pro 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and maybe 90’s bias.

        This all gives some evidence about the demographics of the league.Report

      3. Well, Stevie Wonder is up there, and Glyph and I said we should have included Marvin Gaye, but we didn’t, so… And I don’t know what I would include of Ray Charles.

        But honestly, hip hop makes for some great driving music. During the summers in college, I used to drive with another guy back and forth to a bunch of cities around Nashville for work, often not getting back to Franklin until well after 3 am, and Wu Tang Clan is the only reason we didn’t die in a fiery crash after falling asleep.Report

          1. Ugh, my apologies to Kazzy and Sam. I didn’t notice Kazzy’s and I’d forgotten Sam’s nominations (in my defense, there were like 450 comments when I wrote that, so I was hoping I might have missed some, plus I’ve gotten like 10 hours of sleep in the last 4 days).Report

      4. I wanted to do James Brown, but everything I have is compiled (Star Time, Pass The Peas: Best of JB’s, etc.) so I wasn’t sure what album to pick.

        The rules excluding compilations/best of’s really hurt singles artists, and dance music (and hip-hop is dance music) is all about singles (see my complaint about not being able to get New Order on – otherwise Substance would have been a lock).Report

        1. There are two kinds of hip hop*: hip hop for the club and hip hop for the headphones. You dance to the former and you listen really closely to the latter. It all came from club music in the 70s, but at some point (in the mid-to-late 80s), some of it took a storytelling, almost conversational turn. Hell, though I haven’t seen anyone doing it in years, it wasn’t uncommon, once upon a time, to see people in a coffee house or a restaurant rapping a conversation. Now, a lot of the really good hip hop is really a fusion of the club part and the conversation part, but when it is conversational like that, or at least when it’s a form of story-telling, it’s not always about the singles. I mentioned him over at Jay’s place, but check out Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City for an excellent recent example of an album that’s meant to be listened to as a whole.

          But to contradict all of that, I’ll link to this again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4S2avleyeM

          *There are two kinds of people: those who divide everything into to types, and those who don’t. Both of them are wrong.Report

  60. Golden Age of Radio, by Josh Ritter, will be my only nomination. A good mix of songs, fantastic lyrics, and rewards relistening.Report

  61. You can’t have a road trip without Jerry Jeff Walker….IMHO. I just haven’t been able to decide which album to pick.Report

  62. 1. Playboy: A History in Pictures
    2. Penthouse: A History in Pictures
    3. Swank: A History in Pictures
    4. The Pop-up Kama Sutra: What Part of Pop-up Don’t You Understand?
    5. Nina Hartley: A Life in Pictures
    6. The Making of “Where the Boys Aren’t” [Norton edition]
    7. The Oxford Bettie Page
    8. “Oooooooooooohhhhhhhhhh Gaaaaaaawwwwwwwwd…”: the Poetry of Jenna Jameson
    9. The Penguin Illustrated Nudity, Nudism, and Nakedness, Did We Mention Nudity?
    10. The Holy Bible

    Wait a minute; is this the “essential books on a desert island” thread or the “Sgt. Pepper and Led Zeppelin IV” thread?Report

  63. I’m trying to only go with new albums not named above here, so:
    1.. Pat Green- George’s Bar.
    2. Springsteen – Born to Run
    3. Peter Tosh- Captured Live
    4. Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound
    5. Dr. Dre- the Chronic (Chris is right- we need some kind of rap on here)
    6. Spearhead -Home (I thought about De La Soul or Tribe Called Quest here, but I think this album is under appreciated).
    7. Jimmy Cliff, Toots and the Maytals, et al- Harder They Come soundtrack (I’m actually shocked and appalled no one has this on the list yet)
    8. Temple of the Dog- self-titled
    9. Gin Blossoms- New Miserable Experience – we need some sort of mediocre 90’s rock, do we not?
    10. Allison Krauss and Union Station- New FavoriteReport

    2. Hoo-ah, now that I’ve HEARD of the Harder They Come soundtrack, I will totally agree to it. (I know all those songs. I’ve been to a sweaty hippie fest where Toots and the Maytals were headlining, in the last five years, even. Just, you know, I wasn’t born yet back then – still trying to catch up)

      *orders that album on amazon next time she has dough*Report

      1. Toots puts on a fannnn-tastic show. I saw him about 15 years ago at a frat party of all places (it was a frat that I had a less than pleasant relationship with, but there was zero chance I’d ever pass on a chance to see Toots) – still one of the top 3 or 4 shows I’ve ever seen. It’s staggering that they still keep the touring schedule that they have – I mean, they’ve only been making music for 50 years. Which reminds me – he’s playing in NYC on my birthday this year; unfortunately, the venue is terrible and I’ve vowed never to see a show there again. But still…Toots.Report

        1. I saw Toots a few years back, and yeah, he was good.

          The crowd was…ah..enthusiastic about “Legalizing It”. I think I got a secondhand high. Not sure if that affected my opinion. It sure seemed like he played a LONG time.Report

    3. +1 on Harder They Come. That is a GREAT choice.

      -1 on Bruce (sorry).

      -? on Temple of the Dog

      And I’ve had to do this before around here, but I will stick up for that Gin Blossoms. The songs that Doug Hopkins wrote are perfect, sad alcoholic anthems. You know what, I’m giving that a +1 just for the chance to make the case again.Report

      2. I’ll upvote the Gin Blossoms, too. One of the great albums ever? No. A good album to listen to as you’re rolling through Ohio late at night with a few beers in you? Oh, yeah.Report

    4. 9. Gin Blossoms- New Miserable Experience – we need some sort of mediocre 90?s rock, do we not?

      No, we do not. If we’re going to have 90’s rock, let it be good, not mediocre. It’s not like there was a shortage of good rock in the nineties. Nirvana. Garbage.

      Downvote on the Gin Blossoms.Report

        1. 1.) Drink some whiskey.

          2.) Listen to “Lost Horizons” or “Pieces of the Night”. Pay attention to the lyrics.

          3.) Comment again.Report

              2. Yeah.

                Doug once told me that he could barely remember writing “Hey Jealousy.” He remembered clearly that it was a story about the sister of a singer he’d been in a band with, this beautiful girl that he and everyone else had a crush on but couldn’t touch. He had something with her once but he blew it — the drinking. That’s all he remembered about writing it. That and he hated the Gin Blossoms singer for changing the word in his lyric; he swapped “drink” with “think.” Those lyrics were straight from Doug’s daily vocabulary, his usual promise to a new girl. Honest shit.

                You can trust me not to drink/And not to sleep around/If you don’t expect too much from me/You might not be let down.

                Report

    6. +1 on The Chronic. Until I heard Nas, which was a couple years after Illimatic had come out, The Chronic was my favorite hip hop album. 2001 is pretty cool as well.

      I really love Allison Krauss’ voice, but I really don’t like her songs. This isn’t a down vote, just me expressing my frustration that someone with that voice doesn’t have better songs to apply it to.Report

      1. I expect you are already aware of Raising Sand (Krauss + Robert Plant), but I thought I should mention it, in case. (I feel similarly conflicted, and I find I like this album a lot better because OTHER PEOPLE WROTE THE SONGS and they are good ones.)Report

    7. +1 on BtR, CL, HTC an NME

      -1 on The Chronic. I hate Dr Dre, and I think he had Tupac done in because Tupac was branching out and becoming more popular than Dre.Report

  64. Rules are for Statists. I notice a dearth of soundtracks on here (I mean, not an *ABSENCE*… but you’d think we’d have more…) so I will try to rectify that with my top ten soundtracks for driving.

    1. Trainspotting (yeah, yeah, like you didn’t see that coming)
    2. Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
    3. Saturday Night Fever (Mmmmmmmm. The Bee Gees.)
    4. Local Hero
    5. Superfly
    6. I am torn between Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, and Jackie Brown. One of those.
    7. The Basketball Diaries
    8.Repo Man
    9. I kinda feel like I should put one of the big 50’s adaptations of a broadway play here. Fiddler, maybe. Man of La Mancha. Something like that.
    10. Jesus Christ SuperstarReport

    1. 6. Reservoir Dogs, not because it’s a better soundtrack, but because only “Stuck in the Middle With You” can give us that special Tarantino moment. (Although Pulp Fiction would give us the incomparable “Son of a Preacher Man.”)Report

    2. We had both the Fiddler and Man of La Mancha soundtrack albums when I was little, and we wore them out. Local Hero was Mark Knopfler, right?Report

          1. We’ve got the foundations for a Top Ten Instrumental

            Peter Gabriel – Last Temptation Of Christ Soundtrack
            God Is An Astronaut – The End Of The Beginning
            Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place
            Brian Eno – The Equatorial Stars

            But I wouldn’t want too much instrumental. We’re driving, after all.Report

    3. +1 to Repo Man. I might add a Wes Anderson soundtrack, just for the great Kinks tracks and Steve Zissou the life Aquatic in particular, especially if it had Staralfour on it.Report

    9. I should probably note here (and should have before) that since Jaybird has already made a list of ten nominations, that none of these ten count as nominations… and therefore, none of the upvotes are bing counted unless the album has already been nominated elsewhere.Report

  65. Okay, I cracked, I can’t take it any more. Some of these would be bumped by some things that have already been mentioned, but they deserve votes. So here you go.

    1. Rush, Moving Pictures
    2. A Tribe Called Quest, Midnight Marauders
    3. What’d I Say, Ray Charles
    4. Natural Ingredients, Luscious Jackson
    5. Whitechocolatespaceegg, Liz Phair
    6. Tres Hombres, ZZ Top
    7. Ride the Lightning, Metallica
    8. The Dock of the Bay, Otis Redding
    9. Alive!, Oingo Boingo (because Tod said I could)
    10. Being There, Martyn JosephReport

      2. Doesn’t look like the boys need those two points as much as the rest of these folk need their (at least one) honorable mention.

        I am happydancing that I got Maribou to strongly agree with six of the choices and not downvote any on my first comment. Total net contribution of points just on that alone is -2 to Moving pictures, +15 points overall. I’ll take a 7.5 – 1 trade ratio.Report

  66. I am desperately torn between Ani Dfranco’s Dilate (y’all need more CUSSING and SEX in your van, seriously) and Lyle Lovett’s Sleep Inside This House (which I was introduced to on a road trip).
    ….
    …..
    …..

    Gotta go with Sleep Inside This House. It is the perfect road trip album. You won’t have heard most of these songs before (they’re covers of 21 songs by Texas songwriters who influenced him) and by the end of the trip you will be in love with ALL of them. At least, that’s what happened to me in Wyoming once.Report

        1. Right?

          I actually started to embed some of those songs in this post and then I just wanted to embed ALL of them, and, well. I think that would break the comments and it might be cheating besides which. People know how to use the Googs.Report

    2. My whole music world is topsy-turvey because I have a not-yet-seven year old and a not-yet-nine year old.

      Sucka Nigga is not a song I’m quite ready to explain yet. Not to Hannah, anyway. Jack could grok it.Report

  67. ok Patrick, just because you asked.

    1. Ride: Going Blank Again
    2. Mew: And The Glass Handed Kites
    3. James: Hey Ma
    4. U2: Unforgettable Fire
    5. The Verve: A Storm In Heaven
    6. Radiohead: the Bends
    7. James: Seven
    8. Johnny Cash: American IV: The Man Comes Around
    9. Anya Marina: Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II
    10. Neko Case: BlacklistedReport

      1. “A Sort of Homecoming” and the title track are both really great. “Wire” rocks in a way they rarely did. And “Bad” only suffers by comparison to the live take on Wide Awake in America.

        Tod, if you don’t close comments on this thing soon, you will be collating until we get ANOTHER new Pope.Report

        1. In the spirit of the road trip, these aren’t my top 10 albums, but truly the ones I enjoy whilst rocketing up or down California to/from Oregon on I-5. The idea is to make dodging big rigs on mountain passes overlooking grand vistas a cinematic experience. For as long as possible until the Yo Gabba Gabba contingent in the back imposes its will upon their overlords.Report

  69. Hmm…I’m picky enough that I don’t really like that many whole albums, plus I didn’t really start listening to music until albums were on their way out. But here’s my best shot, in no particular order:

    1. Styx: The Grand Illusion – For Kazzy, and because “The Angry Young Man” is awesome.
    2. Billy Joel: Cold Spring Harbor – Because screw you haters, that’s why.
    3. Tim Buckley: Goodbye and Hello – Before the heroin went to his brain.
    4. Blood, Sweat & Tears: Child is Father to the Man – Because I can’t quit “I Can’t Quit Her.”
    5. Roy Orbison: King of Hearts – ’80s music…with Roy Orbison!
    6. Bobby Darin: If I Were a Carpenter – You can’t tell from his own recordings, but it turns out Tim Hardin was actually a pretty good songwriter.
    7. Neil Diamond: Tennessee Moon: See #2.
    8. Dusty Springfield: Dusty in Memphis
    9. Miyuki Nakajima: Coldwater Fish – Obligatory self-indulgent choice that no one else has heard of.
    10. Gin Blossoms: New Miserable Experience – It was getting a bit too easy-listening.Report

        2. Definitely nothing wrong with Billy Joel. I’ve got his “Last Play at Shea” concert/documentary permanently saved on my DVR, partly because I love the music, and partly because the Mets were such a big part of my childhood that watching it gets me all verklempt.Report

  70. In no particular order

    Live seeds- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
    Yes-Morphine
    Ragin’, Full On – fIREHOSE
    Faithless Streets – Whiskeytown
    Bitches Brew -Miles Davis
    Los Angeles – X
    To Bring You My Love – PJ Harvey
    At Folsom Prison – Johnny Cash
    Dummy- Portishead
    Mothership Connection – ParliamentReport

      1. Sorry, I am gonna have to cancel Maribou with a -1 on PJ Harvey.

        I would’ve left it alone, but if it starts gaining, I’ll be in trouble, because I can’t stand PJ Harvey (one of the few vehement musical mismatches my wife and I have – she can’t play PJ in my car, I can’t play Faith No More in hers).Report

  71. mmm, Working from memory, (don’t want to turn on lights in that part of the house yet) Yes has Radar on it, and also it is one of the more forgotten albums. Cure For Pain was the first one I got, and love it for all of the right reasons, but sometimes you gotta dive a little deeper.

    Faithless streets has Factory Girl on it, and, well, you know how that goes. It doesn’t quite punch you in the gut like Dear Chicago, but you need a little melancholy on a road trip.

    I could drop the whole PFunk catalog in for a road trip, but we do need some variety.Report

  72. 1.Gorillazs-Gorillazs. many a road trip has the monkeys 4 gone on with me. The debut was to me the best. only wish there was a way to shove “Feel good” onto this one.

    2.Graceland-Paul Simon. because the first time you hear paul and linda on african skies it is hard not to be in primordial africa staring at the sky.

    3.Sgt.pepper-Beatles. because if you are going to pick just one this one has wayyy to much fun.

    4.Boston-Boston. i never ever get tired of this album. even when my player mislabels every song as the one before it. each song retarded by one makes it a oddly different album.

    5.Alpha Centuari-tangerine dream. for some smooth easy listening. always makes WY seem shorter.

    6. Fly-Sugar Ray. my 90’s favorite. the very first cd i bought with my own money. even the adam ant cover is brilliant.

    7. Gold&Platnum- lynyrd skynyrd. because i can not pick just one out of their cannon.

    8.Distant Worlds II: More Music from Final Fantasy-Just having these on hand lets you know how far down the nerd hole someone is. Plus we can sing One-winged angel in harmony.

    9. S&M-Metallica. because full orchestra +metal gods=Sweet Sweet Shredding.

    10.Best of 60’s surf.-Various. god knows where we could find it outside of the Cd my father gave me but i think the link between good Desert Island Disc’s and Good Road trip disc’s is sadly unstudied.Report

  73. Ironically I will be road-tripping to Chicago tomorrow morning for St.Patrick’s Day. The best road trip albums are not necessarily the best all-time albums. They serve a specific purpose i.e. to keep the driver awake and the passengers happy. There are albums in my all-time top 10 that I would never choose for a road trip because they aren’t those kinds of albums and vice versa. Also, if I was not restricted by our cruel master I would almost exclusively include greatest hits albums. Those are the fuel of a good road trip.Report

    2. Mike,

      I agree here. To my mind, the mark of the greatest bands shouldn’t be their greatest albums – which can be wildly uneven things – but their greatest hits albums. Some bands don’t produce music that can be heard outside of an album’s contexts, but many do, and they should be praised for having done so.Report

      1. I totally agree. There are great albums, and great sounding albums, and great albums to listen to over a glass of wine. The request here was great road trip albums. Beethoven and Mingus and Handel and Nick Drake are great, but totally wrong as road trip albums.

        Hell, I love Kind of Blue, and would have it on any ten best list. But for a road trip I would rather include the sound track to Spinal Tap. In fact, I have been on road trips where we played the soundtrack to Spinal Tap. BIG HIT.

        Bigger the cushion…Report

          1. I’m getting in another car. Seven hours driving across the cornfields of Iowa and you try to turn on Beethoven or Bitches Brew and see what really happens… Turn on Frankie Goes To Hollywood, and you’ll have everyone dancing in their seat.Report

            1. Yeah, but you gotta have some variety. It can’t be all seat dancing all the time, and I say this as a proud and brazen seat-dancer. You gotta slow it down from time to time, allow some space for conversation. Hence Beethoven, Nick Drake, etcReport

              1. There’s been a real dearth of dance music in these lists. Again, I wonder if that is a function of dance music being a singles medium, which eliminates a lot of good compilation records from eligibility.Report

        2. Agree.

          For me, classical music needs to be listened to in an environment where you can pay full attention with perfect sound for a long period, e.g. at home at night, where there is no pressure to interact with others while you listen.

          By myself on a long road trip, if my car had a good sound system(which it doesn’t) and little ambient noise, I could imagine listening to great classical music, but in a crowded car where people are having fun or relaxing or eating Doritos, it doesn’t makes sense to listen to Handel or Bach or Beethoven or anything classical. Not at all, for me.

          It should be fun but not too aggressive rock and pop and alternative, or Jazz or R&B, mellow but fun or a little sad and interesting.

          Classical music -to me- presents an alternative to living, and the ability to go beyond life and into the realm of the Forms or something where you reflect on life. outside of life. We need music (for the long trip) that presents the living moment of being in a car with friends and trying to experience emotions while being somewhat relaxed. Classical doesn’t do that at all, and some party music or dancemusic doesn’t do the right thing for that moment. Also, some music is too depressing or introspective for that moment, especially Pink Floyd and Radio Head and similar things,Report

          1. .. and now i’m really curious at to where you’ll place the album I mentioned above.
            I’m used to driving to listen to music (I don’t drive much), and turning off the music if I wanna talk.Report

          2. Bach and baroque music in general don’t abide by that convention. For one, they can be played nice ‘n loud. For some reason, classical music became the province of effetes and old trouts in tuxedoes, looking down their noses at the last century of musical progress. I’m here to say Bach and Mozart and the rest of ’em must be snatched away from these embalmers and innerleckshuls. U2 once said of the Beatles’ tune Helter Skelter: “This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.”

            I liked U2 a lot better before Bono decided he was Jesus. But he has a point here. Baroque music provided loads of opportunities for even mediocre musicians to jam. Yes, jam. We’ve come across manuscripts from Vivaldi where he’s just put in a G chord and four empty bars, expecting the musicians to give him a four bar break, right there.Report

            1. I’m here to say Bach and Mozart and the rest of ‘em must be snatched away from these embalmers and innerleckshuls.

              If you’re not already familiar, you should check out Yngwie Malmsteen’s Fugue from “Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op.1”.Report

        1. I think any one of these questions can be interesting.

          Here’s one that kept me busy in college for a while: you have ~5 hours to get from Los Angeles to Vegas. That’s 6 CDs, at ~50 min each.

          Prepare, compile, and burn the 6 CDs to produce the optimal mood at the arrival in Vegas.Report

          1. I would say that is how I read the original post. Some of the lists above make me wonder if I was in a minority on that. Either that, or they really do travel with a very different type of person than I ever have. Probably a bit of both.

            The proper mix of course needs to play not to the mix maker, but to the audience, only one of which was the burner himself. You want great music that the passengers can relate to that is appropriate to a social event, not a quiet reflective event. A great tape would have lots of stuff they haven’t heard in years, or stuff that is only great when sung along with four other people, and a few choice new tidbits that the passengers will say “I gotta get that album.”

            In my living room alone, I play Take Five or Berlioz. In a car full of people, it is Queen or Otis or one of the Marleys.Report

            1. I hung out with a lot of band and chorus geeks (still do) – I definitely was thinking about the entire group – but my assumptions are different, based on the people I have historically been on road trips with? It does seem, though, like I am not the only Leaguer who would be singing along with Take Five, loudly. I am trusting to the downvotes to make sure none of us really had to suffer.

              Dadit dadit dadit da da da…Report

            2. The proper mix of course needs to play not to the mix maker, but to the audience, only one of which was the burner himself.

              I agree with this. Not all of my suggestions are ones that I would take in any given car.

              I mean, I’m not going to pack the Metallica if there are people in the car who hate metal.

              But we’re sorta voting for the purposes of establishing what sorts of thing the Leaguers like. Think of our submissions less as “this is what I’d bring” and more like, “this is what I offer for consideration”. The voting process will tell us what the League actually wants to listen to.Report

    4. The ones I chose are CDs I’ve packed for long car trips. I don’t really want to be rocking out for 8 hours. Wholly agreed about the greatest hits though; I don’t go anywhere without my Kinks Kronikles.Report

  74. I’m gonna throw some random in the mix

    1) Flood – TMBG
    2) Freedom and Rain – June Tabor & The Oyster Band
    3) Fox Confessor… – Neko Case
    4) Live (On St’ Pat’s or Landsdowne, I’m flex) – Dropkick Murphys
    5) Ladle to the Grave – Boiled in Lead
    6) Dead Man’s Party – Oingo Boingo
    7) Graceland – Paul Simon
    8) High Heeled Blues – Rory Block
    9) Sean-Nós Nua – Sinéad O’Connor
    10) Salvaged/Spindrift – Clam ChowderReport

      1. “Mandinka” will ALWAYS get me on the dance floor. Lion & Cobra is a great record, and she basically did the whole record herself, Prince-style (she’s credited with writing, vocals, electric guitar, producer, mixing, arranger.)

        One of my favorite quotes about Sinead’s vox came in a Glenn McDonald review of Richard Buckner, by way of comparison:

        …Rock productions sometimes emphasize details like these, too, but they usually do so with aggressive compression (Sinéad O’Connor’s vocals on The Lion and the Cobra, for instance), which turns the projection of nuances into a form of confrontation. Here they are things you hear, but only barely, and it’s hard to be certain you’re even meant to. The intimacy of this, when it feels like you’re listening often as hard as the musicians are playing, is very different; if Sinéad’s howls are the closeness of the alien queen’s third jaws, clicking a centimeter from your face, this is more like the way you can tell, from the contours of the bed and the way the walls sound, without turning around, that your lover is there, awake too, keeping you company in your silent vigil against sleep.

        [emphasis mine]

        http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=twas&id=twas0161Report

          1. He’s a really good writer. I used to read his stuff religiously. He still posts there, but only sporadically about music anymore (his music blog was called “The War Against Silence” and all posts AFAIK are archived there, if you have some time peruse them).Report

      1. Yes, but only because I’m a trad music junkie.
        I lurve me some Sinéad in all her forms though so I’ll accept subs (if the Black Album wasn’t technically a box set it might have gotten the nod).Report

      2. I almost put The Clancey Brothers Live on St. Patrick’s Day, but I’m aware that not many people know the words to Johnny McEldoo and it’s only fun to sing along if everybody breaks into song.Report

  76. I do not know if this strictly adheres to the rules above but, if allowable, I submit The Allman Brothers “Eat a Peach” as the All-Time, A#1, No-Holds-Barred, Greatest Road Trip Album of All Time!!!11!!1!1!eleventy!etcetera. Hyperbole aside, being a double album it would take two slots in the disc changer.Report

  77. I think all the harder edged or fast rock, e.g. AC/DC, doesn’t really belong in a long car trip. Too aggressively fun and party-esque for a car trip. Nor does up-tempo, rhythmy hip hop that makes you want to dance make sense for a long trip. Dancing isn’t driving. I was tempted to put James Brown in the car, but you can’t drive and dance, and you have to dance to JB, on pain of logical and spiritual self-contradiction, so the car would get in a dancing related accident. So too, Michael Jackson. That constrained my choices. I also eschewed the Beatles because as much as I love everything they do, having already heard it a zillion times, putting it on repeat over 10 hours or something as the thought experiment suggested, could trigger some kind of Beatles overload psychosis. (Number 9, Number 9, Number 9, Number 9…)

    I was tempted to throw in some Wilson Picket, Ottis Redding, or Marvin Gaye to move away from the rock/alternative vibe that we seem to be, by and large, favoring, because they have some great driving music. (Only CCR is trulu designed for driving, though, IMO.) But as much as I love their work, I don’t know their albums (only downloaded individual favorite songs) because I am a music-idiot, with unfounded, cliche white-guy, rock/alternative biases.Report

    3. I have to agree about the Beatles . Growing up in a small town with only classic rock radio makes the Beatles hard to listen to now. I thought a lot about adding some Marvin Gaye, Nena Simone, Etta James, Sam Cooke…but everything I have by them is tracks or compilations. I’m not sure I really enjoy any of their albums front to back, but they made some of the my favorite tracks of all time. These were the genres where the rules of the game really changed what I would bring along.Report

    4. I once drove from Boston to Managua with a buddy who brought a huge briefcase with 50 tapes….49 Dead bootlegs – and Willy and the Poor Boys. No joke. We did just fine.Report

  78. I’m only up to about comment 300, and I haven’t put a lot of thought into this.
    But my list would have to include:

    Kiss – Dressed to Kill
    Celtic Frost – Into the Pandemonium
    C. Parkening & D. Brandon – Virtuoso Duets
    Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick

    And there was one of Torroba’s Castle series, I can’t remember which one or by who.
    I think it’s Ana Vidovic, the one with “Sonatina” on it.Report

    3. And that one I just remembered, but forgot the name of while I was scrolling down to the appropriate place to leave a comment.
      And it’s so blatantly obvious I need my ass kicked for forgetting about it in the first place.
      Wait a minute. It will come to me. I think.Report

        1. +1 for GG Octopus. For some reason, my children loved Knots. You must envision a four year old boy singing “You may know what I don’t know” at the top of his lungs, his sister madly stomping about the living room in hocket time.Report

    4. Alright.
      Final list here:

      1. Kiss – Dressed to Kill
      2. Celtic Frost – Into the Pandemonium
      3. C. Parkening & D. Brandon – Virtuoso Duets
      4. Jethro Tull – Thick as a Brick
      5. Ana Vidovic – Moreno-Torroba Vol. 1
      6. Less Than Jake – Hello, Rockview
      7. Gentle Giant – Octopus
      8. Gordon Lightfoot – The Way I Feel
      9. Neil Diamond – Hot August Night
      10. Coroner – Mental VortexReport

  79. My playlist is short enough that I can basically just run down it and pick some favourites, the ones I don’t get tired of easily.

    1) The soundtrack to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. I can listen to that one almost indefinitely.

    2) Les Misérables (The Original London Cast).

    3.) The soundtrack from The Lion King. Have you picked up that I like soundtracks yet? Also, everyone needs something you can sing along to on a road trip.

    4) Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The conservatives on our trip will be beating their heads on the doors by the time the trip’s over, but I don’t care – this is one of my favourites.

    5) James Taylor, One Man Band. Nobody does soothing like James Taylor.

    6) The Wailin’ Jennies, Firecracker An excellent Canadian folk CD, and another one I can listen to repeatedly.

    7) Bob Marley, LegendReport

    1. Legend is great, but it is a greatest hits, so may get disqualified.

      I never, ever got Springsteen. He is the artist I always felt like I was supposed to like because all the critics and fans love him. But I listen to his music and immediately want to put on something else. I may be missing the Springsteen gene.

      I should try this recommendation to see of I can cure my malady.Report

      1. Roger, you’re not alone re: (not) The Boss (of me). zic, I and to some degree Chris have expressed our meh.

        But I will say Nebraska is pretty good. It’s devoid of the usual histrionics.Report

          1. Same here.
            There are a few songs here & there that I like, but I never did really see the charm.
            Darkness on the Edge of Town would be about his best one, in my book; and I’d say it’s about 1/3 good (on a generous day).Report

  81. Ok, I admit to not keeping up with every comment. But just in case nobody has mentioned them yet, I need to remind everyone of an awesome travel album.

    Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Royal Albert Hall. For some reason they are a great group to sing along with even when I have no idea what I am saying. Kinda like many of my comments.Report

  82. I’m sort of astonished that there’s no Willie Nelson here. At all.

    But IF I’ve got to be forced to listen to COUNTRY, let it be Willie. The man can phrase.Report

          1. Not with me in the car.

            We’ll bring a cooler for fresh fruit. A small gas grill for cooking anything but Salmon; but including grilling fruit. And an electric frying pan (with a converter so that we can properly plug it in) for the making of scrambled eggs, grilled cheese sandwiches, breakfast pancakes made with 100% whole-grain spelt flour and doused with maple syrup. Also useful for actually baking up some corn bread or english muffins, or making of coconut curries and cream of asparagus or potato leek soup. The DC/AC converter might also allow for a cook-n-go style crock pot for braising meats and roasting birds.

            And since it’s a 4 mo. road trip and outside exercise is required, there will be foraging, because I always forage when I’m out and about. Wild mushrooms. Berries. Bitter greens. Perhaps, if the need is great, some epic pilfering of chicken eggs, fresh corn, tomatoes, and the like. I won’t impose the trapping of small game on my fellow travelers, but if Mike’s in the car, that might change.

            I will have my camping-chef’s bag, with it’s magic vials of spices and seasonings, a 6″ chef’s knife, paring knife, mini cutting board, coffee grinder/pot, and mixing/salad bowl plus makings for penny stoves, terra-cotta pot oven, etc.

            And bags of ice along the way for perpetual cooling of foodstuffs are cheap. Snow pack while we cross the continental divide will also work.

            There are creative options for the 420 ride; no diabetes-development required. But a functioning GPS and a note glued to the dashboard to remind us of the destination might be needed.Report

  84. Quick Update: Please note that though the comments section will remain open, no additional nominations, up-votes or down-votes will be accepted after midnight tonight, EST.Report

Comments are closed.

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