SMM #68: Top 50 Desert Island Albums, Part 5
Sorry for the delay since last issue but the SMM team was on vacation the past few weeks... but we're back and the countdown concludes with my Top 10 Desert Island Albums!
We have come to the final issue of my top 50 Desert Island 🏝️ Albums… below are my top 10 albums… over the past year, I have tweaked the list quite a bit but I’m satisfied that the top 10 is very representative of the pillars of my musical taste and I would be OK if I only had these ten albums while I was stuck on a desert island… although I would hope to be rescued after a reasonable amount of time!
#10 — THE ROLLING STONES - Sticky Fingers (1971)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #104**
The first studio album where lead guitarist Mick Taylor was fully incorporated into the mix, Sticky Fingers is one of those “perfect” albums… it was the third in a string of four consecutive 5-star classic studio albums, starting with 1968’s Beggar’s Banquet and followed by Let it Bleed in ‘69, this album in ‘71 and Exile On Main Street in ‘72… every song is great, no duds, filler or even an “average” track… to me, this album embodies the phrase “sex, drugs & rock n roll” with the emphasis on drugs, lots of drugs! Songs such as “Sister Morphine,” “Dead Flowers” and “Moonlight Mile” would be examples of this… my favorite song is the 7 minute masterpiece, “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” which features a signature Keith Richards opening riff, a classic Bobby Keys sax solo and a stellar lengthy guitar solo from Mick Taylor that closes the song... while I couldn’t find a 70s era video of it, there is this 2013 version with a 64 year old Taylor acquitting himself well sitting in with the Stones at Glastonbury Festival… finally, the album was also known for its infamous Andy Warhol-conceived cover art of a man’s tight jeans with an actual working zipper that opened to reveal a photo of tighty-whitey underwear… the zipper was later eliminated because it was too costly and could damage the vinyl…
#9 — FACES - A Nod is as Good as a Wink…To a Blind Horse (1971)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, not ranked**
This was the second album I ever bought… I remember getting it at A&S department store which had a pretty good album section back in those days… soon after another department store, Korvettes, became my primary vinyl source (great sales!), along with legendary Long Island independent record store, Looney Tunes - which is still in business today… anyway, back to the Faces… I had become a big Rod Stewart fan by this time and when I found out he was also the Faces singer, I quickly jumped on their bandwagon… Stewart and guitarist Ron Wood had left the Jeff Beck Group to join Faces in 1970 (Wood joined the Stones a few years later to replace the aforementioned Mick Taylor)... I was led to the album after hearing the big hit single “Stay With Me” on the radio… kicking off with the nasty rocker, “Miss Judy’s Farm,” it’s prime rock ‘n’ roll from start to finish… along with Stewart and Wood’s obvious vocal and guitar work, the album also features some great songwriting contributions from bassist/vocalist, Ronnie Lane (“You’re So Rude,” “Last Orders Please” and the ballad, “Debris”) and one of the best Chuck Berry covers ever in “Memphis”… finally, in May 1973 I attended my first concert, Rod Stewart & Faces at Nassau Coliseum with a band called, Jo Jo Gunne, opening… and the rest is history!
#8 — JIMI HENDRIX - Are You Experienced? (1967)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #30**
Since it’s pretty obvious from this newsletter that I am a huge fan of great lead guitar playing, I had to include the greatest of all rock guitarists, Jimi Hendrix, in my top 10 albums… but which album was the question? His discography prior to his overdose-related death in 1970 consisted of only three studio albums and one live release so I went with the 1967 debut which has the majority of his most well known, classic songs… AllMusic Guide calls Are You Experienced? “One of the most stunning debuts in rock history” and you can’t argue with that! Drop the needle anywhere on the 17 song album and you will hear a great song… “Purple Haze” kicks it off and it ends with Jimi’s original classic blues, “Red House”.
If anyone wants to explore Hendrix’s catalog further I highly recommend the 60-song compilation, The Jimi Hendrix Experience… originally released in 2000 as a 56-song, 4 CD set in a cool purple felt box (my copy pictured), it was expanded to 60 songs in 2013… it’s basically a one-stop shop for Hendrix’s music, studio and live…
#7 — NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE - Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (1969)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #407**
This is Neil Young’s second appearance on the Desert Island list following On the Beach which came in at #12… this time it is his first album with his longtime on again, off again backing band, Crazy Horse, and it established their guitar heavy, hard rocking, improvisational style with tracks like “Cinnamon Girl” and the lengthy jams, “Down by the River “ and “Cowgirl in the Sand”… that style, sound and attitude has gone on to be highly influential especially with the “alt-country” and “grunge” scenes that sprung up in the late 80s and early 90s - Neil has even been called the “godfather of grunge”… Neil & The Horse were an especially significant influence on Pearl Jam who’s members served as the backing band on Neil’s 1995 album, Mirror Ball… also want to note that Neil & Crazy Horse will be hitting the road for their first tour in 10 years and I will be there when they play Forest Hills Stadium on May 14th… can’t wait for that!
#6 — DEREK AND THE DOMINOS - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (1970)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #226**
I was a huge Eric Clapton fan in the 70s and I still consider seeing him at Nassau Coliseum in 1975 - with Santana opening - as the best concert I have ever seen (see SMM #6 for a detailed account of this show)... a lot of my admiration of Clapton was based on this album which is easily the best of his stellar career… the story behind Layla is well known: Clapton was hopelessly in love with Pattie Boyd, the wife of his best friend, George Harrison, and she was the inspiration behind these songs, especially the monumental title track… as AllMusic Guide puts it, “what really makes Layla such a powerful record is that Clapton, ignoring the traditions that occasionally painted him into a corner, simply tears through these songs with burning, intense emotion”... the seeds of this album were planted during Clapton’s period playing with Delaney & Bonnie and the fellow Dominos - Carl Radle, Bobby Whitlock, Jim Gordon - came from their band… early in the recording process, Clapton and company went to see the Allman Brothers and Clapton was blown away by Duane Allman’s guitar playing and asked him to join the album sessions… Allman’s playing is the catalyst that drove Clapton to new heights and really helps make this album a masterpiece… unfortunately, it was a “one and done” classic as Clapton - and the rest of the band - descended into heavy drug addiction and lost interest in the band…
#5 — THE BAND - The Band (1969)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #57**
As great as The Band’s debut, Music From Big Pink, was, I always liked their second album, The Band, better… on Big Pink, the songwriting was divided up between Robbie Robertson, Richard Manuel and Bob Dylan, who was kind of the group’s mentor after they served as his live backing band… on the followup album, Robertson fully took over the songwriting and the album comes roaring out of the gate with three classic Robbie originals, “Across the Great Divide,” “Rag Mama Rag” and the epic Civil War song, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”... plus, the band seemed to kick it up a notch musically, rocking harder while also retaining that wistful country-folk sound from Big Pink on “Whispering Pines” and “The Unfaithful Servant,” among others... The Band set the bar extremely high with their first two releases… they followed those albums with the mostly excellent Stage Fright (1970) and Cahoots (1971) although they started to lose a little steam on Cahoots… eventually, in 1975 they issued the very fine Northern Lights, Southern Cross before calling it quits after The Last Waltz, their legendary farewell concert in 1976… there was also a forgettable 1977 studio album, Islands, they slapped together to fulfill their contract with Capitol Record but for all intents and purposes the original band was done after The Last Waltz…
#4 — RORY GALLAGHER - Calling Card (1976)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, not ranked**
Although I have mentioned this a few times over the years, and even devoted a full issue of the newsletter to him (SMM #3), I will start by saying that Rory Gallagher is my all-time favorite artist and this is his best studio album - although in my admittedly biased opinion, they’re all pretty great! Every song is a gem… he was one of the greatest guitarists of all-time - electric, slide and acoustic - and all of those skills are on display here but what separated him from most of the guitar hero types of his era was the quality of his songwriting and arranging… his songs were not generic excuses to get to the next guitar solo… he had a great sense of melody, interesting lyrics, and he varied the tempos from slow ballads to wild rockers… I highly recommend that anybody reading this listen to this album!! As AllMusic Guide says: “Arguably Rory Gallagher's finest studio effort, it was among his best and most varied batch of songs, and it is a perfect place for the curious to start their collection… an essential disc showing Gallagher at the peak of his powers”...
#3 — ROD STEWART - Every Picture Tells a Story (1971)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #177**
At age 15, this was probably the first full album I heard that seriously piqued my interest in rock music and set me on the road I’ve been on for the past 50+ years… my neighbor was well ahead of me on the rock music trail and she had the album - and she played it a lot because when you invested your occasional hard-earned money in a great album back then, you played it a LOT! And this IS a great album and Stewart’s masterpiece… it combines inspired originals like the title track and his greatest hit ever, “Maggie May,” with covers that he made his own… the Faces back him on a blazing version of the Temptations’ “(I Know) I’m Losing You” that features a cool drum solo in the middle and is basically as good as rock ‘n’ roll gets… he follows this with another tremendous cover of folk singer Tim Hardin’s “Reason to Believe” to close the album... once again, I turn to AllMusic Guide: “It's a beautiful album, one that has the timeless qualities of the best folk, yet one that rocks harder than most pop music -- few rock albums are quite this powerful or this rich”...
#2 — BOB DYLAN - Highway 61 Revisited (1965)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #18**
This was Dylan’s first full electric album, released about a month after his groundbreaking performance at the Newport Folk Festival where he shocked the audience and festival management by taking the stage backed by an electric band… the band performed three songs: “Maggie’s Farm,” “It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry” and his new single, “Like a Rolling Stone” which went on to be the lead track on Highway 61 Revisited… the song was 6 minutes long which broke tradition at the time when most singles were approximately 3 minutes or less… the album was recorded in New York with a group of session musicians, plus, Mike Bloomfield of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band on guitar (he also played at Newport)… Dylan in 2005 said about Bloomfield and his appearance on this album: “He could outplay anybody, even at that point. When it was time to bring in a guitar player on my record, I couldn’t think of anybody but him. I mean, he just was the best guitar player I’d ever heard”... also playing on the session was Al Kooper who was an unknown local musician at the time who got invited to watch the session… he ended up playing organ, an instrument he had amazingly never played before, on “Like a Rolling Stone” and came up with the famous organ riff that is prominent throughout the song… Dylan has obviously made a lot of great albums but I don’t know how you could top this one… every song is a classic and they have probably been covered collectively thousands of times… this album influenced and inspired numerous musicians and provided the blueprint for the roots rock/Americana genre that later produced The Band and many other artists…
#1 — THE ROLLING STONES - Exile on Main St. (1972)
**Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums, #14**
Over the course of putting together this list, I changed my mind quite a bit on the order of the final five albums… I started out with The Band at #1 and then changed it to Highway 61 Revisited and then even considered going with Rory Gallagher as a bold sentimental choice for the top slot… but eventually I came around to this one because anytime anyone ever asks me what my all-time favorite album is, off the top of my head, I’d always say “probably Exile on Main Street”... the album was a rare double-vinyl studio release, 18 songs of sustained rock ‘n’ roll, country, blues and soul brilliance… the band was operating on all cylinders, particularly guitarists Keith Richards and Mick Taylor… the album was recorded at a mansion in the south of France where Keith had moved after the band decided to leave England to go into tax exile (hence the title)... the stories of drugs, drinking and overall debauchery that took place there are legendary - I’ve read numerous Stones books - so HOW they managed to keep it together to record one of the greatest albums of all time is hard to fathom - but they did… guitarist Rich Robinson of The Black Crowes said Exile on Main Street “is the absolute representation of what rock ‘n’ roll as a living, breathing entity is. It is sublime from start to finish”...
Want to add a little bit about Mick Taylor here… he was definitely the unsung hero of the band at this time and if you want to see the proof go to Amazon Prime and watch the concert film, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Rolling Stones (it will cost you $3.99)… it highlights the Stones’ 1972 tour in support of “Exile on Main St” and the cameras spend a lot of time on Taylor as he reels off one great guitar solo after another… I saw Taylor at the Bottom Line in NYC in 1986 long after he had left the band… it was his first show in an attempt to resurrect his solo career and it was a disaster… he was not in synch with the pickup band behind him and his guitar playing never got rolling… he did get past this and get things together to have a long successful solo career but that night was kind of sad…
Well, that’s it for my Desert Island Albums feature… it was fun to do and hope everyone enjoyed it! — SL