Sex & Drugs & Rock 'n Roll - Songs 1977

Part 3 of song from 1977 from my collection. All four parts play as one playlist on my iPod or as a 4 CD set.









1.   Ian Dury & The Blockheads - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
2.   The Motors - Dancing The Night Away
3.   Ultravox - Saturday Night In The City Of The Dead
4.   Dead Boys - Sonic Reducer
5.   Wire - 12xu
6.   Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers - Born To Lose
7.   Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
8.   The Clash - Police & Thieves
9.   Peter Tosh - Stepping Razor
10. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus
11. Horace Andy - Do You Love My Music/Music Dub
12. Augustus Pablo - East Of The River Nile
13. The Brothers Johnson - Strawberry Letter 23
14. Parliament - Bop Gun (Endangered Species)
15. The Commodores - Brick House

It's Four in the Morning - Late Night

One of my favorite mixes. I put this together several years ago and some of my mixing friends will have seen and heard it before. Nothing has changed. It's an example of looking for that perfect mix. This mix is part of my Late Night series.

It has many of the characteristics that I've strive for in a mix.  It holds a certain mood or feel and as part of my Late Night series it can be brooding, quiet, hypnotic, reflective, etc. Most of the time it is soft and quiet but can also be loud and forceful at times. It also includes songs from many different eras.

This is part 1 of 4. 

1.   Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat (Songs of Love and Hate, 1971)
2.   Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Pink Moon, 1972)
3.   Richard Thompson - Waltzing's for Dreamers (Amnesia, 1988)
4.   Elliott Smith - Waltz #2 (XO, 1998)
5.   Mazzy Star - Five String Serenade (So Tonight That I Might See, 1993)
6.   R.E.M. - Nightswimming (Automatic for the People, 1992)
7.   The Arcade Fire - Crown of Love (Funeral, 2004)
8.   Beck - The Golden Age (Sea Change, 2002)
9.   Nada Surf - Blonde On Blonde (Let Go, 2003)
10. The Shins - New Slang (Oh, Inverted World, 2001)
11. Band Of Horses - The Funeral (Everything All The Time, 2006)
12. My Morning Jacket - The Way That He Sings (At Dawn, 2001)
13. Neil Young - Don't Let It Bring You Down (After The Goldrush, 1970)
14. Lou Reed - Perfect Day (Transformer, 1972)
15. Tim Buckley - Song to the Siren (Starsailor, 1970)
16. Jeff Buckley - Hallelujah (Grace, 1994)
17. Jennifer Warnes - Bird on a Wire (Famous Blue Raincoat, 1987)
18. John Cale & Suzanne Vega - So Long, Marianne (Bleecker Street: Greenwich Village in the 60's, 1999)

Notes from the original post:

Leonard Cohen is perfect to start this mix. The mix title comes from the opening lines of this opening song... "It's four in the morning". The mood is immediately set in place. The backing vocals are awesome.

Nick Drake is a great followup. It's from the same time period and carries the same feeling. It could have been any Nick Drake song but choosing "Pink Moon" is a popular favorite for many people. The Richard Thompson song continues the quiet self examination going on in the mix.

Often times a mix is really a collection of smaller sets of similar music. A group of songs that work well together connected to other small groups. The transition is always important. I've never liked jarring contrasts that a mixer puts there just to shake up the listener.

The next three songs are from popular albums from the 90's and not only maintain the general mood of the mix but add a slightly classical music feel... the waltz, the string serenade and the piano along with the yearning vocals.

The Arcade Fire comes in with some pomp and emotion with a tempo changing interlude. This was a late addition to the mix when I was looking for something to transition different groups of songs. It also comes from what I think was probably my favorite album of the last decade.

"The Golden Age" was the opening song from Beck's Sea Change which was another favorite album of the decade. The Beck, Nada Surf and Shins songs have been together on this mix since it's very earliest versions. They do everything I want together. "New Slang" is a particular favorite for many people.

The Band of Horses song adds some heavier guitar sounds to the mix along with some very intense quiet moments. The vocals move the song forward and move the listener to the very distinctive singing of My Morning Jacket. Their classic rock sound is a perfect lead in to Neil Young. After The Goldrush is a great album from 1970 and I picked a deep cut but that was an album that was played everywhere by everyone at the time. You heard it all the time and every song was familiar so it's nice to hear the not so obvious song from an album.

The next song is another deep track from a classic album. Lou Reed's Transformer is mostly known for "Walk On The Wild Side", "Vicious" and "Satellite of Love" but the pop sheen and mood of "Perfect Day" is the perfect song for the this mix. It is followed by Tim Buckley, one of the great vocalist of the 60's, whose wildly experimental vocal style highlights the classic "Song to the Siren" from 1970's Starsailor.

That little set of 70's singer songwriters is followed by a set that pays tribute to Leonard Cohen who opened the mix. Tim Buckley's tragic son Jeff Buckley gives a nearly definitive reading of Cohen's "Hallelujah" followed by "Bird on a Wire" from Jennifer Warnes' 1987 Cohen tribute album. The closer is a wonderful version of Cohen's "So Long, Marianne" by John Cale and Suzanne Vega. A fitting tribute to a great artist and the ending to a search for a perfect mix. Well, still not perfect but time to move on to the next one.

Happy New Year Crazy Conservative Uncle

It's 2012 and I'm a sixty something. So I'd thought I'd start the new year post with a nice political rant. I should clarify my use of the "crazy conservative uncle" phrase. I do have some conservative uncles... and probably a few aunts too but I'm not calling them personally crazy. I am calling their views crazy and in particular I am calling their incessant right wing emails that regularly pollute my inbox really crazy. I don't see them very often and inevitably the conversation turns to politics. Over the years that really didn't matter too much but the forwarding email thing of the last five years or so has gone too far. They also liked to forward all kinds of urban myths and false warnings about everything from email viruses, dangerous products and all sorts of weird criminal behavior to avoid in parking lots. If it was just me on their mailing list I could just delete and ignore but unfortunately there are lots of our young family members also getting these crazy emails. I would regularly go to Snopes or one of the other fact checking sites and politely let the offenders know that they were forwarding false information and that often times been disproved many years ago. Often times the crazy false information emails were political in nature.

This week I got one that says basically you can't believe Snopes because George Soros owns it and it is a front for liberals to attack conservatives trying to educate their families with information the mainstream media is trying to hide. So here below is a comment from an uncle I received recently.

"For several years, I have had second thoughts about the Snopes reports. 

This message supports and verifies my earlier suspicions that Snopes

has a left leaning tilt.  I credit the depth of Snopes' analyses.  But the

strains of the left that I recognized prevade their reports.  I"m not surprised

to hear that Snopes is financed by George Soros.  Now I recognize the

Soros agenda in the Snopes reports.  I now see that they are forwarding

the Soros agenda.   It's true that Snopes has been leaning left."

That was his take on the message below

The following email was received today, and the facts are not surprising.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Joe

Many of the emails that I have sent or forwarded that had any anti-Obama in it were negated by Snopes.  I thought that was odd. Check this out.

Snopes, Soros and the Supreme Courts Kagan We-l-l-l-l now, I guess the time has come to check out Snopes! Ya' don't suppose it might not be a good time to take a second look at some of the stuff that got kicked in the ditch by Snopes, do ya'? We've known that it was owned by a lefty couple but hadn't known it to be financed by Soros! Snopes is heavily financed by George Soros; a big time supporter of Obama!

In our Search for the truth department, we find what I have suspected on many occasions. I went to Snopes to check something about the dockets of the new Supreme Court Justice, Elena Kagan who Obama appointed and Snopes said the email was false and there were no such dockets so I Googled the Supreme Court, typed in Obama-Kagan, and guess what? Yep you got it; Snopes Lied! Everyone of those dockets are there.

So Here is what I wrote to Snopes:

Referencing the article about Elena Kagan and Barak Obama dockets:

The information you have posted stating that there were no such cases as claimed and the examples you gave are blatantly false. I went directly to the Supreme Courts website, typed in Obama Kagan and immediately came up with all of the dockets that the article made reference to. I have long suspected that you really slant things but this was really shocking.

Thank You, I hope you will be much more truthful in the future, but I doubt it. That being said, Ill bet you didn't know this. Kagan was representing Obama in all the petitions to prove his citizenship. Now she may help  rule on them. Folks, this is really ugly. Chicago Politics; and the beat goes on and on and on. Once again the US Senate sold us out! Now we know why Obama nominated Elana Kagan for the Supreme Court. Pull up the Supreme Courts website, go to the docket and search for Obama. She was the Solicitor General for all the suits against him filed with the Supreme Court to show proof of natural born citizenship. He owed her big time. All of the requests were denied of course. They were never heard. It just keeps getting deeper and deeper, doesn't it? The American people mean nothing any longer. It's all about payback time for those who compromised themselves to elect someone who really has no true right to even be there.

If you are not interested in justice or in truth, simply delete. However, if you hold sacred the freedoms granted to you by the U.S. Constitution; by all means, PASS it ON! There truly is tyranny afoot.

Some great lines here...  

"Snopes lied"  

"Once again the US Senate sold us out"  

"Folks, this is really ugly" 

"this was really shocking" 

"He owed her big time"

"The American people mean nothing anymore"

"someone who really has no true right to even be there"

"there truly is tyranny afoot"

I went and looked up this accusation that Snopes is funded by that liberal boogieman George Soros and rather than going to Snopes itself I checked several other fact verifying sites and guess what. They too debunked this entire story. The Snopes Soros connection was disproved back in 2008 but of course the clowns now have the Kagan angle to distract from the basic falseness of the story. I like the giving Kagan a supreme court position to pay her back for hiding documents. Yes, birthers. "someone who really has no true right to even be there". 

So this whole thing is a combination kill the messenger and in particular I was one of those persons constantly throwing Snopes in their face. Now they want to say to me Snopes is a Soros lefty site and you can't trust anything they write. This message also stokes the birthers. Yes, my uncle is a birther as of my last conversation with him this past summer. He also thinks Michelle Bachman would make a good president. I really laughed hard at that one. I guess he is really is a "crazy conservative uncle"

It's going to be a crazy new year on the political front.

I Feel Love - Songs 1977

More songs from 1977. Part 2 of 4. Continues where Part 1 left off and starts off with that incredible Donna Summer single with it's euro style electonica followed by Kraftwerk. Both these songs would go on to have a tremendous impact on music in the years and decades to come. After a bit of pure funk the mix gets into some reggae because in my world 1977 was full of those rastaman vibrations. Reggae had a lot of influence on punk back in that day especially with the Clash. The mix ends with some more disco from Saturday Night Fever and I guess you had to be there as they say but 1977 was all about the beat.

1.   Donna Summer - I Feel Love (I Remember Yesterday)
2.   Kraftwerk - Trans Europe Express (Trans-Europe Express)
3.   Parliament - Flash Light (Funkentelechy Vs. The Placebo Syndrome)
4.   Bob Marley & The Wailers - Jamming (Exodus)
5.   Third World - 1865 (96 Degrees in the Shade) (96 Degrees in the Shade)
6.   The Congos - At The Feast (Heart of the Congos)
7.   The Heptones - Mr. President (Party Time)
8.   The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais (The Clash)
9.   Elvis Costello - Less Than Zero (My Aim Is True)
10. The Jam - In The City (In The City)
11. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Quit This Town (Life On The Line)
12. The Stranglers - No More Heroes (No More Heroes)
13. Blonde - Detroit 442 (Parallel Lines)
14. Ramones - Sheena Is A Punk Rocker (Rocket To Russia)
15. Heatwave - Boogie Nights (Saturday Night Fever)
16. Bee Gees - You Should Be Dancing (Saturday Night Fever)
17. The Trammps - Disco Inferno (Saturday Night Fever)
18. K.C. & The Sunshine Band - Keep It Comin' Love (I Like To Do It)

Readings 2011 - Fiction

My favorite fiction book that I read in 2011 was a Nick Hornby novel from 2009. I've read several of his books and always enjoy them. This one was particularly fun and when I scanned my reading list for the year it quickly rose to the top. Last year my favorite novel was Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell so this year I went back and read an earlier novel and also his latest book which made my number 2.  The Passage was my favorite thriller for the year.

Overall I usually don't read a lot of series based on one or group of characters although over the course of several decades I've read a few. However, this year I read a lot more than usual. Last year I read several Philip Kerr books about a Berlin detective/private investigator that takes place in the 1930s to 1950s and I continued reading a couple more this year. They keep getting better and a new one has just been published so I'll have a least one more for next year's list. I also started reading another detective series but this was based in Bangkok. I read all four in the series and I think there has been a little drop off in quality but the characters and locale are very fascinating.

I also read all three books in the Swedish Millennium series. They were great reads but in need of an editor. I also saw all three of the Swedish films and look forward to seeing the Hollywood version although I think it would be very hard to top the original films. I read another Swedish novel, Let Me In, that also had two very good films based on the book but the book was much more intense than either film. A very creepy read.

And then there is the Song of Ice and Fire. I really don't like reading modern fantasy series and especially if they have anything to do with dragons. I read some articles about these books before embarking on the ride. I found that I really enjoyed the story and the characters in this strange world. I went through the first three books very quickly. The fourth book plodded along somewhat and by the time I got to the fifth book I was getting bored. After all the time and effort of getting through these books I started losing interest. I think Martin has lost his way and is just making it up as he goes along. I'm really not in any hurry to pick up another one of those books again although I would like to see the TV series sometime but certainly not enough to get HBO.

1. Juliet, Naked - Nick Hornby, 2009
2. The Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet - David Mitchell, 2010
3. The Passage - James Cronin, 2010
4. Field Grey - Philip Kerr, 2010
5. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson, 2005
6. Let Me In - John Ajvide Lindovist, 2008
7. A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin, 1996
8. Bangkok 8 - John Burdett, 2003
9. Homer and Langley - E. L. Doctorow, 2009
10. The One Form The Other - Philip Kerr, 2006
11. Ghostwritten - David Mitchell, 2000
12. The Firl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson, 2006
13. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest - Stieg Larsson, 2010
14. A Quiet Flame - Philip Kerr, 2008
15. Empty Mile - Matthew Stokoe, 2010
16. Bangkok Tattoo - John Burdett, 2006
17. A Clash of Kings - George R. R. Martin, 1998
18. A Storm of Swords - George R. R. Martin, 2000
19. Bangkok Haunts - John Burdett, 2008
20. If The Dead Rise Not - Philip Kerr, 2009
21. A Feast For Crows - George R. R. Martin, 2005
22. The Godfather of Katmandu - John Burdett, 2011
23. A Dance With Dragons - George R. R. Martin, 2011
24. Zero History - William Gibson, 2010

Readings 2011 - Nonfiction

This is my list of nonfiction books that I read in 2011, however, only one of these books were published in 2011.  This is not a best or favorites list for the year but rather a snapshot of some of my reading habits of the year. Actually I read more fiction this year but that is another list. It also doesn't count books I might have read for work or the many Drupal manuals I spent so many hours with this year.

Compiling this list is very easy because I've been keeping track of my readings for decades. I initially used notebooks but later in word processor documents to maintain lists of my readings. The lists contains the book title, author, date of publication and the month I completed reading it all separated by years. All fiction books are in italics to distinguish them from non-fiction at a glance. So it's easy to compile lists
.
1493 was a wonderful eye-opening look at how the world changed after the discovery of the New World and the resulting globalization that started then and continues today. It was a fascinating exploration of our world and contains an enormous amount of facts, insights, provocative arguments, great storytelling and mind boggling details. I had previously read Mann's 1491 which was a description of the New World before Columbus. I also thoroughly enjoyed Atlantic which I read right before 1493 and was what could be called a biography of the Atlantic Ocean. It was a book of history, geography, science and literature.

I'm always up for a good political tirade and Naomi Klein certainly provided one in The Shock Doctrine. The book was published in 2007 but it was very pertinent to the events happening while I was reading it in 2011 with the Republicans creating a fake disaster over the debt ceiling. This is required reading for anyone wishing to understand the motivation of the GOP as a control mechanism for the corporatist elite.

1. 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created - Charles Mann, 2011
2. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein, 2007
3. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court - Jeffrey Toobin, 2008
4. John Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, 2007
5. A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage and the Quest for the Color of Desire - Amy Butler Greenfield, 2005
6. Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories - Simon Winchester, 2010
7. God's Crucible: Islam and the Making of Europe, 570 to 1215 - David Levering Lewis, 2010
8. Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin - Timothy Snyder, 2010

I only have 8 books listed here which is an usually small number of non-fiction books I usually read during a year. There is also only one biography but it was a good one. That one was the third biography of John Coltrane that I've read but the one that concentrated the most on his music. I got a couple of Coltrane box sets as a result.

I always enjoy reading history and this year's list as usual had a few. Bloodlands was the incredible story of suffering of Central Europe stuck between the genocidal policies of Hitler and Stalin. A different perspective on a war we think we know about. Sort of the same with God's Crucible which was a balanced perspective of Europe in the "Dark Ages" and the Islamic culture of the Iberian peninsula.  A Perfect Red is another one of the books I love to read that takes a simple thing or idea and exams all the historical and cultural possibilities. In this case the subject is red dye.

The Nine was a real eye opener. The Supreme Court certainly has it's share of political hacks. Scalia and Thomas most of all. I always felt that George Bush stole the election and now I know for sure that it was done. Activist judges indeed.

A post of my fiction readings for the year coming up with 25 books on that list.

What The Hell Is Wrong With Me - Songs 1977

Songs from 1977. An incredible year for music. This is Part 1 of a long mix of 60 songs that includes some of my favorite songs across many genres that make up this personal point of view.

These are songs from my collection but not everything here was pounding out of my stereo in 1977 although much of it was and all of it would be in a few years.

Many of these albums and bands would be the foundations of my collection for years to come and several of my all time artists are represented here such as The Clash, Talking Heads, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Television, and David Bowie. Many more will be in Parts 2 and 3. It was a year of punk, new wave, disco, funk, reggae and just plain great rock. This is a mix of some of the music that made 1977 a fun year in music.  We were in college and there were lots of house parties. Some of the art school dance parties exposed us to some cutting edge punk, disco and reggae sounds. 


1.   The Clash - What's My Name (The Clash)
2.   Ramones - Cretin Hop (Rocket To Russia)
3.   The Sex Pistols - Pretty Vacant (Never Mind The Bollocks)
4.   Television - Friction (Marquee Moon)
5.   Talking Heads - New Feeling (Talking Heads: 77)
6.   Brian Eno - King's Lead Hat (Before and After Science)
7.   David Bowie - Sound and Vision (Low)
8.   Iggy Pop - The Passenger (Lust For Life)
9.   Elvis Costello - Watching The Detectives (My Aim Is True)
10. Wire - Strange (Pink Flag)
11.  Suicide - Rocket USA (Suicide)
12.  Cheap Trick - I Want You To Want Me (In Color)
13.  The Damned - New Rose (Damned Damned Damned)
14.  Dave Edmunds - I Knew The Bride (When She Used To Rock & Roll) (Get It)
15.  Tom Waits - I Never Talk To Strangers (Foreign Affairs)
16.  Steely Dan - Josie (Aja)
17.  Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way (Rumours)
18.  Earth, Wind & Fire - Fantasy (All 'n' All)
19.  ABBA - Dancing Queen (Arrival)
20.  Bee Gees - Stayin' Alive (Saturday Night Fever)

Crazy Conservative Uncle

Everyone has a crazy conservative uncle. Sometimes more than one. Could be an aunt too. As a kid I remember having some crazy conservative uncles around but things were different back then because you really only had to hear their crazy rants or have to put up with their obnoxious pontificating at occasional family gatherings. Things are different now because they have our email addresses.

I'm talking about the constant flow of forwarded right wing rants, racists blather, and general hatred for fellow Americans that regularly appear in my mailbox from relatives that are trying to educate (brainwash?) the younger generation in conservative values. These things really took off during the 2008 presidential campaign in my family. All throughout that time period anyone with an email address was subjected to the newly discovered Internet by some of our elderly relatives who were on a mission to avoid what they thought would be the end of their world if Barack Obama was elected president. There has been a steady flow of forwarded emails on a large variety of topics usually describing urban myths, computer viruses and political conspiracy theories along with the usual outright lies about President Obama. Occasionally I would respond with the documented description of the falsehood from Scopes or another fact checking website. Sometimes one of my cousins' children would respond with a spirited denouncement of the obvious lie or misinterpretation of fact. However, the thing that bothered me the most about these emails was the mailing list of young people. People in my extended family that should be looking to their elders for wisdom but finding their email boxes filled with lies and hate.

Did I say Tea Party yet? The picture here is a typical tea party folks gathering to attack the government and complain about government spending. The crazy conservative uncle is a tea party person collecting Social Security and Medicare.

I've decided to devote a part of my blog to responding to these emails. Yes, every time I get one of those obnoxious emails I will post it here and comment on it. I was already going to be commenting on politics as part of my 60@60 blog but now there will be a section specifically called "Crazy Conservative Uncle" and I will invite all those who receive the emails to come here and read my response.

I just got another email about Soros funding Snopes. I'm going to have fun with this one but that will be for later.

60 Albums 2011

My personal favorite albums from my collection for 2011. These selections are based on my listening habits for the year and the higher ranked albums were the ones that I kept coming back to over and over.

Once again I couldn't stop at 60 but forced myself to end the list at 120. Bon Iver tops the list which also topped many people's end of the year list of favorite albums. I can't stop listening to it. I loved his first album but this one moved way beyond the song into pure sound. The War on Drugs was a close second for me. It sounded like so much that has gone before it but also utterly unique.  Fleet Foxes and Wilco both put out wonderful albums this year. I really liked the Jesse Sykes album which was very different than the previous album. This one sounded very California psychedelic retro... sort of like Moby Grape with a female singer. The California sound from the 70s is all over this list but especially the new Dawes album. The Radiohead album was another surprise that I kept on repeated play. The more I played it the higher it rose on the list. Most of this stuff is fairly mellow but... I'm 60 now.

1. Bon Iver - Bon Iver
2. The War on Drugs - Slave Ambient
3. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
4. Wilco - The Whole Love
5. Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - Marble Son
6. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
7. The Civil Wars - Barton Hollow
8. Dawes - Nothing Is Wrong
9. M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
10. Atlas Sound - Parallax 
11. Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost
12. Kurt Vile - Smoke Ring For My Holo
13. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
14. The Antlers - Burst Apart
15. Smith Westerns - Dye It Blonde
16. Peaking Lights - 936
17. Middle Brother - Middle Brother
18. The Black Keys - El Camino
19. The Horrors - Skying
20. Tom Waits - Bad As Me
21. Charles Bradley - No Time For Dreaming
22. The Decemberists - The King is Dead
23. Cass McCombs - Humor Risk
24. Sigur Ros - Inni
25. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
26. Washed Out - Within and Without
27. CANT - Dreams Come True
28. My Morning Jacket - Circuital 
29. The Raveonettes - Raven in the Grave
30. Tune-Yards - Whokill
31. Panda Bear - Tomboy
32. Anthony Hamilton - Back to Love
33. Destroyer - Kaputt
34. James Blake - James Blake
35. Yuck - Yuck
36. The Stokes - Angles
37. The Kills - Blood Pressures
38. Adele - 21
39. Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know
40. A.A. Bondy - Believers
41. Cults - Cults
42. Dum Dum Girls - Only In Dreams
43. Gillian Welch - The Harrow & The Harvest
44. Iron & Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean
45. Joe Henry - Reverie
46. Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
47. Vetiver - The Errant Charm
48. King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mind
49. Yellowbirds - The Color
50. Cut Copy - Zonoscope
51. Lucinda Williams - Blessed
52. Battles - Gloss Drop
53. Over The Rhine - The Long Surrender
54. Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. - A Corporate World
55. EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints
56. Eleanor Friedberger - Last Summer
57. TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
58. Real Estate - Days
59. Fucked Up - David Comes To Life
60. Alexi Murdoch - Towards The Sun
61. Hayes Carll - KMAG YOYO ( & Other American Stories)
62. Drive-By Truckers - Go-Go Boots
63. Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts
64. Death Cab For Cutie - Codes and Keys
65. Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
66. Joss Stone - LP1
67. Wye Oak - Civilian
68. Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
69. Cavemen - CoCo Beware
70. The Mountain Goats - All Eternals Deck
71. Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
72. Feist - Metals
73. Booker T. Jones - The Road From Memphis
74. The Cave Singers - No Witch
75. Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
76. Todd Snider - The Storyteller
77. Paul Simon - So Beautiful So What
78. Jolie Holland - Pint of Blood
79. The Low Anthem - Smart Flesh
80. Matthew Sweet - Modern Art
81. J. Mascis - Several Shades of Why
82. Ry Cooder - Pick Up Some Dust and Sit Down
83. John Hiatt - Dirty Jeans and Mudslide Hymns
84. Cass McCombs - Wit's End
85. Steve Earle - I'll Never Get Out Of This World Alive
86. Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler
87. Greg Brown - Freak Flag
88. The Airborne Toxic Event - All At Once
89. Elbow - Build A Rocket  Boys
90. Bright Eyes - The People's Key
91. Robbie Robertson - How To Become A Clairvoyant
92. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Belong
93. Telekinesis - 12 Desperate Straight Lines
94. Seryn - This Is Where We Are
95. Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
96. Ben Harper - Give Till It's Gone
97. Timber Timbre - Creep On Creepin' On
98. Danger Mouse - Rome
99. R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
100. Akron/Family - S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT
101. DeVotchKa - 100 Lovers
102. David Lynch - Crazy Clown Time
103. Blitzen Trappen - American Goldwing
104. Wild Flag - Wild Flag
105. Radiohead - TKOL RMX 1234567
106. Still Corners - Creatures of an Hour
107. Charlotte Gainsbourg - Stage Wisper
108. Release The Sunbird - Come Back To Us
109. The Joy Formidable - The Big Roar
110. Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces
111. Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
112. Kathryn Calder - Bright and Vivid
113. Tyler Ramsey - The Valley Wind
114. East River Pipe - We Live In Rented Rooms
115. Bjork - Biophilia
116. Marketa Irglova - Anar
117. Pieta Brown - Mercury
118. Lindsey Buckingham - Seeds We Sow
119. The Nightwatchman - World Wide Rebel Songs
120. The Ettes - Wicked Will

There were some great collections this year too.

1. The Beach Boys - Smile
2. Rockpile - Live at Montreaux 1980
3. Various Artists - Rave On Buddy Holly
4. Various Artists - Johnny Boy Would Love This... A Tribute To John Martyn
5. Jimi Hendrix - Winterland
6. Primal Scream & The MC5 - Black To Comm: Live at the Royal Festival
7. Neil Young - A Treasure
8. Various Artists - The Lost Notebooks of Hank Williams
9. Iggy Pop - Roadkill Rising... The Bootleg Collection 1977-2009
10. Etta James - Heart & Soul: A Retrospective
11. The Brian Jonestown Massacre - The Singles Collection: 1992-2011
12. The Hollies - Clarke, Hicks & Nash Years: The Complete Hollies 1963-1968
13. The Radio Dept. - Passive Aggressive: Singles 2002-2010
14. Neil Diamond - The Bang Years 1966-1968
15. Gorillaz - The Singles Collection: 2001-2011
16. Ty Segall - Singles 2007-2010
17. Ladytron - Best of Ladytron 2000-2010
18. The Vagrants - I Can't Make A Friend 1965-1968
19. Chicago - Live in 1975

60 Albums 1976

I stepped back a year to 1976 which of course was very different than 1977. I was in college and living in the Germantown section of Philadelphia which at that time was all about the funk. Parliament and Funkadelic was happening and disco was already becoming too mainstream to be cool anymore although Saturday Night Fever was just around the corner. We also had the very beginnings of what we would know as punk and new wave with the first albums my Blondie, Ramones, Patti Smith and the classic Modern Lovers which was actually recorded in 1973. Little did we know where things were heading.

David Bowie was entering his Thin White Duke period and this album really blew me away. Was this my all time favorite Bowie album? Not hardly. He had many great albums and this is another one.

Reggae was becoming a big part of my collection and we were going down to South Street to regularly see live reggae acts perform at Grendel's Lair. I was also getting into dub and loved to play it at house parties. Freaked people out.

That Joan Armatrading continues to be one of my all time favorite albums.

1. David Bowie - Station To Station
2. Joan Armatrading - Joan Armatrading
3. Bob Dylan - Desire
4. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life
5. Ramones - Ramones
6. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration
7. Tom Waits - Small Change
8. The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
9. Steely Dan - The Royal Scam
10. Blondie - Blondie
11. Joni Mitchell - Hejira
12. Marvin Gaye - I Want You
13. Electric Light Orchestra - A New World Record
14. Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action
15. Peter Tosh - Legalize It
16. Average White Band - Person To Person
17. Burning Spear - Garvey's Ghost
18. Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia
19. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
20. Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
21. Jeff Beck - Wired
22. Parliament - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstien
23. The Wild Tchoupitoulas - The Wild Tchoupitoulas
24. Jackson Browne - The Pretender
25. The Heptones - Nightfood
26. Funkadelic - Hardcore Jollies
27. Toots & The Maytals - Reggae Got Soul
28. Stomu Yamashta's Go - Go
29. Hall & Oates - Bigger Than Both Of Us
30. Jimmy Cliff - Follow My Mind
31. The Mighty Diamonds - Right Time
32. Bootsy's Rubber Band - Stretchin' Out In Bootsy's Rubber  Band
33. Horslips - The Book of Invasions
34. Miles Davis - Water Babies
35. Bob Dylan - Hard Rain
36. Eddie & The Hot Rods - Teenage Depression
37. Bunny Wailer - Blackheart Man
38. Todd Rundgren - Faithful
39. The Runaways - The Runaways
40. Funkadelic - Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
41. Graham Parker - Howin' Wind
42. Laura Nyro - Smile
43. 801 - 801 Live
44. Earth, Wind & Fire - Spirit
45. John Martyn - Live at Leeds
46. The Beach Boys - 15 Big Ones
47. Ian Hunter - All American Boy
48. Burning Spear - Man In The Hills
49. The Rolling Stones -  Black and Blue
50. Santana - Amigos
51. Gary Burton - Dreams So Real
52. Steve Goodman - Words We Can Dance To
53. Warren Zevon - Warren Zevon
54. Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down The Wind
55. Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
56. Soft Machine - Softs
57. Melanie - Photograph
58. Bryan Ferry - Let's Stick Together
59. J. Giles Band - Live: Blow Your Face Out
60. Diana Ross - Diana Ross