Well of course I mustn’t tell the little lady’s age, but we’ve been married almost 40 years. Some subtraction reveals the musical era that she and I grew up in. We didn’t make it to Woodstock but did get to go to a 3 day music festival at Goose Lake, Michigan in the summer of 1970. Details are a little foggy, because the promoters announced “Do Not Take The Brown Mescaline!” a few minutes too late for me. One of the biggest disappointments, other than the bad psychedelics, was that one of the best English blues groups, Savoy Brown, was a no-show. The good news was Ten Years After, The James Gang and Jethro Tull were there, and dozens of other super, famous groups. The wife and I were music buffs then and now. In the summer of ’66, when I woke up in the hospital with nothing much to do (except to eat Seconal for pain), I teethed on “The Pied Piper”, “Sweet Pea”, “Summer In The City”, “I Saw Her Again Last Night”. I think I also fell in love there for the first time but I never saw that princess again-well maybe once. My future wife knew her first love about the same time and she also had a second love, the Beatles. She got to go to their concerts in 1968 & ’69. She probably couldn’t hear the singing for the screaming but it had a lifelong effect on her nonetheless. So I’d say 1966 was about the beginning of our musical travels.
Over the years our eventual accrual of lps, cds, and tapes has reached over 600 collectibles. Unfortunately (or fortunately from my point of view) my family’s music taste got stuck in the 1960′s & 1970′s. I tell myself that this is not unnatural. We have advanced just a little bit into the following three decades. The following are the best plays in the collection and consciousness of an opinionated couple.
Hopefully every musical taste is present: Judy Collins-Recollections (Elektra, 1969), Bob Dylan-Blood On The Tracks (Columbia, 1975), Beatles-(White Album) (Apple, 1968), Grateful Dead-American Beauty (Warner Bros., 1970), Rolling Stones-Let It Bleed (London, 1969), Janis Joplin-Pearl (Columbia, 1971), Spirit-The 12 Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus (Epic, 1970), Rod Stewart-Every Picture Tells A Story (Mercury, 1971), Bob Marley and The Wailers-Legend (Island, 1984), Pink Floyd-The Wall (Columbia, 1979), Paul Simon-Graceland (Warner Bros., 1986), Patsy Cline-12 Greatest Hits (MCA, 2003), Johnny Cash-American IV/The Man Comes Around (American, 2003), Stevie Ray Vaughn & Double Trouble-The Real Deal:Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (Epic, 1999), Abigail Washburn-Song Of The Traveling Daughter (Nettwerk, 2005).
Out of so many decisions the girl & I only agree on fifteen. So she is half wrong on the next seven. She likes “Are You Experienced?” by The Jimi Hendrix Experience but I prefer “Axis, Bold As Love”. I love Leo Kottke’s “6 & 12 String Guitar” but she prefers “Greenhouse”. She loves the great Tom Waits extravaganza “Orphans”, but “Rain Dogs” is a little better for me. She likes The Traveling Wilburys’ Vol 3, I prefer Vol. 1. As for Bruce Springsteen, she likes “Born In The U.S.A” and I like “The Rising” better. Her favorite Led Zeppelin album is the first, I prefer the varied compilation “Early Days & Later Days”. Of course her Fleetwood Mac pick “Rumours” is not close to “Then Play On”, even though the group is the same on these two selections in name only.
Now female and male opinions diverge completely. The rest of HER picks are (PFFFFFT): The Concert For Bangladesh, Blessed Are… by Joan Baez, Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town by Emmy Lou Harris, Against The Wind by Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band, Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel, Moondance by Van Morrison, Belladonna by Stevie Nicks, Angel Band by (OH NO NOT) Emmy Lou Harris again, Brave & Crazy by Melissa Etheridge, The Principle Of Moments by Robert Plant, and Running On Empty by Jackson Browne. The rest of my picks are: Disraeli Gears by Cream, The Doors’ first album, Rides Again by The James Gang, Lola Versus Powerman And The Moneygoround by The Kinks, Waiting For Columbus by Little Feat, The Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Uncle Meat by The Mothers of Invention, Shine On Brightly by Procol Harum, The Joshua Tree by U2, Recycling The Blues & Other Related Stuff by Taj Mahal, Shady Grove by Jerry Garcia & David Grisman, The Eminem Show by Eminem, and any “Best of” Beethoven. My copy happens to be put out on the Metacom label. DRUM ROLL…25 BEST SONGS OF ALL TIME! HER: “Idiot Wind”-Bob Dylan, “Piece Of My Heart”-Big Brother & The Holding Company, “Mother”-Pink Floyd, “No Woman No Cry”-Bob Marley, “Closer To Fine”-Indigo Girls, “Hard Rain”-Bob Dylan, “Willow”-Joan Armatrading, “Talkin’ About A Revolution”-Tracy Chapman, “Sugaree”-Jerry Garcia, “River”-Joni Mitchell, “Boulder To Birmingham”-Emmy Lou Harris, “Hello In There”-John Prine, “Anchorage”-Michelle Shocked, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”-Simon & Garfunkel, “Red, Red Wine”-UB40, “Shine A Light”-Rolling Stones, “Too Far From Texas”-Stevie Nicks, “Strong Enough”-Sheryl Crow, “Who Will Save Your Soul?”-Jewel, “Into The Fire”-Bruce Springsteen, “Let It Slip Away”-John Hiatt, “Tears In Heaven”-Eric Clapton, “Trouble Me”-10,000 Maniacs, “She’s A Mystery”-Roy Orbison and finally “Oh Happy Day” by The Edwin Hawkins Singers.
Some of those singles I can see are not too bad, but I can do better.
My taste in music is so ancient that not all of the recording labels mentioned are still in existence. Elektra is a now dormant subsidiary of Warner Bros. which itself is now a subsidiary of Sony. The Rolling Stones’ London label is now managed by Polydor. MCA has been absorbed by Geffen Records.
I have to mention the sound reproduction equipment I used in researching the survey. My primary speakers are as old as my marriage. They are Realistic Mach 1s (the good screw terminal #4024) and sound as good as the day they were born. I would be interested to know if many people still use these. They are unbelievable. My secondaries are little Optimus 7 1/4 x 4 1/2 speaker enclosures with big sound. I use a Yamaha turntable with Audio-technica cartridge. My cd changer is Optimus. My digital synthesized receiver is also an Optimus which is a Radio Shack brand. Realistic was the ancient Radio Shack brand. I can see people snickering but it is good stuff at a good price for the most part, although I am not enamored of the cd changer. The double cassette deck I use is a Teac.