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Old 10-28-2008, 09:17 AM   #1
Yuri
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Default 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

1,000 albums to hear before you die

Author Tom Moon has good reasons why albums did, and didn't, make the cut for book

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/525528

October 28, 2008 GREG QUILL
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

When Tom Moon sat down to lunch recently to discuss his massive new book, the 1,007-page 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (Workman Publishing, $22.95), I wanted to pick a fight with him.
But then, so does just about everyone Moon meets since his book hit the shelves.
It comes with the territory. Whenever someone makes what purports to be a definitive list, it's the omissions that offend, particularly when you're dealing with something as personally valuable as music.
As a working musician and a career music critic with a 20-year tenure (he recently parted company with the Philadelphia Enquirer) and regular contributor to Rolling Stone, America's National Public Radio, Spin, GQ and Esquire over the years, Moon has credibility up the wazoo.
In 1,000 Recordings, Moon writes about Canadians Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell and Arcade Fire. But why no Lightfoot, I wanted to know? Or Bruce Cockburn? Or Ian Tyson? Does Moon know anything about Canadian music?
He seems equally dismissive of the music of my native land. Not a word anywhere about Australia's Dingoes, Daddy Cool, Spectrum, Midnight Oil, or Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. Nothing about New Zealand's Split Enz or Crowded House ... jeez, what a nerve.
The simple answer is, of course, that no one list can accommodate all tastes.
With Tyson, Lightfoot and Cockburn, Moon said he could find "no collection that defined their work, or that would give the listener a way in."
As for the music of the Antipodes, he simply pled ignorance.
"I do love Midnight Oil's Diesel and Dust, but nothing that band ever recorded matched the intensity of their live performances, so they're not on the list," he said.
Nor is Billy Joel.
"In the pop and rock area I was looking for stuff that moved the goal posts. And popularity isn't enough. There are great Billy Joel songs, but not one great Billy Joel album, and since I'd chosen albums as my medium Billy didn't make the cut."
Why albums instead of single pieces of music?
"I have issues with the 99-cent download culture," Moon explained. "You can't expand your world by cherry-picking. You have to take a ride."
Even though his book took three years to compile and research – yes, he listened to every album more than once before compiling his 1,000, 350-words essays – no one could possibly hope to come across the untold millions of pieces of recorded music that have been released worldwide in the last 120 years, even with the help of expert advisers and music finders, as Moon had.
"I realized from the start that the choices I made couldn't be my favourites, or the music that has been rubber-stamped as `the best' of its kind," Moon began in his own defence. "I had to choose only the music that I felt everyone should hear, music that belongs in every collection.
"Of course, that implies a certain arrogance. I have to trust my own ear as a musician and a student of music. The idea was to turn people on in a general way to music that provided some powerful revelation, that Eureka moment.
"Not everything I chose came up to that level, but that's what I was aiming for."
Though he's a seasoned saxophonist and has worked jazz gigs from bar mitzvahs to Maynard Ferguson, Moon's musical tastes, particularly when it came to compiling his controversial list, are surprisingly catholic.
You'll find a little bit of just about everything in 1,000 Recordings, from Bach and Baby Huey, to El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico and Woody Guthrie, from Oum Kalthoum and Alison Krauss, to Ricky Nelson and Tete Montoliu.
The book, which lists its entries alphabetically and without any rating scheme, may have a few too many obvious selections – does The Eagles' Hotel California need yet another rave review, or six Beatles albums? – but it's certainly inclusive and generous in spirit. And Moon's infectious, breathlessly excited writing style imbues each essay with the wonder of discovery.
"I'm a generalist," he said, "but I tried not to pick the perceived favourites. My only yardstick was: is it pleasurable? Even if on any other level it's not considered great work, is it illuminating or uplifting?"
And if Moon's written critiques failed to make his editors tingle, out they went.
"I couldn't write 350 words that made the argument for Supertramp's Crime of the Century, I'm sorry to say. There were 70 reviews like that."
Other surprise non-starters were victims of Moon's self-professed critical arrogance. The 1970s one-hit power-pop studio band Boston makes the grade and three James Brown albums, but nothing by Dave Brubeck.
"Brubeck's the ultimate jazz composer," Moon said. "But on record he's too cool, he's not relaxed, he doesn't swing."
Moon, who took a buyout at the Philadelphia Enquirer when the paper refused to extend his leave-of-absence when 1,000 Recordings went into overtime, has few regrets about his list – or few he'll admit.
"Little Feat came really close," he said. "I think they should have been included. And if I had it to do over again, Kris Kristofferson would be in there, too.
"But I'm not beating myself up. I've given people the keys to begin their own journey of exploration. In an age when music has become so commoditized, and the means of distribution so fragmented, someone has to point the way. I think I've done that."
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Old 10-28-2008, 09:28 AM   #2
Jesse Joe
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

Hi Yuri,

Welcome back !

Great to see you post again. Hope everthing is OK with you and cousin Catirnka.

"WOW" (1000) recordings to hear before you die !!!

I better get started soon.
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Old 10-28-2008, 10:07 AM   #3
charlene
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

Well he's not listed Kris or Gord. I've already discovered/listened to them for decades and I love them and don't need any of the other 'music' he's listed.. sheesh..
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Old 10-28-2008, 11:46 AM   #4
Yuri
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

Still here and enjoying the posts Jesse Joe - lurking now and then but not much to say these days....
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Old 10-28-2008, 02:32 PM   #5
geodeticman.5
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

Hi Yuri good to see you around and posting, as was said by Jesse Joe,too.

I read you Luthery today, having no idea wha it was; I entered predisposed it was "probably about the Lutheran Denomination, or, I'm not sure whether they are protestant; no matter - I was surprsied and pleased to see Luthery is the making of stringed instruments - ws that the boild-down definition ? I saw that it covered all typoes of guitar, and violins, etc. Very nice blog- the parchment background adds anice anbience for a woodworker's story - one i did not see answered - 16 yrs old - you made you first Bass guitar from church Pew Oak, right ? Well in that story (I liked the part about the musci store owner not selling you frets- until you showed him your essentially complete wood product !.

The Q from that one, having just characteristically run off on a co-secant instead of the usual non-linear-thinkers next -step, I am told I think divergantly, (sounds ominous lol) I diiveeerge.hmmmm. - wel anyway- thinkng in relational terms - this makes me think of that, makes me think of that, and I problem solve bottm up instead of top-down - and I almost always depart non-sequiter from the thought at hand, to a seemingly unrelated "tangent" -

ok, maybe a versed-sin - no one I knew could remember that escept my Dad who taught EE. Inverse of the sine; hence 'verse'-ed sin. Ok the Q - skipping a few non-sequiters I'll kepp to myself - but wll talk your canoe tales later - so you made your 1st bass of oak at 16, and mentioned you made the case as well. Now, my Yamaha real basic classical guitar has a fiber-board almost carboard typical low-end case. What of yours / Something tells me you would not stand for cardboard lol

Great stories in there....still pickin and readin here and there. I am goign to read next your "our story" about "how does a Hamilton Ontario College student meet a Boston Girl on field trip ? Most guys would not dream of writing about their wives that way, they are almost compelled to speak in terms of being embarrased to tak=lk her up, and just do the ball and chain thing... sad... as you know my situation... I won't infuse any maudlin (been accused of that) or elegiac words on Merry now - I have to know the people want to hear it B4 I write4 of it. Then of course I am a wrecjk for the day, but they tell me thats the process. POINT BEING....today... on wives...

Sound like you value yours very much, and are not embarrassed to admit it. Yes ! The cliche of you never know how much you have til you lose it is so true it challenges the farthest corners of your mind, if yours is like mine in anyway - God help ya lol - ya think in between tears - how can the tear ducts have enough 'juice' in 'em to cry for 3 hours ? Arborite dreams from 'Never Say Trust Me' came to mind and Kenny Rogers who turned it down (fool ) - jj and I have mused that THAT tune just keep creepin further and further into your head....Prett Bar maid going to and fro....arbotire tables, arborite dreams... well dowm here in the US of A we call it Formica 9brand) or generically - melamine HPL on ParticleBoard substrate.

It took first SherylKat, then Char, then looking up the Arborite co. website to convince myself that after 7 years in Lumber while going to college, I thought I "knew' arbourite was "AAspenite flakeboard - big chipboard - not ParticleBoard, bu those big ole flakes and glue. Nope - I now stand corrected on what you folks up Canada way call Arbourite brand and melamine, too for generic product, we call Formica. And with a story like that, how could Kenny turn hisnose up at that song ? The empty bottle reference ? H ecan have his pineapples - he lost out on a great song that even capotured IMO his style, by Gord. It anticipated his methods of singing, and terms I do not know, I could just "hear' Kenny singing it. Oh well. That my random list today !

You take care

- thanks
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Old 10-28-2008, 03:34 PM   #6
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

interesting list but I have to say,this personhas obviusly never "realy" listend to Midnight Oil's 1983 album "10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1".

The song "Power and the Passion" (as well as the rest of the songs)......nothing short of fantastic. The video for said song is cooler than cool too.
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Old 10-29-2008, 12:13 AM   #7
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Default Re: 1000 Albums To Hear Before You Die

I looked through this book at Barnes and Noble a couple of weeks ago. He didn't have many of my favorites in there so I put it back on the shelf...lol.

No Lightfoot...No Sale

Hi Yuri Hope you are feeling better these days.
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