Yesterday’s rush to put together a list was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed reading everyone else’s list and comments. I thought that since I was actually thinking about it, I’d put together a quick summary of my process along with the almost-made-it-on artists/albums.
Due to procrastination on my part, my list was thrown together about 12 a.m. when I should have been asleep at least two hours prior. I suddenly remembered what I’d been putting off doing, and then rushed to get the list together. Limiting myself to one album per artist made it easier since then I just had to put together a list of my favorite artists and come up with my favorite album of theirs to include. Of course, that was much easier thought than performed. Several artists, including Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, I couldn’t narrow down so ended up leaving off completely. Many other artists I knew I would cut, and just thinking about that made me feel better about waiting as it meant I didn’t have to agonize over what was being cut for a long period of time. Here’s a partial list of artists and albums I arrived at for my final choices, although I changed my mind about several of the representative albums before moving forward:
While I am very happy with the final list I posted, one thing that leaps out right away from looking at this list (and beer had nothing to do with it! I swear!) was that I meant to include Van Morrison’s Moondance album in my list and…didn’t. The Stevie Wonder album is a marvelous album and I have no regrets, but this omission occurred to me just a little while ago and made me check up on it.
Now that the selections were out of the way, next was the ordering of the 15. Believe me when I say that other than the top 2, I highly doubt I could re-create the order in which I placed them, as it changes all of the time. Abbey Road and London Calling have been there for years, but the rest, while all much loved, move up or down depending upon mood and listening habits of the time.
Finally, I had them ordered, at least acceptable, and went ahead and posted each with a little blurb and the artwork. Hurray! I finally posted after neglecting to for so long, and hopefully will get into better habits. I’d like to thank all of you for doing this, your kind feedback, and providing the impetus for me to post once again. In closing, I’ll list those that didn’t make the top 15 but came close, since I can barely read my handwriting. Not meant to be an exhaustive list of considered choices either, just those I scribbled out in a hurry. Just thinking about the real list makes my head hurt.
Van Morrison – Moondance
Tragically Hip – Fully Completely
Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage
The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
The Ramones – S/T
Joy Division – Closer
The Kinks – Something Else
Lou Reed – Transformer
John Lennon – Plastic Ono Band
Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here/Animals/The Wall
PJ Harvey – Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
Black Sabbath – Sabotage/Paranoid/Volume 4
Led Zeppelin – II/III/Physical Graffiti
The Pogues – Rum, Sodomy & the Lash
R.E.M. – Fables of the Reconstruction
The Replacements – Let It Be
Slade – Slayed?
T. Rex – The Slider