We're at the first part (of 3) of my If More Room Allows list. Part 2 is here.
If you got here bypassing my top ten....
Deserted Island Music home page
my Amazon reviews, mostly about books, movies and music
A few more if room allows (1st of 3)
Yes, this isn’t kosher. I said we’d limit ourselves to just 10 CDs, and here I am with a bunch more.
Sorry, I can’t help it. There’s just so much great music that can’t be left behind.
Also, any of the artists down here could as easily be up in the main list. Why aren’t they? I don’t know. Ask me tomorrow, when I’m in a different mood, and they might be. In fact, since starting this labor of love, there've been some changed places within the Deserted Island Ten. And why not? As the poet said, “Are we calcified, forever set in stone, hearts rigid in time?”
So, in alphabetical order, here are more I'd take if there were room.
The Animals – Well, this blows my cover. He likes classical, jazz, folk… The Animals? Hah!
OK, so they weren’t heavyweights like the Stones or Beatles (both with
carte blanche entry to the Deserted Island, of
course),
but they sure were contenders. And if they’d stayed together longer, if
they hadn’t gotten distracted by drugs and psychedelia, they’d have been
champs, too. Eric Burdon had that terrific voice, and the band,
especially the bluesy organ, backed him well.
If a child of the ‘60s, you need no introduction to the Animals. If they’re new to you, find a greatest hits collection, one that skips their last years, and get ready for a treat. Actually, though, I haven't found one "best hits" CD that has all my favorite songs; each one leaves out a few that are on another. Good luck.
In the late '70s, almost a decade after the band splintered apart, the original members came together to make what I thought a fine album. But the group's time had passed, the album sank like a rock. I still smile, though, every time I hear its title: BEFORE WE WERE SO RUDELY INTERRUPTED.
(Which is still not quite as good a title as Tim O'Brien and Darrell Scott's wonderful 2012 album, WE'RE USUALLY A LOT BETTER THAN THIS. Or the Flatlanders' MORE A LEGEND THAN A BAND.)
Joan Baez
- Along with Judy Collins, one of the singular voices of our time, and
like Collins, still singing today, 50 years later.
It’s her first two albums on Vanguard Records that are timeless. They came out in 1960 (the one at right) and 1961, a matched set of early American and British folk songs, accompanied only (except on a few songs) by Baez on guitar. Baez was an adequate guitarist. What makes these songs classics are her voice and the lyrics, both essential, both pure.
These songs take us back to an earlier time, when life spans were short, when royalty held absolute power, when love could be life or death. Many songs are tragic tales of love betrayed, found out, or unreturned.
When I put these albums on the stereo, it’s never as background music. I dim the lights, put aside the newspaper, magazine or book, and lose myself in time back to another world.
Beatles - Well, duh. Rolling Stones, duh, too. Please don't make me choose between them. The greatest song writers in modern popular music, and the greatest band in rock and roll.
It's 1965, I'm 18 years old, driving one morning on the college campus, and on the car radio hear "Satisfaction" for the first time. I had to pull over. I couldn't see to drive.
Eric Bibb - Eric who? you're asking. What a crime he's not better known, while no-talent poseurs are laughing at us on their way to the bank.
Of his five albums at our public library, my favorite is BROTHERS IN BAMAKO (with Habib Koité), especially tracks, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 13.
https://youtu.be/xDUrlhrWD5Y?t=73 is a good intro.
Big Band –
Listen
ing to Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller,
Artie Shaw, and others, one has to marvel that these mature musical
giants were mainstream American pop stars. Today we have Justin Bieber and Snoop Dog.
Two options to see if this music is for you: BEST OF THE BIG BANDS, a 2-CD set by the label Madacy, or ONLY BIG BAND CD YOU'LL EVER NEED.
The original recordings are superb, even in mono. The old masters rocked the house.
Black Pianists – At one time it read "Blind Black Pianists." But there are so many sighted ones, how could they not be included.
It is curious, though, that even if one doesn't have to be blind or black to be a great pianist, how is it so many are. Head of the pack, it goes without saying, is Art Tatum. He was before my time, but just one CD, ULTIMATE ART TATUM, Verve 314 559 877-2, easily convinces that here was a genius. Purely as a pianist, there's never been anyone better.
If we add vocals, though, the clear choice is Ray Charles, with the best of his work, I think, on HIS GREATEST HITS (Dunhill DZS-036 and -037), a 2-CD set. I also love his BLUES AND JAZZ (Rhino R2 71607), with one disc of each genre in the set, and his classic MODERN SOUNDS IN COUNTRY AND WESTERN MUSIC. The wonderful film "Ray" made me like him even more, knowing something of his terribly hard childhood.
I've recently been introduced to Henry Butler; check his BLUES & MORE, VOLUME 1 for an example.
And in February 2017, to James Booker, who died 35 years ago in apparent silence. How did such talent stay so hidden? First stop on the James Booker bandwagon is the 2016 documentary, "Bayou Maharajah - The Life And Music Of New Orleans Piano Legend James Booker," by Lily Keber.
Finally, Marcus Roberts. I’ve
kept only one CD by him, AS SERENITY APPROACHES,
but it’s so fine,
always a delight to put on. Roberts has a style
recognizable within
seconds. He’ll
disappoint you if it’s “smooth” jazz you like. He plays
jazz with sharp edges.
On March 30, 2014, Marcus Roberts is the subject of a 60 Minutes segment.
Now to my favorite sighted black pianists (yes, I'm not comfortable describing them like this).
Where to start? If you like the blues, you must listen to what Otis Spann does with them. Get either, or both, IS THE BLUES or WALKING THE BLUES. (January 2015, I hear his EBONY AND IVORY BLUES, a 2-CD set, and now think it's the one to get.)
Still with the blues, bet you'd also like Black Ace, Professor Longhair, Pinetop Perkins or Sunnyland Slim. Both Perkins and Slim pounded the keys well into their elder years. Perkins died in early 2011, almost 98 years old, with 20 performances booked that year. Slim died in 1995 at 89. These four don't have the technical skills of the next two, but they may be the more enjoyable because of it.
Allen Toussaint died five years ago after a long lifetime of wonderful writing and playing, but it's just now in 2020 that I "discovered" him. Love his style. He doesn't play the most notes, just the right ones. THE BRIGHT MISSISSIPPI won't disappoint.
The next two are simply exhilarating with their talent. Oscar Peterson may be the most skillful pianist I've ever heard, able to play anything better than almost anybody. If I had to choose only one pianist to take to the deserted island, he's the one. If he weren't available, I'd ask Erroll Garner.
Norman Blake
– At a flea market some years ago, I was lucky to find twenty
bluegrass CDs from a collector. Seven of the CDs
were by Blake, and only one of them wasn’t a keeper. What a musician.
Hard to believe he was on Bob Dylan’s NASHVILLE SKYLINE in 1969, and is still making great music today.
(Thanks, Jerry, for putting him in
your own Deserted Island list. It’s
exactly what this website is all about.)
My favorite of the seven albums is NATASHA’S WALTZ. Two more you’d enjoy are WHISKEY BEFORE BREAKFAST and BACK HOME IN SULPHUR SPRINGS. But it’s hard to go wrong with anything Blake (and his wife Nancy) do. Except sing. He’s not much of a singer.
Bluegrass – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band wasn't special, but they produced two albums that had a large impact on many in America, certainly on me. They introduced us to bluegrass.
Not that bluegrass wasn't around. Just that in the '50s and 60's
it was drowned out by C&W, jazz and,
especially, rock and roll.
In 1972 NGDB brought together some of the country's greatest pickers to give us WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN. It was a two-vinyl set of 38 songs, bluegrass and old-time country, and America wasn’t ready for it. The album sank without a ripple.
About 20 years later the NGDB tried again with WTCBU vol 2. This time the album had names like Mark O’Connor, Chet Atkins, Johnny Cash, John Denver, and Emmylou Harris, and unsurprisingly this album struck a chord with America. The two albums are must-haves in any collection. (Volume 3 took another ten years. It's good, but not like the first two, at least to me.)
Aside from Bill Monroe (of course), here are my favorites, in alphabetical order:
Blue Highway Cox Family Johnson Mountain Boys Del McCoury Nashville Bluegrass Band Tim O'Brien
Countless others should be (and hopefully will be) added.
It doesn't make sense for an urban Jew to love this music, but how I do.
Claude Bolling
– Does he play classical or jazz? Doubt there’s much improvisation, but
he sure isn’t “stuffy.”
Bolling is endlessly inventive, and frequently gathers other world-class musicians to play with him. Start anywhere, though his GREATEST HITS could have been much better, I thought. Try his “Suite” albums instead, as with PICNIC SUITE, pictured at left.
Greg Brown, Terry Allen -
Two great song writers I discovered decades late.
I've now heard eight albums by Greg Brown, and my first impression was right: unique songwriter, unusual voice, excellent guitarist, always fine instrumental support.
Look for SLANT 6
MIND, but IF I HAD KNOWN
is the one to get if he's not yet in your library.
Terry Allen is a visual artist whose work has been shown throughout America and the world but which I can't appreciate. Not so his music, though. Lyrics (especially his lyrics), melodies, band mates -- all superb.
My favorite albums of his are HUMAN REMAINS and LUBBOCK ON EVERYTHING. Either will make you a fan, too.
Jackson Browne
– A fine songwriter, but only three of his albums on my shelf (and one a
"Best of").
One of the albums, though, LATE FOR THE SKY, will be, if I ever create it, on my list of "Ten and Only Ten Deserted Island Albums." With a half-dozen wonderful songs, one is among the greatest ever written, an anthem for all time, Before the Deluge.
The album I'm listening to most lately is LOVE IS STRANGE, where we hear Browne and David Lindley, his old friend and a great musician in his own right, on acoustic instruments on a concert tour in Spain. Not every song of the 2-CD set works for me, but it's easy to extract one terrific CD from them.
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris – This is a cast recording of an off-Broadway show of the late 1960s.
Is my judgment overwhelmed by emotion, or is this truly great music? Can everyone enjoy it, or are memories needed of a night in Greenwich Village?
In
the spring of 1968, stationed at nearby Fort Monmouth for electronics training, I often took
a bus up to NY City on weekends. It was as much to get out the barracks as to
enjoy the big apple. My first stop was always the USO near Times
Square, where we got donuts and coffee and, best of all, free tickets to shows.
The second best show I remember was the dress rehearsal of “Hair.” Even on a winter's Saturday afternoon, the huge theater was packed and exhilarated, though clueless me, who hadn't heard of this cultural phenomenon, went in to get out of the cold. And then, of course, had my reality adjusted.
The best show I saw was “Jacques Brel…” Yes, it can’t really have been that good. You probably had to be there. You probably had to be just 20 years old.
Today, over 40 years later, I still say this one CD may have the saddest, the funniest, the bitterest, and the most loving songs we’ll ever hear.
For years the CD was out of print, and I kept my copy in the safety deposit box. Today it can be had for pennies on Amazon.
Or maybe you had to be there.
Tim Buckley -- GOODBYE AND HELLO was Buckley's second album, the only one of his I liked. It was a miraculous gift to us that still thrills me today, if not as much as when I was young.
HAPPY SAD, his third album, was so bad I gave up on him and his next six albums. And then he died at 28.
The title song alone is worth the price of the CD, but there are a number of other fine-to-great ones.
JJ Cale
-
I know Cale’s not great. He's not the first you'd think of in
any area, whether melody, rhythm, lyrics or voice. Yet I find
myself coming back to him and his relaxed bluesy rock, even when
acclaimed masters stay on the shelf.
Cale’s music is hardly ever bad. One song after another with good lyrics and capable instrumentals. Doesn’t sound like much, especially for a Deserted Island list. Guess all I can say is, for reasons not completely understood, he makes it all come together and I play him a lot.
I'd sometimes read about Cale in Rolling Stone magazine when I subscribed in the '70s, but never picked up any of his albums. Guess the magazine's enthusiasm sounded as lukewarm as mine. But in 2000, almost 30 years after his first album came out, one of Cale's albums was on a friend's CD player, and I was hooked.
You may not have heard Cale, but you've probably heard his music. He's the one who wrote Eric Clapton’s hits After Midnight and Cocaine. They're not his best songs, either.
If you like heavy metal, you probably won't like Cale. No screaming, no intensity. He's so laid back I wonder sometimes if he’ll make it to the end of the song. He doesn’t seem to care if you stick it out with him or not. But you do, you always do.
------------
July 26, 2013. JJ Cale dies of a heart attack. Rest in peace, Mr Cale, with thanks for the pleasure you gave us.
Shlomo Carlebach – I have only one album by him, a 1965 collection of Hasidic songs called IN THE PALACE OF THE KING.
The liner notes by Sophia Adler begin: "The malaise we all sense. We sta
nd
in a searing territory. The contemporary arts sing us the dirge and
interpret for us our self-destructive soul-sickness. In the shadow of
the final mushroom we stand atrophying and baffled. Yet we all have a
terrible need for a path towards life and love within our civilization."
The liner notes end: "Young people gravitate toward Shlomo. Today's youth, pondering the irrevocable realities of the Brave New World it shortly must inherit, is listening for messages of meaning. In a climate of search and longing, music becomes exploration...the snicker dies in the throat and the heart dares to be unarmed."
Warning: Though the songs are all in Hebrew, you should expect them to stay in your head the next few days, unforgettable in the literal meaning of the word.
Brandi Carlile - Her talent no longer a secret in 2019, but it's only recently that I've heard four of her albums. One of them had only two good songs (for me), but it wasn't typical. The other albums had many good songs, some much better than just "good."
And her voice, wow, soars to the heavens.
She's still a young woman, only 37 as I write this, with decades ahead of her. Can't wait.
Eva Cassidy - Died of cancer at only 33, still unknown except to her local fans.
She sang in every style ... folk, jazz, traditional, ballads, gospel,
pop, blues, country ... and it always sounded right. Better than right.
Perfect.
She played a fine guitar, too, and was a talented painter.
Buddy Holly (22), Otis Redding (26), Hank Williams (29), Eva Cassidy (33), Mozart (35), Georges Bizet (36), George Gershwin (38), Felix Mendelssohn (38). Oh, what might have been.
Chambers Brothers
– A minor ‘60s R&B quintet, they were four black cousins and
brothers
who
I liked
if only for
choosing a white friend for their drummer. (Drummer? Don’t they know we
ain’t got no rhythm?)
But I especially liked their vocals, harder edged than the smooth harmonies from fine groups like the Temptations, Persuasions, and Drifters.
The best introduction to the Chambers Brothers is their classic THE TIME HAS COME, but also look for their live albums PEOPLE GET READY and NOW!, which may give a better sense of their talent.
Ray Charles - See above, in "Black Pianists." RC is one of the clearest examples we have of genius in American music. He really should be up in the Deserted Island list, not down here in Honorable Mention. Something's wrong with me. I need to review this.
Eric Clapton - That he's one of the guitar masters goes
without saying, especially to those of us
who
remember Cream and their album DISRAELI GEARS. (Released in 1967, I
remember it like it was yesterday. Can it really be that long ago?)
In the past few years Clapton seems to have decided to stop being the star. He's organized the successful Crossroads Guitar festivals, where he graciously pushes others to take center stage instead of him.
What endears him to me, though, are two albums and a DVD I've recently found that have become some of my very favorites. The albums are: THE ROAD TO ESCONDIDO (2006) with JJ Cale and MARSALIS AND CLAPTON PLAY THE BLUES (2011). The DVD is John Mayall's 70TH BIRTHDAY CONCERT (2003). In all of them, he plays beautiful, perfect runs. Then he again steps aside for others to shine.
One more CD like these, and I bet it's coming, and he moves up to the main list.
Ry Cooder – A long career, going back to the '60s, and so much from it to recommend.
Seven
of his albums sit on my shelf and are brought often to the stereo. In the
'70s he got in a groove, giving us a series of terrific rock albums like
CHICKEN SKIN MUSIC, BOP TILL YOU DROP, and BORDERLINE.
But I especially like his two albums with musicians from other cultures, TALKING TIMBUKTU (Africa) and MEETING BY THE RIVER (India).
Cooder is another who should be on my Deserted Island list. The problem, of course, is who would he replace.