The Greatest Film Scores & Soundtracks Of All Time

How many films have there been wherein no one notices the music? Quite a few, if you think about it - the score or soundtrack merely blends in with background noise like a transistor radio on a busy street (for the younger readers, a "transistor radio" was a small battery-operated device with a tinny speaker that one used to listen to music with via non-digital airwaves in the century prior to i-Pods) . Certainly, there are those directors who eschewed a score altogether, like Hitchcock in The Birds or Ingmar Bergman in Cries and Whispers (although there is still some incidental classical music in both). But we shall forgo those and seek films where the music of the films are memorable, and often unforgettable. Many times the musical score of the film is what enthralls you, and at other times it is the individual songs that make up the soundtrack that catches your attention. Still other times, both the score and songs from the soundtrack are superb. I have decided to include both score and soundtracks in this article, mostly because I am inherently lazy and don't want to duplicate the effort.

What is the difference between a score and a soundtrack, you ask? Simply put, a score is most often music composed specifically for a film. It is usually electronic or classical in nature (although period instruments and arrangements are often used to reflect a bygone era, or ethnic music is scored to relate to a specific country, like in Gandhi, for instance). In addition, scores very rarely offer vocals, and then usually of an operatic or choral caliber. Often the score reflects themes in the movie or introduces specific characters, such as the score of  The Lord of the Rings, in which Howard Shore gives both characters (Gollum, for instance) and places (Khazad-dum, The Shire and Rohan) their own themes.

Conversely, a soundtrack is a collection of prerecorded songs or compositions by a single or various artists used by the director to direct our attention to something, to either subtly or overtly manipulate our feelings, or, more often than not, the director just likes the damn songs. Often songs are used in an ironic sense, a juxtaposition of a happy song on a frankly brutal scene, like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange crooning "Singin' in the Rain" as he beats up a couple. Sometimes a director will not use a score but only a soundtrack of individual songs, some only use a score, and some use both. We cater to all kinds here. But, as with all of my articles, I offer a few caveats, provisos and quid pro quos simply to make things easier for myself. Selfish, I know.

One caveat I have applied is that the film scores and soundtracks I have chosen are not from movies deemed "musicals", hence no Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, Stormy Weather, Oliver!, My Fair Lady, or even Pink Floyd's The Wall, for that matter. These are all laudable films, particularly in their musical content, but that isn't what I was going for. In addition, there are no concert films on the list, so no The Last Waltz, Woodstock, Don't Look Back or The Concert of Bangladesh. Both musicals and concert films/rockumentaries deserve their own special articles, and I may get around to those someday. But the scores and soundtracks here are from films that have plots independent of the music, or at least with "mockumentaries" such as This Is Spinal Tap or A Mighty Wind, or biographical films such as Amadeus, the music, while not incidental to the plot, is certainly cleverly subsumed into the overall story.

I won't say the music is secondary to the plot for the soundtracks I have chosen; on the contrary, in a few films here the soundtracks are the only redemption for sub-par or pedestrian movies. However, the characters do not sing while performing the mundane aspects of their lives. There are no epic musical dance numbers with casts of thousands trooping through Victorian neighborhoods of London (a stock number seen from everything from the song "Thank You Very Much" in the movie Scrooge to "With a Little Bit of Luck" from My Fair Lady to "Every Sperm is Sacred" in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life), or some idiot getting soaked singing and dancing in the rain down a sodden street of Paris. I like a healthy dose of reality, even in my fantasies.

And so, without further ado, here are the 50 films I deem to have the greatest scores, soundtracks or a combination of the two. In alphabetical order. Omitting any definite or indefinite articles like the words "the" or "an" starting a title.

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) - Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Korngold won an Academy Award for his thrilling score that further enlivened an already rousing movie (he also won an Oscar for the 1936 film Anthony Adverse). With Korngold's score, dashing and debonair Errol Flynn, cranky Basil Rathbone and the intoxicating Olivia de Havilland's sumptuous gowns, it is still the best damn Robin Hood movie ever filmed.
The Adventures Of Robin Hood Soundtrack Suite

Alexander Nevsky (1938) - Sergei Prokofiev
No, this is not cheating. Prokofiev did indeed score Sergei Eisenstein's brilliant epic Alexander Nevsky. Prokofiev later rearranged the score in cantata form (op. 78), reducing the film's original 23 movements down to seven. It is considered one of the great cantatas of the past century.
Alexander Nevsky (film score)

Amadeus (1984) - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri
How can this not be one of the greatest soundtracks? It's Mozart, dammit! The enjoyable aspect of this movie (whether the incidents in the film are true or not matter little)is the masterful way in which Miloš Forman weaves Mozart's music in throughout the film. It is the incidental works (by both Mozart and Salieri) that prove the most fascinating and often hilarious, as when Mozart mocks Salieri's tribute here, or here when Salieri desperately tries to impress a priest. However, the films descends further and further into darkness and the decline of Amadeus. The harrowing scenes from Don Giovanni, and the abject sorrow of the Requièm Mass in D minor (Lacrimosa) are superbly wrought for the film.

American Graffiti (1973) - Various Artists
When you've managed to play snippets of every song from the 50s and early 60s in a single evening and then have Wolfman Jack spin the platters, you either have an extended Time/Life CD infomercial or the George Lucas film American Graffiti. In this case, it's the latter. This is the movie that spurred the nostalgia craze of the 70s and offshoots like the Fonz. For all that, it is a damn entertaining movie, and the music proves integral because each generation has a special soundtrack of their teenage years. Don't you?
Green Onions, Opening Sequence/Rock Around the Clock, At the Hop

Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - Duke Ellington
Aside from Jimmy Stewart's marvelously understated performance as a failing small-town attorney, the best thing director Otto Preminger did was to hire Duke Ellington to write the score for Anatomy of a Murder. The music seethes and soars within a few bars and is infused with catchy gospel and blues lines.
Main Theme from Anatomy of a Murder

Apocalypse Now (1979) - Various Artists, Carmine Coppola
Oh, the horror! It is not necessarily Carmine Coppola's score that leaves the soundtrack to Apocalypse Now indelibly etched in our noggins, it is the eerie intro with the Door's The End insinuating across the scene with a hellish inferno in its wake. It is the wild ride of the choppers playing Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. Even the not-CCR version of Suzie Q is memorable, particularly with promoter Bill Graham on hand to lend authenticity. And Carmine Coppola does add enough malevolent ambiance to warrant mention, such as in this scene.

Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (1957) - Miles Davis
Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Elevator to the Gallows) was Louis Malle's first film, and is accorded classic status for its stylish noir ambiance and eternal close-ups of Jeanne Moreau's face. I found it forgettable, save for Miles Davis's remarkable jazz score.

Barry Lyndon (1975) - The Chieftains, George Frederick Handel, Franz Schubert, et al
A simply gorgeous movie that never quite got its due. Hey, Ryan O'Neal actually even managed to act therein! And the soundtrack is formidable, what with The Chieftains maintaining the Irish nature of the hero, and such luminaries as Handel, Schubert, Vivaldi and Mozart to fill in the classical interludes. The music is as beautiful as the movie.
Women of Ireland, Sarabande (End Title), Piano Trio in E flat, Piper's Maggot Jig

The Big Chill (1983) - Various Artists
Hey, you can't go wrong playing The Stone's You Can't Always Get What You Want for a funeral procession! "A Whiter Shade of Pale", "Good Lovin'", "Joy to the World", Aint to Proud to Beg, and every other great Motown hit known to Mankind. The soundtrack for the Baby Boomer Generation, even after they abandoned their beliefs and adopted cynicism and rationalizations.

Blade Runner (1982) - Vangelis
One of my favorite Sci-fi movies of all time comes wrapped in one of my favorite music scores. Vangelis' unearthly keyboards are the perfect cyber-foil for the androids populating the film. The mournful sax of the Love Theme, the tinkling, wistful piano of Memories of Green, and the End Theme are simply a perfect match for the film.

The Blues Brothers (1980) - Various Artists
Jack and Elwood and the evil nun floating a foot above the ground (she was also my 8th grade homeroom teacher). Any movie with Aretha, Cab Calloway and the master bluesman John Lee Hooker is a'ight with me. Belushi and Ackroyd aren't half bad with Robert Johnson's Sweet Home Chicago.

Casablanca (1942) - Various Artists
If ever there was an immortal song from a film, it is Dooley (Sam) Wilson singing As Time Goes By. Throw in It Had To Be You, the most stirring version of La Marseillaise ever filmed, and Max Steiner's superb Suite, and, like I said, Immortal.

A Clockwork Orange (1971) - Wendy Carlos and Various Artists
One of the first movies to ever use music for malignant purposes other than for what they were originally composed for, A Clockwork Orange presents Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) beating the hell out of a couple to the happy strains of Singin' in the Rain (warning: full frontal nudity!), or the playing of Rossini's lighthearted A Thieving Magpie while Alex bludgeons a woman to death with a giant porcelain penis. And then, of course, the scenes featuring Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance and Beethoven's 9th Symphony (4th Movement). Classical music has never been so fun.

Deliverance (1972) - Eric Weissberg and Steve Mandel
Dueling Banjos is a great song and an equally great album (by Weissberg and Mandel), not just a great soundtrack. Although Ned Beatty squealing like a pig is...ummm...quite memorable. "You sure got a pretty mouth!"

Dr. Zhivago (1965) - Maurice Jarre
Maurice Jarre has scored so many great films (Dr, Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia, A Passage to India, Witness, Ryan's Daughter, The Year of Living Dangerously, Fatal Attraction, The Man Who Would Be King, The Longest Day, etc.) that to pick one or two seems a slight. Well, here's one, and I've added another later on.
Dr. Zhivago Suite

Easy Rider (1969) - Various Artists
Still one of the greatest rock soundtracks of all time. Fire all of your guns at once and explode into space, indeed! The selections are fantastic: besides Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" they offer a better tune The Pusher, The Band's The Weight, The Byrds playing Dylan's It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding), Hendrix's If 6 Was 9 (just after "Don't Bogart Me") and even The Holy Modal Rounder's warped If You Want To Be a Bird.

The Exorcist (1973) - Jack Nitzsche, Mike Oldfield and Various Artists
Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells still gives me the creeps by association with this movie.

Girl With a Pearl Earring (2003) - Alexandre Desplat
A sleeper of a movie, no doubt, but quite an elegant miniature, as beautiful and reverent as a Vermeer painting itself, tied to the more mundane aspects of Dutch life in the 17th century. Nothing overwrought, nothing pompous, a homely portrait transformed with brilliant colors beaming through the glass of a window, always to the left of the artist. And Scarlett Johannson is hot - even without makeup. Oh yeah, the score...ummm...it's very good too.
Silence and Light (Piano), Colours in the Clouds, Griet's Theme

Gladiator (2000) - Hans Zimmer and Lisa Gerrard
 There are a few superb performances in this epic, particularly Joaquin Phoenix as Commodus; otherwise, it's a fairly forgettable film, and about as historically accurate as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. However, the score is touching and memorable. Probably the best of Hans Zimmer's long career.
The Battle, Now We Are Free, The Glory of Rome, Elysium

The Godfather (1972) - Nino Rota
You gonna argue wid da godfaddah? I just wish Francis Ford Coppola had stopped at two movies (both in my top ten or twenty). But the third was absurd.
Immigrant Theme, The Godfather Theme, I Have But One Heart

Gone With the Wind (1939) - Max Steiner
Like Casablanca and Lawrence of Arabia, Gone With the Wind's score by Max Steiner is immortal. Take me to Tara, Rhett!
Gone With the Wind Suite

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (1966) - Ennio Morricone
If there was a Hall of Fame for composers of musical scores, Ennio Morricone would be in the first batch elected, along with Maurice Jarre, Nino Rota, Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly Intro, Duel Finale

The Goodfellas (1990) - Various Artists
Martin Scorcese's use of song and scene was brilliant throughout the movie. Each song mirrored in one way or another the action that was taking place, and he often used the songs in an ironic manner. The best was the juxtaposition of several brutal murders with Derek and the Dominos' beautiful piano outro of Layla, another was Robert DeNiro's inherently evil bit of chain smoking to Cream's Sunshine of Your Love (of all things!), and still another beating to Donovan's Atlantis. Of course, Muddy Water's Mannish Boy is in there as well.

The Graduate (1967) - Simon & Garfunkel
Interweaving songs from three different Simon & Garfunkel albums (Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme and Bookends) to marvelous effect, director Mike Nichols catches the confused, disaffected and rebellious nature of Benjamin Braddock and a whole generation.
The Sound of Silence, Scarborough Fair/Canticle, April Come She Will

A Hard Day's Night (1964) - The Beatles
Okay, I may be breaking my own strict caveats and provisos regarding not using musicals here, but the greatest single opening note in rock history (a G7sus4, by the way) opens up the song A Hard Day's Night, so sue me. But aside from Elvis movies, this is one of the first extended rock videos, and it actually has a plot! Well, it's a thin plot, but the movie is so damn entertaining one ignores conventional film criticism. Why, even The Village Voice was laudatory, proclaiming A Hard Day's Night "the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals".
If I Fell, Tell Me Why, Can't Buy Me Love

Harold and Maude (1971) - Cat Stevens
One of my favorite soundtracks of all time, the songs of Cat Stevens make a black comedy genuinely heartwarming and elegiac. I would definitely put Harold and Maude in the most underrated film category. Ruth Gordon's performance is superb.
If You Want to Sing Out, If You Want to Sing Out (sung by Ruth Gordon), Where Do the Children Play, Trouble

Jaws (1975) - John Williams
People still pee their pants hearing this. It must be aquaphobic in nature. Robert Shaw's performance was outstanding: "Farewell and adieu to you, fair Spanish ladies..."
The Jaws Theme

King Kong (1933) - Max Steiner
Peter Jackson may have spent several million dollars more to produce his 2005 remake of King Kong than the 1933 original; unfortunately, he did not exhume Max Steiner. Besides, Merian C. Cooper did a far better job filming the original.
King Kong Score Suite

King Of Kings (1961) - Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa may have won an Oscar for his score of Ben Hur, but the sheer emotion and power of his score for King of Kings is breathtaking. One of my favorites, and I'm not even a Christian.
Part I, Part II, Part III, Resurrection and Epilogue

Last of the Mohicans (1992)- Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman
Such a beautifully filmed movie. I even appreciated the muffled sound of black powder shot from musket and cannon (much different than the gunshots one hears in Detroit these days). "The Promontory" (ie., "The Gael") is a particularly moving piece of music. And, of course, the end of the movie when Chingachgook gets his revenge on Magua is damn kick ass! Ummm...sorry...guy moment.
Elk Hunt, Promontory, I Will Find You (Clannad)

The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) - Peter Gabriel
I didn't care for this movie's plot in the least. I've never been a big Oliver "contra-fucking-versial" Stone fan. But I went right out and got the Peter Gabriel soundtrack. Stunning!
Zaar, A Different Drum, Passion, It Is Accomplished

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Maurice Jarre
An epic as sweeping as the Arabian Desert needs an equally sprawling score. In this case, Sir David Lean leaned on Maurice Jarre for what is certainly one of the top five scores of all time. One can almost see an oasis shimmering mirage-like in sweltering afternoon sun.
Overture, End Title Music

The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003) - Howard Shore
It's all the same movie, really, cut into three parts; so, I'm not going to dwell on different aspects or themes of the movies separately. Yet Howard Shore was a marvel throughout the entire series, almost a Tenth Walker of the Fellowship. His themes cut to the heart of each character and place he described with his aural palette. And don't forget the fine songs Enya (May It Be), Emiliana Torrini (Gollum's Song) and Annie Lennox (Into the West) contributed to each movie.
Concerning Hobbits, The Bridge of Khazad-dum, The Realm of Gondor

A Mighty Wind (2003) - Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Annette O'Toole, Harry Shearer
Not so metalically ostentatious as This Is Spinal Tap, but I think A Mighty Wind is far subtler a mockumentary, the characters more genuine, and the dialogues and situations are hysterical. The mythical bands and the songs around which this film revolve are excellent as well, particularly in context with the American folk movement which the movie affectionately mocks.
When You're Next to Me, Never Did No Wanderin', Corn Wine, A Mighty Wind is Blowin'

The Mission (1986) - Ennio Morricone
A lush and moving film with Oscar-winning cinematography, The Mission is further enhanced by the beautiful score of Ennio Morricone. It also doesn't hurt that Jeremy Irons and Robert DeNiro are at their best.
Gabriel's Oboe, The Mission Main Theme

Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) - T-Bone Burnett
Another damn movie I could live without ever seeing again, if it weren't for the music! Stellar recordings by Alison Kraus, Emmylou Harris, Harry McClintock, The Whites and the Stanley Brothers. The best old time country and bluegrass compilation since The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Will The Circle be Unbroken.
Man of Constant Sorrow, Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby, Big Rock Candy Mountain, Keep on the Sunday Side

Once Upon a Time In America (1984) - Ennio Morricone
Criminally edited upon first release for the addled whims of distributors, Sergio Leone's great New York gangster epic will hopefully be restored to its full running time through the efforts of Martin Scorsese. But even with the depredations of crass marketers, Ennio Morricone once again shines in scoring a Leone film.
Deborah's Theme, Main Theme

The Pink Panther (1964) - Henry Mancini
One of the most ubiquitous themes from any film, Henry Mancini's Pink Panther composition is as delightful as Peter Seller's Inspector Clouseau. Two geniuses here.
Pink Panther Theme, Cortina, The Tiber Twist

Psycho (1960) - Bernard Herrmann
Alfred Hitchcock himself admitted that "thirty-three percent of the effect of Psycho was due to the music". Quite high praise from such an egocentric director. Bernard Herrmann's music for Psycho is perhaps the most influential score of the last 50 years;. Hell, even The Beatles imitated Herrmann's strident and staccato strings for the song "Eleanor Rigby". This is a masterwork of musical tension and anger, used sparingly to increase the menace.
Shower Scene, The Stairs, Finale

Pulp Fiction (1994) - Various Artists
I had thought about Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992)for inclusion here, with the macabre and memorable scene where Michael Madsen (aka Mr. Blonde) does that bizarre dance to "Stuck in the Middle With You" as he tortures a captive policeman, but the soundtrack of Pulp Fiction is as quirky as it gets. Everything from Chuck Berry's You Never Can Tell to Urge Overkill's Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon, back to Dick Dale's Misirlou and then over to Kool and the Gang's Jungle Boogie. So have a Royale with cheese and enjoy!

Purple Rain (1984) - Prince
Okay, the movie was dreadful. Pouting little Prince is not an actor. But damn, the songs from The Revolution and The Time were great! And well, Wendy, Lisa and Appolonia? Ummm...yeah. Them too.
Purple Rain, When Doves Cry...I would love to share more from the film (because consumers often prefer to look before they buy), but Warner Brothers has decided to eliminate just about everything to do with the film on Youtube, so fuck 'em.

Romeo and Juliet (1968) - Nino Rota
Good Lord, was Olivia Hussey a beauty at 16! It was almost...illegal. Hmmm...I suppose it is illegal in most States. But since Olivia wasn't a U.S. citizen, then I can apply some cultural relativism here and absolve myself of impure thoughts. Anyway, the Romeo and Juliet score is as beautiful as Olivia Hussey was, and has aged a lot better than she has. Sorry Ms. Hussey.
What Is A Youth, The Death Of Mercutio And Tybalt

The Sting (1973) - Marvin Hamlisch
Marvin Hamlisch single-handedly resurrected Scott Joplin from the dead.Hamlisch's arrangements are amazing and bring Joplin to new generations that otherwise would be unaware of the musical genius once known as the "King of Ragtime" who died in 1917.
The Hooker's Hooker, The Glove, The Entertainer

Star Wars (1977) - John Williams
Another series of movies I can't stand. The most overrated movies in the history of film-making, particularly John Lucas' dreadful dialogues (he makes Peter Jackson's addled sub-plotting look Shakespearean). But Williams' score is thrilling nonetheless.
The Imperial March, Main Theme

Super Fly (1972)- Curtis Mayfield
I had considered Isaac Hayes' Shaft score for inclusion, but save for the exceptional theme song, the rest of the tracks are crappy cocktail jazz. Mayfield's score for Super Fly is the real deal for 70s funk and soul. The movie is funny to watch now but the score is still very worthwhile to listen to. One of the best soul albums of the 70s.
Pusherman, Super Fly, Little Child Running Wild, Freddie's Dead

There Will Be Blood (2007) - Johnny Greenwood, Arvo Pärt, Johannes Brahms
This is a soundtrack that comes right out and punches you in the face. Or maybe beats you over the head with a bowling pin. In any case, you feel it. It is visceral and biting in spots, brought to you in most part by Johnny Greenwood of Radiohead fame. Dissonant, contrary and barbaric, there is a bit of both Bernard Herrmann and Henry Plainview in the score.
Convergence, There Will be Blood, Prospector's Quartet

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) - Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer, Rob Reiner
A metal mockumentary of megalithically mammoth measure, Rob Reiner, Christopher Guest and all provide the best musical punchline of all time. This movie so mirrors the excesses of late 70s/early 80s heavy rock and metal bands that I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing was just an accumulation of anecdotes from real performers (certainly Tap's long line of dead drummers matches keyboardist deaths in the Grateful Dead). The movie covers Spinal Tap from their mid-60s British Invasion debut on Gimme Some Money to psychedelia on (Listen to the) Flower People to their metal heyday and comeback on tunes like Big Bottom (where nearly the entire band is playing bass) and Hell Hole.

Trainspotting (1996) - Various Artists
You wouldn't think that a movie about a group of underemployed heroin addicts in the depressed slums of 1980s Edinburgh would be funny. But it is. Insanely funny. Like Scorsese and Tarantino, Danny Boyle has the ability to throw in a song at the perfect time for ironic effect.
Perfect Day, Born Slippy, Lust for Life

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) - Various Classical Artists
A movie where the music mattered more than the dialogue; in fact, the first and last 20 minutes of the movie are without dialogue altogether. But the music is heavenly, hence its inclusion. The titanic themes of Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra are the perfect accompaniment for the vision of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, as is the lovely celestial dance of satellite and spaceship to "The Blue Danube" of Johan Strauss II, as is Khachaturian's wistful and melancholy "Gayne Ballet Suite", mirroring the desolation of being alone in space.
Also Sprach Zarathustra, The Blue Danube, Gayne Ballet Suite (Adagio)

Waking Ned Devine (1998) - Shaun Davey and Various Artists
A little jewel of a movie, ostensibly taking place in an Irish village but filmed on the Isle of Man, where the entire village is in on a plot to convince Lotto officials that the winning ticket (held by a dead man named Ned) is actually held by Michael (who pretends to be Ned). Meanwhile, Ned is buried as Michael. I know, confusing, but the plot is funny and the actors are great in their roles. And the soundtrack is a bit o' Gaelic heaven.
The Parting Glass, Fishermans Blues, Lux Eterna, My Eternal Friend, The Ballad Of Ned Devine/The Witches Reel

The Greatest Blues Songs of All Time, Part II

Greetings to all and sundry, and welcome to the second part of The Greatest Blues Songs of All Time! As with the previous installment The Greatest Blues Songs of All Time, Part I, I have culled another 50+ songs from the lowdown, dirty Delta vaults for your insatiable blues addiction. And it is an addiction, isn't it? Some folks just can't find the beat (rather like Steve Martin in The Jerk), or denigrate the blues as some sort of degenerate Southern folk music, not quite up to snuff for their highbrow tastes. Well, it's either in you or it aint, I suppose.

As I muddled through a mountain of albums and CDs, I found the selection process quite daunting. Honestly, one hundred songs does not in any way encompass the amount of great blues tunes that should rightly be acknowledged. So, perhaps later down the line I'll have to get around to adding another 50 or 100 songs to the list that merit mentioning. For me, it is just a whole lotta fun listening to them all again! As with the first installment, there is no definitive order or even alphabetizing of the artists. I just plopped the tunes in as I came across them, or remembered them, or cross-referenced one song after listening to another. To be honest, I am certain I am missing several important songs, and a week or two from now I'll have a Homer Simpson "D'oh!" moment of dumb recognition. I can live with that.

Whenever possible, I have stuck with the original version of each song, unless the original is unavailable or another blues artist has so usurped the song that their adaptation is the definitive version of the tune; at least, in my subjective opinion.

SON HOUSE
Death Letter Blues
For you guitar aficionados, Son is playing a National resonator guitar with a copper slide. "Death Letter" is considered one of the great Delta blues tunes of all time, and concerns a man who gets a letter informing him of the death of his lady love. The song goes on to tell of the man going to the morgue, the burying ground, and his resultant depression coming home all alone.

Walkin' Blues
What is interesting about this song is Son House is playing a Robert Johnson song based on Son House's My Black Mama. What goes around comes around.

Grinnin' in Your Face
A proud man singing a powerful song unadorned with musical accompaniment.

HOWLIN' WOLF
Evil (Is Going One)
Yet another Willie Dixon composition that Howlin' Wolf made his own. Wolf's demonic growl of the word "evil" is, in and of itself, evil.

HART WAND
Dallas Blues
The first true blues song ever published. Couldn't find an actual version by Wand, if one exists, but here's a jazzy version by Louis Armstrong from 1929.

BESSIE SMITH
St. Louis Blues
That's Louis Armstrong on the coronet backing Ms. Smith. What a booming voice Bessie had! Also, along with Armstrong on the horn, that's a harmonium (yes, a harmonium) played by Fred Longshaw.

ELMORE JAMES
Blues Before Sunrise
Lordy, do I love Elmore's slide guitar - you can't help but feel energized! John Lee Hooker does a smoldering, slowed-down version.

The Sky is Crying
One of Elmore's most copied songs, and for good reason. Albert King does a more refined version, which in turn was used as the basis for Stevie Ray Vaughan's version.

ROBERT JOHNSON
Kind Hearted Woman Blues
Said to be the first song recorded by Robert Johnson, "Kind Hearted Woman" is a lyrical reply to "Cruel Hearted Woman Blues" by Bumble Bee Slim.

Hellhound on My Trail
One of the songs that fed the legend that Robert Johnson sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads.  According to another legend, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac could never finish his version of the song due to his growing schizophrenia and recurrent nightmarish visions of a devil dog in his dreams.

Traveling Riverside Blues
I really like Led Zeppelin's slide version, and Robert Plant also paraphrased the infamous lines from Johnson's original "I want you to squeeze my lemon until the juice runs down my leg" and rolled it into the "The Lemon Song" from Led Zeppelin II.

MUDDY WATERS
Got My Mojo Workin'
Another song written by one person but made famous by someone else. Preston Foster wrote it, Ann Cole first recorded it, but Muddy made it his own, but not without lengthy litigation after Muddy changed the lyrics and tried to copyright the song as his own (borrowing blues tunes was not a new phenomena started by Cream, Zeppelin and The Stones).

Rollin' Stone
Speaking of the Stones, this is where Keith and Mick got the name for their band.

I Just Want to Make Love to You
So many reasons to love this song! It was written by Willie Dixon, it is growled by Muddy Waters, Otis Spann is playing piano, Jimmy Rogers is on guitar, and Little Walter offers up a great bit on the blues harp. Then, of course, there is the delightfully over-the-top 1970's live version by Foghat. Long live sex, drugs, rock-and-roll and cow bells!

LED ZEPPELIN
Since I've Been Loving You
On Zeppelin's first two albums, Jimmy Page and Co. stayed relatively safe, refining blues covers rather than venturing off into their own compositions; however on the splendid Led Zeppelin III, they recorded the mammoth "Since I've Been Loving You". Largely undubbed, you hear it pretty much as it was recorded in studio, complete with John Bonham's squeaky bass drum pedal. I also love the acoustic blues romp Bron-Yr-Aur Stomp from the same album. The best song about a dog ever.

RAY CHARLES
I Don't Need No Doctor
Of course, most people remember the absolutely ferocious Humble Pie version, but don't forget the fine original by Ray Charles.

Drown in My Own Tears
A beautiful song from Ray. Joe Cocker did a soulful version with Mad Dogs & Englishmen.

JOE COCKER
Cry Me a River
Speaking of Joe Cocker, many folks have covered "Cry Me a River", like Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington and Shirley Bassey, but no one blew the roof off this song like the spastic Cocker, Leon Russell and a cast of thousands. Okay, maybe hundreds. There's a lot of damn people on that stage.

VICTORIA SPIVEY
Detroit Moan
One of the great Ms. Spivey's lesser known tunes, but the horns are fabulous! Mentions of Detroit's Hasting Street (one of the crucibles of the blues up North)are a timely reminder of Detroit's contribution to the blues (John Lee Hooker, anyone?).

Dope Head Blues
Love the mention of sniffles. Lonnie Johnson's drop-tuned guitar is crazy, aint it?

BIG BILL BROONZY
Trouble in Mind
Many people have sung this song, but Big Bill really brings out the blues in it.

Key to the Highway
I've already explained in previous articles how Broonzy borrowed/copied/stole this song from fellow bluesman Charlie Segar as a response to critics who claim British blues bands from the 60s and 70s were coldblooded thieves. Sorry to burst your revisionist, politically-correct bubble, but cannibalism in the blues has gone back to the very beginning. Here are fine young cannibals Eric Clapton and Duane Allman with their great version from Derek and the Dominos.

THE ALLMAN BROTHERS
Whipping Post
The Allman Brothers early 70s Fillmore East concerts were legendary, and rightly so. "Whipping Post" is one of their own great compositions, but they were equally superb covering other blues legends, like on Muddy Waters' Trouble No More.

LIGHTNIN' HOPKINS
Baby Please Don't Go
This song is has more variations than Lincoln has pennies. It originated in old prison work songs like "Another Man Done Gone" and blues standards such as "Turn Your Lamp Down Low". I think I enjoy Lightnin's simple acoustic version most of all.

Black Cat Blues
A great shuffle number from Lightnin'. I chuckle every time I hear "Morgan Davis wine"! 

REV. ROBERT WILKINS
Prodigal Son
A superb 12 string rendition by the good Reverend, copied note for note by The Rolling Stones. Except for all the difficult picking leads, and good vocals.

SKIP JAMES
Devil Got My Woman
Three-finger picking with open D-minor tuning. It's a bitch to play and I've never got the subtle nuances down.

22-20 Blues
Some absolutely awesome piano runs here from the multi-talented Skip James. Robert Johnson stole Skip's song when he recorded 32-20 Blues.

T-BONE WALKER
Mean Old World
T-Bone originally recorded this song in 1942, but I prefer this 1945 version. It is widely-considered as the first great blues tune played on electric guitar. You can definitely hear its influence on later rock and roll songs. Little Walter does a mean blues harp version.

RORY GALLAGHER
Grape and Barley Rag
One guitarist who brought blues to an another level. And an Irishman at that! What the hell, here's another great acoustic tune As the Crow Flies from 1974.

JEFF BECK
Going Down
An advanced blues master class for would-be guitar and piano hotshots. Just to take the wind out of their sails.

MISSISSIPPI JOHN HURT
Stack O' Lee
One of the great blues storytellers at work here.

JETHRO TULL
Nothing Is Easy
A smoldering bit of early Tull jazz-blues from the stellar album Stand Up, before they started composing album-long prog songs. I also love Someday the Sun Won't Shine for You  from Tull's first album This Was (that's Mick Abrahams on guitar - he split after this album to form the blues band Blodwyn Pig).

LEAD BELLY LEDBETTER
Midnight Special
The first version of Lead Belly playing this song was recorded in 1933 by musicologists John and Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Interestingly enough, it was recorded in Angola Prison where Lead Belly was spending time for attempted murder

Gallis Pole
This is a remarkable recording from the Library of Congress, showing quite plainly why Lead Belly was referred to as "The King of the 12 String". Depending on which legend you believe, Ledbetter got the nickname Lead Belly from surviving a a shotgun blast to the stomach (he had also been stabbed in the neck while in prison, which is why he always wore a bandana around his neck), or his ability to down moonshine. Either is probably true.

B.B. KING
Lucille
A lot of guitarists have names for their guitars, but only B.B. King has Lucille.

Thrill Is Gone
B.B.'s greatest hit.

BIG MAMA THORNTON
Little Red Rooster
Yet another song written by Willie Dixon, first recorded by Howlin' Wolf, but I love Big Mama's ad lib crowing interspersed throughout the song.

BOB DYLAN
Highway 61 Revisited
Dylan straps on an electric guitar and pisses off the folk music establishment. I can imagine Dylan getting equally pissed off at Johnny Winter for utterly embarrassing Dylan with Winter's smoking slide version.

SONNY BOY WILLIAMSON II
Help Me
Interestingly enough, Sonny Boy II was born two years before Sonny Boy I (1912 and 1914). And in memory of Alvin Lee (who died March 6th at age 68), here's Ten Years After's monumental live version of Help Me from 1973.

Eyesight to the Blind
Because of tight-fisted policies of Chess Records, I can't offer the recording of this song that I'd like to, so here's this one. Also, here's another great version I found with just Sonny Boy singing A Capella, accompanying himself on the harp.

JOHN MAYALL
Room to Move
Based on Sonny Boy Williamson's "One Way Out", this Mayall tune is a great bit for the blues harp. I know, I've played it often.

MEMPHIS MINNIE
When the Levee Breaks
A fabulous early release from 1929, which in turn unleashed the greatest progressive blues cover of all time from Led Zeppelin

Bumble Bee
Memphis Minnie's best known work. Minnie once had a guitar contest with Big Bill Broonzy in a Chicago Bar. A jury of fellow blues players awarded Minnie the prize: a bottle of whiskey and a bottle of gin.

BIG JOE WILLIAMS
Highway 49
The best nine-string guitarist around. Not that there are many nine-string guitarists around, but you get my meaning. Supposedly one of the meanest son-of-a-bitches ever to play the blues, Big Joe was the quintessential ramblin' bluesman, playing anywhere there was someone to listen around the world.

JIMMY REED
Bright Lights, Big City
Allegedly, Jimmy was such a raging drunk that his wife, Mary, would sing along with him in case he was too wasted to remember the words. 

CANNED HEAT
On the Road Again
The best example of 1960s psychedelic blues, originally written by bluesman Floyd Jones and absconded by Canned Heat. Love the tambura drone throughout the song. I get high just listening to it. Damn, where is that bag of Fritos? 

SLIM HARPO
I'm a King Bee
Slim Harpo's style was known as "swamp blues", a Louisiana derivation of blues that has a slow tempo and probably goes good with a bowl of jambalaya. The Stones adored Slim Harpo and covered many of his tunes, such as Shake Your Hips.

JONATHAN EDWARDS
Shanty
One of the most fun blues sing-alongs of all time. Smoke 'em if you got 'em.

JANIS JOPLIN
Turtle Blues
Raw blues as only Janis could sing it. She also did a mean version of Bessie Smith's Black Mountain Blues.

P.S. I shall leave you with a special farewell gift. While bopping around YouTube, I happened upon an extraordinary radio show from 1964 (on WTBS-FM Cambridge, MA), featuring the legendary Delta blues pickers Mississippi John Hurt and Skip James. If you have 35 minutes or so to spend, it is well worth the time. The sound quality is great for the period.

The Greatest Concept Albums of Rock & Roll

It seems most 'net music reviewers wouldn't know a 'concept album' if the CD's jewel case became incarnate and bit them on their palavering posteriors. Seriously, I have looked at several "Best of" lists on the internet and found album choices that left me scratching my head and grumbling to myself, "How in the name of [fill in your preferred deity] did the [fill in your favorite term of denigration] author of this [add a derisive adjective] post come to the conclusion that [fill in the title] is a 'concept album'?" So, in an effort to disambiguate and be as contextually accurate as possible, let us define the term 'concept album'. The general definition found on most Internet sites (including Wikipedia) is as follows:

In popular music, a concept album is an album that is "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical".

That works for me. A concept album, then, has a 'unified theme' running through all the songs on the album. Not half the album. Not a song-cycle of three or four songs. The whole album. Therefore, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, long lauded as the first and greatest rock concept album, does not fit the criteria; in fact, most musicologists do not consider Sgt. Pepper's as a concept album because, save for the album cover, two songs and the intro to a third, the balance of the album has no 'conceptual continuity' (if I may borrow a term used by Frank Zappa), and no central and unifying theme. Let's see, they've got sitars, psychedelia, music hall/burlesque, classical and 'granny music' (a term John Lennon used for annoyingly cloying McCartney songs like When I'm Sixty-four), but Sgt. Pepper and his brass band literally disappear for most of the recording. The Beatles may lay claim to many musical innovations, but the concept album aint one of them.

Likewise, Jethro Tull's Aqualung, long branded as a concept album, is nothing of the sort. In fact, Ian Anderson, Tull's front man, proclaimed, "I always said at the time that this is not a concept album; this is just an album of varied songs of varied instrumentation and intensity in which three or four are the kind of keynote pieces for the album but it doesn't make it a concept album." In fact, Anderson was was so incensed at the critics erroneous labeling of Aqualung that he added, "Well, if they thought Aqualung was a concept album, O-O-K, we'll show you a concept album." And thus, the mother of all concept albums Thick as a Brick was born. The same goes for a great album like Radiohead's OK Computer. Hey, if the band members themselves flatly deny it is a concept album, who am I to argue?

Then, we have aborted concepts: there are the halflings like Brain Salad Surgery from Emerson, Lake and Palmer, who only manage a concept through one side of their album (Karn Evil 9: 1st, 2nd and 3rd Impressions); concepts running in fits and starts, such as on Alice Cooper's Love It To Death, Killer and School's Out, which included a few songs from each album that fit into a tightly crafted gang drama a la Westside Story played out at their concerts in the early 70's; and albums that the composer claims is a concept album but just isn't, like Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Just because Bernie Taupin claims that the songs are autobiographical and glimpse the struggles of Captain Fantastic (John) and the Brown Dirt Cowboy (Taupin), doesn't mean the album is a concept. Bernie, exactly how many albums in the last 50 years have been autobiographical? Oh! Oh! I know: nearly all of them! And who wants to be known as a 'Brown Dirt Cowboy'? *shudders*

In conclusion, it seems many of the selfsame critics who mislabel albums also deride the whole...ummm...concept of concept albums. I suppose such efforts are too literary or grandiose for their tastes, all part and parcel of the anti-intellectualism that pervades today's worldview. After all, any society that would elect a good ol' boy like George W. Bush (and then dumbly reelect him to a second term), and who willingly pay thousands of dollars to hear Sarah Palin drag geography and science back to the era of Galileo's house arrest, certainly lacks the wherewithal to stay focused long enough to listen to a concept album, preferring the blessed simplicity of downloading mp3 versions of three-chord songs that run 2:30 and have A-A-B-B rhyme schemes (totally oblivious of Clerihews, of course).

In the brilliant movie Amadeus, the Emperor Joseph expressed his frustration at being mentally overtaxed by Mozart's music by opining, "There it is, there are simply too many notes." One wonders if the complex concepts composed by Mozart, Bach and Beethoven would be jeered at as pretentious by modern flat-earthers if they were newly released in today's market. No need to answer that, I was merely speaking rhetorically.


The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd

-- An essential album. Sonically perfect,
"Dark Side" is a masterpiece of studio recording. People have literally worn out their vinyl, eight-tracks, cassettes and CD's and continued to repurchase this album in the newest format available. The working title for this album was Dark Side of the Moon: A Piece for Assorted Lunatics, mirroring Roger Waters idea that the songs should deal with things that "make people mad": war, anger, isolation, greed, regret, aging, death and mental illness. And madness pervades the songs, played as continuous pieces of music on both sides of the album. Of particular note is the clever interplay between the songs and the accompanying background dialogue that runs throughout -- sometimes mumbled, sometimes drunken, and other times forthright -- culminating in the final ironic statement: "There is no dark side of the moon, really; as a matter of fact, It's all dark."

Along with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Revolver, The Dark Side of the Moon is perhaps the greatest studio recording of all time, with more technical innovations than occurred during the NASA lunar program. Okay, I am exaggerating about NASA, but there is a direct tie to the studio work of The Beatles and Pink Floyd: Alan Parsons, the studio engineer for The Dark Side of the Moon, was also responsible for engineering work on The Beatles Abbey Road and Let It Be albums (it is Parsons who was completely responsible for the multitude of clocks ticking and chiming at the beginning of the song "Time" -- he had gone to an antique shop and laboriously recorded the distinctive sounds of several old timepieces).


The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie

-- So, let me get this straight, Ziggy Stardust is the story of "the human manifestation of an alien being who is attempting to present humanity with a message of hope in the last five years of its existence", but unfortunately becomes overly enamored of sex, drugs, rock 'n' roll and the rabid fans who egg him on, and he eventually burns out and destroys himself? My friends, only the rock chameleon David Bowie could invent a story so ludicrous but have it succeed so wildly. Perhaps because Bowie was so outlandishly alien in his appearance and proclivities that a suspension of disbelief was not required to imagine him in the role. After all, he was later cast as a melancholy alien in the movie The Man Who Fell To Earth.

But aside from stretching the limits of science-fiction to Rocky Horrorific proportions, from the first tentative chords of 'Five Years' to the violin and cello outro of "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" this album packs a galactic wallop. Of special note is the rasping, razor-sharp guitar licks of Mick Ronson. Not one bad song in the whole damn lot, but my particular favorites are the one-two-three punch of "Ziggy Stardust", "Suffragette City" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide". Just remember 'you don't eat if you've lived too long'. Bowie's masterpiece.


Days of Future Passed by The Moody Blues

-- A musical treasure for anyone who does not live in a cave and scratch his/her private parts in public. This is an album that bridges generations and spans genres; for example, the longtime (and decidedly conservative) classical music critic of the Detroit Free Press, the late John Guinn, said simply that Days of Future Passed was an album he "cherished", and that speaks volumes for the reach of this recording. This is simply a great album, the best of all orchestra/rock band collaborations (the only comparable brilliant collaboration would be Procol Harum and orchestra playing "Conquistador"), and DoFP is breathtakingly beautiful in spots.

In regards to The Moody Blues, they could certainly compose an elegant love song, and nowhere is this more evident than on Days of Future Passed. I would suggest that "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" and "Nights in White Satin" are two of the greatest love songs ever written. Also of note is the exquisite "Dawn is a Feeling" (great with coffee on the patio on a summer morning), and "Twilight Time" ("an aerial display by the firefly brigade, dancing to tunes no one knew" -- great line). And the use of the London Festival Orchestra is an integral part of the album as a whole, rather than an afterthought to give an album a classical flair. The orchestra and band have separate parts throughout the album, each thematically reflecting the other, and only during "Night in White Satin" do the two mesh together for a magnificent crescendo as the song reaches its climax. The poem "Late Lament" is also a memorable moment in rock history, and an appropriate ending for a day in the life as written by the Moody Blues.


Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull

-- Thick as a Brick should rate highly simply on the strength of having one of the best album covers ever designed: a fold-out newspaper complete with articles, comics, ads, crossword puzzle and a rather bawdy connect-the-dots children's game! A CD jewel case does not do justice to the album design (which is the case for many of the albums from the 60's and 70's). Furthermore, one cannot underestimate the effect Thick as a Brick had on folks growing up in the 70's. It was irreverent! It was rebellious! It mentioned both blackheads and peeing oneself in the night in one line! Only in the early 70's could this album (and Tull's follow-up A Passion Play) be released. It had no single! It was 42 minutes of continuous music! How can we market the goddamned thing? We won't get royalties from iTunes every time someone downloads a song! Hell, there is no song to download!

The epic poem around which the music is composed was purportedly supplied by a precociously Miltonic adolescent named Gerald Bostock (an alter ego of Ian Anderson), and the lyrics, concerning the trials and travails of growing up, are slyly superb throughout. And they are very sly: according to Ian Anderson, Thick as a Brick was a send-up of some of the more bloated progressive rock of the time. It is a purposely pretentious mockery, holding a jaded mirror up to Tull's pompous rock counterparts (and the band itself). Even the album cover parodies the small minds of small town journalism (including the front page which trumpets the scandal and subsequent disqualification of Gerald Bostock's poem from a literary prize). As an added layer of satire, the newspaper contains many references to the album and the album refers back to the news (Tull members were avid fans of Monty Python). The entire package succeeds magnificently. Many reviewers don't get it and take it at face value, which is even more ironic. Or moronic as the case may be.


Quadrophenia by The Who

-- The Rock Opera was long a province reigned o'er by The Who and their leviathan scion Tommy. Yet the somewhat exaggerated reverence and undeniable genius of The Who's Tommy has overshadowed a better album: Quadrophenia. Heresy, I know, but I believe that Quadrophenia presents Peter Townshend and The Who as mature composers, and the music itself is far more complex and emotionally intense. The album deals with Jimmy Cooper, a 'mod' with schizophrenia (in this case, four different personalities, Sibyl -- and each is represented in song) living in 1964 London. The album tells the story of Jimmy's disillusionment with his parents, society and eventually his mod lifestyle. After a particularly destructive binge, Jimmy takes a train to the Brighton, a Brit sea resort, to relive happier times. But depression, drugs and alcohol overwhelm him and we see him rowing a boat out to sea, ostensibly to drown himself. No further spoilers ensue.

The outstanding songs on this double album are "I Am the Sea/The Real Me", "Quadrophenia", "The Punk and The Godfather", "5:15", "Bellboy" (featuring Keith Moon's manic and marvelous Cockney vocals), and the grande finale "Love, Reign 'Oer Me", a monumental song and the great pinnacle of the Who's career. The Who's next two albums, The Who By Numbers and Who Are You? did not live up to the mammoth expectations set by Quadrophenia and its predecessor Who's Next (The Who's best album), and three weeks after the release of Who Are You, Keith Moon died of a prescription drug overdose. Great drummer but a lunatic. Why is it every drummer I know personally or have heard of are lunatics? Must be all that banging on tom-toms eventually causes misfiring synapses. It's a theory.


I Robot by The Alan Parson Project

-- I Robot is perhaps the most commercially accessible concept album ever created. Nearly every song seems tailor-made for late 70's MOR rock stations. Nearly every song has catchy hooks certain to snag the average listener. The lyrics are not offensive. The music is neither too heavy nor so pop that it would drive away hard rock fans. It has elements of prog-rock, funk, jazz, disco and early techno -- a bit of everything to pique the interest of a very wide, almost disparate, demographic. It doesn't sound like I'm being very complimentary, does it? Au contraire, mon frere! I Robot is a brilliant conception by Alan Parsons (sound engineer for both the Beatles and Pink Floyd) and Eric Woolfson. It even received an enthusiastic blessing from Isaac Asimov, who wrote the sci-fi classic I, Robot (Alan Parson's had to remove the comma and entitle the album I Robot because the rights to the story had been granted to a movie company).

The album's song list reads like a greatest hits package: "I wouldn't Want to Be Like You", "Some Other Time" (a favorite), "Breakdown", "Don't Let It Show", "The Voice" and the instrumental "I Robot" (another favorite). Nearly every song has a different vocalist (including Allan Clarke of The Hollies), but the music is strong enough for the album to remain cohesive and memorable. The Alan Parsons Project has often been derisively labeled 'Pink Floyd Lite', but I can live with that. It's better than Journey Lite.


Tommy by The Who

-- Tommy may have been preceded chronologically by The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, The Mothers of Invention's We're Only In It For The Money and The Pretty Things' S.F. Sorrow, but The Who's rock opera about the deaf, dumb and blind pinball wizard, although it may not lay claim to the first concept album of the 1960's, is certainly the most popular. Of course, Pete Townshend had prepared us all for greater things on the mini-opera A Quick One, While He's Away, but what was a lark has turned into more serious business here. Whether Tommy is an actual opera or more appropriately an 'oratorio' along the lines of Handel's Messiah, is neither here nor there, as anything that has Tommy's structure might as well be called opera because most rock fans do not give a damn about opera, oratori or classical music. Tommy has a French horn, which is foreign enough for rock & roll.

The album has many Who standards, such as "The Acid Queen", "Pinball Wizard", "I'm Free" and "We're Not Gonna Take It!", but it some of the incidental music that is most striking and memorable: Peter Townshend's inspired acoustic guitar on "It's a Boy", the slightly skewed background vocals on "Christmas Story" and carnies-gone-mad turn by Keith Moon on "Tommy's Holday Camp". Tommy has been often derided in the press (and on the internet) as "overblown", "pretentious" and "overrated". Of course, these are the same folks who, in an abortive attempt to stay hip and au currant, exalted such 80's bands of simpering blandities as Television or the Smiths for their "artistic vision". Taken in context of the era, Tommy was relevatory, and still amazes new generations who have just discovered it. The Who's innovative rock opera is certainly better than later, leaden attempts at concepts like Queensryche's big-haired bluster on Operation: Mindcrime, which is reminiscent of a very long and tedious Poison retrospective. That's all I have to say about that.


Lateralus by Tool

-- Prior to listening to Lateralus, I was not even aware of a 'Fibonnaci number' and ultimately cool sounding terms like 'Fibonacci heap data structure', but the spiralling, enthralling album by the band Tool kept getting deeper the more I researched it. To put it as simply as possible, the album Lateralus is literally a mathematical puzzle -- the lyrics, the polyrhythmic drumming, the compositional time signatures -- everything is placed precisely to...to what? Ah, there's the rub -- and the puzzle. Beneath the syncopation, medieval minor pentatonic scales and anisotropic acoustics lies geometric patterns that repeat and spiral...like a Fibonnaci sequence.

O, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89...

Basically (and I am speaking as an English major who views all mathematics suspiciously), Fibonnaci numbers start with 0,1 (or 1,1) and each number following is the sum of the previous two (continuing onward to infinity). Listen to the words in the song "Lateralus". The syllables follow a precise Fibonnaci sequence starting at 1 and progress up to 8 and then the lyrics reverse back in sequence to 1 again, and then to 13 in sequence back down to 1. Even the time signature of the rhythm runs 9-8-7 which is the 16th step of the Fibonnaci sequence. It is amazing. Okay, before my brain explodes, onto the song "Schism". In this one song, Tool changes meter 47 times: 5/4 to 6/4 to 13/8, then 11/8 to 10/8 and 7/4, etc. all propelled by the brilliant bass line of Justin Chancellor. Far more complex and satisfying than Tool's previous major label releases, Undertow and Aenima, Lateralus is a geometric puzzle wherein "I know the pieces fit" -- I just haven't solved it all, even after listening to it since 2001. If you hear echoes of King Crimson in Adam Jones jangling and biting guitar bits, it is because Tool are ardent followers of Fripp and Co.

We're Only In It For The Money by The Mothers of Invention

-- When Frank Zappa heard The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, he was not amused. Or perhaps he was amused. Most likely he was bemused. In any case, he felt it necessary to respond. And respond he did, with a sprawling and savage indictment of The Beatles, flower power and the whole warped hippie scene in 'The Summer of Love'. I must warn you, the album is a bit...bizarre. That it was released in 1968 during the height of Beatle adulation makes it even more striking. Believe me, no one had tried anything like this previously (unless you count The Mothers' previous albums).

The album starts out with "Are You Hung Up", featuring Eric Clapton in a speaking role and the famous line by the Mothers' drummer: "Hi, boys and girls, I'm Jimmy Carl Black, I'm the Indian of the group!" The album degenerates from there. The Mothers lampoon just about every aspect of 60's U.S. culture (or lack thereof), but beyond that it is one of the best psychedelic albums ever created. Zappa's pastiche 'n' montage-orama doesn't require acid to trip with (although that would certainly be optional), and many of The Mothers' lampoon songs are almost 'filks' in how closely they mock tunes meant for mass consumption. The best songs are "Harry You're a Beast", "Flower Punk", "Who Needs the Peace Corps", "Mother People", topped off with the Twilight Zone-ish "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" which would give Phillip Glass a run for his money on the minimalist front. If "The Chrome Plated Megaphone of Destiny" is not your cup of tea, then try "Nasal Retentive Calliope Music", which is very similar but has a different title (a crucial point!) and has some surf music thrown in.


The Wall by Pink Floyd

-- You either love or hate The Wall. Bloated excess? Too much whining by Roger Waters? Bizarre and oddly fascist in some instances? Yes, it is all that, but for all the critical attacks on this album, one must look at the album in its entirety, and not just the strange foibles of Waters, who went on to destroy Pink Floyd with the subpar and listless Final Cut (or as I call it The Wall II: My Daddy Is Still Dead). Yet there are so many great songs and stunning moments on The Wall that it is an essential and the final exclamation point and nail in the coffin for hard rock in the 70's, before it was overtaken by punk, new wave, power-pop, hair bands, rap, grunge, hip-hop and all the other miserable muck of the 80's and beyond. It was a defining moment in rock 'n' roll and the climax of an era that had most of the greatest albums ever recorded.

The Wall is a splendid album both lyrically and musically, and to reiterate, so many great songs: "Another Brick in the Wall" (take your pick, Pt. 1, 2 or 3 -- I prefer Pt. 3), "Mother" (a personal favorite), "Goodbye Blue Sky", "Young Lust", "Hey You", "Nobody Home" (complete 'with the "obligatory Hendrix perm" and "the inevitable pinhole burns") and "Run Like Hell" (another favorite). And then there is "Comfortably Numb". Is there any other song besides Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven", Derek and the Domino's "Layla" and Jethro Tull's "Aqualung" that offer both a powerful and memorable hard rock chord structure and an equally stunning reflective and quiescent section -- the sum total a masterpiece of rock composition? David Gilmour's epic guitar solo at the end of "Comfortably Numb" ranks as one of the greatest solos in rock history, and the song itself is the best single live performance I have ever seen in the 300 some concerts I have attended in my life.


Forever Changes by Love

-- How does one explain this eccentric album to someone who's never heard it? Well, after a long pause, followed by a heavy sigh, on the heels of a bewildered shrug, you mumble something about the Moody Blues led by Syd Barrett singing Herb Alpert and Burt Bacharach songs while on acid. A lot of acid. I mean fistfuls of acid.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Forever Changes by Love. This is a better psychedelic album than Pink Floyd's overrated The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, particularly since the lyrics are intelligible (although Albert Lee would do justice to Floyd's "Arnold Layne"). But enough of comparisons. Forever Changes is really different than any other album from 1967. The acoustic guitar flourishes are timeless and the strings are achingly beautiful. Albert Lee's lyrics are familiar but off-kilter, like the mind's ability to recgnze wrds wth mssng lttrs. The boy aint all there, but he sings so nicely you overlook his obvious dementia. And the titles exemplify the songs themselves: "A House is not a Motel" (a favorite), "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale" and "The Good Humor Man He Sees Everything Like This" (another favorite). Make sure to listen to the 2001 expanded CD version by Rhino, which includes "Laughing Stock" wherein Albert Lee harmonizes with none other than Jim Morrison.


HONORABLE MENTIONS, ALSO-RANS AND FLAWED MASTERS


American Idiot by Green Day

-- As a concept, the entire story of an everyman protagonist with the catchy name 'Jesus of Suburbia' (he must be from California), who is fueled by "soda pop and Ritalin" (as Billie Joe Armstrong related), and has cohorts named St. Jimmy and Whatshername is, by any stretch of the imagination, banal. William Faulkner it is definitely not. Then why do I like this album? Simple: every song is great. The concept is a bloody mess, but the album works because the material is undeniably good.

I've always had a soft spot for Green Day (obviously in my head) ever since the nihilistic punk establishment (a contradiction in terms, I know) mercilessly castigated Green Day for selling out. How dare they have a multi-platinum album! Green Day is selling records to people who enjoy their music? Outrageous! I am having the 'Green Day' tattoo lasered off my forehead immediately! I'm taking out my 'Billie' and 'Joe' nipple rings forever! Anyway, American Idiot is a great collection of songs, and the best are "Holiday", "American Idiot", "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and "Wake Me Up When September Ends". Let's just not mention the concept.


A Passion Play by Jethro Tull

-- Tull did whatever the hell they wanted, whenever the hell they wanted in the 1970's -- which is why critics couldn't stand them, but their fans adored them. They released Thick as a Brick, an unconventional album containing just one song (or at least one poem with music composed around it), and so what do they do for an encore? They release another 'concept album' with no discernible hit single and no real segue from one movement to the next, with the only interruption being an Aldous Huxley/Lewis Carroll/Beatrix Potter ménage à trois of a pseudo-children's story "The Hare Who Lost His Spectacles" smack dab in the middle. But Tull thumbed their collective noses at the music industry and critics, and the album went to #1 in the U.S. without any conventional wisdom (or airplay, for that matter). I would rate this album higher than Thick as a Brick based on sheer audacity alone, as there has been so little audacity in the rock music industry, where artists talk a big game but usually sell out for the cash. In that light, it gives one pause to consider the merits of this album.

The esoteric story concerns one Ronnie Pilgrim's journey from death to rebirth (in an afterlife run by bureaucrats), and the lyrics are filled with allusions, allegory and word puns that are at times profound and at other times slyly witty ("And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George, who stole surreptitiously into her geography vision."), and Ian Anderson once again proves he is one of the poet laureates of rock. The dreaded concept that this album is based on regards the polemic 'passion plays', and later, 'morality plays' -- precursors to our stage plays -- that were prevalent on the streets of English towns throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. A Passion Play's strengths and brilliant musicianship do not, however, overcome the fact that the album's theme and its overall ambiance do not reach the heights of its predecessor Thick as a Brick, which is a far more open and accessible work. Audacity does have its limits.


The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway by Genesis

-- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is the greatest concept record ever made; unfortunately, this album has two records. Sides 1 and 2 of Lamb are filled with stunning, evocative songs, bizarre images and wonderful wit. Sides 3 and 4 are filled with ambient sounds, aborted tunes, impenetrable lyrics and bizarre images as well, but unlike the first two sides, there are no redeeming songs that mitigate the grotesqueries. It is both Genesis' best album and worst. Talk about a dichotomy!

But, oh those first two sides! The heady title song (reprised on side 4 as "The Light Dies Down on Broadway"), the eerie "Fly on the Windshield", the metaphoric, hyper-namedropping "Broadway Melody of 1974", The advertising/merchandising mockery "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging", the proto-punk "Back in NYC", the poppy "Counting out Time" and the magnificent "Carpet Crawlers" mark this as a truly important album. Oh, don't get me wrong, sides 3 and 4 have their brilliant moments, but they also have tedious half-hours. The story slips further and further into a mythological melange of irrelevance and becomes very choppy. The split is very evident between Peter Gabriel's warped vision and the rest of the band, who assembled much of the album while Gabriel was attending to his pregnant wife. The band originally considered using Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Little Prince as a vehicle for the album, but Gabriel returned in a huff, demanding the album have all his lyrics and his story. The ensuing acrimony led to Genesis' break-up after this album.