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Tom's Top 11 Desert Island Discs |
So,
I’m washed up on a desert island with only a few of life’s essentials to
hand. Secondary matters like fire, food, shelter and water will have to wait.
Just how am I going to survive without my music? Ideally, I would have been
ship-wrecked with a water-proof, solar-powered laptop containing my entire mp3
collection on a sizeable hard drive. Unfortunately, I only have a wind up record
player. So it’s fortunate that all my favourite albums date from the vinyl
age. I think the radio 4 program only allows you single tracks but, as we all
know, rock aficionados such as myself are always album men so all of these are
LP’s. Well – here goes. My top 10 classic albums in no particular order are:
1.
Long Live Rock n’ roll – Rainbow
One of my all time favourite bands. This could have
been ‘Rainbow Rising’ as that album features my favourite gatefold cover,
but the music stakes put this one up front. I remember my friend Mouse playing a
taped copy of this to me at his house while we played a board game and he asked
me whether I recognised the track he was playing (Kill the king). I remember
borrowing this album along with ‘Down to Earth’ from Andrew Cannon a month
previously and largely ignoring LLRR because DTE was in the charts and Graham
Bonnet was the real vocalist in Rainbow – wasn’t he? Anyway, after hearing
the killer intro over again on Mouse’s clapped out cassette player I rapidly
changed my mind. What makes it so special? First of all it features Ronnie James
Dio, my favourite singer/songwriter of all time. His voice is magnificent on
this LP and his lyrics are unsurpassed. At first glance they don’t make sense,
but after 25 years or more – strangely they do:
‘The power of
what has been before, rises to trap you within… ‘
‘A magic carpet ride a genie maybe more….’
(Gates of Babylon)
‘Carry home my broken bones and lay me down to
rest, 40 days of cries and moans I guess I failed to pass the test….’ (LA
Connection)
(Well it works
for me anyhow)
Secondly,
Ritchie Blackmore had obtained the almost perfect sound on his strat. By now he
had the scalloped frets and the Seymour Duncan pickups. That high and low
frequency searing sound – with sustain - was the peak of sonic achievement.
Just listen to the sustained notes at the end of his LLRR solo and you will see
what I mean.
Thirdly, the
album was recorded in a castle which may have added to the inspirational value.
It was during this time that séances and Ouija board sessions revealed the
presence of an entity called Baal – a cryptic credit to him is found on the
back of the album. I definitely think that one or more members of the band
struck a deal with the Dark Side on this album. The song structure and sheer
magic of the playing and songs seem to point to an other-worldly influence.
Fourthly, Cozy
Powell’s drum sound is one of the most powerful heard on an album (and
remember this was 1978/1979). Apparently this sound was avidly sought after by
Michael James Jackson on Kiss’ ‘Creatures of the Night’ album.
And what about
those songs? Some have said that the greatest opening bars in a rock song are
Eric Clapton’s Layla. But for me the heights of drama are no better scaled
than the intro. to ‘Kill the King’. The way it descends into Blackmore’s
block chord/riff in ‘G’ raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
The title track
is my favourite rock anthem of all time – and I still want to play it in the
band Jonth!
Gates of Babylon
is a stand out epic. Particularly that solo. It builds like a classical
masterpiece by Bach or Paganini. The precision and feel of the playing are
unequalled. Malmsteen did a cover of this song and, although not a bad version,
he characteristically played all over it. The solo is marked as much by what
Blackmore doesn’t play as well as
what he does.
I love ‘The Shed (subtle)’ with it’s flanged
and delayed effect guitar solo intro. The beat is so incredibly driving.
The weakest track is ‘Rainbow Eyes’ which seems
to be a poor man’s version of ‘Catch the Rainbow’ yet even this track
would be a classic when put on the platters of many a contemporary of Rainbow.
Finally, the gothic script/font of the album
remains one of my favourites and I often use it when designing my own album
covers and posters.
A shame Ronnie left after this album. Things were
never the same again.
2.
Houses Of The Holy – Led Zeppelin
For
many people, IV/Zoso/4 symbols was the pinnacle. But for me HOTH shows greater
breadth and consistency of quality. Led Zeppelin III came a close second for
similar reasons. I remember when my brother Tim had left for University he left
his record collection behind and I picked up this one on a rainy Saturday
afternoon when there was nothing better to do. It is the sort of album that
allows your imagination to wander. I spent much of the album just staring at the
gatefold cover trying to figure out the imagery.
The
opening two tracks are monumental and to me define what Led Zeppelin were all
about. ‘The Song Remains The Same’ and ‘Rain Song’ came out of recording
sessions at Mick Jagger’s ‘Stargroves’ country house. TSRTS is an epic
track building on the ‘Stairway to Heaven’ approach. Originally called
‘The Overture’ and ‘Campaign’, it builds from it’s jangly guitar intro
into a layered approach with different time signatures and weird, helium-inhaled
vocals. The Rain Song takes over from this and must rate as one of the most
beautiful songs of all time. Originally played in an alternative Cm tuning I
believe, I learned to play it in G normal tuning and wondered why my fingers
ended up in awkward positions 10 frets apart! I love the mellotron which I
thought was an orchestra at first (and was therefore surprised when John Paul
Jones reproduced the sound on ‘The Song Remains The Same’ soundtrack). Over
The Hills and far away is Lord of the Ringsish to me and inspired me to take a
long walk down the beck afterward and appreciate the countryside all the better
for it still echoing in my mind. ‘The Crunge’ is pure spoof and shows Zep at
their most experimental. ‘Dancing Days’ has an Indian feel to it and
contains my favourite lyric on the album ‘I saw a lion he was standing alone
with a tadpole in a jar…!’ (and I’ve never smoked Marijuana!). ‘D’yer
Maker’ sees the band launch into experimental phase again. If I heard the
track on it’s own I probably wouldn’t like it, but the fact that it preludes
‘No Quarter’ somehow adds to it’s status. I will always hear that phased
piano intro with the reggae beat of ‘D’yer Maker’ still fading in the
background. Who said that the order of tracks on an album was not important?
The
best parts of ‘The Ocean’ are the off-beat drum intro (together with
Bonzo’s non-sensical ‘rap’) and the segue into the ‘doo-wop’ section
at the end.
Led
Zeppelin were a band which evolved and were not frightened to try new things.
HOTH sums up this approach.
3.
Van Halen II
The
first Van Halen album I heard was ‘Women and Children First’ and I must
confess I didn’t know what all the fuss was about. The album seemed
under-produced, punky and just thrown together hap-hazardly (the album has grown
on me considerably over the years however. It was almost as an after-thought
that Mouse lent me his brother’s copy of VH2 and it was this album which
opened me up to Eddie Van Halen’s amazing playing. However, it wasn’t just
the playing that geared me up to it (more of that later). The quality of the
songs was top-notch, as were the melodic harmonies and backing vocals. That
sense of ‘here was a band having fun’ came across too. I remember recording
the album onto an old Boots C90 audio cassette back to back with Deep Purple’s
‘In Rock’. Surprisingly, that tape lasted me 5 years of repeated playing.
Listening to this album will always remind me of lying in bed until 10 o’clock
in the morning in the big vaulted-ceiling bedroom at my Mum and dad’s house.
DOA would be blasting out with Dave Lee Roth’s swagger all too apparent in the
mix. Mum and Dad must have wondered what the cacophony was!
I
thought that side 2, opening as it did with ‘Lighting up the sky’ was the
first side and it wasn’t until I bought the record several years later that I
realised I had got it the wrong way round. This album features the full range of
EVH’s playing and shows that it’s not just finger tapping. Have a listen to
his stopped harmonic intro to ‘Women in love’ to see what I mean. Speaking
of finger-tapping, his acoustic instrumental ‘Spanish Fly’ showed that you
didn’t need a high-gain amplifier to achieve the effect.
Integral
to the VH sound were EVH and Michael Anthony’s backing vocals. Anthony
apparently did all the high register stuff. The harmonies helped create a sound
that counter-balanced the ‘metal’ with an old time rock n’ roll feel. My
favourite track is ‘Somebody get me a doctor’. It’s probably something to
do with Roth’s untuneful screaming and EVH’s distorted bowing on the middle
eighth. Or could it be that picture of the nurse on the album sleeve? Apparently
Roth sustained the sprained ankle in that picture as a result of landing
awkwardly after a split jump on the previous picture - serve him right for being
a smart arse! (I’m just jealous because I have the joint flexibility of a
rusted ball-cock).
Finally,
I love the black and yellow striped custom guitar-mutant which EVH holds up on
the back cover.
4.
Out Of The Blue – ELO
What!
A soft rock album in my top 10? Well, this was one of the first ‘serious’
albums I ever owned. Prior to this my record collection consisted of ‘Remember
you’re a Womble’ and the soundtrack to ‘The Jungle Book’.
Once
again, gate-fold sleeves rule OK. I copied the ELO logo off this album (or was
it ‘New World Record?) on to my yellow school haversack and painstakingly
coloured it in over many hours. You can imagine my dismay when I biked to school
in the pouring rain the next day and all the colours ran!
Jeff
Lynn must be one of the best song-writers ever, and with OOTB he was at the
height of his powers. He seemed to have that Lennon/McCartney ability (and still
does) to come up with melodies which hit that nerve. The song structures,
melodies and backing vocals produced a sound in the late seventies which were
instantly recognisable. This album produced a string of hit singles from ‘Wild
West Hero’ to ‘Mr Blue Sky’ and at the time everyone was singing them at
school.
OOTB
was of course a concept album – and a double album at that. I remember having
to pay the extortionate sum of £4.99 for the record. But it was money well
spent. These were the days when you could sit down with an album after first
buying it, and have the time to listen to it uninterrupted with the album art in
front of you – losing yourself in it.
One
of the reasons that the record holds such a place in my affections is that I
could equate with the lyrics so well. In those initial teenage years of hormonal
awakening, the despairing tones of ‘Sweet-Talking Woman’ or ‘Turn to
Stone’ hit a particular chord of recognition. Because it was a concept album,
it seemed to tell a story and I always remember playing it from beginning to
end. I found it difficult to just ‘dip in’ to it.
ELO’s
music was always so positive and uplifting. It’s one of the few groups I can
still listen to with Helen without her telling me to ‘switch off that
rubbish!’
5.
A Farewell To Kings – Rush
I
like all of Rush’s stuff, whether it be the hard rock of their first album, to
the prog rock of ‘hemispheres’ to the techno-rock of ‘Grace Under
Pressure’ or to the almost Nu-metal of ‘Vapor Trails’. But if I had to
pick one album it would be this one. My classic RUSH period must be from
‘2112’ to ‘Moving Pictures’ and FTK is RUSH at it’s ascendancy during
this time. This was affirmed when Jonth and I saw them on their 30th
anniversary tour in 2004 when the songs I was waiting for all seemed to come
from these albums. (It is ironic to note that the man standing next to me at
this gig was strangely silent when tracks from this era were played yet came
alive when songs like ‘Territories’ and ‘Red Sector A’ started up. A
sign surely that RUSH appeal to all ages and cross-sections of society).
I
remember buying this album as part of a 4 album introductory package to a
mail-order record club. It arrived first with ‘Oxygene’ by Jean Michelle
Jarre and I couldn’t wait to get it on Dad’s new turntable in the ‘pink
room’.
I
must admit it took a while to get used to Geddy Lee’s voice but the
originality of the songs soon won me over. I also thought they looked strange in
the picture on the inner cover. Geddy Lee with his strapped up baseball boots,
Alex Lifeson with his perfectly cut fringe and Neil Peart looking like one of
the 3 musketeers.
The
classic RUSH sound was prevalent on this record (before Lifeson started changing
his guitar every song he played). Lifeson was into his Gibson E335 semi-acoustic
period, they had just introduced Moog synthesisers, there were those complicated
time signatures and intricate bass runs. And of course the songs told a story. I
was introduced to Coleridge’s poetry through their rendition of ‘Xanadu’
– the standout track. Apparently this was recorded in Wales and the birds
tweeting during the intro are not denizens of a mystical landscape but Daffyd
and Ylltid sparrow of Mid-Glamorgan. When I play this song on the guitar I
always start by thinking ‘I’ll just strum a few chords of Xanadu’ but end
up playing all of it because it is such
a pleasure to play. The riffs and melodies have a geometry about them which is
straight forward yet sounds brilliant. The way that Peart uses every
glockenspiel, cowbell and triangle in his massive array of a drum kit is also a
marvel to behold. The timbre of Lee’s voice as he bewails his eternal fate
during the lyric ‘is it paradise…?’ sends tingles down the spine. And
that’s just Xanadu!
‘Closer
to the heart’ conjures up a dream of the perfect society and is one of
RUSH’s many songs where they can make a major key sound so interesting. No
wonder it gets the cigarette lighters illuminating the concert halls when Rush
do their tours. I remember putting ‘Madrigal’ on a compilation tape for
Helen when we first met. RUSH don’t do many love songs, but when they do they
still hit the spot.
Of
course the album ends with Cygnus X1. Ripe material for analogies and anecdotes
when I’m teaching about supernovae and black holes at school. (In fact,
there’s a thought – a starter activity which involves listening to all 12
minutes of Cygnus X1 in it’s entirety! On the other hand it’s probably
pearls before swine). You have to wait until ‘Hemispheres’ – the next
album before hearing the conclusion to the story of the ‘Rocinante’ and
it’s lone pilot.
Let’s
not forget the title track. The classical guitar intro leads into another tale
of ancient politics and the building and destroying of ancient civilisations –
you never end up thinking small after listening to a RUSH record!
6.
Heaven and Hell – Black Sabbath
‘Sacrilege!’ I hear you say, for not including an album from the
classic ‘Ozzy’ years. If I had, it would have been ‘Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath’, but I’m afraid HAH beats it hands down. Of course it features
Ronnie James Dio again, still riding high on the crest of a wave of influence
(or possession by Baal?) after Rainbow. It’s funny how you associate music
with certain moments in life. I distinctly remember being in the VIth form and
the school being closed for the afternoon due to snow. I had to walk home
through the drifts and when I arrived, this record was waiting for me fresh from
the mail order record company. I had already bought the single ‘Neon nights’
and was favourably impressed so I knew I was in for a treat when I sat down to
listen to this.
‘Neon
Knights’ opens up the first side and bludgeons you immediately with no warning
with thundering bass and the classic Iommi SG assault. This is closely followed
by ‘Children of the Sea’ which featured a traditional Dioesque pattern of
starting soft and leading into a hammer blow rifferama as Ronnie sings of his
followers as demons who ‘sail above the air before we learned to run..’ and ‘made the mountains shake with laughter as we played.
After listening to the first two tracks I was initially disappointed with
‘Lady Evil’ although this track has grown on me over the years. This was not
to last long however as the title track came next. HAH became a staple of
Sabbath and Dio sets over the next 2 decades and I remember being mesmerised by
his performance of it at Donington ’83 when he added the improvisational
additions half-way through. Tony Iommi’s song writing is at it’s most
brilliant on this song. The way he introduces solo guitar inflections over the
basic riffs really makes this song.
Side
two opens with ‘Wishing Well’, a great hard-rocking love song. The next one
is my album favourite: ‘Die Young’. Another winning ingredient to the
formula on this album is Geoff Nicholl’s keyboards which really make this
song. I even tried to sample the keyboard sound for one of my own songs without
too much success. I recently heard a live version of this from Sabbath’s
‘Black and Blue’ tour with Blue Oyster Cult. It did not disappoint and I was
well impressed with how they managed to reproduce this complex song live. Iommi
has a skill of changing the tempo and pace of a song seamlessly – something
which I always thought Dio failed to do on songs like ‘Holy Diver’ and
‘Sacred Heart’. Another great rocker follows in the form of ‘Walk Away’
which features some great bass backbone from Geezer Butler (it’s marvellous
watching him play live – a pre-cursor to flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers
perhaps).
‘Lonely
is the Word’ finishes off the album and follows on in the vein of
‘Mistreated’ – a number which Dio did great justice to in his Rainbow
days. Iommi plays some magnificent understated blues guitar to close the number
leaving you satiated yet wanting more. They provided it in ‘Mob Rules’, the
next album – but that’s another story.
7.
Kiss – Alive II
![Alive Vol.2 [Original recording remastered]](images/thumbnails/bandme7.jpg)
There
would have to be a live album in any desert island collection. The question is
– which one to choose from the cornucopia on offer? We need something of the
grand event, great showmanship, massive songs and a sense of that moment in time
- of legend even. For many, it’s ‘Thin Lizzy – Live and Dangerous’, but
for me it’s Kiss – Alive II. You’ve only got to look at the cover with
Gene Simmons spitting blood and Ace Frehely looking like he’s been drenched in
rocket fuel to know that this band took no prisoners. Why not cite ‘Alive I’
– the record which made them? You may ask. Well – you only have to listen to
and compare the announcers’ speech on each album to answer this. Kiss had
moved from ‘The hottest band in the land’ to ‘The hottest band in the
world!’ The only shame is that the live parts cover only 3 sides of a double
album. Now if Side 1 of Alive 1 was transplanted in – there would be the
perfect hybrid.
Like
any good live album, the studio versions really come alive. What better show
opener can there be than ‘Detroit Rock City’ Paul Stanley can really cut it
live as a vocalist and as a showman. His raps and audience participation stunts
keep the pace going throughout. The music of Kiss is often under-rated but it
was their harmonies and great hooks that set them apart from a lot of other
‘gimmick’ bands. OK there are probably a lot of overdubs on there but the
sense of occasion is not detracted from. Each one of the band takes turns in the
lead vocals and adds variety to the proceedings. From Stanley’s sleazy rasp to
Gene Simmons guttural growl the characters of Kiss each add to the consummate
whole. Alive II saw the advent of Ace Frehely taking over some vocal duties with
‘Shock me’ – a much better version than on ‘Love gun’ – his extended
guitar solo oozes 20,000V of energy and you can just imagine it rising, smoking
into the sky or shooting off rockets as he plays the blistering notes.
Peter
Criss provides a slower moment with his mucus-filled vocals on ‘Beth’ before
the demon bat Simmons takes over for his show-stopping ‘God of Thunder’ –
‘Careful you don’t set your hair alight this time Gene!’
Kiss have brought out two other live offerings – III and Kiss symphony
IV – each of which is well worth a listen and watch. But this is where it was
done first.
8.
Ready and Willing – Whitesnake
Another
album from the time of teenage hard rock awakenings. I had heard a lot about
David Coverdale prior to getting this album. He was known as the worthy
successor of Ian Gillan in Deep Purple Mark III, so he had a legendary status
before I had even heard him sing. I bought the single ‘Fool for your loving’
the day after hearing it on Top of the Pops. The spectacle of seeing the blues
legend swagger while delivering the number in that liquid gold voice of his was
enough to confirm to me that I had to collect his entire catalogue. Something I
continue to do up to this present day. I heard the next single ‘Ready an’
Willing’ on the Friday Rock Show and connect these songs with the heady
feeling of finishing 5th year and O’ levels with the prospect of a
long Summer ahead and many teenage parties with my first taste of beer (which I
hated for the best part of a year).
I eventually obtained my copy of the album in
Newcastle Eldon square along with Pat Benatar’s first album (which turned out
to be a disappointment apart from the first track). Ready an’ Willing did not
disappoint however. There is no filler on this album at all. Whitesnake could
play heavy blues with a 6 piece format and yet not get in each other’s way.
Neil Murray has the best bass sound in hard rock (and doesn’t lose it live),
Jon Lord on keyboards and Ian Paice on drums are of course legendary. The two
guitarists complement each other perfectly. Micky Moody and Bernie Marsden both
play Gibsons but play in such a way as to add depth to each song. Moody of
course has the advantage of playing slide as well. As well as the aforementioned
tracks, standout numbers for me include ‘Blindman’ (which contains the
perfect guitar solo – each note is precisely correct and the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts) – it leaves the version on David Coverdale’s
first solo album completely in the shade. Love man must be the sleaziest song
ever written while the end number ‘She’s a woman’ showcases Jon Lord’s
keyboards in a newer dimension to his Deep Purple days with the use of
synthesisers. (Funny that David Coverdale was disappointed with the recording of
this song – I can’t pick fault in it).
9.
Queen – Greatest Hits
Counting
through Mn4’s set list, we do no less than 4 of Queen’s classic songs which
says a lot about their influence. My brother Jonth was the Queen collector and
so I listened to snippets of his albums. As a result I never built up an
allegiance to any one album – hence me opting for a ‘Greatest hits’
package. I remember hearing ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ for the first time as a
single when it was released when I was off sick from school for a week. I had to
spend my time freezing in Dad’s car at work (he was on the gas pipelines near
Workington) blowing my nose and counting the hours until we could go home again.
I remember hearing this 7 minute long epic and having the vague notion that here
was history in the making. This record opens with that number. Whatever I say
about Queen has all been said before but once again here is a band which evolved
and experimented. Masters of their craft.
10.
24 Carat Purple – Deep Purple
I
was going to put ‘Made in Japan’ in here but 24 carat Purple has a lot of
the tracks on anyway and benefits from the fact that it doesn’t contain ‘The
Mule’. Yes, Ian Paice, you are a good drummer but this track spoils what is
otherwise a classic album. I remember hearing a lot said about Deep Purple but
not being able to find anyone who had any of their records. Then, during the
summer holiday mentioned above, my mates and I all went back to a lad called
‘Whitty’s house and he dug out his brother’s copy of this record. I
understood at last why Ritchie Blackmore was God. It was his solo on ‘Child in
Time’ that first gave me goose bumps. This, together with Gillan’s
silver-throated screams makes it an original (although I heard that the keyboard
intro which forms the main theme of the song was inspired by Jon Lord listening
to a traditional folk song on Russian radio). The tracks are all taken from the
Mark II line up and, although there are a zillion other compilations, this one
seems to sum early Purple up. I heard ‘Speed King’ for the first time on
this record and always wondered why Purple never included the explosive intro in
their live versions. It wasn’t until trying to emulate the wide wang barring
on a strat’s inadequate tremolo system that I realised Blackmore would have
had to completely re-tune his guitar for the main segment.
11.
Foreigner IV
OK so I know this is supposed to be a top 10 but, like spinal tap, my
amplifier goes to 11. I need to include some AOR and this album has to be it.
The song which would make this album perfect would be the addition of ‘I want
to know what love is’ from the agent provocateur LP (the rest of this album is
rubbish). Anyway, there is enough on Foreigner IV to satisfy the most rabid of
AOR fans. This includes ‘I’ve been waiting for a girl like you’ which
became our song when Helen and I were first going out. When listened to back to
back, these songs seem to cover every possible emotion you could think of, and
Lou Gramm is just the vocalist to do it.
Nuff
said!
The
‘almost made-it’s but had to be jettisoned in the lifeboat due to
over-loading’ list
Yngwie
Malmsteen – Odyssey – My welcome back
into the arms of heavy metal from the wilderness in 1988
Pink
Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon/ The Wall – Great
albums but probably too depressing on a desert island.
UFO
– Strangers in the Night – Every
version better than the studio, and no out of tune ‘Rock Bottom’.
Dream
Theater – Live at the Budokan – I
actually might have time to practice 10 hours a day and be 1/10th as
good as John Petrucci if I listened to this collection of tracks.I’d have to
carve a guitar out of a palm tree though!
U2
- October – Inspirational stuff and
still fresh after all these years.
Dire Straits -
Alchemy
The Police - Regatta de Blanc
Phil
Lynott – Wild One (The Best of Thin Lizzy)
Ozzy
Osbourne – Blizzard of Oz – More
practice material
The
list could go on but I better stop there!