Friday, July 09, 2010

I'm Not Dead, In Case You Were Wondering...

Fellow blogger and online pal Johnny Bacardi recently posted an interesting musical meme to motivate himself to update his blog more, and since I have also neglected Unattended Baggage for so long it’s practically on life-support, it seemed like a great idea. These were the rules:

Rules: Create a non objective list of your favorite albums of the last 20 years (anything released between 1990 and now), remember, this is your FAVORITES so, if Maroon 5's songs about Jane was your favorite album, that should be number 1, even if you feel Nevermind was a more influential album.

So here are my choices:

1. Jeff Buckley – Grace

2. Massive Attack – Mezzanine

3. Patty Griffin – Living with Ghosts

4. Tom Waits – Mule Variations

5. Citizen Cope – Clarence Greenwood Recordings

6. Johnny Cash – American III

7. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning

8. White Stripes – De Stijl

9. Radiohead – In Rainbows

10. Ben Harper – Live On Mars

11. Tood Snider – East Nashville Skyline

12. Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy

13. Lucinda Williams – Essence

14. PJ Harvey – To Bring You My Love

15. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Raising Sand

16. Jack Johnson – Brushfire Fairytales

17. Townes Van Zandt – Live at the Old Quarter

18. Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds – Live in Las Vegas

19. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions

20. Neil Young – Live at Massey Hall

21. Ray – Motion Picture Soundtrack

22. Gillian Welch – Soul Journey

23. Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose

24. Morcheeba – Big Calm

25. Warren Zevon – The Wind


And while I’m at it, here are 25 of my all-time favorite songs, not restricted to post-1990. If I sat down another day and did the same thing, I bet at least half of them would be different. The top 10 would probably be the same, though.

1. Hurricane by Bob Dylan – Dylan's best lyrics (closely followed by Visions of Johanna, Simple Twist of Fate and Tangled Up In Blue).

2. Kid’s Prayer by Dan Bern – starts out as a meditation on the Columbine slaying and ends with a great philosophy on parenting

3. Heart Attack and Vine – Tom Waits (also considered Warm Beer and Cold Women, Gun Street Girls, Eggs and Sausage, etc.)

4. The Way Young Lovers Do – Jeff Buckley (this is a cover of a Van Morrison song from Live at Sin-e. I also considered Mojo Pin, Grace and Forget Her)

5. One – the U2 and Mary J. Blige version

6. Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In – Kenny Rogers (from the classic dream scene in The Big Lebowski)

7. I Write the Book – Patty Griffin (this is an unreleased bootleg, but it's better than any of her album songs, and that's saying something!)

8. Paradise City – G'N'R - my "Wigwam Bam."

9. Fat Bottomed Girls – Queen - no matter how bad a mood I’m in, this song cheers me up.

10. Love Song – Tesla (acoustic live version) - I'm a sucker for good acoustic guitar solos.

11. Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum – cheesy classic rock at its best.

12. Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding – Elton John’s best song, great intro piano.

13. First Day of My Life – Bright Eyes – beautiful song, can’t listen to it without thinking of my son.

14. Wish You Were Here – One of the only songs I can still play on guitar

15. Terry’s Song – Bruce Springsteen (could also have gone with the theme song from the Wrestler, Glory Days or Tenth Avenue Freezeout)

16. Steal My Kisses – Ben Harper

17. Cocaine Blues – Johnny Cash - there's at least 100 great Cash songs, like Folsom Prison Blues, Nobody, The Man Who Couldn't Cry, etc., but this one edges out the others.

18. Working Class Hero – John Lennon - ditto #17.

19. Untouchable Face – Ani Difranco – also tough to pick just one Ani song, everything on Living in Clip is awesome (Fuel, Gravel, Napoleon, etc.)

20. Psycho Killer – Talking Heads (live version from Stop Making Sense)

21. Uncle John's Band – Grateful Dead

22. Angel – Massive Attack

23. Are You Down – Lucinda Williams

24. The Distance – Cake

25. New York State of Mind – Billy Joel

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