We're sure most of you would agree that "Best Of (you fill-in-the-blank) Year, Decade, or "Millennium" lists are generally an exercise in nostalgia since these lists merely reflect the individual tastes of the person/s who compile them, which may or may not be of interest to you. All the same, I decided to put together this list of some of the music and musicians that have always been my personal favourites. This list is not intended to exclude any other performers, because I love all sorts of music and thrive on the variety available to us. Special emphasis here is on "long term" achievements, so many contemporary favorites are not included either. If you are counting, there are more than 10 entries to this list, but I deemed that number far too restrictive anyway. In any event, most of the time I was unable to select just one album by most of these artists . Besides, we never said it was a "Top Ten" list in the first place! :-)
'kay den, without further ado and not necessarily in order...........
These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things
1) Jimi Hendrix Experience: All three official studio albums + Band Of Gypsys +
2) Ornette Coleman Quartet (w/Don Cherry, et al.): especially "Change Of The Century", "Shape Of Jazz To Come" & "This Is Our Music"
3) Miles Davis Quintet (w/Tony Williams, Wayne Shorter, et al.): especially "Sorcerer", "Miles Smiles", "Nefertiti" & "Filles de Kilamanjaro"
4) John Coltranne Quartet (w/Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, et al.): especially "My Favorite Things", "Impressions" & "A Love Supreme"
5) Muddy Waters Blues Band: Start with "His Best, 1947 to 1955" & "His Best, 1956 to 1964" from Chess Records 50th Anniversary Series released in 1997 and go from there.....
Now, I'll try to get a little more specific with each succeeding artist.....
6) Kenny Burrell: "Midnight Blue"
7) Junior Wells with Buddy Guy: "Hoo Doo Man Blues"
8) Funkadelic: "Maggot Brain" (sorry, I can't omit "Funkadelic" either, R.I.P. Eddie Hazel)
9) Stevie Wonder: "Talking Book" (aw hell, "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale" too)
10) The Beatles: (I've given up trying to be more specific and wish to include all of their mid-sixties music (especially 1964 to 1966)
My taste in music also runs to the more esoteric, and perhaps not so well known. No such list would be complete without some of the Milwaukee area bands that I grew up with such as Soup (R.I.P. Doug Yankus) and What On Earth (with the great guitarist Jack Grassell), Violent Femmes and Plasticland; the Chicago Blues Icons such as Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Jimmy Rogers, Otis Rush, Luther Allison and Magic Sam, et al.; the "Kings Of The Blues", in particular B.B., Albert & Freddie, but there are others; the Classic 60's Soul Music from Atlantic & Motown + Curtis Mayfield; the British Invasion(s) of the sixties that yielded Jeff Beck, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, & of course - Eric Clapton; all of the classic American musicians such as Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Neil Young, Santana & Los Lobos; the so called "garage bands" then the later "punk" bands like the Sex Pistols and Clash; Funketeers such as James Brown, George Clinton, Sly & The Family Stone, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince and Defunkt; Modern Guitar Innovators such as James "Blood" Ulmer, Jean Paul Bourelly, Vernon Reid and David Fiuczynski; and finally some Young Contemporary Blues Masters such as Dave Specter, Ronnie Earl, Billy Flynn, Steve Freund, Duke Robillard, Jimmy D. Lane, Bernard Allison, the Gales Brothers and Derek Trucks
Once again, this list is not intended to exclude the many other equally deserving artists that we enjoy listening to daily. This compilation merely highlights some music that made a profound and lasting impression on me (and Libby).
If you have any comments, would like us to publish your own "Best of ..." list, or have anything else of interest to contribute, please contact us at:
Here we present Craig's Top Ten... For the Sixties my #1 would be "Meet the Beatles", #2"The Doors", #3 "Are You Experienced", #4 Elvis Presley's Golden Hit'sVol. 3 (my first LP), #5 "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band", #6 "Blonde on Blonde", #7 "White Album", #8"Electric Ladyland", #9 "Wheels of Fire", #10 "Let it Bleed" (the 60'swouldn't be complete without the Stones).
It's pretty hard to argue with that list ! Who else has one ?
