I was inspired by a thread of similar name (I replaced “you” with “everyone”) in the Audioholics forum. It interested me because while it used to be fun to make recommendations years ago because people appreciated them, I almost never bother anymore because everyone in the music discussion forums are know-it-alls like me now. There’s a glut of information on the Internet and available mp3s, so even the most obscure albums are no secret. Audioholics is different than, say, I Love Music in that they are older, and generally spend more money on their gear than music. I reached a transition where I’m currently maxed out on space for CDs, and my 14 year-old Sony system and Infinity speakers died. I figured it was time to upgrade and enjoy all the music I have with a new sonic clarity. Audioholics provided an amazing wealth of information as I sought out the best gear for my budget. Aside from those who only use their systems to watch movies, there’s a lot of music lovers on the site, but with far different tastes than the hipster boards. And it’s refreshing.

They seem to have the strongest knowledge of classical, jazz, 70s prog and classic rock. Rather than argue against suggestions like a live Dave Matthews Band disc, I thought it would be fun to think of favorite albums that are less obvious than Bowie, Beatles, Van Morrison, Talking Heads, Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Velvet Underground and The Clash, but more accessible than The Minutemen, Joy Division, Chico Science, Cedric Im Brooks and Pere Ubu. Here’s what I came up with. Nothing I pick could possibly be universally loved. Otherwise they’d probably have actually sold more millions of copies. But any relatively open minded music lover should find much to admire here, and maybe something revelatory. I got the distinct feeling , however, that none of the people on the forum could care less what this weird Bulbous guy had to recommend, but it was a fun exercise regardless.

1. The Modern Lovers (Beserkley/Rhino) 72
   Jonathan Richman was such a fan of the Velvet Underground, he practically stalked them, between Boston and NYC. Like the Velvets, Richman bristled against the conventional sounds of the time of meandering hippie psychedelia and pompous prog rock (not that I don’t like a lot of that stuff myself). His songs were angry, terse, lovelorn, rejected drug culture and espoused the benefits of health food, driving fast on highways, and modern art. VU’s John Cale recorded some demos, as did Kim Fowley, and after a couple attempts of recording, the results were shelved and not released until 1977, long after the band broke up and Richman disowned his darker songs and pursued a more child-like direction of novelty songs. A recent remaster with bonus cuts reveals the Modern Lovers as a cracking band, with keyboardist Jerry Harrison moving on to play in the Talking Heads, and David Robinson in The Cars.
2. The Congos * Heart Of The Congo (Blood & Fire) 77
   It’s ironic that Lee “Scratch” Perry’s greatest achievement was the hardest to find for a while. For those of you who don’t know, Perry has been involved with pretty much every phase of Jamaican music. He worked with Coxsone Dodd during the Soundsystem days and later at his Studio One label, finding talent and writing songs. He began recording his own songs, and worked with other producers like Joe Gibbs. His crack band The Upsetters were like a Jamaican MGs, and put out loads of Memphis Soul-influenced rock steady and early reggae tunes. He worked with Bob Marley and the Wailers, helping him develop his voice and transform from an unpolished rude boy to an icon synonymous with reggae. In fact, Marley’s voice began to sound uncannily like Scratch’s. He was one of the first inventors of dub music, and his early 70s productions earned him enough money to build his own studio, Black Ark, widely considered his peak era. Indeed, during Perry’s Black Ark period, he was on fire, coaxing sounds into a little Teac four-track that others couldn’t cram into sixteen tracks in productions with Junior Byles, Max Romeo, Heptones, Jah Lion, Junior Murvin, George Faith, and the Congos. “It was only four tracks written on the machine, but I was picking up twenty from the extra terrestrial squad. I am the dub shepherd.”The Congos was one of his last productions at Black Ark before his madness got the best of him and he literally set it on fire. Having fallen out with Chris Blackwell and Island, The Congos was given an extremely limited release of about 500 copies. Over the years it was reissued half-assed with poor mixes. In 1996 Blood & Fire rescued it with a lovingly remastered and repackaged version, complete with bonus tracks. There’s a newer reissue available now, but this is the one to get. It’s simply the most intensely spiritual, hypnotic music Perry ever laid down on tape.
3. Charles Mingus * The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady (Impulse!) 63
   This is my all-time favorite jazz album. I love how Mingus had his psychologist write the liner notes. He refused to call it jazz. Preferred to call it “new folk” or something like that. Indeed, in 1963, no one had heard instrumental music so expressive, outside of classical. Anyone familiar with Mingus’ autobiography Beneath the Underdog and stories of him pulling a gun on his band can’t deny that the man boils over with passion. An autobiographical magnum opus arranged as a six-part ballet, Black Saint draws upon Duke Ellington’s orchestration, post-Parker hard bop and avant garde dissonance. Because it ultimately sounds like nothing else, but evokes a flood of emotions in its complex layers, I think it’s the greatest jazz composition ever.
4. Television * Marquee Moon (Elektra) 77
   The Ramones, Talking Heads and just last week, Blondie, all graduates of the CBGB’s scene, have all been inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Television will probably never have a chance for such canonization, because not enough people have heard them! Not counting their 90s reunion, they only released two albums. Television were the first band to play CBGB’s, having literally built the stage themselves. Unlike the Ramones, they weren’t remotely punk. Their roots were more in 60s psychedelia like Love, The Byrds and The Grateful Dead. But with a very particular twist of Steely Dan and Andy Johns’ brittle, bone-dry production work on The Rolling Stones’ Goat’s Head Soup. Brian Eno was sent in for a premature recording session in 1975. While they had enough material to be the first CBGBs band to put out an album (Patti Smith Group came out with the classic Horses that year, on which Tom Verlaine guested on guitar), Verlaine became increasingly fussy about developing a singular style, forcing co-founder Richard Hell to leave and take his more prickly songs (“Blank Generation,” “Love Comes In Spurts”) with him, to be recorded brilliantly by the Voidoids and Robert Quine.Marquee Moon finally came out in 1977, and it was worth the wait. From Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s dueling, intertwining guitars and unique tones to the terse lyrics, the album was a true original. The long title track featured an ascending duel guitar solo that’s as magical as some of John Coltrane’s. Television have influenced many bands since, but the thrill of that new sound could only be experienced the first time around.The original CD master was badly botched, and finally corrected in the 2003 remastered reissue.
5. The Buzzcocks * Singles Going Steady (Restless) 79
   Never mind The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned or The Jam, this is the best punk collection ever. The songs come and go in a breathless rush, but with sharply memorable tunes. The punk rock Beatles write love songs with sentimentality cut to shreds by serrated guitars and machine gun snares. The band’s art school backgrounds are expressed in their cover art and concert flyers. The sound is so single mindedly focused it’s practically artless, but adorned with surprisingly catchy melodies. “Orgasm Addict, “I Don’t Mind,” “Love You More,” “Ever Fallen In Love,” all classics. Be sure to get the expanded 24-track remaster with their last excellent singles, “You Say You Don’t Love Me” and “Running Free.”My next recommendations were going to be Husker Du’s Zen Arcade and The Minutemen’s Double Nickels On The Dime, both released on SST in 1984. Both are double albums and represent the peak of post-hardcore punk indie rock ambition and creativity. However, their appeal may be limited to those who aren’t already fans due their sound. They were both recorded quickly and cheaply. A good remaster could probably help quite a bit. Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. got that treatment recently, so there’s hope. Instead, I’ll recommend:
6. Brian Eno * Another Green World (EG) 75
   Most people are familiar with Brian Eno’s name for his work as an early member of Roxy Music, his collaborations with King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, and his production work with Ultravox, Devo, David Bowie, Talking Heads and U2. But not nearly enough people have heard his solo albums, particularly his first four classics. His third solo album, Another Green World is Eno at his peak, sort of the music cognoscenti’s own Dark Side of the Moon. What may surprise those who have heard his more oblique ambient work, this album filled with quite accessible melodies. It’s a bridge between his quirky and often beautiful pop songs (“St. Elmo’s Fire”) and more experimental phase (“Sky Saw,” “Little Fishes”), the best of both worlds. Dig into this dreamy album and you’ll be craving more. An excellent remaster was reissued in 2004.
7. Wire * 154 (Restless) 79
   Wire were acclaimed for the succinct, spare art-school punk of their first album, Pink Flag. But they quickly evolved into more of a post-punk band, influenced by art rock, prog and synth pop. Their producer, Eno acolyte Mike Thorne, was practically a full-fledged band member by their third album. Like Eno’s Another Green World,154 was a perfect balance of songcraft and studio experimentation. “Map Ref. 41°N 93°W” was one of their most perfect pop songs, while the edgy “Two People In A Room” anticipated the deturned guitar sounds explored years later by Sonic Youth. A remastered reissue just came out on April 11.
8. Tricky * Maxinquaye (Island) 95
   Unfortunately most people are familiar with “trip hop” only for inspiring some of the most flaccidly lame, derivative aural wallpaper of the 90s. The only originals worth their salt are Massive Attack, Portishead and Tricky. Tricky was the youngest member of Massive Attack (as he rapped on his second album, “They used to call me Tricky Kid/Now they call me superstar”), and his debut, Maxinquayeblew his peers away, and was arguable the best album of the 90s. It’s hard and dark, but also beautifully luminescent and sexy in parts. For more in depth discussion, click on the linked title.
9. Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band * Clear Spot (Reprise) 72
   More people have heard of Beefheart than actually heard him. Part of the problem was that his most acclaimed album, Trout Mask Replica, was also the most difficult to listen to. Nearly every critics poll rates TMR as the best Beefheat album, and it simply isn’t true. Yes, as his third album it represents his artistic breakthrough. ButLick My Decals Off Baby and Doc At the Radar Station are more consistently successful. Others would add his first album, 1967’sSafe As Milk. But by far the easiest album to get into and enjoy is 1972’s Clear Spot. Produced by Ted Templeton (later known for his work with Van Halen), it has a clean, beefy (heh) sound. Beefheart’s quirky, angular rhythms are more subtle, and even his dadaist lyrics are more straightforward than ever. And it rocks. Had this album been better promoted, it probably would have sold quite well. Then Beefheart wouldn’t have been in such financial trouble that he felt he had to make the sub-standard albums of 1974, and eventually quit the music business out of frustration to retreat to his painting. Ironically, where music as art is viewed with suspicion, the fine art world of painting and sculpture actually rewards creativity. Don Van Vliet’s paintings sell for as much as $50,000 each, more than he made for the first several years of his music career. Nevertheless, he left us with nine great to stunning albums.
10. Junior Murvin * Police & Thieves (Mango) 77 
    Reggae is such a maligned genre because half the world only knows Bob Marley. Marley is great, but it’s easy to get sick of a single artist. I figured Jimmy Cliff and Toots & the Maytals are fairly well known. Junior Murvin, however, is more of an underdog. Some are familiar with his big song “Police & Thieves” from The Clash’s cover version. Murvin’s Curtis Mayfield-like, unearthly falsetto which is well-suited to the dark, ethereal backing tracks produced by Lee Perry during his peak Black Ark period. The tempos are slow, the vocals treated with just the right reverb and echo, the background horn charts haunting, lending all the more power to “Lucifer,” “Roots Train” and of course the title track. Every song is perfect, the biblical dread surpassed perhaps only by The Congos.
11. Fela Kuti * Roforofo Fight (MCA) 72
    Fela has recorded so many nearly perfect albums in the 70s, it’s really a toss-up as to what’ his best. Roforofo Fight is a great example of his early style, combining influences of jazz, highlife, and James Brown into extended, disciplined grooves over which Fela would pour his soul out in righteous rage against corruption and injustice in his home country of Nigeria. His political awakening occurred during a visit to Los Angeles in 1970, when he was exposed to the writings of Malcolm X and Eldridge Cleaver. There his band recorded the ’69 Los Angeles Sessions which became the blueprint for his band Africa 70’s direction, and he went on to become a cultural hero and rebel, and a target of Nigeria’s brutal military dictatorship, who burned down his communal rehearsal and recording studio, Kalakuta Republic, tortured and jailed Kuti, and even murdered his mother in 1977. After a brief exile in Ghana, he returned even more determined in 1978, forming his own political party, while managing to keep churning out albums (totaling over 50 throughout his career) and touring. Who’s willing to go through that for their art these days? Some compared him, as a cultural hero, to Bob Marley. But for better and worse, with his wildman antics on and off the stage (he hung out and performed wearing little more than a thong, constantly smoked joints as big as his head, was an unapologetic misogynist and polygamist, and had an enormous ego), he’s like the Nigerian Iggy Pop. Other highlights include Open And Close (1971), Gentleman(1973), Expensive Sh*t (1975), Confusion (1975), Zombie (1977), Shuffering And Shmiling(1977), I.T.T. (1980) and Original Suffer Head (1982).
12. Iggy Pop * Lust For Life (Virgin) 77
    With his old band The Stooges, Iggy Pop created arguably the greatest rock album ever made, 1970’s Funhouse. However, that might be a little unhinged for some people’s tastes. Lust For Life is his second album in collaboration with David Bowie. The Idiot was great, but very dark and disturbed, more similar to Bowie’s albums of that period. Staying with Bowie in Berlin, Iggy was at the top of his game, reportedly easing up on the drugs and walking ten miles a day. The energy positively leaps out at you from the pounding title track, its popularity revived years later in Trainspotting and commercials. Every tune finds Iggy at his most buoyant and, erm, poppy. “Some Weird Sin,” “Success” and “Neighorhood Threat” range from immediate and celebratory to brooding. The album’s undeniable peak is “The Passenger,” one of the greatest songs ever. Luminaries such as The Pixies’ Frank Black grew up worshipping this album, dancing naked to it. Let the album help you wipe that horrifying image from your mind and lose yourself in this timeless classic.
13. Justin Hinds & The Dominoes * Jezebel (Island) 76
    Having been a key player in Jamaican music since the early 60s ska days (remember “Carry Go Bring Home”?), Justin Hinds made an astounding comeback in Jezebel. His soft voice was more rich and soulful than ever, and despite the cheap and quick recording conditions most 70s reggae musicians who weren’t Bob Marley had to deal with, it sounded perfect. From the rousing “Fire,” the remake of “Carry Go Bring Home,” the rollicking “Dip and Fall Back” and the rootsy “Prophecy,” this is tremendously spiritual, uplifiting music. The best track, “Spotlight,” is one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. It’s ironic that this album was neglected by Island, who did not promote it and even misspelled Hinds’ name on the cover. While they were busy extending Marley’s world domination, Justin Hinds created an album that surpasses all of Marley’s.
14. Richard Hell & the Voidoids * Blank Generation (Sire) 77
    It’s amazing how many people don’t know this album. Even critics — several bands in recent years have had a strong Voidoids influence, and critics mistake it for Television, who had a very different sound. While Richard Hell was indeed once a member of Television, his musical vision is quite different. With guitarist Robert Quine peeling off edgy, prickly riffs, the Voidoids were electrifying and really quite accessible. Along the the classics “Blank Generation” and “Love Comes In Spurts,” there’s some ballads unlike anything else in punk, such as “Betrayal Takes Two,” and a stunning cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Walking On The Water.” With intelligent, poetic lyrics and surprisingly subtle complexity, Blank Generation remains fresh.
15. Tom Waits * Bone Machine (Island) 92
    It seems that Tom Waits’ audience is split between fans of his early years as a sort of neo-boho-hobo Califnornia singer-songwriter, and his artistic rebirth in the 80s when he met his wife Kathleen Brennan and discovered Harry Partch and Captain Beefheart. As great as some of those albums are, his later work is too often neglected. Bone Machine is arguably Waits’ masterpiece, containing many of his best songs, from the apocalyptic “The Earth Died Screaming” to the melancholy singalong with Keith Richards, “That Feel.” There’s also the funereal but beautiful “Dirt In The Ground,” and the classic peter pan sydrome, “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up.” This is Waits at his darkest, but also most engaging.
16. The Fall * This Nation’s Saving Grace (Beggars Banquet) 85
    In Rip It Up And Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984, Simon Reynolds noted that The Fall and Joy Division had many things in common. Bandleaders Mark E. Smith and Ian Curtis liked the same bands (The Doors, Velvet Underground, The Stooges, Can), practiced in the same building, shared concert bills, and even looked and dress similar. Due to Curtis’ suicide and New Order’s later success, Joy Division got the (mostly earned) sexy mystique, while The Fall slogged it out, tirelessly touring and churning out dozens of albums. They’re still at it. Such prolificacy can cause people to take them for granted. The unfortunately well kept secret is that The Fall are largely a very accessible rock band. Prickly, obtuse at times (early Pavement copped some of their more cryptic tendencies), they also have a body of catchy, rockabilly punk songs. Aside from singles collections, the best introduction is this album. Here their famously repetitive riffs are engaging rather than boring, with varied textures and songs that ruly rock (“Bombast,” “Cruiser’s Creek”). It’s also one of their best sounding albums.
17. X * Los Angeles (Slash) 80
    Los Angeles had a wonderfully diverse punk scene, ranging from art-damaged (Screamers) to pioneering hardcore (Germs). What some people misunderstand is that punk isn’t a sound, but a culture. X came from the culture, but hardly adhere to any uniform punk musical code, other than playing fast. Sometimes. They were had excellent, experienced musicians, particularly in the virtuoso rockabilly riffing of guitarist Billy Zoom. John Doe and Exene Cervenka were a songwriting team with a totally original chemistry, mixing pulp novels and beat poetry into lyrics that revel in darkness and violence with sheer exhuberance. Which is likely why The Doors’ Ray Manzarek was such a fan, and became a sort of fifth X, producing the album and contributing great keyboard work, reminding him of the excitement of his old band’s heyday. Their version of “Soul Kitchen” surpasses The Door’s, and few albums have ended on such a celebratory peak as “The World’s A Mess, It’s In My Kiss.” This is nothing if not totally classic rock. Their following three albums nearly equal it, with1982’sUnder The Big Black Sun coming closest. The 2001 remaster adds five bonus cuts.
18. New York Dolls (Slash) 73
    For a beautifully brief moment in the early 70s, just as The Rolling Stones were famously calling themselves the “world’s greatest rock ‘n’ roll band,” there was a band in New York City who could out-Stone them blindfolded, hands tied behind their backs, with enough liquor and drugs in their bellies to even make Keith Richards wobbly. The campy cross-dressing and debauchery, however, was besides the point. It was if they were making fun of the cliche’d rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle by presenting it to its most cartoonish extreme. Unfortunately the joke was on them when they lost Billy Murcia to overdose early on. But they went on to create a perfect, definitive album. The only bands to pick up on their legacy were Kiss, who took their stage show to a new extreme (and to the bank), and Aerosmith. To the millions who were never exposed to the original template, the joke is on them.
19. Betty Davis (Just Sunshine/Aztec) 73
    Imagine Band of Gypsies era Hendrix, Fresh era Sly Stone and On The Corner era Miles Davis combined into one fearsomely hot funk diva. A common fantasy, but this one is real. Betty Davis was friends with Jimi and Sly, and married for a year to Miles Davis. By no means a groupie, she actually influenced the people around her, and was a force of nature, and an extremely talented writer and performer. Her first album distills everything perfectly, hard funk with jazz chops, with the band that rivalled Funkadelic, consisting of members of Santana and Tower of Power. Davis presented a persona part ass-kicking Cleopatra Jones, and part Frank Zappa wise-cracking pottymouth. She cast a feminist evil eye on pimp characters with lyrics like, “If I’m in luck I might get picked up … I’m fishin’ and I’m trickin’ and you can call it what you want.” And in “Anti Love Song” she sings, “You know, I could make you crawl/And just as hard as I’d fall for you/You know you’d fall for me harder.” More often her voice would jump between shrieks and feral growls that are truly frightening. To today’s audience, she’s no less than the older, and better, forerunner of the likes of Macy Gray, Kelis and Missy Elliot.
20. Martha & the Muffins * This Is The Ice Age (Dindisc/Virgin) 81
    Known as the Canadian Talking Heads, Martha and the Muffins were unfortunately not known enough. Their secret weapon was a young Daniel Lanois, who would play the Brian Eno role for a trilogy of albums. Lanois incorporated incidental sounds and digital synthesizers filtered through delays and reverbs that made it sound less synthetic than their peers. The drum sounds themselves are impressively ahead of their time, like they used giant rubber mallets. It sounds like Tricky may have sampled them on Maxinquaye 14 years later. Embedded toward the end of the title track, you’ll hear a snippet of a scrambled, processed vocal that sounds suspiciously like the intro to Radiohead’s Kid A. The songwriting is as equally stunning as the band’s vivid sound, with guitars that reference Television’s Tom Verlaine,and Andy Haas’ melancholy saxophone that recalls a more introverted, melancholy mix of Roxy Music and Steely Dan. A flawless album. Now if they would please reissue the next two albums, Danseparc (1982) and Mystery Walk (1984).

The Quiz!

Answers — highlight with your mouse here –> 1-14, 2-1, 3-12, 4-17, 5-15, 6-4, 7-9, 8-11, 9-8, 10-5, 11-10, 12-13, 13-2, 14-18

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