the desert island 12

when i made this list, i knew what i was doing. i was making a list of the records that were so good i couldn't describe them. literally, couldn't write something to fit the awe of living the dreasm those albums bring. i tried to. with tommy. i ended up wityh something like forty pages of transcribed gobbledygook i had recorded on my hand recorder listening to the album on repeat on night in the blue light of the tv screen with the VCR on and nothing playing. i threw it all out.

i'd like to someday. you know, sum it up, a page or two per lp but i guess that'll be the pinnacle of me as a writer. when i can sum up all the sounds of a universe that still and always makes my skin tingle. the cutting in of "sparks" when the bottom drops out of my stomach. like the first time i listened "magic carpet ride" by steppenwolf. the drunkne ranting of american woman live burton cummigns and richard bachman eatting sound with an ice cream scoop in a dark drunken jazz alley.

actually, i sarted the list with 15 wanting the classic 10 and so began narrowing. i got as far as twelve and feel guilty for that much. but it was all over. even one more was like taking out my own eye. i gave in. so it's the desert island 12 and chew on it if you want.

tommy by the who
astral weeks by van morrison
the plantation recordings by muddy waters
what's goin on by marvin gaye
let it bleed by the rolling stones
live at the paramount by the guess who
the bed is in the ocean by karate
houses of the holy by led zepplin
analphabetapolythology by cap'n jazz
blue by joni mitchell
the velvet underground by the velvert underground
slanted and enchanted by pavement

runners up:

london calling by the clash
a storm in heaven by the verve
banned in d.c. by bad brains
live at the village vangaurd by john coltrane
bossa nova by the pixies
kid A by radiohead
outerspaceways incorporated by sun ra
scenes in the city by charlie mingus
40 oz to freedom by sublime
pet sounds by the beach boys

2003-08-01 | 5:15 p.m.
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