With apologies to Nick Hornby, I'm not much of a list-maker anymore. Sure, I was the music geek kid with a list -- and a ready-made mix tape -- for every eventuality, but now I love music more than I enjoy trying to quantify it.
But every year I vote in the Village Voice's Pazz & Jop music critics poll and while starting to think about this year's top 10, I got to thinking about an all time top 10.
It's impossible, but I'm going to try to assemble one here. It will be a work in progress, as it's been for the past 32 years or so of my music jones. Yes, my first job coincided with my newfound love for music at age 9 when I took a part-time job watching for shoplifters at a neighborhood record shop (two LPs a week pay; double albums count as one!).
This is not a list of my current favorite top 10 records, but an attempt to get to the nitty gritty of all time (and I won't put them in order; that is No. 1 is not necessarily better than No. 2, etc.). And to prevent further complication, I'm going to save jazz for another list. Wish me luck...
Here's a first stab. But I'm already missing some records that I've worn practically through. I think this early draft reflects a bit of deference to traditional ideas of the best rock era records.
Maybe I'm afraid to include Placebo's "Without You I'm Nothing" at the expense of "Sticky Fingers" or Augustus Pablo's "Original Rockers" instead of "Highway 61" for fear of looking like a heathen. Not that I'd really mind that. Maybe 10 just isn't enough.
I'll revist the list next week and make changes.
1) Bob Marley & the Wailers -- Survival
2) The Beatles -- Revolver (original UK version, which was chopped nearly in half in the US)
3) The Rolling Stones -- Sticky Fingers (Let It Bleed is tempting, but Charlie Watts is better represented here)
4) The Clash (I'm partial to the American version of the green album, but I'll allow it to share this space with the "real" UK version, which was the original earth-shaker)
5) Sex Pistols -- Never Mind the Bollocks
6) Bob Dylan -- Highway 61 Revisited
7) Funkadelic -- America Eats Its Young
8) Elvis Costello -- My Aim is True
9) Gang of Four -- Entertainment
10) Marvin Gaye -- What's Going On
Simmering:
Placebo -- Without You I'm Nothing
The Jam -- Sound Affects
Augustus Pablo -- Original Rockers
The Specials
Television -- Marquee Moon
Son Volt -- Trace
The Smiths -- Hatful of Hollow (which I'd include even though it wasn't conceived as a "proper" album; it wasn't a greatest hits, though, either)
Use the Talkback feature below to share your thoughts or to remind of what a futile exercise this really is!
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
