Essentials

The Rolling Stones - Exile on Main St.
Picking the best Rolling Stones recording is a hard thing to do. Most people would choose one of the many greatest hits compilations. These compilations, however, don't fully showcase what makes the Stones one of the best rock bands of all time. To truly appreciate Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and the rest of the boys, one should listen closely to Exile on Main Street. The disc finds the Stones doing what they do best—combining blues, rock, country, and soul into a timeless piece of work.

It is arguable whether Black Sabbath invented heavy metal or if it was born in the blues-rock of bands like Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. However, it is undoubtedly true that with the release of their second album Ozzy, Iommi and co. refined the genre into the dark, aggressive, power-chord dominated counter-culture that we know and love today. Inspiring countless metal acts from the brutal Black Label Society to the mighty Metallica, Paranoid is quite simply one of the most important and influential albums of modern music.

This is the album that ripped Brian Wilson's brain into disrepair, the first Beatles album to be written for the studio, their first album that is a conscious experiment, while still retaining solid rock 'n roll roots.
But most of all, the album is about the songs; "Taxman", with Harrison's dry delivery, McCartney's booming bass and unorthodox-but-nevertheless-shredding solo, Starr's energetic drum fills, and Lennon's mocking backup vocals; "Eleanor Rigby", with its stark and cold string arrangement and McCartney's incisive commentary on loneliness and depression

Whenever jazz music crosses over to mainstream pop, purists will undoubtedly raise red flags and lay down the playing to the masses card. This was never truer than in 1973, when bebop and avant-garde standout Herbie Hancock released his jazz-fusion debut The Headhunters. The funky four-song LP not only gained mainstream appeal, but was a genuine pop record, becoming the first jazz album to go platinum. Hancock’s jazz sensibilities are present in long formats and extended solos, but the heart of the songs lies in simple melodies and the funk,soul, and R&B rhythms. “Chameleon,” the most memorable song on the disc, centers on a six note synthesizer groove, ornamented by drums, light keyboard splashes, and trumpet. Headhunters’ genre-bending tracks influenced legions of future musicians from jazz, funk, and hip hop, and still sounds as vital today as anything Herbie’s impersonators or even he himself has put out since. So I have only one thing to say to the jazz purists who decry this album as a cheap trick: who cares?

In 1967, the year of the summer of love, The Doors burst onto the scene with their self-titled debut album. Starting with the dynamic "Break on Through (To the Other Side)" and finishing with the twelve minute epic "The End", The Doors was one of the first albums designed as a complete work as opposed to a collection of songs. Jim Morrison, the self proclaimed "Lizard King", switches almost schizophrenically from whisky-fueled bluesman to sensitive poet/shaman. His charismatic presence coupled with an eclectic blend of blues, rock and jazz makes for one of the sixties most iconic albums. Considering Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd also debuted this year, this is quite an achievement.

Conversation overhead at a bar circa 2004:
Friend One: “What’s this song called?”
Friend Two: “Rock the Casbah.”
One: “Who sings it?”
Two: “The Clash.”
One: “Oh wow! This must be a great record.”

You've heard the essentials, now it's time to give those overlooked albums a chance.

I originally wanted to write about Astral Weeks (1968), the undoubted “essential” Van record, but this has been done by a far more effective writer than I. Instead, I turn to an overlooked album, Veedon Fleece (1974).

Say what one will about Michael Jackson now, but there was a time when he was the biggest pop star on the planet. Jackson’s 1979 solo breakthrough Off The Wall established himself as a superstar, but nothing prepared him for 82’s Thriller, an album that stayed at the top of the Billboard charts for 37 weeks and had 7 of its 9 tracks become hit singles. The disc mixed ballad rock, funk, R&B, and soul so that there was something for everyone, from the dance hall mainstay “Billie Jean” to the beautifully soft “Human Nature” and the harder pop of “Beat It”, featuring an uncredited solo from Eddie Van Halen.

If Nirvana’s Nevermind was the Hiroshima of the 90s popular music scene, then Green Day’s Dookie was Nagasaki.(please forgive the tasteless analogy) Nirvana may have killed the juggernaut that was hair metal and made flannel all the rage, but Green Day pulled off a nearly paramount act in the resurrection of pop-punk, setting off a wave of punk revivalist in various genres that has continued to this day. The Berkeley California trio had released two albums before 1994’s Dookie, and while they did not change their sound extensively on their major label debut, they did tighten their playing and sharpen their pop sensibilities.

They turned it up, they brought the noise, and no one believed the hype. From its release in 1987 to its near 20th anniversary in 2006, Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back rips, bounces, and roars like a church sermon gone military rally. From their pioneering use of samples to a live show featuring the S1Ws (guys dressed up as soldiers doing military formations in rhythm), they proved that hip-hop could be as relevent and rebellious as punk was in 1977. While other rap groups like NWA shocked the world with explicit lyrics, Public enemy used intelligence and strong musical composition to show the state of affairs of their community.