10 Classic Albums - Same Artist - Who Dunnit?

This said, David Bowie is a personal hero of mine :-)

Some might add "Exile....." (personally I hate it). But that still doesn't make it 10.

Paul Weller the solo artist has made 5 albums, I think, and I wouldn't call any of them "classic" apart from possibly "Wild Wood". Style Council were never even remotely close to a classic album, and The Jam never really made more than three (their 78-80 trilogy). So not 10 classics, no.

Trespass
Nursery Cryme
Foxtrot
Selling England By The Pound
The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
A Trick Of The Tail
Wind And Wuthering
And Then There Were Three
Duke
Abacab

(I am not quite convinced myself whether "Abacab" belongs in there though)

Even for those you'd think it would be easy

NY

Tonight's the Night
On the Beach
Rust Never Sleeps
After The Gold Rush
Zuma
Ragged Glory
Live rust
Everyone Knows
Freedom (MANY would argue!)
Something From the 80s? / Harvest / Comes a Time ???

Dylan is a little easier, basically cuz there are so many to choose from.

As for Dylan, has he really made 10 classic albums? I am not too certain myself.

The problem here is that Some Girls and Tattoo You bloooow

=/

The Basement Tapes
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde
Love and Theft
Bringing it All Back Home
John Wesley Harding
Live 1966 (Electric half)
Blood on the Tracks
Another Side of Bob Dylan
Time Out of Mind

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited
Blonde on Blonde
Nashville Skyline
The Basement Tapes
Blood on the Tracks
Desire
Time out of Mind
Love and Theft
Live 1966 (The "Royal Albert Hall bootleg")

I could probably pick a different ten, too.

woot woot get it

11 if you count Slates, 12 if you count Light User ...

"Birth of the Cool"
"Round About Midnight"
"Bags' Groove"
"Cookin'"
"Walkin'"
"Porgy and Bess"
"Milestones"
"Kind of Blue"
"Sketches of Spain"
"Four and More"
"E.S.P."
"Miles Smiles"
"Nefertiti"
"Sorceror"
"Filles de Kilimanjaro"
"In A Silent Way"
"Bitches Brew"
"A Tribute to Jack Johnson"
"On the Corner"
"Agharta" and/or "Pangaa"

There are probably several classical composers who can lay claim to 20 classic album length works though....

Disintegration
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Pornography
Faith
The Top
Head On The Door
Seventeen Seconds
Boys Don't Cry
Wish
Japanese Whispers (technically a comp I know, but repackaged as an album)

Bloodflowers is pretty good too, but not sure if it can be called classic yet.

Head On The Door
Wild Mood Swings
Wish
Faith
Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
Japanese Whispers
Disintegration
The Top
Three Imaginary Boys/Boys Don't Cry
17 Seconds

Maggot Brain
Funkadelic
Free Your Mind and Your Ass Will Follow
America Eats its Young
Cosmic Slop
Let's Take it to the Stage
Standing on the Verge of Getting it On
Tales of Kidd Funkadelic
Hardcore Jollies
One Nation Under a Groove
Uncle Jam Wants You
The Electric Spanking of War Babies

hah - that's 12.

freak out!
absolutely free
lumpy gravy
we're only in it for the money
uncle meat
hot rats
burnt weeny sandwich
weasels ripped my flesh
200 motels
the grand wazoo

A Hard Day's Night
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper
Abbey Road

If that's the five you were pointing to, then OK. But most people would add the somewhat more patchy "The Beatles" as well.

That's 13, right there. Haven't even included, say, "Blue Train" or "Om." (Pls. note also that there are quite a few live albums here; with Coltrane, varying the repertoire was not the point.)

Surfer Girl
All summer Long
Today
Pet Sounds
Smiley Smile
Wild Honey
Friends
Sunflower
Surf's Up
Love You

A pretty darn good run of 10 in a row, but you'd probably want to substitute a couple of these to get the ten classic ones, he's made around 40.

-- Dirty Mind
-- 1999
-- Purple Rain
-- Sign 'o the Times
-- Small Club

the following albums which are, in my opinion, also classics...

-- Controversy
-- Around the World in a Day
-- Parade
-- The B-Sides (others seem to be using greatest hits collections, this one surely counts)
-- Crystal Ball (ditto)

WTF.

That's seventeen; I'm told that "The Great Concert Of Charles Mingus", "Reincarnation Of A Lovebird" and "Mingus At Carnegie Hall" are equally good and that would make it twenty - but I've haven't got those. Yet.

Symphony No. 40
Jupiter Symphony
Piano Concerto #21
Piano Concerto #23
Clarinet Concerto
Figaro's Wedding
Cosi Fan Tutte
Don Giovanni
The Magic Flute
Requiem

.... and....

10. Chips From The Chocolate Fireball!

Bowie - I could be persuaded 6 or 7 but NOT Aladdin Sane or TMTSTW. Not that they're terrible, but they're NOT indispensible.

XTC - 1 maybe (Go2)

My love for New Order knows no bounds but only Movement, Low-Life, Technique and Get Ready are *essential*.

Roxy - 5 maybe. (The first two and the last two definitely, and I will hear arguments for Country Life.)

The Stones 3 - Aftermath, Between the Buttons, Exile

Magazine have 3 (first 3). The Fall? - 3 also Dragnet, Witch Trials and Hex. The Beach Boys possibly 5 (Pet Sounds - even though *I* never want to hear it again, I think other people should, Surf's Up, Sunflower, Holland and Carl and The Passions)

You're All I Need (w/Tammi Terrell)
Moods of Marvin Gaye
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
M.P.G.
What's Goin' On
Let's Get It On
Marvin Gaye Live!
I Want You
Here, My Dear
Midnight Love

The Paul Simon Songbook
Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme
Bookends
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Paul Simon
There Goes Rhymin' Simon
Still Crazy After All These Years
Hearts and Bones
Graceland
The Rhythm of the Saints

The Man Who Sold The World
Hunky Dory
The Return of Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders From Mars
Alladin Sane
Diamond Dogs
Station to Station
Low
Heroes
Lodger
Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)

hahaha - geir OTM! but no go on bowie's dudly post-1980 output.

The Impressions 63
Keep On Pushing 64
This Is My Country 68
The Young Mods' Forgotten Story 69
Curtis 70
Roots 71
Superfly 72
Back To The World 73
Sweet Exorcist 74
There's No Place Like America Today 75

Adge Cutler & The Wurzels Family Album 1967
Cutler Of The West 1968
Carry On Cutler 1969
Don't Tell I, Tell 'Ee 1974
The Wurzels Are Scrumptious 1975
The Combine Harvester 1976
Golden Delicious 1977
Give Me England 1977
I'll Never Get A Scrumpy Here 1978
I Am A Cider Drinker 1979
Never Mind The Bullocks 2002
A Taste Of The West 2004

The Impressions 63
Keep On Pushing 64
This Is My Country 68
The Young Mods' Forgotten Story 69
Curtis 70
Roots 71
Superfly 72
Back To The World 73
Sweet Exorcist 74
There's No Place Like America Today 75

Technically these aren't by the same artist though. And I think it's a stretch to call Sweet Exorcist "classic".

* Spinal Tap Sings "(Listen to the) Flower People" and Other Favourites (1967)
* We Are All Flower People (1968)
* The Incredible Flight of Icarus P. Anybody (1969)
* Brainhammer (1970)
* Nerve Damage (1971)
* Blood to Let (1972)
* Intravenus de Milo (1974)
* The Sun Never Sweats (1975)
* Bent for the Rent (1976)
* Tap Dancing (1976)
* Rock 'n' Roll Creation (referred to as The Gospel According to Spinal Tap in the film) (1977)
* Shark Sandwich (1980)
* Smell the Glove (1982)

And I didn't even include the two live albums Silent but Deadly and Jap Habit; more evidence of the power of this classic band.

I don't know why I'm even bothering on this very Pollard-unfriendly board but here goes:

King Shit and the Golden Boys (A comp that feels like an album to me)
Propeller
Vampire on Titus
Bee Thousand
Alien Lanes
Under the Bushes, Under the Stars
Not in My Airforce
Waved Out
Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
Isolation Drills

Nothing I would consider classic since '01 though there are a bunch of great songs scattered among the million albums he's put out since GBV disbanded.

i'm like the biggest gbv/pollard fan but even i wouldn't call anything except the mid-90s ones classic albums

if mouse on mars had a couple more albums out though...

I take exception to somebody calling ILM Polack-Unfriendly

Who is Pollack?

Pres Keyes had it right to go with the big country artists... just left off Willie Nelson. Willie has put out a gazillion discs - that always helps to meet the quantity hurdle. Plus he absolutely killed during the 70s. He just about gets there with on that decade's output alone.

And Then I Wrote (1962)
Willie Nelson & Family (1971)
Yesterday's Wine (1971)
Shotgun Willie (1972)
Phases and Stages (1974)
Red Headed Stranger (1975)
The Troublemaker (1976)
To Lefty from Willie (1977)
Stardust (1978)
Honeysuckle Rose (1980)

And what the hell, I'll give Sir Mac a go:

McCartney
Ram
Red Rose Speedway (Yes, this is classic to me, obviously I'm not talking canonical classics here)
Band on the Run
Venus and Mars
Back to the Egg
McCartney II (I may be stretching it with this one as I have a hard time with those bluesy jams on the first side)
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

Ok, that's all I'm wiling to concede, couldn't quite make it to ten. And I really like Tug of War and Flowers in the Dirt and Flaming Pie and Driving Rain but even I'm having trouble calling them classics. Either way, an immensely more interesting and varied career than the other ex-Beatles combined, even if you make 1980 the cut-off point.

# 1967: Louvaçao
# 1968: Gilberto Gil (with Os Mutantes)
# 1969: Gilberto Gil (Cérebro Eletrônico)
# 1971: Gilberto Gil (Nêga)
# 1972: Expresso 2222
# 1974: Gilberto Gil Ao Vivo
# 1974: Gil & Jorge
# 1975: Refazenda
# 1977: Refavela
# 1981: Luar
# 1984: Raça Humana
# 1987: O Eterna Deus Mu Dança
# 1994: Acoustic
# 1994: Tropicalia 2 (w/Caetano Veloso)
# 1998: O Sol de Oslo
# 2000: Eu, Tu, Eles
# 2002: Kaya N'Gan Daya
# 2006: Gil Luminoso
# 2008: Banda Larga Cordel

More than 40 albums, these are the ones that are either universally acclaimed or that I think should be. GOTTA be at least 10 in there that most people could agree on.

here come the warm jets
taking tiger mountain (by strategy)
another green world
discreet music
before and after science
ambient 1: music for airports
my life in the bush of ghosts
ambient 4: on land
apollo: atmospheres and soundtracks
another day on earth

if you haven't come around yet to another day on earth, there are plenty of other albums of his a case can be made for

Probably no one.

Jackie Leven is a *very* acquired taste, Fruitless; at least half of those ten are sprawling messes. Maybe if you subbed in the first three Doll by Doll albums, where at least he had Jo Shaw for an editor.

I'll give Sinatra a try.

In The Wee Small Hours
Songs for Swingin' Lovers
A Swingin' Affair
Come Fly With Me
Only The Lonely
Where Are You
Sinatra-Basie
Come Dance With Me
September of My Years
Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim

Dear ρεμπετις ( I think I'm pronouncing it correctly), how right you are about Jackie Leven! I am especially flabbergasted and not very engaged by much of the latest three albums. But I hold firmly that 'Shining Brother Shining Sister' is one of his very best. As for Doll By Doll, the third album is by far my favorite, although the first two seem to get what little attention is now paid to that group.

xpost- Great to see Tap finally getting their due Cavematt, but we all know Shark Sandwich is no classic...

Clouds
Ladies of the Canyon
Blue
For the Roses
Court and Spark
Miles of Aisles
The Hissing of Summer Lawns
Heijira
Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
Mingus

Shit sandwich.

Mr. Hood
Bl_ck B_st_rds
Operation: Doomsday!
Take Me To Your Leader
Vaudeville Villain
MMM... Food
Madvillainy
The Mouse And The Mask (or it could have been a classic album. wonder if anyone ever made a version that cut the cartoon crap out?)
Born Like This

If only the second Viktor Vaughn record wasn't butters, it'd be 10.

Bands that I thought dunnit, but they didn't dunnit:

Kinks
Fleetwood Mac

how the fuck could you think fleetwood mac had done this

f u louis

actually, yeah, but they're not that far off

Yeah I was thinking Iron Maiden for sure, but, nope.

xpost. Fleetwood Mac have a rock-solid five, and I don't even like the blues all that much. Anyone who does would probably give them more. Count live albums and it gets really close.

The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
A Saucerful of Secrets
More (Soundtrack)
Ummagumma
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
Obscured by Clouds
The Dark Side of the Moon
Wish You Were Here
Animals

^Kinda silly to rate More or Atom Heart over the Wall!

Atom Heart Mother is my second favorite Floyd record! And More has "Cymbaline" & "The Nile Song."

I think I'm just so tired of The Wall that I can't listen to it anymore.

'In the Wee Small Hours'
'Songs for Swingin' Sellers' er . . . 'Lovers'
'A Swingin' Affair!'
'Only the Lonely'
'Come Fly With Me'
'Where Are You?'
'No One Cares'
'Sinatra & Strings'
'September of My Years'
'Francis Albert Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim'

cosign - it probably helped that he had an amzing, rotating "team" behind him (nelson riddle, count basie, and the best songwriters in the industry all vying to get one of their songs on a bestseller of his)

Prince
Dirty Mind
Controversy
1999
Purple Rain
Sign 'O' the Times
Lovesexy
Graffiti Bridge
Love Symbol
Emancipation

sorry, but lovesexy ad 2-3 great songs and a bunch of rather annoying filler, grafitti bridge was the same but with a double frikkin album's worth of filler etc

that's the thing about this 10 classic albums thing - it's only a handful of the greats who can really even come up with 5 albums with start-to-finish great songs (the starting point of my personal definition of a classic album anyway), heck even the beatles first 5 albums, though they contained many many great songs, were at least half filler...

though i guess you could still call them classics. still, graffiti bridge?

Samba Esquema Novo
O Bidú: Silêncio no Brooklin
Jorge Ben
Forca Bruta
Negro e lindo
Ben
Ogum Xangô (with Gilberto Gil)
A tabua da esmeralda
Solta o Pavao
Africa Brasil

kiddies, once upon a time Geir said that the Beatles hadn't made 10 classic albums....

Mr. Hood
Bl_ck B_st_rds
Operation: Doomsday!
Take Me To Your Leader
Vaudeville Villain
MMM... Food
Madvillainy
The Mouse And The Mask (or it could have been a classic album. wonder if anyone ever made a version that cut the cartoon crap out?)
Born Like This

If only the second Viktor Vaughn record wasn't butters, it'd be 10.

I think counting both solo and group albums together doesn't make much sense. It's like saying The Beatles had 10 classic albums if you count in the best solo albums made by individual members.

foreign keys
blue corpse
you walk alone
lost cause
put my dream on this planet
worthless recluse
on the way
twelfth apostle
telegraph melts
interstellar discussion

― ian, Sunday, 6 September 2009 01:11 (Yesterday)

I'd argue about what should be in it - I'd make room for Ready For The House for starters, probably replacing Lost Cause? I Threw You Away instead of Interstellar Discussion? - but he was the first artist I thought of.

Duke Ellington definitely did this.

Mingus at the Bohemia
Pithecanthropus Erectus
The Clown
Tijuana Moods
Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus
Blues & Roots
Mingus Ah Um
Mingus Dynasty
Pre-Bird
Mingus at Antibes
Oh Yeah
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
The Great Concert of Charles Mingus
Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus
Let My Children Hear Music
Changes One
Changes Two

So who's that lot by then?

Shit, actually I think the Kinks might be close:

Kink Kontroversy
Face to Face
Something Else
Village Green
Great Lost Kinks Album (Finally heard this and it's gorgeous, no one could touch R. Davies around 66-68)
Arthur
Lola Vs. Powerman
Muswell Hillbillies

Okay, that's all I got but Kinda Kinks would definitely count if you include the bonus tracks and I'm sure someone on this board would rep for something post-Muswell.

I have the Picture Book boxset and sometimes I think the first two-thirds of it is the best music ever. So many incredible singles, b-sides, album tracks, etc. I mean This is Where I Belong, I'm Not Like Everybody Else, Big Black Smoke are b-sides for chrissakes!

Daddy, Is Santa Really Six Foot Four?
Do You Know The Difference Between Big Wood And Brush
I'm Just The Other Woman
The Human Breakdown Of Absurdity
I Died Today
The Makers Of Smooth Music
The Beat Of The Traps
The Now Sounds Of Today
Music Of America
Songs For The Christmas Season

Eisbär already did this one, but here's my tweaked version.

Freak Out!
Lumpy Gravy
We're Only In It for the Money
Uncle Meat
Ahead of Their Time
Hot Rats
Burnt Weeny Sandwich
Weasels Ripped My Flesh
Grand Wazoo
Roxy & Elsewhere
YCDTOSA v.2 (Helsinki concert)
Läther
Shut Up n Play Yer Guitar
Yellow Shark

Yeah but them KMD albums are like 80% Zev Luv X anyway, so I was treating it like Madvillainy. Plus, if collaborations with different people don't count then Prince or Coltrane having different people in their band nullifies them. And KMD only split up because Subroc died, if he kept the name (ala BDP) then it wouldn't be a thing.

Can't Buy A Thrill
Countdown to Ecstasy
Pretzel Logic
Katy Lied
The Royal Scam
Aja
Gaucho
Two Against Nature
Everything Must Go

... one more and we're there

Almost close:

Caetano Veloso (1968)
Caetano Veloso (1969)
Caetano Veloso (1971)
Transa (1972)
Joia (1975)
Muito (1978)
Cinema Transcendental (1979)
Estrangeiro (1989)
Livro (1997)
Zii e Zie (2009)

Personally I think only his 3 self titled albums and Transa are truly essential but the rest are definitely worth owning. He also did some heavy contribution on Gal Costa's excellent debut so we might count that one as well.

Go ahead, laugh, but --

Spirit They're Gone Spirit They've Vanished
Danse Manatee
Campfire Songs
Here Comes the Indian
Sung Tongs
Young Prayer
Feels
Person Pitch
Strawberry Jam
Merriweather Post Pavilion

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― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor)

Too soon I'd say. Two of them are solo albums and every album done before 'here comes the indian' is frankly midways.