Best 1979 P&J Album (POLL Closes 12 May)

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Vol. 7.

New Wave, Pt. 2/Death of Disco(?).

Poll Results

Option	Votes
The Clash: The Clash (Epic)	8
Fleetwood Mac: Tusk (Warner Bros.)	4
Neil Young: Rust Never Sleeps (Reprise)	4
Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (Epic)	4
The Slits: Cut (Antilles)	2
Donna Summer: Bad Girls (Casablanca)	2
Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Chrysalis)	2
Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady (I.R.S.)	2
Elvis Costello: Armed Forces (Columbia)	2
Chic: Risque (Atlantic)	2
Philip Glass/Robert Wilson: Einstein on the Beach (Tomato)	2
Art Ensemble of Chicago: Nice Guys (ECM)	1
Joe Jackson: Look Sharp! (A&M)	1
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English (Island)	1
Lene Lovich: Stateless (Stiff/Epic)	1
Talking Heads: Fear of Music (Sire)	1
The Jam: All Mod Cons (Polydor)	1
Stevie Wonder: Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (Tamla)	1
The B-52s: The B-52s (Warner Bros.)	1
Bob Marley & the Wailers: Survival (Island)	0
Roxy Music: Manifesto (Atlantic)	0
Bob Dylan: Slow Train Coming (Columbia)	0
David Bowie: Lodger (RCA Victor)	0
The Shoes: Present Tense (Elektra)	0
The Police: Regatta de Blanc (A&M)	0
Linton Kwesi Johnson: Forces of Victory (Mango)	0
David Johansen: In Style (Blue Sky)	0
Van Morrison: Into the Music (Warner Bros.)	0
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedoes (Backstreet/MCA)	0
The Roches: The Roches (Warner Bros.)	0
Dave Edmunds: Repeat When Necessary (Swan Song)	0
Nick Lowe: Labour of Lust (Columbia)	0
Tom Verlaine: Tom Verlaine (Elektra)	0
Iggy Pop: New Values (Arista)	0
Blondie: Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis)	0
Rickie Lee Jones: Rickie Lee Jones (Warner Bros.)	0
Graham Parker: Squeezing Out Sparks (Arista)	0
Neil Young with Crazy Horse: Live Rust (Reprise)	0
Ry Cooder: Bop 'Til You Drop (Warner Bros.)	0
The Kinks: Low Budget (Arista)	0

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:24 (eighteen years ago)

http://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/pnj/pj79.php

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:25 (eighteen years ago)

I suppose all the classic UK 1979 stuff will surface in the 1980 J&P - seems to be the way.

Roches, Marianne, Jacko, Chic, Slits, AECO and Glass all vie for my pick out of that lot but I'll go for Nice Guys because it reminds me of Italy in the summer of '79, though on a jazz level Lenox Avenue Breakdown and Homage To Charles Parker should have been there.

And if we have Einstein, where is Music For 18 Musicians record?

Secret Life Of Plants though!!

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:29 (eighteen years ago)

Oh, and Tusk of course.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:30 (eighteen years ago)

yeah, definitely Tusk...the only thing that comes close to it for me is Cut.

― kevin mulligan, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:31 (eighteen years ago)

BTW, it's not the original British edition of The Clash that is listed above. But rather the version available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Clash/dp/B00004BZ05/ref=sr_1_12/103-7920397-0309469?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1178789177&sr=1-12

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 09:33 (eighteen years ago)

where is Music For 18 Musicians

Tied for #38 in 1978 (according to Xgau's essay that year.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:20 (eighteen years ago)

London Calling, Metal Box (second ed.) and Entertainment all made the 1980 poll.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:22 (eighteen years ago)

"Good Times" in the singles, Risque in the albums. Very easy!

― Groke, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:25 (eighteen years ago)

I went with the Clash (I've always preferred the US version over the UK one), over Donna and Ubu and Jacko, not necessarily in that order. But it's close, and I love tons of others on the list too.

Some fun individual lists, while they last:

DAVID JACKSON: Millie Jackson: Live and Uncensored (Polydor) 15; Talking Heads: Fear of Music (Sire) 10; Art Ensemble of Chicago: Nice Guys (ECM); Steppin' With the World Saxophone Quartet (Black Saint import); Van Morrison: Into the Music (Polydor) 10; Miles Davis: Circle in the Round (Columbia) 10; Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Live Rust (Warner Bros.) 10; Robin Williamson and His Merry Band: A Giant at the Kindling (Flying Fish) 9; James Blood: Tales of Captain Black (Artists House) 8; Bread and Roses (Fantasy) 8.

GREIL MARCUS: Van Morrison: Into the Music (Polydor) 20; Neil Young & Crazy Horse: Rust Never Sleeps (Reprise) 15; Fleetwood Mac: Tusk (Warner Bros.) 15; Peter Green: In the Skies (Sail) 15; Tonio K: Life in the Foodchain (Full Moon/Epic) 10; Graham Parker & the Rumour: Squeezing Out Sparks (Arista) 5; David Johansen: In Style (Blue Sky) 5; Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Chrysalis) 5; Randy Newman: Born Again (Warner Bros.) 5; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Damn the Torpedoes (Backstreet/MCA) 5.

REGGIE MATTHEWS: Brenda Russell (Horizon) 15; Heath Brothers: In Motion (Columbia) 13; Ron Carter: Parade (Milestone) 12; McCoy Tyner: Together (Milestone) 11; Kinks: Low Budget (Arista) 11; Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (Epic) 10; Donna Summer: Bad Girls (Casablanca) 10; Graham Parker & the Rumour: Squeezing Out Sparks (Arista) 7; Ashford & Simpson: Stay Free (Warner Bros.) 6; Jeff Lorber: Water Sign (Arista) 5.

MARIE MOORE: Stevie Wonder's Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants (Tamla) 10; Chic: Risque (Atlantic) 10; Ashford & Simpson: Stay Free (Warner Bros.) 10; The Crusaders: Street Life (MCA) 10; Cameo: Secret Omen (Chocolate City) 10; George Benson: Live Inside Your Love (Warner Bros.) 10; Dionne Warwick: Dionne (Arista) 10; Stephanie Mills: What Cha Gonna Do with my Lovin? (20th Century Fox) 10; Michael Jackson: Off the Wall (Epic) 10; Commodores: Midnight Magic (Motown) 10.

JON PARELES: Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Chrysalis) 15; Talking Heads: Fear of Music (Sire) 15; James White and the Blacks: Off White (ZE); Philip Glass/Robert Wilson: Einstein on the Beach (Tomato) 15; Art Bears: Winter Songs (Ralph) 15; David Bowie: Lodger (RCA Victor) 5; XTC: Drums and Wires (Virgin) 5; Police: Regatta de Blanc (A&M) 5; Wire: 154 (Warner Bros.) 5; Tom Verlaine (Elektra) 5.

DOUG SIMMONS: Iggy Pop: New Values (Arista) 25; The Clash (Epic) 15; Buzzcocks: Singles Going Steady (I.R.S.) 10; Pere Ubu: Dub Housing (Chrysalis) 10; Linton Kwesi Johnson: Forces of Victory (Mango) 10; Nick Lowe: Labour of Lust (Columbia) 5; Dave Edmunds: Repeat When Necessary (Swan Song) 5; Inmates: First Offence (Polydor) 5; Heartbreakers: Live at Max's Kansas City (Max's Kansas City) 5; The Boston Bootleg (Varulven) 5.

TOM SMUCKER: Gino Soccio: Outline (RFC) 20; Chic: Risque (Atlantic) 20; Tom Robinson Band: TRB2 (Harvest) 14; Merle Haggard: Serving 190 Proof (MCA) 11; Donna Summer: Bad Girls (Casablanca) 8; Tammy Wynette: Just Tammy (Epic) 6; Sylvester: Stars (Fantasy) 6; Shoes: Present Tense (Elektra) 5; Blondie: Eat to the Beat (Chrysalis) 5; Arlo Guthrie: Outlasting the Blues (Warner Bros.) 5.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:26 (eighteen years ago)

Marie Moore = best taste ever.

― Dimension 5ive, Thursday, 10 May 2007 11:32 (eighteen years ago)

Secret Life Of Plants...Oh, and Tusk

So these are both sort of the same album, I just realized! (Never had much use for either of them myself, but I have nothing against those who do.)

― xhuxk, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:03 (eighteen years ago)

The Clash over {i]Rust[/i], Ubu, Tusk and Jacko for me.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 12:58 (eighteen years ago)

I guess it's between the Clash, Buzzcocks, Joe Jackson, Bowie's Lodger, and Slow Train Coming for me.

If all of Slow Train was as good as the first side, that would probably win. Guess I'll probably go with the Clash.

― o. nate, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:14 (eighteen years ago)

Rust Never Sleeps, easy.

Fear of Music, a distant second. Great list, which is a testmant to how great Rust is ... though I'll acknowledge that The Clash probably stands as the most influential title.

― Jiminy Krokus, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:43 (eighteen years ago)

Griel's list, btw, looks like something he'd submit now. :-)

― Jiminy Krokus, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:44 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, maybe. But where's Dylan on his list?

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:55 (eighteen years ago)

He hates Dylan until World Gone Wrong.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 10 May 2007 15:59 (eighteen years ago)

True enough. No disco Dylan for uncle Greil, I guess.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

Good point about the lack of Bob on Griel's list, but c'mon, we are talking about Slow Train Coming. Not that great.

― Jiminy Krokus, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:07 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but you never know with Marcus. He apparently can't stand Blood on the Tracks, after all.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:11 (eighteen years ago)

even without late-seventies Dylan, that's gotta be Marcus's most boring list of the decade (and it's surprisingly un-punk-like) (and not at all surprisingly un-disco like). Van Morrison, Graham Parker, Randy Newman, Tom Petty, David Johansen, Peter Green....yawn. Even Fleetwood Mac and Neil Young kinda suffer from such stuffy company. Am mildly curious about the Tonio K, however.

Blood on the Tracks is in the Stranded discography.

― sw00ds, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:12 (eighteen years ago)

Yeah, but if I remember correctly, he's had some rather unkind words for it in the past few years. Can't remeber just where, though.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:15 (eighteen years ago)

i voted buzzcocks. could've gone with the clash, michael jackson, chic, nick lowe, maybe a couple others. much prefer the singles list but that's probably a redundant theme for me at this point so i'll stop.

― sw00ds, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:18 (eighteen years ago)

I loved so many of those in '79. B-52's edging out Slits for me.

― Dan Peterson, Thursday, 10 May 2007 16:21 (eighteen years ago)

that's gotta be Marcus's most boring list of the decade

I like that Tonio K and Peter Green are on there! Especially Tonio K, which is a really cool album.

― xhuxk, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:06 (eighteen years ago)

Strange to see Singles Going Steady up there - I think that's the first/only compilation on any of these P&J polls. But since it was also their first/only U.S. releass at the time, I have no problem with rationalizing and considering it a "real" album. Especially since it's certainly MY pick...

...or rather it would've been my pick, had I not arbitrarily decided that comps are ineligible. Bad Girls comes close, but Side Three is kind of a drag. Dub Housing it is. (With excellent albums by Ubu, Devo, Bizarros and Tin Huey, 1979 was a great year for music in Ohio; or at least until The Who played Cincinnnati.)

― Myonga Vön Bontee, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:14 (eighteen years ago)

I like that Tonio K and Peter Green are on there!

Well, I said I was curious about the former...and I guess Green's appearance is kind of interesting (I can't even say, considering the extent of my Peter Green knowledge is entirely whatever Marcus wrote about him in Stranded). I guess in some ways you could flip this around and praise Marcus's list as wild and quirky and against-the-grain. I was probably expecting there to be more post-punk, but I guess that would've been entirely predictable. (Minus Pere Ubu and Tonio K, it kinda looks like a Dave MArsh list.)

― sw00ds, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:22 (eighteen years ago)

I was probably expecting there to be more post-punk

Well, he did put albums by the Clash, Gang of Four and PIL on his 1980 list.

― JN$OT, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:39 (eighteen years ago)

True - plus he covered a lot of that stuff on his singles ballot. Anyway, just because Van Morrison and Graham PArker and Tom Petty mostly just bore the shit out of me doesn't mean they bore the shit out of others, obviously.

Like Myonga, I almost considered the Buzzcocks ineligible, but it definitely reached me as an album at the time, and I've never heard another Buzzcocks record (aside from the [i]Spiral Scratch[/] ep) half as good...and hey, it was an option!

― sw00ds, Thursday, 10 May 2007 17:44 (eighteen years ago)

No Squeeze, which was the best album of 1979. Those US based polls tend to ignore the best albums. NME is a lot better in this case (NME before the mid 80s wasn't as pathetically "next big thing" and ageist as today either)

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:49 (eighteen years ago)

But as the best 1979 album wasn't in the poll, I voted for the best 1978 album ("All Mod Cons") instead.

― Geir Hongro, Thursday, 10 May 2007 18:50 (eighteen years ago)

Fuck it, Joe Jackson needs some love— that's a great album.

― I eat cannibals, Thursday, 10 May 2007 19:59 (eighteen years ago)

This was maybe the toughest call of any of the P&Js so far. I went with Off the Wall, partly for sentimental reasons but largely for musical ones. It was SO CLOSE between that and Fear of Music and Risque. On a good day those are three of my Top 10 albums, y'know?

― Matos W.K., Thursday, 10 May 2007 21:29 (eighteen years ago)

I hear you Matos ... Fear of Music and Rust Never Sleeps are in my personal top 10.

― Jiminy Krokus, Friday, 11 May 2007 00:44 (eighteen years ago)

omg lol my vote

― Dimension 5ive, Friday, 11 May 2007 01:38 (eighteen years ago)

memories of the Browns lounging on summer nights listening to "Bad Girls" on the gigantic record player made that vote pretty easy

― Morley Timmons, Friday, 11 May 2007 08:09 (eighteen years ago)

Rust Never Sleeps gets my vote.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Friday, 11 May 2007 15:49 (eighteen years ago)

And the votes are in.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 12 May 2007 00:11 (eighteen years ago)

Who else voted Glass?

― Sundar, Saturday, 12 May 2007 00:59 (eighteen years ago)

I probably would have if I'd noticed it. But I didn't so I voted Neil.

― Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy, Saturday, 12 May 2007 01:00 (eighteen years ago)

That would have been my #2.

― Sundar, Saturday, 12 May 2007 01:09 (eighteen years ago)

srsly all these polls are blurring into one. enuff already

― braveclub, Saturday, 12 May 2007 01:52 (eighteen years ago)

Anyone like the third Peter Gabriel album? I hadn't listened to it in 15 years but was just thinking about picking up the reissue.

― Fastnbulbous, Sunday, 13 May 2007 03:03 (eighteen years ago)

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