I am the greatest!

"Songs in the Key of Life"? "Astral Weeks" Conformist's choices.

Still: "Nashville Skyline"...

This is how seriously I took the one chance I ever had to contribute to a "100 Best Singles": I nominated a Pulsallama B-side I can't now remember. I forget exactly why, also: it was a "protest" of some kind.

One area that's weak is 80's pop. Throw in a couple of The Associates,ABC and The Human League, and it's damn near perfect.

I like the fact that there are some things which wouldn't immediately spring to mind - like the Rough Trade 25-years box.

Is it the Fopp records on the Byers Road. I spent a shedload of cash in there two or three years ago when I went to a wedding in Glasgow.

Count-up. About a third of them I've not heard, should I hear them I wonder? Well:

Records on this list which I like: 26. Records on this list I think are boring and overrated: 30

So the list loses.

Hey ! I like 49 of them, and only dislike 7, and the list has lots of unpredictable stuff to boot (ESG/The Monkees/The Pharcyde/etc). It passes the test with flying colours.

Any 100 that includes "Africa Centre Of The World - Roy Ayers", well, basically I don't care WHAT the other 99 are, this is so counter-canonic nutty-brilliant. But then I've never heard it.

(Obviously if they were ALL twilight-zone jazzfunk this exclamation wouldn't apply.)

Re "Van the Man" and his best LP (ps: Van the Man: use other words PLEASE): I'm not a fan anyway, but _Astral Weeks_ is just too "Oh, stone rock classic snore snore"... There's no energy to the choice: it feels made on automatic. Even if it's yr favourite, say yr next favourite (unless that's Moondance, obviously).

I suppose that the only lists by which I would now set any store are lists made by individuals whose relation to music I find interesting, or like, or respect. That includes me, of course. There is a sense in which my own Best Ever List is by far the most interesting to me (and by the same token, uninteresting to everyone else). There is also a sense in which my own BEL is boring even to me, cos it won't tell me anything I haven't told myself before.

So maybe the lists I am most interested in now are idiosyncratic, personal, contingent lists (because 'taste' seems to me to be somewhat idiosyncratic, contingent etc anyway) made by people who interest me. Steady Mike's list would interest me, for instance. But he doesn't have a list - he's too interesting for that.

Firstly, this list is, at best, 100 albums some people thought were interesting as of April 2001. To say they're the 'essential albums of all time' is just stupid, and whether you take this on face value or not it devalues what the list could achieve by being a simple set of important albums people should at least consider.

Secondly, for me, the quality of any music is entirely based on the context I'm listening to it in; Astral Weeks is fine during a late summer evening but I'm not going out dancing to it or putting it on when I'm on the way to work. To treat these albums as objects with the same qualities and purposes in order to create such a list devalues everything that much of this music can mean to people.

#1 = 'Ungawa Pt.II (Way Out Guiana)' by Pulsallama

#2 = Astral Weeks by Van the Man

But: "people's tastes get interesting when they have to list a hundred albums" — THIS is an interesting claim if true.

anyway, while rules are being formed, i guess we'll keep it within this thread.

my idea: each poster is given 100 points and s/he may apply those points how s/he decides to as many albums as s/he wants, so long as s/he doesn't give any album more than ten points, guaranteeing a minimum of ten albums per individual. the points are summed up and that's how the list is ordered.

or...

everyone must name twenty albums, same 100 point system, and s/he may apply those points as s/he sees fit, as long as they don't give any album more than 30 points.

and i'm very open to ideas.

I think the problem with these lists isn't so much in the records themselves, it's the very idea that a list can claim any degree of authority.

The Fopp list seems a good compromise between the dully canonical and the wilfully esoteric.

how about 40 albums, then, with 200 points to work with, no more than 40 points for any given album.

My suggestion - or the only one of many I made that is semi-likely to be taken - is that it becomes a best RECORDS of all time, and that can mean anything from a flexi to a box set - compilations, albums, singles, best-ofs, whatever you want. That seems much more in the spirit of ILM than saying 'albums only'.

Over to you, Fred. Thread away.

x0x0

serious points for choosing _evol_ though.

However the list did include classica like Who's Next, Catch a Fire Pet Sounds and Never mind the Bollocks.

FOPP seem to get things wrong quite a lot. They started off advertising their low prices and then put them all up higher than other sellers. Most albums can be found cheaper at MusicZone.

I haven't seen this post before, I thought it was a good list. Sure, like everyone, if it was my list some would be thrown out and quite a few new editions put in, but generally thumbs up.

Aswad - Live And Direct Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity Carla Bley - Escalator Over The Hill Blowfly - For President Arthur Blythe - Lenox Avenue Breakdown Boogie Down Productions - Criminal Minded Anthony Braxton - Montreux/Berlin Concerts Peter Brotzmann - Machine Gun Marion Brown - Sweet Earth Flying Tim Buckley - Starsailor Chic - C'est Chic Ornette Coleman - In All Languages John Coltrane - Africa/Brass Holger Czukay - Movies Betty Davis - I'm A Good Woman Miles Davis - Get Up With It Eric Dolphy - Out To Lunch Double Exposure - Ten Per Cent Bill Evans/George Russell - Living Time Gil Evans - There Comes A Time Gil Evans/Cecil Taylor/John Carisi - Into The Hot Faust - Faust IV Robert Fripp - Exposure Keith Hudson - Pick A Dub Ronald Shannon Jackson/Decoding Society - Decode Yourself Salif Keita - Soro Steve Lacy - Trickles Mantronix - Music Madness Curtis Mayfield - There's No Place Like America Today Charles Mingus - Let My Children Hear Music Pere Ubu - Terminal Tower (compilation: side one only) George Russell - Outer Thoughts Pharaoh Sanders - Black Unity Schoolly-D - Schoolly-D (1st album) Scientist - Wins The World Cup Sly & the Family Stone - Stand! Sonic Youth - Sister Stetsasonic - On Fire Mark Stewart - As The Veneer Of Democracy Starts To Fade Swans - Children Of God Tashan - Chasin' A Dream Larry Young - Lawrence Of Newark John Zorn - Spillane

No agenda; just the way things were.