Top 5 Greatest Hits Albums

I do believe that it's time for me to start contributing to the record store blog again. I've been racking my brain about something I could do on a weekly (ish) basis. In tribute to one of my favorite movies I've decided to go with a "Top 5....." theme. I like looking at people's lists of their favorite records, songs, movies, books, etc, but what I really like is seeing their justification for why their choices made the top of their list. You can't just rattle off your 5 favorite movies without some reason why they're your favorite movies. Defend your choices.

I have a few ideas to get me started over the next few weeks (and some of them will take me a few weeks of hard thought just to narrow down to 5 choices), but feel free to leave a suggestion should you think of a list you'd like to start a fight with me about.

In the mean time, here is list number 1:


My Top 5 Greatest Hits Records.

(Before I get on with it, I'd just like to mention a few things that I took into consideration when compiling this list. I think the major purpose of a Greatest Hits album (besides being a way to make money off an artist without actually having to spend the money for them to make a new record, or to continue making money off of a dead/retired artist) is to usher in some new fans. Lets face facts here, an artist's hardcore fans already have all of their other records and will only be purchasing a Greatest Hits if it includes new songs or songs that were only available on a single or a soundtrack (à la "Live & Let Die" by Paul McCartney). So, you have to include all the good stuff to get the new and casual fans to start thinking about exploring the rest of your catalog. In other words, is this a good jumping-on point for someone that isn't very familiar with your work? Another consideration was whether or not this Greatest Hits works as a stand-alone record. Did you just throw all of your singles onto a record, or did you actually put some thought into it? I mean, you can't just take "Money" by Pink Floyd and toss it onto a Pink Floyd compilation without considering what you're putting before and after it. If you're taking it out of context by removing it from Dark Side Of The Moon, you better be considering how you're presenting it -- otherwise it'll feel clunky and out of place. A greatest hits should feel like a regular album. If you've never heard of the artist or didn't know this was a Greatest Hits then it should just feel like an album full of really great songs.) 

Now that I've gotten the nerdy ramblings out of my system, lets get on with it.

 5. Elton John Greatest Hits (1974)
As an introduction to Sir Elton John, this album serves its purpose almost perfectly. It includes nearly all of the songs from his early records that you'd expect to see. The only glaring omission I can think of is "Tiny Dancer" (this wouldn't be included on an Elton John Greatest Hits until 2003's Greatest Hits: 1970-2003). Putting that aside, you don't get much better than this if you've never listened to Elton John. The record runs a full gamut of emotions from the balladry of "Your Song" and "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me" to the upbeat rocking of "Honky Cat" and "Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting". Let's not forget the centerpieces of "Rocket Man" and "Bennie & The Jets", two of Sir Elton's biggest and most enduring hits. It's a great record. It's a fast listen as well--the album only clocks in at 45ish minutes, and it doesn't feel overcrowded. There are a lot of hits albums that play like the artist waited too long to do a hits record and has to squeeze in too much. This one covers nearly all bases while giving you a solid foundation should you want to explore more from Sir Elton. I would say that if you own only one Elton John record it should be this (although, I might chastise you for not going the extra mile and getting Goodbye Yellow Brick Road).

4. Neil Young Greatest Hits (2004)
This is not the first compilation album that Neil Young has ever done. It is however, the most complete. It's 16 tracks spanning 23 years of Young's solo career. This one feels a little bit herky-jerky and I can honestly say it's probably because it's in chronological order. I can understand the idea behind putting the album in that running order, but I feel like it makes the album a little harder to listen to as an "album". On the plus side, this really does have all one needs to begin your journey into the, quite epic, Neil Young catalog. I bought this album because I heard "Ohio" and "The Needle And The Damage Done" and thought I'd very much like to know more about this guy. In my quest, I discovered that I loved every single song on this record. That's the point of a greatest hits, right? You know a few songs, you buy a greatest hits, you like even more songs, you buy other records by them, you buy tickets to a show, you become a fan. That's how it played out for me. Other than conveniently packaging Young's hits, this doesn't really offer anything to the fans that might already own most of his albums, but it's a good place to start.

3. The Rolling Stones Hot Rocks 1964-1971 (1971)
The Rolling Stones have released almost 30 compilation albums over the course of the 50 years that they have been making records. As a matter of fact, this isn't even the first hits compilation that the Stones put out. What makes this such a great hits album is that it's a Stones hits album. The greatest hits of the Rolling Stones rank among the greatest hits in all of rock 'n roll. "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "You Can't Always Get What You Want", "Sympathy For The Devil", "Gimme Shelter", and "Midnight Rambler"!!! Come on. Even if you don't like the Stones as a whole, you can't deny that they are the very definition of rock 'n roll. If this record isn't in your collection somewhere, you're missing out. I will argue until I am blue in the face that Exile On Main St. is the best record that the Stones recorded because it it shows the band at their blues and R&B best.  However, if you were to ask me to help you get started with the Stones, Hot Rocks would be the record I'd put in your hands. I'd tell you to go home, absorb this, come to terms with the greatness that is the Stones, return to me, and buy Exile.

2. The Beatles 1962-1966 & 1967-1970 (1973)
It's the Beatles. I don't feel that any further explanation is needed. On second thought, I'll go ahead and defend my choice. It seems to me that the Beatles haven't flooded the market with 30 greatest hits albums. They got it right with these first two sets and left it alone. The big draw here is the inclusion of a couple of singles that weren't available on any of the Beatles previous LPs. Not to mention the fact that it's the freaking Beatles. I feel a little bit bad including a Beatles greatest hits album on this list because I feel that you should just be buying Beatles albums. Chopping things out of Sgt. Peppers, The Beatles (The White Album), Abbey Road, and Help! seems like sacrilege to me. Seriously kids, you don't need to be testing the waters here. The Beatles didn't become one of the greatest bands of all-time by putting out bad music. However, if you still can't decide where to begin--and I admit it's a tough choice--start here.

1. Bob Dylan Greatest Hits (1967)
There is a reason that Bob Dylan has been covered more than any other artist: it's because other songwriters know that they will never be better than he is/was. Bob Dylan is the standard by which all other songwriters are measured. What makes this set of songs so great is that not only is this is a wonderful place to wade into the vast ocean of Dylan, it's also killer as a stand-alone album. This was one of the first things I ever bought by Bob Dylan (behind Highway 61 Revisited--I have this weird thing about not having a Greatest Hits be the first thing I ever buy from a band). I understand that Dylan may not be your cup of tea, but you have to respect the guy. He changed the game and forced bands to become better songwriters. Happy songs about your lover, flowers, and candy weren't going to cut it anymore. That alone is reason enough for this record to be in your collection.

There you have it. The greatest of the greatest. Tune in next week when I'll be tackling another Top 5 of something. Until then, feel free to stop in and argue with me about this list. I'm always happy to hear someone else's opinion and defend my choices. That's the point of working in a record shop.

New Music XXXXII

Shelf Worthy This Week:

Apache Beat's Last Chants

Katie Costello's The City in Me EP

Soars' self-titled debut

Clinic's Bubblegum

Let's see: dark, minimalist indie-pop; earnest avian chanteuseing; dreamy shoegaze; and, well, Clinic.  Life is good.

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Shelf-Worthy Last Week (in case you missed it):

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby: Lonely Avenue

Neil Young: Le Noise

Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest

David says to tell you all that Deerhunter's latest is his favorite so far this year.

Neil Young Live at Massey Hall 1971

Someone who has more time than I to spend ferreting out old concert reviews, record reviews, interviews, and magazine and webzine articles (both fluffy and flaming) could have a field day cataloging (or structuring or deconstructing) the panorama of attempts at describing Neil Young's voice in print. My guess is that a safe working hypothesis to get that hermeneutic machine chuggin' merrily along would be that the description works as a shorthand for the ultimate judgment leveled at the man and his music. Nothing surprising there if you've ever made any cracks about, say, Michael Jackson or Tom Waits.

Here's a short list of said descriptions that surfaced after only two quick Google searches:

becalmed high tenor; cracked tenor; strangled tenor; disntinctively haunting thin tenor; nasal tenor; nasal twangy tenor; a tenor without any low ends; cantankerous tenor; plaintive tenor; reedy tenor; gorgeous tenor; watery tenor [that emotes with elasticity!]; tenor-countertenor; a high tenor, almost a countertenor, kind of wobbly around the edges; rock's definitive countertenor; freakish countertenor amplitude; choked-back, sobbing countertenor

You get the idea, I'm sure. Some are positive, some negative, and at least one seems to be slouching in the direction of a rhetorical masturbation fantasy. You'll have that in rock journalism.

All pseudo-controversy to one side, though, what anyone who listens to the latest installment of the Neil Young Archives: Performance Series cannot deny is the power of this cracked, strangled, wobbly, freakish, watery and elastically emoting voice to affect the audience of a concert hall and to hold them at attention with no more accompaniment than an acoustic guitar or a miked piano. Youngsters, bear in mind that the 35-year-old master for this recording was made long before digital equipment and the ability to record a live show exclusively through a mixing board. This is old school analog. You can hear the crowd along with the tape hiss. You'll shrivel at the sound of Neil Young adjusting his microphones. But when the man is playing, you'll know that those people were listening. Just like you.

Oldsters like yours truly, who still have their copies of Young Man's Fancy, a true down-n-dirty bootleg made at the LA gigs for the same 1971 Journey Through the Past tour, have known this for decades: in 1971, well before "Heart of Gold" charted as a hit, Neil Young's voice could galvanize a room. If it does nothing else, the Live at Massey Hall, 1971, recording provides documentary evidence of Young's early on-stage presence.


Of course, the CD offers more than that: it actually works well as an overview of Young's career on the threshold of his success with Harvest. Two standouts for old and new fans alike are the live-set only song "Bad Fog of Loneliness" and a still-in-the-works version of "A Man Needs a Maid" and "Heart of Gold," here coupled together with soon-to-be discarded lyrics as a "suite," along the lines of "Broken Arrow" from Young's Buffalo Springfield days. The two Harvest songs would take their final shape less than a month later (as a bootleg of a February 27, 1971 show attests), but this early version provides an interesting glimpse into Young's composing process.

Although the Journey Through the Past tour supported Young's third solo album, After the Gold Rush, only two songs from that album "Tell Me Why" and "Don't Let it Bring You Down" make it into the setlist. Two Springfield-era songs, "On the Way Home" and "I am a Child" bookend the setlist, which also contains two songs from his eponymous debut album, "The Old Laughing Lady" and "The Loner"; two songs from Everybody Knows, "Cowgirl in the Sand" and "Down by the River"; another Harvest song, "Old Man," (perfectly sung); two CSNY songs, "Helpless" and "Ohio"; one Crazy Horse song, "Dance Dance Dance" (another live show mainstay); "See the Sky About to Rain," which was finally released three years later on the contemporaneously bitched about On the Beach; as well as "Journey Through the Past" and "Love in Mind," also released in 1974 on the still damnably out of print live album Time Fades Away.

All in all and without half trying, Live at Massey Hall 1971 does an even better job than the previously released Fillmore concert CD to whet my appetite for the 8CD/2DVD box set, Neil Young The Archives Vol 1 1963-1972, scheduled for release sometime this fall. I'm expecting plenty of early takes and re-takes of songs that didn't see recorded form until well after 1972. I'm also expecting plenty of plotz that only a longtime fan will want to listen to. But I'll tell you one thing: if there isn't at least one kickass version of "Sugar Mountain" anywhere in that box set, Neil Young had better take out a restraining order! Or invite me to the ranch for dinner.

The Neil Young Everybody Knows

Neil at his best. Sorta.

Let's not even go to the fact that it holds up better than most Beatles albums to the supersaturated tastebuds of today's pop/rock aficionados. This album retains its luster precisely because of its simplicity. Any bunch of shaggy knuckledraggers with a few guitars and a drum kit could have jammed out most of these tracks (especially if one of them had a musical saw in the garage). There's not a sophisticated or complex arrangement worrying any of the tracks on this collection. What there is is an approach to playing that melds country, folk, bluegrass, soul, and rock so effortlessly that you have no idea that you're experiencing a watershed moment in rocky folk-blues even after the last strains of "Cowgirl in the Sand" echo out of your head.

There was and remains something seamless and absolutely spot on about this album. So much so that the excursus of "When You're on the Losing End," sandwiched as it was between the delirious dark folk jamming of "Down By the River" and the palpably cosmic intentions of "Running Dry (Requiem for the Rockets)" or "Cowgirl in the Sand," forced you to make sense of a mix that may have been at worst haphazard or at best intuitive.

This is quite simply one of the most beautifully self-contained albums that anyone in the history of rock and roll has ever produced. And it is for that reason that it remains a watershed album even 35 years after its initial release.

Many have tried, even Neil himself. But nobody can touch this album as a touchstone in the ways of adumbrating love and exorcising the demons that make love impossible. It is a young man's album. Songs produced from an urge to say that our time is about up and there's no hope of redemption (even if the "no hope" bit is more for scoring rhetorical points than scaring hell out of anyone).

That on-again-off-again urgency may also mark Everybody Knows This is Nowhere as an atomic age paean to a life otherwise better spent. Lord knows that was certainly the starting point for Neil's next album, the equally dire and oblivion-timed After the Gold Rush. Another unbelievably wonderful album, and a further testament to Neil Young's understated and chaotic genius.