John's Desert Island

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John McV's Desert Island List

Here's my current entry in the old game of "desert island recordings," "recordings to die for," or whatever. I've tried to play by the following rules:

A limit of 25 albums...can't you remember when a 25-album collection seemed immense?
Selection for reasons of personal pleasure and anticipated continuing enjoyment ONLY; I've tried to avoid the impulse to be a historian. My assumption is that this is what I'd want to have on a real, live desert island...NOT in some graduate seminar. I would thusly never again hear any music except this collection, so I'd have nobody to impress with my erudition but myself.
No more than one album per artiste. The world is so full of beautiful things that I don't really need to cram my list full of works by a single musician, even Louis Armstrong (or the Beatles, Aretha, or whomever!)
No anthologies or mega-overviews...I've tried not to include multi-disk extravaganzas like The Stax Singles Collection or even 'authorized' best of sets like Neil Young's Decade. It's fun to try to find a single album release that satisfies.

Of course I've cheated here and there, but I've tried to justify myself in the comments section. I seem to have left out entire eras of pop music, I notice that album selections seem suspiciously clustered between the years of 65 and 80 (the curse of the boomer is upon me), and some folks may find my selections insufferably mellow, superficial, or wrong-headed (e.g., my son, Leo, Robert Christgau, Greil Marcus, Lester Bangs). Tough luck, I say; this list is just the albums I'd take to MY desert island. Let quibblers find their own island.

I'd sure like to see other folks' list; they would probably give me some ideas about stuff to listen to/for. contact me at mcvicker@ohiou.edu with your ideas, some of which you'll find if you try this search.

Artiste	Album	Release Info	Comments
Louis Armstrong	The Hot Fives & Sevens	1927 to 30 - JSP Louis Box 100	A bargain-price but beautifully remastered collection of the finest hour(s) of the greatest musician of the 20th century. You've gotta have it. Its cheapo price is my excuse for the inclusion of a box in this list.
Franco & Rochereau	Omona Wapi	1976 - Shanachie	This album has a more acoustic feel, less electric energy, than the typical solo recordings of these two giants of classic Afro-pop. But there's a wonderful interplay of the two voices that carries the day. NOTE: you may find the similar Directeur Général which is harder to find but even better; it's a Syllart (France) import. Here's an audio of Franco & Rochereau; here's a video of Franco and one of Rochereau Lettre à M. le
Billie Holiday & Lester Young	Lady Day & Prez	Giants of Jazz	A collection of their finest duets, collected together only here (I think); you can ignore the fairly low quality of the sound (the individual recordings are available in better condition elsewhere), this is a unique opportunity to sit back and marvel at their musical rapport. Here's a video
Skip James	Today!	1965 - Vanguard 79219	Powerful, beautiful stories. Skip's version of the music of the delta is, as far as I know, unique to him. Here's a video
Van Morrison	Astral Weeks	1968 - WB 1768	Still my favorite from Van the Man; Astral Weeks hasn't lost a bit of freshness after many years of listening to its late-night groove. Check out Richard Davis' bass playing on this one. Here's a video
The Beatles	Revolver	1966 - EMI 46441	So which Beatles album would I take. I dunno, but I'd sure miss this one.
Bob Dylan	John Wesley Harding	1967 - CBS CK 9604	Another impossible, and thus arbitrary, choice (see Louis Armstrong, the Beatles, etc). So why this one. Because I like the songs, for one thing. Well, no, I don't understand the lyrics, but I keep wanting to hear them.
Coleman Hawkins	The Complete Coleman Hawkins on Keynote	1944 - Verve 830960	A Multi-disk compilation (many out-takes) of Hawk's small group work on Keynote; these are wonderfully inventive sessions, and a more intimate and relaxed setting than the big bands he often played with shows off Hawk's genius. Here's a video of Hawk with Charlie Parker
Stevie Wonder	Songs in the Key of Life	1976 - Motown 0340	Stevie has his heart on his sleeve. Many find his expressions of hope and spirituality corny; I find them uplifting...and the grooves are killer. Here's a video
The Deller Consort	Madrigal Masterpieces	Vanguard Classics 2000	Renaissance doo-wop. I got turned me on to this (hi Laurie, hi John) when I was in a phase where I couldn't care less about "old-fashioned music," and I've listened regularly ever since.
Bembeya Jazz National	The Syliphone Years	2007 Stern's Africa 302930	Bembeya Jazz is the band that made me fall in love with African music
Marvin Gaye	What's Going On	1971 - Motown 5339	His heart is on his sleeve in this one. No other recording that I have seems more starkly personal, or more achingly beautiful; I'm still moved to tears when I hear it. Here's a video
The Meters	Rejuvenation	1972 Sundazed 6169	A near-perfect funk album; the critics all seem to prefer their earlier work on Josie, considering the Reprise stuff to be too commercial. Not me...I think this stuff BURNS. Here's a video
John Coltrane	John Coltrane & Johnny Hartman	Impulse 5661	Not exactly a typical Coltrane album, but a very lovely one. Can't get enough of the interplay between Trane's voice and Hartman's.
Thelonious Monk	Pure Monk	1952 to 55 - Milestone 47004	Distilled Monk; 2-LP set of solo piano from Riverside sessions. There, I've cheated in selecting a comp, but this is sort of the Well-Tempered Clavier for modern jazz. Here's a video
Manu Chao	Clandestino	1998 Virgin 457832	Euro-Latino-Reggae; good band, good tunes; here's a video
Mississippi John Hurt	Today!	early 1960s - Vanguard 505028	The best of the Vanguard LPs; a unique take on the blues, warm and humorous and incredibly beautiful; here's a video
Curtis Mayfield	Superfly	1972 - Rhino 72836	Curtis always gives a nice mix of political, spiritual, and funky. I used to have "Back to the World" here, but the Rhino reissue is wonderful. The sound of the album has been beautifully restored, and I love the alternates and working versions on disk two; here's a video
Sly & the Family Stone	Fresh	1973 - Epic 32134	Full of hope, but without illusions. I love Stand and There's a Riot Goin' On too, but I find the message of this one irresistible. Here's a video
Tim Hardin	Tim Hardin 3 Live in Concert	1968 - Verve S 3049	Perfect songs from an imperfect life, songs that have stood the test of time, songs that many other singers have felt drawn to, and still songs for which no other setting seems so perfect; here's a video from Woodstock
Fela Kuti	Roforofo Fight	1972 Wrasse 056	There are bunches of great albums out there by the inventor of Afrobeat. This is a fave of mine, and the Wrasse re-issue has a couple of fine bonus tracks; here's a video
Various	Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-1977	2001 Blood & Fire 36	Covers of US R&B hits by Jamaica's finest musicians of the era; amazingly cool.
Michael Hurley	Ancestral Swamp	2007 Gnomonsong 007	The latest from the bard of Snock, America's greatest living poet of wolfish doggerel; here's a video
Nawal	Kweli	2005 Melodie 79629	The 'Voice of the Comoros Islands' - swings like mad; check her version of Jacques Brel's "Ces gens-là" Here's a video

Page created: March 1997
Last updated: January 6, 2009

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