Twenty-one Fairly Obscure Desert Island Discs

So like any good music freak, I keep a perpetually evolving list of Desert Island Discs in my head. I've been meaning to write it up for years, but when I finally sat down to do it for this blog, a little voice in my head -- correction, a big voice -- kept interrupting me. "There you go, with all the same predictable choices as a People Magazine Top 25 list. And you call yourself a music geek! But what if you couldn't pick the obvious choices? What if you were denied all the albums that made the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest of All Time list? No Sgt. Pepper's, no Blonde on Blonde, no Let It Bleed, no London Calling, no Goodbye Yellow Brick Road! Only the unexpected albums! Now that would be a list! Oh, and no albums from your Top 10 Live Albums of All Time [forthcoming]. And no jazz, classical, or pre-rock singers such as Nat King Cole or Bing Crosby because, let's face it, we don't have all day." (Yes, the voices in my head are extremely long-winded.)

So without further adieu, here are my Top 21 Relatively Obscure Desert Island Discs (in no particular order, with some commentary):

1. The Youngbloods, Elephant Mountain (1969) A classic gem with unbelievable range, from the searing terror of the opener "Darkness, Darkness" to the soaring grace of the closer, "Ride the Wind." Does not include the Youngbloods' most famous song, the 60's anthem "Get Together," nor does it need it.






2. Grateful Dead, Anthem of the Sun (1968) The most psychedelic of all the Dead's albums, combining multiple live songs with trippy studio soundscaping. And you can dance to it!







3. Harry Nilsson: Nilsson Schmillson (1972) One great song after another, with killer production and an amazing lineup of musicians: "Without You," "Coconut," "Jump Into the Fire" -- and not a drop of filler.






4. Bonzo Dog Band: The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse (1970) The Bonzos were quite literally the missing link between the Beatles and Monty Python: They worked with several Beatles and appeared in the "Magical Mystery Tour" film, then later appeared on the British show "Do Not Adjust Your Set" with Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam just a few months before they formed Python. And head Bonzo Neil Innes appeared in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (as Sir Robin's minstrel); he also wrote and performed the songs for Eric Idle's Beatles parody "All You Need is Cash," the soundtrack to which is the greatest album the Beatles never made. (And which, frankly, I should have put on this list.) This album is their masterpiece. If Tristan Tzara were a rock band, this is what he'd sound like. UPDATE: Holy schnickey! Tristan Tzara IS a rock band! (The Bonzos will forever kick their ass, however.)

5. Bob Dylan/The Band, The Basement Tapes (1975) Weird, moody, elegiac -- and hilarious. No, really. This album cracks me up every time.

6. Brian Eno, Another Green World (1975) Arguably Eno's best album, combining great art-rock songs with short proto-ambient experiments.









7. New Order, Low Life (1985) Eighties dance music as art; one of the greatest albums of all time. Its one failing is that it doesn't contain "Blue Monday," the greatest dance single of all time.









8. Malcolm McClaren, Duck Rock (1983) After inventing punk rock and Adam and the Ants, Malcolm McClaren created this aural trip around the world, combining hip-hop, African and Cuban rhythms -- oh, and square dancing. The "Sgt. Peppers" of the 80's.








9. XTC, English Settlement (1982) That rarest of rarities, a double album with no filler. Every song could be a hit single.










10. Fatboy Slim, On the Floor at the Boutique (1998) 50 nonstop minutes of massive beats and crazy cuts; not for the faint of heart.










11. Air, Moon Safari (1998) If I were to tell you that one of the most gorgeous albums of all time was a French band's modern-day take on 60's soft-rock bubblegum psychedelia, you'd probably think I was nuts. You'd be right, of course, but so would I.



12. Boredoms, Vision Creation Newsun (1999) Hoo boy, where do I begin with this one? The Boredoms are a Japanese noise band, but with this 1995 album they started experimenting with ways to make noise...well, beautiful. And that's this album: noisy but beautiful.




13. Alexander Spence, Oar (1968) The most legendary obscure album of all time. "Skip" Spence, of Moby Grape, suffered an nervous breakdown (he was developing paranoid schizophrenia), and after he checked out of Bellevue he hopped on a motorcycle, rode straight to Nashville, and cut this haunting album on a 3-track recorder, playing all the instruments himself. I was one of maybe a thousand people who bought this album when it came out in 1968. I think I must have read the entire Ballentine Adult Fantasy series (that would be guys like Lord Dunsany, James Branch Cabell, William Morris, Lovecraft, etc.) to this album when I was 14.

15. Tom Rush, The Circle Game. Boston folkie Rush has a laser-accurate eye for talent, and this 1968 album features first-ever recordings of songs by Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, and Jackson Browne (he is, as someone once said, the only man who should be allowed to sing Joni Mitchell songs), capped off by the double-whammy of Rush's own "Rockport Sunday" and "No Regrets."

16. The Incredible String Band, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter. (1968) The ISB are a highly acquired taste, but you've got to love an album with a 13-minute song about an amoeba!

17. Autosalvage, Autosalvage. (1968) This is officially the most obscure record on this list. Autosalvage was a short-lived Greenwich Village art-psych-avant-rock band, whose one album was bought by me and maybe three other people back in 1967. The singing's a bit weak, but it's one of the most musically inventive Lp's of the Sixties, and features medieval instruments amidst the wailing guitars.

18. The Beastie Boys, Paul's Boutique. (1989) The BB's least commercially and most artistically successful album, thanks to the Dust Brothers' incredible production. No music, just an endless construction of samples from Hendrix, Curtis Mayfield, the Beatles, to name a few. (Plus, I felt it was essential to have two albums on this list with the word "boutique" in their title.) [UPDATE: Oop! This one actually is on the Rolling Stone Top 500 list. Oh, well, I'm allowed one. Although truthfully I might have put The Band (1969) in this slot had I known!]

19. Frank Zappa, Hot Rats (1969) There was a lot of Zap to choose from -- "Uncle Meat," "We're Only in It for the Money," or "Burnt Weenie Sandwich" could easily have made the list. But this one, perhaps the first example of jazz-rock fusion, rocks the hardest. Mostly instrumental, with chopmeisters like Ian Underwood, Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty wailing their brains out. Plus Captain Beefheart on vocals!

20. Buddy Holly, The Buddy Holly Story (1959) My brother Jeremy gave me this album when I was 13. Although I was completely obsessed with the Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Dylan etc., this collection of music from a decade earlier completely blew me away. The greatest 50's rock and roll, with apologies to Elvis. And speaking of Elvis...

21. Elvis Costello, Armed Forces 1979) Hard to pick a best Elvis C. from his Stiff/Columbia peak years, but this one wins because it's got Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" on it.