Dez's Favorite Rock /Pop Records, #'s 40-36

40. Fine Young Cannibals – The Raw and the Cooked, 1989
This shortlived band (they only released two records) made a big splash when they were around. The first thing that jumps out at you are the amazing vocal stylings of Roland Gift, he could hit that falsetto like nobody else in pop. Secondly, the band had a fascinating combination of 50’s and 80’s rock styles. So many of their songs have a 50’s pop/soul feel and sensibility to them, but the music is firmly anchored by 80’s synthesizers and guitar playing. As the All-Music Guide boldly declared, “Mod, funk, Motown, British beat, R&B, punk, rock, and even disco are embedded within the songs…Never has music's past, present, and future been more exceptionally combined.” The big hits “She Drives Me Crazy” and “Good Thing” are outstanding, but the rest of this album is just as catchy and good. There is not a bad track here, and had MCA been so inclined, they could have released each of these tunes as a single. “Don’t Look Back” should have been a massive hit, and I am surprised that it wasn’t. This might be a band many people disregard as a one hit wonder, but I urge you to check this whole album out.

39. Love – Forever Changes, 1967
You know, even a music fiend such as I hear about legendary recordings over the years and for whatever reason it takes awhile to finally get around to checking them out. More often than not, these talked about “masterpieces” do not live up to the hype. #39 is one of those rare exceptions. I had always heard this album bandied about in reverential whispers, seen it appear on lots of critical Top Albums lists, and so forth. When I finally got around to checking it out, I was floored. It was one of those times where you actually just sit and listen to an album from start to finish, and are completely taken in by the sounds. I couldn’t even leave the car after I purchased it until I had gotten to the end, I just sat there in the parking lot listening. It is largely acoustic-based, but always interesting and turning down unexpected paths. Definitely a product of its time (with song titles like “Bummer in the Summer” and the easy to remember “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”), it also transcends them out of sheer musical goodness. Perhaps part of what makes it unique is that this was a multi-racial band (still unusual at the time). Arthur Lee was a black man who never quite fit in with the largely white hippie culture, yet he wanted to share in the sentiment of the times. Lee was a troubled soul, and struggled to complete this record because he was convinced he would die soon afterwards. But perhaps we should not analyze it to death, and just revel in this transcendently great piece of acoustic psychedelia.


ABOVE: Nothing else out there sounds quite like Love's Forever Changes

38. Fleetwood Mac – Rumours, 1977
#38 is one of the most successful rock records of the 70’s, just packed with hits and solid pop songs. Yes, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie deserve much credit for the Mac’s success, but this is really Lindsay Buckingham’s show. A criminally underrated guitar player, great singer, songwriter and visionary arranger and producer, it is Buckingham who brings it all together. Much has been made of the personal turmoil within the band at the time inspiring the great music (Christine and bassist John McVie’s marriage was breaking up, Lindsay and Stevie were also breaking up at the time, Stevie and drummer Mick Fleetwood were having a fleeting affair). But whatever the tortured inspiration, they turned out one hell of a record where the majority of the tracks were huge chart and/or radio hits. Music may be a cathartic way to deal with your life issues, but it is something altogether different when your estranged ones are in the same band with you. It is hard to get away at that point. Stevie Nicks has since commented how difficult it was for her to sing back-up vocals on Lindsay’s song “Go Your Own Way,” when the lyrics were clearly addressed to her (“Tell me why everything turned around / Packing up, shacking up, is all you wanna do”), while Christine McVie’s newly ex-husband John McVie has to play bass on her exuberant “You Make Loving Fun,” which celebrates her newfound joy in moving on to a new lover. Soap opera material never sounded so good.

37. Nick Drake – Pink Moon, 1972
Talk about belated recognition. This record was virtually unheard during Drake’s lifetime, it was only three decades later that it ceased to be a cult favorite and broke into the mainstream (in large part thanks to the title track’s use in a Volkswagon commercial). That is a real shame, because Drake deserved better. This solo acoustic gem is one of the most beautiful and intimate record I’ve come across. Drake’s guitar playing is both warm and complex, and it complements his wistful vocals perfectly. Drake’s personal travails are inextricably intertwined with his music, as he is now celebrated as a doomed romantic. The truth is that he had serious emotional and mental issues that were exacerbated by drug use. His untimely death is still hotly debated as to whether it was an overdose or a suicide. #37 is about as personal as a commercially released record can be, and at a scant 28 minutes, it packs an unforgettable, succinct punch. He recorded it alone in the studio with only the engineer present over two nights, and left the finished tapes at the front desk of his record company without a word to anyone. The tapes weren’t even noticed until about three days later when a secretary finally looked inside the package. In fact, his company was unaware that he was even working on a new record. #37 stands as the last music Drake recorded before his death.

36. Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, 1973
The most cohesive album in rock, #36 maintains a dreamy, dark mood throughout. You don’t even have to be high to get into it. So much has been said about this classic (such as its spot in the Billboard charts for a record breaking 14 years!) that there is not much I can add to the discussion. The production is of particular note, especially considering the time period, almost like it was anticipating the clean, cold CD age. The volatile team of Roger Waters and David Gilmour were never more in sync than here. Waters’ dark ruminations on insanity, death and isolation work perfectly with Gilmour’s searing guitar work. My friend Walter Evans and I tested the infamous ‘Dark Side of the Rainbow’ effect: where if you sync the beginning of this record to the third roar of the black and white MGM lion at the beginning of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ the film and music have a strange trippy synchronicity. It kinda works, but it took us forever to get the start just right. Try it. (I found the most effective parts to be during the tornado scene “Great Gig in the Sky” works extremely well, and it is creepy how the Munchkins dance in perfect rhythm to “Money”).