Dez's Favorite 100 Rock/Pop Records, #'s 10-6

Here we are at the Top 10. It's been a fun journey through my favorite rock/pop albums, and I appreciate your indulgence and comments and critiques. That is what this is really all about. It's a way to talk about tunes. Next week you will get Dez's absolute favorites of all time. Alright, Pockyjack, #10 is for you...

10. The Doors – The Doors, 1967
No other record sounds quite like this, not even subsequent Doors records. It was one of the most auspicious debuts from any band of the era, which was a time of many brilliant debuts. While Jim Morrison’s prototype dark, sexy, mystic persona has been immortalized over the decades, to me the key to this band are the other three guys. John Densmore swings like a jazz drummer, Robbie Krieger incorporates everything from blues to flamenco styles in his loose guitar playing, and the amazing Ray Manzarek creates the unique character of their sound with his double duties on keyboards and bass. These strengths are best demonstrated on their biggest hit, the still thrilling “Light My Fire.” This tune has been played to death on classic rock radio, but give it a fresh listen at top volume. After Morrison steps out of the way, that extended instrumental middle is still one of the more exciting and groovy passages of music I've ever heard. One of my favorite aspects of The Doors was how, early on, even though they were influenced by blues and soul music, they played it through their own unique psychedelic and baroque prism. Take their cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Back Door Man” here; instead of just regurgitating the original, Morrison and Co. turn it into something quite new and menacing. “Soul Kitchen” is a Doors original where they do something similar. Of course, #10 closes with the infamous oedipal, apocalyptic epic “The End” (a song famously used in the film ‘Apocalypse Now’ and also a song that got them fired from their residency at the Whiskey A-Go Go in L.A. after Morrison’s “father, I want to kill you / mother, I want to f*ck you” bit was too much for even the open minded late 60’s mainstream to handle.)

9. ZZ Top – Eliminator, 1983
In one of the most unlikely of reinventions, ZZ Top came roaring back from oblivion in the early 80’s on the strength of #9. Like so many other classic rock acts from the 70’s, ZZ Top didn’t seem to fit in with the New Wave dominated early 80’s. So what did they do? I will argue they pulled one of the most daring switches in rock, on par with what U2 accomplished going from The Joshua Tree to Achtung Baby. The Top managed to keep the essence of what made them a great band in the first place, but then added just the right elements from the new era and adjusted brilliantly. By keeping Billy Gibbon’s signature gritty guitar intact, they all but threw out Dusty Hill’s traditional bass guitar, and replaced it with a heavy, distorted synthesizer to stand in for most of the bass on the record, and then drummer Frank Beard (ironically, the only band member without a beard) turned his already simple drumming style into a metronome-like, mechanical precision. So, you’ve got an album that is purely hard rock, yet also very 80’s in all of the best ways. Next step, grow the beards and make a series of iconic, humorous music videos just in time for the peak of MTV. But none of this would have worked if they didn’t have the songs, and they also happened to come up with one of the best batches of songs of their career. Hits “Gimme All Your Lovin’,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” “TV Dinners,” “Got Me Under Pressure”…they all rock hard and have a wonderful humor about them at the same time. Throw in some strong album tracks, like the funky “Thug” and the awesome updated blues-for-the-80’s “I Need You Tonight,” and you’ve got one of the best rock records of the 80’s…or any other decade for that matter.


ABOVE: Eliminator's album cover is in the running for one of the coolest ever. BELOW: Even Hot Wheels knows that the Eliminator car is a classic. The original Eliminator car now sits in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum in Cleveland. It is consistently one of the more popular exhibits there.


8. Yes – 90125, 1983
#8 divides Yes fans like no other record. For people of my age, it was our first introduction to the band. Only after hearing this did we then explore their glory days of yore. #8 is all about Trevor Rabin, the new guitarist and writer of most of these songs. He added a definite 80’s sheen, and streamlined (for Yes standards) the band’s former grandiose compositions. He also raised them from the dead and gave them a new lease on life as a band. Yes was nowhere in the early 80’s, about as uncool and out of step at that point as any rock dinosaur could be. Prog rock was on the outs. So this giant of prog rock comes along and delivers their biggest commercial success, including their only #1 hit single, “Owner of a Lonely Heart” (a song that is still heavily sampled in rap songs). Single “Leave It” was one of the more unique sounding singles of the day with its layer upon layer of harmonized vocals in an almost a capella setting; and “Changes” is a transcendently great song, with its jarring and excitingly precise changes, probably in my top 10 of favorite songs. Surround those three centerpieces with solid and varied album tracks like “Hold On,” “It Can Happen,” “City of Love,” “Cinema” and “Our Song,” and you’ve got one of the most complex records of the 80’s, yet also one of Yes’ most accessible ones.

7. The Police – Synchronicity, 1983
At least The Police went out on top. Their last studio album before their acrimonious break-up was also their most successful, one of the biggest hits of the decade. It is almost as if the previous four records were all leading up to this one. Sting is one of the few artists who could make a record loosely based on the philosophical theories of Carl Jung and other such intellectual territory palpable to pop audiences. I mean, he had a hit single with “Wrapped Around Your Finger” which included such lines as “Mephistophiles is not your name” and “Caught between the Schylla and Charibdes”! “Synchronicity II” vies for their hardest rocker, megahit “Every Breath You Take” had such a seductive hook that most people overlooked the fact that it was a song about a stalker. “O My God” is a petulant little tune, where Sting demands of his Creator that He “take the space between us and fill it up some way”, insisting:

“O my God you take the biscuit, treating me this way
Expecting me to treat you well no matter what you say
How can I turn the other cheek, it’s black and bruised and torn
I’ve been waiting since the day that I was born, fill it up! Fill it up!”

Even God can get a dressing down from the Ego of Sting. “King of Pain” is the best Police song, the perfect woe-is-Sting number. With dazzling percussive effects courtesy of Stewart Copeland, and guitar textures from Andy Summers (even a rare and good guitar solo), “King of Pain” summarizes all of their strengths as a band. Stewart’s drumming is, as usual, brilliant throughout the record.

6. Los Lobos – Kiko, 1992
If the band Los Lobos only conjurs up a successful cover of “La Bamba” when you hear them mentioned, then listen to this brilliant piece of work. I don’t know what they were smoking when they were recording this (according to them, they were on quite a few different substances), but give me whatever they were on. There are so many styles and genres crossing, often from verse to verse in a single song, it is astounding. The years go by, and I admire this album more and more. The opening salvo of “Dream in Blue” and “Wake Up Dolores” should give you an indication of things to come. Both are off kilter rockers that unfold with fascinating sonic colors. From there, it just gets stranger. “Angels With Dirty Faces” and “Saint Behind the Glass” brilliantly use the band’s Mexican heritage in a modern context. “That Train Don’t Stop Here,” “Whiskey Trail” and “Wicked Rain” reassure fans that they can still do the blues/rock thing fairly straightforwardly when warranted. I love “Kiko and the Lavender Moon,” it sounds like Count Basie on acid, underwater. That is the best way I can describe it. In all this weirdness, there is a fantastic, largely acoustic middle set of songs: “Reva’s House,” “When the Circus Comes,” “Arizona Skies,” “Short Side of Nothing” and “Two Janes” that is modern Americana at its best, and sounds like really good mid-80’s Tom Petty. Then there is “Peace,” with a killer acoustic riff and perfectly building tension. Finally, they close out with “Rio de Tenampa,” which sounds like a drunken bar in Tijuana at about 3 a.m. on a Saturday night. This is one of the most impressive, eclectic and creative records I’ve ever come across. One of those rare records where all of the disparate directions and experiments work.


ABOVE: Los Lobos' Kiko is one of those rare records where every experiment or left turn works brilliantly.