Twenty Albums of Inspiration Part One (Revisited)

Because there's a bit flying around about U2  at the moment I thought I'd put this piece, from my old & now defunct blog, up on here...

Twenty Albums of Inspiration

It’s difficult to pick just twenty albums that have either inspired (or indeed, influenced me). Forty- odd years of listening to music; thousands and thousands of songs, and probably millions of hours. 

How to pick just twenty albums? I have pondered this over the past few days and really got myself tied up into knots over it. The more I thought about it I came to the realisation that if I wasn’t careful 

I’d be merely be collating a list of my favourite albums rather than those that have been inspiring. For that reason, there were some omissions that have left me feeling a bit guilty. Neil Young’s “Tonight’s the Night”, Prince’s “Black Album”, Sunn 0)))’s “Monoliths and Dimensions” as well as a whole host of Muslimgauze possibilities were rejected.  Selections from Miles Davis and John Coltrane also have lost out. A whole shed load of blues artists didn’t make the cut; mostly because they never really issued albums in their lifetimes and although I have been very much inspired by individual songs they’d probably one just be one track on a cobbled together compilation.

I also decided to reject the notion of including any bootlegs or live (unofficial) albums.  This is a bit of shame because this meant missing out on probably one of greatest live albums ever-a recording of Bruce Springsteen 7 the E Street Band in Milwaukee in 1973 when  the show was interrupted by a bomb scare five or six songs into his set. The place was evacuated and Springsteen and the band retreated to a nearby hotel where they got royally pissed. This didn’t stop the show though and they returned to the venue at midnight along with the audience. They then proceeded to play until 3 a.m. and for the life of me I just do not understand why this has never been officially released.

I also rejected the idea of picking a representative selection of albums either by genre or trying to work in some sort of chronological order to it all i.e. starting in the 1920’s and working through to 2013. This would have been just too considered and although it had a certain attraction to it, the whole thing would have just seemed a bit show- offy. This therefore leads to nothing much from the 1960’s or 70’s and hardly anything from the past decade either. Is it that nothing from the turn of the millennium has really been inspiring or simply that I haven’t got my finger on the pulse?  Maybe it takes time for music to inspire or maybe there’s nothing that inspirational anymore. Anyway, here we go with the twenty I’ve picked….  

1 .Swell Maps-A Trip To Marineville

Apparently this was one of Kurt Cobain’s favourite records although I’m not going to let that put me off.

(I would have written something about Buzzcocks “Spiral Scratch” E.P. and how that much more than any old tat from the Clash or the Pistols or whichever big bankrolled punk band gave me a moment of total inspiration and made me realise that music would never be the same again. But that was a single rather than an album so…)

In some ways and even more so than “Spiral Scratch”, this slice of beauty from Swell Maps was equally as life-changing. Swell Maps weren’t from London or from some fashionable punk haven; and therefore not hanging onto some old pub-rock coat tails. They stemmed from the West Midlands and back when this album came out in 1979 they showed up punk for the tired old routine that it had already become.

I must listen to this album at least once a year after all this time and it still sounds as fresh to me as the day when I first got it. What I like about this album-what I love and treasure about this album- is that on the cusp of post punk and the dog days of punk, that Swell Maps showed there was an alternative. They were derided at the time for being the new Pink Floyd and accusations of improvisation and experimentation were thrown at them as if that was criticism enough. As they defiantly sung on this record though, “Do you believe in art?” and, in a telling barb at their punk contemporaries, “You chose to join in, I chose attack/ I could have given in but I’m not like that.”  

What Swell Maps presented was a true alternative; not one based on posturing, safety pins and bondage trousers (with all that inferred pretence at misplaced anger) but something fiercely intelligent; something deeper and much more honest.  

2. Young Marble Giants –Colossal Youth     

   

A quiet record; not loud quiet loud in a Pixies-sense but just a quiet record. A record that’s best listened to on a rain-filled Saturday afternoon in winter; everything that’s needed to be done has either been done or left to one side. You’ve got time on your hands-maybe an hour or so. There’s a fire on and you’ve sat down with a cup of tea and a plate of crumpets; or a coffee and some teacakes, it doesn’t really matter what combination. The rain is streaking down the windows and there’s nothing worth watching on the television. (It is Saturday afternoon, after all). You’ve been up since early morning and, for once, there’s no-one else in the house. You have a bit of time for yourself. You flick through numerous records and CDs but aren’t in the mood for anything too noisy or bombastic.
On the other hand, it’s too much of a cliché to be listening to anything that’s too much ambient; you don’t want to have background music either. You prevaricate between something that’s really too rock and roll for the mood and something that’s too jazz or classical tinged. It doesn’t seem quite right; nothing seems to fit. As you scan along the shelves (being aware that the tea is getting cold and that crumpets are best eaten warm) you are tempted by one of Neil Young’s records but that’s a bit too histrionic for this afternoon. Luckily, nestled next to Mr Young is the perfect record-this album by Young Marble Giants.

I cannot think of a record that is less “rock” than this one. In fact, I can’t think of a way to describe it to anyone who’s never heard it. I can’t think of any other record or band that sounded like YMG’s either before or after. I can’t put them in comparison to any other group. I can’t see who they were influenced by or if they influenced anybody else after they broke up. Like most things that are pretty near perfect, YMG’s were so simple and so obvious it was surprising that no-one made music like they did. This album just appeared out of nowhere, fully-formed and brilliant. There’s just a bass, rhythm guitar and the sparse, clear, tentative vocals of Alison Statton. There’s no percussion and I don’t even think they used a drum machine. Just simple, beautiful songs that fit so well on a rainy Saturday afternoon.      

3. Jelly Roll Morton-The Complete Library of Congress Recordings

One of my favourite records but also one of the most inspirational and most influential. I only heard this a few years ago when it the subject of a Radio 4 documentary.  I can’t remember who presented it but they raved so much about it that I thought there must be something about it that would be worth hearing in full. It’s an 8 CD set and it cost a fair bit but is worth every penny. The whole thing lasts one minute short of none hours long and is comprised of a series of interviews conducted by Alan Lomax with Jelly Roll Morton in 1938, interspersed with Morton playing many songs. I guess it’s closer to a massive novel or a series of films than a record.

What’s so good about this recording  and what is inspirational and above all, utterly fascinating, is Morton’s tales of life in New Orleans in the 1890’s and early 1900’s. He’s a fantastic pianist and singer but an even better teller of stories. He’s not backwards at coming forwards and at times he’s so over the top that it’s unbelievable.  He not only recounts how considers that he was really solely responsible for the invention of jazz but goes deep into his family history as well as painting a vivid picture of life in the city. It’s about the working life of a musician and what he had to do to become so successful. What I like about it is that he makes it all sound as if it was only happening yesterday rather than nearly a century ago. I’m sitting here thousands of miles away and decades later and I wonder if it would ever have crossed his mind that his words would have echoed down the years. (After hearing him I think that it would have been the very least he would have expected!)

This is history but not that dry, academic history. It would be simplistic to just see it as something of interest to jazz buffs but really because blues and jazz gave birth to everything that followed, for anyone who has a passing interest in music it’s got to be worth a listen.    

As it lasts for nine hours I could write about it for a lot longer than this. I’ve listened to it all the way through probably two or three times a year since I got it and every time I hear something different and get something new out of it.

4. Swans-Public Castration Is A Good Idea 

I could be really arsey at this point and rabbit on and on about Swans; over-intellectualise the point to the point where it all becomes meaningless. That’s not what this is about and that to me certainly isn’t what this Swans record is about.

Clearly, this is not a comedy record. In fact I can’t think of anything more bereft of humour than this. It’s grim beyond grimness and isn’t something that I play to whistle along to when I’m cleaning the windows. Many of the tracks on these 20 albums that I find particularly inspirational are ones that send a shiver down my spine, or a tear to my eye or a lump to my throat. In that sense I admit there is a tendency for me to lapse into hopeless sentimentalism at the drop of a needle on a record. I If I had a choice of twenty one records then I’m sure that Paul McCartney may have well put in an appearance with “Goodnight Tonight” or “My Love”.  But I didn’t and he hasn’t, and this Swans record may be many things but it’s not one of those records that has me pretending that I’ve got a bit dust in my eye.

So why does it inspire me? What is there about it that warrants its inclusion here? Like I said I don’t wish to over play the point but I admire something that is unremittingly stark and single-minded. It’s more than that, more than simple admiration. To come up with something that is so intense takes a vision and an artistic stance that is very rarely seen in popular music. And it is very intense. Swans (at the point in their existence when this live album was recorded) were renowned for playing so loud that audience would spontaneously vomit. They also used ensure that the air conditioning was turned off wherever they played so that the audience would find it as uncomfortable as possible and if anyone had the temerity to either headbang or God forbid, place their hands on the edge of the stage then the front man and founder of Swans, Michael Gira, would stomp on their fingers.

This record should be played as loud as possible but I’ve never had the chance to whack the volume to the maximum as I’m sure the neighbours would complain. Even at a low-ish volume it sounds loud. The nearest thing to describe it as is the sound of a massive oil tanker running aground, very slowly and painfully loud, but slowed down and repeated over and over again.

Two other things:

It’s so grim and dark that it’s actually very funny. But I’m sure that’s not what Swans intended.

It is quite good when it stops.       

5. Camille-Le Fil

An album that made me realise finally that a) not everything needs to be sung in English for it to be enjoyable and b) because of this, maybe the exact words don’t really matter at all. I have no idea about what Camille is singing about on this record (it’s in French). She could be running through her shopping list or giving us an especially complicated recipe; it could be a run through the telephone directory of a small town or maybe something really trite and soppy. It doesn’t matter one bit because her voice is so spectacular and soaring. Because she puts so much passion into it I do have a sense that what she is singing is important and meaningful. Maybe it’s all to do with the language after all.

Maybe it’s my perceptions of French; it wouldn’t sound the same if she was from say, Wigan or Preston (although that would be an interesting option; maybe that’ll be the next thing-albums remixed with Northern accents).

What is remarkable to me and seems to run throughout most (but not all) of these albums that I’ve picked is that they were unexpected. Unexpected in the sense that I’d never heard of some of these artist until I’d heard the albums; or if I had, then only in passing or that they’d not made much of an impression upon me. With this album by Camille (as well as my next choice and the YMGs’ above) what is inspiring is that these records come out of seemingly nowhere and although, by and large,they’ve been made by people in their very early twenties, they are works that have stood the test of time. This is art that belies the relative immaturity of the artists; what’s truly staggering is that someone so young can have the vision to produce something so original and intense.

It is impossible just to pick one track off this record; you’d have to listen to the whole thing. (And that’s part of it; literally part of it. Although there are distinct songs and different tracks it’s all strung together by a low hum that’s playing in the background from the beginning the end of the album. This is the thread referred to in the album title but as I don’t speak French I’m not sure if that’s correct.)

It’s just a beautiful record.       

6.  U2 –Boy  

        

Imagine, if you will, a strange parallel universe, where U2 had not become the mega-selling behemoths of rock which they are now.  Imagine if they’d only released this one album and sunk without trace, like many of their contemporaries did. Imagine if a fiendishly difficult quiz question was asking what was the name of the lead singer of one-hit wonders U2? It seems impossible. U2 were always going to be successful; and therefore subject to massive acclaim at the hands of the record buying public and incredibly harsh judgements at the hands of the critics. They are such an easy target that there’s not much point running through the list of ways to have a pop at them. But if this had been the only record they’d ever made, would it have all been different?

(I should say that, at this point, in an wholly unfashionable way, that I have always loved U2-right from this record through all the chest-beating and flag waving, wrap round shades, Christianity and tax avoidance schemes. To this day, seeing them live at the Royal Court Theatre in Liverpool when on the War tour, was one of the best gigs that I have ever seen in my life. I therefore hold no truck at all with the long line of here-today-gone-tomorrow,Johnny-come-lately,hipper-than-thou,London-centric,public-school patronising fuckhead journalists who condescend to us with their opinions from on high. I don’t care one jot if U2 are the most unfashionable band ever. I like what they do.)

But this is about “Boy” and I’d bet if this had been their only release then by now if would be lauded as a total classic; a cult album; a forgotten gem and a bit of buried treasure. Instead, it’s seen as yet just another U2 record and I’d think that even people who class themselves as U2 fans wouldn’t necessarily class it as their best record. For me though, and even given the hindsight of time and rose-tinted glasses, it is an uplifting, joyous, ecstatic record. From those very first echoed chords there’s something special about it. Listening to it not as a “U2” record but just as a piece of music I can’t see how anyone would not failed to be moved by it; even just a little bit. It’s timely to recall that when this came out, it was so different and against the grain of everything else. It was all post-punk, long coats, Factory and Joy Division miserablism etc. Along turned up this bunch of Irish kids (and at that time U2 were just kids and not grizzled old rock stars) who came up with something that wasn’t narcissistic, self-centred and introverted but something that was life-affirming and inspirational. And all these years later, it still is.  Just give it a listen and imagine you are in a different universe. You’ll be surprised.     

7. Blind Willie McTell-The Definitive Blind Willie McTell

Whilst I mentioned at the very top that because of a lack of albums released by blues artists that many of them missed out, I can’t really exclude one of my all- time musical heroes, the great Willie McTell. (I could really have comprised this list with 19 blues artists and one Fall album; for me it would have been hard just to pick 19 blues artists. But some of them only ever released one 78 and those recordings are scattered across the internet and crop up, oddly enough, on £1.99 blues compilations on the Hallmark label that you only ever see in service stations and all-night garages.)

But this collection of Blind Willie McTell tracks on 3 CDs is what may be termed the bees knees. It’s not the first Blind Willie McTell record ever had; that place is reserved for a 12 track vinyl album released on Yazoo and for which I paid a fortune for a long time ago. This collection has six times the number of tracks than that old record and was cheaper as well. There is the old saying-“never mind the quality, feel the width”-but every single track on this has deep, deep quality to its very core.

I don’t what’s more of an inspiration to me; Blind Willie McTell’s life or his music. I guess that you can’t really have one without the other. One fact about Willie McTell; he was blind since birth yet carried a gun and managed to shoot dead at a distance of twelve feet someone who was attempting to rob him. There’s loads of this stuff but I’ll just write about the music and just one track. I could have picked any of his songs; all of them touch me so deeply that a random selection is good enough.

“Travelin Blues” was recorded back in 1929 and is a thing of such wonder and beauty that mere words cannot do it justice. There’s a lot of stuff about Robert Johnson being the greatest blues guitarist ever but for me, the rolling, twisting, bubbling, constantly looping notes that Willie McTell brings out are beyond comprehension. I have a vague clue about how guitars are played but this is something else. I have no idea how he managed to makes such sounds come out of a simple stringed acoustic instrument-it’s like hearing an angel play. The fact that he manages to sing at the same time just adds to the magic. It’s not some ordinary voice as well; even though I have listened to this song hundreds of times it never fails to give me goosebumps.

Not figuratively but literally.

The hairs on my arms stand up. (If I had any on my head they would as well.)

8. Prefab Sprout-Jordan the Comeback            

        

“If there ain’t a heaven that holds you tonight, they never sang doo-wop in Harlem”

There’s no point in writing countless words about this album or indeed about this song.

I don’t believe in a God or any higher power, but something was going on when Paddy McAloon wrote and recorded this song.

It is the most perfect song I think that I’ll ever hear.

It’s the last song I ever want to hear. 

9. Crass- Christ The Album 

It’s a bit of a switch from Prefab Sprout to Crass but one thing that Crass have in common with a lot of the artists and therefore a lot of the albums on this list is their single-mindedness in their craft and their art. To me, there is nothing worse and nothing more false than any artist just going through the motions, just putting out any old rubbish. Now, Crass’ music may have been rubbish-but their devotion to what they did and the care that they put into everything speaks volumes. Actually, I quite like Crass’ music; it may have never been the most sophisticated racket but as rackets went it was pretty exciting.

What Crass did, away from the music, was open everything up. They showed up punk for the hollow shell and collection of smoke and mirrors that it really was; the same old “showbiz”; record labels, management, tours, single, album, single, producer, artist, consumer. They (unlike the rest of the school of 1976) actually showed that it was possible to go out and do-it-yourself. Anything was possible. You didn’t need to be anything “special” to make music or make any form of art. In fact, it was better to do-it yourself than any other way. In spite of what may be considered as trite sloganeering to this day, I’ll still have Crass hammering away at the back of my mind when I’m writing anything or listening to an item on the news or reading the paper or looking at a politician on the TV; “fuck off you lying bastards.”  That’s how Crass have inspired me; to be inherently suspicious and paranoid.

Oh, they were very funny as well.  

10.  Bob Dylan-John Wesley Harding   

It has to be said that there’s just too much music out there. I can, at the click of a touchpad, get hold of anything and everything that I could possibly want to hear. I probably (almost certainly) have more music in the house than I will ever have chance to hear more than once. I know that there a numerous tracks on CDrs and cluttering up my hard drive that I’ve never played or listened to and possibly never will. Being the wrong side of 50, I have to face facts that some of these unlistened songs will outlive me. I know that’s a bit desperate but quite true.

What’s all that got to do with this Dylan album? Well, whenever I have got a bit bored of music and can’t think of what to play (out of all these thousands of hours worth of music), “John Wesley Harding” is the one touchstone that I can rely on. I was going to write about how inspirational Dylan is and how for a long, long time I’d dismissed him as a whiney-voiced, over-rated hippy but I’ll stick to this record. Not just one track but the whole thing.

What’s so special about this record is how that it can cut through all of the rest of the music and in an aural sense, clear the palate. It’s also a measure of what I now recognise as the genius of Dylan; bringing out such an unexpected, stripped down record straight after the electric conversion and all the controversy that it involved. This album is so very simple and basic that it initially appears to be a bit soft; a bit folky and a bit singer-songwritery.  But it’s not and for the reasons above. Turning from the electric phase to this, Dylan brought out the hardest, most diamond-like record that he ever made.

And what does it show me?

Just make it simple. Say what you mean and mean what you say.