If you could only listen to 3 albums for the rest of your life, what would they be?

I'm edgy

 

Punks can’t play is a bit of old cliche

Clash
Buzzcocks
Stiff little fingers
Suzi and the banshees
The cure
Adam and the ants

Not to mention

Peter and the test tube babies
4 skins
Skids

 

Harsh - and don’t most of the manufactured boy bands Not write their own songs, not play the music and rely on auto tune

 

Likewise! 6music had a 3hr w@nkfest over the White Album last Sunday. When a twitter fan said that those who claimed not to like The Beatles should '****rightoff' I countered with an polite 'each to their own' reply. I was told 'you might not think you like them, but you do really'!

A number of Beatles fans are rather precious. The White Album has some good stuff on it, but is a bit of a sprawling mess. Their stuff doesn't excite me in the way that lots of other stuff does.
As for punk - I love it! I know most was rubbish but the good stuff can't be beaten.

 

Ruts
Undertones
Magazine (arguably not punk)

Do the Blockheads count? Not sure they were really punk but they could certainly play.

 

Blockheads definatley count

And how could I have forgot the stranglers and the damned

 

Yeah, I wondered about those two. Not a huge fan of either myself, No More Heroes aside (though that’s not the point of the debate).

 

I saw both Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Ruts at Hemel Pavillion in the late 70’s.
Probably the first gigs I went to, would have been 14/15 at the time. Absolutely mental scenes, spitting, fighting & bottles being thrown. And then skinheads outside chasing people up the road afterwards... Never been more pleased to see friends parents in a waiting car.

 

Yeah, but were they better than 5ive or Blue?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t stand these boy bands that just do covers. In fairness to groups like Take That and The Beatles they do/did write their own music.

 

M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
Depeche Mode - Music for the Masses
Ulver- The Assassination of Julius Caesar

 

Don’t know the last 3 but love The Clash but wouldn’t class The Cure or Adam and the Ants as punk

 

I think both bands were punk-ish when they started, but developed into something else. Adam Ant was in Derek Jarman’s “Jubilee” with a whole load of punks. “Three Imaginary Boys”, the first album by The Cure, is closer to punk than any other genre, though they moved on.

Here are the Skids:

On your other post, I quite agree about Take That. Gary Barlow has written some great songs and they are a cut above. But, to be honest, I would regard them as the exception that proves the rule on boy bands, just as you do The Clash.

 

Decent

 

Bit dissapointed at the lack of soul/reggae/funk/hiphop on these lists.

Had to check I hadnt accidently logged onto the Millwall or Leicester forum.

 

For me, the best three albums of all time are:

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road (much better than the White Album, more cohesive and consistent - and I love that record)
2. The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
3. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

However, that's only barely over two hours of music and restricted to soul and 60s rock/pop, and even that I could get bored of listening to exclusively for the remaining 40+ (touch wood) years of my life. For variety and quantity as well as quality, I'd pick:

1. My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
2. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
3. Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Soul is actually one of my top three popular music genres, along with classic rock and post punk - absolutely love Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul, Curtis Mayfield's self-titled and a **** ton of Motown.

I don't listen to much reggae but I love Bob Marley and for me his Legend is one of the best compilations of all time, second only to the Beatles' Blue Album. As for funk, I haven't heard many out-and-out funk albums (I think a couple of Sly and the Family Stone albums, and that's it - I like them but they're not among my favourites) but I do love funk when it's mixed in with jazz (fusion) and incorporated by eclectic artists like David Bowie, Stevie Wonder and Prince.

Hip-hop, again not my favourite genre, but a few albums I'd rank among my favourites - basically all of A Tribe Called Quest's first three, Liquid Swords, Illmatic, Ready to Die, Late Registration (much better than A Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy) - great stuff.

 

What, at a Banshees gig?? I'd have thought a band like that would attract a more cultured and well-behaved audience than that. But maybe, if this was in the late 70s as you said, they were more likely to attract those types than later on (only their first two albums, the only two released in the 70s, I'd classify as punk). Nice band regardless.

 

With barely 3 albums to choose from it's not easy to cover differing genres.. though i see some people arent sticking to the rules and throwing in more than 3 choices. The cheats!



PS For anyone who doesnt understand the importance of The Beatles in contemporary music you could do worse than watch this documentary made by someone who knows a little about music..

 

Fast guitars..




and loud drums..




Actually these tracks wouldnt have sounded out of place played by a grunge or metal band 20 odd years later.

 

You sure? Could have sworn that was another Bowie album.

 

Trespass - Genesis
Anyway - Family
Radio Ethiopia - Patti Smith

although Skull & Roses by Grateful Dead keeps trying to qualify...

 

I was also at that Banshees gig at the Hemel Pavilion as a 15yr old! I had to hide the fact that it was a 'punk' gig from my parents, but got changed into my safety-pinned jeans and ripped t-shirt when I left the house.

IIRC Spizz Oil were first on the bill, followed by Nico who was booed off by a restless crowd, most of whom were expecting full on punk rock. A bit of alternative culture but an odd choice for a punk gig I suppose, but I suspect most of the crowd had never heard of the Velvet Underground. I certainly hadn't. She sat and sang whilst playing keyboards, with little or no backing band (I can't clearly remember!). She may even had been gobbed at and had things thrown at her, I do recall she was pissed off by the crowd's reaction.

By the time Siouxsie came on I had pushed my way to the front of the crowd with my equally naive friends, but when the first song started I feared for my life! A heaving mass - the term 'mosh pit' hadn't been invented then - of several hundred punks frenetically pogoing and pulling/pushing each other around.Fairly early on Siouxsie was pulled into the crowd and several overweight bouncers dived into the crowd to rescue her. Absolute carnage and we moved back to where it was slightly less chaotic. A sweaty, bruising and damn scary first punk gig for me and I absolutely loved it!

Siouxsie's music was certainly a bit more cultured than many of the punk genre, but most guitar-based new bands at the time were lumped together under that moniker. She was one of those, along with bassist Steve Severin, who was part of the Sex Pistols' infamous Bill Grundy tea-time swearing interview on ITV and she was a key part of the early punk scene. She caused controversy by wearing tops that exposed her breasts and also sported the Nazi swastika motif from time to time. However the Banshees' first album, 1978's 'The Scream', with hindsight could even be classified as 'post-punk'. I still love the album today, not so much their second LP 'Join Hands' but I liked most of her 80's output. Check out the Ju Ju LP.

Well that was a nice trip down memory lane! Incidentally I saw Elvis Costello at the Hemel Pavilion the following year. Another punk-labelled artist but clearly more talented than most of them. Another great gig, although I do remember being squashed breathless during Oliver's Army!

So back to the thread...... If I had to pick a top three reggae/soul/hip-hop combo, it would be:

UB40 - Signing Off. This was when they were really good, before going down the masses-pleasing reggae-lite lots-of-covers band who released dross like the God-awful 'Red Red Wine'.
Stevie Wonder - Songs In The Key Of Life. Could easily be in my top 3 of all time. Seeing him play the whole thing live in Hyde Park a couple of years ago was a real treat.
Public Enemy - Fear Of A Black Planet. Hated it when it first came out as I had succumbed by then to loving 80's chart pop. I reappraised it some 20yrs later and had my eyes (and ears) opened! I've even been to see them live, although the irony of a middle-aged white bloke singing 'Fight The Power' with my fist in the air is not lost on me!

 

Being an ex punk and an ex punk musician, I'd say sorry, punks couldn't play very well, but they came up with exciting material suited to their limited abilities.

Of all the bands mentioned, maybe Robert Smith and Stuart Adamson had real musicianship. Of that era, the Police were musicians in the proper sense, but they were just briefly jumping on the new wave bandwagon having had backgrounds in progressive rock and jazz. Dave Greenfield of the Stranglers could also play a bit!

I just read the post above and realise I have missed out The Attractions and the Blockheads two of the greatest bands musically of any era. But not really punk!

 

King/Food for Thought is one of the greatest double A side singles ever!

 

James Brown is the greatest in my opinion, probably the most influential musician in post war era.

Couldnt put him in my list as he doesnt really have a defintive album ( apart from Live at Apollo) because he was so prolific that most of his albums had one or two brilliant tracks and 10 copycats of the same track ; and then release another album a few months later.

 

Never heard of any of them tbh. Billy Idol and Green Day are true punk.

 

Are you an alt log in for Filbert?

 

He covered it.

Like Pat Boone covering Little Richard songs.

 

In a fleeting era when weeks counted, we must not forget that the Pistols were the first punk band. Smith & Jones were capable musicians, Vicious less so.

 

I know all of their output from the 70s and early 80s + the single Cities in Dust. I got into the band because of their association with The Cure, my favourite 80s band. I loved all their music from that era apart from The Lord’s Prayer (and Nocturne is a fantastic live album - check that out if you haven’t already) but I was quite disappointed with Hyaena, I felt the Banshees had lost their edge, and with The Cure and the Banshees going their separate ways, I no longer felt compelled to check out the rest of their output. But maybe there’s some good stuff there, just different.

 

Tricky.
I shall go into Deep Thought mode.
I maybe some time.

 

Good first choice. He came from the Bristol Trip Hop scene and collaborated with Massive Attack on their landmark album Blue Lines.

Deep Thought came up with 42. Are you alluding to Level 42?

 

Channeling my inner Andy Kershaw, Amadou & Miriam can be glorious.

Dimanche a Bamako is a classic.

 

The Knife!

How deeply into The Dead are you?

A mention of ****’s Picks & you can write off two of my mates for the evening.

 

Mark King - Andy King - Lesta - Engelbert Humperdinck?