This list has been revised and updated in mid 2009 and is now looking schmick. Newly remastered editions, compilations and box sets are ubiquitous and lobbing in by the week. Look at Elvis Costello for example who has issued his original Cds remastered with additional tracks a number of times, and all I have heard are top stuff not filler - check out the live CD with This Year's Model.
Note that the list is not a best of, but rather, the discs I would have washed up on a desert island, were I to be flotsam there. Of course the gramophone would glide in with a bottle of Metala and two glasses, resplendent on the back of a an absolutely fab mermaid as they do.......
These are discs which have had some impact on me over the years - they may
mean nothing to you. The order is not sacred, in fact Oumou Sangare's Seya which
is recently added could well be in the first group - just that I started with
the obvious first.
Van
Morrison
Astral Weeks
Atlantic R' n Blues compilation
Robert
Johnson
Box Set
Planxty
Planxty
Peter
Gabriel
Passion
Bill Wyman Blues Odyssey 2CD Compilation
Muddy
Waters
Chess Box Set
Gospel
Compilation
Straight Street
Buddy
Holly
Complete MCA Set
Mozart
Amadeus
Rolling
Stones
Beggars Banquet
Richard
Thompson
Hand Of Kindness
Ray
Charles
Story (Atlantic)
Jimi
Hendrix
Are You Experienced?
Elvis Presley Sun Sessions/Elvis' Golden Records-or 50s box set
Van
Morrison
Saint Dominic's Preview
Planxty The Well Below The Valley
Beatles
White album
Bob
Dylan
Highway 61 Revisited
U2
War
Sam
Cooke
The Man And His Music
Alan
Stivell
comp. including Renaissance of the Celtic Harp/From Celtic Roots
James Brown Essential 2 CD/ Roots of a Revolution
Howlin'
Wolf
Chess Box Set
Jimi
Hendrix
In Concert
Dave
Brubeck
Time Out
Randy
Newman
Sail Away
Sonny Boy Williamson Chess Box
Crowded
House
Woodface
Rolling Stones Rolling Stones (first LP - British)
Rolling
Stones
Singles box set 3 Cd
Cream
Disraeli Gears/ box compilation
Soul
Stirrers w. Sam Cooke
Various Roots of Rock 'n Roll (Jump blues)
Aretha Franklin Best of (2CD)
Speciality
Greatest Gospel Gems
Chieftains
Chieftains 3 and 4
Kinks
EP Collection/ Essential 2CD
Little
Walter
Chess Compilation
Mozart
Requiem
Oldham
Tinkers
Best Of T' Bunch/ Fine Old English Gentlemen
Miles
Davis
Kind Of Blue
Jethro
Tull
Stand Up/Living in the past
The
Animals
EMI compilation
Dubliners
More of The Hard Stuff/Original Dubliners 3 CD set
Jerry
Lee Lewis
EP collection
The Who Ultimate 2 CDs
Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin 1
Bob Marley Catch A Fire REmastered with Jamaican disc
Beatles
Revolver
Carl
Perkins
Sun Recordings
Neville
Brothers
Treacherous 2Cd
Van
Morrison
It's Too Late To Stop Now (live-1974)
Dylan
Biograph or Essential 2CD
Altan
Best of
Traffic
Smiling Phases or Gold 2CD compilation
John
Coltrane
A Love Supreme
the
Animals
MCA compilation
Waterson
Carthy
Eric
Clapton
Crossroads Box Set
Elvis
Costello
This Years Model
Pogues If I should Fall From Grace With God (REmastered)
U2
The Unforgetable Fire
Graham
Parker
Passion is No Ordinary Word Compilation
Edith
Piaf
Portrait
Clash Story Vol 1 (2cd)
John
Mayall
London Blues (compilation)
Otis Redding Very Best ofl 2 CD
Toots and Maytals Reggae Got Soul
Aretha
Franklin
Best of Vols 1 and 2
Doors
Morrison Hotel
Beatles
Abbey Road
Jimi
Hendrix
Electric Ladyland
Rolling
Stones
Sticky Fingers
Wilson
Pickett
A Man and a Half (2 CD compilation)
Etta
James
Chess compilation
Various Stax Box (4CD)
Doors Waiting For The Sun
Elvis Costello Blood and Chocolate (remaster 2CD)
Howlin' Wolf London Sessions (remaster 2CD)
Tom
Waits
Rain Dogs
Little Richard The Georgia Peach
Fairport Convention History of Fairport Convention
Cliff
Richard early
Cliff incl. live - 1958
The
Beach Boys
hits/ In concert (1964 and 74)/surf's up
Various
Asteroids Vols 1-8 (Plegt productions)
Jimi Hendrix First Rays of The New Rising Sun
Beatles With The Beatles
Manfred
Mann
The Five Faces of
Chuck
Berry
Chess Box Set
Ry Cooder & Ali Fara Toure Talking Timbuktu
Bob Marley & The Wailers Burnin' (2 CD Remaster)
Ernest Ranglin Below The Baseline
The Who Live At Leeds (2CD remaster)
Robbie Robertson Robbie Robertson
Elmore James The Sky is Crying
Amos Milburn Down the Road
Yardbirds
Over Under etc compilation (Raven)
Doors In Concert (2cd)
Ernest Ranglin In Search of the Lost Riddim
Emmylou Harrris Wrecking Ball
Radiohead OK Computerr
Big Maybelle Blues Candy and Big Maybelle
Bob Marley Exodus (remaster 2CD)
Kinks Village Greeen Preservation Society (remaster)
Creedence Clearwater Revival Bayou Country (remaster)
The Who My Generation (2CD remastered)
The Wailers Gold (2CD early Jamaican material)
Paul Simon Anthology (2cd)
Baaba Maal Firin' in Fouta
Nick Drake Fruit box (4CD)
Leonard Cohen Essential (2cd)
Various Mowtown Classics (2CD)
John Hammond Wicked Grin
Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban Mambo Sinuendo
Small Faces Decca and Immediate 2 CD comps
Charlie Gillett World Music (compilation 2004 2cd)
Salif Kieta Soro
Final Warning Demo Years
Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmos Factory (remaster)
Ibrahim Ferrer Buenos Hermanos
Orlando Cachaito Lopez Cachaito
Jimi Hendrix Axis Bold As Love
Los Lobos Mas Y Mas (4cd box)
Lunasa Lunasa (first CD)
Chiek Lo Bambay Gueej
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Mustt Mustt
Various the Big Ol' Box of New Orleans
Blind Willie McTell the Classic Years 1927-40 (JSP)
Amadou & Mariam Dimanche A Bamako
Susheela Raman Music for Crocodiles
Yousou N'Dour Egypt
Howlin Wolf Sings The Blues
Omar Sosa Mulatos
Kings of Leon Aha Shake Heartbreak
Rokia Traore Bowmboi
Marcan Dede Su
Ali Farka Toure Savane
Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers Moanin'
Cannonball Adderley Somethin' Else
C W Stoneking King Hokum
Buddy Holly Ohh! Annie!
Spencer Davis Group Eight Gigs A Week 2 CD set (flawed but has many beauties)
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni ba Segu blue
Oumou Sangare Seya
Cannonball Adderley Mercy Mercy Mercy
Creedence Clearwater Revival Green River (remaster)
Moving Hearts compilation (Bazza production)group
Ronnie Lane How come (singles compilation)
Elvis Costello When I Was Cruel
Andy Palacio & The Garifuna Collective Watina
Miles Davis In a Silent Way
The Holmes Brothers Essential
Ba Cissoko Electric Griot Land