tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post115229356266768072..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: Now the weekend's come, I'm gonna throw my troubles awayRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152632936153136832006-07-11T11:48:00.000-04:002006-07-11T11:48:00.000-04:00Yeah, I bought a lot of music as a direct result o...Yeah, I bought a lot of music as a direct result of the list. I seem to recall that whoever wrote the intro to the list said that some bands got inexcusably left off because votes were split among their albums. The Kinks in particular. (Partially as a result, I'm sure, for the longest time I didn't really have a clear idea how to approach the Kinks, certain obvious songs aside.)Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152624770555504162006-07-11T09:32:00.000-04:002006-07-11T09:32:00.000-04:00I was in college when that list came out and bough...I was in college when that list came out and bought Bright Light and Horses strictly from their descriptions, never having heard of either artist. Still mad about the Kinks absence, though.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152413201479335572006-07-08T22:46:00.000-04:002006-07-08T22:46:00.000-04:00email me atscraps --- at ---deselbybowen --- d...email me at<BR/><BR/>scraps<BR/> ---<BR/> at<BR/> ---<BR/>deselbybowen<BR/> ---<BR/> dot<BR/> ---<BR/> com.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152385384156779242006-07-08T15:03:00.000-04:002006-07-08T15:03:00.000-04:00Hi, Scraps. I saw your list, actually. It was in...Hi, Scraps. I saw your list, actually. It was interesting and made me think of trying that exersize for myself (and I liked what I saw when I checked out the rest of your livejournal)...<BR/><BR/>I meant to clarify: I only have four of the Richard & Linda Thompson albums. I love <I>Hokey Pokey</I>, too, and, since it's been reissued, I only relatively recently found <I>Pour Down Like Silver</I>, which I like quite a bit. The others I've never seen, anywhere. I gather that <I>First Light</I> is pretty bad, and <I>Sunnyvista</I> slightly better, though I'm still curious to hear what they actually sound like. Your theory as to why <I>Shoot Out the Lights</I> was so wildly praised makes sense. I sort of think, also, that it sounds somewhat more American than the others, so perhaps that has made it more appealing to American critics. I would love to hear the Rafferty-produced sessions...Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152381632721697482006-07-08T14:00:00.000-04:002006-07-08T14:00:00.000-04:00Incidentally, while I agree that Shoot Out the Lig...Incidentally, while I agree that <I>Shoot Out the Lights</I>, excellent as it is, is somewhat overrated, do you really like it less than <I>First Light</I> and <I>Sunnyvista</I>? Those seem to me genuinely weak albums. I think that's part of why the enthusiasm for <I>Shoot Out the Lights</I>: it signaled a creative revitalization after the weakness of the previous two albums, and since his cult had been growing over the previous decade, people were eager to hail a Richard Thompson album (and proclaim it to the masses).<BR/><BR/>(By the way, have you ever heard the scrapped Gerry Rafferty-produced sessions for <I>Shoot Out the Lights</I>? They have circulated on a bootleg called <I>Rafferty's Folly</I>, and I can copy it for you if you want. The differences are interesting, if you're a fan; the Rafferty sessions aren't bad, but they definitely lack the edge of the album that finally emerged.)<BR/><BR/>To me, the real underrated gem in the Richard/Linda catalog is <I>Hokey Pokey</I>, another album on which every song is strong, with a variety of moods and some of his most effective bleak ones ("Old Man Inside a Young Man," "The Sun Never Shines on the Poor," and especially "Never Again".Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1152378402400408192006-07-08T13:06:00.000-04:002006-07-08T13:06:00.000-04:00Bright Lights is one of my favorite dozen albums. ...<I>Bright Lights</I> is one of my favorite dozen albums. The title track is not one of my favorite songs on it, but every songs is at least good, and most of them are great.<BR/><BR/>Since you like other people's lists: I recently did an exercise of <A HREF="http://baldanders.livejournal.com/252297.html" REL="nofollow">compiling a sort of hundred favorite albums</A>, by picking two albums (one "pop/rock" one not) a year from 1965, one album a year back to 1956, then filling in the dozen or so spots left. That didn't really end up with my hundred favorites, because some years are much better than others, but it was fun.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.com