What is your must-hear album before you die?
Posted by: HiFiKid on 28 December 2011
All
My wife bought me an interesting book called 1001 must here albums before you die.
What album would you suggest everyone listens to before they die. Based on Musical or historical importance
My choice would be the first Tracy Chapman album. Historically important because of her performance at Live Aid and musically important as a fine album with excellent sound quality.
HiFi Kid
I reckon every child in the UK should be given the Beatles Red and Blue LPs at birth. The vinyl should last them a lifetime, they'll keep the vinyl and turntable producers in business, and they'll learn some wonderful and essential tunes.
Hi Both
It was meant really to see what album people thought was so good or importatant that everybody should make sure they listen to dureing their life time. Not just before your last breath!!!
HiFiKid
This is the number one song in heaven
Written, of course, by the mightiest hand
All of the angels are sheep in the fold of their master
They always follow the Master and his plan
This is the number one song in heaven
Why are you hearing it now, you ask
Maybe you're closer to here than you imagine
Maybe you're closer to here than you care to be ...
If you should die before you wake
If you should die while crossing the street
The song that you'll hear, I guarantee
Rory Gallagher, Irish Tour '74
For those who bought a Christmas present that didn't quite hit the mark, there is "Twenty Seven Yards of Dental Floss and she still won't give me a smile"
The line that gives us all a reality check "The light at the end of the tunnel is the light of an oncoming train"
And a suggested innovation for association football "Wouldn't it be fun if they gave the ref a gun"
And its statement about a love that slipped away in the harrowing "She's in Broadstairs" which contains the couplet "I'm on another planet, she's on the Isle of Thanet"
HMHB have catalogued life as I know it and in this masterful record do it better than ever. I fear many will go to their graves never having heard this bastion of social commentary, but such is life And if I had possession over pancake day then I should instant irate this as our national album before the evening sun goes down.
All the best, Guy
Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde', recorded by Carlos Kleiber for DG in Dresden.
Why? Probably the most sensuous music ever written, directed by the greatest conductor of recent times, and beautifully recorded too. I treasure my 5LP set, but the 3CDs are the only way to listen, each Act on a single CD.
This classic
Why? Because it was a ground breaking recording (the first album ever to have no gaps between tracks) and one of the best album covers ever.
The music and songs were not that bad either 
Stu.
Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde', recorded by Carlos Kleiber for DG in Dresden.
Why? Probably the most sensuous music ever written, directed by the greatest conductor of recent times, and beautifully recorded too. I treasure my 5LP set, but the 3CDs are the only way to listen, each Act on a single CD.
....Steely Dan's Countdown to Ecstasy ....I guess many would choose the glistening perfection of AJA or Gaucho, but for me (and Danny Baker apparently) this is the one album I always come back to.
....Wonderful playing, (sans the sessioneers who came along later) witty and intelligent lyrically, Ecstasy is essentially the nearest Steely came to producing a rock album and it is a rare Steely concert that doesn't end with My Old School. Of course they would go on to produce a clutch of complex jazz orientated immaculately engineered albums but Ecstasy lives up to name - it's a classic pure and simple.
I agree with Jet about 'Countdown to Ecstasy' being a favourite Steely Dan album, perhaps because they had to record it in a hurry during touring, it sounds more like a live band than any of their other albums.
In answer to H-fi Kid's question, the album I would choose would be Led Zeppelin IV (The Four Symbols).
It isn't my favourite album, nor my favourite Led Zeppelin album, but it does stand up as a key album in the development of my musical tastes. As well as rock it covers folk, blues, it hints at prog rock, and has songs that both conform to the verse, chorus x2 middle eight, verse chorus format, but also songs that offer a different take on song structure. Together with the brilliance of the individual musicians, it is an album that I would recommend people give a try to at least once.
The book though was 1001 albums, so in making one choice, you can only cover one area of music, and my choice obviously ignores classical, jazz, electronic, ambient, pop and many other genres. Still it would be a starting place, and I would suspect that is the point.
Jamie
I'm choosing this LP as it was my holy grail until I discovered it in a boot sale in the mid 90's to complete my Blue Horizon album collection. Only 99 copies were pressed and sold by mail order though Rhythm & Blues Monthly. It isn't a great recording but is special to me.
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Steve
Huh - bloody difficult this. It's not about the album it's about one track - Flamenco Sketches on Miles Kind of Blue. It's not about Miles himself but the sheer mood of Adderley and Coltrane - amazing playing - quite amazing.
Erich Kleiber conducting Beethoven's Fifth on Linn Recut.
And Ataulfo Argenta Rodrigo Guitar Concerto.
And Miles Davis Kind of Blue.
And Miles Davis Sketches of Spain.
And Abbey Road.
And David Bowie Low.
Etc.
I will also go with Led Zeppelin 'IV'. There is such a hugh range of styles on this album. Some tracks you 'get' straight away - such as Rock'N'Roll. Others could take a while - Four Sticks, for instance.
When I first got into rock music, I joined the local record library, in order to borrow this. Played it a couple of times - then went and bought my own copy. Never needed to go to the record libary again.
Cardiacs, A man, a house and the whole world window.
I have everything else by them but am finding it very difficult to get my hands on this one at a reasonable price.