Posted by Sunrise Moon on April 13, 2018, 11:47 pm
50.24.49.x
"Tired of being reminded by other magazines that the best albums in the world were made by The Beatles, Beach Boys and Rolling Stones? So is The Wire magazine. They polled their writers to come up with a guide to 100 records that should have ignited the world's imagination, except that everyone else was fiddling..."
The list, in no order:
Charles Ives * Symphony No. 4 (1910-16) (Grammophon) 88
Blind Willie Johnson * "Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground" (Columbia) 29
Bob Graettinger * City Of Glass/This Modern World (Capitol) 53
Louis & Bebe Barron * Forbidden Planet OST (Small Planet) 56
Esquivel And His Orchestra * Other Worlds Other Sounds (RCA) 58
The Blue Men * I Hear A New World (RGM White Label/RPM) 60
Joe Harriott * Abstract (Columbia/Capitol) 61
Son House * The Original Delta Blues (Columbua/Legacy) 64
William S. Burroughs * Call Me Burroughs (ESP) 65
Steve Reich * Early Works: Come Out/It's Gonna Rain (Elektra) 65
Albert Ayler * In Greenwich Village (Impulse!) 67
Bill Dixon Orchestra * Intents And Purposes (RCA) 67
Gottfried Michael Koenig * Terminus II/Funktion Grun (Deutsche Grammophon) 67
Sun Ra * Strange Strings (Saturn) 67
Blue Cheer * Vincebus Eruptum (Philips) 68
Dr. John the Night Tripper * Gris-Gris (Atco) 68
Pearls Before Swine * Balaklava (ESP) 68
Spontaneious Music Ensemble * Karyobin (Chronoscope) 68
The United States Of America (CBS) 68
El Camaron De La Isla & Paco De Lucia * Al Verte Las Floras Lloran (Philips) 69
Ram John Holder * Black London Blues (Beacon) 69
Phil Ochs * Rehearsals For Retirement (A&M) 69
Buffy Sainte-Marie * Illuminations (Vanguard) 69
Sonny Sharrock * Black Woman (Vortex) 69
Silver Apples * Contact (Kapp Records) 69
Alexander 'Skip' Spence * Oar (Columbia) 69
Kevin Ayers & The Whole World * Shooting At The Moon (Harvest) 70
Comus * First Utterance (BGO) 70
Michael Gibbs (Deram) 70
Alvin Lucier * I Am Sitting In A Room (Lovely Music) 70
Cluster * Cluster 71 (Philips/Sky) 71
The Last Poets (Douglas Music) 71
The Master Musicians Of Jajouka * Brian Jones Presents The Pipes Of Pan At Jajouka (Rolling Stones) 71
John Cale * Paris 1919 (Reprise) 72
Alice Coltrane * Universal Consciousness (Impulse!) 72
Miles Davis * On The Corner (Columbia) 72
Hugh Hopper * 1984 (CBS/Cuneiform) 72
Modern Lovers * The Original Modern Lovers (Mohawk) 72
Annette Peacock * I'm The One (RCA) 72
Pierre Akendengue * Nandipo (Saravah) 73
Faust * The Faust Tapes (Virgin) 73
Herbie Hancock * Sextant (Columbia) 73
Larry Young * Lawrence Of Newark (Perception) 73
Betty Davis * They Say I'm Different (Vinyl Experience) 74
Lewis Furey (A&M) 75
Pere Ubu * "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" (Hearthan) 75
Lee Perry * Revolution Dub (Cactus) 75
Lou Reed * Metal Machine Music (RCA) 75
The Electric Eels * "Cyclotraon/Agitated" 7" (Rough Trade) 77
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band * Bat Chain Puller (Unreleased) 76
Henry Cow * Concerts (Recommended) 76
The Residents * Satisfaction (Ralph) 76
Johnny 'Guitar' Watson * Ain't That A b###h (DJM) 76
Ornette Coleman * Dancing In Your Head (A&M) 77
Glenn Gould * The Solitude Trilogy (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) 67-77
Al Green * The Belle Album (Motown) 77
Ron 'Pate's Debonairs featuring Rev Fred Lane * Raudeluna's 'Pataphysical Revue (Say Day Bew) 77
Iggy Pop & James Williamson * Kill City (Bomp) 77
Tim Souster * Swit Drimz (Transatlantic) 77
The Human League * Being Boiled (Fast Product) 78
The Walker Brothers * Nite Flights (GTO Records) 78
Chrome * Half Machine Lip Moves (Siren/Beggars Banquet) 79
Lol Coxhill * Digswell Duets (Random Radar) 79
Robert Fripp * Exposure (EG/Polydor) 79
Nurse With Wound * Chance Meeting On A Dissecting Table Of A Sewing Machine And An Umbrella (United Dairies) 79
Family Fodder * Monkey Banana Kitchen (Fresh) 80
Fire Engines * Get Up And Use Me (Pop: Aural) 80
La Nimba De N'Zerekore * Gon Bia Bia (Syliphone) 80
Nancy Sesay & The Melodaires * C'est Fab 7" (It's War Boys) 80
Monoton * Monotonprodukt 07 (Monotonprodukt) 81
Derek Bailey * Aida (Incus/Dexter's Cigar) 82
Bad Brains (ROIR) 82
Kip Hanrahan * Desire Develops An Edge (American Clave) 83
Youssou N'Dour * Djamil (Senegalese Cassette) 83
Mark Stewart & The Maffia * Learning To Cope With Cowardice (On-U Sound) 83
Jonathan Harvey * Bhakti (NMC) 84
The Homosexuals (Recommended) 84
Chaba Fadella & Cheb Sahraoui * N'Sel Fik (Factory/Mango) 85
Christian Marclay * Record Without A Cover (Recycled) 85
Arthur Russell * World of Echo (Upside/Rough Trade) 86
Fingers Inc * Another Side (Trax) 88
Conlon Nancarrow * Studies For Player Piano (Wergo) 88
Dead C * Trapdoor ####ing Exit (Siltbreeze) 90
Royal Trux * Twin Infinitives (Drag City) 90
Fushitsusha * DBL Live (PSF) 91
Public Enemy * Apocalypse 91 ... The Enemy Strikes Black (Def Jam) 91
Galina Ustvolskaya * No. 1 (Hat Art) 91
Steven Jesse Bernstein * Prison (Sub Pop) 92
Bally Sagoo * Wham Bam 2: The Second Massacre (Oriental Star Agencies) 92
Luke Skywalker * "I Wanna Rock" 12" (Luke Records) 92
Bernhard Gunter * Un Peu De Neige Salie (Selektion/Table of the Elements) 93
Ken Ishii * Garden On The Palm (R&S) 93
Jean C Roche * A Nocturne Of Nightingales (Sittele) 93
Jeff Mills * X-103 Atlantis (Axis/Tresor) 93
Paul Dolden * L'Ivresse De La Vitesse (Empreintes Digitales) 94
4 Hero * Parallele Universe (Reinforced) 94
Joey Beltram * Places (Tresor) 95
Oval * 94 Diskont (Mille Plateaux) 95
Tony Conrad * Four Violins (Table Of The Elements) 97
Cathy Lane * Nesting Stones (Unknown Public) 98
Bonus: another list from The Guardian that's supposed to use the same criteria but seems to me to be much more mainstream: https://web.archive.org/web/20071018033712/http://www.rocklistmusic.co.uk:80/guardian100.htm#Alternative%20top%20100%20albums%20ever
I'd be curious to hear what you guys think should be included in a list like this
Also, what's with the Babble footer that says "I'm serious as cancer I'm as serious as cancer"? Some in-joke from 1999?