"I celebrate the entire catalog"
pickwick33
8,946 Posts
Inevitably, it happens...somebody will start an appreciation thread, then after five or six posts of kudos, someone will invariably say, "oh, I liked their early albums on Perception before they went disco," or "when they dropped that tuba player on the fourth LP, that's when they improved" or "I liked the later records on Project 3 after they got scalded by a pot of hot grits."And that round of posts will be followed by "I celebrate the entire catalog" (which is used so often it oughta be an emoticon by now).So, let's break it down...Most artists who have made more than five LP's seem to have some kind of period where they jumped the shark and stopped being revelant.Whose catalog do you REALLY celebrate all the way through? I don't mean artists who you dig so much that you accept their shit even when you KNOW they're not on their game, but acts who always seem to have inspiration even when coked-up, half-asleep or trying to Keep Up With The Trends?Here's mine:Doug SahmGeorge Clinton (Parliament, Funkadelic, everything)James BrownJohn Lee HookerJohnny Cash Otis ReddingCharlie FeathersOtis ClayJerry Lee LewisConsolersNow these acts may have had an off-day or two, but remained consistent through their run. Who are yours?
Comments
an obvious co-sign from me on that.
Yes
massive cosign here, cant believe he slipped my mind - even his last album from 13 years ago was some kind of alright
Velvet Underground
John Coltrane
Donny Hathaway
Booket T and The MGs
D'Angelo
Sir Douglas Quintet
Pharoah Sanders
Sonny Clark
Tina Brooks
The Everly Brothers
Judas Priest (not including post Halford)
Misfits
Minutemen/firehose
Black Flag
Circle Jerks
AC/DC (30 years of goodness excuses that last tepid turd)
ahmad jamal
ramsey lewis
fatback band
jimmy mcgriff
ike and tina
oliver sain
Many artists named fall into this catergory, especially those that died young (Donny Hathway, Otis). Going by the original post, its people with 5 albums plus, excluding people like D'Angelo. My two contributions would be
--Fleetwood Mac
--Talking Heads
--De La Soul
--Sade
Soft Machine
Zapp/Roger
James Brown
king crimson
Led Zepplin
Gang Starr
Del the Funky...
Ghostface
I knew I forgot someone
Nina Simone
Otis Redding
Wu Tang Clan
Ghostface
Velvet Underground
De La Soul
Bad Brains
John Coltrane
Archie Shepp
Horace Andy
Charles Mingus
Monk
Hancock
Jay Dee
Alice Coltrane
James Brown
Sonic Youth
Modest Mouse (yes even when they went mainstream)
De La
Nina Simone
The Rolling Stones
Pink Floyd
Jimi Hendrix
Neil Young
Sly & The Family Stone
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
Charles Mingus
Duke Ellington
Billy Childish
Fela Kuti
Sunday Manoa
Loggins & Messina
Hui Ohana
Ravi Shankar
Gabby Pahinui
Melvins
The Mummies
Hell Cows
The Beatles
Beck
Outkast
Cymande
The Meters
Shuggie Otis
Geto Boys
Organized Konfusion
PUTS
Honorable mentions (not every album, but close):
Fela Kuti
Van Morrison
Led Zeplin
Manu Chao
Can
Gangstarr
De La
James Brown
ATCQ
Heiro
I'm sure there are others I'm fogetting...
It doesn't have to be every last album these artists ever recorded - a few off-days are okay - but at least most of them. Bobby "Blue" Bland's MCA recordings are mediocre, but seldom bad, and for that reason I Celebrate His Entire Catalog, because one or two turds couldn't kill the thrill of his classics.
kirk
the only artist i can think of who didn't make a bad record?
There is a .gif that some people use and it's my favorite .gif/graemlin on this board. It has the dude from "Office Space".
BIG TIME
not saying its bad, just not celebrated like other meters albums