For the past fortnight, I have been scratching my head, suffering from insomnia. It began like this. My friend Rahul DaCunha — adman and theatre personality — nominated me on Facebook to list post the names of my top ten albums of all time. I felt like I had won the Nobel Prize till I discovered he had nominated six others too. The game caught on quite rapidly and many musicians and music lovers have been listing their all-time favourites.
Without batting an eyelid, I listed Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick as my numero uno. I’ve been listening to it since 1982 and even today it gives me a high. But how does one shortlist only ten records out of thousands that have made an impact over the years? Luckily, all respondents stuck to international music, and I decided to do the same. Many mentioned famous albums by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Doors and Deep Purple. My favourites too. But on the second day, I decided to avoid all of them and just stick to any ten that came to mind.
The second one was an easy choice: Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues had always been a favourite, because of its unique concept, and the songs ‘Nights In White Satin’ and ‘Tuesday Afternoon’. The problem began the following day when I named James Blunt’s Back To Bedlam . I love the album, yes, but it’s certainly not my number three. People rudely told me I had lost it, because I wasn’t listing the really great albums. I responded by saying I have twisted the game, and my selection was ‘in no particular order’. Just to be safe.
For the next three days, I listed titles which many found weird, but some warmly appreciated. Plans by Death Cab For Cutie; Throwing Copper by Live and Natural Elements by Shakti. By now, I had admitted there was no logic in what I was doing, as I was mixing genres and eras. Classic rock, alternative rock, pop, Indo-jazz fusion. But then, a game is a game, and I just wanted to be a bit different, so I went Hollywood disco.
Day seven got a great response thanks to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. An entire generation has grown up on those songs, but when it comes to listing, it is often bypassed. The next day was The Sound Of Music , one of the first complete albums I (and others from my generation) first heard back in the 1960s. We continue to love it despite pushing our late 50s.
Somewhere, I mixed up my numbers, and listed three more to make it a top 11. So I put Spanish bagpiper Hevia’s Tierra De Nadie , one of the gems in world music. This was followed by Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill and Queen’s The Works .
When I realised, I’d crossed 10 in my excitement, I decided push for 20. John Mayer’s Paradise Valley and the Grateful Dead’s Blues for Allah followed. While writing this, I am tossing between Traffic’s The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys , Santana’s Zebop! , ABBA’s Arrival and Indian band Rock Machine’s (now known as Indus Creed) Rock ’n’ Roll Renegade . God knows what the final list will turn out to be.
There has been no inclusion of jazz, blues, Western classical music, or reggae so far. Maybe I should convert this top ten into a top 100 list. Somewhere I may mention actual favourites like Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon , Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks , the Beatles’ White Album and Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde . The best part of this game is that I’m revisiting music I haven’t listened to in years.
