color of the blues
I was gonna write something about the great blues singer Bobby “Blue” Bland recent death but really felt I had nothing much to add to the conversation. I’d seen him live a couple of times and found him quite good but other than that, I had nothing. Then I thought I might write about the first time I’d become aware of him. 1982, Elvis Costello covered “Two Steps From The Blues” on the Imperial Bedroom tour (I think, something around that time) and blew me away and so i started listening to him.
So I googled Costello and Blue Bland and what I found was an old Vanity Affair with Costello’s 500 must own albums. So I cribbed it, and here is the first installment, A – D
ABBA
Subway To The Country (1969)
That’s No Reason To Cry
The Best Of Cannonball Adderley (1968)
Mercy, Mercy, Mercy
The Maudlin Years (1996)
The Whiskey Makes You Sweeter
Lingo (1998)
Gramigna
The Complete Hot Five and Hot Seven Recordings (2000)
Wild Man Blues
Tight Like This
The Well-Tempered Clavier (Edwin Fischer; 1934)
The Six Cello Suites (Pablo Casals; 1936)
Six Partitas BWV 825-830 (Andras Schiff; 1984)
Mass in B Minor (conductor: Otto Klemperer; 1999)
Broken Wing (1978)
The Band (1969)
The Unfaithful Servant
The Monkey (1985)
Six String Quartets (Emerson String Quartet; 1988)
If You Love Me, 18th Century Italian Songs (1992)
Alessandro Parisott – Se Tu M’Ami
Antonio Vivaldi – Sposa son disprezzata
Carl and the Passions – “So Tough” (1972)
Cuddle Up
Holland (1973)
The Trader
Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of the Beach Boys (boxed set; 1993)
Surf’s Up
Wonderful
Paul’s Boutique (1989)
Shadrach
A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
Things We Said Today
Rubber Soul (1965)
Girl
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
A Day In The Life
The Beatles (White Album; 1968)
I’m So Tired
Odelay (1996)
The New Pollution
Best Of Bee Gees (1969)
To Love Somebody
Otto Klemperer Live At The Concertgebouw (1954)
Symphony No. 9; Piano Sonatas Op. 109, 110, 111 (Sviatoslav Richter; 1965)
Symphony No. 7 (conductor: Carlos Kleiber; 1975)
Late Quartets (Budapest String Quartet; 1997)
Violin Concerto (soloist: Yehudi Menuhin; 1997)
Derek Bell Plays With Himself (1981)
The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album (1975)
Some Other Time
Violin Concerto (soloist: Anne-Sofie Mutter; 1993)
Damnation Of Faust (conductor: John Eliot Gardiner; 1987)
West Side Story (1957)
Debut (1993)
Venus As A Boy
Post (1995)
Hyper-ballad
Buscando America (1984)
The Best Of Blondie (1981)
In The Flesh
13 (1999)
No Distance Left To Run
Lyrics For Lovers (1960)
A Foggy Day
Hunky Dory (1971)
Life On Mars?
Station To Station (1976)
Wild Is The Wind
Low (1977)
Always Crashing In The Same Car
Heroes (1977)
Joe The Lion
Ein Deutsches Requiem (conductor: Otto Klemperer; 1962)
Hang On In There Baby (1974)
Serenade For Tenor, Horn And Strings (soloist: Ian Bostridge; 1996)
Driftin’ Blues: The Best Of Charles Brown (1992)
Black Night
Clifford Brown With Strings (1955)
Yesterdays
Live At The Apollo (1963)
I Found Someone
Star Time (boxed set; 1991)
Talkin’ Loud & Sayin’ Nothing
Jackson Browne (Saturate Before Using) (1972)
My Opening Farewell
Symphony No. 9 (conductor: Gunter Wand; 1990)
Grace (1994)
Corpus Christi Carol
Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror (1980)
Above Chiangmai
Retrospective: The Best Of Buffalo Springfield (1969)
Expecting To Fly
Bulgarian State Radio & Television Female Choir
Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares (1990)
Proof Through The Night (1983)
Fatally Beautiful
T Bone Burnett (1986)
River Of Love
The Talking Animals (1988)
Image
The Notorious Byrd Brothers (1968)
Goin’ Back
Artificial Energy
Music For A New Society (1982)
Taking Your Life In Your Hands
Five Heroines – Operatic Extracts (1990)
Vissi d’arte
Trout Mask Replica (1969)
The Dust Blows Forward ‘n’ The Dust Blows Back
Clear Spot (1972)
Big Eyed Beans From Venus
Hoagy Sings Carmichael (1956)
Rockin’ Chair
Press On (1999)
Tiffany Anastasia Lowe
Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music (1962)
You Don’t Know Me
Chic’s Greatest Hits (1979)
My Forbidden Lover
Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (pianist, conductor: Krystian Zimerman; 1978)
London Calling (1979)
Rudie Can’t Fail
The Singles (1991)
(White Man) In The Hammersmith Palais
The Ultimate Coasters (1986)
Shoppin’ For Clothes
The Best Of Leonard Cohen (1976)
Who By Fire
More Best Of (1997)
The Future
Tower Of Song
The Shape Of Jazz To Come (1959)
Peace
The Impulse! Years (1993)
A Love Supreme
Paradise And Lunch (1974)
Married Man’s A Fool
Checkin’ In With Don Covay (1989)
It’s Better To Have Than Not Have
The Master’s Voice: His HMV Recordings (1993)
The Stately Homes Of England
His Legendary Years (1993)
Gigi
If I Could Only Remember My Name (1971)
Laughing
Déjà Vu (1970)
Helpless
Temple Of Low Men (1988)
Into Temptation
Voodoo (2000)
Devil’s Pie
Birth Of The Cool (1956)
Boplicity
Miles Ahead (1957)
My Ship
Porgy And Bess (1958)
Bess, You Is My Woman Now
Kind Of Blue (1959)
All Blues
Sketches Of Spain (1960)
My Funny Valentine (1964)
In A Silent Way (1969)
Shhh
On The Corner (1969)
New York Girl
Conception (1975)
Ezz-thetic
Pelléas et Mélisande (conductor: Claudio Abbado; 1992)
Preludes (Krystian Zimerman; 1994)
William Byrd and His Age (1956)
Ye Sacred Muses
The Writing’s On The Wall (1999)
Say My Name
His Best (1997)
Crackin’ Up
Dr. John’s Gumbo (1972)
Junko Partner
Outward Bound (1960)
G.W.
Iron Man (1969)
Come Sunday
Awake Sweet Love (The Deller Consort; 1965)
Flow My Tears
Dowland: The Collected Works (Consort of Musicke; 1980)
A Pilgrimes Solice
Melodies (baritone: Bernard Kruysen; 1971)
Phidyle
September Song (1963)
New Boots And Panties!! (1977)
Sweet Gene Vincent
So Sharp (1983)
Blonde On Blonde (1966)
Most Likely You Go Your Way And I’ll Go Mine
John Wesley Harding (1968)
All Along The Watchtower
Planet Waves (1974)
Dirge
Blood On The Tracks (1974)
You’re A Big Girl Now
The Basement Tapes (1975)
Nothing Was Delivered
Shot Of Love (1981)
Every Grain of Sand
Time Out Of Mind (1997)
Not Dark Yet
