895. fog on the Tyne

“I knew nothing about Lindisfarne other than the fact that they were on Charisma, the same label that Genesis got started on. Which is why my friend Carl’s big brother bought Lindisfarne Live. He figured any album with that Mad Hatter graphic in the middle couldn’t be bad. He listened to it once, and (not being into ‘folk shit’) gave it to Carl, who didn’t think much of it himself, so it ended up with me, buried in the deep end of my collection, barely listened to for at least a decade before I dragged it out one sloppy, stoned 1980s evening, and holy shit, it was fun, it had edge, it had drunken British hippie folkies taking wets on the wall. Radical shit.” (Philip Random)

lindisfarne-live

896. groovy times

The Clash telling it like it was in 1979 (and now for that matter). Got a problem with the weight of the world? You’re just not thinking, grooving, acting fast enough. In fact, they were so prolific (and good) at the time that they dropped Groovy Times as a b-side. First band since the Beatles to be that hot. And probably the last.

clash-1979

898. si tu dois partir

Wherein English folk outfit Fairport Convention take a Bob Dylan ditty, flip it into French and score a minor hit. And why not? It’s got a got a good groove and there’s no arguing with Sandy Denny‘s voice, whatever language she’s singing. From an album called Unhalfbricking that, for all its good time vibes, marked a tragic moment for the band as drummer Martin Lamble and friend Jeannie Franklyn were killed in a car accident barely two months before its release. They would carry on.

fairportconvention-1969

899. from the air

Nothing sounded stranger, cooler, more fiercely new in 1982 than Big Science, Laurie Anderson’s debut album. But strip away the art-scene façade and, “She’s just a nice young lady playing her fiddle and telling stories. What’s so odd about that?” (to quote a Texan club owner from back in the day). From The Air would’ve been the one about the plane crash where the pilot thought he’d have some wordplay fun on the way down.

laurieanderson-1982

900. stereotype/stereotypes

The Specials were one of many so-called Two-Tone outfits to come out of England at the end of the 1970s. But come their second album, it was pretty clear they wanted to do more than just party hard, with Stereotypes (particularly the dubbed out second part) a solid example of people having wigged out fun in a recording studio. Marijuana may have been involved.

specials-1980

901. new day rising

The Electric Light Orchestra still had a few things to work out come their third album On The Third Day, starting with that cover. What’s with the exposed navels, gentlemen? Is that really the best way to entice us all unto the mystical, magical musical wonders contained therein? Everything from fierce electrified rock to the resolutely Beatlesque expansions of New World Rising. Even John Lennon was proving a fan.

elo-1973