Rutlefan

Add the Beatles' blue album and a Beach Boys compilation (Good Vibrations) and those are my early five for rock. You certainly didn't build your musical house on sand; that's as strong a foundation as I can imagine! I oddly didn't "discover" The Beatles until I was in college. Though I liked their individual stuff, the contrarian in me rejected The Beatles over the years because they were so big, so popular, so everything. I couldn't imagine they deserved the press and adulation so I sort of scoffed at them as puffed up Monkees. Then I heard Tomorrow Never Knows, Dear Prudence, Across the Universe, Long Long Long, the Help! LP, etc etc, and I thought, WTF have I been missing! It was a conversion experience, seeing something for the first time that had been in front of my face for many years. I still look back fondly at the first two to three years where I got to revel in The Beatles as an adult (or adult-ish I suppose). Imagine hearing Sgt. Peppers or the White Album for the first time as a twenty year-old.

It's certainly an endearing apathy. I'll have to add one of my favorite songs ever, The Replacement's I Will Dare Along with Teenage Fanclub, my favorite band that worships at the feet of Alex Chilton

So I'll be driving a car from deep in the Midwest to Maryland (after flying out to pick it up). No tech except a 6 CD changer in the trunk, not counting the in-dash cassette player and radio. Fourteen hour drive so I'm estimating 18-20 discs. What would your lineups be? This is what I'm planning. It's a metallic black V8 sedan from the '90s so that colors my choices. If it were a '60s convertible or an '80s coup, it would be different, but this is a big, black car and I want groups with some heft. 1st line, all Rush (I'm baptizing it as a Rush car): 2112 through MP with ESL and Signals backing up to complete the (to me) essential run. 2nd line: Wish You Were Here, The Beatles (2 discs), Abbey Road, Physical Graffiti (2 discs) 3rd line. Still up in the air. Likely, either all The Church (Priest=Aura, Hologram of Baal, After Everything Now This, Back with Two Beasts, Forget Yourself, Further/Deeper) or all Radiohead (The Bends b-sides, OK Computer, OK Computer b-sides, Kid A, Amnesiac, and HTTT), or I could do another various artists, which might be Echo and the Bunnymen's Porcupine, London Calling, Sandanista! (2 discs), Psychedelic Furs (debut), and Big Country's The Crossing. I think I'm leaning towards a second various lineup. None of these lineups has anything to do with matching the era of the car to the era of music. If that is something I consider, I'd go with Pixies' Tromp Le Monde, My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, REM's Automatic for the People, U2's Achtung Baby, Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, and Nirvana's Nevermind for the 3rd line.

If I'd included Rush among mine we'd have a 60% overlap -- The Beatles, MP and Nevermind. I might have included S & G's Greatest Hits too. That, Elton John Greatest Hits, and Wings Over America were my trinity of favorites when I first really got into music in early grade school (once I'd moved past Three Dog Night, which was my entry drug). From there it was Kiss, Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Rush, and on, but for a good couple years, I saw no reason to listen to anything besides S&G, Elton John, and Wings. Even now I can kind of sympathize with that view.

Not counting Rush, in which case ATWAS, Hemi, PeW, MP and ESL might make up my top five, I'd go: Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti Wire - Change Becomes Us Radiohead - OK Computer The Beatles - The Beatles Nirvana - Nevermind

1990's tribute album Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye is FANTASTIC! The songs, the bands, it's top shelf all the way through. Since Goose mentioned Ghost's cover of If You Have Ghosts, here's John Wesley Harding's fantastic go: Reverberation (Doubt) - ZZ Top If You Have Ghosts - John Wesley Harding & The Good Liars I Had to Tell You - Poi Dog Pondering She Lives (In a Time of Her Own) - Judybats Slip Inside This House - Primal Scream You Don't Love Me Yet - Bongwater I Have Always Been Here Before - Julian Cope You're Gonna Miss Me - Doug Sahm & Sons It's a Cold Night For Alligators - Southern Pacific Fire Engine - Richard Lloyd Bermuda - Vibrating Egg I Walked With a Zombie - R.E.M. Earthquake - Butthole Surfers Don't Slander Me - Lou Ann Barton Red Temple Prayer (Two Headed Dog) - Sister Double Happiness Burn the Flames - Thin White Rope Postures (Leave Your Body Behind) - Chris Thomas[7] featuring Tabby Thomas Nothing in Return - T-Bone Burnett Splash #1 - The Mighty Lemon Drops We Sell Soul - Lyres White Faces - Angry Samoans Reverberation (Doubt) - The Jesus and Mary Chain

A few more I overlooked... Blister in the Sun by The Violent Femmes (could have included a number of songs from their debut) That's When I Reach for My Revolver by Mission of Burma Travels in Nihilon by XTC I'm Only You by Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult

"Murmur and Reckoning are fantastic. Two of the best albums of the 80's" Yup, I loved those. Still do.

I love R.E.M. I went through a big R.E.M. phase, where they had essentially replaced Rush in importance in my heart. I like a lot of their stuff, but I eventually settled on Life's Rich Pageant as being my favorite album of theirs. Document, Green, Out of Time, and Automatic for the People are all excellent too, of course. EDITED TO SAY: and oh yes, I put the Psychedelic Furs "Talk Talk Talk," "Forever Now" (I love the title track!), and "Mirror Moves" in heavy rotation during my senior year of HS and immediately after! I saw the Furs in concert, and you'd be surprised what an amazing live act they were. - I love most of their stuff as well but Life's Rich Pageant, Out of Time and Automatic for the People would be my favorites, esp. Automatic. I remember reading a rock critic comment that just when he'd had enough of the U.S. and was ready to move to New Zealand R.E.M. releases Out of Time and he's convinced to stay. They didn't quite hold that power over me but from Fables of the Reconstruction through Automatic for the People they were among my very favorite bands for sure.

I overlooked The Pretenders, amazingly. I'll add Brass in Pocket, Talk of the Town, and Message of Love to my list(s). Also The Romantics' What I Like About You though it already got plenty of love. Too good not to own it too. And since I mentioned The Reivers, their song Translate Slowly. p.s. The La's self-titled debut (and final album) came out in Oct of '90. If it had just been ten months earlier I would definitely include the perfect jangle rock tune "There She Goes." It should have been an '80s tune. p.p.s. Just realized the P-Furs debut snuck in the decade so I'll add India and Sister Europe. Might as well add Imitation of Christ too. This was just three months after London Calling. I had no idea at the time how spoiled we music listeners were. Late '70s/early '80s was similar to '65 through '69 (I'll end it with Abbey Road); classics released every few months.

I think I understand what you are saying, and I get it, but I lived through the '80s as a high school/college type (graduated in '88) and R.E.M. was EXACTLY what we thought of as "'80s music" at the time, along with U2, Husker Du, The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Talking Heads, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen, etc. etc. What people generally refer to now as "'80s music", as a genre, was the krahp that the people who we thought had good taste didn't listen to, no matter how popular it might have been. We didn't at the time though think of the krahp as "'80s music," it was just aural blight, like much of what one hears today. Again, R.E.M. -- definitely not krahp -- was quintessential '80s music to us... it was not what you had heard in even the late '70s, which was a pretty forward-looking period. Thinking back to college, if I had to name two groups -- of all the fantastic groups of that time -- that seemed to capture the spirit of the mid-'80s for me and my friends, it would probably be R.E.M. and The Smiths, with all due respect to U2. Sometimes hard to believe that R.E.M. was at one time the biggest band on the planet, but from '87's Document through '91's Out of Time (or '92's Automatic for the People maybe, which is my favorite) they were. Even before that, from their first album through Life's Rich Pageant, they were the world's best college rock/indie band (are you an indie band if signed with I.R.S. records? I honestly don't know how that works.) Speaking of Springsteen, Van Halen, R.E.M. and Def Leppard, I should add: I'm on Fire by Bruce Springsteen Panama by Van Halen Let it Go by Def Leppard Let's Go Crazy by Prince Fall on Me by R.E.M. I graduated hs in ‘90 so I know what you mean. But think about smack dab in the middle of the 80s, 1985. Virtually nobody would’ve immediately said “Driver 8” is what they think of as 80s music. ((Imho, it just happened to be better than 95% of other music out at the time)). In 1985, people would’ve said something from U2, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Def Lepard, Men at Work, Prince, and the like. For lack of a better description, R.E.M.'s music was more organic than most of their contemporaries. They avoided most of the 1980's production techniques. Country grunge. I'd grant that through Life's Rich Pageant; from Document on they were a pretty polished act. I think of that divide on each side of Dead Letter Office as two really distinct phases. I loved both but I think you and JB are on to something with the early phase; they were a kind of granola indie act, which wasn't a new genre but the way R.E.M. combined that with widespread appeal was fairly trailblazing. There were some good imitators that came along, the most notable by my recollection being The Reivers (originally Zeitgeist before another band claimed the name). Debut album Translate Slowly is really great. Point is though that there was a movement of music along the lines of R.E.M. -- a mid-'80s movement -- though R.E.M. is the signature act no doubt. My introduction to R.E.M. was at The Police's Synchronicity show at D.C.'s Capital Centre. R.E.M opened. I had no idea who they were at the time though a friend with me had seen Radio Free Europe on MTV. I remember a shirtless Michael Stipe striking me as one weird dude (which it turns out is mostly true, but in a good way) and the song Pilgrimage. Anyway, I liked them enough to immediately pick up Murmur. I recorded it on the flip side of Big Country's The Crossing, and that cassette got more play than any other that coming year (my senior year in HS) for sure. The P-Furs' Talk Talk Talk and Forever Now combo was a strong second. What a great decade for music.

I think I understand what you are saying, and I get it, but I lived through the '80s as a high school/college type (graduated in '88) and R.E.M. was EXACTLY what we thought of as "'80s music" at the time, along with U2, Husker Du, The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Talking Heads, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen, etc. etc. What people generally refer to now as "'80s music", as a genre, was the krahp that the people who we thought had good taste didn't listen to, no matter how popular it might have been. We didn't at the time though think of the krahp as "'80s music," it was just aural blight, like much of what one hears today. Again, R.E.M. -- definitely not krahp -- was quintessential '80s music to us... it was not what you had heard in even the late '70s, which was a pretty forward-looking period. Thinking back to college, if I had to name two groups -- of all the fantastic groups of that time -- that seemed to capture the spirit of the mid-'80s for me and my friends, it would probably be R.E.M. and The Smiths, with all due respect to U2. Sometimes hard to believe that R.E.M. was at one time the biggest band on the planet, but from '87's Document through '91's Out of Time (or '92's Automatic for the People maybe, which is my favorite) they were. Even before that, from their first album through Life's Rich Pageant, they were the world's best college rock/indie band (are you an indie band if signed with I.R.S. records? I honestly don't know how that works.) Speaking of Springsteen, Van Halen, R.E.M. and Def Leppard, I should add: I'm on Fire by Bruce Springsteen Panama by Van Halen Let it Go by Def Leppard Let's Go Crazy by Prince Fall on Me by R.E.M. I graduated hs in ‘90 so I know what you mean. But think about smack dab in the middle of the 80s, 1985. Virtually nobody would’ve immediately said “Driver 8” is what they think of as 80s music. ((Imho, it just happened to be better than 95% of other music out at the time)). In 1985, people would’ve said something from U2, Michael Jackson, Van Halen, Duran Duran, Def Lepard, Men at Work, Prince, and the like. Drive 8 was very popular on college radio (I'd guess you're aware). Funny thing is that though I loved R.E.M. I didn't really like Driver 8. Driver 8 needs a break, he should take a break, that Driver 8, they've been on on that shift too long, I get it. But last week I heard it on Sirius XM and really enjoyed it. I guess it really shines in comparison to most things played today.

I think I understand what you are saying, and I get it, but I lived through the '80s as a high school/college type (graduated in '88) and R.E.M. was EXACTLY what we thought of as "'80s music" at the time, along with U2, Husker Du, The Clash, The Cure, The Smiths, New Order, Talking Heads, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen, etc. etc. What people generally refer to now as "'80s music", as a genre, was the krahp that the people who we thought had good taste didn't listen to, no matter how popular it might have been. We didn't at the time though think of the krahp as "'80s music," it was just aural blight, like much of what one hears today. Again, R.E.M. -- definitely not krahp -- was quintessential '80s music to us... it was not what you had heard in even the late '70s, which was a pretty forward-looking period. Thinking back to college, if I had to name two groups -- of all the fantastic groups of that time -- that seemed to capture the spirit of the mid-'80s for me and my friends, it would probably be R.E.M. and The Smiths, with all due respect to U2. Sometimes hard to believe that R.E.M. was at one time the biggest band on the planet, but from '87's Document through '91's Out of Time (or '92's Automatic for the People maybe, which is my favorite) they were. Even before that, from their first album through Life's Rich Pageant, they were the world's best college rock/indie band (are you an indie band if signed with I.R.S. records? I honestly don't know how that works.) Speaking of Springsteen, Van Halen, R.E.M. and Def Leppard, I should add: I'm on Fire by Bruce Springsteen Panama by Van Halen Let it Go by Def Leppard Let's Go Crazy by Prince Fall on Me by R.E.M.

One I missed... though not a big DP fan always loved this: The Sun and the Rainfall by Depeche Mode Should also add these to Procession: Everything's Gone Green & Ultraviolence by New Order Also this, though generally SP too abrasive/amelodic for my tastes: Love by Skinny Puppy And these: Cities in Dust by Siouxsie and the Banshees Tower of Strength by The Mission Walk to the Water & Luminous Times (Hold on to Love) by U2

The one thing I really wish my wife was into, that she's not, is '80s music. But, was before her time, and we're not into the same stuff generally. I always kind of hoped I'd marry someone who likes to stay up all night listening to music, drinking wine, and what better music than '80s music? (maybe '60s, though obviously every decade has great stuff of course; even this last I imagine though I'm largely unaware of it outside of a few bands). Anyway, I fully endorse your '80s dance idea!

I'm a HUGE Church fan! In my top ten bands easily; sometimes top five. Can't believe I overlooked them; corrected in second post. I listed three songs; I could have listed many. They're still making great music, better than ever arguably (though Starfish was probably their high mark in terms of mainstream appeal, along with Heyday).

A few more: Uncertain Smile by The The (& Giant & Perfect) That's Entertainment by The Jam Save it for Later by The English Beat Once in a Lifetime by The Talking Heads Rain by Tones on Tail Golden Brown by The Stranglers A Night Like This by The Cure Wishing (I Had a Photograph of You) by Flock of Seagulls Eyes Without a Face by Billy Idol Drive by The Cars Six Months in a Leaky Boat by The Split Enz Games Without Frontiers by Peter Gabriel (& Biko) 88 Lines About 44 Women by The Nails Turning Japanese by The Vapors Pablo Picasso by Burning Sensations Roadrunner by The Jazz Butcher Wild Sex (In the Working Class) by Oingo Boingo If You Were Here by Thompson Twins A New Season by The Church (& Constant in Opal & It's No Reason)

I'd rather listen to Joshua Tree today but when it came out I was falling out of love with U2 whereas Synchronicity hit me in full Police stride so I'll go with Synchronicity for the sake of nostalgia. I chose Bono (is that a compliment?) because Sting is as bad as they get; he sets the standard.

^ A good article on the subject. Pretty cool:

My favorite decade. Favorite songs... starting with a few: How Soon is Now by The Smiths Procession by New Order Twist by Tones on Tail The Exploding Boy by The Cure (& The Forest & In Between Days) All of Us by Big Country (& Come Back to Me & Porrohman) The Call Up by The Clash Invisible Sun by The Police (& Regatta de Blanc) Madman's Honey by Wire The Beginning and the End by OMD Where is My Mind? by Pixies Come Before Christ and Murder Love by Death in June All of This and Nothing by The Psychedelic Furs Topaz by The B-52's Haunted When the Minutes Drag by Love and Rockets Lorelei by Cocteau Twins (& Those Eyes, That Mouth) Promise Me by The Gun Club (& The Breaking Hands & Port of Souls) Song to the Siren by This Mortal Coil (& The Jeweller) Boy (Go) by The Golden Palominos The Morning Fog by Kate Bush Keep it Dark by Genesis Our Love Lies by Swans Life Goes On by The Damned (thank you Lucas!) Are You Experienced? by Devo Vienna by Ultravox When the Walls Came Down by The Call Going Down to Liverpool by The Bangles Cruel Summer by Banarama Maps and Legends by R.E.M. My White Devil by Echo and the Bunnymen (& Over the Wall & In Bluer Skies) Conspiracy (You'll Be Alright) by The Jazz Butcher (& Hungarian Love Song) Since You're Gone by The Cars (& Touch and Go) Straight into Darkness by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers We Belong by Pat Benatar Europa and the Pirate Twins by Thomas Dolby Johnson's Aeroplane by INXS

Back in '91 I'm sitting in a bar in Sasebo Japan and Nirvana's Nevermind was being played front to back. Though I had heard Smells Like Teen Spirit I hadn't heard the album as it was still pretty new. When Come As You Are started playing I commented to my friend that it was Killing Joke's Eighties riff. Nirvana even had to settle with KJ later. I wasn't aware of the The Damned tune though. If I were Nirvana I would have told KJ to take a hike and point to The Damned track, which is fantastic!; I can't believe I'd never heard it before. I'll have to check out more of The Damned. They're already behind one of my favorite songs from the era, In Dulce Decorum:

Like them all but The Clash was the easy vote in both.

Not classic rock but... Wire protested and there was a settlement which resulted in the credits being re-written. What I don't get is that Elastica had been pretty vocal about being Wire fans; so why not just be up front that the song is part tribute.

Won't argue, I wavered on that one, but it's become the "in" deep cut lately so I didn't go with it. The Beatles Channel loves the song and I've seen/heard some covers the last couple years, this being the most memorable. Great stuff.

My British Boy Band list, thinking She's a Woman, Norwegian Wood, Tomorrow Never Knows, Baby You're a Rich Man, Dear Prudence and Across the Universe, though not singles (though Baby You're a... was a b-side), are too-well known by even casual listeners. Also, I realize No Reply and I'm a Loser lead Beatles for Sale, but I figure that understated but very excellent album is pretty much all deep cuts apart from Eight Day a Week. Things We Said Today No Reply I'm a Loser I Don't Want to Spoil the Party I'm Looking Through You I'm Only Sleeping For No One It's All Too Much Julia Long, Long, Long Because