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Island 50: Chris Blackwell Picks His Favourite Island Albums
11:17 AM GMT 27/04/2009
"IT'S HARD TO SAY," muses Chris Blackwell when quizzed about which three Island albums he would pick as his most treasured. "But definitely Tea For The Tillerman - every track is a good song, and it is beautifully produced. The sound, everything about it."
Blackwell thinks long and hard before deciding which other albums should join his list alongside Cat Stevens' legendary 1970 album.
"I love Exodus, and I love The Joshua Tree," he says when pushed, reflecting on Bob Marley And The Wailers' 1977 album and U2's epic set from a decade later.
"I think Exodus had a resonance outside of itself," he continues, qualifying his choice. "The songs are really good. It was so exciting working with Bob Marley. It was beyond a record; you felt like you were involved in something so much bigger. That was the time after the Lyceum show in 1975 when Bob really broke, and was on the lips of everyone."
"With The Joshua Tree, I love how the record begins. I love it when a record sets a mood. The whole rest of the album works too. Where The Streets Have No Name is like Natural Mystic. It's the start of a trip."
What, no Fratellis? Or Wynder K Frog? Put Chris Blackwell right and tell us your top three Island albums below...
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 11:17 AM GMT 27/04/2009
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Very hard to pick out three favourite Island albums - out of maybe 50 seminal releases. An additional dozen if you count sublabels as Bronze and Chrysalis.
Anyway, here are the results from a Swedish jury:
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Fairport Convention - Liege and Lief
Free - Heartbreaker
Cheers,
Lasse
Posted by Lasse Stenman at 11:51 AM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Off the top of the dome? Oh, okay then....
1) Nick Drake "Five Leaves Left"
2) PJ Harvey "To Bring You My Love"
3) Free "Fire And Water"
Posted by Psodal at 2:09 PM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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John Martyn Solid Air
Tom Waits Rain Dogs
U2 Achtung, Baby
Posted by Jackson Haring at 9:48 PM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Difficult one this, there's hundreds of possible great albums..........
Here goes:
Free - Highway
Jade Warrior - Way Of The Sun
Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two
Would have been easy asking my top 50
Picking 3 was difficult
Posted by Kevin Brown at 9:59 AM GMT 30/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Astonishingly, I think Chris got it right first tim.
I could probably live without Free's 'Fire and Water' and Fairport Convention's 'Liege & Leif' (though every day would be a struggle), but there is no way I could keep going if I didn't have Cat Stevens to come back to.
As for Bob Marley and U2... Goes without saying.
Posted by Conor at 10:33 AM GMT 30/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Free - 'Fire & Water'
Various - 'Bumpers'
Roxy Music - 'Roxy Music'
All life changers.
Posted by Hugo B at 11:32 AM GMT 30/04/2009 Report Abuse
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I think the island album question is really a way of asking what comfort albums in your collection are you currently listening to. Well, here are my three:
Leonard Cohen - Death of a Ladies Man
Tom Waits - Bone Machine
John Cale - Vintage Violence
Posted by Tiziano Dominico at 6:12 PM GMT 30/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Not hard at all...
1a) In the Court of the Crimson King - King Crimson
b) Lizard - King Crimson
2a) Roxy Music
b) For Your Pleasure - Roxy Music
3a) Another Green World - Eno
b) Here Come the Warm Jets - Eno
c) Taking Tiger Mountain - Eno
...er d) Propaganda - Sparks
e) Indiscreet - Sparks
f) Freedom is Frightening - Stomu Yamashta
g)
h)
etc
In short, Island provided the foundations of my musical education throughout the 70's.
Where is the invention, variety and bravery now?
Ross
Posted by Ross Wakley at 10:20 AM GMT 01/05/2009 Report Abuse
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Good Lord, my top three Island albums...
1) "Unhalfbricking" (1969) - Fairport Convention
"Genesis Hall", Who Knows Where The Time Goes", "A Sailor's Life"...Jeez.
2) "The Harder They Come" Soundtrack (1972) - Jimmy Cliff, et al.
The album that introduced me to reggae music; rare when I can say that an album really did change my life. Every cut is life-affirming, for me.
3) "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonite" (1973, released the following year) - Richard and Linda Thompson
The first of their six albums together. Though "Shoot Out The Lights" got the most attention, this is the one I love the best. Gorgeous, sometimes heartbreaking songs, fantastic musicianship, great vocals (Linda especially). "You can be Lord Jesus, all the world will understand..Down Where The Drunkards Roll..."
4) and 5) I know this is cheating, but I must include The 2nd and 3rd albums by the late, great Ronnie Lane. "Ronnie Lane's Slim Chance" (1975) and "One For The Road" (1976) are, along with his first album (Anymore For Anymore, from 1974, on the GM label) three of the most beautiful, joyous, life-affirming (that concept always pops up when I think of the art that has most moved me)albums I have ever heard. Ronnie made what one reviewer descibed as true "British country music",i.e., music FROM the British countryside, but even that description is not adequate. Island, when will you reissue those two albums properly on CD, with their non-album single tracks as bonus cuts?
Posted by Larry S., Maryland, USA at 3:56 PM GMT 01/05/2009 Report Abuse
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I have to put Rain Dogs first. Great Album with nary a weak track and Waits at his best.
Rain Dogs - Tom Waits
Catch a Fire - The Wailers
Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits
Posted by Kevin, Nova Scotia, Canada at 4:22 PM GMT 01/05/2009 Report Abuse
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1. Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
2. Nick Drake - Bryter Layter
3. Steve Winwood - Arc of a Diver
Honorable Mention:
Swordfishtrombones - Tom Waits
Catch a Fire - Bob Marley and the Wailers
Bad Company - 10 from 6 (I know it's a hits album)
All amazing albums.
P.S. If anyone includes a Bon Joni album on this list they need to be shot with a ball of their own shit!!!
Posted by Swampdog, Canada at 4:36 PM GMT 01/05/2009 Report Abuse
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Free were my favourite band from the Island stable.... I have to say the compilation album Nice Enough to Eat introduced me to the great island acts, but here goes with my three:
1. FREE Free at Last..... this was a troubled time for Free, however mature songs and with Koss reaching deep into his soul to make it all worth while
2. Roxy Music (1st album) takes me back to my school days, the cover, the songs all new and different with a production quality that is rough.. just the way it should be
3. Sharks FIRST WATER, I thought this was a great album, very underated...
Posted by Anonymous at 11:30 PM GMT 03/05/2009 Report Abuse
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Free were my favourite band from the Island stable.... I have to say the compilation album Nice Enough to Eat introduced me to the great island acts, but here goes with my three:
1. FREE Free at Last..... this was a troubled time for Free, however mature songs and with Koss reaching deep into his soul to make it all worth while
2. Roxy Music (1st album) takes me back to my school days, the cover, the songs all new and different with a production quality that is rough.. just the way it should be
3. Sharks FIRST WATER, I thought this was a great album, very underated...
Alan Brown, Ontario, Canada
Posted by Anonymous at 11:32 PM GMT 03/05/2009 Report Abuse
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1) Bob Marley & The Wailers - Rastaman Vibration (I like it far more than Exodus, myself)
2) The Slits - Cut
3) Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy
Posted by J Neo Marvin at 2:31 PM GMT 06/05/2009 Report Abuse
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