Well that clears that up then. Have now moved on to Lipscomb though who is just breaking my heart.

Did she used a pink flamingo?

Ms. Tyler fits me like a flesh tuxedo
She likes to beat me with her pink flamingo

See, it is possible to channel Wonderfalls and Spinal Tap simultaneously. Now, just for Heather, I'll simultaneously channel Manilow and Lipscomb with my rendition of "Oh, Mancey"...

Ahhhhhh! Make it stop!!! If you get me earwormed with that, I'll beat you like I was a nationally syndicated public radio show host!

Oh, all right. I'll simultaneously channel Rod Stewart and Lipscomb:

Wake up, Mancey, I think I got somethin' to say to you...

Must see Rufus someday.

On this topic, I saw him open for Roxy Music a few years back. He was very good, but it was an odd pairing. Roxy was sublime.

.....The Soft Set.....Belle & Sebastian.....Brian Eno ....

I'm so there...

Jim, you didn't rise to my early Ultravoxx bait. No use for their first three albums with Foxx?

I'm so there...

I'll send you the tour schedule. Far as I know, it's all in Austin right now, but I'm hoping that the relative popularity of the band in Britain leads to a short tour there next year. I know my friends in the Mendoza Line have been across the pond twice this year already.

Jim, you didn't rise to my early Ultravoxx bait.

Not Jim, Hec, but I missed the earlier name-drop. I loved the first 3 ablums, especially Systems of Romance. Also loved Foxx's first two albums, but the 2 I got after that (are there any more?), NSM.

Last week Hayden told us about Counterpunch's lists of favorite albums since 1950 as chosen by their contributors. "25 favorite albums [per list] recorded since 1950. Only one entry per artist and no greatest hits collections. Of course, rules are made to be broken and they were." Below is my list culled from their lists. (Coming up with my own would have been too much work.) Some of these would have been on my list and I'm happy with each even if I would not have chosen it had I made a list from scratch. Albums are in chronological order. Within a given year they're in alphabetical order by artist. I also compiled a list of albums that I would not have chosen but that I was delighted to see on someone's list (imperfect albums with GREAT tracks or flawed but favorite artists.) If anyone's interested I'll add comments & post it, too.

1. Robert Johnson: King of the Delta Blues Singers (Columbia, 1961).[Yeah, it was released in the last 50 years, but it was recorded in the late thirties. But if Counterpunch wants to cheat to make a place for something this good I'm not gonna argue.]
2. Thelonious Monk, Brilliant Corners, (Riverside,1957) [The title track was the first Monk I ever heard. Monk at his most extreme and it made complete sense to me. My mother is somewhat horrified that her grandchild will be named Thelonious.]
3. Frank Sinatra: Only the Lonely (1958) [His Capitol recordings are very consistent, but this rises above the others. Very desolate, but you'd be a wreck too if Ava Gardner dumped you. "Angel Eyes" is astonishing, but it's only the second best track--and by a big margin--because "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)" is Sinatra's greatest recording.]
4. Miles Davis: Kind of Blue (1959) [The Sgt. Pepper of jazz, except that it really does live up to its ginormous reputation.]
5. Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Um (1959) [Hell of a line-up: "Better Get Hit in Yo' Soul," "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and "Fables of Faubus"]
6. James Brown-Live at the Apollo (1962) ["Are you ready for star time?" Ohhh yeahh. And James lives up to that billing and every other one Fats Gonder throws in.]
7. John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (1964) [A modern psalm.]
8. Bob Dylan: Highway 61 Revisited (1965) [This would be on my list. My favorite Dylan. Very funny ("Tombstone Blues", title track), very moving ("Like a Rolling Stone", "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues". He'd been at it long enough to have the craft completely down yet it also overflows with the joy and energy of discovery.]
9. Beatles: Revolver (1966) [Rubber Soul is actually my favorite Beatles, but that's splitting hairs: I would not argue against including this.]
10. Aretha Franklin--I Never Loved A Man the Way I Love You (1967) [She's a giant whom I usually appreciate from a distance, but I can't gainsay this one. And the first line of "Do Right Woman" goes a long way toward breaking down my resistance to coronating her The Singer.]
11. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Are You Experienced? (1967, MCA) [One of my gods. Best album of 1967 (Sgt. Pepper, Who Sell Out, I Never Loved a Man..., Velvet Underground and Nico, Forever Changes) and best debut ever, IMHO. Never fails to amaze me. But I do think "Purple Haze" is way overrated.]
12. Van Morrison: Astral Weeks, (1968) [This and Robert Johnson got me through the high school years (the early eighties). I always was a bit out of step. Doesn't make my choices less worthy, though. Pick hit: Richard Davis on "Ballerina".]
13. The Rolling Stones, Beggars Banquet (1968) [Make all the wheelchair jokes and greedy bastard disparagements you want: they didn't give a fuck then and they don't give a fuck now. No false modesty, but also no pointless breast-beating: they were great, maybe the greatest, and they knew it. They backed it up by being the shit, not by telling everyone they were the shit. This is probably my favorite, but I'd be happy with Now or (the English) Aftermath or Let It Bleed or Exile or Sticky Fingers.]
14. Miles Davis-A Tribute to Jack Johnson (1970) [Violates the "one album per artist" rule, but this is SO vastly different from Kind of Blue that... well, that I feel comfortable including it, too. Hendrix was the inspiration, but it doesn't sound like him either. "Right Off" is as aggressive as KoB is mellow. McLaughlin's amazing. Great, great stuff.]
15. Led Zeppelin----IV (1971) [Despite hearing "Stairway to Heaven" at least three times a day from 1978 or 1979 through 1985, AOR and later the classic rock format still couldn't ruin this for me. Hey, David, "Battle of Evermore" is my favorite Sandy Denny performance. Okay, I'm kidding, but I do love this album.]
16. Sly and the Family Stone-There's a Riot Goin' On (1971) [Took me a long time to get into this -- took a long time to find since I bought it long after it came out and almost as long before the CD reissue -- but completely worth it. Great use of space. What a monster talent; what a monstrous waste. Very sad.]
17. Rod Stewart--Every Picture Tells A Story (1971) [What a monster talent; what a monstrous waste. Not so sad. Yeah, he willingly turned himself into a joke. A very rich joke, but still. His catalog may not be as deep as the Stones' (though he made a lot more great recordings than Clapton), you laughers, but this is as great an album as Mick & Keith ever made, certainly more perfect. Great from beginning to end.]
18. The Who - Who's Next (1971) [Another album so good that AOR couldn't kill it. And I'd rather listen to it than "The Who Sell Out" (even if "Tattoo" is the best song on either record.) "Goin' Mobile" and "Bargain" never get old for me.]
ETA: The board seems to have a problem with me being long-winded. Pffftt!