[i'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road] [i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage]

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[Poll #1221538]

A few other things:

t. and I discussed whether there was a better person to put in this poll with Elvis, and we couldn't come up with anybody, but with Johnny Cash at least there's the Sun Records connection.
Sun Records always makes me think of Mike Cooley and [Carl Perkins' Cadillac].
Also, is there a good Sun Records box set out there? I have a good Cash collection and a good Elvis best of set, but I want to know more about Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc etc etc. If there is a good one, what's it called? And will you upload it for me?
Let us discuss concept albums. Two of the albums i've got in reasonably heavy rotation lately are the Drive-By Truckers' Southern Rock Opera and My Chem's the Black Parade, and they're such well-done albums, both of them. So. Your thoughts on concept albums. Yes? No? Only in the 70s? Discuss. Not too heatedly.

I am exceptionally lazy today. *flops*

Music:: Moonlight Mile -- Jason Isbell, Rob Malone & Brian Ferris -- 2007-12-11 @ Old To

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There are 37 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

OMG that was a freaking hard poll! Seriously. I had to go with the fact that I regularly listen to just slightly more Elvis than Johnny, although I hold a couple of Johnny's songs in higher regard than my favorite Elvis songs.

1. I chose Johnny but I really believe that it's a tie.

3. you know, let me check where I think I saw such an item, and I will let you know.

4. The Who.

I think I might want to tell you about Johnny Horton. hrm.

1. i think this poll will be much closer than the stones/beatles poll.

3. \o/ let me know if you find a title, i can find a source from there. :)

4. a post about tommy was actually what prompted my entire train of thought on this subject.

i do not know of johnny horton.

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god save Towser but I think that in order of bestness the Who's concept albums go

Quadrophenia
The Who Sell Out
Tommy

but that is an emotional opinion, I can't like. argue it, at least not very well. :D

Johnny Horton is in both the Country Music HoF and the Rockabilly HoF; as of last month he is a nominee for the Nashville Songwriters' HoF. his life itself is fucking interesting and weird, as was his death. at Jazzfest this year Robert Plant did a Johnny Horton song as his encore and I almost peed.

you've almost certainly heard "The Battle of New Orleans," which is one of his most famous songs -- he did an album of historical story songs that was a huge hit. these are songs you maybe have heard and maybe you have not.

Honky Tonk Man (http://www.seanchai.net/dl/01%20-%20Honky%20Tonk%20Man%20(Album%20Version).mp3)
(I'm A) One Woman Man (http://www.seanchai.net/dl/02%20-%20I%27m%20A%20One-Woman%20Man%20(Album%20Version).mp3)
I'll Do It Every Time (http://www.seanchai.net/dl/10%20-%20I%27ll%20Do%20It%20Every%20Time%20(Album%20Version).mp3)
Honky Tonk Hardwood Floor (http://www.seanchai.net/dl/13%20-%20Honky-Tonk%20Hardwood%20Floor%20(Album%20Version).mp3)

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thank you, ceecakes! i am looking forward to listening, saying rockabilly is an absolutely certain way to get me to listen to things these days, i am v. interested in learning more about it. ♥

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and Robert Plant's endorsement can't hurt!

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not at all ever!

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the song he did, btw, was One Woman Man - T-bone Burnett on guitar.

~~*pees a little*~~

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Concept albums: yes. Gainsbourg's! magnificent.

Ok, I chose Johnny...but that was a very hard poll. I mean, what about the glorious hips of young!Elvis? And yet, Johnny freakin' Cash.

My feelings on concept albums are very much like my theory of really cliche fic plots: personal awesomeness of execution (in sufficient quantity) will always trump lack of originality in the quality of inspiration or format.

And I downloaded a Truckers song (Self Destructive Zones)you put up ages and ages ago and I totally dig it and am going to look for more of their stuff this weekend. So thanks!

if you liked "self destructive zones", you would probably very much like "carl perkins' cadillac", which is also the truckers. and hit my media:music spam tag, there may be a few truckers tracks still alive on sendspace in old posts. :)

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Awesome, thanks!

(You get the Ronon icon because you are my Internet Music Santa Claus. *g*)

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I love Johnny. I listen to move Johnny. But c'mon: the King?

I borrowed some Carl Perkins from

humpingbears long ago, and he is an underappreciated member of the Sun family. If you don't have it, you might want to check out the Sun Records tribute album Good Rockin' Tonight, that features Sun songs from everyone from Dylan to Kid Rock.

And as for concept albums, well, there's quite a distance between 2112 and Tommy. Maybe it's because I was a theatre guy or overly fond of Peter And the Wolf as a child, but I tend to be a fan. Too few have the stones to attempt them, much less pull them off, which is why I found American Idiot to be such a wonderfully shocking surprise.
- Which makes me wonder whom you would like to see do a concept album that has never done one?

i should upload southern rock opera for you; i think you'd get a kick out of it. half concept album about lynyrd skynyrd, half concept album about growing up in a (reasonably famous) musician's family in alabama in the wake of skynyrd.

i am going to have to ponder your question. my immediate first inclination is to say mike doughty, but i'm not sure that's the best answer that i have.

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I would love to hear "Southern Rock Opera," too. Mmmm.

I know Mike Doughty hasn't technically done a concept album, but I feel like all Soul Coughing songs take place in the same universe, kind of?

Do Tori Amos records count as concept albums? Scarlet's Walk definitely does--and I would say a good one--but what about the others?

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How is this even a question!?

I seem to post here with that icon more than anything else. Just trying to break it up a little. :)

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well, according to the results, elvis is getting his ass kicked. i really thought this one would be closer.

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Nothing against Johnny Cash, but...it's Elvis!

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erin mckeown's album grand is secretly sort of a concept album, did you know? it's about judy garland, mostly. i support concept albums that are subtle like that.

i did not know! i will listen to it with a new ear, now.

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Box: http://www.amazon.com/Sun-Records-Collection-Various-Artists/dp/B0000033DF

Elvis/???: Of the Million Dollar Quartet, I think those are the top two. Jerry Lee became second-tier when he married a 14-year-old, and Carl's great, but everyone who isn't obsessive knows him for one track.

Best to pull out the Originator, Little Richard.

Concept Albums: Is this somehow distinct from Rock Operas? Because where that goes, they somehow end up going with fascist dystopias (Tommy, The Wall, Operation: Mindcrime), which I don't quite get. The ultimate response to this trend is the great Joes Garage: Acts I, II and III, by Frank Zappa.

well, i don't know -- i think of the truckers' SRO as a concept album but they called it a rock opera. they're sort of hte same thing in my head, i suppose.

thanks for the sun box set -- i'm going to have to track it down.

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Min! Someone suggested this (http://www.hardcore-troubadours.com/2008/07/10/139) to me, but I think you'd be so much better for it.

Also? I'm so loving that Cash is kicking the King. :-)

Johnny is WHOOPIN' the King. Delightful.

Also, I emailed you.

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min, yr polls r hard.

i have mixed feelings on concept albums, but when they're good, they're REALLY GOOD, so.

♥, bb.

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4. My favorite album review of all time is when EW called Kevin Federline's album "a concept album about squandering Britney Spears' fortune."

........ that's pretty much the most awesome ever.

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I love albums. Not necessarily concept albums (although there are some I'm fond of) but albums as a whole, that seem cohesive, and tell a story, or a variety of stories just in the way they're put together. I almost never buy individual songs, unless I want a mix, because I need to love the whole product, or at least most of it.

I have come late to loving albums; which is not to say that there weren't individual albums I loved in my lifetime, but until this latest computer and its hard drive, I was very much a mix-tape-one-song-only sort of girl. So it's fascinating to me that other people are album people; has it been that way for you always, lady? Tell me more!

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It has indeed always been that way. Records were treated with utter reverence in my house (there was a whole ritual to putting them on my dad's turntable), and my own turn table was stackable so you could put multiple albums on it at once. (Which meant that I listened to the same side for a week, then flipped them over and listened to the other side).

The whole format, I think, is just a different experience if you grew up with records and not CDs because you can't fast forward vinyl without the risk of scratching it (and therefore getting screamed at). So you just listened.

I'd totally recommend getting a cheap turn table, a bunch of vinyl and an afternoon:)

Also, unlike the CD cover, "Sticky Fingers" had a working zipper, and the Velvet Underground banana sticker is in my stuff somewhere, along with my poster from The White Album (and really, The Beatles are where I learned to love albums. Abbey Road is a story. The White Album is a story.) Hell, Eagles or not, Hotel California is a story:)

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voted Johnny, but not because I don't think Elvis is awesome. 'Cause I do. This is just a preference.

for me, too. i love elvis -- i'd rather listen to johnny.

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Late to the game but am voting Cash. Mainly because Elvis is still 'Hounddog' and almost 'Hounddog' only to me. Such is the price of being a self-taught music nerd: gigantic and weird gaps in your music library.

2. Am taking the song (when am I ever not?) I actually had a screen cap lying around I was going to show you, featuring all your uploads as listed in my iTunes library....

4. Concept albums: iffy in theroy, often awesome in practice? Only other album I can think of is Aimee Man's 'The Forgotten Arm', which actually ought to work better as individual tracks than it does for me - the bound song-order and the story they tell have made it hard for me to pluck out one song and listen to it without being reminded of how it 'fits in'.

Also: I never checked back with you re: Drive-By Truckers. I love them. It's a slow journey but it's definitely going forward. Honestly, my love was cemented with the very first track on Decoration Day. Crime and incest FTW! Now THAT it how you open an album! Also, the slash has ruined me; my first thought at 'them four little babies' was "whut? ass babies? ohwaitaminute!" Heh.

Long comment, sorry.

i'm glad you're enjoying the truckers! "the deeper in" is actually about the only real-life brother-and-sister pair serving time for consensual adult incest. patterson read about them in esquire and then wrote the song. :)

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3. I second Good Rockin Tonight. Also Carl Perkins "complete sun singles", jerry lee lewis "complete sun singles vol 1 & 2", johnny cash "complete sun singles vol 1 & 2", and "elvis at sun" to get all the million dollar quartet guys and also Roy Orbison "Sun Recordings".

anything you can't find, let me know

July