Last week — May 23, to be precise — marked 49 years since the release of Elton John’s “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” album. It’s been one of my favorite records for that long.
That day, one of those classic rock Twitter feeds noted the anniversary and asked followers to mention their favorite cut from that record. A friend responded with “Someone Saved My Life Tonight.” Great choice.
I told my friend that if I had to cut my record collection to 10 albums, “Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy” from 1975 would be one. Great songs about young men becoming writers and navigating grown-up life. They appealed to a young man who wanted to become a writer and was navigating grown-up life as high school graduation loomed in the spring of 1975.
Knowing that, you may or may not be wondering … what are the other nine records on that short list?
In no particular order …
— “Shaft” soundtrack, Isaac Hayes, 1971. One of the first LPs I ever bought. I was 14. Hugely influential in shaping my musical tastes.
— “A Night at the Opera,” Queen, 1975. A staggeringly great record that I played hundreds of times.
— “Sweet Revenge,” John Prine, 1973. My introduction to the great John Prine.
— “Boston,” Boston, 1976. The soundtrack to summer, best blasted from car speakers with the windows down.
— “Purple Rain” soundtrack, Prince and the Revolution, 1984. I thought “1999” was a great record. Two years later, I heard this. No comparison.
— “Nothin’ But the Truth,” Sleepy LaBeef, 1986. A live record, and thus the only record that captures the greatness of the rockabilly legend they called “The Human Jukebox.” When I started writing this blog, I did a Sleepy LaBeef sampler/appreciation post every week for the first year, 52 in all.
— “Two For the Price of One,” Larry Williams and Johnny Watson, 1967. The grail record. Tipped to it by my friend Larry Grogan in the late ’00s, I looked for it for years. Found a CD copy at Amoeba Records in Berkeley, California, in 2010. Lost track of an affordable vinyl copy in an eBay auction. Finally found it on vinyl at the mighty Mill City Sound in Hopkins, Minnesota, in 2019. Paid more for that record — $80 — than I ever paid for any record.
— “What’s Going On,” Marvin Gaye, 1971. When I listened to it again during the pandemic, this record had lost none of its punch.
— “Raise the Roof,” Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, 2021. I wanted at least one record that isn’t older than dirt on this list. Plant and Krauss are wonderful together on both this record (I bought the red cover and not the blue cover) and on their first, “Raising Sand” from 2007.
Now, the back story. After my first run at 10 records, I had 16 records.
First I cut two compilations, “The Beatles 1967-1970” (the blue record from 1973) and “The Best of the Guess Who” from 1971. Then I cut “Nilsson Schmilsson” by Nilsson from 1971, “Excitable Boy” by Warren Zevon from 1978 and “Repeat When Necessary” by Dave Edmunds from 1979. At the end of the day, their body of work far outweighs any of these records. Then I cut “Get Yer Ya’s-Ya’s Out!” by the Rolling Stones from 1970, more or less the last on, last off the list.
Just one regret. There ought to be more women artists on this list.
Just one caveat. That is today’s 10-record collection. Tomorrow’s might be somewhat different.