59. Merle Travis
Genre: Country Swing, Folk
Five to start you off: “Sixteen Tons”, “Nine Pound Hammer”, “Philosophy”, “Kentucky Means Paradise” (1947), “Dark as a Dungeon”
Comment: Merle Travis wrote songs for the working man and innovated a finger-picking style of guitar playing (“Travis pickin”) – listen to something like “Pigmeat Strut” or “Merle’s Boogie Woogie” to get a grasp of the greatness of that picking. Travis holds quite a distinction as far as my listening habits go: I’m not really into country music, and nor am I particularly into pre-war white folk a la Woody Guthrie, but with Travis, for whatever reason, it all just clicks. He has a great everyman quality, and doesn’t tend to write songs in that “Well, I don’t know, but I’ve been told …” mould. The production on his songs is often pretty pristine too, listen to something like “Long John” or “Louisiana Boogie” (aka “Delta Dan”), and you can hear every note, no crackle, as if it was recorded yesterday. He wrote some great songs too; songs that register the attitudes and lifestyles of blue collar workers during hard times. His essential material is from 1946 to 1953, I seem to have a compilation that only exists on iTunes called Fifty Favourites (2010), but that’s got everything you’ll ever need all in one place, and for that price you can’t go wrong. With Travis, be careful of running into lesser remakes from the 60s and whatnot: you want the original ones from the 40s and 50s which don’t have any of the faint glow of “good ol’ days” nostalgia he seemed to inject into everything in his older years.
58. Ella Fitzgerald
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Swing
Five to start you off: “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered”, “It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)”, “Alexander’s Ragtime Band”, “Them There Eyes”, “Something’s Gotta Give”
Comment: There wasn’t a placement on this list that I struggled with more than this one. She is also the artist with whom I’ve gotten acquainted most recently: that is to say, in the past few months. Ella Fitzgerald’s reputation as the greatest vocalist of the Twentieth Century is justified if one judges such things on technique, pitch, diction, phrasing and precision. The “First Lady of Song” is technically perfect, hits every note; her poise, balance and sense of proportion are all exquisite. She never puts a foot wrong. My entry point into Ella was probably unusual, which partly accounts for my struggles: if you’ve been paying attention to this list, you’ll see that I have an interest in the music of the 1920s and 30s, which includes the writers of The Great American Songbook and versions of their songs (see my introduction and entry for Leo Reisman). Under the guidance of visionary producer Norman Granz, between 1956 and 1964, Fitzgerald – then in her 40s and already widely considered the greatest female jazz stylist – recorded a series of eight songbooks, each one dedicated to recording the songs of the Tin Pan Alley writers: Cole Porter (1956), Rodgers and Hart (1956), Duke Ellington (1957), Irving Berlin (1958), George and Ira Gershwin (1959), Harold Arlen (1961), Jerome Kern (1963), and Johnny Mercer (1964). For someone like me, some with a real interest, these songbooks seemed to be essential. But thinking about it, I was coming to a lot of these songs for the second time after listening to renditions from the 1930s, whereas I was coming to Ella for mostly the first time. Initially, I was very disappointed. My first experience was The Cole Porter Songbook, and I found Ella’s renditions were too precise, almost too perfect, and somewhat impersonal. No aspect of her technique is not perfect, she nails every word, her phrasing is spot on, etc., but remember I’m a blues fan, I’m a Dylan guy: I’m not used to perfect vocalists doing songs perfectly, I’m used to people who are a bit raw and rough around the edges stamping themselves on songs through emotive and personal performances. To me, it felt like Ella Fitzgerald was taking these witty, sometimes snide, Cole Porter songs and stripping all of that out of them. It’s almost like she was making “objective” versions of them, Platonic forms. I felt they lacked the vitality of the original recordings by Leo Reisman and others. Of the other songbooks, it seemed she got on rather better with Irving Berlin than with Porter, where on faster songs such as “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” and “Putting on the Ritz”, she could show off some of her scatting skills and a sense of fun; perhaps it is simply that Berlin’s more “homespun” feel suited her better than the more arch and urbane Porter, or perhaps it is that Paul Weston’s arrangements were better than Buddy Bregman’s. But I still felt that I wasn’t getting something and was close to giving up on her. Ella didn’t really bring much of herself into these songs, but rather “let the songs speak through her”. Rather than give up, I sank into some sustained immersion in Fitzgerald’s ridiculously vast back catalogue, which beyond the Songbooks also includes: at least two classic albums with Louis Armstrong, Louis and Ella (1956) and Porgy and Bess (1957); one with Count Bassie Ella and Bassie! (1963); one with Duke Ellington, Ella at Duke’s Place (1965); a great live recording from Berlin, Mack the Knife (1960); and at least two great studio solo albums, Sings Songs from Let No Man Write My Epitaph (1960) and Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie! (1961). In other words, I’d tried to “get to know” Ella outside of the Songbooks. What I’ve come to realise is that, to an extent, my first instincts were right; you’re not going to get personality or rather “personal” from her. However, this is arguably her greatest strength. When you think of it, this sense of “objectivity”, to be able to give you the song straight, singing all of the notes and words as they were meant to be sung, is a rare gift – her voice is an instrument played in service of the song. Her body of work – at least fifteen great albums – is quite incredible. The Songbooks stand as a monument in 20th Century music, in some cases “rescuing” these old songs for a new generation and securing their status as standards for another fifty or sixty years. I also feel like I’ve barely scratched the surface, I haven’t heard her stuff from the 30s and 40s, for example. Also remember that sometimes it takes time to get into a great artist, they don’t always click straight away and need some work. I think my work into Ella has paid off, just about.
57. XTC
Genre: New Wave, Pop
Five to start you off: “Generals and Majors”, “Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)”, “Earn Enough for Us”, “Dear God”, “Mayor of Simpleton”
Comment: Unlike other pop scholastics such as Sparks, They Might be Giants, or even Nick Lowe, XTC took themselves seriously. In fact, so seriously that Andy Partridge’s ego is legendary. Just do a little googling around the making of their masterpiece Skylarking (1986) and Partridge’s bust-ups with superstar producer Todd Rundgren. Dubbed “The Beatles of New Wave”, Partridge and their other key songwriter, Colin Moulding, certainly have an overflowing treasure chest of fantastic tunes to rival Lennon-McCartney. You can skip their first two albums White Music (1978) and Go 2 (1978), which finds them slightly awkwardly trying to fit in with the post-punk scene. It wasn’t their forte. They began to hit their stride on Drums and Wires (1979) with its breakout single “Making Plans for Nigel”, one of the best ever songs about dealing with parental pressure, uniquely British too – I can’t imagine an American singing about “Nigel”. Then they really get going on Black Sea (1980): “Respectable Street” could be a lost Kinks song, while “Generals and Majors” and “Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)” are two of the best singles of the 80s. English Settlement (1982), an early career peak, adds to the killer singles list “Ball and Chain” and “No Thugs in Our House”. Now let’s skip over Mummer (1983) and The Big Express (1984) to their one-two punch of Skylarking (1986) and Oranges & Lemons (1989). Skylarking is brilliant from start to finish: the transition from “Ballet for a Rainy Day” to “1000 Umbrellas” is a great moment in power pop; “Earn Enough for Us” is just a fantastic single; “Dear God” is a better atheist anthem than John Lennon would ever write; and “Sacrificial Bonfire” is one of the best over-the-top closers to any album, it’s easily a top five 80s album. But don’t sleep on Oranges and Lemons either, it’s worth your time, and “Mayor of Simpleton” is yet another top-tier single. I don’t really know why XTC don’t have a bigger reputation or didn’t have bigger commercial sales; how these guys never had a number 1 is completely baffling, because they by rights they should have had a dozen or so. Just a fantastic body of work; if you get nothing else, at least get Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles (1977-92) (1996).
56. Charley Patton
Genre: Delta Blues
Five to start you off: “Highwater Everywhere, Part 1”, “Pea Vine Blues”, “Down the Dirt Road Blues”, “Spoonful Blues”, “Shake It & Break It”
Comment: The “Father of the Delta Blues” is a man shroud in mystery and mystique. There’s only one picture of him. We’re not sure exactly when he was born. His known parents might not have been his parents. We’re not even sure if he was black, white, Mexican or Cherokee. And, as this excellent article by Elijah Wald points out, half the time we’re not entirely sure what he’s signing in his songs. In fact, read that article by Wald, it will tell you everything you ever need to know about Patton and more. He was apparently a great showman who was playing the guitar behind his head and between his legs thirty-five years before Jimi Hendrix. For my part, Patton stands out from the other blues guys for his unique mixture of driving rhythm (later aped by Howlin’ Wolf, and, as we’ve seen, Bukka White), his growling, otherworldly moaning-style vocals (a little bit like Blind Willie Johnson), his tunefulness, and, above all, the relentlessness of his style. Take a song like “Pea Vine Blues”, there’s something hypnotic in the way he drives into that same guitar riff again and again. Same with “Spoonful Blues”, a song about the drug addiction. Also check out “Highwater Everywhere, Part 1”, with it’s awesome shifts of tempo to mirror the flow of water in the 1927 Mississippi floods he’s singing about. One thing to watch out for with Patton however is the sound quality. All of these recordings are old, and some of the restoration jobs were, to put it frankly, shoddy. There variability in audio quality between some of the compilations out there is extreme; the best ones are from the Yazoo label: The Best of Charlie Patton and Primeval Blues, Rags, and Gospel Songs.
55. Cole Porter
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Musicals
Five to start you off: “Anything Goes”, “You’re the Top”, “I’m Just a Gigolo”, “Let’s Do It, (Let’s Fall In Love)” [Rudy Vallee, 1928], “Let’s Misbehave” [Irving Aaronson & His Commanders, 1928]
Comment: Porter is perhaps the least conventional of my picks here because he was almost exclusively a songwriter and only recorded a handful of his own songs. But two things: first, I love those handful of recordings he made, especially “Anything Goes” – despite dozens of versions of that, I still think his own is the best. Second, he wrote so many great songs that I wanted to make space for him somewhere. I’ve talked in this article about the lyricism of Rakim, but I’m not sure if his rhymes had anything on Porter’s:
When Missus Ned McLean (God bless her)
Can get Russian reds to “yes” her,
Then I suppose
Anything goes.
When Rockefeller still can hoard enough money to let Max Gordon
Produce his shows,
Anything goes.
The world has gone mad today
And good’s bad today,
And black’s white today,
And day’s night today,
And that gent today
You gave a cent today
Once had several chateaux.
When folks who still can ride in jitneys
Find out Vanderbilts and Whitneys
Lack baby clothes,
Anything goes.
I think any member of the Wu-Tang Clan would be proud of the “discovered” rhyme of “hoard” and “Gordon”. I don’t think there’s any doubting that Porter was a true genius. For further confirmation, take a little look at the words to “You’re the Top”. He didn’t just write words though, he also wrote the music and some of the tunes are sensational. I think it’s time to play “let’s make that one-disc comp” again. Here goes:
1. Cole Porter, “Anything Goes” (1934)
2. Johnny Green and his Orchestra with Ethel Merman, “I Get a Kick Out of You” (1934)
3. Leo Reisman and his Orchestra with Lew Conrad, “What Is This Thing Called Love” (1930)
4. Leo Reisman and his Orchestra with Frank Luther, “You Do Something to Me” (1929)
5. Leo Reisman and his Orchestra with Fred Astaire, “Night and Day” (1930)
6. Ray Noble and his Orchestra with Al Bowlly, “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1936)
7. Lew Stone and his Band with Al Bowlly, “How Could We Be Wrong” (1933)
8. Al Bowlly with The Mayfair Orchestra, “In the Still of the Night” (1937)
9. Ethel Waters, “Miss Otis Regrets” (1934)
10. Ella Fitzgerald, “It’s De-Lovely” (1956)
11. Peggy Lee, “My Heart Belongs to Daddy” (1953
12. Judy Garland, “I Happen to Like New York” (1960)
13. Rudy Vallee, “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” (1928)
14. Irving Aaronson & and His Commanders, “Let’s Misbehave” (1928)
15. Cole Porter, “You’re the Top” (1934)
You make that comp and I’ll guarantee you your money back if you don’t think it’s thoroughly kick ass. Peggy Lee absolutely nails that “My Heart Belongs to Daddy”, by the way, it’s almost like a Bond theme before James Bond films were ever a thing. For me, these are the fifteen definitive cuts of these songs, but I will give a special shout out to Louis Armstrong’s lovely version of “Let’s Do It”, which I might have considered including if it wasn’t eight minutes long.
54. Dr. Dre
Genre: Hip-Hop
Five to start you off: “Fuck wit’ Dre Day”, “Nuthin’ But a G Thing”, ““The Watcher”, “Still D.R.E.”, “Forgot About Dre”
Comment: Dr. Dre has only had two proper solo albums, The Chronic (1992) and 2001 (1999), both epoch defining, both stone-cold classics. But when you consider that he also produced N.W.A.’s Straight Outta Compton (1988), The D.O.C.’s No One Can Do It Better (1991), Snoop Dogg’s Doggystyle (1993), Eminem’s The Slim Shady LP (1999) and Marshall Mathers LP (2000), and 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003), you start to realise not only how much amazing material Dre has under his belt, but also how many sounds he pioneered and how many careers he made. You could argue that Dre defined late 80s West-Coast gangsta rap, mid-90s G-funk, and spear-headed the late-90s orchestral turn to live instrumentation, keyboards and even strings. Check out this insane analysis of his 00s production. He’s made far too many great beats to mention here, but I have a special fondness for 50 Cent’s “Heat” which is made primarily with the sound of a gun being cocked, and Eminem’s “Guilty Conscience” on which he makes the inspired move of sampling a piano line from the score of Getting Straight, a mostly forgotten comedy from 1970. Also, I should mention, although he hasn’t got mad skills or anything, I’ve always quite liked Dre as a rapper, he’s solid if nothing else. I especially like him on “The Watcher”. Sure, he has always used ghostwriters, but who cares: when your friends are literally The D.O.C., Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z or Eminem, why not let them write the lyrics?
53. Tennessee Ernie Ford
Genre: Country Boogie, Gospel
Five to start you off: “Sixteen Tons”, “Mule Train”, “Mister and Mississippi”, “Stack-O-Lee”, “Blackberry Boogie”
Comment: Like George Formby in this country, Tennessee Ernie Ford hosted his own TV show, and was a media personality as well as a music act. In my view, he is really underrated and somehow “goes missing” in music history, his peak years coming right before Elvis and the big turn to Rock ‘n’ Roll. His brand of “country boogie” was, in many ways, a precursor to the basic rockabilly sound. Listen to a song like “Blackberry Boogie” (1952) and tell me what isn’t rock, or what about “The Shot Gun Boogie” (1950)? With his booming low voice, you have to imagine he was a seminal influence on Johnny Cash too. I’ve already mentioned Merle Travis on this list, but Ford’s version of “Sixteen Tons” is still amazing, and was rightfully a huge hit in 1955. But his back catalogue has lots more great stuff than that. My first exposure was “Stack-O-Lee”; it was on a free CD that came with a magazine called Songs that Dylan Loved. This version of the folk standard Stagger Lee is completely unlike any other I’ve come across, different tune and lyrics, and an awesome boogie piano with backing vocals. I think the version is unique to Ford including the lyrics (search for “Tennessee Ernie Ford” on that page). So many great recordings: “Mule Train” has a great little riff and actually has a good deal of rawness in the vocal sound effects, apparently added by Merle Travis, which give a sense of atmosphere to the idea of the wagon train. “The Cry of the Wild Goose”, Ford’s cover of the Frankie Laine song written by Terry Gilkyson, has a really unusual stop-start slow and fast tempo. The “slow” melody kind of reminds me of “Feed the Birds” from Mary Poppins, almost identical tune, while the fast bits have some driving guitar lines and gets pretty wild. “Mister and Mississippi” is the sort of song that would sound naff in the hands of a lesser performer, but Ford’s low voice gives it a real sense of authenticity and gravitas. “You’re My Sugar” with Kay Starr is a pretty great duet with lyrics that don’t pull any punches. Even if it was meant to be a comedy song, the booming voice of Ford seems to make it serious. “Cool Cool Kisses”, another duet, this time with Helen O’Connell, bites even harder. And “The Honeymoon is Over” with Betty Hutton finds a relationship in real trouble: a really naked look at marriage in crisis, seemingly a persistent theme in his work. One last thing about Tennessee Ernie Ford … doesn’t he look a bit like Walt Disney!
52. Gang Starr
Genre: Hip-hop
Five to start you off: “Just to Get a Rep”, “Take It Personal”, “Code of the Streets”, “The ? Remainz”, “You Know My Steez”,
Comment: Down this stretch of the list we’ve seen several artists with near-perfect discographies; after the juvenilia of No More Mr. Nice Guy (1989), Gang Starr had legit five great albums in a row: Step Into the Arena (1991), Daily Operation (1992), Hard to Earn (1994), Moment of Truth (1998), and The Ownerz (2003). If you are compiling a top five, or even top three hip-hop producers list, DJ Premier is name #1 or #2 on that list. Guru, meanwhile, was the king of monotone, and in my view is the true inheritor of Chuck D’s more cerebral and socially conscious lyrics. Guru’s clarity of expression and thought is exceptional. Great beats, great lyrics: hip-hop in its purest form. Listen to “You Know My Steez” and “The ? Remanz” back-to-back, and if you don’t get anything from that, you don’t really like hip-hop and never will. “But right about now, I use my authority / ‘Cause I’m like the Wizard, and you look lost like Dorothy”.
51. Golden Gate Quartet
Genre: Spirituals, Gospel
Five to start you off: “Gabriel Blows His Horn”, “Preacher and the Bear”, “God Told Nicodemus”, “Moses Smote the Water”, “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’”
Comment: The Golden Gate Quartet are one of those acts that has kept going – now for 80 years – with constantly new members. The formula always the same, four male vocalists: tenor, second tenor, baritone bass. Very often they sing acapella. The only lineup you need to care about is the late 1930s / early 1940s version: the original line-up was William Langford (tenor), Henry Owens (second tenor), Willie Johnson (baritone), and Orlandus Wilson (bass). From 1939, Riddick Clyde replaced Langford as tenor. That’s the version I’m talking about here, and the essential boxset to own is The Complete Recorded Works in Chronological Order, Volumes 1-4, although the series goes on into a fifth and sixth volumes into the 50s. They mostly sing spirituals, and often provide their own instrumentation with only their voices – quite remarkable. I mainly just stick one of these discs on when I’m doing something else, for an extremely pleasant backdrop: I love the warmth of the sound, the harmonies are wonderful. One thing to mention here is that it is obvious from listening to them that Elvis Presley was a big fan, he seems to have taken a lot of his vocal style from the Golden Gate Quartet. The second thing is that, weirdly, at times the tracks which have rhythmic spoken word over a vocal backdrop sound a bit like prototype hip-hop, listen to “Preacher and the Bear” and the cadence and flow is not a million miles from The Sugarhill Gang. Their material is awesomely Biblical, not wimpy “turn-the-other-cheek, love the world” Christian, but the sort of blood and guts Old Testament shit that can get you excited. Every once in a while, though, they branch out into other topics to great effect. Check out “Stalin Wasn’t Stallin’”, recorded during the height of World War II, and champions “that noble Russian” against “Adolf”, who we are told was born from the Devil himself when “he mixed his lies and hatred / With fire and brimstone”. The Golden Gate Quartet are one of the most consistently awesome and enjoyable acts I’ve come across. From the slightly later material, when they added actual instrumentation, be sure to check out “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”, which Johnny Cash later covered so memorably before his death. Terrific act that should be raved about more than they are.
Next time: 30s – 2, 60s – 7, 70s – 6, 80s -3, 90s – 4, 00s – 3. A little bit of funk, a little bit of fiddle, who’s it gonna be, hey diddle riddle.