woebot's 100 greatest records ever
- Thread starter anhhh
- Start date
ha ha the list <i>did</I> strike me as pretty obscure, but only in the best, most Woebot-ish manner possible (and Matt saying "this is all kid's stuff" is so Matt!). The list reads as being v. sincere, and anyway there are about a gazillion obscure records that Matt could have put in place of every obscure entry there so there's little to guide someone at that point apart from genuine personal preference (whereas adhering to the canon somewhat allows one to downplay personal preference a lot more).
It most interested me though as a kind of roadmap to Matt's tastes, not so much which genres he likes or which records he likes, but what he <i>likes about</i> which genres and records he likes. My tastes are v. different in many ways (even in the sense of the terms of the list's construction: this is like a "top 100 physical musical artefacts" list, which just wouldn't make sense with my tastes) and it's nice to have something like this to refer back to when Matt goes on his more epic explorations of afro-pop, bossa nova, german post-punk or [insert arcane genre here] - it's like a skeleton key or descrambler or something.
BTW Matt did you get my e-mail?
It most interested me though as a kind of roadmap to Matt's tastes, not so much which genres he likes or which records he likes, but what he <i>likes about</i> which genres and records he likes. My tastes are v. different in many ways (even in the sense of the terms of the list's construction: this is like a "top 100 physical musical artefacts" list, which just wouldn't make sense with my tastes) and it's nice to have something like this to refer back to when Matt goes on his more epic explorations of afro-pop, bossa nova, german post-punk or [insert arcane genre here] - it's like a skeleton key or descrambler or something.
BTW Matt did you get my e-mail?
WOEBOT said:
well it's a list that inspires awe, to be sure. the love and knowledge that went into it are precious, and your readers are the richer for it. thank you
it's just that, as others have remarked, "100 greatest ever" is not the same as "fave 100 in my collection" since, by the arrangement given here, not a single ragtime, bluegrass, or eastern european folk recording, not a single record made in the european classical tradition (aside from parmegiani's musique concrete album, if one even includes it), not one record from China, Japan, or Korea, no more than one north Indian classical album . . . was better than . . . the first Tortoise album (!)
Woebot
Well-known member
Tate said:
good points well made, except that (and in a funny way this brought me round to keenan's approach) there's almost no point whatsoever making a list that attempts to be objective.
in my own favour i'd plead the case that it's a list which (dodging my own comments re "seminal" music) is a roadmap to my idea of the future. while mr.keenan's (and i'd expect dale and the neo-folkies to put up a fight here) feels to me like a temporally sealed envelope with maher shalal baz (inkorrekt spellung) as the final manifestation of the impulse.
new thread time?
DigitalDjigit
Honky Tonk Woman
There's only 100 slots. You can only put so much in there. And even Matt hasn't heard every record out there...even the "important" ones probably.
DigitalDjigit said:
I don't think many people have mentioned the reggae choices, which I love. "Zig It Up" hadn't jumped out at me before, but listening back through Woebot's lens it's absolutely great. And Burning Spear is solid, unimpeachable.
I might have chosen other, equally idiosyncratic 12s--"Bogle," "Jumpy Girl," "Natty No Jester," "Golden Touch," "Long Lost Lover," "Alms House"--but I'm happy to sign off on Woebot's. Especially "After Christmas," which I hadn't heard before. It's one of the most gorgeous reggae songs ever, almost like "Riders on the Storm" in its shimmering lassitude--the strange but pleasurable sense of moving forward but staying still
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