87. Stevie B: In My Eyes
88. The B-52's
89. B-52's: Wild Planet
90. B-52's: Whammy!
91. Babyface: Tender Lover
92. Bachman-Turner Overdrive II
93. Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Not Fragile
94. Bachman-Turner Overdrive: Four Wheel Drive
95. Badbob: Now Is Reaction
96. Bad Brains: Rock for Light
97. Bad Brains: I Against I
98. Wally Badarou: Chief Inspector
99. Joan Baez: Diamonds & Rust
100. The Bag: Real
Mixworthy: "Hey You," #94; "Rock for Light," #96. I should be listing something
from the B-52's, I know. If I had the album with "Roam," I would. I used to like
"Hero Worship" (#88) and "Song for a Future Generation" (#90), but I'm almost
positive I have never even considered including the B-52's on a mix-tape.
I think the Wally Badarou album was one of the first promo copies I got to keep
during my time writing for Nerve--the copyright date, '86, would bear that out. I
didn’t review it (reggae? I forget), so I’m not sure how it fell into my hands, but
I grabbed anything and everything that was offered to me in those days. I Against I
is a promo too, and that one I did review. I might be the only recipient of promo
copies who was dumb enough or crazed enough never to have sold even one, but seeing
as most of my spending money went towards buying records anyway at the time, sell-
ing two or three of them to buy one didn’t make much sense. Besides, I just loved
the idea that I was getting records for free. But I realize I'm essentially saying
I never once removed one of those pillow tags that say “Do Not Remove.”
____________________________________________________________________________
101. Mildred Bailey
102. Chet Baker: "Chet Is Back!"
103. Kathi Baker: Feel the Heat
104. LaVern Baker: Her Greatest Recordings
105. Mickey Baker: The Wildest Guitar
106. The Balancing Act: Curtains
107. Hank Ballard and the Midnighters: 20 Hits
108. Bananarama: "Deep Sea Skiving"
109. Bananarama
110. Bananarama: The Greatest Hits Collection
111. The Band
112. The Band: Rock of Ages
113. Band of Susans: Hope Against Hope
Mixworthy: "The Twist" and "Teardrops on My Letter," #107; "What a Shambles," #108;
"Cruel Summer," "Rough Justice," and "Robert De Niro's Waiting," #109. There are
famous songs on the LaVern Baker compilation ("Jim Dandy," "Tweedlee Dee"), but
nothing that I can ever see myself including on a compilation for anybody. When
Bananarama were great, which wasn't all that often, they were pretty great.
The quotation marks around the titles of #102 and #108 appear on both cover and
spine, so I've left them in. The Chet Baker title is especially strange--um, he's
not really back, he's just back for more drug money and it's starting to get really
exasperating?...The Band are the first of my Cavernous Blind Spots: deeply revered
artists where I can't name a single song that holds any significance for me whatso-
ever. If I get that far, they'll be joined down the road by James Brown, Randy New-
man, Parliament/Funkadelic, and Otis Redding; Van Morrison gets a pass only because
of a couple of Them songs. I know this sounds wishy-washy, but I'm reluctant to call
any of them overrated--they obviously mean a great deal to enough people that I'll
accept that there's something there I just don't connect with. (Not completely true;
I'm a lot less reluctant to call Parliament/Funkadelic overrated, whose perceived
stature I attribute largely to the influence of one very enthusiastic advocate among
critics, and to 1980s college-radio trendiness among most everyone else.) If "Up on
Cripple Creek" or "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" comes on the radio, some-
times I'll let it play, sometimes not. They're good songs, but a kind of hollow
recognition that they're good songs is the strongest reaction they summon forth.
____________________________________________________________________________
114. Bangles
115. Bangles: All Over the Place
116. Bangles: Everything
117. Lester Bangs and the Delinquents: Jook Savages on the Brazos
118. Banjo Barons: The Thoroughly Modern Hits of Today
119. The Banks Brothers and the Greater Harvest Back Home Choir
120. The Barbarians
121. Bobby Bare: The Travelin' Bare
122. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra: The Great Dance Bands of the '30s
& '40s
123. Len Barry: 1-2-3
124. Rob Base & D.J. E-Z Rock: It Takes Two
125. Rob Base: The Incredible Base
126. Basement 5: 1965-1980
127. Basia: Time and Tide
Mixworthy: "Moulty" and "Are You a Boy or Are You a Girl," #120; "1-2-3," #123
(wow); "It Takes Two," #124. A couple of Bangles songs, "How Is the Air Up There"
(#114) and "Hero Takes a Fall" (#115) are borderline, but the writing credit on
"How Is the Air Up There" reminds me that it's a cover of the Electric Prunes or
somebody--meaning chances are the original's even better--and I haven't listened
to "Hero Takes a Fall" in years. Oh, Susanna...
I wonder how many actual copies of the Lester Bangs album exist? 1000? 5000? How-
ever many there are, take the square root and subtract 7, and that's how many
people bought The Incredible Base, Rob Base's follow-up to It Takes Two. D.J. E-Z
Rock gets a prominent thank-you in the credits, but judging from his complete non-
participation on the album proper, that was obviously meant to smooth over some
grim, Corleone-style parting-of-the-ways beforehand: "That's it, E-Z Rock--you're
out."
____________________________________________________________________________
128. Count Basie: Super Chief
129. Count Basie and His Orchestra: The Best of Count Basie
130. Count Basie and His Orchestra: Good Morning Blues
131. Count Basie/Jimmy Witherspoon: Vol. 2
132. Count Basie and His Orchestra: 1945/1946
133. Count Basie: Air Shots Birdland
134. Count Basie and His Orchestra: The Best of Basie
135. Toni Basil: Word of Mouth
136. Toni Basil
137. Shirley Bassey: The Best of Bassey
138. The Wonderful Shirley Bassey
139. The Fabulous Shirley Bassey
140. Stiv Bators: Disconnected
141. Bay City Rollers
Mixworthy: "Saturday Night," #141--not as good as "Rock and Roll Love Letter," but
close enough.
I don't often put any jazz on the tapes or CDs I make for friends. It just doesn't
fit--I've included Miles Davis's "It Never Entered My Mind" and Bill Evans' "Some
Other Time" on a number of mushy ballad compilations (most of which were doomed
attempts dating back to the late '80s to let some girl know how sensitive I was),
also Oliver Nelson's "Stolen Moments" or John Coltrane in other contexts, but gen-
erally jazz exists separately for me from my main obsessions (Coltrane being the
one significant exception). So when I list seven Count Basie LPs and don't single
out anything as "mixworthy," it's not a comment on the music, which I like fine,
just on how I use it and where I'm coming from. There's Count Basie and there's
"Saturday Night," and for better or worse, my internal wiring is more connected to
the Bay City Rollers side of the divide, and has been for a long time...#138 and
#139 are both on the Music For Pleasure label. I hope the guy who was in charge of
thinking up their titles was handsomely rewarded for his efforts.
____________________________________________________________________________
142. Beach Boys: Surfer Girl
143. Beach Boys: All Summer Long
144. The Beach Boys' Christmas Album
145. The Beach Boys Today!
146. Beach Boys: Summer Days (And Summer Nights!!)
147. Beach Boys' Party!
148. Beach Boys: Endless Summeer
149. Beach Boys: Pet Sounds
150. Beach Boys: Wild Honey
151. Beach Boys: Surf's Up
152. Beach Boys: Holland
152. Beach Boys: Holland
153. Good Vibrations: Best of the Beach Boys
154. The Beach Boys Love You
155. Beastie Boys: "Cooky Puss" 12-inch
156. Beastie Boys: "Rock Hard" 12-inch
157. Beastie Boys: "She's On It" 12-inch
158. Beastie Boys: Licensed to Ill
159. Beastie Boys: Paul's Boutique
Mixworthy: I don't really know where to begin with the Beach Boys, a problem that
will come up again with the Beatles, Dylan, the Rolling Stones, and Neil Young. The
difficulty is in separating great songs I'm sick of from great songs that still
have some life in them (for me, a tougher call with the Beach Boys and the Rolling
Stones--and Motown--than with the others just mentioned). If I arbitrarily limit
myself to six, I guess I'd go with "All Summer Long" (#143), "Kiss Me, Baby" (#145),
"Girl Don't Tell Me" (#146), "God Only Knows" (#149), "Surf's Up" (#151), and "Good
Vibrations" (#153); the one album I'd keep if I could only keep one would be either
The Beach Boys Today! or Pet Sounds. The Beastie Boys I'm pretty much sick of at
this point--I find "You've Got to Fight" on the radio about as electrifying as the
Irish Rovers' "Wasn't That a Party" as of late--so I'll bypass them altogether. I
think the stuff on the two albums that followed Paul's Boutique would sound better
right now.
Speaking of which, I remember Sam's had a huge overrun of Paul's Boutique selling
for $1.99 or $2.99 during the waning days of LPs. Even though I never cared much for
the album, I should have bought a few and put them away; it really has one of the
great gatefold covers of all time...All I seem to be doing now is talking about what
I don't like, or don't like enough. Smile left me cold last year. I thought it made
for an amazing story, like if at the end of the road Welles and Capote and everyone
else who'd ever been identified with a long-rumored masterwork all finally got them
finished and out there exactly in the form they'd envisioned, and Brian Wilson is
one guy whom I wouldn't begrudge a bit his rediscovery and final flurry of adula-
tion. But the record itself was so bizarrely anomalous and antiseptic. It reminded
me of what I hated about Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven: "What universe does this be-
long to?" I think Pet Sounds has always had something of a reputation for being
overly precious and fussy, but next to Smile it's practically Sorry Ma, Forgot to
Take Out the Trash. Smile is the life's work of a genius (not a word I use often)
and Far From Heaven a dumb stunt, but they had the same effect on me.