So Re The Pogues..

The 30 years set has all their 7 albums plus a live album that was recorded when Joe Strummer replaced Sir MacGowan

It has the 1st three bombastic classic albums which you should own:
Red Roses for Me
Rum Sodomy and the Lash
If I should fall from Grace with God

The 4th, Peace and Love is OK and has some highlights
The 5th, Hells Ditch is actually rather good - just not as good as the 1st 3.
The next two were released post-MacGowan and are OK but could be considered filler.
The live album is pretty good - Pogues live recordings tend not to be all that good but this is worth it.

You could get the 1st 3 albums separately. The latest versions are remastered but have extra tracks added that the group frowned upon - the 30 years box set versions don't have the extra tracks, but sound great as they are also remastered. The completist should get the 30 year set.

If you want all the other unreleased stuff, EP tracks etc., then get the boxset called Just look them straight in the eye and say PogueMahone It has all sorts of oddball stuff across 5 discs including the soundtracks they did (Sid and Nancy and a Western made by Alex Cox in Almeria called Straight to Hell) , live performances (inc. some BBC ones), demos and even alternate takes of their big hits that make for interesting listening.

Then if you also get Pogues in Paris : 30th anniversary concert at the Olympia you will get a brilliant live recording - a rollicking run through their hits with MacGowan re-instated. The deluxe version comes with a DVD of the concert too.

No idea how much of this is available in soft copy - much of it is at a guess, but this stuff isn't all that expensive on physical media.

My Bob Dylan list.  Ignoring general critical opinion (i.e: Blonde on Blonde = best), the six tiers as I see it, with three selections in each and a few extra categories because there's something worth listening to on every album:

Top tier

Highway 61 Revisited (favourite track: It Takes A Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry)
Bringing it All Back Home (favourite track: Mr. Tambourine Man)
Blood on the Tracks (favourite track: Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts or Tangled up in Blue)

Second Tier

Love & Theft (favourite track: Mississippi)
Blonde on Blonde (favourite track: Visions of Johanna - my all-time favourite Dylan)
John Wesley Harding (favourite track: I'll Be Your Baby Tonight or Drifter's Escape)

Third Tier

The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (favourite track: Girl From the North Country or Oxford Town)
Time Out of Mind (favourite track: Tryin' to Get to Heaven)
The Times They Are A-Changin' (favourite track: When the Ship Comes in)

Fourth Tier

Desire (favourite track: One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below))
Street Legal (favourite track: Senor (Tales of Yankee Power))
Modern Times (favourite track: Thunder on the Mountain)

Fifth Tier

Another Side of Bob Dylan (favourite track: To Ramona)
Nashville Skyline (favourite track: Tonight I'll Be Staying Here With You)
World Gone Wrong (favourite track: Delia)

Sixth Tier

Slow Train Coming (favourite track: Slow Train)
Together Through Life (favourite track: Beyond Here Lies Nothin')
Bob Dylan (favourite track: Song to Woody)

The 'Finally Dropping Down to Three Stars' Tier

Oh Mercy (favourite track: Shooting Star)
Tempest (favourite track: Duquense Whistle)
New Morning (favourite track: If Not For You)

The 'Less Consistent But Still Worth Checking Out' Tier

Planet Waves (favourite track: Forever Young)
Self Portrait (favourite track: The Mighty Quinn (Quinn the Eskimo))
Infidels (favourite track: Jokerman)

The Rest

Good as I Been to You (favourite track: Frankie & Albert)
Shot of Love (favourite track: The Groom's Still Waiting at the Alter....never got on with Every Grain of Sand)
Christmas in the Heart (favourite track: Must be Santa)
Shadows in the Night (favourite track: undecided thus far)
Empire Burlesque (favourite track: When the Night Comes Falling From the Sky)
Down in the Groove  (favourite track: Shenandoah)
Knocked Out Loaded (favourite track: Brownsville Girl)
Saved (favourite track: Solid Rock)

The album I haven't Got/Heard

Dylan (1972)

..And The Worst

Under the Red Sky (favourite track: Wiggle Wiggle - total and hilarious waste of Slash, but I enjoyed dancing to it with my daughter when she had colic)

+ The Best of the Official Bootlegs

The Bootleg Series Vol.1-3 (Rare & Unreleased 1961-1991) (favourite track: Blind Willie McTell - Bob & The Knopf combine for lightning in a bottle...someone decides not to put it on Infidels.  Seven Curses too, which completes my top three Bob along with Johanna and McTell)
The Bootleg Series Vol.9 (The Witmark Demos) (favourite track: Farewell)
The Bootleg Series Vol.7 (No Direcion Home Soundtrack) (favourite track: Tombstone Blues alernate take)

The 'Not Sure Where to Put it'

Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid Soundtrack

I'm far too lazy to something so in depth but I'll certainly go for a 3 album career encompassing must listen

Tom Waits:

Heartattack and Vine: Waits at the peak of his jazz/blues era, massive songwriting skills and leaving behind any semblance of normal singing.

Frank's Wild Years: Rain Dogs entered into this new phase - eastern European and gypsy stylings, accordians etc - and Frank's Wild Years takes it to its peak, fantastic songs - unique.

Blood Money: Leaving behind many conventional instruments in favour of things that make noise, this is a million miles away from Heartattack and Vine but still Waits being Waits. Can't argue with a perfect song like God's Away on Business.

I could waffle about this shite all the livelong but I'll restrict myself okay

Sparks is dead easy - everything from their debut to Angst In My Pants, then jump to Little Beethoven and that'll do.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Mule Variations is so complete it's his best imo.  Would have that, Rain Dogs and Nighthawks if I'm allowed it.  I've got a big soft spot for Closing Time, so I'll have that if not.

Waits music, like most I suppose, is dependent on when you came on board. Mule Variations is a great album but it doesn't really define him for me, it's a kind of inbetween album.

Yeah, it has great songs on it, no doubt. Funnily enough, I thought Eyeball Kid was kind of weak until I saw him do it live.

Quite possibly.  Try something more recent like Love & Theft, which has a very different sound, or something early and acoustic (The Freewheelin' or The Times They Are A-Changin', perhaps), and if you're still not keen it'll just have to be one of those things.  Like me & Bowie.

Certainly don't bother with a single album after Let's Dance.

I've got Space Oddity, Hunky Dory and The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust.  I reckon I could condense them into a full-length album I'm keen on but I'm definitely still in IDGI territory.  They're decent albums but the fervour bemuses me somewhat.

Each to their own.  Time for a John Prine list.

Enough Bowie, I'll order Let's Dance from Zoverstocks. 

The best Beatles albums are clearly Please Please Me, Beatles for Sale and With the Beatles, because the later albums get more patchy every time I listen.

I like PPM for reference, then Revolver and Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour.

Kow wrote:

3 of the best albums ever. It's a real pity McGowan went down the toilet and decided to be a cheap cabaret type artist.

He kind of fell into an Irish C&W type of thing for a while. Actually, MacGowan pushed out two good albums...The Snake and Crock of Gold. I prefer the latter. They split opinion and of course they don't hit the heights of his earlier stuff but there is some very clever tracks across the two albums.

His adopted backing band for these two , The Popes, produced a cracker of an album called Holloway Boulevard. Worth a look.

Aye. There's an annual outing with the Pogues for a few live Christmas concerts and the odd appearance with Jools Holland but that's it.

I suppose Fairytale of New York is keeping him well*.





* Having said that I think I read Shane split all royalties evenly across the band which is pretty generous given there was about 7 of them at the time.

Good threadage. Where's muggins when we need him?

Kow, do zappa. Go on.

Facewon wrote:

Good threadage. Where's muggins when we need him?

I put the Dylan Batsignal up.  He must be out of range.  He used to care.