What Makes For The Perfect Record? (v2.0)

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We’re happy to have a debut article from friend and Contributing Author minor major 7th as they tell us all about their Version (2.0) of our Occasional Series, ‘My Perfect Songs and Records.’


Miles Davis – In a Silent Way

There is a clip on You Tube in which John McLaughlin recalls how Miles Davis asked him to play the introduction to the song “In a Silent Way” alone. The guitar hero recalls how this request made him nervous, to which Miles Davis said: “why don’t you play it like you don’t know how to play the guitar?”

The result is a lush and moving performance.

I think this is a perfect record because nothing sounds like it. In other words, there is everything else and then there is In a Silent Way. It is a stark mediation on time and memory, going from melancholy to sublime. Every time I listen to it, I am convinced that every note is perfect. There is an A-list of players on this album. All bringing their A game. The unsung hero is Tony Williams. At times he plays nothing but his hi-hat. Yet his attack and rhythm is incredibly poignant, sometimes it evokes a mountain breeze or a desert wind.

It’s a perfect album because all the music sounds as though it came from pure intuition.

Fun fact: a few years ago, I checked out a record show in a suburb north of where I grew up. I had my biases about this record show. Let’s just say my Honda Civic was the outlier in a parking lot filled with huge trucks. Wouldn’t you know it: I found an original pressing of In a Silent Way.

Steely Dan – Aja

If we are ever able to quantify perfection, that is, capture and measure perfection in units, (let’s call them “perfectiles”), then Aja would have the highest amount of perfectiles. Enough has been written about what makes this perfect. I agree with all of it.

tnocs.com contributing author minor major 7th

Television – Marquee Moon

I can’t remember the poem, but a professor in undergraduate said to us: “this poem captures all of Renaissance England.” There is no way for me to verify this, but I believe Marquee Moon captures New York City in the late-70s. This album is my time machine.

More importantly, as a guitar player, I hear it as the best example of merging technical ability with melody and harmony. It’s jazz inspired but the songs have hooks. Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd shred, but the attitude is all punk.

2:01 to 2:05 on “Friction” may be my favorite guitar moment ever.

XTC – Skylarking

Skylarking is perfect because it executes its concept in a beautiful and moving way.  When I listen to it, I do feel like I have traveled through the course of a single day–and a lifetime. It’s universal. Don’t get me wrong. I love The Wall but I’m not a strung out rock star. I love Sgt. Pepper’s but the burden of having to assume a new creative persona is not really something I can relate to. Skylarking is perfect because I can “get behind” its concept every time, as it goes from the grass of the English countryside up to the satellites.

It’s also an album that keeps on giving. I know this is immature but I do enjoy the ongoing feud between Andy Partridge and Todd Rundgren. They are both geniuses.

I feel if they were to reconcile, it would actually take something away from the album.

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thegue
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thegue
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May 12, 2022 6:23 am

In 2001, VH1 came up with a 5 part show, The Greatest 100 Albums of All-Time. Of course it skewed towards the Beatles and 1960s overall, but on the strength of its review, I went out and purchased Television’s Marquee Moon.

It is an amazing album!

I also bought two Miles Davis’ albums, and a Beatles one: Kind of Blue, Bitches Brew and Rubber Soul.

Phylum of Alexandria
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May 12, 2022 9:18 am

Great post! In a Silent Way really is special, even for Miles Davis, and that’s saying something. Early pandemic, I took some edibles and did a homemade “surround sound” experiment, playing In a Silent Way on three different systems, two of them on low volume and slightly out of sync so that they were like echoes of the first. Truly mind-blowing. Of course, no gimmicks or drugs are needed to be blown away by the album, it really is perfect.

Marquee Moon is another favorite, just a master class in guitar cross communication, but one that someone like me (who is decidedly not a “guitar guy”) can really appreciate. Not to mention the puns! Tom Verlaine’s glorious bad puns. (“I get your point. You’re so sharp!” or the more complicated: “Broadway looked so medieval, it seemed to flap like many pages; and I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages”). Wordplay as swordplay indeed, Sir.

And yeah, Skylarking is pretty darn perfect (though sometimes I’m tempted to excise “The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul”). I believe that Andy Partridge did finally admit that Rundgren was right about the album’s production and sequencing. I think it’s great that he took them outside of their comfort zone, and forced them to make their great music even better.

Last edited 2 years ago by Phylum of Alexandria
Phylum of Alexandria
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May 12, 2022 10:48 am

(Not gonna lie, I stole that from Robert Christgau 🙂 )

ArchieLeech
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May 12, 2022 4:40 pm

I was gonna call you out on it. RC’s review of Elvis Costello’s Get Happy, I believe.

As someone who doesn’t love punk or New Wave, even I have to admit that Marquee Moon is thrilling. But I’ll take Pretzel Logic over Aja.

cappiethedog
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May 13, 2022 1:53 am
Reply to  ArchieLeech

I’ve been playing “Aja” for two decades now. My friend who went to the Berklee School of Music swears by it. I guess you have to be a musician to appreciate it. I think he got better returns out of our cultural exchange. Whereas I know not to play “Aja” when I’m driving home at night, my friend had so much Jonathan Richman knowledge, he fit right in with his new classmates.

Phylum of Alexandria
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May 13, 2022 7:21 am
Reply to  cappie the dog

Things I learned not to play while stuck in DC traffic:

  • David Bowie: Leon
  • Einsturzende Neubauten: Kollaps
  • The Swans: Cop
  • Diamanda Galas: Everything except You Must Be Certain of the Devil
Phylum of Alexandria
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May 12, 2022 10:49 am

Certainly, although a short series might be more reasonable!

mt58
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May 12, 2022 11:59 am

You are most welcome. We appreciate the time and thought that went into the piece. Thank you.

dutchg8r
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May 12, 2022 4:33 pm

Well done, mM7!!! Excellent debut!!!!

So I take from that the Perfect Music for you is that which puts you in a particular laid back, chilled mood?!

Virgindog
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May 12, 2022 6:41 pm

Aja, Marquee Moon and Skylarking are indeed perfect albums. I’m not as familiar with In A Silent Way but it it’s anything like Birth Of The Cool or Kind Of Blue, then I’m on board.

Phylum of Alexandria
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May 12, 2022 8:10 pm
Reply to  Virgindog

It’s actually closer in spirit to a CAN album, although my wife has asked if it’s Brian Eno before, which speaks to the fact that it’s prettier and spacier than a CAN album.

JJ Live At Leeds
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May 13, 2022 3:21 am

Welcome to the team mm7. Jazz is a big blind spot for me but always interesting to get a new take on it and read why it inspires someone. Steely Dan are one of those bands I see referenced so often but again, I’m afraid, I’ve never been able to find my way in.

Marquee Moon though, I’m very much onboard with. The title track is one of the greatest songs ever, love that in the midst of the punk and new wave boom where brevity was the order of the day they made an exquisite 10 minute epic. Plus one of the great guitar solos.

XTC are another great band though in my case I’m more of a casual fan familiar with the singles rather than the albums. Think I’ll give Skylarking a listen today to put that right.

Phylum of Alexandria
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May 13, 2022 8:41 am

Am I the only the person who found Kind of Blue a little hard to get into? Don’t get me wrong, I love it now, but it was my first exposure to the powerhouse that was John Coltrane, and his presence at first seemed a little incongruent with the mellow vibe that everyone else was laying down. Now I know that the major/minor key fluidity was basically the conceptual groundwork for the whole album, so it makes more sense.

Maybe it’s enough to know what to expect going in rather than go in expecting something like “Dinner Jazz”, but it did take me a while to appreciate how subtly quirky the album can be.

Last edited 2 years ago by Phylum of Alexandria
mt58
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May 13, 2022 8:07 pm

Sort of a different tack, but whenever I talk to a jazz fan, I always wonder: where do you stand on Lambert, Hendricks and Ross?

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