So how many of Elvis Costello's essential albums (I say albums and not CDs, because I have a lot of these on vinyl) are in your collection? And if you had to list ten CDs you couldn't live without, what would they be?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

Answers

Well, I counted 29 that I had, but I wasn't quite sure how to count some of them. I counted the classical albums if I had the same piece in a different recording, but I didn't do that for the pop albums, so I actually undercounted those, because in a lot of cases he listed greatest-hits albums whereas I had the originals or vice-versa.

More technicalities: do double-CD sets count for one or two of my ten CDs I can't live without?

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

Two CD sets count for one on your ten CD list. That has to be the rule, because I can't pare it down to ten unless I can count the two- volume Ella Fitzgerald/Cole Porter set as one CD.

As for how to count items on Elvis' list, this is only for coolness points, so that's between you and your god.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

Umm, I only have 20 of Elvis's albums. But that's ok because I don't like Elvis in general. It did remind me that it's been a long while since I've listened to that particular Willie Nelson album though.

I find it interesting that some of the ones he lists as being essential to happiness are quite depressing.

At this moment, I could not live without (and four of them agree with ol' Elvis):

The Smiths - The Smiths The Verve - Urban Hymns Bjork - Debut The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash David Gray - White Ladder The Specials - Singles Collection Dropkick Murphys - Sing Loud, Sing Proud Stubborn All-Stars - Open Season Decendents - Somery Carl Orff - Carmina Burana

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

I counted 49 albums I have that are on Elvis's list.
Here's my list of 10 (in no particular order and subject to change without notice):
Johnny Cash - The American Recordings
David Bowie - The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars
Red, Hot, & Blue
k.d. lang & the reclines - Absolute Torch & Twang
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Richard Thompson - Rumor & Sigh
Randy Newman's Faust
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy, & the Lash Beethoven's 9th Symphony

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

I have 44 of the albums, and I was inspired to run out at lunch and buy a Merle Haggard CD (but not the one on the list). Essential (and eclectic): X, Wild Gift/Los Angeles; X, See How We Are; Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville; P.J. Harvey, Dry; Sex Pistols, Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols; Patsy Cline's Greatest Hits; Iggy and the Stooges, Raw Power; The Go- Go's, Beauty and the Beat; Old 97s, Too Far To Care; and the Clash, London Calling. With the exception of the first four, this list could change in an hour.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

That's a seriously eccentric list. Eccentric in a different direction than the usual Spin and Rolling Stone lists, which is probably a good thing. I have less than a dozen of the albums in any format, and four of those I have are by Joni Mitchell and I never listen to them anymore.

But: If I have the late Beethoven piano sonatas, only not Richter but Brendel (the early Brendel if you must know), can I count those? If I don't need to have West Side Story because I know every damn note of it off by heart because we played it every year in band, can I count that? If I don't have Blondie's Ultimate Solid Platinum Greatest Hits but I'm pretty sure I have all their hits in one form or another (yes, I know, that was inadvertent), can I count that? I'm just asking.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

Seventy! And, I counted both the entire ring cycle AND the Anthology of American Folk Music as only one item each.

I think Declan McElvis is bluffing on some of his entries, because no one who really knew what they were doing would choose "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" over "Lucinda Williams."

To add some favorites not yet mentioned, God bless They Might Be Giants, the Pixies, and Belle & Sebastian.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

Costello cheated with at least one album. He counted the 15 String Quartets of Shostakovich by the Brodsky Quartet as one title. They were first separately released on six different cd's though. I would know, because it took me something like two years to collect them.

I own 10% of his choices, 50 out of 500, (or better 55 out of 505). What struck me most is that Costello seems to like studio albums, where I like life recordings of rock and pop better.

-- Anonymous, March 20, 2001

i only own 13 of them on CD (and only 13 because i happened to pick up one of the REM used yesterday before i read the list) but if you count all the old vinyl i stole from my dad, it's more than that. the vinyl covers all the dylan and the joni mitchell, so maybe more like 25? i'm not sure.

i feel like his list contains a lot of stuff that i SHOULD own but that doesn't mean i'm going to buy it. maybe someday. when i'm really rich.

essentials for me would include more paul simon (more recent paul simon, i should say), tori amos, the smiths, counting crows, different U2 (no joshua tree? the horrors!) ... the list goes on. mostly weird local stuff nobody's heard of.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2001

No Led Zeppelin!! I got to that statement and had to pause, wait for the shock to pass, then continue.

10 CD's you couldn't live without...tough one. I would have to think long and hard about that. Without naming names it would probably be 7 rock, 1 "light" or "pop" and 2 classical.

No Led Zeppelin....nope, still can't believe it.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

He has a lot of Greatest Hits albums too. That's usually verboten as per the Desert Island Disk and High Fidelity (the book) selection rules.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

Where's the list???

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

The list.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

I have THREE. Yes, three.

If you throw in George's collection there's a lot more, but my own paltry collection of music that i owned before moving in and inheriting his collection by proxy consists of three off that list.

Two of the U2 albums and i used to have Nirvana so i counted that too.

I feel like a big loser now so i'm going to hide.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2001

I read the list in Vanity Fair and concluded that he has very different tastes than mine.

I think Burt Bacharach is a joke and I cannot fathom how he's become respectible these days. Bee Gees ditto. I grew up in the Beatles era and don't care if I ever hear any of their songs again. Regardless of their merits or lack of them, they're just too overplayed for me to enjoy them. I can't stand things like Sly & the Family Stone or the Spinners.

I could go on and on but I won't. I have some of the records on that list and don't care that I don't have the rest. I have some of Mr. Costello's records, too.

Records I couldn't live without are hard to list because it depends on my mood and what I've been listening to lately. Things I come back to again and again include various bluegrass things; Bach; the Smiths; Kate Bush.

-- Anonymous, March 23, 2001

Not a one. I'm not much of an Elvis Costello fan. Ten CDs ... hmmmm.

1. Sting: Nothing Like the Sun 2. Sting: Dream of the Blue Turtles 3. Sting: The Soul Cages 4. Sting: Brand New Day 5. The Police: Greatest Hits 6. Mike Oldfield: The Complete, Disc 1 7. Soundtrack: Strange Days 8. Vivaldi's Four Seasons 9. Baroque Favorites (Pachelbel's Canon and a bunch of stuff by Handel and Albinoni that I've been listening to since I was 4 10. Greatest Hits of the 80's (Includes Tears for Fears and OMD and a bunch of other synthesizer pop bands from my childhood)

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2001

And I just realized that through fatigue I completely misunderstood the question. Heh.

-- Anonymous, March 24, 2001