NPR critic compiles 1,000 essential recordings

Tom Moon knows he’s going to get a lot of grief over the selections included (or not) in his new book, “1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die” (Workman, $19.95).

• 10 Georgia albums that make the list

While his 1,008-page tome covers everything from rock and jazz to classical and world music, Moon, a critic for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered,” knows the guff is going to come in the areas of pop and country.

Enlarge this image

NORMA JEAN RAY/Special

Usher’s ‘Confessions’ makes the list.

Enlarge this image

SANDRA LEE-PHIPPS/Special

R.E.M. gets a nod for ‘Murmur.’

• Email this
• Print this
• Most popular

MORE MUSIC NEWS:

• Check out these 14 arts highlights in the new year 
• Kingsized brings new life to Elvis on birthday 
• Savor Athens like The Whigs 

• Blog: Atlanta Music Scene
• CD reviews
• Find a concert

For example, Billy Joel, Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, Celine Dion, Barry Manilow and Christina Aguilera get shut out, but — gasp — Britney Spears makes the list.

“Forget about her as a tabloid creature and think about her as a recording artist,” Moon said. “When you try and look for great singles that came out after the year 2000, I kept coming back to ‘Toxic.’ I think that may be the best example of the art of the pop single since 2000.”

In country, there’s nothing on Moon’s list from George Strait, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson or Brad Paisley.

“If you start with George Jones, Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Bill Monroe, Ralph Stanley and Willie Nelson singing ‘Stardust,’ by the time you get to Garth, you’ll perhaps see him differently,” said Moon, who spent 20 years as a critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I wanted to make sure some of the foundations were covered. We did have Narvel Felts in there. Now there’s an underappreciated talent.”

Moon, a former gigging saxophonist, spent three years compiling his book. After consulting other lists, fellow critics and artists (including Joni Mitchell and Beck) for recommendations, he listened to more than 3,500 recordings. He thinks his alphabetical compilation reflects scholarship, fun and diversity. He thought about “newbie music listeners” and what should be in a musical time capsule.

Ultimately, though, “the one thing I wanted everything to have is that sort of energy of a peak experience,” Moon said.

Most picks are albums, but there are some singles and anthologies or hits collections. The list includes six albums from the Beatles and six works by Beethoven. The newest disc is heavy rockers Mars Volta’s “The Bedlam in Goliath” from this year, and the oldest is a collection of Enrico Caruso arias recorded before 1920.

“I’m hoping [the publishers] allow me to do an updated edition someday because there’s already some I want back,” Moon said. “I’d pick a different 1,000 today than I would have six months ago.”

Moon already has taken some heat on his Web site, 1000recordings.com, which he welcomes. He expects the same during his ongoing promotional tour that’s expected to bring him to Atlanta in late November.

“I just want to start a conversation,” he said. “There are no wrong answers as far as I’m concerned about music.”

10 GEORGIA RECORDINGS AMONG THE 1,000

Artists with Georgia roots or creative connections are well represented in “1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die,” some by multiple entries. But there are some omissions that will make fans want to holler, including nada by Gnarls Barkley, the B-52s, the Indigo Girls, Alan Jackson, TLC, Travis Tritt and Trisha Yearwood.

Here’s a look at 10 Georgia albums that get credit where it’s due:

• Allman Brothers Band, “At Fillmore East”: “Everything develops organically and everyone’s united in search of the kind of collective musical ecstasy that’s usually found on John Coltrane records.”
• James Brown, “Live at the Apollo”: “Brown enters during a scampering blues called ‘The Search’ and, while the faithful are still screaming, launches a forty-minute assault that would go on to become one of the most thrilling live albums in pop history.”
• Ray Charles, “Modern Sounds in Country & Western, Vols. 1 and 2”: “Taken together, these two groundbreaking sets are prime-genuis Ray Charles, doing what he did best: erasing artificial divisions between musical genres to uncover the common heart and soul lurking underneath.”
• Gladys Knight and the Pips, “Imagination”: “… a quiet wonder of ’70s soul. Their banter sounds effortless — Knight launches her solo flights out of the Pips’ terse but effective harmony — and it makes virtually every track, even a lush ballad like ‘Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me,’ seem like a story retold by a circle of friends.”
• Osvaldo Golijov, “Ainadamar.” Performed by Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Robert Spano, conductor; ): “If the rhythms themselves don’t floor you, Golijov’s orchestrations — somber Van Gogh-like swirls of color in which one tonality “bleeds” into the next — probably will.”
• Gram Parsons, “GP/Grievous Angel”: “Love, along with longing and a loner’s isolation defines … ‘GP,’ one of the most quietly visionary debuts of the 1970s … Though the followup ‘Grievous Angel’ contains several originals, including the haunting closer Parsons and [Emmylou] Harris wrote together, ‘In My Hour of Darkness,’ it primarily shows Parsons’s knack for personalizing other people’s music.”
• R.E.M., “Murmur”: “… wild, wistful unassuming masterpiece that might be the most important rock record of the 1980s.”
• Otis Redding, “Otis Blue”: “… Redding’s singing clinic, a compendium of soul devices nobody used more persuasively.”
• Little Richard, “Sings the Gospel”: “The minimal production shows off [Richard] Penniman’s roof-rattling and always authoritative voice, and even the tempoless devotionals rock with the fire Penniman poured into ‘Tutti Frutti.’ Only now, he’s aiming at the heavens.”
• Usher, “Confessions”: “Usher, smoothness personified, gets everything to mesh, making this one of the most creative examples of post-millennial urban pop.”

— Compiled by Howard Pousner