Top 5 Side 1’s, Track 1’s

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Although “Like a Rolling Stone” is probably the more legendary song, I chose “Subterranean Homesick Blues” because it was the first time Dylan plugged in on record and a good four months before his infamous electric set at the Newport Folk Festival. What a shock this must have been to the loyal folkies that Dylan alienated by “going rock.” The song’s lyrical content is just as powerful. Tim Riley from NPR puts it best, “Snagged by a sour, pinched guitar riff, the song has an acerbic tinge…and Dylan sings the title rejoinders in mock self-pity. It’s less an indictment of the system than a coil of imagery that spells out how the system hangs itself with the rope it’s so proud of.”

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A sublime opening statement, “Thunder Road” is probably Springsteen’s finest moment. Starting quietly with a lone piano and harmonica, the Boss vividly sets a scene (”The screen door slams, Mary’s dress waves. Like a vision she dances across the porch as the radio plays Roy Orbison singing for the lonely”) before blasting off into an anthem of about the yearning for freedom. “It’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win.”

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One of the best opening salvos in rock history boasts one of the most devastating introductions: “Jesus dies for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” The fury that follows is cloaked in beat poetry and stripped-down garage rock performed by a crack band led by the incomparable Lenny Kaye. Music would never be the same.

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A slow build to the lead the track of the Stone Roses brilliant debut pays out in spades as Ian Brown sings, “I don’t have to sell my soul, he’s already in me.” “I Wanna Be Adored” perfectly sets the stage for the brilliance to ensue. Ace guitar work from John Squire, a kickin’ rhythm section that both rockers and ravers could move to, and the laid back vocal style of the “baggy generation’s” king, Ian Brown.

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I never tire of this wonderfully shambolic kick off to Pavement’s indie classic, Slanted & Enchanted. Right from the start you could tell the band boasted a first rate songwriter in Stephen Malkmus. A ragged anthem for Generation X and countless bands to follow.

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One of the defining statements in all of jazz, A Love Supreme is an intensely spiritual workout featuring an ace band of McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrision on bass. A classic bass line introduces the first track and the quartet doesn’t let up until the last note 30 minutes later. This is religious music for all of humanity.

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Perhaps the best known and most widely appealing jazz albums ever recorded, Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue is also one of the genre’s towering achievements. The first track, Kind of Blue, gets things started with a mellow (and modal) vibe with instantly recognizable opening chords. The talent of Davis’s band is unaparalleled: Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Cobb, Paul Chambers, Bill Evans, and John Coltrane.

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Marvin Gaye turns his eye outward on this classic 1971 album. The title track questions the turmoil and decay plaguing the country, addressing issues such as environmental degradation, poverty, civil unrest, war, and police brutality. The lead track was the pinnacle of Gaye’s remarkable career.

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Smooth, sexy, and soulful, “Let’s Stay Together” was a triumph of groove and emotion. A great introduction to one of the best soul releases of all time.

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The first song of Stevie Wonder’s magnum opus finds the soul sensation delivering a plea for peace and love: “Hate’s goin’ round. Breaking many hearts. Stop it please. Before it’s gone too far.” The 20 songs that follow are almost all stunners, including the its “Isn’t She Lovely,” “As” and the oft-sampled, “Past Time Paradise.”