Stranded

Whilst over drinks tonight with friends, I mentioned that Highway 61 Revisited is my Stranded album. (Stranded is a book that came out in the late seventies wherein a bunch of rock critics wrote essays on the one album they would want with them if they were stranded on a desert island.) Then one friend asked the table - what would their five Stranded albums be?

Off of the top of my head, in no particular order I came up with:

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited (it would take me years to get to the bottom of it)
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back (same as above)
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory (the very essence of rock 'n' roll)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (favorite drinking album ever?)
Hank Williams - 40 Greatest Hits (great great lonesome songs)

Like I said, that list was from the top of my head. But what about Little Richard? I could scream along with him all day long and no one would be there to complain. Then there's PJ Harvey's Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Or early Rod Stewart - my favorite vocalist. Bruce Springsteen's The River? My Aussie punk anthology so I could sing along with The Saints' "(I'm) Stranded"? And what about the Replacements? Where's the metal?

Decisions, decisions. As for books .., give me some Lester Bangs and Joan Didion and ...