Day 19 - A song from your favorite album:

by Dick Mac

The 30 Day Song Challenge has been presented to me by my friend Beff. The month of April will be dedicated to those thirty songs.

Discussing my favorite album is a conversation that can be different from day-to-day.

Is my favorite album "Diamond Dogs"? Or, is it "Get Happy!"? Is it "Innervisions"? Or, "What's Going On"? "New York Dolls"? "Duck Rock"? "Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One"? Is it a collection of Rodgers & Hart songs, or Boyce & Hart, or Holland-Dozier-Holland, or Lennon McCartney?

Could it be "The Beatles" with its second disc including "Revolution #9"; an album that predicts John Lennon's path towards Plastic Ono Band releases? Is my favorite record his "Plastic Ono Band"?

Is it a concert? Is it "Judy At Carnegie Hall"? The soundtrack to "Woodstock"?

Is it an opera like "Madame Butterfly"? Or, "Carmen"? Or a rock opera like "Jesus Christ Superstar" or "Tommy"?

I think it would certainly be a "concept" album, so a soundtrack would work. It would be an album that has a thread running through it. Could it be "Bat Out Of Hell"?

What about the unreleased, but always available "Grey Album" by Danger Mouse?

Does it have to be a David Bowie record? What about the Rolling Stones? "Some Girls" is a great piece of work. What about Iggy Pop's "The Idiot"?

Did someone say country? "I Am Shelby Lynne" is a remarkable piece, as is the Billy Sherill produced "Almost Blue"; and then the wonderful "Dusty In Memphis" brings us into the blue-eyed soul genre. Where is Alex Chilton? Is it a Big Star record?

Labelle's "Pressure Cookin"?

T.Rex "Electric Warrior"?

What about "Horses" and "Blondie" and "Marquee Moon" and "The Dictators Go Girl Crazy" and "Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols"?

The Clash's "Sandinista" or "London Calling"? Talking Heads "Remain In Light"?

Madonna's first record? Cyndi Lauper's?

And what of the monsters of rock? The beasts? "Led Zeppelin IV" or Black Sabbath's "Paranoid"? Van Halen's "1984"? Queen's "Night At The Opera"?

The monsters of pop? "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" or "Thriller" or "Kissing To Be Clever"?

New Order's "Power, Corruption and Lies"? Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark's "Morality and Architecture"? Gang of Four's "That's Entertainment"? Style Council's "Cafe Bleu"?

Obscure great records like Human Sexual Response's "Figure 14" or "Born To Laugh At Tornadoes" by Was (Not Was)?

And then The Residents "Third Reich & Roll" or Dead Kennedy's "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables"?

Where are the girls? The Supremes? The Ronettes? The Shangri-Las? Aretha Franklin, Annie Lennox, Marianne Faithfull? Amy Winehouse's "back To Black"? Sharon Jones' "100 Days, 100 Nights"?

And rap or hip-hop? "Straight Outta Compton"? "The Blueprint 3"?

"Licensed To Ill"?

Elvis? Chuck Berry? Little Richard?

Johnny Cash "American IV" or "Live At Folsom Prison"?

De La Soul's "Three Feet High And Rising"?

The list goes on!

You see . . . at any given time, my favorite record could be one or another.

It's hard to tell.

Today, we land here, at Diamond Dogs: