Q, June 2000

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... Bibliography ...
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Q magazine
Q Special Edition

Magazines
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The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever


Q writers


1. Revolver – The Beatles
2. Ok Computer – Radiohead
3. Exile On Main Street – The Rolling Stones
4. London Calling – The Clash
5. A Hard Days Night – The Beatles
6. Astral Weeks – Van Morrison
7. The Beatles – The Beatles
8. (What’s The Story) Morning Glory – Oasis
9. Blue Lines – Massive Attack
10. Never Mind The Bollocks… Sex Pistols
11. Dark Side Of The Moon – Pink Floyd
12. Sticky Fingers – The Rolling Stones
13. Sgt. Pepper’s… - The Beatles
14. Low – David Bowie
15. Mezzanine – Massive Attack
16. Hunky Dory – David Bowie
17. Abby Road – The Beatles
18. Screamadellica – Primal Scream
19. Unknown Pleasures – Joy Division
20. Hounds Of Love – Kate Bush
21. Rubber Soul – The Beatles
22. Park Life – Blur
23. Bryter Later – Nick Drake
24. Definitely Maybe – Oasis
25. Ziggy Stardust – David Bowie
26. Led Zeppelin IV – Led Zeppelin
27. The Queen Is Dead – The Smiths
28. Let It Bleed – The Rolling Stones
29. The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
30. Scary Monsters & Super Creeps – David Bowie
31. Pills ’N’ Thrills & Bellyaches – Happy Mondays
32. Physical Graffiti – Led Zeppelin
33. For Your Pleasure – Roxy Music
34. Leftism – Leftfield
35. The Bends – Radiohead
36. Maxinquaye – Tricky
37. Led Zeppelin II – Led Zeppelin
38. The Specials – The Specials
39. Everything Must Go – Manic Street Preachers
40. The Lexicon Of Love – ABC
41. A Night At The Opera – Queen
42. Dig Your Own Hole – Chemical Brothers
43. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
44. Hatful Of Hollow – The Smiths
45. Armed Forces – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
46. Different Class – Pulp
47. The Fat Of The Land – Prodigy
48. The Clash – The Clash
49. Club Classics Vol. One – Soul To Soul
50. All Mod Cons – The Jam
51. Brothers In Arms – Dire Straits
52. Connected – Stereo MC’s
53. Peter Gabriel III – Peter Gabriel
54. The Man Who – Travis
55. Piper At The Gates Of Dawn – Pink Floyd
56. Quadrophenia – The Who
57. In It For The Money – Supergrass
58. Urban Hymns – The Verve
59. Ogdon’s Nut Gone Flake – The Small Faces
60. Vol.4 – Black Sabbath
61. Dummy – Portishead
62. Plastic Ono Band – John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
63. Metalheads Presents Platinum Breaks – Various
64. Everything’s Coming Up Dusty – Dusty Springfield
65. Seventeen Seconds – The Cure
66. New Boot And Panties – Ian Dury
67. Solid Air – John Martyn
68. When I Was Born For The 7th Time – Cornershop
69. Dare – The Human League
70. Anokha, Sounds Of The Asian Underground – Various
71. Unplugged – Eric Clapton
72. Grand Prix – Teenage Fanclub
73. Radiator – Super Furry Animals
74. 3 EP’s – The Beta Band
75. Band On The Run – Wings
76. Ghost In The Machine – Police
77. Wildwood – Paul Weller
78. In Rock – Deep Purple
79. Unhalfbricking – Fairport Convention
80. Stars – Simply Red
81. You’ve Come A Long Way Baby – Fatboy Slim
82. This Year's Model – Elvis Costello & The Attractions
83. Signing Off – Ub40
84. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road – Elton John
85. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels – Dexy’s Midnight Runners
86. The Yes Album – Yes
87. Brewing Up With Billy Bragg – Billy Bragg
88. Psycocandy – The Jesus And Mary Chain
89. The White Room – The KLF
90. The Undertones – The Undertones
91. Very – The Pet Shop Boys
92. Hats – The Blue Nile
93. Rum Sodomy And The Lash – The Pogues
94. Goodbye Jumbo – World Party
95. Kilimanjaro – The Teardrop Explodes
96. Coming Up – Suede
97. Low Life – New Order
98. Rio – Duran Duran
99. Infected – The The
100. Number Of The Beast – Iron Maiden






45. Armed Forces

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Q




82. This Year's Model

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

Q

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Q, No. 165, June 2000


The 100 Greatest British Albums Ever includes Armed Forces (45) and This Year's Model (82).


Also ranked are The Specials (38) and The Pogues' Rum, Sodomy & The Lash (93).


Jon Bon Jovi's Record Collection includes My Aim Is True.

Images

2000-06-00 Q cover.jpg 2000-06-00 Q page 03.jpg 2000-06-00 Q pages 40-41.jpg
Cover and page scans.


Jon Bon Jovi's record collection

"I'd scream those lyrics at the top of our stairs"

Ben Mitchell

He likes a proper lyric that means something. He knows "every emotion" from ballad to rock. He's matey with Bill Clinton. You wont be surprised to learn that he likes Bruce Springsteen. Ben Mitchell isn't ...

You find Jon Bon Jovi sipping a chilled red wine ("All wine — ALL wine — should be kept at 54 degrees") in his spacious Manhattan crash-pad. An ear-popping 28 storeys up, overlooking Central Park. Liam Neeson is a neighbour while US 'shock-jock' Howard Stern occupies the penthouse.

Pressed for a purchase price, he shrugs, "A couple of million," like it's pocket change. Which of course, it is. But, while the location is suitably ostentatious, the decor — all gold-brushed mock panelling, jasmine scented candles and ill-fitting MDF doors — is pure Changing Rooms.

There are precious few nick-nacks for someone who has spent 17 years on the sharp end of stadium rock. Two large lacquered photographs — one of some kind of donkey, the other of a man with wings wearing a nappy — dominate the room, gifts from Elton John. Framed photographs of his two children, his wife Dorothea and his band — with whom he releases a new album, Crush, this month — cover the remaining wall space. One shows him and Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora in a creaky boat on some faraway river with a native guide, though even here the fret-happy sidekick clutches a white Stratocaster. Elsewhere, behind a snap of the singer with a bemused Chuck Berry, sits a glass block inset with a shot of him with Bill Clinton, having played the libidinous president's 50th birthday. "You were terrific. Elvis and Conway are up there thinking of you," reads the scribbled message.

In Elvis' thoughts he may be, but there is no sign of The King around Jon Bon Jovi's modest hi-fi system. However Conway Twitty's The Final Recording Of His Greatest Hits Vol II is visible underneath an unopened copy of Introducing Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. At the bottom of the pile lies A Rock 'n' Roll Christmas, a stocking-filler for the AOR die-hard containing "I Wish Everyday Could Be Like Christmas" by Jon Bon Jovi. He runs a hand through aggressively jelled hair. He counts none of these amongst his favourite albums. These though, he really likes...


Elvis Costello — My Aim is True

"I loved the punky feel, yet he still wrote great songs — still one of my favourite lyricists. I used to play 'Alison' with my first band. Actually, he covered "Bad Medicine" on one of his tours and he said it's the perfect pop song. That was cool because when I write, I try not to take liberties for the sake of a rhyme scheme, so it'll read like dialogue. I've had discussions with Joe Elliott about this like, "Joe, what the fuck are you saying? Pour some sugar on me?" He's like (adopts an accent from somewhere between Coventry and Bangladesh) "Doesn't matter, it's just a rhyming scheme.."."


Tom Waits — The Asylum Years

"This was when Tom could sound like Billy Joel — he had no rasp in his voice. This is a "Best Of..." Collection with all that very early stuff that I wore down because I had it on cassette. It's got (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night, Martha ... I met him on the last tour and I was like a kid. It was great. Was he a fan of mine? He was very kind, very complimentary, though I don't know how much of my music he's actually listened to."


Bob Dylan — Desire

"Am I a big Dylan fan? Sure. He once told me how much he liked Wanted Dead Or Alive. I think the first record I ever bought was a Dylan record. I remember — now that everyone in the world knows who Hurricane Carter is — when the record came out I played it to death. Rahway State Prison was right next to where you got your car inspected and I'd stare at this penitentiary thinking that the lyric of the song was about a man in this building. That was my first realisation that songwriting was so powerful. From that I learned who Van Morrison was, and from there I learnt who Bruce Springsteen was."


U2 — Achtung Baby

"I envy Bono as a vocalist — ha can really wrench a lyric. This was such a leap forward for them after the Joshua Tree and all their organic early work — I love stuff like "Pride" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" — but Achtung Baby was bigger that life. It was unique. A song like "One" was beyond ridiculous. I liked "The Fly," the performances, even the artwork was great — Anton Corbijn outdid himself. Did I like their last record? No, I didn't care for that at all."


"The Strangest Record I Own"
Patsy Cline — Crazy

"I think people would be surprise to learn that I listen to this. Crazy was written by Willie Nelson — I don't know if everybody knows that or not. Beautiful songs, beautiful singing, beautiful production. Twelve great tracks that I put on around the house to catch the odd idea. Why would people be surprised that I listen to this? I guess they wouldn't imagine that I'd listen to a 40 year old ... 50 year old record of a country and western singer who has no roots in rock 'n' roll."


Queen — A Day At The Races

"What about the rock? Well, there's a combination of the obvious — Aerosmith's first album, Alice Cooper's Welcome To My Nightmare, Thin Lizzy's The Boys Are Back In Town, Jailbreak, all that period... Queen. If I had to pick one? Queen. I was a big Queen fan. I remember that period in the mid-70s when I bought all those records. The white one was Night At The Opera, the black one was Day At The Races, right? Day At The Races I think was even more... "Tie Your Mother Down," learning how to play that riff in your basement... A-G ...D.C.A..."


Dire Straits — Making Movies

"I once loaned Mark Knopfler my copy of this when I was at Power Station Studios. I've listened to this a billion times and I'm jealous I didn't write it, especially "Romeo and Juliet." Sure, "Expresso Love" and "Les Boys" aren't so hot, but "Tunnel Of Love" is a really great song. There's one or two songs on Love Over Gold that I wish were on this record, like that really long one. "Telegraph Road"? That's it! I've ripped that off successfully."


Meat Loaf — Bat Out Of Hell

"I saw him play with Jim Steinman on piano at Rutger's College in Jersey when I was a teenager. He actually played in a gym where he'd faint and have to take oxygen and he wore that tuxedo with the big handkerchief. Bat Out Of Hell was a real opus — all the songs have great memories for me of those years and the little girlfriend I went with back then. Back Into Hell? No, no, no. "I'll Do Anything For Love But I Won't Do That"? What? It's like the Backstreet Boys. "I Like It That Way." What way? What does that mean?"


Prince — Purple Rain

"This was more like a book or a movie. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. There's every emotion from the ballads to the rocker, all the influences were evident from Hendrix to Chic. He put it into a film too and made something more of it — I enjoyed that immensely at the time, although I only saw it in foreign countries with subtitles. Sign O' The Times was great too. I didn't buy the last record though. A professional loony? It's not focussed any more, is it? It's the same with guys like John Mellencamp. It feels to me that he just records the first 11 songs he writes."


"The One Record I Couldn't Live Without"
Bruce Springsteen — Born To Run

"If you want to talk about records that changed my life, this made me want to be in a rock 'n' roll band because those songs were about things I could look out of my window and see. He's talking about Route 9, driving down into Kingsley, trying to get a drink — these were places I knew. That was huge. My cousin, who's a few years older than me, turned me on to it. I used to scream those lyrics at the top of my lungs at the top of our stairs because there was a bit of reverb in the hallway, trying to hit the high notes on "Jungleland" and "Backstreets"."

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