# Albums or compilations that define American Music **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 24, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696 "2016-09-24T02:23:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/1 "2016-09-24T02:23:03Z")
Well, it’s Friday night again, so here’s my next musical thread ;): I’m listening to Hank Williams _[40 Greatest Hits](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/40_Greatest_Hits_(Hank_Williams_album))_, and thought once more what a perfect and flawless compilation and document of country music it is. If someone asked me to help them start with country music, I’d guide them to this album first. If they’d ask for the blues, I’d recommend Robert Johnson’s _[The Complete Recordings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Recordings_(Robert_Johnson_album))_. I knew many covers (Stones, Clapton etc.) and some of the myth of Robert Johnson before, but when I finally got me this compilation shortly after first release in 1990, it was the first time that I heard the man himself, and I was baffled, just like I still am when I listen to it today. It too is a document of American musical history. Can you come up with similar examples, maybe in the same genres or maybe others? It’s always hard to pinpoint such a personal category like I’m thinking of, but I’m going for stuff that perhaps would be preserved as pieces of cultural heritage by a museum or library. (Typing the last paragraph, I thought about the fact that the Voyager’s golden records have Chuck Berry on it. So yeah, a definite Chuck Berry album would surely qualify. Send more Chuck Berry :-)) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/2 "2016-09-24T02:48:13Z")
If you don’t have a copy of Harry Smith’s 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, you ain’t NOWHERE, daddy-o. Influenced everyone from Dylan on down. > **[Anthology of American Folk Music](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_American_Folk_Music)** > > Anthology of American Folk Music is a three-album compilation, released in 1952 by Folkways Records, of eighty-four recordings of American folk, blues and country music made and issued from 1926 to 1933 by a variety of performers. The album was compiled from experimental film maker Harry Smith's own personal collection of 78 rpm records. > Upon its release the Anthology did not gain recognition as it had sold relatively poorly and had no notable early coverage besides a minor 1958 mention in Sing ... ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/3 "2016-09-24T02:56:23Z")
John Hartford’s 1971 album _Aereo-Plain_. What happens when you give hillbillies a LOT of marijuana to smoke. Their hair gets long and their string bands get really weird. Sam Bush, famous fiddler/mandolinist and founder of the New Grass Revival, said that “Newgrass” music never would have happened without Hartford’s groundbreaking work. > **[Aereo-Plain](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aereo-Plain)** > > Aereo-Plain is a 1971 studio album by American bluegrass singer-songwriter and instrumentalist John Hartford. It reached number 193 on The Billboard 200 chart. > The music on Aereo-Plain is a blend of traditional bluegrass musicianship, and the hippie spirit of the '70s. The album sold so poorly that Warner Bros. decided to devote no promotion at all to Hartford's next release Morning Bugle. Nevertheless, Aereo-Plain has been called the forerunner of the genre now known as "Newgrass". Hartford sub... ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/4 "2016-09-24T03:03:30Z")
For gangsta rap - NWA straight outta compton For nu metal - Korn follow the leader For Grunge - Nirvana Nevermind ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/5 "2016-09-24T03:09:14Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > If you don’t have a copy of Harry Smith’s 1952 Anthology of American Folk Music, you ain’t NOWHERE, daddy-o. > > Influenced everyone from Dylan on down. > > [Anthology of American Folk Music - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthology_of_American_Folk_Music) I’ve got it for a long time (granted, the CD re-release, but with great features, including a facsimile of Harry Smith’s original annotations), so I’ve got that down :). Don’t know how I could forget about it when I wrote the OP :smack:. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/6 "2016-09-24T03:24:03Z")
_The Birth of the Cool_, with Miles Davis’s nine-piece band. Sessions recorded in 1949, not released until 1957 or so. Miles left Julliard and started playing hot bebop in 1945 with maestros like Charlie Parker, Sonny Stitt, and Bud Powell. By the late '40s he was hanging out with Gil Evans and Gerry Mulligan and discussing a new kind of jazz, which would be less a “frantic” blowing session and allow more space for arrangers to add harmony, counterpoint, and color. They put together a nine-man band, which was as small and musically mobile as they could get while keeping in all the timbres and sounds with which they wanted to work. Trumpet and alto saxophone at the top of the range; French horn and trombone for the middle; and baritone sax and tuba for the low range. Piano, bass, and drums in the rhythm section. Every piece on the collection is a masterpiece of jazz composition and arrangement, albeit only 3 minutes long (to fit the existing recording medium). Listen to the opening of “Godchild,” with the theme stated by VERY agile tuba and bari, which then launch into a rising figure that adds 'bone and horn a third of the way through, and finishes off with the alto and trumpet brightening the mix. The music had an enormous effect on what was to become known as the “cool jazz” movement, which burgeoned through the 1950s on the west coast, particularly in the Los Angeles area. > **[Birth of the Cool](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_of_the_Cool)** > > Birth of the Cool is a compilation album by American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Miles Davis, released in February 1957 by Capitol Records.\[nb 1\] It compiles eleven tracks recorded by Davis's nonet for the label over the course of three sessions during 1949 and 1950. > Featuring unusual instrumentation and several notable musicians, the music consisted of innovative arrangements influenced by classical music techniques such as polyphony, and marked a major development in post-bebop jazz. As th... ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/7 "2016-09-24T03:34:18Z")
Here’s the original version of “Godchild,” remastered in 1998. Davis and Mulligan solo in turn. Plus a quickie trombone solo by either J.J. Johnson or Kai Winding…can’t remember which one played this date. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/8SAGGG_Vnpo/maxresdefault.jpg "Godchild (Digitally Remastered 98)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SAGGG_Vnpo) ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/8 "2016-09-24T03:41:48Z")
Some of you might not consider this “deep” or “roots” enough but… Eagles _Hotel California_ ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/9 "2016-09-24T04:10:42Z")
Decade. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/10 "2016-09-24T04:11:22Z")
The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: [http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-stax-volt-singles-1959-1968-mw0000263499](http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-stax-volt-singles-1959-1968-mw0000263499) Utterly amazing! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/11 "2016-09-24T04:24:44Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > The Complete Stax/Volt Singles: [The Complete Stax/Volt Singles, 1959-1968 - Va... | AllMusic](http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-complete-stax-volt-singles-1959-1968-mw0000263499) > > Utterly amazing! I’d love to have that, though I console myself with the Stax albums I got. And then I own the [Atlantic R&B Box Set - Various Artists | Album | AllMusic](http://www.allmusic.com/album/atlantic-r-b-box-set-mw0001074796) Atlantic R’n’B box set, which I think is equally great in importance and scope. There must be some overlaps, as there were some distribution deals between the labels. The Atlantic compilation got some Otis Redding, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/12 "2016-09-24T07:49:15Z")
The Colombia and Reprise Sinatra collections. And don’t forget the Jack Daniels. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/13 "2016-09-24T12:09:27Z")
I am just seeing this - busy doing work. The Harry Smith stuff first came to mind. Love the Hank 40. Don’t forget **James Brown’s** Star Time, or **Bob Dylan’s** Biograph. The **Nuggets** albums compiled by Patti Smith’s guitarist are held up as seminal to garage rock, punk, etc. Various Motown, Stax, Sun, Hi Records (Al Green! Otis Clay!) compilations are worthy and essential. Some Best of Blue Note compilations are essential for Jazz heads. **Kind of Blue** is my favorite American recording and one that endures at the top of list. I found a great old school Rap compilation that had everything from Whodini, to Kool Moe Dee, to Baby Got Back, The Message, White Lines and Bust a Move. Very fun. I have a Mosaic ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/14 "2016-09-24T12:37:08Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I am just seeing this - busy doing work. > > The Harry Smith stuff first came to mind. Love the Hank 40. Don’t forget **James Brown’s** Star Time, or **Bob Dylan’s** Biograph. > > The **Nuggets** albums compiled by Patti Smith’s guitarist are held up as seminal to garage rock, punk, etc. > > Various Motown, Stax, Sun, Hi Records (Al Green! Otis Clay!) compilations are worthy and essential. Some Best of Blue Note compilations are essential for Jazz heads. > > **Kind of Blue** is my favorite American recording and one that endures at the top of list. > > I found a great old school Rap compilation that had everything from Whodini, to Kool Moe Dee, to Baby Got Back, The Message, White Lines and Bust a Move. Very fun. > > I have a Mosaic Sorry - cut off. Mosaic records puts out great compilations. I have a 3-cd set of boogie woogie piano that is so great and fun. It’s in my car CD player now. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/15 "2016-09-24T15:25:17Z")
Oh, damn, of course, **Nuggets**! A great tangential Nuggets collection is _Love is the Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970_, for those of us who love the Charlatans, the Airplane, the Dead, and all their druggy psychedelic ilk. The Louis Armstrong Columbia box set _Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man 1923-1934_. Hot stuff! It’s not yo gramma’s “Hello, Dolly!” Satchmo. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/16 "2016-09-24T15:27:28Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Sorry - cut off. Mosaic records puts out great compilations. I have a 3-cd set of boogie woogie piano that is so great and fun. It’s in my car CD player now. Is that the Albert Ammons/Meade Lux Lewis collection? Or something more general? ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/17 "2016-09-24T15:29:56Z")
The soundtrack to Ken Burns’ Jazz. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/18 "2016-09-24T16:16:55Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Is that the Albert Ammons/Meade Lux Lewis collection? Or something more general? This one: [35 Extraordinary Jazz Artists: Jazz Legends & Overlooked Jazz Musicians](http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MS-030) yes, it has Ammons and Lewis, but others as well, and a bunch of tracks with Big Joe Turner shoutin’ vocals over the players. Track 10 on Disc 1, Pete Johnson doing an instrumental called simply Boogie Woogie is everything I could ever hope to hear in a boogie piano player. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/19 "2016-09-24T16:51:03Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I am just seeing this - busy doing work. > > The Harry Smith stuff first came to mind. Love the Hank 40. Don’t forget **James Brown’s** Star Time, or **Bob Dylan’s** Biograph. Well, some of you might know that I’m a big, big Dylan fan, so of course I got _Biograph_. > [@](#): > > The **Nuggets** albums compiled by Patti Smith’s guitarist are held up as seminal to garage rock, punk, etc. Yeah, _Nuggets_ is great. I’ve got the extended 4-CD edition as mp3’s (well, I confess that I downloaded it in the Napster days when I still had not much qualms about acquiring music this way. But I promise that I’m done with those kind of downloads for a very long time). There’s much great stuff to discover on it. > [@](#): > > Various Motown, Stax, Sun, Hi Records (Al Green! Otis Clay!) compilations are worthy and essential. Some Best of Blue Note compilations are essential for Jazz heads. Well, about ten years ago when I was still a regular reader of the German edition of “Rolling Stone”, they had a ten-CD compilation with Motown’s complete singles as a gift if you subscribed. Unfortunately, I missed it then. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2016, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696/20 "2016-09-24T17:39:19Z")
**Biograph** is for Dylan pussies! You need all of **The Bootleg Series** , starting with _Live at the Albert Hall 1966_. Somebody said the first CD…the acoustic set…was substandard, but they’re full of shit. And the second, electric disc, with The Band, is one of the great sets ever. “Play fuckin’ LOUD.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/albums-or-compilations-that-define-american-music/766696.md?page=2)