I’m a Beatles freak, so you don’t have to have all the albums I do. But if you’re a self-respecting music-head, you have to have Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The White Album, and Abbey Road. No excuses now.
By the standards of most of you here, not only is my music collection incomplete, it hasn’t even really begun. And I have 4 thousand songs on my iPod.
But ok, I do have every Beatles album.
Jeff Buckley - Grace
David Bowie - The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust
Nick Lowe - Dig My Mood
Elvis Costello - Imperial Bedroom
Kate Bush - Hounds of Love
Buena Vista Social Club
Gillian Welch - Revival
Innocence Mission - Glow
Kind of Blue, Birth of The Cool & Dingo - Miles Davis
Winter in Lisbon - Dizzy Gilespie
Live at Carnegie Hall - Dave Brubeck Quartet
Thriller - Michael Jackson
Disraeli Gears - Cream
Elegant Gypsy - Al Dimeola
A Proper Introduction - Ruth Brown
A Song For You - Ruby Wilson
Talking Timbuktu - Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder
Pearl - Janis Joplin
Highway 61 Revisited - Dylan
Pet Sounds - Beach Boys
Brasileiro - Sergio Mendes
Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz with Astrud and Joao Gilberto
Just to name a few.
London Calling - The Clash, as much for the fact that it is the greatest album cover of all time.
A lot of these but I’ll add:
Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians - Shooting Rubberbands at the Sun
They Might Be Giants - Flood
Joni Mitchell- Ladies of the Canyon and Court and Spark
A former dorm-mate insisted that all college students, or maybe even everyone, owned Legend, the Bob Marley CD. But she might not have been entirely serious: She hadn’t transferred her copy onto her laptop, had left the CD 120 miles away at home, and couldn’t find it in the shared iTunes library of our building and she was desperate to listen to it.
(I’m doing pretty well, I think- I’ve got 4 of these albums: both Beck albums mentioned, Johnny Cash’s Greatest Hits, and American Idiot. Plus the two Joni Mitchell albums I just suggested.)
Almost thirty posts and I’m the first to mention
Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On
Charles Mingus - Mingus Ah Um
King Crimson - Red
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Black Sabbath - Volume 4
Squeeze - East Side Story
Violent Femmes, Violent Femmes
Bob Marleys Legend is actually not a bad place to start, the problem is it contains every single hit he ever had but has none of the gems that didnt hit the radio.
Betty Davis, Betty Davis (former wife of Miles Davis)
Soul Coughing, Ruby Vroom
I couldn’t get it under a thousand, so how 'bout I just post the essential concert videos?
Alice In Chains – Unplugged
Allman Brothers – Live At Great Woods
Allman Brothers – Live At The Beacon Theater
Beatles – Anthology
Blind Faith – Hyde Park 1969
Clapton, Eric – 24 Nights
Cocker, Joe – Mad Dogs And Englishmen
Deep Purple – Perihelion
Dixie Dregs – Live At Montreaux
Doobie Brothers – Live At The Wolf Trap
Doors, The – The Doors Collection (inc. Dance on Fire, Live at Hollywood Bowl and Soft Parade)
Flower Kings – Meet The Flower Kings
Gabriel, Peter – Secret World Live
Gilmour, David – Remember That Night
Gov’t Mule – A Tail Of Two Cities
Gov’t Mule – The Deepest End
Grateful Dead – Closing Of Winterland ‘78
Hendrix, Jimi – Band Of Gypsys
Hendrix, Jimi – Blue Wild Angel (Isle Of Wight)
Johnson, Eric – Live From Austin, Tx
Led Zepplin
Little Feat – Highwire Act, St. Louis 2003
Little Feat – Rockpalast Live
Mahavishnu Orchestra – Live At Montreaux ‘84 – ‘74
Marshall Tucker Band – Live From The Garden State 1981
Matthews, Dave Matthews Band – Central Park Concert
McLaughlin, Sarah – Afterglow Live
Mitchell, Joni – Shadows And Light
moe. – Live From The Fillmore
Ozric Tentacles – Live At The Prongmaster’s Ball
Pink Floyd – Live At Pompeii
Pink Floyd – P.U.L.S.E.
Plant, Robert & The Strange Sensation – Soundstage
Police, The – Synchronicity Concert
Rolling Stones – Bridges To Babylon
Rush – R30
Santana – Sacred Fire: Live In Mexico
Stills, Stephen And Manassas – Best Of Musikladen
Sting – Bring On The Night
String Cheese Incident – Live At The Fillmore, Denver 3-23-02
Tangent, The – Going Off On One
Traffic – Live At Santa Monica ‘72
Traffic – The Last Great Traffic Jam
Transatlantic – Building A Bridge, Live In America
Transatlantic – Live In Europe
Trucks, Derek Trucks Band – Songlines
Vaughan, Stevie Ray – Live At El Mocambo
Vaughan, Stevie Ray – Live At Montreaux 1982 – 1985
Waters, Roger – In The Flesh
Widespread Panic – Panic In The Streets
Winwood, Steve – Sound Stage Presents
Young, Neil – Rust Never Sleeps
Zappa – Zappa Plays Zappa
and, of course, This Is Spinal Tap.
It hurt to make it this short.
First off, my LONG list of artists I want to second:
My additions, trying like hell to actually keep it brief. These started as notes on what I thought was missing from the above, and then I just went through my ipod for the rest. You will probably notice when the list starts to get alphabetical.
All of these albums, I think, belong in everyone in the worlds record collection.
Johnny Cash - Live at Folsom Prison
Joni Mitchel - Blue
Louis Armstrong - The complete Hot 5s and 7s
Elvis Costello - My Aim is True/This Years Model
Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
Primus - The Frizzle Fry OR Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Raidiohead - Kid A AND Amnesiac
Modest Moust - The Lonesome Crowded West
The Velvet Underground - White Light White Heat
Social Distortion - Social Distortion
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed AND Sticky Fingers And one Brian Jones Album (at a start)
Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
The Who - Live at Leeds deluxe 2 disc set
The Pogues - Rum Sodomy and the Lash
The Talking Heads - Remain in Light AND Fear of Music and Stop Making Sense.
any Flogging Molly
Magnetic Fields - 69 love songs
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
The Kinks - The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Band - Music From the Big Pink
Bob Dylan - Blond on Blond
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run and Darkness on the Edge of Town
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle Vol. 1
Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Neil Young - Live Rust
The Descendants - Milo Goes to College
The Dead Kennadys- Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
any Frank Sinatra
Gogol Bordello - Multi Contra Kulti vs. Irony
Husker Du - Zen Arcade
Mission of Burma - Vs.
Iggy Pop and the Stooges - Raw Power
Minor Threat - Minor Threat
MC5 - Kick out the Jams
My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
The Pixies - Surfer Rosa and Doolittle
The Replacements - Let it Be
The Ramones - any boxed set
Television - Marquee Moon
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombone or Rain Dogs
Van Morrison - Moondance and Tupelo Honey
Weezer - Blue Album and Pinkerton
The White Stripes - an album
Wire - Pink Flag
William Shatner - Has been
ETA: Sunshine and Smiles list (below) has Wilco and Wu tang which should have been on my list too. I am sure I am leaving other essential stuff out.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Cursive - Domestica
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Wu-Tang Clan - Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)
Anyone who understands my musical tastes and tells my what is have to HEAR is an imposter.
Well I have some time. I’ll list one thing per letter and try not to pick some obvious choices while still keeping it pretty mainstream and common.
Artists:
The Animals
Beastie Boys (Licensed to Ill is great but I don’t care much for their other stuff)
Carl Perkins
Dead Kennedys (Not a big fan of the punk genre but Fresh Fruit For Rotting Veggies has been a favorite since I was a kid.)
Ella Fitzgerald
Fats Domino
Gwen Stefani (Hard choice here. I could have picked George Harrison, Gloria Gaynor, Grateful Dead and Guns N’ Roses)
Hank Williams
Interpol
Janis Joplin but J is loaded with a bunch of good candidates.
Kraftwerk
Led Zeppelin 
Muddy Waters
Nat King Cole
Otis Redding
Patsy Cline
Queen
Ramones
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Taylor Swift (just to throw a newer singer in the mix)
U2
Violent Femmes
Wu-Tang Clan
Yes
ZZ Top
Here are albums.
American Beauty – Grateful Dead (best album ever if you ask me)
The Band – The Band
Cosmo’s Factory – Creedence Clearwater Revival
Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
Emotional Rescue – Rolling Stones
Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables – Dead Kennedys
God Loves Ugly - Atmosphere
Homework – Daft Punk (don’t like the genre much but I can’t help but love this CD)
I Got Dem Ol’ Kozmic Blues Again Mama! – Janis Joplin (not sure if this is an actual album or just a greatest hits type deal but the Is are thin, it’s good and I might not get a chance to throw her in this list elsewhere)
Absulotely nothing for J
Kind of Blue – Miles Davis
Led Zeppelin 1-4
Made in Japan – Deep Purple (live album)
Nevermind – Nirvana
OK Computer – Radiohead
Pulp Fiction (no one does soundtracks like Tarantino)
Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! – Devo (Qs are thin but the album aint too bad…)
Revolver – Beatles (Rolling Stones didn’t call it the best album ever for nothing)
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Beatles
Turn On The Bright Lights – Interpol
Ummagumma – Pink Floyd (I’ve heard this isn’t one of their better albums. Oh well.)
Violent Femmes – Violent Femmes
The Who Sell Out – The Who (one of the first CDs I ever bought. I must admit, I bought it for the cover and fun name).
Don’t have much for X, Y and Z
I got your J X Y and Z
Juno - Music from the Motion Picture (Various)
XO- Elliot Smith
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
Zuma - Neil Young (or Zen Arcade by Husker Du, but I listed that one in my last list.)
All good stuff.
Oh thanks! I’ve been meaning to checkout Zen Arcade but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Lots of good stuff in this thread.
So as not to be repetitive:
Sleater-Kinney, Dig Me Out (e.g., “Little Babies”)
Laura Nyro, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession (e.g., “Sweet Blindness”)
AC/DC - Powerage
Beatles - Revolver
Black Sabbath - First Album, Master Of Reality, Sabotage
Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are!
(Charged) GBH - Leather, Bristles, No Survivors and Sick Boys
Hendrix - BBC Sessions
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Judas Priest - British Steel
KISS - Alive!
Megadeth - Rust In Peace
Metallica - Kill 'Em All
Motorhead - Ace Of Spades
Mrs. Miller - Greatest Hits
Ozzy Osbourne - Blizzard Of Ozz
Rush - Moving Pictures
T. Rex - Electric Warrior
Van Halen - Fair Warning
ZZ Top - Rio Grande Mud
Truth - Jeff Beck
A Salty Dog - Procol Harum
Hollywood Dream - Thunderclap Newman