Complete Album Collections From "Career" Recording Artists

The Alan Parsons Project
That's one group I've always been curious about...but never took a plunge.

Bill Cosby - in light of recent revelations on him, nobody will ever hear his comedy anymore which is a real shame, he was a brilliant comedian. Virtually everything he ever recorded is excellent
Grew up on those '64-'69 Cosby WB LPs. Everyone of them is 5-star in my book. (I always liked the aspect of the <--STEREO--> stand-up comic LP. The comic's mic is hand held so there's no stereo imaging of him pacing to-and-fro as it were across your living room; so, in a stroke of brilliance, someone recorded the audience in stereo...and voila! A stereophonic stand-up comedy LP -- anything to get at that higher retail price!)
Yep. And the longer careers often run out of steam. Paul Simon lost me a couple of times.
Agreed. It's unreasonable to expect any artist to continuously create increasingly unique and pacesetting work. I just like Simon...can't really explain why...but it's clear that he lost the ability to write songs melodically comparable to Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water or Mother and Child Reunion many years ago.
 
I've got all of the Simon & Garfunkel stuff many times over in CDs and LPs, and I followed both individually through the 70s and into the early 80s. Simon's HEARTS & BONES was a very late discovery a few years ago and it's now a favorite. I liked GRACELAND at the time, but that's about as far as I went with Paul Simon. I have all of Garfunkel's 70s output and then he stopped having any radio-worthy songs and I lost track, I think I may have one later CD that he put out, possibly a comp.

We also have around here a ton of Neil Diamond's work, comps that cover the early, early stuff, then his main albums for Columbia up through the 70s into the 80s, and once again, lost track when the hits dried up after the Bacharach song "Heartlight". But I think we might have an album or two from later - that are never played.

That also pretty much describes Gordon Lightfoot.
 
it's clear that he lost the ability to write songs melodically comparable to Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water or Mother and Child Reunion many years ago.

He may have lost that ability---but I think he also lost his interest in catchy melodies. He's far more into rhythm and words (as is the culture, but in a different way) now.
 
I've got all of the Simon & Garfunkel stuff many times over in CDs and LPs, and I followed both individually through the 70s and into the early 80s. Simon's HEARTS & BONES was a very late discovery a few years ago and it's now a favorite. I liked GRACELAND at the time, but that's about as far as I went with Paul Simon. I have all of Garfunkel's 70s output and then he stopped having any radio-worthy songs and I lost track, I think I may have one later CD that he put out, possibly a comp.

We also have around here a ton of Neil Diamond's work, comps that cover the early, early stuff, then his main albums for Columbia up through the 70s into the 80s, and once again, lost track when the hits dried up after the Bacharach song "Heartlight". But I think we might have an album or two from later - that are never played.

That also pretty much describes Gordon Lightfoot.
RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS, the immediate follow-up to GRACELAND, is tremendous. If you haven't listened to it, Harry, I highly recommend it.

I'm not driven (except occasionally driven away) by airplay, but my interest in Neil tailed off at about the same point.

Gordon Lightfoot, ditto. His early Reprise stuff is wonderful. "Beautiful" might be one of the best love songs ever written. But I think a chunk of his songwriting and performing ability went down with the Edmund Fitzgerald (which is burned to a crisp in my brain as a former DJ 45 years later).

Hey, in one way or another, whether it's material, voice or taste, any artist is lucky to get a five-year run of brilliant (and hopefully popular) music.
 
RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS, the immediate follow-up to GRACELAND, is tremendous. If you haven't listened to it, Harry, I highly recommend it.
Perhaps I'll give it a try someday. The way I stumbled into HEARTS AND BONES after years of ignoring it, probably due to its not-appealing title, was quite by happenstance.

One Sunday morning, I was wondering about, and looked for, a studio version of "The Late Great Johnny Ace". I forget just why, It turned out that I had it on two different CDs from compilations: PAUL SIMON 1964/1993, and THE ESSENTIAL PAUL SIMON. I was familiar with the song from his playing it at the CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK.

This discovery led me down the rabbit hole of noting that the songs: "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War", "Hearts and Bones", and "Train in the Distance" were also available of these comps. Then I looked at my singles and found another track, "Think Too Much (a)". So I actually had five of the ten songs on HEARTS AND BONES, and I kind of liked what I heard and found a reasonable original CD on the Internet and totally fell in love with the album.

Looking for kindred souls online, I found out that most of them were bemoaning the fact that Art Garfunkel had recorded some of these songs - that the album was initially conceived as an S&G reunion album, and that Paul Simon erased all of the Garfunkel stuff after a spat and his claims that the songs were too personal to allow Garfunkel on the album.

Normally, I'd agree with those that wanted the S&G versions, but I fell in love with the album as is, and really didn't want any other version of it. It's perfect as is, IMHO, and is now a favorite album that I skipped over all those years ago. My theory as to why the album wasn't a "hit", was the somewhat questionable choice of releasing "Allergies" as a lead single.
 
Perhaps I'll give it a try someday. The way I stumbled into HEARTS AND BONES after years of ignoring it, probably due to its not-appealing title, was quite by happenstance.

One Sunday morning, I was wondering about, and looked for, a studio version of "The Late Great Johnny Ace". I forget just why, It turned out that I had it on two different CDs from compilations: PAUL SIMON 1964/1993, and THE ESSENTIAL PAUL SIMON. I was familiar with the song from his playing it at the CONCERT IN CENTRAL PARK.

This discovery led me down the rabbit hole of noting that the songs: "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War", "Hearts and Bones", and "Train in the Distance" were also available of these comps. Then I looked at my singles and found another track, "Think Too Much (a)". So I actually had five of the ten songs on HEARTS AND BONES, and I kind of liked what I heard and found a reasonable original CD on the Internet and totally fell in love with the album.

Looking for kindred souls online, I found out that most of them were bemoaning the fact that Art Garfunkel had recorded some of these songs - that the album was initially conceived as an S&G reunion album, and that Paul Simon erased all of the Garfunkel stuff after a spat and his claims that the songs were too personal to allow Garfunkel on the album.

Normally, I'd agree with those that wanted the S&G versions, but I fell in love with the album as is, and really didn't want any other version of it. It's perfect as is, IMHO, and is now a favorite album that I skipped over all those years ago. My theory as to why the album wasn't a "hit", was the somewhat questionable choice of releasing "Allergies" as a lead single.

I found HEARTS AND BONES difficult to warm up to, but "The Late Great Johnny Ace" brought me back to it over and over and eventually the album clicked with me.

The ONE TRICK PONY soundtrack (apart from "Late in the Evening") and SONGS FROM THE CAPEMAN just don't work for me. Everything from GRACELAND on, apart from "CAPEMAN", I really like---though IN THE BLUE LIGHT is challenging. Paul's voice is showing signs of age and I don't agree that some of the arrangements improve on the original.

RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS is really a companion to GRACELAND. If GRACELAND had been a double album, this would have been the rest of it.
 
That's one group I've always been curious about...but never took a plunge.


Grew up on those '64-'69 Cosby WB LPs. Everyone of them is 5-star in my book. (I always liked the aspect of the <--STEREO--> stand-up comic LP. The comic's mic is hand held so there's no stereo imaging of him pacing to-and-fro as it were across your living room; so, in a stroke of brilliance, someone recorded the audience in stereo...and voila! A stereophonic stand-up comedy LP -- anything to get at that higher retail price!)

Agreed. It's unreasonable to expect any artist to continuously create increasingly unique and pacesetting work. I just like Simon...can't really explain why...but it's clear that he lost the ability to write songs melodically comparable to Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water or Mother and Child Reunion many years ago.
You should take the plunge and give Alan Parsons a listen.
He is a brilliant composer and Eric Woolfson wrote great lyrics. They had a number of guest vocalists.
I have a two cd set that I listen to when traveling of Alan Parsons Project and my boy scouts love it when it is playing.
 
Just realized that I have the entire Rush catalog, more so because I bought these as digital collections of albums in hi-res. For vinyl, I have the 2015 remasters from Permanent Waves to Hold Your Fire, along with the new mix of Vapor Trails (since the band and the fans disliked the original mix). I'm an outlier since the albums from Moving Pictures to Hold Your Fire are the favorites of the bunch, although I do like scattered tracks from their earlier albums. Seeing that their final tour was R40 (for their 40th anniversary), I can safely say they reached the 20 year mark, two times over.
 
Seven albums over 26 years: Garbage. It began as a "supergroup" of alternative rock producers Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson, adding vocalist Shirley Manson to make up the quartet which is still intact all these years later. "Vow," "Queer," "Stupid Girl," "Only Happy When it Rains," "I Think I'm Paranoid," "When I Grow Up," and the song from the James Bond film "The World Is Not Enough" are among their hits. Their seventh album was released just last week. Can't say I care for the theme of this last one (too topical), but their earliest albums are gems. Still wish I had bought their debut on vinyl (Almo Sounds) when I saw it at Tower back in the mid 90s.
 
I love Garbage. I have their complete cd collection, including the special edition of the new album released last week. I like the cover songs they did of David Bowie’s Starman, and Patti Smith’s Because The Night. I totally agree that their early releases were their best work. I never saw the vinyl. I would love to hear that too. I’ve seen them twice in concert. Once as a headline act, and the other time they opened for No Doubt. One of the few 90’s acts I like.
 
I love Garbage. I have their complete cd collection, including the special edition of the new album released last week. I like the cover songs they did of David Bowie’s Starman, and Patti Smith’s Because The Night. I totally agree that their early releases were their best work. I never saw the vinyl. I would love to hear that too. I’ve seen them twice in concert. Once as a headline act, and the other time they opened for No Doubt. One of the few 90’s acts I like.
They were a curiosity for me at first. I'd heard that a band named Garbage had signed with Almo Sounds. Then a month or two later, the alt rock Canadian radio station (89X, across the river in Windsor) mentioned they were playing a single from a new band named Garbage, and that was "Vow." Wasn't really keen on it but after a dozen or so airings, I was hooked on it and wound up buying the CD. Not too long after, "Queer" and "Happy When It Rains" were on the station's playlist. They were certainly one of the highlights of alternative rock back in the day.
 
This discovery led me down the rabbit hole of noting that the songs: "Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War", "Hearts and Bones", and "Train in the Distance" were also available of these comps. Then I looked at my singles and found another track, "Think Too Much (a)". So I actually had five of the ten songs on HEARTS AND BONES, and I kind of liked what I heard and found a reasonable original CD on the Internet and totally fell in love with the album.
I found HEARTS AND BONES difficult to warm up to, but "The Late Great Johnny Ace" brought me back to it over and over and eventually the album clicked with me.

The ONE TRICK PONY soundtrack (apart from "Late in the Evening") and SONGS FROM THE CAPEMAN just don't work for me. Everything from GRACELAND on, apart from "CAPEMAN", I really like---though IN THE BLUE LIGHT is challenging. Paul's voice is showing signs of age and I don't agree that some of the arrangements improve on the original.

RHYTHM OF THE SAINTS is really a companion to GRACELAND. If GRACELAND had been a double album, this would have been the rest of it.
Hearts And Bones, was love at first listen -- which is at odds with my '60s musical sensibilities...somehow, Simon pulls off drums machines and other early '80s sonics. Train In The Distance, When Numbers Get Serious and the title track are A+. Not a bad cut on the LP. Rhythm Of The Saints is quite good -- but here we start to see Simon embrace the longer horizontal melody lines that appear of secondary importance to lyrical content. You're The One may be the last of the albums that harken to the '70s in any way... Surprise has Brian Eno all over it...not my cup of tea and I rarely play it -- can't even remember one song from it. So Beautiful or So What is pretty good. Phil Ramone is back and the songs are definitely better and more tuneful. Stranger To Stranger has its moments but it seems to come off as a swan song -- particuarly so with Roy Halee present. In The Blue Light just seems sad to me -- I think because it's now clear Simon's done and whenever I play this album I can't help but think of his lyrics from Old Friends from Bookends back in '68.

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Focusing on CDs only, I have:
  • Carpenters - All of their studio albums from Ticket to Ride to As Time Goes By
    Now, I can say I'm blessed to have all their studio albums from Ticket to Ride to Voice of the Heart from at least two of these three series: AM+ Series, Remastered Classics, and Carpenters 40.
  • Paul Simon - I only like Paul Simon's material from his solo debut to The Rhythm of the Saints, and have all of the studio albums from that time period except for One Trick Pony.
  • Paul McCartney - I have everything from McCartney to Memory Almost Full (almost all of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection + almost all of the Paul McCartney Collection), with the exception of Press, Снова в СССР, Flaming Pie, Run Devil Run, and Driving Rain. I also don't have some of the little side projects he's done, like Ocean Kingdom or any of that... I do have Thrillington and Electric Arguments on CD and digital (iTunes). mainly him with Wings and the solo albums. And of course, I have most of the Beatles' albums on CD from Rubber Soul on.
  • Billy Joel - I believe I have all of his '70s CDs except for Cold Spring Harbor, even though I quite like Cold Spring Harbor when it's not sped up with Billy Joel sounding like a chipmunk. I also have a few of his '80s CDs, namely Glass Houses, An Innocent Man, and The Bridge.
If we talk about digitally purchased discographies, I can expand this list to:
  • Eagles - I've purchased all of their solo albums
  • ABBA - Same, but I'm not happy with the quality of the masters for digital distribution
  • Steely Dan - I purchased the Citizen compilation on Qobuz, which is basically all of their songs in order by album year of release from Can't Buy a Thrill to Gaucho, so I have their whole discography I suppose.
  • Queen - I believe I have purchased all of their 2011 remasters on iTunes (not sure if I bought anything past A Kind of Magic except a track here or there tho--I could have; I just don't remember). Not too happy with the master quality (too loud), but I have it. Unfortunately, the only Queen CD I have that sounds uncompressed is a Japanese pressing of A Night at the Opera. Would love to grow my Queen collection.
Going through this exercise is funny, because there are some albums I really truly enjoy listening to from start to finish, but apart from that one or maybe two albums, there isn't much else from the artist that compels me (like Pink Floyd--I love "DSOTM" and "Wish You Were Here"), or the artist compels me for one album and a bunch of singles (like Elton John--I love his singles and the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" album from start to finish, but I don't really consider myself a collection of his albums). There are also other artists that I have some albums here and there on CD or digitally, but not by any means anywhere near their discography, like Stevie Wonder (I have Music in My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life, and these are among the most treasured CDs in my collections, but I have nothing from his 1960s albums and none of his albums from the 1980s and beyond).
 
Got all of the Harry Connick Jr. on CD except "Eleven" (when Harry was singing at 11 years old) & "Amazing Grace" latest album or CD!!
 
There are also other artists that I have some albums here and there on CD or digitally, but not by any means anywhere near their discography, like Stevie Wonder (I have Music in My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness' First Finale, and Songs in the Key of Life, and these are among the most treasured CDs in my collections, but I have nothing from his 1960s albums and none of his albums from the 1980s and beyond).
My Stevie collection starts with Music Of My Mind and while I have everything through A Time to Love, the ones I listen to the most are only up through Musiquarium (where I like three of its four new tracks, and which seems to signal the end of his best era), and like some of the tracks from Characters and In Square Circle. The earlier albums are like anything else by Motown in the 60s--heard one, heard 'em all. The later ones got too much into drum machines and beats, and his preachiness got to be too "in your face" for my liking. (It's one thing to suggest social issues like he did with Innervisions but he had to hit us over the head with it from the 80s and beyond.)

I agree on Elton John. Aside from Yellow Brick Road, I really can't sit through an album but he has so many good singles and a few great album tracks that are worth hearing that I always enjoy them.
 
The later ones got too much into drum machines and beats, and his preachiness got to be too "in your face" for my liking. (It's one thing to suggest social issues like he did with Innervisions but he had to hit us over the head with it from the 80s and beyond.)
I have to say, even as someone who is on the left of the political spectrum, I find the suggestiveness to be more thought-provoking than preachiness. I thought Innervisions and Songs in the Key of Life were done masterfully. I actually went to a Songs in the Key of Life concert a few years back in Vegas, and I could tell a lot of the people were disappointed/uncomfortable because that was around the same time as the Ferguson/Michael Brown incident and Stevie very explicitly performed a song or two with a nod to Michael Brown. I personally thought it was fitting and appropriate, but I could tell the other concertgoers were there to jam out to "Superstition" or "I Just Called to Say I Love You" — wrong concert!
 
I have to say, even as someone who is on the left of the political spectrum, I find the suggestiveness to be more thought-provoking than preachiness.
I agree. Just on Innervisions alone, we know what "Living For The City" is about, as well as "Too High." It wasn't until years later that I learned "Misstra Know It All" was about Richard Nixon--it was a masterful lyric that hinted at the commentary but could fly under the radar in a more general sense. Yet if you fast forward to the 80s on In Square Circle, he's singing "Apartheid is wrong....wrong...wrong." (As we say in these parts, "No sh*t, Sherlock!" So obvious that it's almost insulting.) Even "Front Line" from Musiquarium rubs me the wrong way. At least on some albums, he put the worst of those "message" tunes last, and we could quit the CD early. 😁
 
Yet if you fast forward to the 80s on In Square Circle, he's singing "Apartheid is wrong....wrong...wrong." (As we say in these parts, "No sh*t, Sherlock!" So obvious that it's almost insulting.)
I admit I don’t know as much of Stevie’s ‘80s material beyond the singles and the couple of songs he did with Paul McCartney for Tug of War, and We Are the World. I think even “Ebony and Ivory” is another “no sh*t Sherlock” moment. Don’t get me wrong—I love the tune and think the instrumentation is done well, but being like “black and white people should live together peacefully” is, mmm, basic/fundamental I think. But maybe it says more that that message was so controversial in some circles and continues to be in many of those same circles today.
 
(It's one thing to suggest social issues like he did with Innervisions but he had to hit us over the head with it from the 80s and beyond.
...which has been a problem with "pop" music in general since the 1970/80s. I have no interest in anyone setting to music their societal ideologies. As a friend of mine told me in the 1970s about Dylan: I like his music a great deal, but do not necessarily agree with his politics. Far worse than Dylan was Tommy Paxton -- who by "naming names" forever dated his material. Simon was better than Dylan in that he presented a premise and let you decide what is all meant (Patterns, Numbers). One of my all-time faves was Ball of Confusion (1970) as released by The Temptations: they lay it out there...and you decide. No political preaching.
 
On the other hand, with the Carpenters, I love their music from here to the moon and back—but I did feel like they (and many others in pop music) remained silent about a lot of serious issues. Most of their popular songs were about girl-meets-boy, or heartbreak, which is totally fine and has its place! But I understand, they maybe didn't want to "make a message" because they were more about the music than about the social issues. Some musicians really care about the social issues, and I think there are varying levels of success. Tropicália, for instance, is highly politically charged against the military dictatorship, but it speaks between the lines in a really sophisticated way.

But, like Rudy said, anyone hitting anyone else over the head isn't really constructive. But I do think that there is a way to incorporate social messaging into music well.

I'd also like to point out that very few Christian musicians or country musicians get the same level of criticism for "preachiness" than pop musicians who talk about the war on drugs or racism, etc. etc. Something to consider.
 
Just a reminder, folks, we discourage any political discussions. It's always for the best to keep that stuff to yourself - and it would certainly be better if the artists kept their thoughts private, but that's not always possible.
 
Just a reminder, folks, we discourage any political discussions. It's always for the best to keep that stuff to yourself - and it would certainly be better if the artists kept their thoughts private, but that's not always possible.

I'm with you on our expression of our personal political beliefs in this forum, Harry, but I have to disagree about the artists.

Some of the most important music of our times was political in nature. And given that politics can literally decide who lives, who dies, who is free and who is less free, that's a big deal. A ton of the Brazilian music we celebrate in this forum would not exist if the artists had kept their thoughts private.

Art is all about self-expression. We have the freedom to change the station or not buy/download/stream that artist's work, but they have to be true to themselves.
 
As I said, it's not always possible for the artists to keep their political views private. That's a given. What we hope to avoid here is the discussion of those views and how they may or may not intersect with our own.

It's a long-standing rule and it keeps this place "among friends".
 
As I said, it's not always possible for the artists to keep their political views private. That's a given. What we hope to avoid here is the discussion of those views and how they may or may not intersect with our own.

It's a long-standing rule and it keeps this place "among friends".
I totally agree Harry and you and Rudy and all the staff are doing a Stellar job keeping this place friendly coming here always has a positive therapeutic effect on me and has been More so these last 5 years I Want to Thank you all for that
 
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