wax&wires

1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die

I just saw Tom Moon on Carson a few nights ago promoting his book, 1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die. The premise of the book is to educate and open up the minds of readers by introducing them to genres and records which they may have written off before. You could easily write a book on 1000 rock albums to hear before you die, but Moon runs the gamut by covering all genres and eras, from Bach to rock. He made some concessions with regards to not having Van Halen, John Williams and some other huge artists represented in the book. His response to Carson’s inquiries as to why he elected to exclude the musical power-houses that they are was simply that by representing other artists in the genre, readers would naturally triangulate their way to any artists that were omitted from the final edit.

Each entry is accompanied by a short commentary from Moon, explaining why it’s in the book. He also includes quotes from various artists that pertain to the recording at hand – “Your collection could be filled with nothing but music from Ray Charles,” said Tom Waits, “and you’d have a completely balanced diet.” Moon also includes key tracks by each artist, other great works to check out, and even has an index in the back of the book to help you find the perfect music for setting the right mood.

Anyway, check it out if you’re looking for a great way to balance out your musical roots, or if you’re just looking for a great, conversation-starting coffee table book.

1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die – Tom Moon

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 14th, 2009 at 5:09 pm. It is filed under wax and tagged with book, classic, culture, education, roots. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.