1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die
Tell us your must-hear albums on the 'All Songs Considered' blog.
So much to hear. So little time. You can spend your entire life devouring music, both new and old, and barely scratch the surface of all there is to discover. NPR reviewer and author Tom Moon is trying to make it a little easier for music fans with his new book: 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die: A Listener's Life List. After four years or exhaustive research, Tom put together an impressive tome — nearly 900 pages of artists, LPs and songs, as well as a detailed explanation of how each of them wound up on the list.
The book showcases a lot of the albums you'd expect to see: Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde or Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run, for example. But unless you're a music scholar, you probably haven't listened to — or even heard of — the vast majority of them.
On this edition of All Songs Considered, we talk with Tom about his new book and listen to some of the incredible music he selected, as well as some of the ones we think he missed.
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1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die
Led Zeppelin
- Artist: Led Zeppelin
- Album: How the West Was Won
- Song: What Is and What Should Never Be
We do not have the label's permission to play a full version of this song.
Purchase Featured Music
- "What Is and What Should Never Be"
- Album: How the West Was Won
- Artist: Led Zeppelin
- Label: Atlantic
- Released: 2003
The Rolling Stones
- Artist: The Rolling Stones
- Album: Singles Collection: The London Years
- Song: We Love You
Reinbert de Leeuw
- Artist: Reinbert de Leeuw
- Album: Erik Satie: Gnossiennes; Gymnopédies; Ogives; Etc.
- Song: Gnossiennes No. 2
Astor Piazzolla
- Artist: Astor Piazzolla
- Album: Tango: Zero Hour
- Song: Michelangelo '70
Purchase Featured Music
- "Michelangelo '70"
- Album: Tango: Zero Hour
- Artist: Astor Piazzolla
- Label: Pangaea
- Released: 2008
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Artist: Sister Rosetta Tharpe
- Album: Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 2 (1942-1944)
- Song: Down by the Riverside
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