HondoJoe's 60 Favorite-ish Albums

  #57. Jeff Lynne's ELO--Alone In the Universe  (2015) Top-Notch Tracks:  "When I Was a Boy," "All My Life," "Alone In the Universe," "The Sun Will Shine On You." Album Depth:  "One Step At a Time," "Ain't It a Drag," "When the Night Comes." Weak Links:  "Love and Rain," "Dirty to the Bone," "I'm Leaving You." Stand-Out Lyrics:  "When I was a boy I had a dream, all about the things I'd like to be."--"When I Was a Boy" "And radio waves kept me company, in those beautiful days when there was no money."--"When I Was a Boy" "All my life I was looking for you, and suddenly you were there. All my life I knew what I would do--Just stand there like a fool and stare."--"All My Life" "I'm so glad I found you, just wanna be around you, all my life."--"All My Life" "You go your way, and I go mine...

  #58: Fastball--All the Pain Money Can Buy  (1998) Top-Notch Tracks:  "The Way," "Fire Escape," "Sooner or Later," "Out of My Head" Album Depth:  "G.O.D (Good Old Days)," "Warm Fuzzy Feeling," "Better Than It Was," "Nowhere Road," "Charlie the Methadone Man" Weak Links: "Slow Drag" Stand-out Lyrics:  "I don't want to be President, Superman, or Clark Kent. I don't wanna walk  'round in their shoes."--"Fire Escape" "An exit to eternal summer slacking, where were they going without ever knowing the way?"--"The Way" "You know there's always more than one way to say exactly what you mean to say."--"Out of My Head" "I don't wanna make you mad. I don't wanna meet your dad. I don't wanna be your dream come true."--"Fire Escape" "I've been thinking 'bout the good old days; my ...

#59. Lorne Greene--Welcome to the Ponderosa  (1964) Top-Notch Songs:  "Bonanza," "Ghost Riders In the Sky," "Ringo." Album Depth:  "Saga of the Ponderosa," "Alamo," "Sand," "Endless Prairie," "Pony Express," "Blue Guitar." Weak Links:  "An Ol' Tin Cup (and a Battered Ol' Coffee Pot.)" Stand-out Lyrics:  "Welcome to the Ponderosa, my friends, for an evening of songs and stories about the American West. A land of legend, of romance, of friendship and loyalty, and courage. A motherlode of remembrance. A true bonanza!"--"Bonanza" "If anyone fights any one of us, he's got a fight with me!"--"Bonanza" "They're riding hard to catch that herd, but they ain't caught 'em yet."--"Ghost Riders In the Sky" "The town began to shout and cheer; nowhere was there shed a tear for Ringo."--"Ringo" "...

  #60. Pink Floyd--The Dark Side of the Moon  (1973) Top-Notch Songs:  "Time," "Money," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," "Us and Them." Album Depth Songs:  "Speak To Me/Breathe," "The Great Gig In the Sky," "On the Run." Weak Links:  "Any Colour You Like." Stand Out Lyrics:  "And then one day you find ten years have got behind you. No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun."--"Time." "The sun is the same in a relative way, but you're older. Shorter of breath and one day closer to death."--"Time." "Money, it's a gas. Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash."--"Money." "I'm in the high-fidelity first-class traveling set."--"Money." "And if the band you're in starts playing different tunes, I'll see you on the dark side of the moon."--"Brain Damage." Dark Side of the Moon Album ...

 Howdy, and welcome to HondoJoe's 60 Favorite-ish Albums!  Who likes lists? Everyone! (Well, almost everyone. I can't really speak for that guy with the mullet in the back row.) (No, not the guy with the fish. That's not a mullet, anyway. It's a mackerel.) I like lists. I like to read lists. I like to write lists. I could probably write you a list of why I like lists, but not right now, because I've got another list in mind. After years of writing lists to each other, my friend Nardo demanded that I write another list. (Demanded? Well, not exactly. I'd say it was more on the lines of "emphatically requested.") (And who am I to deny an emphatic request?) So, what you have here is a list of my favorite albums. I initially was going to do a Top 40 list, as an homage to Casey Kasem, but, as usual, I found it difficult to limit my list to a reasonable number. So, I settled on 60. Why 60? Because it's significantly larger than 40. (And yet sufficiently s...