my top 50

Several weeks ago, there was a short article in Sports Illustrated about an up 'n' coming 16-year-old Moldovan soccer player named Masal Bugduv. Somehow, the buzz around him kept building in the English media, to the point where the London Times named him among the top 50 promising players in the soccer world. But things fell apart when an alert blogger (yes, we do have a positive impact on the world occasionally) found out that Masal Bugduv didn't even exist.

There were two things that I took away from this story: one, that there really is a place called Moldova (I thought that was part of the hoax myself); and two, if you're compiling any type of a top 50, you should write about what you know.

So, a number of people have been begging me to publish my top 50 CD's of all time. I guess it started when another friend started to list his top 50 on his blog. I made some heated comments about a few of the choices, and was then told, basically, "Yeah? Can you do better?" (Not by the friend who was publishing his list, though - he's too much of a gentleman.)

And my answer in short is, "I don't know. Dammit, I don't know if I can do better." Because doing a list of the top 50 CD's is tough, man. I've been doing some prelim work on it for a while now, and it seems like every choice is fraught with second-guessing and anxiety about how my audience will respond. I'm not gonna beat around the bush about something: some of my choices are gonna shock you. And it's also difficult to compare the music of 30 years ago with the music of today! It's like comparing the baseball players of 30 years ago with the ball players of today. As we know, there's a lot more steroid use in baseball today; and the same holds true for music. Just look at that dude from Danzig.

All right, enough talk. Let's get to the rules: A) I'm gonna start from 50 and work my way down. B) Only one album/CD per musical performer/group. C) No greatest hits or compilation albums. E) Double albums get double credit. F) The Eagles are not going to make an appearance, so there's no use in waiting around for that. G) I have the final say. H) I'm going to publish 'em in bunches of 5. I) "I" stands for I get the final say. J) The only other rule is, there are no other rules.

Let the madness begin ...