The List #1 — 10 Songs from An Artist's Tenth Album
Hear songs off the tenth albums of Prince, Dolly Parton and Bob Marley. Plus, the new single from the Black Crowes, off their 10th album coming soon!
Following this month’s announcement of the forthcoming, tenth album from The Black Crowes, I started thinking about how much work an artist or group needs to do to get to a point where they can actually make a tenth album. As I learned, somewhat surprisingly, some artists and groups were just hitting their stride on their tenth LP, as was the case of Fleetwood Mac, represented on this playlist with the classic “song about a witch” — “Rhiannon,” off their 1975 self-titled LP.
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However, there are also songs here which became catalog essentials despite being later offerings: Look no further than Bob Marley & The Wailers’ “Satisfy My Soul” (1978) in all its nurturing Rasta glory. Conversely, the American gospel of Dolly Parton’s “When I Sing For Him” (1972) is the track that arguably put the country singer on the map as a future icon.
Madonna’s career can be defined by an absolute creative freedom that either shakes the world with its genius, or falls flat right out of the gates. But whatever the outcome, it’s still impossible to predict Madonna’s next act. “Hung Up” is a dancefloor banger off her 2005 LP Confessions on a Dance Floor that put the artist back on top, following a string of albums where the same creative freedom became a blessing and a curse for the singer. “Hung Up,” however, hushed the grumblings that lingered about Madonna at the turn of the century, as she summoned the faithful back to the clubs.
It is truly hard to imagine that Exile on Main St. was actually the Rolling Stones tenth LP (I follow the British chronology), after already racking up hit song after hit song throughout the entire 60s. Although Mick Jagger has a more tepid outlook on the album compared to what fans (including me) think of the album in the 50 years since its release, “Rocks Off” — the album’s opener included here — is 70s Stones in a nutshell: raw, cynical, rock and roll radicalism.
My inaugural playlist also features hits from U2 (“Beautiful Day”) and Prince (“Alphabet St.”) off their respective tenth offerings: the Irish rockers mega-successful All that You Can’t Leave Behind (2000), and Prince’s Lovesexy (1988), a critically misunderstood work, but at the same time, a possible misfire by the artist. The verdict is still out on that question.
Ciao for now. Happy listening!
— Dan Alleva
The List #1
U2 — “Beautiful Day” (2000)
The Rolling Stones — “Rocks Off” (1972)
Fleetwood Mac — “Rhiannon” (1975)
Prince — “Alphabet St.” (1988)
Hall & Oates — I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” (1981)
Madonna — “Hung Up” (2005)
Aretha Franklin — “Respect” (1967)
Stevie Wonder — “For Once in My Life” (1968)
Bob Marley & The Wailers — “Satisfy My Soul” (1978)
Dolly Parton — “When I Sing For Him” (1972)
Bonus Tracks:
I started with the Black Crowes news, and it is a very welcome surprise. The first single off their new LP Happiness Bastards (out March 15 via Silver Arrow Records) is called “Wanting and Waiting,” which you can listen to below.
The building guitar riff and radio friendly chorus should bring fans of the Crowes first two LPs, which were substantially more rock oriented, back into the fold after decades of the band experimenting in the studio with elements of folk, jazz, and psychedelia.