• by John Gaffney , December 23, 2002

End of Year Riffs

This is the last Riffs column of 2003. See you on January 3. Sad day, this is, with Joe Strummer from The Clash gone. Interestingly enough, we honored Pulse! Magazine’s demise by asking readers to send their own version of Desert Island Discs, one of Pulse Magazine’s most popular features. We received over 200 responses. A lot of them listed The Clash’s London Calling. Anyway, we published some lists. If we didn’t get to you, we will most likely create a web page so you can see yours and others.

Finally, my point. Two weeks ago we were privileged to receive a new DID. This one was from Mike Farrace Editor & Publisher of Pulse, thanking us and the ad industry for their support. He sent his own DID list.

”For the very first cover of Pulse!, I interviewed Supertramp. While we were waiting to start, bassist Dougie Thompson and I were talking about our favorite records of all time and he said, "you should do what the BBC does, Desert Island Discs." So, in a little bar in the story, I invited readers to contribute the 10 records they'd take to a desert island. The first month, we got six. The second, we got 300.

Here are mine. Take what you want and leave the rest (maybe you can cut me some slack. Pulse! always ran 10 and all those Miles records are live and from the same era).

1. Los Lobos - How Will the Wolf Survive? The best rock band in the world, bar none. Powerful, dynamic, spiritual, virtuous and virtuosic.

2. John Prine - In Spite of Ourselves. Released in '99, his best since the first in '71. And there are a lot of great songs in between.

3. John Hiatt - Bring the Family IMHO, just about a perfect record.

4. Merle Haggard - Same Train, Different Time (Merle's tribute to Jimmy Rodgers) The best Merle that isn't a greatest hits. He talks about Rodgers, and like his tribute to Bob Wills, it gives you insight into a man that doesn't talk much.

5. Joshua Rifkin - Piano Rags by Scott Joplin, Vol. 1 Played like Joplin intended, elegantly.

6. Bob Dylan - Nashville Skyline. Maybe not his "best," but my favorite.

7. Van Halen - Van Halen. I reviewed this in a local daily for free, just so I could be among the first to say, "Holy S**t."

8. Carlos Barbosa-Lima - Plays the Entertainer and Other Selected Works of Scott Joplin Two Joplins, yes, but this is the most brilliant piano-to-guitar transcription I ever heard.

9. Count Basie - Jazz at Santa Monica Civic, 1972. I bought this because I love "Blues in Hoss Flat," which was out of print at the time. It's a surprisingly good 2 ½ hours of the Pablo roster working out on great Basie tunes.

10. Miles Davis - Dark Magus/Bitches Brew/Live Evil/Agartha/Pangea There is enough riffage here for a lifetime of isolation.