Actually leather tanker helmets are quite fashionable amongst WWII re-enactors riding motorcycles and those looking for the “retro” look w/o going German as they were quite popular with GI’s riding bikes back then.

Any essential list that excludes Gentle Giant and includes Kiss is very dubious at best.

I'll give you 5 albums that you should definitely hear before you die:

1. The The - Mind Bomb
2. Jellyfish - Spilt Milk
3. Pre Fab Sprout - Jordan: The Comeback
4. Mike Keneally - Wooden Smoke
5. Crowded House - Temple Of Low Men

Of course I could go on and on and on...

I'm going to buy these all as MP3 albums just to mess with you.

I just realized that Soul Mining is one of my favorite albums and it is the only The The album I have. Why did I never explore more of their music???

I won't stop you. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Not at all! I was born in 1962. Around the same time the Beatles started getting their sh#t together...

And here's 10 more essential recordings that are incredible (and you should hear before you croak!):

1. Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet
2. Squarepusher - Go Plastic
3. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World (surround version)
4. Liz Phair - Whitechocolatespaceegg
5. Frank Zappa - The Yellow Shark
6. Julian Cope - Interpreter
7. Sam Phillips - Martinis and Bikinis
8. Sloan - Never Hear The End Of It
9. Tom Ze' - Fabrication Defect
10. Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

And since my recommendations were a bit top heavy with the rock/pop genres, here's 5 essential jazz recordings:

1. Herbie Hancock - Maiden Voyage
2. Chick Corea - Now He Sings Now He Sobs
3. Carla Bley - Musique Mecanique
4. Wayne Shorter - Speak No Evil
5. Miles Davis - Kind OF Blue
6. Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
7. Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners
8. Sun Ra - The Magic City
9. Cecil Taylor - Conquistador
10. Pharoah Sanders - Karma

That looks like 10 to me, or are only 5 of the 10 essential?

Oops! Guess I should wait until I wake up to post one here!

So, Terry, now that you're awake, are you gonna delete 5 of 'em? I'm way more interested in seeing which 5 now have to go away.