Everyday I leave the house later than I plan. The reason is always the same---choosing which cd's I'm going to bring with me for the day @ work.

Yesterday, I though for a moment, "What if I didn't have 900 of 'em? What if I had only ten? I realized that my Top Ten probably whould change often over time, especially 'cause it has!

So, this question is of this moment. It's Fahrenheit 451 for music. Which 10 would you hide from the authorites--- today?

Bob, you might investigate a new fangled thingy that apparently can store many songs, allow you to connect it to a larger amp and speakers.

....I believe it is called an iPod. :-)

Oh geez... so many questions.

Do we still have radio or is this a "desert island" scenario where this is all the music we get ?

Can we include "best of" albums ? If not, and assuming no radio etc, here's a list to kick off the action :

1. Tangerine Dream - Cyclone

2. Curved Air - Air Cut

3. Curved Air - Airborne

4. Supertramp - Crime of the Century

5. Pink Floyd - Meddle

6. Heart - Dreamboat Annie

7. B B Gabor - first album

8. B-52s - first album

9. Pictures at an Expedition (can't find the LP and CDs seem to be a different performance, but it was an old solo piano recording by Vladimir Ashkenazy)

10. Schubert's Symphony No. 8 (whatever recording JohnK recommends ;))

You mentioned CDs to bring with you (implying car & work) so there's a bit of a car bias here. Haven't figured out why I would be driving to work on a desert island but that's a topic for the "ask me anything" thread.

EDIT - I have the following recording of Pictures at an Exhibition (among others) and this is definitely *not* the Ashkenazy performance I am talking about... and given my inability to find the correct performance I'm starting to wonder if it was performed by Ashkenazy after all.

these aren't the droids you're looking for

I know that piece. It was by a band called Doctor Livingston.

Very intersting mix. Thanks for posting it.

I'm assuming desert island, where the Professor (JohnK) has fashioned a CD player, solid state AVR, and three-way speakers entirely out of coconuts, with Gilligan (BobKay) generating electricity via an attached bicycle.

Wow! It's Mike AND John! Both of them, back in one thread! Some kind of cosmic alignment, there. Welcome back, you guys.

Bob, I think you're just trolling on JP's behalf.

JP: "hey, let's get them to waste time deciding on some 'top ten' album list. That could be revealing."
Bob: "yeah, but what's 'the hook'? That tired old 'list' convention won't lure them compellingly anymore."
JP: "you could TRY to be a more sympathetic figure for a change?"
Bob: "you think they'd buy it?"
JP: "Well, it's another theory to test. Maybe if you throw in some literary references and some anti-establishment nuance, too. They can't resist that stuff."

Here's today's list. All rights reserved.

The Who - Quadrophenia
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Nothing But The Water
Diana Krall - The Girl in the Other Room
Rush - Moving Pictures
Foo Fighters - Skin and Bones
Lyle Lovett - The Road to Ensenada
Adele - 21
Elvis Costello - My Aim Is True
AC/DC - If you want blood...
Yes - Fragile

Now, I'm going to find Curved Air on Spotify.

Where'd the bicyle come from? Was in it Ginger's luggage?

Made of coconut wood, silly. Watch out for splinters.

Cool list, Tom. Still working on mine. FTR, I'm not sufficiently magnanimous to troll for someone else.

Also, I think it's wonderful that you spend time imagining what others talk about behind your back. Wonderful AND telling.

When JP and I DO conspire, there is no "them," Tom, only "you."
Ha! JP asking me to be sympathetic. That's rich! He wouldn't bother to waste that much breath for such a notion.

Can't say that this was how I had planned to spend my lunch break. Bob's premeditated agitation post was irresistible.

Sugar – Copper Blue
Rush – Moving Pictures
Everclear – So Much for the Afterglow
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Green Day – American Idiot
Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs
XTC – Oranges and Lemons
The Beatles – Revolver
The Juliana Hatfield Three – Become What You Are
They Might Be Giants – Here Comes Science

It was especially painful to leave off Nirvana/Foo Fighters, the Who, and R.E.M.