home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- MUSIC, Page 83BEST OF THE DECADE
-
-
- Bruce Springsteen: The River (Columbia, 1980). Born in the
- U.S.A. was the record that made the Boss a legend, but the
- bleak majesty of this two-LP set shows the bedrock of his
- talent.
-
- The Unknown Kurt Weill (Nonesuch, 1981). Acerbic rarities
- from the composer of The Threepenny Opera, sung by opera's
- sexiest soprano, Teresa Stratas.
-
- Wynton Marsalis: Think of One (Columbia, 1983). The
- award-winning album of a trumpeter who was jazz's hope of the
- decade, as well as its hottest, coolest talent.
-
- Bob Marley and the Wailers: Legend (Island, 1984). Marley
- died in 1981, but this collection of some of his best songs was
- no epitaph. It was a perpetual baptism of Jamaican soul.
-
- Prince and the Revolution: Purple Rain (Warner Bros.,
- 1984). Not only the best rock sound track ever written, Purple
- Rain is the most contained and passionate work to come from this
- protean regent of R. and B.
-
- The Mapleson Cylinders (Distributed by Metropolitan Opera
- Guild, 1985). Calve sings! And so do Nordica, Sembrich and De
- Reszke on these treasures from the Met, recorded on wax
- cylinders by the company's librarian between 1900 and 1904.
-
- Bob Dylan: Biograph (Columbia, 1985). A premature but
- timely career retrospective of rock's most formidable writing
- talent, Biograph was also a welcome reassertion of Dylan's
- primacy. Was great, is great, will be great.
-
- U2: Rattle and Hum (Island, 1988). In which the rockers
- with the decade's biggest reach and most tender conscience
- discovered America, and outdid themselves, besting even their
- breakthrough The Joshua Tree album of 1987.
-
- John Adams: Nixon in China (Nonesuch, 1988). The decade's
- most exhilarating and accomplished new opera: a waltz across the
- Great Wall with Dick, Pat, Henry, Mao and his missus.
-
- Jerome Kern: Show Boat (Angel/EMI, 1988). With a cast that
- boasted the likes of mezzo Frederica von Stade, the landmark
- American musical was revealed for what it is: a landmark
- American opera as well.
-
-