Friday, August 19, 2016

Ready to Investigate Another Musical Artist's Collected Recordings

I had a great time over the last few weeks investigating the career musical recording production of the late David Bowie, discovering many, many songs that I would never have heard had this extraordinary artist not died this past January.  Don't get me wrong: I'm sad that he passed on, but it was that passing, in conjunction with the release of his final album Blackstar, that prompted my interest.  He recorded 27 studio albums, so listening to all of them was time-consuming, to say the least.  But now I'm done with this project, albeit with a long list now of my favorite Bowie tracks.  And now I want to do the same with another recording artist.  Should I attempt to examine the collected works of Prince, who also died not too long ago?  Or should I choose a different musician or group?

I'm already pretty familiar with the collected recordings of acts like the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, the Doors, Nirvana, the Moody Blues, the Who, Regina Spektor, Beck, Radiohead, Kasabian, Spoon, Gorillaz, Arcade Fire, and Sufjan Stevens...some of these are renown in the world of classic rock, some are famous in the alternative genre...and some aren't all that generally well-known.  I think it might be interesting to take an act famous for their singles hits and then listen to some of their complete albums in order to see what I can find of value.  Besides Prince, the great Canadian band Guess Who, Madonna, Marvin Gaye, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and the Rolling Stones may be the leading contenders.  I'm going to listen to three of Madonna's albums in a few days...Ray of Light, Music, and Madonna (her debut release)...and see whether listening to further recordings will be a worthwhile venture.  I picked those three albums out of her thirteen studio works because I already know that they feature some of my favorite songs of hers.  I've always felt that Madonna had great musical talent and could have had her fame and success without going overboard with the videos, role-playing, and celebrity hoopla.  On the other hand, David Bowie also did those things in his own way...maybe that's why I had erroneously disregarded his music for so long...