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1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (1,000... Before You Die Books) [Paperback]

Tom Moon
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)

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Book Description

August 4, 2008 1,000... Before You Die Books
The musical adventure of a lifetime. The most exciting book on music in years. A book of treasure, a book of discovery, a book to open your ears to new worlds of pleasure. Doing for music what Patricia Schultz—author of the phenomenal 1,000 Places to See Before You Die—does for travel, Tom Moon recommends 1,000 recordings guaranteed to give listeners the joy, the mystery, the revelation, the sheer fun of great music.

This is a book both broad and deep, drawing from the diverse worlds of classical, jazz, rock, pop, blues, country, folk, musicals, hip-hop, world, opera, soundtracks, and more. It's arranged alphabetically by artist to create the kind of unexpected juxtapositions that break down genre bias and broaden listeners’ horizons— it makes every listener a seeker, actively pursuing new artists and new sounds, and reconfirming the greatness of the classics. Flanking J. S. Bach and his six entries, for example, are the little-known R&B singer Baby Huey and the '80s Rastafarian hard-core punk band Bad Brains. Farther down the list: The Band, Samuel Barber, Cecelia Bartoli, Count Basie, and Afropop star Waldemer Bastos.

Each entry is passionately written, with expert listening notes, fascinating anecdotes, and the occasional perfect quote—"Your collection could be filled with nothing but music from Ray Charles," said Tom Waits, "and you'd have a completely balanced diet." Every entry identifies key tracks, additional works by the artist, and where to go next. And in the back, indexes and playlists for different moods and occasions.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Celebrate the joy, the revelation, the mystery, the fun, the sheer shivers-up-the-spine pleasure of great music. Essential operas. Milestone rock albums. An education in the blues. The world of world. Classical from Bach to Bartók to Beethoven to Brahms. And dozens of unexpected gems, surprising discoveries, and long-lost masterpieces. The entries are arranged alphabetically, to break down genre bias and broaden every listener’s horizons—think Miles Davis to Claude Debussy to the melodic story-songs of The Decemberists. And the writing is passionate, informed, opinionated. Includes indexes for every mood and occasion.

About the Author

Award-winning music journalist Tom Moon is a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered as well as Rolling Stone, Blender and other publications. During his twenty-year tenure as a music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer, his writings appeared in hundreds of daily newspapers and magazines. A saxophonist, Moon began his career as a professional musician, working in assorted rock bands, cruise ship orchestras, and Maynard Ferguson's big band. He lives with his wife, daughter, two dogs and thousands of CDs in Haddonfield, New Jersey.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 992 pages
  • Publisher: Workman Publishing Company (August 4, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 076113963X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0761139638
  • Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 1.8 x 7.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (102 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #235,675 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Anybody who cares about listening to music and collecting music will enjoy this book. korova  |  44 reviewers made a similar statement
This book is worth a look and very interesting. Mary Santos  |  19 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
104 of 112 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Some reviewers are missing the point October 28, 2008
Format:Paperback
What most readers/reviewers fail to recognize is that this book is not about the BEST 1000 recordings it is about recordings you should HEAR. Those who complain that some really great music is missing are missing the point. Buy this book for education and enjoyment not to see how close Moon comes to your top 1000 music recordings ratings of all time.
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198 of 220 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Mission Impossible? Mission Accomplished! August 28, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
"1,000 Recordings To Hear Before You Die" represents a challenge Martin Landau and the IMF would love: "How do you present a mere 1,000 musical recordings across all major genres, across an entire century, and sufficiently global as to be credible while not esoteric?"

Put shorter, "Who made YOU the judge? And why are you such a snob?"

There are no upsides to undertaking such a project for the arbiters of musical taste.

While I was duly impressed with Tom Moon's boldness, I was fully prepared to gut him for his shortcomings in selecting these "essential" recordings.

First, the boring stuff:

The book is sorted alphabetically by artist. This presents some difficulty for, say, opera composers, as a given performance of "Madame Butterfly" might be under the composer or the artist. Fortunately, indexes refer to both. Unfortunately, whomever compiled the index (probably that Microsoft Word fella) didn't check for relevance---when I look up Beethoven's 9th Symphony, it takes me to a parenthetical reference to it (main subject: the "Missa Solemnis"), the page where it's truly discussed is not in the index.

As a reference book, this poses some trouble. As a skimmer, it poses none.

Now, let's get to the content.

Many, many genres are represented here. Classical music and opera are given due prominence; country, metal, and Southern Rock are an afterthought; folk is way overrepresented; blues, rap, world, disco, and pop are about right. I'd say this compilation reflects the usual Baby Boomer view of the world of music leavened by a bit of "Empire Records" snobbery.

So how'd the artist and recording selection by genre fare?

Quite well, surprisingly.
... Read more ›
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34 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
Coming late to the review party on this book, I will not analyze structure and organization, for others have aptly covered those points. I am impressed that anyone could take on such a monumental project and do as apparently well as he has. kudos.

To make my biases clear from the outset, though, it's worth noting that my areas of special interest and musical knowledge are classic rock (some pop) and classical music (including opera).

This makes my perspective perhaps a little different from others, and from the author's, because he admits up front that his weaknesses are classical and opera. While I can't say I either totally agree with his choices (or recordings of the pieces he chooses), there's really nothing "wrong" with his selections in these areas that I've found -- they're mostly rather "safe" choices that a new listener can't go wrong with, though many of the standards I looked up were very old (granted, to a skilled listener, many OLD recordings are the BEST recordings), but with old tech, you don't get the clearest production of sound and detail that a new listener would obtain from a newer (DDD) recording.

But there are exceptions to that rule. I was quite surprised that he chose Zinman and the Zurich Tonhalle's recording of the 9 Beethoven Symphonies -- Beethoven: The Nine Symphonies. This is a VERY fine recording, but it's of a new edition ("Barenreiter") that still has some critics unconvinced. It's a great recording, and I own it, but there are so many other cycles of Beethoven's Symphonies that have been around for decades and have passed the test of time.
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27 of 33 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Useful and Diverse August 29, 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
This book aims at the music lover curious about where to go for the best in genres outside the one's comfort zone. As a reader of classical music review books since the early Penguin days, I have no idea where to start with rock or blues or jazz, for example. I can't judge how Moon stacks up in the estimation of enthusiasts in those fields. In the classical world, he does a decent job, with the help of specialists outside his experience. As a limited guide to standard recordings of the greatest hits, it's fine, espeically for readers with a shorter attention span who hesitate to take on Penguin, the All Music Guide to Classical Music, or the Third Ear Classical Music guidebooks. At least he has a good index, something which Penguin lacks.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars American Idol is killing music September 7, 2008
By korova
Format:Kindle Edition
Are you tired of being assaulted by prefabricated, disposable music? Are you irritated by incessant media coverage of the lip-syncing teen flavor-of-the-month? Are you sick of music guides based on online popularity contests? If so, you need to own this book!

This is the rare book that completely lives up to its product description. It's interesting and well written. It will cause you to revisit stuff that has been submerged in your collection. It will help you to discover music that lies beyond your usual listening boundaries. Most importantly, Tom Moon is enthusiastic and well informed about an incredibly wide range of styles and genres.

The best aspect of this book, however, is that it reflects the taste and experience of one person. Let's face it: the Zagat's/American Idol/MySpace/Yelp method of mass voting ends up glorifying the lowest common denominator. Anything that is unique, quirky, or challenging gets buried and marginalized.

Moon, on the other hand, is able to establish a consistent tone and viewpoint that gives him the space to include both the expected (come on, you know Dark Side of the Moon, Kind of Blue, and Beethoven's Ninth are going to be included in a book like this) and the unexpected. For instance, Learning to Crawl instead of Pretenders? The Shape of Jazz to Come and not This Is Our Music? com/Take-Ten-Paul-Desmond/dp/B00000I71A">Take Ten over Time Out? This is where the strength of having a single author really comes out. When you disagree with Moon, you always know where he's coming from and you can intelligently decide if you buy into his perspective or not.

Other things I love about this book:

*While Moon writes most fluently about jazz, he has an unpretentious approach to classical music that is very refreshing. All too often, classical music writing is stuffy and pedantic (ever try reading through program notes at the symphony? No wonder people fall asleep!).

*The focus is on full albums, not just single tracks. Call me old school, but I think downloadable music has sent the record companies back to a 1950's mentality where albums are just a couple of hits surrounded by filler. That is not a good thing.

*Moon takes care to tell readers which edition or release to buy if inferior versions are on the market. He also recommends additional works by the composer or artist and, best of all, albums by other artists who might not spring to mind at first glance.

*American Idol really is killing music. Moon says it best in his review of Al Green's Call Me: "Thanks to the enormous popularity of TV's American Idol, the ideal of singing in this great land has devolved into a kind of extreme sport--empty athletic expressions, bombastic shows of brutal lung power." I second that emotion.

Anybody who cares about listening to music and collecting music will enjoy this book.

---
Postscript:
Genre guides I enjoy and use often:
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings: Ninth Edition (Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings)
The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and DVDs Yearbook 2006/07 Edition (Penguin Guide to Compact Discs and Dvds Yearbook)
The New Rolling Stone Record Guide
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984
Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Best guide of its kind because of its eclecticism
Tom Moon's book is arguably the best album guide of its kind because of its eclectic choices. Now, of course, there are choices many will disagree with, but that's inevitable with... Read more
Published 24 days ago by Josh
5.0 out of 5 stars A great journey
I first purchased a copy of this book for myself after seeing it in the waiting room of a musical colleagues office. Since then I've given several copies as gifts to friends. Read more
Published 1 month ago by tcharvey
4.0 out of 5 stars If there was a book called 1,000 books to read before you die
Good book, lots of stuff I hadn't heard of. You probably need a spotify or streaming account before starting this book. It would be expensive to download all the music listed.
Published 1 month ago by M. Alexander
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book
Fantastic book. Great to spend an hour or two while listening to clips of the music on ITunes. This is a great way to expand your music horizons.
Published 1 month ago by john steers
5.0 out of 5 stars For True Music Lovers
Own this and bought it as a gift -- we both love it. Provides endless hours of ideas for new music to explore.
Published 2 months ago by B. Bader
5.0 out of 5 stars good
This was bought as a gift for a music buff. Knew he's enjoy it & he has. Can't wait to hear how many of the tunes he's heard
Published 3 months ago by Mary Lynn Maliga
5.0 out of 5 stars A great resource
A very interesting book about various artists and orchestras. A great resource to go to to buy the best recording of a particular symphony or opera or musical.
Published 5 months ago by Jim Lynch
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Gift!
I purchased this as a gift for two music lovers. I heard immediately from the most important one that he was really enjoying the book. Read more
Published 5 months ago by D. Thibault
4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for the "student" of music
This is a perfect book for those who are constantly learning like my teenage son. He has buried himself in the book to understand the significance of each recording.
Published 5 months ago by Sharon M. Unterreiner
4.0 out of 5 stars Great gift idea!
I bought this as a gift for a music lover and he opened the book immediately and began browsing through it. He was very happy to receive as a Christmas gift.
Published 5 months ago by Tracy Jo Dance
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