Despite having a hectic week this week, I found my mind wandering to, what else, rock n roll. For reasons only clear to a neurologist, which I don’t have, I started thinking about all the great double studio albums put out over the years. I’ve done a post on what I think the best old school, double albums are, years ago. I read recently that the first rock n roll double album was Bob Dylan’s Blonde On Blonde, followed only a week later by The Mother’s of Invention’s Freak Out!. Dylan and Zappa are pretty important artists which likely explains why so many other great artists followed their example and put out great double albums over the years.
Now, it’s probably important that I define the whole double album thing. I am not talking about live albums. For the most part, the great live albums over the years were double albums. I’m not counting Live And Dangerous or any other album recorded live, even if they may have been heavily overdubbed in the studio (talking to you Kiss). I’m also not counting what I call “Hybrid Albums” – part live, part studio. I’ve already posted on the best “Hybrid Albums,” again, years ago. When I’m talking about a Hybrid double album I’m thinking of, for example, U2’s Rattle And Hum or the Allman Brothers’ Eat A Peach. Those are great albums and have great studio tunes on them, but they also have quite a bit of live stuff as well. When I say double album, I’m talking about LPs like the one’s I mentioned above by Dylan and Zappa, old school, albums recorded in the studio that cover two vinyl discs. Two “Long Players” in one album sleeve if you will. And, as a bonus, those double albums usually had a gatefold album cover where my friends could clean their pot.
The CD era only confused the whole concept of the double album. Vinyl albums could contain roughly 40 to 45 minutes of music. That’s why cassette tapes were mainly 45 minutes per side, for all of you mix tape folks out there that remember… Anyway, CDs could hold up to, I believe 80 minutes of music. In the 90s when CDs became the predominant format for music, albums just got longer and longer. The 8-song album sort of faded away…which coincidentally led to artists releasing “bonus tracks” on re-releases of older, pre-CD albums. When vinyl made a comeback many of those albums put out on CD were too long for a single vinyl album so they’ve been put out as double albums. For example, I still consider Blood Sugar Sex Magik a single record even though on vinyl it’s a double album. On the other hand I did include a few albums from the CD era on my list of great double albums because they were double CDs: Stadium Arcadium or Use Your Illusions just seemed to belong on the list.
Admittedly, there is nothing more divisive than the double album. There’s an old canard amongst critics that hiding within every double album is a great single album. I will say, when it comes to the Clash’s triple album Sandanista!, they might be right. Record companies used to hate it when artists turned in a double album. They were too expensive, fans didn’t buy as many because of the high price tag etc. Fans sometime complained that some double albums contained too much “filler.” On the other hand, like pizza, when a double album is done right it can be sublime.
I always used to think that in order to be truly defined as one of the “greats” you had to have either a great live album or a great double album. I’m not as religious about that any more. However, so many of the “great” (and important) rock n roll artists have put out stunning double albums: The Beatles, Stones, Stevie Wonder, Dylan, Zappa, Marvin Gaye, just to name a few. Prince, Elton John, and The Who all released two double albums…although admittedly Elton’s Blue Moves is an acquired taste.
As my mind wandered to the subject of double albums this week, I realized there are some really great artists – yes, truly “great” ones – that didn’t put out a double album and the more I thought about it, I was frankly kind of surprised. There are some artists whose ethos probably tended to keep them from the epic double album. Iggy Pop was punk, and that genre didn’t lend itself to grandiose statements…unless you were the Clash who dubbed themselves “the only band who matters.” Aerosmith’s music was short blasts of bluesy hard rock. Again, not a double album staple, although Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti might argue against me here. I also took into account an artists’ demons when I was thinking about this. Both Zevon and Nilsson had addictions that likely prevented them from focusing long enough to get a double album together.
Eventually, after a lot of mulling, I came up with a list of artists whose lack of a double album is surprising if not perplexing. As I scan the list I realize that in many cases these are singer/songwriter types. I guess I sort of think of them as being more prolific. There are also bands on this list that had more than one writer in the band. I feel like those guys are naturals for the double album that somehow never got made. Without further adieu, here is my list:
- David Bowie – How did Bowie not get a double LP together. Admittedly there was a period of heavy cocaine abuse, but the 70s were such a fertile period for him. I could have seen Diamond Dogs having been stretched out to a double album, but maybe he didn’t have the material? During his Berlin period he did give quite a few songs co-written with Iggy Pop to Iggy. What could have been…
- Neil Young – Speaking of prolific. How did Neil never deliver a double LP. In the Archives II box there’s a disc entitled Dume. It’s basically what Zuma would have been had it been a double album. I have to admit, it’s sensational. It’s the disc in that box set I go back to most. Neil has released it stand alone as part of his Archives series and it’s worth a spin!
- Stevie Nicks – In Fleetwood Mac, they had three songwriters (Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie) which led Nicks to have a massive surplus of songs. I’m surprised she didn’t do a George Harrison, once freed from the confines of the band, and go double album.
- Tom Petty – Ok, I know I’m cheating here. Wildflowers was originally intended to be a double album but the record company insisted Tom edit it down to a single album. It’s a classic either way, but I wish that great left over stuff had been released in the 90s.
- Bob Seger – I saw Seger interviewed by like, Matt Lauer or some morning guy, and he was talking about a new album (I forget which), and Bob said, “Oh, we’ve always got way too many songs. On this record we had 80 songs to choose from.” Now, who knows if he was exaggerating but that sounds like double album territory to me. His longtime manager Punch probably veto’d it… much like re-releasing a lot of Seger’s early music.
- Bob Marley – I think Bob recorded both Exodus and Kaya at the same time so we know he was prolific enough to put out a double album. He also had a back catalog of pre-Catch A Fire songs he could have filled out a double album with…
- Paul McCartney – The man is a workaholic, how did he not put out a double album in the 70s? Especially the back half of the decade? Harrison put out a triple album, the fact that Paul didn’t ever have an inkling for a double album is perplexing.
- CSNY – With four singer/songwriters these guys seem like a band who could easily have filled two discs. Of course Young only provided 2 or 3 songs to CSNY in their heyday. He was one toe in, always holding stuff back for his solo career. Maybe the other guys did a little of that too. Listening to the deluxe version of Deja Vu, that one would have been a helluva double album.
- Queen – A band as epically flamboyant as Queen, also with four guys who contributed tunes, should have gone big for the double LP.
- Creedence Clearwater Revival – John Fogerty wrote so many great songs for CCR. Every few months another great album came out. I’d have liked to see these guys push themselves for a double disc. Maybe the constant touring got in the way.
- Elvis Costello – One of the greatest songwriters ever. He had such a purple patch in the late 70s/early 80s… I’m no expert on Costello, maybe he put out a late period double album, but I don’t think so. Could have been something epic.
- Jackson Browne – He was already an established songwriter before his first album came out. Many of the songs he’d written for others like “Take It Easy,” and “These Days” he recorded himself for his second album. Maybe if he’d pushed himself he could have turned For Everyman into a double album.
- Steely Dan – These guys were such perfectionists in the studio, maybe that prevented them from driving on to the double album. But they were so great, it seems like they could have pulled it off. Imagine if Aja was a double disc?
- U2 – These guys have such huge egos, how did they not do a double album back in the day?
- Rush – Speaking of epic, these guys have long songs divided up with Roman numerals. The “2112 Suite” spreads out over an entire album side. How did they not keep going for the double album?
- Lou Reed – Lou had such an ability to tell stories, many from the seamy underbelly of life. He had such a flare for the dramatic, a double album seems like a fit for him. He did struggle with demons.
- Pearl Jam – Hailed as “neo-classicists” rockers when they came along, it seems like a double album would have been right up their alley.
- Billy Joel – I know Billy quit songwriting for like 30 years until his recent single “Turn The Lights Back On” came out but he used to be quite prolific. And I always thought he was a great songwriter. If Springsteen could do a double album, why not Billy?
- Grateful Dead – This is another band with multiple guys contributing tunes. Robert Hunter was also contributing. With all that jamming, you’d think they’d have put out a double album. Maybe they did and I just don’t know it, I’m far from a Deadhead expert.
- John Mellencamp – Mellencamp, like Seger or Petty mentioned before, is a guy who, as his music became more topical and political strikes me as someone who could have pulled off the scope of a double album.
Those are the artists who came to mind to me as great ones whose absence of a double album seems startling. If there’s an artist you think would have put out a great double album but didn’t – drop it in the comments. Maybe I’m a musical obsessive, but I considered this a fun exercise on my end, maybe you will too? I like to mull these things over with a tumbler of dark and murky fluids… maybe you will too?
Cheers!