Greatest Filler Albums

1) An idea: a series of Mix CDs/iPod playlists comprised of the best album tracks of a specific artist. So many artists get their hit singles repackaged over and over again, which is doubly annoying because a) many of us already have the hits on another greatest hits package and b) those are the songs that get played on the radio anyway. So why not some CDs of the best songs that never were singles?

2) The rules:

a) The mix should be standard CD length. So, 12-24 songs, or 30-70 minutes.

b) The songs should never have been released (in the US) as a single, A or B side. This one gets a bit tricky with some older artists--eg Otis Redding, whose record company released practically everything he ever recorded as a single. So, if you want, we can limit it to singles that were released while the artist was active.

c) The mix should sound like a real greatest hits album. This means, it should be sequenced with some care, and shouldn't be completely filled with 20-minute live cuts and outtakes (a couple of those are OK).

3) Two examples:

The Clash

1) Police on My Back
2) I'm So Bored With the USA
3) Charlie Don't Surf
4) Julie's Been Working For the Drug Squad
5) London's Burning
6) Somebody Got Murdered
7) Career Opportunities
8) Police and Thieves
9) Safe European Home
10) Lost in the Supermarket
11) Koka Kola

12) Death or Glory
13) Something About England
14) Stay Free
15) Janie Jones
16) Wrong Em Boyo
17) I'm Not Down
18) Rudie Can't Fail
19) Overpowered by Funk
20)Up in Heaven
21) We Are the Clash

REM

1) Circus Envy
2) Welcome to the Occupation
3) Pretty Persuasion
4) Moral Kiosk
5) Ignoreland
6) Laughing
7) Me in Honey
8) Harborcoat
9) Oddfellows Local 151
10) Be Mine

11) Exhuming McCarthy
12) Monty Got a Raw Deal
13) Leave
14) Texarkana
15) Star Me Kitten
16) Let Me In
17)You
18) Strange Currencies
19) Catapult
20) So Fast So Numb

4) Other possibilities: Neil Young, Prince, James Brown, Bob Dylan, PJ Harvey, Randy Newman, Rolling Stones. Who else you got?

Solo Artists

Don't know why, but I started thinking about how frighteningly often bands split up to pursue "solo careers," and I wondered, how often do solo careers actually improve on the original band (artistically - obviously they do all the time in terms of popularity). Here's what I got:

Joan Jett
Justin Timberlake
Paul Simon
Michael Jackson
Van Morrison

And that's all I could come up with. I'm sure you can come up with others (feel free to comment) - but think about it: I could list hundreds of solo artists but only 5 or so that are actually better than their band. Sad.