When Tom Moon, author of the new 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, makes a personal appearance, he expects people to come to argue. “It’s most fun when people come loaded for bear — ‘Why isn’t Billy Joel on your list!’ ” he says, by way of example, during a telephone interview from his Philadelphia home. “These end up being great discussions even when people come with attitude.”
Moon, long a music journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer and NPR, had a daunting task narrowing his field.
There is room for both Wagner’s Gotterdammerung, as performed by the Vienna Philharmonic, and the soundtrack to Trainspotting; Benny Goodman’s Complete 1938 Carnegie Hall Concert and the Mars Volta’s recent The Bedlam in Goliath. Not to mention Arvo Part, Dolly Parton, Pavement, Johnny Paycheck, Steve Reich, Pere Ubu, Art Pepper, Public Enemy, Puccini and Propellerheads — just a sampling of the “P”s in his book. (Entries are listed alphabetically by artist.)
Moon reads from and discusses 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die at 7 p.m. tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. Read more of his interview with Steve Rosen here.
