Coat of Many Colors
Anyone skeptical of a music career that’s been gradually obscured by Parton’s exuberance on talk show couches needs to pay attention to this archetypal album. The title track, about a mother’s love conquering poverty, is built on an image so central to Christians (the mother weaves a box of rags into a coat for her daughter) that it’s a wonder country’s voracious song sharks overlooked it for so long. It’s followed by “Traveling Man,” in which a girl and her mama chase the same no good guy (“The traveling man was a good bit older/ But a girl needs arms to hold her”), and “If I Lose My Mind,” in which Parton’s boyfriend cheats right in front of her eyes. Parton’s not above sentimentality, but it’s in constant battle with her feminist/realist leanings, and the whole package is tied together with a voice so crystaline it can’t help but crack a little when the going gets rough.
1950s
1960s
- Abbey Road
- Bitches Brew
- Stand!
- Astral Weeks
- The Beatles ("The White Album")
- A Love Supreme
- Are You Experienced
- Live at the Apollo (1963)
- I Never Loved a Man the Way I Loved You
- Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- King of the Delta Blues
- The Velvet Underground and Nico
- Blonde on Blonde
- Pet Sounds
- The Band
- Revolver
- Highway 61 Revisited
- At Folsom Prison
- Otis Blue
- Lady Soul
- Rubber Soul
1970s
- London Calling
- One Nation Under a Groove
- Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
- Rumours
- Hotel California
- The Harder They Come
- Bridge Over Troubled Water
- Ramones
- Blue
- John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
- Songs in the Key of Life
- Coat of Many Colors
- Moondance
- Born to Run
- Hunky Dory
- Horses
- Led Zeppelin IV (a.k.a. Zoso)
- Red Headed Stranger
- Paranoid
- Call Me
- Sticky Fingers
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
- Tapestry
- The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust
- What's Going On
- Exile on Main Street
- Who's Next
- Talking Book
- After the Gold Rush
1980s
- Like a Prayer
- Paul's Boutique
- The Stone Roses
- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back
- Straight Outta Compton
- Raising Hell
- Legend
- Stop Making Sense
- The Great Twenty-Eight
- Thriller
- Document
- Back in Black
- Paid in Full
- Sign O' The Times
- The Joshua Tree
- Purple Rain
- Graceland
- Master of Puppets
1990s
- Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
- OK Computer
- Endtroducing...
- (What's the Story) Morning Glory
- Live Through This
- The Low End Theory
- My Life
- Ready to Die
- Slanted and Enchanted
- The Chronic
- Sunrise
- Achtung Baby
- Nevermind
- Out of Time
- Time Out of Mind
- Back to Mono (1958-1969)
- Ropin' The Wind
- Star Time
