My Favorite Album

All I have to say, at the outset here, is that I have a very eclectic taste when it comes to music. I like rock, jazz, country, classical, and yes, even rap music.

Particularly, I like when a band, (or a collection of bands in some cases), come together to pay tribute to a band or an artist of a different genre. Take for instance, the Rounder Records collections, which brought in studio bluegrass musicians to record instrumental versions of, among others, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd.

Reasonably as good is a country tribute of ZZ Top songs, including Hank Williams Jr., Brad Paisley and a fantastic version of "Sure Got Cold After the Rain Fell" by Alan Jackson. And "I Got No Kick Against Modern Jazz" which was put out by GRP Records, a jazz tribute to the Beales. These are all available on Amazon.com, although some apparently only available used, from a separate seller.

I think, by far the most astounding "tribute album" was an album put out by '90's rap star, Tone-Loc, Tone-Def: A Rap Tribute to Def Leppard which has apparently disappeared from the face of the earth. The genius of this album was the combination of rap stylings with the heavy metal of Def Leppard. It may sound like the most incongruous collection imaginable, but you'd be surprised.

Loc has a gift for rhythm that fully encompasses the lyrics of Joe Elliot and company, and shines through, especially on tracks like "Photograph" and "Bringin' on the Heartbreak".

Far better than all the rest, however, is the Joe Elliot assisted version of "Pour Some Sugar on Me". Steven Tyler, eat your heart out. (Tyler, in case you didn't know, was backup on Run-DMC's version of Aerosmith's "Walk This Way".)

Oh, I know what you are thinking (especially if you are a purist for one genre or the other). How could anything like that ever have a decnt sound? Believe me, going into it I was just a skeptical, but the album changed my view on first listen.

One thing I do know, with many vinyl albums lost in the shuffle and not re-released on CD, the failure of the record company to put this gem back out is , in one word...

LUDICROUS!