Where's the Cheese?

This mitten was thrown down by Liz (aka the Small Bear)

"So, here goes and feel free to take issue with my choices (I would like to challenge Sir Bruin to come up with his own list to see just how cheesy his taste really is!)"

Not being one to resist a challenge, unless it involves any sort of physical effort, I have compiled the list of my top ten albums. I was tempted to create a list of my top ten favourite cheeses on the strength of the above scurrilous comment. However, I have risen above the implied abuse and have crawled on to the moral high ground.

Given that the criteria laid down in the original brief called for British albums, I have managed to sneak the Rainbow album in. Graham Bonnet had taken the mike for the album mentioned after Ronnie James Dio had moved to Black Sabbath.

I had real difficulty sorting these into an order of preference, so in the end, I did not bother too much. If you are determined to have a leader board, the top half is slightly more preferred than the bottom half. If I could only own ten albums, these would be the ones. I have owned all of these at some time. Sadly, this is not still the case. Time and circumstances have deprived me of some of them. I am working towards acquiring them again, although I have to say that digital remastering does not always improve on the original. I know that sound quality of vinyl does not measure up to today’s media, but there is something about the raw original recording that the clean digital sound does not have.

I do have a real preference for live albums. Having played in bands in the past, I do like to hear a band that can deliver on stage as well as in the studio. Having said that, I have (mostly) avoided live offerings in this list in order to avoid compilations. I have also included my favourite track from each album as a sort of bonus feature.
I make no attempt to justify these choices.
Call them “cheesy” if you like. I don’t care – I like them.

1) Deep Purple - Deep Purple in Rock - Speed King
2) Emerson Lake and Palmer - Pictures at an Exhibition - The Great Gate of Kiev
3) Pink Floyd Dark - Side of the Moon - The Great Gig in the Sky
4) Emerson Lake and Palmer - Tarkus - The Battlefield
5) Uriah Heep - The Magicians Birthday - Sweet Lorraine
6) Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffiti - Kashmir
7) Barclay James Harvest - Everyone is Everybody Else - Crazy City
8) Steeleye Span - Now We Are Six - Thomas the Rhymer
9) Rainbow - Down to Earth - Eyes of the World
10) The Stranglers - No More Heroes - No More Heroes

In the spirit of the bonus track offered on a lot of CDs these days, I have included three more non-British albums that I am particularly fond of.

Blondie - Parallel Lines - One Way or Another
Split Enz - Dizrhythmia - Bold as Brass
Marilyn Manson - The Golden Age of Grotesque - mOBSCENE

You will notice that there is not too much "modern" stuff here. I do like such bands as The Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs etc. I just prefer the older stuff.
"I guess that figures" said the Aged Bear.