The albums: Kate and Ann McGarrigle (Warner Bros. 1975). Dancer with Bruised Knees (Warner Bros. 1977). Pronto Monto (Warner Bros. 1978). French Record (Hannibal 1981). Love Over and Over (Polygram 1982). Heartbeats Accelerating (Private Music, 1990). Matapedia (Rykodisc 1996). The only album not on CD is the very strange Pronto Monto. In The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal 1998) they share the spotlight with talented family members, such as Loudon Wainwright, Kate's ex, and her son, Rufus, who is starting an impressive recording career of his own; Martha Wainwright, and Lily Lanken; Martha McGarrigle; Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt.

For me each McGarrigle song is a treasure. I can't imagine life without them.

Her two early albums on Folkways, Ramblin on My Mind (1978) and Happy Woman Blues (1980), are promising, but not equal to her later albums in impact. The first is all blues songs, not by Lucinda, but well worth buying.

With Lucinda Williams (Rough Trade Records 1988), Lucinda blossomed into full maturity. Here are "Passionate Kisses" (later a hit when sung by Mary Chapin Carpenter; as a result, Lucinda won a Grammy for it, to her shock), "Crescent City" (Lucinda's live trademark song), "Big Red Sun," "Like a Rose," and a great rejection song, "Changed the Locks." This has recently been rereleased by Koch (1998) with 6 bonus tracks.

Sweet Old World (Chameleon 1992) is just as good. You may have heard the title cut on Emmy Lou Harris's Wrecking Ball. Addressed to a suicide, it lists all the precious things in life he has lost--a companion piece to "Passionate Kisses," which lists all of the things Lucinda wants. And to continue the suicide theme, the final song is a stunning performance of "Which Will" by Nick Drake, the brilliant folkie who died by his own hand. A very moving album.

Car Wheels on a Gravel Road Mercury Records (1998) is Lucinda in her maturity, certainly. It's a lot more of a rock record that the first two, which have lots of haunting slow songs. This is more consistently hard edged. A great record, but it hasn't hit me as hard as the first two did.

My brush with greatness: Despite being a really inept fiddler, I played with D.J. Jarvis in a band for a while -- he's a guitarist who plays in Lucinda's band sometimes, and cowrote a song on Car Wheels.

The truth, I think is much more complex. Any one who looks seriously at the Beatles' creativity will come to realize that many of the Beatles' great songs were written by McCartney. Landau, and those who agreed with him, did not come to terms with this. I still admire Lennon's genius with the Beatles (I'm a big fan of I'm Only Sleeping, Strawberry Fields, I Am the Walrus, Because, Bungalow Bill, and many others), but McCartney was a very dominant writer on two crucial Beatles' albums, Revolver and Sgt. Peppers. I actually wrote an article about this, "McCartney or Lennon? Beatle Myths and the Composing of the Lennon-McCartney Songs," Journal of Popular Culture 22:2 (Fall 1988), 99-131. Many of McCartney's songs were avant-garde; many of them were screaming rock songs, not ballads (I Saw Her Standing There, I'm Down, Helter Skelter, Oh Darling, Get Back). He certainly wrote great ballads --Yesterday, Here There Everywhere, She's Leaving Home, Long and Winding Road--but he wrote all kinds of other things. He had/has astounding breadth and range.

I feel that that same musical inspiration is in the solo albums. The more well-known albums-- McCartney, Band on the Run, Tug of War, Flowers in the Dirt, have received some limited recognition from the critics. But I love the obscure albums -- Ram, Red Rose Speedway, Wild Life,Venus and Mars, London Town, McCartney II, Press to Play. Paul is an amazingly consistent songwriter, and writes in an dizzying assortment of styles. His sentimentalism is as obvious as was Dickens's or Chaplin's, and as affecting at its best; and it is counterpointed by his surreal comic vision. He is an endlessly inventive musical creator. His strong point is music, not lyrics, though occasionally his lyrics are very good. I believe future generations will rank these albums beside the White Album or Abbey Road.

Burt's vast output is available in a very piecemeal, scattered way, but more and more of it is now available on CD. A good place to start is Dionne Warwick, Anthology 1962-1969 (Rhino 1986), all Bacharach songs, arranged and produced by Burt, perfectly sung by Dionne. Many Dionne Warwick albums have Bacharach songs on them.

There are also a number of pure Bacharach albums. Burt Bacharach, Classics Vo. 23 (A&M, 1987) is an overview. Burt Bacharach Plays His Hits (MCA/Kapp 1966) is available on CD from MCA. Burt Bacharach (A&M 1971), Futures (A&M 1977) and Woman (A&M 1979), with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, are available on CD with Polydor. Reach Out (A&M 1967) and Make It Easy On Yourself (A&M 1969) are also on CD.

There are also the musicals: Promises, Promises (United Artists, 1969; not yet on CD, amazingly enough); Lost Horizon (Bell 1973; CD, Razor and Tie, 1997).

And the soundtracks, most memorably: What's New Pussycat (United Artists 1965; not on CD); Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (A&M 1969; on CD); Arthur (Warner 1981; on CD).

Bacharach is a wonderful contrast to the plodding, predictable harmonies and undeveloped melodies in much of pop music.

Geoffrey Oryema's Exile is the best album to come out of Africa, that I know of. Haunting, hypnotic, aching songs of exile, from a Ugandan living in Paris. With eerie contributions from Brian Eno.

Mark Davis, You Came Screaming (Cutlet 1995) I played amplified fiddle in the Mark Davis Band (aka the Inklings) for two or three years. My brief taste of stardom. (Joke!) I think we describe this music as "moody alternative folk-rock." Great thoughtful, adventurous lyrics, great music. Selected by the L.A. Times, Orange County edition, as the best record of 1995. D.J. Jarvis (who plays with Lucinda Williams) also was in the Mark Davis Band at the beginning, and plays on this record.

Immaculate (Bitemark 2000) is another great album. I play on one cut, but I still recommend it highly.