Welcome, Guest

Staff Picks

See All

On The List: Kelley Stoltz

Top 20 Songs From the B Section

When I am not onstage, entertaining dozens of people with my own original brand of rock and roll music, I am working away at a vinyl-only record shop in San Francisco. While there, I meet lots of strange and interesting music-obsessed folks, much like myself, who are quite content to spend a sunny California afternoon indoors discussing the relative merits of the first Doors album in mono and how much it beats the stereo mix for "punch" and "vibe" or why Gilbert O'Sullivan is actually a decent pop songwriter, nearly, but no, not as good as Emmitt Rhodes when it comes to making the best faux-Paul McCartney...etc...etc...ad nauseum...day in and day out.

One afternoon, a rather grouchy and unkempt fellow ambled in looking for the rock section...."What are you looking for?", I asked. "Something that's rocks, man...like some Hendrix or something", he said. I pointed him to the end of the record rack towards the Hendrix section, where he peered for a few seconds and flipped absentmindedly through the LP's and then spoke up, "Yeah, I like all kinds of music, as long as it's not in the B section...nothing from the letter B, man." This was, to me, a most sacriligious statement, one that would enrage anyone with even the most common musical taste..."Well, that's no Beatles, then...no Bowie...that's like the BEST letter there is", I shrieked. "Nah, I hate all that crap...", and with that he was off, out the door, never to be seen again.

It was then and there that I realized, more than S, and E and possibly more than the famed R section, it was the artists who reside in the B section that I would have to call my favorite bunch. Screw this guy. He's an idiot. The B section has it all....How can one letter contain three of my top ten or so artists of all time?? Well anyway, this is not so much an attempt to sway your opinion, and I guess it IS just a matter of taste so that fellow's not necessarily wrong, but he's really missing out on alot by skipping the artists in the letter B...Here then are my top 20 songs from that part of the store, in order. Behold.

- Kelley Stoltz

Email This