#537.3: 2016 Can Suck Balls – Year End Lists, Part 3 – LeBrain

GETTING MORE TALE #537.3: 2016 Can Suck Balls
Year End Lists, Part 3 – LeBrain

Regardless of the music, 2016 will go down in history (for most of us) for just one notorious reason:  The sheer number of stars that we lost, both young and old.  Even after I had completed a list of the most significant pop culture deaths in 2016, I had to add even more names:  Debbie Reynolds, and Carrie Fisher.  Princess Leia was one of my first heroes.  I was five years old.  Carrie was an incredible woman, who lived a hard life and came out laughing.

2016

Perspective.

 

But we’ll save the deaths for last.

Ever since the Record Store days, I have always done my albums as a Top Five. We had a newsletter and employees were asked to submit their Top Fives of the year. That being the case, I’ve always stuck with that tradition even when my compatriots have submitted some pretty awesome Top Tens.

You can check out the submitted Top Ten lists here:

After much deliberation, here are my Top Five albums of 2016.

 

5. Metallica – Hardwired…To Self-Destruct

4. Tragically Hip – Man Machine Poem

3. Jim Crean – Insatiable

2. The Cult – Hidden City

1. Monster Truck – Sittin’ Heavy

***

And of course, some killer runners-up.  These three releases rocked hard and were just barely squeezed out of the Top Five:

A Rebel Few – As The Crow Flies

Black Sabbath – The End

Evilyn Strange – Evilution

Top TV shows of 2016

Some extras!  The TV shows below are the only ones I bother with.  If you haven’t watched American Dad yet, after all my badgering, I don’t know what else I can say about the funniest show on TV!

tv

Actually I do — American Dad has the best musical jokes.  You will hear plenty of great tunes:  Metallica, The Sword, Stan Bush, Satriani, Rush, Queen, and many more.  And even the songs you don’t like (Owl City, Kelly Clarkson?) are hilarious, because of the context.  That’s what makes a musical joke work.  You can find a complete list of songs used in American Dad by clicking here.

Top four TV shows:

4. Family Guy

3. The Grinder

2. The Walking Dead

1. American Dad

Dropping off the list is the Big Bang Theory which started to suck a couple years ago, a few noteworthy episodes aside (such as any time Wil Wheaton shows up).

Top Movies of 2016
movie

Movies were…just movies.  There was nothing this year with the emotional impact of The Force Awakens.  The films below are not in any particular order.  They are just movies, nothing more and nothing less.  2016 was a somewhat disappointing year for the silver screen.  (I have not yet seen Arrival.)

Star Wars: Rogue One

Captain America: Civil War

Suicide Squad

Star Trek Beyond

Deadpool

 

And sadly, the real dead pool.  These are just some of the musicians, actors, writers and sports heroes we lost in the year of 2016. Many went way too young.  At the 11th hour, I received this sketch of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia.  It was drawn by Wardy who you may know as regular reader here.  Thank you Wardy for sending and giving me permission to post this great sketch.  (Wardy is one talented guy with a pencil.)  Rest in peace to all below.

carrie-fisher-1956-2016-sketch-by-wardy

  • Paul MacLeod
  • David Bowie
  • Prince
  • Alan Rickman
  • George Michael
  • Rick Parfitt
  • Ralph “Chick” Schumilas
  • John Glenn
  • Muhammad Ali
  • Florence Henderson
  • Gene Wilder
  • Arnold Palmer
  • Leonard Cohen
  • Dave Broadfoot
  • Glenn Frey
  • Gordie Howe
  • Harper Lee
  • Phife Dawg
  • Sir George Martin
  • Anton Yelchin
  • Garry Shandling
  • Christina Grimmie
  • Alan Thicke
  • Kenny Baker
  • Leon Russell
  • Merle Haggard
  • Paul Kantner
  • Jimmy Bain
  • John McLaughlin
  • Abe Vigoda
  • Chyna
  • Pat Harrington Jr.
  • Keith Emerson
  • Greg Lake
  • David Huddleston
  • Maurice White
  • George Kennedy
  • Rob Ford
  • Ralph Stanley
  • George Gaynes
  • Alan Young
  • Frank Sinatra Jr.
  • Lonnie Mack
  • Nick Menza
  • Prince Be
  • Bernie Worrell
  • Matt Roberts
  • Mr. Fuji
  • Alexis Arquette
  • Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural Jr.
  • Jose Fernandez
  • Jean Shepard
  • Pete Burns
  • Robert Vaughn
  • Bobby Vee
  • Leonard Haze
  • James Wooley
  • Sandy Pearlman
  • John Berry
  • John Thomas
  • Dale “Buffin” Griffin
  • Carrie Fisher
  • Debbie Reynolds

 

Rest in peace, and thank you for making our days a little brighter.

LeBrain

45 comments

        1. Truely. This isn’t even “all” the names…I picked and chose the ones I felt were most relevant to the site. A bit of personal bias. I put Rob Ford but not Fidel Castro. (Rob made me laugh).

          Liked by 1 person

  2. Following Tradition Here At Ladano’s. This is I believe my 6th Year at posting my Top 5 albums of the year!
    This list comes with a Twist as I’m going to post my TOP 5 LIVE ALBUMS of 2016 here at Mike’s and at my site tonight shortly into the New Year of 2017 I will post my Top 5 Studio albums….
    Funny thing is I purchase about the same amount of Live stuff as I do studio stuff….

    1-EXTREME-Pornograffitti Live 25
    2-Tesla-Mechanical Resonance Live
    3-Bad Company-Live 1977 & 1979
    4-Little Caesar-Brutally Honest Live From Holland
    5-Twisted Sister-Metal Meltdown

    Close call in the form of ZZ Top’s Live Greatest Hits From Around The World….and Kiss Rocks Vegas (audio only)

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    1. NICE ONE DEKE! Tesla almost made my list but I decided to leave live albums off a couple years ago! So by this token, I will stop by your site tonight and drop MY top 5 live albums! WOOO! Unfortunately I haven’t had time to listen to Extreme yet, even though I have the Japanese right here.

      Brilliant list Deke!

      Right now listening to the new Emmett again and wondering if, given more time, he could have made my 2016 list. Review coming soon.

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    2. Deke what a cool idea! I don’t include live albums on my list so I haven’t really thought about them at all… I do know that I totally forgot all about the Bad Company one though, so I’ll need to get a copy of that asap! Look forward to your studio top 5.

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      1. Thanks HMO…Bad Company is a great release as its two different shows and you know they haven’t been monkeyed around at all in the studio. Bad Company you will not be disappointed in. I purchased it off iTunes but i see the physical copy by the looks of it looks pretty slick in the packaging dept…
        Let me know your findings…

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    3. Nice one! I’ve only heard the Tesla album here (my introduction to Tesla, actually) and was tempted to snag the ZZ Top LP a few weeks ago. Only other live album I’ve heard was the Stones’ Stripped.

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  3. Nice writeup Mike….enjoyed your Top 5 albums…..Nice to see Wolfchild and Duffy in the upper echolon at Ladano HQ’S! Thats so far 1 top 10 (at J’s) and a Top 2(Your place ) with the Cult!
    Brlliant…

    Cannot believe by that list u posted how many people have passed on….

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    1. Yeah truly a startling list. And as I mentioned to Scott, I narrowed this list DOWN. You will find more names elsewhere, in sports and music etc. (But this is the only list where you will find the name Ralph “Chick” Schumilas — he was with Brent Doerner’s Decibel and I had the pleasure of interviewing him about 10 years ago. I was very sad to hear he had passed this year.)

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    1. IT’s a monster! I’m glad I got it in time to make the list. That’s the problem with lists — didn’t get Glenn Hughes yet as I believe the Japanese has a bonus track. So Glenn could have been on here.

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  5. Kudos Mike great read as I sit here with the family around our backyard firepit throwing back a few coldies (only an hour away from 2017 here DownUnder!). Hard to celebrate a year with so much tragedy more celebrating it being over and hoping for a better 2017…

    Metallica and TheCult def floating around my own top5 also \m/

    Happy NewYear Ladano readers and fellow Bloggers, always celebrate tha tunes :)

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    1. WARDY! Thanks again for the Carrie Fisher sketch. That really was the icing on the cake for this tribute.

      Really blown away, still, by how good the Cult album is! Every time I play it, it’s like “Oh yeah! This song rules!”

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  7. So sad to see that dead pool…so many great people lost in 2016!
    My top album of 2016: Man Machine Poem – The Tragically Hip (and sadly the only new album I really listened to)

    My top movie: Deadpool

    My top TV show: American Crime Story: The People Vs OJ Simpson

    Biggest death to me of 2016: a tie – David Bowie and George Michael. These two actually made me scream NOOOO!

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    1. The one that had me yelling “no” out loud was Carrie FIsher. I was sitting on the couch and got a PM on Facebook…I just started saying “No no no no no no…” I thought she was going to pull through. And part of my sorrow is selfish sorrow, as I sit here and wonder how they can finish the trilogy without her. Recast? CG? I’m sick thinking about the possibilities.

      Deadpool was fantastic and easily the best “hero” movie of the year. Dr. Strange didn’t make my list. It felt like just another Marvel movie. Its redeeming factor was Tilda Swinton, controversy aside, she was incredible in it. Absolutely one of my favourite actors today is Tilda Swinton.

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  8. That’s a surprising top five, Mike. I wouldn’t have expected that, even if I felt confident enough to guess what your favourites would be. Metallica would definitely have been my guess for higher up, though. That Cult album is great, eh? I still find moments in it where I think “f’kin, eh”

    I haven’t watched any ‘new’ TV, but I’d say Daredevil was my favourite show this year. Season two turned things up a notch or two. I haven’t even caught up with the last season of Walking Dead yet, let alone start the new one!

    As for movies, all of those you mention (aside from Suicide Squad) are on my radar. I’m just no good at getting out to the cinema. Boo!

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  10. Movies: The nice guys was fun and Ghostbusters brought back so many memories while thinking of the time of the original. Who you gonna call?

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  14. Super-cool Top 5! I still need to get me some Monster ruck. You guys keep bringing them up…

    That list of people who passed this year is really something. Damn.

    Also: Deadpool! We just watched it tonight – my lovely wife hadn’t yet seen it. It could have gone either way, but she thought it was really well done. Yay! Also, waiting for Rogue One on DVD.

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    1. Deadpool was really enjoyable, I liked it far more than the other Marvel movies this year, Doctor Strange included.

      Here’s hoping Spiderman: Homecoming and Thor: Ragnarok kick some butt. Also excited for Guardians II.

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