Hunter S. Thompson’s Ten Best Albums of the 1960s

I’ve been busy working on an essay for Beatdom #7, titled, “Hunter S. Thompson and the Music of the 1960s.”

Anyway that knows anything about HST knows that’s a pretty broad topic, with plenty of material to study. HST was a music fiend. He once said, “I’ve been arguing for years now that music is the New Literature, that Dylan is the 1960s’ answer to Hemingway.”

My research brought me across a 1970 letter that he wrote to Rolling Stone editor John Lombardi, that contains “Raoul Duke’s” ten best albums of the 1960s…

1)     Herbie Mann’s 1969 Memphis Underground

2)     Bob Dylan’s 1965 Bringing It All Back Home (especially noted as “Mr. Tambourine Man” in his letter)

3)     Dylan’s 1965 Highway 61 Revisited

4)     The Grateful Dead’s 1970 Workingman’s Dead

5)     The Rolling Stones’ 1969 Let it Bleed

6)     Buffalo Springfield’s 1967 Buffalo Springfield

7)     Jefferson Airplane’s 1967 Surrealistic Pillow

8)     Roland Kirk’s “various albums”

9)     Miles Davis’s 1959 Sketches of Spain

10)  Sandy Bull’s 1965 Inventions

Tags: 1960s, beatdom, bob dylan, buffalo springfield, fear and loathing in america, grateful dead, highway 61, hunter s thompson, jefferson airplane, john lombardi, let it bleed, miles davis, mr tambourine man, music, raoul duke, roland kirk, rolling stone, sandy bull, surrealistic pillow, the rolling stones, workingman's dead