Lee Kaplan Playlist

Lee Kaplan Playlist

Arcana Books — Lee Kaplan's treasure trove of carefully curated art books is preserving printed matter in strip-mall LA. Before setting up Arcana Books, he worked for Rhino Records and was instrumental in bringing dub and reggae from Jamaica and jazz from Japan to the masses. Here Lee provides an immaculate selection of his favourite music.

My background before starting the bookstore was actually in music, and the vast majority of the selections are rooted in those “formative years”. I didn’t want to be purposefully obscure, so these are ten primarily populist, perennial favourites that are for me always energising and mood-elevating. I have listed them in chronological order, and am amused to realise the most recent one is still over twenty-five years old! So old, that only one has a music video online to go with it…

Charles Mingus – Haitian Fight Song (1957)

Pink Floyd – Lucifer Sam (1967)

Jimi Hendrix – Driving South (BBC Sessions – 1967)

Cream – Swlabr (1967)

The Kinks – Days (1968)

Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band – Big Eyed Beans from Venus (1972)

Miles Davis – Black Satin (1972)

Wire – Map Ref. 41°N 93°W (1979)

The Replacements – Alex Chilton (1987)

Sonic Youth – Teen Age Riot (1988)


Read a full profile of Lee Kaplan and and Arcana books in Huck 45 – The Ed Templeton Curated Issue.
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