It's a song by song world now.
This is floating around facebook, and it dates me a little, like I need help in that department. Well, dear reader, there used to be a thing called record stores, not just the music department at Target, sometimes two to three per mall. You could really lose yourself in the realm of album covers and what not. I still pile up lots of tunes, I or otherwise, but it isn't the same. This little exercise came through a friend of mine from our mutual days in college radio. He has a couple of years on me, but it is funny about shared experiences. There were certain albums that everybody had. The Cd era eroded this a little.
Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. It's funny because these are a few that transcend the medium, meaning I'm a sap and bought em on cd.
1) Rumours - Everybody we knew had it. It was like it got slipped through everybody's mail slot, standard suburban issue
2) Tattoo You- another one that everybody had. It was the last Stones album to matter, despite the fact they keep churning them out.
3) Tommy (first the movie, then the original album) - Elton John's version of Pinball led me to the Who, and my life-long mania began.
4) Who's Next - the album that started me working backwards through the Who's career.
5) Quadrophenia - I promise I'll stop at three Who albums. This one took me the longest to get into, but it became the deepest listen.
6) Born to Run - the title song defines that period of my life, giving rise to life-long Bruce fanaticism. Yeah, I got a ticket for his show in Toronto
7) The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle - again, I came to this one late but it became the deepest Boss listen.
8) Sgt. Pepper's - probably the first album I listened to end-to-end, when I was a child, reading along with the lyrics on the back. Come back to it periodically ever since.
9) Abbey Road - I remember tracking this in its entirety on a WSBU overnight shift.
10) Dark Side of the Moon - Almost an afterthought now, but another one everybody had and it is just great enough that periodic revisits can be a revelation.
11) All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes - makes me wish Pete Townshend would record more.
12) My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council: defines a college period for me. Under-rated, and made me a big fan of everything Paul Weller (the Jam) attempts.
13) The Joshua Tree - my first great album on CD.
14) Achtung Baby - The follow-up is probably the last album I absorbed from beginning to end.
15) Avalon - Roxy Music made the most evocative rock ever. Honorable mention to "The Atlantic Years" compilation.
16) Hotel California: Title song made me want to learn how to play guitar
17) Moondance: Van Morrison, I'm not a fan of the title song, but the record as a whole grabs your soul like everything matters. It helps that Van gives a damn through the whole thing.
18) The Last Waltz: The Band did more than just back up Bob Dylan, they could play a little bit of anything from Blues to Country to Rock and do it with enough panache that you had to be impressed..
19) Tusk: much weirder and ultimately more satisfying than any of Fleetwood Mac's more famous, more commercial releases.
20) Kiss Alive I: as Dave Marsh once said, "It's great, f**k you!"
21) Physical Graffiti - nothing like listening to Led Zep on a cheap hi-fi at age 14.
22) Led Zeppelin IV - Still don't know what a "bushel in the hedgerow" means, still don't care. It's a great record.
23) Tug of War - McCartney's work after John died had a poignancy that matched his best Beatles stuff.
24) Scenes from the Southside - hard to choose one Hornsby album, there are three or four I love.
25) Live at Leeds - OK, I lied.
No clash or ramones, because I'd find out about those later. Looking at the list, I guess I'm an audio dork, but there was something liberating about putting the big old KOSS headphones and dreaming.
Old fart rant over.
Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. It's funny because these are a few that transcend the medium, meaning I'm a sap and bought em on cd.
1) Rumours - Everybody we knew had it. It was like it got slipped through everybody's mail slot, standard suburban issue
2) Tattoo You- another one that everybody had. It was the last Stones album to matter, despite the fact they keep churning them out.
3) Tommy (first the movie, then the original album) - Elton John's version of Pinball led me to the Who, and my life-long mania began.
4) Who's Next - the album that started me working backwards through the Who's career.
5) Quadrophenia - I promise I'll stop at three Who albums. This one took me the longest to get into, but it became the deepest listen.
6) Born to Run - the title song defines that period of my life, giving rise to life-long Bruce fanaticism. Yeah, I got a ticket for his show in Toronto
7) The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle - again, I came to this one late but it became the deepest Boss listen.
8) Sgt. Pepper's - probably the first album I listened to end-to-end, when I was a child, reading along with the lyrics on the back. Come back to it periodically ever since.
9) Abbey Road - I remember tracking this in its entirety on a WSBU overnight shift.
10) Dark Side of the Moon - Almost an afterthought now, but another one everybody had and it is just great enough that periodic revisits can be a revelation.
11) All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes - makes me wish Pete Townshend would record more.
12) My Ever Changing Moods - The Style Council: defines a college period for me. Under-rated, and made me a big fan of everything Paul Weller (the Jam) attempts.
13) The Joshua Tree - my first great album on CD.
14) Achtung Baby - The follow-up is probably the last album I absorbed from beginning to end.
15) Avalon - Roxy Music made the most evocative rock ever. Honorable mention to "The Atlantic Years" compilation.
16) Hotel California: Title song made me want to learn how to play guitar
17) Moondance: Van Morrison, I'm not a fan of the title song, but the record as a whole grabs your soul like everything matters. It helps that Van gives a damn through the whole thing.
18) The Last Waltz: The Band did more than just back up Bob Dylan, they could play a little bit of anything from Blues to Country to Rock and do it with enough panache that you had to be impressed..
19) Tusk: much weirder and ultimately more satisfying than any of Fleetwood Mac's more famous, more commercial releases.
20) Kiss Alive I: as Dave Marsh once said, "It's great, f**k you!"
21) Physical Graffiti - nothing like listening to Led Zep on a cheap hi-fi at age 14.
22) Led Zeppelin IV - Still don't know what a "bushel in the hedgerow" means, still don't care. It's a great record.
23) Tug of War - McCartney's work after John died had a poignancy that matched his best Beatles stuff.
24) Scenes from the Southside - hard to choose one Hornsby album, there are three or four I love.
25) Live at Leeds - OK, I lied.
No clash or ramones, because I'd find out about those later. Looking at the list, I guess I'm an audio dork, but there was something liberating about putting the big old KOSS headphones and dreaming.
Old fart rant over.
