(very belatedly) Via Michelle Miller…
Think of 15 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.
Okay, I’m down to 20 albums I can listen to in their entirety over and over. I can’t do any fewer. If my steamer trunk is full, I’ll just have to stuff a a few of them in my boxers
1. Bruce Cockburn – The Charity of Night
Luscious music, brilliant lyrics full of metaphor and hard cold dirt. Reminds me of the magical time when I first became a parent
2. Indigo Girls – Come on Now Social
A brilliant mix of styles from Emily and Amy Ray. Indigo Girls never, ever fail to soothe my soul (except when they’re kicking me in the ass)
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magick
Reminds me of dancing around naked in my apartment with Jason Martin, volume all the way up, singing at the top of our lungs. My little white ass is tickled pink when I put this on.
4. Rage Against The Machine – Rage Against the Machine
Pure testosterone rush.
5. The Polyphonic Spree – The Beginning Stages of…
Pure happiness and joy. The Partridge Family meets the Manson Family. Reminds me of when my bubbly boy (Ian) was born.
6. Ani DiFranco and Utah Phillips – The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere
Great stories and poetry over Ani Difranco’s funk folk.
7. Beastie Boys – Check Your Head
When the B-Boys grew up a bit and played their own instruments, it was world-changing. This was when I left college, went to work in Theatre in Boston and New York, on my own for real for the first time. Street music every night and strange new food and people. The world was nothing except potential.
8. The Beatles – Abbey Road
Musical perfection.
9. Bob Marley – Songs of Freedom (Disc 4, technically)
Loved when Marley really grew into his own. Reminds me of hanging out in Tucson Arizona with Anna, soaking up the sun.
10. Umphrey’s McGee – Safety in Numbers
Music geeks come into hard times and loss. Reminds me of when Anna died. Hard, hard, hard times. Made it a tiny bit easier for this music geek to get through hard times and loss.
11. The Decemberists – The Crane Wife
So baroque, so complex. Reminds me of starting to date again after losing Anna. Strange music for strange times.
Indulgent, quirky, wordy pop. My fave of hers. Reminds me of when Anna and I moved to Chicago, me starting to actually get paid for playing with computers, starting to investigate quirky Unitarian Universalism.
13. Damien Rice – O
I think this record must have sprung from Rice’s soul whole. It’s a perfect record. Reminds me of my life before Anna got sick – 3 kids, nice home, finally finding my stride with my wife.
14. Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator)
Sparse and haunting. Vocals like a scalpel. Reminds me of driving to Indy to go contra dancing with Michael and Denise. Feeling full up with gratitude for such good friends.
Great hooky guitar pop. I just love this guy. Me and 250,000 teenage girls. Reminds me of falling in love with Christine.
16. Martin Sexton – Black Sheep
This record is a soundtrack for so much. I just keep coming back to it over and over again (including while writing this post as a live Sexton show came on WTTS FM). I can identify with being the black sheep. And with the glorious message of redemption in the title track. “Glory Bound” is one of the first songs my fingers reach for when I pick up my guitar.
Utterly perverse. Pornographic. Random. And completely brilliant. Reminds me of working as an intern for a recording studio in Indianapolis, cleaning toilets for free, trying to learn the tricks of the trade while sucking up to egotistical assholes. And what’s not to like about music featuring clowns that rape underage virgins?
18. Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese
Goofy bass rock. Reminds me of late college, similar to Red Hots above. Except that Anna kind of liked this one – she even had a copy.
19. Public Enemy – Apocalypse ‘91: The Enemy Strikes Black
Classic old school hip hop. Had a friend who produced hip-hop in college and he turned me on to this. It took a couple more years for me to get it. Loved the loops and breaks. Reminds me of many late nights in the basement of the Stewart Center, making and recording music.
As a musician and a sound engineer, I think I should also get a bit of privilege on this exercise, so I’m listing the following I either recorded, produced, peformed on, or am acqaintances/friends with:
1. Stone Soup – Long Fields
Early college. My whole world changed when the needle hit the record on this one. I can remember it exactly like that. And it really did. Carrie Newcomer’s first band. She’s an acquaintance of mine.
2. Icemakers of the Revolution – Number of Days
Mid to late college. Used to be sound engineer for this band. Good friends (who I’ve lost touch with, sadly). Brilliant, revolutionary folk rock by brilliant, revolutionary academics.
3. Michael Lewis/Traveler’s Dream – Overflow
Mid college. Getting my musical chops on. Got to make music with my friend Michael, a friend and mentor. Making this record, the joy was palpable.
4. Slamflowers – Clam Chowder
A record I produced of some friends that I met through my girlfriend at the time, Renee Serino. Fun straightforward pop music. Great guys. Late college
Not much here in the way of high school. High school was pretty forgettable for me. I guess there were summers at camp in the woods of Wisconsin. And then we’re talking Violent Femmes and Iron Maiden and Frank Zappa and ABC. But that’s a whole other post, I guess…
Thanks Michelle, I really enjoyed this. Time to go make a playlist out of this.
