Recorded Works That Changed My World

The meme:

"Think of 15 albums (CDs, if you're under 40), concerts, or other musical events that had such a profound effect on you that they changed your life; dug themselves into your soul. Music that brought you to life when you heard it. Royally affected you, kicked you in the wazoo, literally socked you in the gut is what I mean. Now, imagine you're one of those pompous, pretentious 'rawk' writers. Are you with me? When you finish, tag others (including moi). Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you're it..."

Now maybe if you're a dilettante, you have just 15 of these. For me, 15 isn't nearly enough. Having thought a bit about this, I'm just gonna try going chronological.

• Mary Poppins soundtrack. Hey, don't laugh! It's the first album I bought, and with it came the realization that one could have one's own personal music in the house--and that music could evoke a remembered experience and thus activate emotion, etc. etc. Honorable mention: My friend's dad's Tom Lehrer album: That Was The Year That Was. Unlike Poppins, I still love this one!



• Everything the Beatles released. I don't remember much about their arrival in the US (I remember hearing "The Beatles are Coming," and picturing a row of insect beetles marching into the country), but I remember the tremendous anticipation of each new album, and the joy of bringing it home and putting it on the record player and being immersed in their world. Everyone talked about it the next day at school. Eventually, everyone from your parents to first-graders listened to them. The Beatles were universal like no entertainers had been before or will be again, probably. Honorable mention: the Rolling Stones, for a while there.



• Movies: Hard Day's Night, Help!, Head, The Song Remains the Same, The Kids Are Alright, Baby Snakes, Urgh! A Music War, This is Spinal Tap...



• The Monkees. Yeah, they were a prefabricated rip-off of Hard Day's Night-era Beatles, but I was only about 10, and they were also in our living room once a week, and so here were guys I "knew" producing music. This is where I first entertained ambitions of being a musician and living that zany life. The Beat! The Chords! The Girls! Honorable mentions: The Raiders, the Turtles, and a hundred other 60s AM-friendly pop groups.



• The Guess Who: American Woman. First "real" rock album. I stared at the cover while listening endlessly, thinking about which guy played what instrument, what the songs meant.



• Simon and Garfunkel: Bookends. My parents' music (and my mom was named "Mrs. Robinson"), but I came to love it. So profoundly witty and introspective. Honorable mention: Harry Nilsson: Harry.



• The Who: Tommy. An album that made a coherent and cohesive statement, with a high-minded concept, and that French Horn! I did a book report on it at school--teacher didn't figure out that it was a musical album, and thought it was a very strange book.



• Elton John: Elton John. Before the big glasses and platforms and superstardom, before he was gay, there was this unassuming little album that played constantly on the basement stereo.



• Alice Cooper: Love it to Death, Killer, School's Out. I liked some music for entirely non-musical reasons, and am amazed to find later how good these albums actually were musically. Also the first concert I attended alone, during the "Killer" tour. How can you not like a band that hangs their lead singer at every show? :-)



• Grand Funk Railroad: Closer to Home, Survival. Okay, guilty pleasure. I find much of it nearly unlistenable now, but back in the day I listened to it on eternal-replay. Their cover of "Gimme Shelter" is pretty good.



• Firesign Theatre: Four or five classic albums. If rap is music, then this is certainly music. The Firesign Theatre, in simplest terms, was four guys doing comedy. However, this is how comedy would sound if the Beatles did comedy: multilayered, full of multifarious references all over the intellectual map, and slyly funny, with its own set of catch-phrases and one-liners, but much more, and it bore repeated listening. I *still* hear new stuff sometimes.



• Jimi Hendrix: War Heroes. This is the one where I first saw clearly what Jimi did. Electric Ladyland was his best mainstream release, but this is still the best Hendrix album you never heard (most of the songs have been released on Hendrix family reissues now, but it still bears listening as delivered). Ask nicely and I might make you a copy.



• Led Zeppelin II. Monstrous. I'd choose this one to introduce the Zep to an alien or hermit emerging from a cave. Honorable mention: Deep Purple: Machine Head.



• Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow. Don't take the brown, but if you can find some of the purple, "tell me how do you feel...?"



• Various: Woodstock. I was too young for the concert, but the album and movie were cultural touchstones.



• Johnny Winter And: Live. Serious blues chops. Played along with this album over and over and OVER, and never did catch up.



• Allman Brothers Band: Beginnings. Another album I attempted to play along with. Honorable mention: Eric Clapton/Cream/Derek and the Dominos. Guitar-playing 101 through 199.



• The Who: Live at Leeds. Whenever you need to turn it up to top volume, here's your album.



• Dylan: Greatest Hits 1 and 2. I came to Dylan late, but spent a good deal of time with these three LPs (vol. 2 was a two-LP set), and of course took to writing imitative poetry which I certainly hope has all been destroyed.



• Grateful Dead: American Beauty, Terrapin Station. These albums have pretty much everything there is to like about the Dead and little of what there is to dislike. Initiated a short but enjoyable Deadhead period in my life.



• Neil Young: After the Gold Rush, Harvest. Everyone had these albums. There was an era before Nirvana when everyone wore jeans and flannel shirts. For better or worse, following on James Taylor's heels, this was the blueprint and model of the 70s sensitive male, and I studied it probably more (a LOT more) than I should've. Honorable mentions: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: So Far (First/only Greatest Hits package released after only two albums?); Cat Stevens: "Tea For the Tillerman."



• Spirit: Spirit and Clear. These were repackaged as a double LP when I found them. Beautiful combination of psychedelia, folk, rock, and jazz, with a liberal dash of humor.



• Frank Zappa: Apostrophe'. Get past the Yellow Snow for amazing guitar work and excellent writing. This is repackaged on a single CD with "Overnite Sensation," which is not a bad thing.



• Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy, Pretzel Logic, Katy Lied. The first six or seven albums are capital-G Great, though I do think of the first, "Can't Buy a Thrill" as something of a warm-up, and the sixth and seventh, Aja and Gaucho, as somewhat more mundane and jazz-derivative (when the rest of the world discovered them, BTW). These albums came with my first serious girlfriend, and brought new levels of cynicism AND musicality to my world. Did you know there are time signatures other than 4/4? Chords other than major, minor, and seventh?



• The Who: Sell Out. You could buy it just for the cover, but after that it might just get lodged in your top ten of all time.



• Sarah Vaughan: No Count Sarah. I rate Sarah above Ella and Billie, maybe just for this album (and to a lesser extent, "Swingin' Easy"). Check out "Doodlin'" for starters. Thanks for this one too, Mom!



• The Kinks: The Kinks Kronikles. A two-record set that introduced me to a quaint little village (and sold me 10 or 12 additional albums).



• Aretha Franklin. With Aretha or any of the Motown artists, you don't really usually talk in terms of "albums," but in terms of hits, and in some cases, of entire bodies of work. Aretha deserves much more than "Respect."



• Chet Atkins and Les Paul: Chester & Lester (repackaged on CD with "Guitar Monsters"). Every guitarist should own this and study it.



• Compilations: Nuggets and Nuggets II. If you liked anything about the music of the 60s, you need both of these.

(****Had enough yet? Okay, let's move on. ****)

• David Bowie: Heroes, Low, Lodger. The Berlin trilogy. Bowie here merged art and rock in a way that made you feel smart for listening to it.



• John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band. This was something entirely different--pure, raw, emotion. So personal, it was hard to listen to at first.



• Talking Heads: Fear of Music. Scary brilliant.



• Compilation: Warner/Electra Loss Leaders: Troublemakers. This introduced me to the Sex Pistols, Jonathan Richman, latter-day Marianne Faithfull, Gang of Four, Devo, and to some extent, to Punk Rock and New Wave as a genre (And a general huzzah to Warner for all of the "Loss Leaders").



• Compilation: Life in the European Theatre. Introduced me to another swath of punk/new wave acts, including the Clash, the Jam, XTC, the Undertones, the (English) Beat, the Specials...



• Compilation: The Last Stiff Compilation. The Stiff label produced some of the best music of the late 70s. Here we find the Damned, Madness, the Cure, John Otway, Lene Lovich, Wreckless Eric, Motorhead... (Honorable mention: Stiff Records Box Set: some of that glory reproduced on CD.)



• The Jam: Setting Sons, the Gift. Lumped in with punk, they were really a logical progression from the Who. Very musical and articulate, with a solid conscience and you can dance to it--I'll give it a 10, Dick!



• The Clash: London Calling, Give 'Em Enough Rope. I actually drove an intransigent roommate out of the house with the latter.



• Nick Lowe: Jesus of Cool, Labour of Lust. Like the man said, "Pure Pop for Now People."



• The Pretenders: The Pretenders, and everything since. Chrissie seemed to me the first woman who really rocked. She always has great backing too.



• Psychedelic Furs: Psychedelic Furs. I loved this. It hasn't aged that well...but better than Grand Funk.



• XTC: Drums and Wires, Black Sea, English Settlement, Skylarking, Oranges and Lemons; and Dukes of Stratosphear: 25 O'Clock and Psonic Psunspot. D&W was the intro, but each of these albums went a little further, from raw, minimalistic punk to lush psychedelia.



• Kate Bush: The Dreaming (and all others). Complex, virtuosic, beautiful.



• Van Halen: Van Halen. Okay, yeah. Eddie was really the first person to do anything new with a guitar since Hendrix. The bombast of DLR made it fun, which is why Sammy didn't work nearly as well.



• King Crimson: Discipline. Adrian Belew also took the guitar to new places, on the wave of intricate, mesmerizing Frippertronics, Tony Levin on The Stick, and Bill Bruford pounding skins. I saw them doing most of this album live at the time and it did change my life.



• U2: War. Nothing of theirs since has really grabbed me like this one...



• Butthole Surfers: In general. No particular album, just various tracks across the years. But really: revelatory.



• They Might Be Giants: Lincoln, Flood, Apollo 18. Nerdy geek-rock!



• The Austin Lounge Lizards. A National Treasure. Why haven't you heard them?!? I suggest you start with "Employee of the Month."



• Posies: Failure, Dear 23, Frosting on the Beater. My mom's one-time tenants made some wonderful music.



• Tori Amos: Little Earthquakes and the "Crucify" EP. And she was something to see and hear in concert, just her and the piano.



• Nirvana: Nevermind. A breath of fresh air. Honorable mention: Pearl Jam: Ten.



• Richard Thompson: Rumor and Sigh. But you really have to see him live to appreciate that he's playing ALL THREE guitar parts.



• Compilation: The Money or the Gun. 22 versions of Stairway to Heaven by Australian bands. One of my most prized possessions!



• Compilation: Ferrington Guitars. A coffee-table book of beautiful custom-made guitars with accompanying CD on which you can hear some of them. Beatiful, warm, production; amazing guitar-playing.



• Breeders: Last Splash. Women rock again!



• Tempest: Serrated Edge. Somewhere near that tiny sub-genre "Celtodelic," Tempest played Bay Area clubs in the 90s, and actually helped me get in at one place when I forgot my ID (tho I haven't looked under 21 since I was 14). I loved learning these on guitar, and added bonus, singing the "Gilligan's Island" theme to "House Carpenter."



• Compilation: If I Were a Carpenter. Just for Sonic Youth's brilliant, transforming cover of "Superstar."



• Liz Phair: Whip-Smart, Whitechocolatespaceegg. I know, "Guyville," but these two just affected me more.



• Alison Krauss: Now that I've Found You, Live (w/Union Station). If angels sing (and are female), they sound like this. But they probably wouldn't have that dobro.



• Compilation: Saturday Morning Cartoons' Greatest Hits. Introduced me to some groups (Wax, "Happy Happy Joy Joy") and delivered necessary songs from others (Violent Femmes, "Eep Opp Ork"; Ramones, "Spiderman"; Butthole Surfers, "Underdog"...).



• Compilation: Sing Hollies in Reverse. Rare tribute that is mostly as good as the originals, and that sent me back to them for another listen.



• Compilation: Alright, This Time, Just the Girls. The Sympathy for the Record Industry label collected some absolutely wonderful stuff here. It sold me on Candypants, the Stool Pigeons, Matson Jones, and others. Honorable mention: the preceding comp, "Their Sympathetic Majesties Request."



• Gillian Welch and David Rawlings: Revival, Hell Among the Yearlings, Time the Revelator, Soul Journey. Touches the heart in a funny way.



• Stool Pigeons: Rule Hermania and Gerry Cross the Mersey. An unfinished trilogy of British Invasion tributes. Much-better-than-the-original covers of Herman's Hermits and Gerry and the Pacemakers.



• Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication. I liked the Chili Peppers before, but LOVED this album; they seemed to me to show some maturity here and create something more worthwhile and lasting. And my band covered the title song.



• Compilation: Short Music for Short People. 101 songs on one CD! Maybe more artists should limit their output to ~30-second bursts.



• White Stripes: White Blood Cells. A breath of fresh air, again (see Nirvana)! Brought rock back to the garage, and me back to my guitar.



• Steve Earle: Jerusalem. The most coherent response to 9/11 I've found.



• Green Day: American Idiot. The most coherent response to George W. Bush I've found.



• Neko Case: Fox Confessor Brings the Flood. Absolutely lovely. Stirring. I am running out of adjectives.

As soon as I publish, I'll think of ten things I forgot.