Top 10 Most Influential Albums

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, and have thought about putting my thoughts down to (virtual) paper. Then I got a bulletin on myspace entitled "5 Albums that changed my life" and felt that the time was now to write it. I won't be so dramatic to say that all these albums changed my life. I think most people who say 'this song changed my life" or "this movie saved my life" are just a WWEEEEEEEE bit on the melodramatic side. But these are the albums that were the most instrumental in shaping my current taste in and love for music.

10. Ghost in the Machine, The Police: This was the first album that I bought with my own money. I agonized over what album I was going to buy, since I had lots of time before I saved up the 8.99+tax required, and it was between this one, and Journey's Escape. Either one would have been a good choice - as it was I didn't get into Journey until the next album, Frontiers - oddly enough, their last good one. Anyway I listened to Ghost in the Machine over and over, and by the time I stopped listening to vinyl, it was still a regular in my playlist. I think this album was a huge contributor to my love of electronic sound in music. I loved the keybaord and synthesizer heavy sound, and I still feel nostalgic for my pre-teen days when I hear 'Spirits in the Material World.' It makes me think of my first real crushes and the beginning of the 'video' phenomenon.


9. Shango, Juno Reactor: I don't actually own this CD. But I do have most of the songs from it, and it was a HUGE contributor to my current taste in electronica/trace music - leading to my enjoyment of Crystal Method, Prodigy, Moby, Infected Mushroom, and Zero 7. This spot should actually be shared with Tangerine Dream's Le Parc. That was really the first fully instrumental synthesized album that I liked, which also led to my enjoyment of EARLY Yanni (before his music turned to piano-based 'go to sleep' music.) However, for the most part, my enjoyment of electronica type music took a hiatus for several years after Yanni and Tangerine Dream both changed their style to Wyndham Hill type music. It's a shame that Yanni turned his back on his early music, which was vibrant, exciting, and quite enjoyable. He doesn't even acknowledge it anymore, and you can't find any of his first three albums on iTunes. Since then, every Yanni song sounds pretty much like the last one.

8. Ten, Pearl Jam: I may have played this in my car stereo more than any other cassette in a 4 month time frame than anyone ever played any other cassette. For the most part, I wasn't a fan of the Grunge movement. I hated Nirvana, still don't like them. Didn't like Temple of the Dog, Stone Temple Pilots were ok. I held a deep contempt for every other Pearl Jam album since Ten. BUT... Ten led me to Alice in Chains, who are one of my alltime favorites, and their Unplugged CD is still one of my most-listened to CDs.

7.Charrango, Morcheeba: August, 2002 - Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Most of you know my vacations are almost exclusively outdoors... camping, hiking, canoeing, etc. In 2002, my friend Chris and I decided we were going to go somewhere different, and BC was the choice. Whistler was our base of operations, as it was a sizable ski village that has as much going on in the summer as the winter. We liked that there was a lot to do - and wanted to be able to do stuff other than just backpacking. We booked a long trip, and left a couple days for liesure activities. One of those days, we rented mountain bikes and bought a lift ticket and spent the day riding the mountain bikes down the ski trails, which is something I'd wanted to do for years. It was an insanely fun day, and pleasantly exhausting. That night, we went to an itallian restaurant in the village and sat on the patio and watched the people walk through the village, flirted with the waitress, drank a pitcher of sangria, enjoyed the cool zephyr that kissed the village, and was just generally content - more relaxed and happy than I'd been in a long time - the epitome of what a vacation should be. As the night went on, the waitress became more friendly, the sangria more flavorful, and I slowly became cognizant of some mesmerizing music playing on the restaurant's PA. I was hypnotized by the lead singer's sexy voice and playful style, and enchanted by the toe tapping, but laid back beats. I asked the waitress who it was, and she informed me it was Morcheeba, a band I had never heard of. I spent the rest of the night drinking more sangria and simultaneously falling in love with the waitress and the music. I went immediately after dinner to the tiny record store at the village and bought the CD. It's still a heavy player in my iPod. Equally important, it opened the door for me to really love music with female lead singers. I'm not sure why - I think it was because I'd always been partial to music I could sing along to, and it hurt my voice to sing along with women ;-) I'd always been a fan of Sheryl Crow and Alanis Morisette, but for some reason never really got into any others. Morcheeba actually made me take a more active approach to finding female singers. Since then, I've found Venus Hum, one of my current top 10 bands, and Tracy Bonham - whom I liken to a younger, better looking, more edgy, more talented Sheryl Crow. Two performers I may not have been as open to before Morcheeba. It's also led me to enjoy Kelly Clarkson and Evanesence.

6. The Final Cut, Pink Floyd: Most of you probably have never even heard of this Pink Floyd album. It's not as progressive or mind-bending as The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. I had heard of those and heard some of the songs on them before I heard Final Cut. But The Final Cut was the one that introduced me to Floyd for real. In high school, my friends and I listened to this endlessly. it was Roger Watters' final album with the band, and it was essentially a tribute to his father, who died in WW2 - as well as being an anti-war concept piece. It left a powerful imprint on my psyche -in a time when was much on my mind... the cold war was still going strong with Reagan in the white house and nuclear escalation still uummm... escalating, and my 18th birthday rapidly approaching. I definitely did NOT want to get drafted and sent to the middle east or eastern Europe. The album was the subject of much discussion and listening amongst my close friends and I during our late high school years. It also led me to delve into the works of Pink Floyd, and now I count Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon and Meddle among my favorite albums.


#5. IV - Led Zeppelin: My friend Patrick had this album when we were kids. I remember being blown away by Black Dog, Rock and Roll, and Misty Mountain Hop. Comically, I never even heard Stairway to Heaven until a party at a classmate's house a few years later. This solidified my love of Zepppelin. More importantly, Zep's music opened my ears to classic rock, which is and has been my favorite genre since then. A few years later, in high school, I heard Thank You on a canoe trip that I took with my church youth group. I'm sure at some point before that,I had heard a song that struck an emotional chord with me. However, this was the first time I remember it happening. To this day, Thank You is one of my top 5 favorite songs (of which the band at #2 did an excellent cover.)

#4. Greatest Hits - Queen: I tried my best to avoid greatest hits and live albums on this list, as the influence of an album comes from the entire collections of songs that was released by the band at that time. However, I have to put Queen's Greatest Hits in the list. I heard Another One Bites the Dust on the radio or on a rerun of Solid Gold or something ... and immediately told my dad that I NEEDED the album that that song was on. Sometime soon after that, he came home with Queen's GH, rather than The Game, which was the studio album that had Another One Bites the Dust on it. Thank Goodness. I absolutely LOVED every song on the Greatest Hits collection. I probably would have really liked The Game as well. But Greatest Hits had content of varied styles and genres from beginning to end that spoke to me from every track. Under Pressure resides with Thank You on my top 5 favorite songs list... and both of them have been there since the 80's. Most importantly, Queen was my musical awakening. Before I got this album, for some reason I can't explain, the only radio I listened to was K104 ... The Gap Band, Kool and the Gang, Sister Sledge, Sugar Hill Gang. I have no idea how I got started on that, or why I even liked it (though I still like the Gap Band and play their music at my DJ gigs to this day.) From Queens Greatest Hits on, I was sold on Rock and Roll.

#3. Nylon Curtain - Billy Joel: Thursday, 1982. I heard Pressure, Allentown, and Piano Man on the radio on Triple Shot Thursday on Q102. Fortunately, I happened to be recording the radio on my boom box. Of course, Piano Man was a classic and had been around for years. But Pressure and Allentown were from the new album, Nylon Curtain. I'd never heard any Billy Joel before that (see above - I was a musical late bloomer.) Pressure was instantly uploaded to the quick-access memory of my brain and resided there for a couple years. Allentown was a a sing-along toe tapper, despite the heavy subject matter, and Good Night Saigon is a stirring tribute to Vietnam War vets. Nylon Curtain was my introduction to the music of the master. In my opinion, there's no better singer/songwriter in the USA. Billy is my alltime favorite solo recording artist. I've seen him in concert three times, one of which was with Elton John, which is still be best concert I've ever been to, 13 years later.

#2. Rio - Duran Duran: in 1982, I hated Duran Duran, which is when this album came out. The band members were "fags", they wore makeup, and all the girls were in love with them (which is the real reason that I, and all the other boys my age hated them.) A couple years later, when the James Bond movie A View To a Kill came out, of course, I went to see it and heard the theme song. I thought "damn.. this is a really cool song!" then... I saw the credits and was crushed. However, that didn't last long... I watched the movie, went home, and heard View to a Kill about a dozen times on the radio over the next 2 days. The more I heard it, the more I liked it and thought, "These guys aren't so bad... maybe I should listen to some other stuff." I went into my sister's room and got her Rio album and listened to it - and was blown away. Those guys were really good musicians, despite the fact that they were pretty boys. Having just been brought into the rock/pop music world a few years earlier, and by classic rock icons, I hadn't yet discovered the true flavor of the 80's music wave. Duran Duran was my intro into 80s music, which I now love dearly, and easily classify it as a close second to classic rock as my favorite genres. I saw Duran Duran in 1987 at Six Flags. It's one of my favorite concert memories.

#1. Moving Pictures - Rush: I'm positive that this comes as absolutely no surprise to anyone who knows me at all. It's no secret that Rush is my alltime favorite band and has been since about 1982, when Signals was released. There were several guys at my grade school who were Rush fans, and most of them were my good friends, and that's how I was introduced. Signals was the followup to Moving Pictures. But Moving Pictures was the album that introduced me to Rush. It is considered to be the band's Master Work, and the first track, Tom Sawyer is their most famous, widely recognized song. But it was the rest of the album that got me addicted, particularly the last three songs. Witch Hunt (part III of Fear), The Camera Eye, and Vital Signs ... These songs were the keyboard-rich, electronic, fear-laden dark subject matter planks on the platform that Rush would base their next 3 albums on. Signals and Grace Under Pressure were the next two albums that personified and perfected that vibe. The last three songs of Moving Pictures + the next two albums are easily my favorite body of work by any solo artist or group - and have been from the day I first heard The Camera Eye. The band members are all virtuosos with their instruments. Neil Peart and Geddy Lee (drums and bass, respectively) are widely recognized to be the best in rock music, and Alex Lifeson is frequently among the top vote-getters in polls of best guitarists. Their concerts exceed their studio albums for several reasons: mostly because the band has been together so long that they can improvise with great skill and you never know what you're going to hear. But if you've never seen/heard a Neil Peart drum solo, then you are missing out on the greatest musical endeavor you'll ever see undertaken by one person. I know it's a big joke among non-rush fans to make fun of Rush fans who all say that Neil Peart is the best drummer ever. Well - it's no joke. He really is. If you don't believe me, pull up your iTunes program, go to the music store, and search for the following songs (all drum solos): Rhythm Method, O Baterista, and Der Trommler ... and play the samples. Der Trommler is 9 minutes long, and there is not one second where you won't be thinking that you are hearing something amazing. I've seen Rush in concert eight times, and am going again this summer. Possibly for the last time - after ever tour the band talks about not doing it again. As they get older, I get closer to believing it every time...

Anyway, There you have it... the 10 albums that have had the most influence on my current musical tastes. Here are a few honorable mentions that didn't crack the top 10 but were still important:

Blue Sky Mining - Midnight Oil: I loved this concept album. I was a moderate at best fan of Midnight Oil before and after. Even though this is one of my favorite albums, it didn't really flavor my future musical direction. But I still have it and it gets regular playtime on my iPod.

Dawn Patrol - Night Ranger: I actually discovered Night Ranger before their big breakthrough album (Midnight Madness) came out - from their Don't Tell Me You Love Me video on MTV. I loved it, and was excited when I heard they were releasing a new album. Midnight Madness came out the spring before I started high school, and my friend Patrick and I played it over and over and over... it was the mainstay of our tennis racquet air guitar band that whole summer. We noticed that when we got our season passes for Six Flags that spring that Night Ranger was on the concert schedule for Labor Day weekend, and determined that this was to be our first rock concert experience. We planned and waited for it all summer. Some time during the summer, my folks decided that we were going to go to Montreal for a 3 day weekend (a thorn in my side all through high school - my dad worked for American Airlines and anytime we had a three day weekend, it was a family trip - which sounds fun to most of you I'm sure, but I got tired of never getting to hang out with my friends, not getting to go to dances, etc.) Well - I told my parents that I didn't want to go to Montreal because I already had tickets to Night Ranger. They actually let me stay that weekend with Patrick and we went to Six Flags for the concert. It was amazing - even though it rained all day, the show was incredible... I still have flashbacks to that night when I hear the opening keyboard riff of 'Rumors in the Air' which was the first song of the show.

The Blind Leading the Naked - The Violent Femmes: The Violent Femmes were essentially the soundtrack of my high school days. Angst, sadness, anger, and laughter... it's the classic mixture for adolescence, and The Violent Femmes captured it perfectly in this album (not the one that everyone knew, with their biggest hits - but still my favorite.)

Deep - Peter Murphy: The soundtrack for my post high school years. Deeper and darker than the Violent Femmes... more melodic but sadder and more despondent. A dark perioid in my life - there wasn't a lot to be happy about.

Flood - They Might Be Giants: The PERFECT soundtrack for my post-post high school years, and the perfect light hearted, toe tapping, fun music to pull me out of my early 90's funk. I'm not going to be so dramatic as to say that this album saved my life, but it went a long way toward me realizing that it was ridiculous to be depressed and despondent over what essentially amounted to high school drama.