16-11-2021, 00:47
Hey guys! - Music Head, Crazy Horse, Ruby.
I'm not the most savvy guy in the world for navigating forums such as these so I'm never sure if I hit "reply" whether only the one person will see what I wrote or whether it just adds to the thread. Guess we'll see.
One obvious problem that arises when you do, say, a "Top Ten" or a "Desert Island Collection" or whatever it is, you can't engage meaningfully in that discussion unless you've listened to most or all of the albums on that list. To me the fun isn't so much in you or I going "These are my top ten albums ever" - cuz anybody can do that. The FUN part for me is being able to discuss why, or at least compare song A or Album B to something else and having some feedback. The aim of course is never to be hurtful or anything but to discuss. But before that discussion can even take place, I myself have to have heard the albums (or songs - preferably albums. Or ARTISTS or BANDS even!) I had mentioned, in my introduction, this person's list of Top 10 (in the article he actually made it a Top 15 "perfect" albums) that I had read online, and I remember he had This Year's Model by Costello, Carol King's Tapestry, Peter Frampton Comes Alive, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, The Bottle Rockets' Zoysia and I forget what else. There were some albums on there I'd never listened to, which means... homework. You gotta listen to AND digest before you can open your mouth on the topic. I mean a cursory listen doesn't give your arguments much weight, know what I mean? So any time I want to dive deep into somebody's top anything, that means homework for me, and that usually translates into a lotta time. We all live lives of interactions, obligations, bills to pay, relationships and I can't just dump my wife for, say, six hours to go discover who the hell the Bottle Rockets are (For the "record", I did listen to the album. I liked it a lot.) Thank you YouTube! Yeah, it ain't vinyl, but I'd be ruined if I had to buy album after album.
So although it's awfully tempting to just launch with My Top Albums of All Time of the Universe of the Unknown, (there'll always be time for that I suppose), I'll just break the ice with where I come from (musically) and what my biases are.
As kids, my siblings and I were babysat by our uncles. They would bring over piles of LP's under their arm (we had a kickass stereo, yes I'm a product of the 70's so newbies might be wondering what the hell I'm talking about here...) You can probably just imagine the scene, it's probably quite comical: the only light in the room were the VU meters. Everybody would take to their rocking chairs, up came the volume and oooooh baby! It was liftoff. Volume was a must and so was the rock 'n roll. By virtue of me having been raised on that, it goes without saying that my tastes in music were colored on that palette. So I humbly present to you, my music-loving colleagues, a short list of what was used to pummel my grateful six year old brain. (This went on for a few years – started around the time I was six right up until about the time I was nine):
Rare Earth (In Concert)
Mountain (The Best Of)
Montrose (Montrose)
Ten Years After (some compilation with the Woodstock “I'm Going Home” live track on it)
Uriah Heep (Magician's Birthday, Demons & Wizards, their first album as well – US edition)
Bad Company (1st album)
BTO (Head On)
The Hollies (Best of)
Dave Clark Five (some best of compilation)
Roy Buchanan (That's What I'm Here For)
Ted Nugent (Catch Scratch Fever)
Black Sabbath (Masters of Reality)
Chicken Shack (Imagination Lady)
The Beatles (“The Red Album” and Abbey Road)
CCR (the obligatory compilation)
The Who (Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy)
Rick Derringer (All American Boy, Derringer Live)
Johnny Winter (Johnny Winter And Live)
About that time, we did some discovering of our own. I had an allowance and I blew every penny on records.
Kiss (anything with the word KISS on it...)
Boston (first album)
Eagles (Hotel California)
Rush (Hemispheres, Fly By Night and their first album – moving pictures came a little later).
Ted Nugent (Double Live Gonzo, Free for All)
Van Halen (all of 'em up to and including 1984)
But here I've jumped forward in time and that's another discussion for some other time.
Sorry. I don't mean to yap on forever like this. I didn't even get into my punk phase or my metal phase or my I-Need-To-Get-Laid-Let's-Start-a-Band phase.... I didn't even talk about the two areas (“bands”) I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur in – the Beatles... and REO Speedwagon. I could talk 'til next year about those guys.
Ok anyway, thanks for reading. Feedback? Memories? Anecdotes? Go right ahead! This is fucking awesome!
Oh - Ruby! I gotta get into your list there... Another time!
I'm not the most savvy guy in the world for navigating forums such as these so I'm never sure if I hit "reply" whether only the one person will see what I wrote or whether it just adds to the thread. Guess we'll see.
One obvious problem that arises when you do, say, a "Top Ten" or a "Desert Island Collection" or whatever it is, you can't engage meaningfully in that discussion unless you've listened to most or all of the albums on that list. To me the fun isn't so much in you or I going "These are my top ten albums ever" - cuz anybody can do that. The FUN part for me is being able to discuss why, or at least compare song A or Album B to something else and having some feedback. The aim of course is never to be hurtful or anything but to discuss. But before that discussion can even take place, I myself have to have heard the albums (or songs - preferably albums. Or ARTISTS or BANDS even!) I had mentioned, in my introduction, this person's list of Top 10 (in the article he actually made it a Top 15 "perfect" albums) that I had read online, and I remember he had This Year's Model by Costello, Carol King's Tapestry, Peter Frampton Comes Alive, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, The Bottle Rockets' Zoysia and I forget what else. There were some albums on there I'd never listened to, which means... homework. You gotta listen to AND digest before you can open your mouth on the topic. I mean a cursory listen doesn't give your arguments much weight, know what I mean? So any time I want to dive deep into somebody's top anything, that means homework for me, and that usually translates into a lotta time. We all live lives of interactions, obligations, bills to pay, relationships and I can't just dump my wife for, say, six hours to go discover who the hell the Bottle Rockets are (For the "record", I did listen to the album. I liked it a lot.) Thank you YouTube! Yeah, it ain't vinyl, but I'd be ruined if I had to buy album after album.
So although it's awfully tempting to just launch with My Top Albums of All Time of the Universe of the Unknown, (there'll always be time for that I suppose), I'll just break the ice with where I come from (musically) and what my biases are.
As kids, my siblings and I were babysat by our uncles. They would bring over piles of LP's under their arm (we had a kickass stereo, yes I'm a product of the 70's so newbies might be wondering what the hell I'm talking about here...) You can probably just imagine the scene, it's probably quite comical: the only light in the room were the VU meters. Everybody would take to their rocking chairs, up came the volume and oooooh baby! It was liftoff. Volume was a must and so was the rock 'n roll. By virtue of me having been raised on that, it goes without saying that my tastes in music were colored on that palette. So I humbly present to you, my music-loving colleagues, a short list of what was used to pummel my grateful six year old brain. (This went on for a few years – started around the time I was six right up until about the time I was nine):
Rare Earth (In Concert)
Mountain (The Best Of)
Montrose (Montrose)
Ten Years After (some compilation with the Woodstock “I'm Going Home” live track on it)
Uriah Heep (Magician's Birthday, Demons & Wizards, their first album as well – US edition)
Bad Company (1st album)
BTO (Head On)
The Hollies (Best of)
Dave Clark Five (some best of compilation)
Roy Buchanan (That's What I'm Here For)
Ted Nugent (Catch Scratch Fever)
Black Sabbath (Masters of Reality)
Chicken Shack (Imagination Lady)
The Beatles (“The Red Album” and Abbey Road)
CCR (the obligatory compilation)
The Who (Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy)
Rick Derringer (All American Boy, Derringer Live)
Johnny Winter (Johnny Winter And Live)
About that time, we did some discovering of our own. I had an allowance and I blew every penny on records.
Kiss (anything with the word KISS on it...)
Boston (first album)
Eagles (Hotel California)
Rush (Hemispheres, Fly By Night and their first album – moving pictures came a little later).
Ted Nugent (Double Live Gonzo, Free for All)
Van Halen (all of 'em up to and including 1984)
But here I've jumped forward in time and that's another discussion for some other time.
Sorry. I don't mean to yap on forever like this. I didn't even get into my punk phase or my metal phase or my I-Need-To-Get-Laid-Let's-Start-a-Band phase.... I didn't even talk about the two areas (“bands”) I consider myself a bit of a connoisseur in – the Beatles... and REO Speedwagon. I could talk 'til next year about those guys.
Ok anyway, thanks for reading. Feedback? Memories? Anecdotes? Go right ahead! This is fucking awesome!
Oh - Ruby! I gotta get into your list there... Another time!