The Music of My Life

A Facebook friend posted the 15 most influential albums on his own life. Here's mine:

1. Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin II
At the start of sixth grade, I hit puberty and discovered KQRS, the Twin-Cities longtime rock n roll station. I was head over heals for hard and heavy rock (and, um, Yes), and nothing -- not even Led Zeppelin IV -- rocked me as much as this.

2. Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
So I was home sick during that aforementioned sixth-grade year, and the morning DJ - maybe a little hung over and wanting to not worry about actually programming music - played all of "Dark Side." i'd heard pieces before and read about the album, but hearing it in toto had me hooked. I still have the vinyl copy I picked up soon after, including the posters (the stickers, as I recall, were used on school folders).

3. Replacements Hootenany
You would think growing up in the Twin Cities in the 1980s would have been great for a young music fan, except the likes of Husker Du, the Replacements and even Prince (pre Little Red Corvette) were almost never played on commercial radio. Then again, the sloppy noise here scared me so much I wouldn't listen to the album for years.

4. R.E.M. Murmur
OK, high school now. Pop and rock in 1983 didn't really interest me that much, but I had read about this young, exciting band out of Georgia. I put it on my Christmas list, and lo and behold, it was under the tree. For the balance of high school, I pestered anyone who would listen about the band. (Sorry everyone, but I was right, right?)

5. The Velvet Underground and Nico
Feedback. Guitar sqaulls. Primitive drums and no bass, and Lou Reed and Nico "singing" about drug deals and S&M. What was not to love?

6. Bruce Springsteen Nebraska
An absolute left turn. And a brilliant set of songs.

7. Ramones Ramones
I could easily put "Never Mind the Bollocks" here as well, but I've always liked the Ramones more than the Pistols. So, I was a senior by now, and ready to take the plunge into something a bit harder... it wasn't "Blitzkrieg Bop" that sold me, however -- It was "Beat on the Brat." Again, sorry to my friends who had to listen to me babble about the Ramones the balance of my senior year.

8. Minutemen My First Bells
This is a bit of a cheat, as this is a cassette comp of the early Minutemen records. Still I played this to death (and still have it -- one of about a dozen cassettes I have left). The band plows through 72 songs in less than 90 minutes and the wild vistas of punk were open at last.

9. Motorhead Orgasmatron
My high school friends were very tolerant. This was a favorite through the final months of high school, culminating with an Easter Sunday trip to First Avenue (my first! and a day after I saw Eric Clapton) to hear Lemmy, his warts and the rest of the band hammer through a very, very loud set of music.

10. Metallica Master of Puppets
I commuted from my parents home to the U of M. This tape seemed stuck in my car tape deck/generic walkman for a good chunk of my freshman year. Ever since Zeppelin, I had been searching for music that was harder/louder/faster. Punk was part of that equation, thrash and speed metal were the other.

11. Joy Division Closer
Interestingly enough, a lot of bands/artists I adore (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Hendrix, the Cure, the Smiths, Elvis Costello, Bob Dylan and so on) didn't have that life changing impact on me. The classic rock bands were on the radio so much that, by the time I bought the albums, they didn't have the same impact. And by the time I got to some of the modern acts, I was picking up large chunks of their discographies at once, so they all kind of merge together. Closer is distinct, however, and Joy Division has remained one of my favorites.

12. Nirvana Smells LIke Teen Spirit.
I almost pulled my car over the first time I heard this tune, I bought the album the day it came out, and my one time seeing Nirvana was on that tour later in the fall, as the band was just taking off. My generation didn't really have a "voice," but Kurt was pretty close.

13. Radiohead OK Computer
I was living in Ashland, Wis. when this came out, so I had to take a trip to Duluth. It was late in the evening when I got home, so I put on the headphones and listened through the album, at least twice. My favorite album from the '90s

14. Grateful Dead American Beauty
I scoffed -- come on, I was a punk rocker -- at the Dead for decades, before actually, you know, listening to the band. While I'll never be a huge fan of their jammy side, I absolute love American Beauty (and Workingman Dead). This didn't change my tastes as much as remind me that I can absolutely wrong.

15. Arcade Fire Funeral
This list is heavily weighed to my early years, which makes sense, as it becomes harder and harder to absolutely surprise the listener. This album did, mainly by not redesigning the wheel, but making the original design better.

And this only scratches the surface, if I'm feeling ambitious later on, maybe I'll tackle specific punk and metal albums, or delve deeper into "classic" rock (and the car stereo I had that only worked in one channel, which made Beatles and Neil Young records an interesting listen.)