To be clear, this is not a best album ever list or even a list of my favorites, but rather what albums (and, yes, I'm of that age where 'album' was the unit of measure for musical quality) had the biggest impact on me personally and musically. I suspect like me, everyone's list reveals more about them than their current musical tastes. That said, here's mine in no particular order:
No Depression - Uncle Tupelo
An album that kicked off an entire genre, Craig Wagner loaned me the cassette (which I remember first listening to on a walk - and a Walkman - down Loughborough). Holy crap! Here were guys my age, from my town playing music like this - country sensibilities with such an edge - while every other band on The Landing was covering "Cherry Pie".
They, of course, made it big, showing up on Conan O'Brien before splintering off to become Wilco (the critics' darling) & Son Volt (my favorite - I was always more of a Jay fan). I should have seen them more than I did when I had the chance. Dan & I just missed getting into their penultimate sold-out show, listening to the first couple songs from outside the closed doors of Mississippi Nights.
Dire Straits - Dire Straits
I came to this album late, at least three years after 'Sultans of Swing' saturated the airwaves. I was working as an assistant groundskeeper and night waterer at Grandview Lodge and Tennis Club in Nisswa Minnesota. The latter job consisted of driving around a golf course in a Cushman, placing sprinklers on the fairways as dusk crept in, and retreating to the golf shed to wait twenty minutes to go back out and move the sprinklers twenty yards down the links.
Mosquitoes are the natural predator of the night waterer. To keep them at bay, you doused yourself with Cutters (which would wash off by the time you got back to the shed) and kept lights to a minimum. That meant no books, no magazines. What we did have in that twenty minute lull was an old cabinet radio/turntable/8-track. There were two tapes (and no albums): The Best of The Grass Roots and Dire Straits.
Though The Grass Roots were OK (full disclosure, our brass quintet shared management with them in the 80s), I was blown away by Dire Straits. For side 1/track 1 debut cuts, 'Down to the Waterline' is pretty hard to top. Every cut is a masterpiece.
Jackrabbit Slim - Steve Forbert
Another case of 'knew the hit ('Romeo's Tune' in case you forgot), discovered how good the whole album was years later'. (Now) one of my favorite singer/songwriters at the peak of his creative youthful output. My cousin Marcia's husband was a dead ringer for the guy and I spent the next ten years wishing I was him (Steve, not the cousin-in-law).
Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
I was in Al Fischer's basement feeling mellow thanks to Carling Black Label and a cobra (I'll say no more). I was sitting in a comfy chair when the last person I expected to see, the campus beauty, queen of the flag squad, walked in. She was equally surprised to see the dork from the tuba section there. We reassessed. She proceeded to sit on my lap and The Femmes came on.
Sheer cognitive overload on all levels.
I'd heard nothing like this before in my life. The angst of punk stripped down to its most honest elements then boiled down further to a potent little tar ball of music. It was followed by The White Album (my first listen to that straight through top to bottom too). One of my favorite college memories.
It's Too Late to Stop Now - Van Morrison
Hands down the album I've listened to the most times in my life (and a double album at that). It never gets old. I owe Gordon Klein and Gary Barnes for this one. I still had my head up my Ted Nugent ass when they finally forced me to listen. I was just discovering blues thanks to the Blues Brothers, but man! this was blues and soul with some power behind it!
It would be more than a decade before I saw him live myself, but in the meantime I went through about three bootleg cassettes. Still a masterpiece.
HONORABLE MENTION
Pampered Menial - Pavlov's Dog: required listening if you want to call yourself a St. Louis rocker.
Shadows & Light - Joni Mitchell: . . . and Jaco & Metheny & Michael Brecker (need I go on?)
Live at Jimmy's - Maynard Ferguson: wore it out like every other band geek
Nighthawks at the Diner - Tom Waits: too cool for school
Spectres - Blue Oyster Cult: still my nomination for best produced rock album ever
Including the honorable mentions, 4 of the 10 are live and 4 of the 10 are debut. The latest was released in 1990.
Leave a comment and let me know what album had the biggest impact on you and why.
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