I saw this “ten albums that have stayed with me or influenced me as a
young person” thing going around facebook. It’s interesting . My situation
growing up seems a little different from most. The only music in our house was
some country & western and the music on Lawrence Welk. My father did not
approve of rock and roll. He called it “Duck Quacking” music. The first time I
ever heard a rock song was on the radio in the truck while my brother was
driving. It was Crimson and Clover by
Tommy James and the Shondells. It was a revelation.
We also didn’t own a record player while I was growing up so the idea
of personally owning music was completely foreign to me. I didn’t have a
turntable until I went to college. My brother-in-law had one and I did hear him
play “Light my Fire” by the Doors once. I
liked it a lot. The first music I actually bought was as a Junior or Senior in
high school when I had an 8-track tape player in my car. It was Deep Purple, “Shades of Deep Purple.” I
loved “Hush.” I played the tape 4 or 5 times before the machine ate it.
This means that most of the albums that really affected me didn’t come into my hands until college. But here they are, generally in the order of influence. And by influence I mean those that have remained with me over the years and have influenced my writing and all future musical interests.
1. We Sold Our Souls for Rock and Roll, Black Sabbath, double album.
2. Led Zeppelin IV, Led Zeppelin
3. Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd.
4. Tres Hombres, Z. Z. Top
5. Rocks, Aerosmith
6. Boston, Boston
7. Leftoverture, Kansas
8. Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper
9. Straight Shooter, Bad Company
10. Stormbringer, Deep Purple
