Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Ten (+10) Life-Changing Albums
Andrew, the wannabe punk at Bloggedy Blog has started a series on his 100 Life-Changing Albums and some other bloggers have been adding theirs as well. This old 60s hippie and radio DJ who has survived on music for more years than I care to remember has to have his say.

It was interesting to do this. While some groups like the Rolling Stones had a lot of great music, no single album stood out for me as life-changing. I also discovered that since I am a lover of MUSIC, my list was quite eclectic. I could probably have added a few more, but I went beyond the basic 10 and made mine a 10 (+10). (Hey, when you’ve lived this long, there’s a lot of music to sift through.) And maybe I've had my life changed a lot.

Will there be any surprises? Yes, perhaps. But some will be obvious to anyone who knows me. I'll give some of my reflections after all 10 (+10) are posted.

Anyway, since I have overdone the list, I will break it into two parts. For today, here's 20 - 11:

20. Hair- Original Broadway Cast Recording (1968)
Nudity and rock and roll; anti-war; Age of Aquarius; hippies; hair down to my knees. The anti-establishment begins to make it. Fun and joy and fear and paranoia earn money. The counter-culture begins to change. But it was fun and we actually thought we were doing something important. Maybe we were.

19 & 18. Jesus Christ, Superstar (1970)/Godspell- Original Broadway Cast Recordings (1971)
Rock and roll and Gospel? Never! Impossible! It can’t happen! That may be hard to believe in this day and age after Larry Norman and Stryper and all the others in the CCM field. But there was a day, perhaps a long time ago in a galaxy far away, where it was the devil’s music. Then came Andrew Lloyd Weber and Stephen Schwartz and within a couple of years opened a new world. Superstar was power. Godspell was Spirit. I knew that Jesus was still for me with these two albums. And what’s more, I was still for Him.

17. Simon and Garfunkle- Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme (1966)
Lyricism, beauty, music and words, voices and instruments melding together in a never equaled collection of music that can really only be the 60s. For Emily Wherever I May Find Her remains one of those eternally evocative songs.

16. Bruce Springsteen- We Shall Overcome- The Seeger Sessions (2006)
This one’s very new. It showed me that change and challenge are part and parcel of who we are. Who would ever have thought of The Boss doing a “roots-type album and changing the way we understand music? When you’ve earned the right to do what you love, others can be brought along with you.

15. Philadelphia, Chicago, and Cleveland Brass- Antiphonal Works of Gabrieli (1969)
Three sets of principal brass players doing music that is unmatched- and unmatchable. I cannot listen to it all these years later without getting that same sense of transcendent awe that came the first time.

14. Miles Davis- Sketches of Spain (1960)
I am a trumpet player. So here is another trumpet album. I came to like Miles Davis later than might be expected considering my trumpet background. (Not until the mid-1970s for this 1960 album.) Perhaps he’s an acquired taste and perhaps one needs to hear just the right album first. For me this was the right album. The haunting style of Davis was perfect for the mystical Spanish style he brings to new life.

13. Les McCann and Eddie Harris- Swiss Movement (1969)
Dave was an African-American fellow student at the radio station at college who first played me this album. Wow! The passion and power of jazz came alive. I was blown away and have never, thankfully, recovered. Jazz opened up- and never closed down- for me. Thank you, Dave, wherever you may be today.

12. Cream- Disraeli Gears (1967)
Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce. A supergroup before there were supergroups. Awesome guitar work, power and sound. Unbeatable. And old Slowhand Clapton is still making us drool. (A trivia note: I saw Cream in one of their last concerts! Unbeatable.)

11. U2- Joshua Tree (1987)
What Springsteen did for me in the 70s, U2 did in the 80s. Music keeps growing and changing. Even in the midst of the crap that was often out there making money, a group like U2, like the Beatles or Springsteen could come along and bring quality to life.

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