Born January 1 1959 London Ontario

25 Records Tthat Made Me Who I Am Today

Trying to pare down 50 years of music listening to 25 choices is pretty tortuous for a music junkie. So to make up for it I have cheated where every possible in order to add as many names as possible. Probably my first vivid memory of liking music would have to be listening to the radio and hearing the Beatles. I checked the internet and the Beatles released "I Saw Her Standing There" in Canada in 1964, which would have made me 5 years old. That is my first memory of hearing and loving a song (see how I am cheating already). I have tried to keep this list in a chronological order to give you an idea of what I was listening to at what particular age ... as best as I can remember it. In some cases I was listening to albums long after they had been released so I tried to approximate my age.

1. The Beatles - Hey Jude/Revolution 45rpm (1968/9 yrs. old)
   I mention this single but it was just one of many that I had as a kid. I used to get a buck a week allowance, and the cost of a 45 was essentially a buck. To me the golden age of AM radio was the late 60's. Perhaps every kid feels this way but I would have to say that the late sixties was a very cool time to listen to music. You had the British rock explosion with The Beatles, Stones, Kinks, The Who and many more. You also had all the fantastic Soul music coming out of Motown and Stax along with great soul/rock hybrids like Sly and the family Stone, Jimi Hendrix and Santana. Add to that cross over country acts like Johnny Cash and just weird shit novelty acts like Tiny Tim. To me it was also just a great period for pop music in general. It was one big funky stew. To me the Hey Jude 45 epitomizes this time, over 7 minutes of ecstatic screaming glory on one side, and the kick ass version of Revolution on the other. Both sides got huge radio airplay.
   
   
2. Elvis Presley - 50,000,000 Elvis Fans Can't Be Wrong (1959/approx. 8 or 9)
   Probably my first LP. I (like every kid) had lots of exposure to Elvis. Saw him on TV a lot and went to see his movies. This album was a greatest hits collection. All great songs and a great LP cover to boot of Elvis in Gold pajamas.
   
   
3. The Beatles - Beatles 65 (65/approx. 8 or 9)
   I think this is the first LP I bought. When I got it, it was already 3 or 4 years old. I probably bought it used or at a cut rate price. Great album though. I still listen to it today. "I'm a Loser" by John Lennon is one of my fave Beatles songs … lyrics that cut to the bone. Of course this was just the beginning of my love affair with the Beatles. The next LP I got by them was "Magical Mystery Tour" (1967) (also used, also not current at the time. The first Beatles LP that I got when it was released was "Let it Be" which was their last (released) in 1970.
   
   
4. Alice Cooper -. Killer (1971/12yrs old) Billion Dollar Babies (1973/ 14 yrs old)
   Okay, when I was in grade eight Alice Cooper was "HUGE." He had lots of hits on the radio (including "School's Out" 1972) and even came and played at the London Arena. My friend Graeme Fenwick had a lot of his LPs and we would sit downstairs in his cool psychedelic pad and dig Alice. That was also my first introduction to Frank Zappa and Shel Silverstein.
   
   
5. David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust (1972/13 years old)
   When I was in grade 7/8 I met a guy named Gary Williamson at Empress public school. He had two older brothers named Rick and Terry who had a fantastic record collection. They had a lot of Stones so it was my first introduction to many of their LPs like "Beggars Banquet" (1968) and "Let it Bleed" (1969). They also introduced me to David Bowie and Roxy Music. I listed "Ziggy Stardust," which is my favourite of many great LP's I had by Bowie while I was still a teenager including: "Hunky Dory" (1971)," Pin Ups" (1973), "Aladdin Sane" (1973), "Diamond Dogs" (1974), "David Live" (1974), and "Young Americans" (1975). "Station to Station" (1976).
   
   
6. John Lennon - Imagine (1975/16 yrs)/George Harrison - Living in a Material World (76/17yrs old)
   After the Beatles broke up I had to be content with their solo projects. "Imagine" is the first solo album I heard by Lennon. I love the whole thing. "Living In A Material World" really struck a chord with me when I was a teenager. I loved listening to music on the headphones and this was one of my favourites.
   
   
7. The Kinks - The Kinks Present a Soap Opera (1975 /16 yrs old)/School Boys in Disgrace (1975/16 yrs old)
   Of course I had heard the Kinks on the radio growing up but the first time I got to hear there LP's like "Everybody's in Showbiz" (1972) was at the Williamson's place. I love their mid-seventies stuff especially these two albums which are quirky little rock operas. This brings up the whole enjoyment of listening to albums during the seventies. You could kick back, put on your headphones, and check out the album art, read the lyrics (which often told a story) and for an hour you could be sucked into another world that was interactive and worked on many different artistic planes.
   
   
8. Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy (1973/ approx. 16yrs old)/Physical Graffiti (1975/16yrs old)
   When I got to high school I started to realize that the music I was listening to at the Williamson's was not necessarily what was really popular at school. So I started to hear what was popular with some of the new friends I made. Of course Zeppelin was huge and these two LPs were my faves by them. There was also stuff like Yes and Genesis and the kind of stuff that appealed to stoners. A slightly amusing anecdote: I went to a high school party and heard the song "Vicious" from "Lou Reed Live" (1975). I went into the bedroom to see who this brilliant song was by, and an open copy of "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway" (1974) was beside the stereo. I went and bought that album. I liked the album a lot, but I eventually found Lou ... and I love Lou.
   
   
9. John Lennon - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (1970/approx. 17 yrs. old)
   When I was in High school I went tobacco picking one year and a British guy I was working with suggested I should buy this LP since I was a Lennon fan. Of course this is probably the best Lennon LP. Stripped bare (surprising since it was co-produced by Phil Spector) with very raw emotions. Great songs, hard to pick my favourite, but "Mother," "Isolation," and "Working Class Hero" are all up there.
   
   
10. Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run (1975/16yrs old)
    At this point I was still listening to AM radio. I didn't have a receiver or FM cable so I had no idea what was going on there. "Born to Run" hit the airwaves with the title track, and at the time there was nothing like it on the radio. I loved this whole album. I liked the whole romantic imagery of losers looking for love and trying to escape their fate. A few years previous to Born to Run I also bought "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (1973/14 yrs old) and "Band On The Run" (1973/14 yrs old) both of which had lots of AM air play and sold a bazillion copies. I still love both those albums. Eventually though, the radio just didn't do it for me anymore and I started to get annoyed with the fact that AM radio did not play a lot of the music that I really liked.
    
    
11. The Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks Here's the Sex Pistols (1977/18 yrs old)
    And so it begins. I had been reading about punk long before I actually got to hear any of it. The magazines I read made it seem very enticing. When I first heard "Never Mind the Bollocks" me and my buddy Gus Lukas burst out laughing. I don't know if Gus was laughing for the same reason as me, but I thought it was brilliant ... totally audacious ... unlike anything I had heard then or since. You can see how the stars aligned for me here because I turned eighteen at the same time this album was released, which was also about the same time the Demics started playing locally. At that time eighteen was the age of majority in Ontario. I saw the Demics play at least a hundred times and absolutely loved every minute of it. However, their recordings are not included in this list as I didn't really feel like they were a good representation of the band.
    
    
12. The Clash - The Clash (1977/18 yrs old)
    The Clash's first album was among four LP's that I played the crap out of , including Eddie and the Hot Rods "Teenage Depression" (1976), The Vibrators "Pure Mania" (1977) and "Never Mind the Bullocks": all killer shit. At the time I had a pretty big record collection but I only wanted to play those four albums. We would have parties (me and John Warner on Empress Ave.) and I would have to fight people away from the record player. They all wanted to hear Led Zeppelin or whatever. Eventually I got sick of that and just sold the majority of my record collection.
    
    
13. Lou Reed - Street Hassle (1977/18 yrs old)
    Dark and beautiful, and quite the opposite of what I was listening to at the time (see number 12), I bought this album also when I was living on Empress Ave. It was not the same tempo as the punk stuff, but it was in the same head space. At this point I feel like I should at the very least mention The Velvet Underground. Every one of their albums could be on this list.
    
    
14. Television - Marquee Moon (1977/18 yrs old)
    During my initiation into the world of punk I was introduced to a lot of music I had never heard before; everything from Karlheinz Stockhausen to the Flaming Poodles. What a great time. I would just grab stuff off the shelves and it all seemed brilliant. So it was not like I was just listening to songs that conformed to punk clichés (short and fast). Marquee Moon has long meandering guitar solos and abstract lyrics. It was one of my favourites of a lot of art fart/quirky rock that was also coming out of the Punk/New Wave scene. Stuff like: "Marquee Moon," "Talking Heads 77," XTC "Go 2" (1978) Pere Ubu's "The Modern Dance," (1978) and other off the wall shit.
    
    
15. The Ramones - Rocket to Russia (1977/18 yrs old)
    Gotta' mention the Ramones ...are you CRAZY!! This is my fave LP by them.
    
    
16. Bob Marley - Bob Marley Live! (1975/ approx 18 yrs old)
    In the early days of the Demics somebody made up a compilation tape of punk stuff that used to get played in-between sets, that tape also contained the live version of "No Woman, No Cry." It was hypnotic and beautiful, and one of the impetuses for a life long love affair with reggae music. I love Bob's entire catalogue.
    
    
17. Iggy Pop -Lust for Life (1977/approx. age 19)
    Certain people who predated punk were quite popular with the punks. People like: Lou Reed, John Cale, Eno, David Bowie, Jonathan Richmond, the New York Dolls, Ian Hunter and of course Iggy. This is just one of many Iggy LPs put out in the seventies. Some are better than others, but they all have a least a few great tracks. "Lust For Life" is probably the best of the batch. Stand out tracks for me are the killer title track, "Success" and "Turn Blue" which is frigging awesome.
    
    
18. Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming (1979/20 yrs old)
    In 1979 during the punk explosion Bob Dylan released his overtly Christian LP "Slow Train Coming". We (Darko, Billy, Gil) played the shit out of this album at the Crash 80's band houses. Great songs and Bob often seems to be wrenching them out of his gut. Eventually I bought all of Bob's albums of which there is too much brilliant shit to count. But stand outs include "Blood On The Tracks" (1975) and "Blonde on Blonde" (1966). I also love every LP he did in his "Christian period."
    
    
19. Talking Heads - Remain In Light (1980/ 21 yrs old)/ Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures (1979/ approx. 22 yrs old)/Gang of Four - Entertainment (1979/approx. 22 yrs old)
    Ok, we are getting into the eighties here. I realize I am getting to the end of my 25 picks so I am trying to jam a whole load of shit in. "Remain In Light" is the third album that Eno produced for the Talking Heads. We spent many nights playing this album over and over. Great grooves, and lots of amazing guitar. "Entertainment" is also a great ,crazy, disjointed, jagged, crashing guitar LP … great freakin' band. Joy Division, contained lots of heavy pumping bass, sweeping orchestral movements and doom and gloom. What more does a young man need?
    
    
20. Various Artists - Sound d'Afrique (1982/23 yrs. old)
    This is a brilliant compilation of African music. I was obsessed with this album for a long time. I loved how big bands (with up to twenty members or more) could create very propulsive music but with spaces you could drive a truck through. This led me later to funky dudes like Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade.
    
    
21. Tom Waits - Swordfish Trombones (1983/ approx. 26).Rain Dogs (1985/ 26 yrs. Old)
    Heartbreaking and hilarious, a cacophony of barking dogs, strangled vocals, and disjointed rhythms, with the occasional beautiful melody thrown in. Loved them!
    
    
22. Stevie Wonder - Innervisions (1973/approx. late twenties) Fulfillingness First Finale (1974/approx. late twenties) Songs In the Key (1976/approx. late twenties)
    Eventually I started listening to the albums of guys that I had heard in my youth but was unaware of their larger Catalogue. Each of these three albums is brilliant. In this category you can also add artists like Al Green. Sly and the Family Stone, Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding and the next artist on the list.
    
    
23. Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (1968/approx. late twenties) Moondance (1970/approx. late twenties)
    Love Van. Love everything he has done. Love these two albums especially, one being wild and jazzy with just Van's vocals keeping the whole damn thing from flying off into space, and the other pure pop paradise.
    
    
24. Robert Johnson -Robert Johnson the Complete Recordings (1990/originally recorded in the 1930's/ approx. in my 30's)
    I had always been unimpressed with the blues (electric blues especially), largely because I had only heard it played by crappy white guys (or maybe I just wasn't listening). Robert Johnson was a revelation. The lesson I learned from listening to him is that there has always been crazy/passionate musicians throughout human history in all different genres ... and when you hear them you want to laugh and cry.
    24. Various Artists - Ain't That Good News (Specialty records 1969/ approx. 30's)
    You may have noticed that I started to get into roots music. Old blues, rock and roll, soul, country, jazz, reggae whatever ...love discovering this shit. "Ain't That Good News" was a gospel compilation that I found at the library. Every artist on this recording is balls to the wall brilliant. You know ... singers who were the equivalent of James Brown or Etta James, but were unheard of because they sang gospel. I love the sparse driving instrumentation of the small groups with the emphasis on the vocals.
    
    
25. Lucinda Williams - Car Wheels On A Gravel Road (1998/39 yrs. old)
    This album was released in 1998. That is as far as I could get in the confines of this format. There is a ton of stuff I would have liked to have mentioned preceding this album and following, but I am alright quitting with Lucinda. Great album, great lyrics, great songs ...love singing along to this album. I also really appreciate this album for the fact that it was made by an artist who seemed to be peaking in her forties as apposed to declining.

Those of you who are very perceptive may have noticed that I cheated by repeating number 24 …ha ha.

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