5 Albums That Changed My Life
I've been meaning to make this post for awhile, ever since I got one of those My Space bulletins about it. I thought "what a perfect blog post".. so I hope whoever started this doesn't think I'm a complete thief but I had to add my two cents and so should you.As for me, my 5 are a bit on the odd side, but considering whose writing this piece it will come as no big shocker. First and foremost I have to say my gamut of music really stretches all across the universe so I thought it might be hard to come up with the music that actually CHANGED my life and had some big effect on me but after a few minutes of deliberation I came up with my list - and they are only in order of release, so I guess they are in order of when they affected me. Also note that these are albums that affected me upon their release, there are plenty of important albums that I wasn't fortunate enough to hear upon their initial release and thus I had already been affected by these 5:
Grease Original Soundtrack (1978; RSO Records) - I know you really lost all your respect but hey I was a tee weeny little boy and the soundtrack and the film were the first real adult type of fare that I came across which actually affected me in any way. The film was so exciting to me I made every relative I had take me to see it claiming I had never seen it before. My Aunt Sarah and I listened to it on my Grandma's big record player in the living room - one of those things that look like a cabinet but actually house a record player and in Grandma Ferlie's case an 8 track player. Then I made my mom buy me the 8-track for myself. I sang every song as if it were my own and as if I knew what half the words meant. "Summer Nights", "You're The One That I Want", "Greased Lightning" - not to mention the 1,2 punch of sassy pants Rizzo with her teaser "Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee" and "There Are Worse Things I Could Do", plus the Sha Na Na whole middle of 50's dance music, and the Cindy Bullens sung "It's Raining On Prom Night", "Freddy My Love" and "Mooning" from the original play (which I didn't even know existed at the time). The soundtrack to Grease made me grow up and to this day I still sucked in to both the flick and the soundtrack and it made me a life long Livvie fan.Stockard Channing - Look At Me I'm Sandra Dee
Cindy Bullens - It's Raining On Prom Night
Blondie - Parallel Lines - (1978; Chrysalis) Anyone who has ever heard this album from start to finish should be affected by it as well. Opening with telephone buzz and breaking into the punky new wave "Hanging On The Telephone" through 12 songs of neon nuances, organ bounces, sultry cooing and downright new wave genius this is arguably one of the best albums released ever, and that comes from other real critics and not just my blonde head. When I first saw Debbie Harry on TV singing I was transfixed. I had to know who she was, what she was, where she was. Once again Aunt Sarah stepped in by having the Parallel Lines album since they had done a cheerleading routine to "Heart Of Glass", I stole that record from her and I've never looked back. The rocking jaunt of "One Way Or Another", the 60's popness in "Sunday Girl", the gloomy "Fade Away And Radiate", "11:59", "Will Anything Happen?", "I'm Gonna Love You Too" - there isn't a bad song on this bunch. In fact, I used to act out the entire album from beginning to end in my room. There was also one of Smokey and Evelyn's neices who bought the album and brought it to the Smokey home where I insisted I knew all the words - they laughed at me until they started following along on the lyric sheet while I sang. That's how cool of a kid I was! Just listen to some of the amazing lyrics and the incredible music and you'll be hooked too - "Your mouth is permanently entrenched where a molar should be" - how frickin' cool! Parallel Lines made me want to be a singer, it made me want to write songs, it made me proud to be blonde, and it made such an effect on me I can't go without it for more than a few months without pulling it out and playing it from start to finish all over again.
Pat Benatar - In The Heat Of The Night - (1979; Chrysalis) Thanks to a different Aunt, I got my little child paws on a copy of this ingenius moody piece of pop/rock when Aunt Carol came over one day to give me an extra copy she had got from Columbia House Records. My cousin Paula and I ran up to my beat up little Robin Hood record player, pulled the Parallel Lines album off of it and heard the thunderous pulse of "Heartbreaker" and once again I thought I was in Heaven. From there came the sass of "I Need A Lover" and the one two mood swings of city runaway life in "If You Think You Know How To Love Me" and "In The Heat Of The Night." While Debbie was cool and aloof, full of irony and things above my head, Pat was straight forward and bitchy, she wasn't taking shit from anyone and she was going to warn you before you even tried. I loved it and I loved her. The strange yet alluring "My Clone Sleeps Alone", the new wavey "We Live For Love" & "Rated X" - the romantic overblowing "Don't Let It Show" - straight up balls rock of "No You Don't" and the closer "So Sincere" - it has lasted beyond all my dreams; due I'm sure to the fact that Pat can sing the crap out of anything - from one growl to a high octave it all sounds so effortless. Since I got the album sometime in the summer months of 1980, her next release Crimes Of Passion was right around the corner, and with the one two shot of those, I knew I had to be some kind of singer. I was going to be Pat or Debbie or one of them was going to be my adopted mother, I didn't care how it was going to work. All I knew was they lived through thier lives through my stereo and I lived my life through their songs.
Lisa Hartman - Letterock (1982; RCA) - This was a tough one to include, not because I knew so many people would make fun of me but I had to find a way to describe how exactly this album did have its effect on me. For most of the people in the world, at the time and now, no one even knew this album existed but I did. But with the album and Lisa's appearance on the album I became a fan, but with her also appearing on Knots Landing every week, she became something more to me. It seemed like you could put all of your talents into your work, if you wanted to do TV, you could, if you wanted to sing, well go ahead and make a record. It all seemed so easy because of Lisa Hartman. Plus she seemed like a damn nice person. She didn't appear to be trying to be anything other than herself. She had a bit of the Benatar-esque attitude on some of her songs but then would turn into a Linda Ronstadt crooner. The album is the opitome of 1982 pop music with just a hint of Urban Cowboy-ness coming through on one or two of the songs. Letterock was certainly a product of its time but unlike the later 80's where the processed drum machine makes everything so dated, this album still sounds refreshing - at least to me. Plus I sing along with everything on here, she made everything so easy for me as a kid. I loved looking at that insane cover of her in the lingerie and listening to song after song and then playing it over again. I used to put Letterock on the player before going to sleep. I would dream of living somewhere else and being a big time singer - you realize of course it all reverts back to the TV show she was singing her songs on - Knots Landing. I first saw Lisa while my mother had the TV on for background noise, and I sat watching the show. Suddenly there she was singing a Rick Springfield song "Hole In My Heart" and wearing a small mini dress, I thought she was the coolest thing in the world. When I found out there really was a Lisa Hartman record out there, I made my mother run me up to Camelot Music. Lisa Hartman and Letterock (she sang songs off the album on most of her time on the show including "If Love Must Go", "Games", "Hole In My Heart" and the most popular "New Romance (It's A Mystery))In fact if it weren't for her singing on the show, I probably never would've watched it to begin with. Today, I still listen to Letterock all the time, I still watch Knots Landing with my pal Jen, and I still love Lisa Hartman and have followed her career through out these years and without Knots Landing I don't know how boring all those Thursday nights would've been in my youth and would I have ever really written Carlton Heights - or anything else for that matter had I not first seen Lisa and started playing her record? Without Letterock, I would've had no Lisa Hartman, no Knots Landing and then no Carlton Heights - Now think about that for a minute!
Nirvana - Nevermind (1991; Geffen) - It's hard to believe a record didn't affect me again for over ten years but in all fairness there wasn't all that much greatness after the beginning of the 80's - by the time I had worn out most of my vinyl from the early 80's I was mulletized, wearing name brand acid washed jeans and trying to hang with the cool kids of the Def Leppard crowd. Of course I never fit in with them but that's probably because I'd run home, watch the Aqua Net out of my hair and put on my Lisa Hartman album. But by 1991 we had all had enough of hair bands and constant sexual innuendo. Sure, Lita Ford got me through some fits but come on I needed more, so along came a new Messiah and his name was Kurt. He didn't care if you liked him, looked at him or hit him, just as long as you heard him. And we did. But this goes beyond just affecting me with the thrilling moments of angst found on the album, Nirvana brought about a whole movement - I tore those labels off my jeans, I put on the thrift store cords and boots, the flannel and the big ratty sweaters, I let my hair grow. I have to admit though I never went so far as to only bathe by Pachouli but come on I was raised right. In essence, Nevermind became a voice for people of my inner angst - my age, my outsider status, everything I thought was on the sidelines was suddenly there in front of me. The music had anger, the music had depth, the passion was there in the lyrics and in the performances, and it changed my whole life. I was finally in a place I wanted to be. My own style changed, my writing, my poetry and stories, my lyrics all took on new meaning and I was no longer afraid to write how I really felt - warts and all. It made me an artist - an unpaid artist sure but if you create art and no one's there to pay attention you're still an artist aren't you? Sure you are and so am I - thanks to the life altering album Nevermind.And there's my list how about you guys - and just in case you can't really believe what you just read - yes the 5 albums that changed my life are the Grease Soundtrack, Blondie's Parallel Lines, Pat Benatar's In The Heat Of The Night, Lisa Hartman's Letterock and Nirvana's Nevermind. Now what are the 5 albums that changed your life?
(P.S. for the youngsters out there - an album is a CD as well just not a single - I don't care how important the CD single of "My Humps" is to you - unless a whole Fergie album affected you I don't think it counts)
Labels: Blondie, Grease, Lisa Hartman, Music Life Pat Benatar, Nirvana, Olivia Newton-John
posted by swivek @ 4:16 PM
2 Comments:
I'm beginning to think you're not 23 after all....I certainly don't remember owning anything besides "Bible Stories for Toddlers" and the "Mary Poppins" soundtrack on vinyl....:)
There are dozens more, but here are 5 off the top of my head:
The Cure: Japanese Whispers
Devo: Freedom of Choice
Human League: Dare
Cocteau Twins: Treasure
David Bowie: Low
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