After a "days on end" bombardment of these viral things, I have succumbed to pressures, peer or otherwise, to post my own. Whatever. And don't forget to catch a few tracks over at
Radio Scenewash. Enjoy.
As a younger adolescent, "Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hints" stands the test of time in making that first early impact. Of course, I also heard a good chunk of
Johnny Cash and the
Carter Family, thanks to my old man's influence, which has always stuck with me. Remember, I grew up in a very small town in the Old South, and this was when AM ruled. FM was still mostly a twinkle in the eye. We caught our radio in snatches where we could. Down on the Georgia coast, snagging the bouncing waves of
WLS in Chicago and
WOWO in Fort Wayne, IN was hit and miss depending on the weather and cloud cover, but it was massive, even illicit fun to curl up under the covers, and steal those rogue high-powered AM waves when we could. Listening to rock and roll in those innocent youthful days in the late 60s took work, and patience. Then came high school and my first vinyl purchase...
1. Harvest - Neil Young
2. Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan (paradigm No. 1, poet laureates with guitars)
3. Greetings from Asbury Park - Bruce Springsteen
4. The Hoople - Mott the Hoople
5. Close Enough For Rock and Roll - Nazareth
6. This Year's Model - Elvis Costello
7. Telekon - Gary Numan
8. Power, Corruption, Lies - New Order
9. We've Got The Beat - the Go Gos
10. Never Mind the Bollocks - Sex Pistols (paradigm No.2, punk political underground)
11. Easter - Patti Smith
12. Ten Witches - 9353
13. Senseless Offerings - Black Market Baby
14. The Age of Quarrel - Cro-Mags
15. Troops of Tomorrow - The Exploited
16. Psalm 69 - Ministry
17. Rammstein - Mutter (paradigm No.3, industrial religious goth & electronica)
18. The War on Errorism - NoFX
19. Die Stahl AG - E-Craft
20. Assassinate - Birmingham 6
21. Harmonizer - Apoptygma Berzerk
22. Jesus Christ Superstars - Laibach
23. Embryodead - Wumpscut
24. Cyberia - Cubanate
25. Linger Fickin' Good - Revolting Cocks
26. Southern Born Killers - Stuck Mojo
27. Judgement - VNV Nation
28. Identity - King GiantOkay, these are the "gamechanger" LPs threaded into three distinctive but overlapping paradigms, each listed in the chronological order in which I was introduced to them, or in one case, a single track that egregiously throttled my perspective in terms of those emotional and intellectual cadences which continued to draw me to the music as I pursued the soundtrack of my life.
A probing sort hiding among my friends might even scratch closely enough at this list to expose one or two similar strains of energy these selections reflect over forty or so years of rocking out to the
Almighty Sounds of My Deliverance, but then again, we live in such superficial times where nothing matters very long.
This list is not a comprehensive list of my favorite albums of all-time, or within any given season, but they are the impact albums, the ones that have inevitably left its mark in such a way within its particular context, that I need no bread crumbs to find my way back to them.
And we must remember that there are always many global and esoteric variables at play in considering these impact moments in one's rather random listening life, but this is not the space to map that baseline. Suffice it to say, however, these 28 LPs will always remain special, each for their own reasons, to me. Perhaps there is more yet to come.
Gabriel