bloggedy blog: the personal weblog of a music lover and aging punk wannabe

:: Thursday, August 03, 2006 ::

More lists of life-changing music
Today's listmania contributions come from Barry, Adam and some dick named Tesco.

First, Barry weighs in with not 10 but 20 albums that have changed his life, with a surprising pick for numero uno. His two-part list can be found here and here. Among his choices:
7. Jefferson Airplane - Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
From Someone to Love through White Rabbit this is a trip! No LSD or marijuana needed. Music is its own high, its own trip, when you let it work its magic. No wonder people have gotten into music wars. Music can do more than you think it can - coming up behind you, grabbing you and turning you around to see what you’ve never seen before.

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.

10. The Band - Music from Big Pink (1968)
Dylan’s backup band on their own after the Master is laid up and they do their own thing with power. There aren’t many songs better than The Weight! What changed in me was the broadening of the understanding again and again of what music is. This whole list could be summed up that way. There’s music for everything under the sun. And it can lift you to new places over and over again.
Next, Adam (who picked up on this meme at Beth Maynard's U2 Sermons blog) weighs in with his list of (most likely) top ten favorite albums of all time. Notice he said favorites, not life-changing. Random excerpts:
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: Wilco
This is the album that allowed me to realize that music has a future. I don't want to indulge in musical superlatives here, but this album represents one of the rarest & most beautiful integrations of country, folk, rock, and creative integrity in music history. More bands need to look at Wilco as a beacon of what it truly means to make the music that you want, record companies be damned! "Jesus, Etc." and "Ashes of American Flags" are the standout tracks, in my opinion.

Kid A: Radiohead
I have a great friend who, while he loves this album, will always prefer "OK Computer" and I can understand such a choice. However, when I really start to understand the great strides that these 5 British men are taking in advancing music into unknown territories, I simply have to love this album and all that it represents. "Everything In Its Right Place", "Kid A", and "National Anthem" represent one of the best album-opening trios of songs ever.
Finally, there's Tesco, who really doesn't want anything to do with any sort of stinkin' music list, as he made clear in this f-bomb-riddled post in which he waxes eloquent about how emo is crap and laments the overall state of punk today. Still, he lists some of his hardcore influences, and provides audio for your listening pleasure, and I thought I'd include him in this little experiment just to piss him off. Excerpts.
Negative Approach.
F___ing hardest of f___ing Hardcore born 1981 in Detroit (the home of Punk.. f___ off California). John Brannon and the McCulloch brothers tore up the genre for a couple years inspiring a ton of kids to turn it up and start some chaos.

Void.
Another one that NEVER makes the list. Really people, this is just f___ed up. Void was completely out of hand. DC born and more powerful than our heroes, Minor Threat.
So there you have it. More to come, including my next entry into the countdown (Nos. 80-71) this afternoon (if all goes well with the world and my Internet connection).

Tags: music, rock, rock and roll, rock'n'roll, lists, music lists, countdowns

:: Andrew 07:28 + ::
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