I saw a video on YouTube the other day where a British man was telling what albums, or singles had "Changed My Life". I got to thinking about that. Can a recording of music actually change a person's life? As far as the path that your life takes you on, all the twists and turns, I don't think so. Maybe if you became a musician, then I suppose it could, but for most of us others, not so much. The music I have listened to over the course of life has not had much impact on my chosen career, my choice of a mate, where I lived, what kind of car I drive ... you get the point. Music in my life is a side note. A hobby, a somewhat mediocre talent, a pleasant diversion. Some music may have had a small influence on my philosophy of life, but I rather doubt it. Some people are book people, some are movie people and some are music people. The majority of us are all three but with one taking more of our attention than the other two. I most definitely am a music person.
I started browsing through the albums that I have on my computer. This takes a little time. Over my 66 years on this earth I have managed to collect 2,100 albums that contain approximately 28,300 songs. This tally does not include all the vinyl albums and singles that I have not yet converted to a computer format. To be clear, I dedicated a computer just for the storage of music. I don't know how I ended up with so much music or even why, except for the fact that I love it. It comes to about 31 albums a year since the day I was born. Looking at that total makes me think I may have gone a little overboard with my hobby. Hobby sounds better than an obsession I think. When I browse through the collection every once in awhile I see an album and something inside of me just makes me stop. These albums are the ones that must have a hold of something deep inside of me. As I was starting to write this, I am ashamed to say, another CD arrived from Amazon. To be fair, It is my third copy of this album. With the new technology of 2020's fabulous remixes of albums that were recorded in the 60's through the 80's are being reissued that bring a freshness and a clearer sound to the originals. I do not buy a lot of these. If I buy a remix it usually means it is a Beatles album or one of those albums that are extra special to me.
The album that arrived today is one of those albums that has a hold of me and has since I first heard it way back in 1985. SCARECROW by John Mellencamp was released in the same year as the FarmAide concert that raised money to help the farmers of this great land during a period of time when many farmers were losing their farms due to economic pressures. Mellencamp is from rural Indiana where he still resides. It was in that rural town where he recorded the album. I am not sure what brought me to the point of buying this recording. I didn't watch most of FarmAide. I had heard Mellencamp before from a couple of hit singles of his. Perhaps it was just a timing thing. I saw the album in the store, I knew that I liked his sound and decided to buy it. From the first listen though, this thing had me hooked. This album is basically a biographical album. The lyrics tell the story of life in the midwest. The hardships as well as the blessings of living out in the country. It is a brutally honest album. The sound of Mellencamp is a style that is hard to pull off in a studio. It is a raw sound. There isn't a lot of fancy over dubbing or polishing the sound. It feels like a neighborhood band you would hear back in the 70's and 80s as you walked around the neighborhood in the early summer evenings. For me personally, I can identify with every single song on this album. The lyrics are not fancy or anything. There isn't a lot of hidden meaning in them. They come out and hit you in the face with the message that Mellencamp is sending to you. Yet, I find myself quoting those lyrics from this album many times. I am sure I have quoted this album on some Facebook posts now and again. It is an album that sends a message to the American society that all is not sunshine and roses. It was the beginning of his generation of musicians to bring out the awareness of problems in the world. Every group of artists have their voice of conscience that leads them. From Woody Guthrie, to Bob Dylan to John Mellencamp. This is a very special recording.
"Ten Records For A Penny!" That was the ad that brought this next album into my life. It was an ad for Columbia Record Club and an offer that my sister Elaine could not refuse. I remember when her box of albums arrived at the house. It was somewhere in the time frame of 1969 to 1970 I think. She owned a little stereo with detachable speakers and one of those evil stack-able record changers that I would grow to despise. It just did not, and still doesn't, seem right to me to drop precious vinyl records from a height of 6 inches onto each other simply because it is more convenient than getting up and changing the record by hand .... but that is another story. The day her records came, or soon after, I remember her boyfriend at the time coming over to listen to the records with my sister. Mom would not allow Mike to go up to Elaine's room, so she brought the stereo to the living room. They detached the speakers and Mike laid down on the living room floor with his head between the speakers. She had picked some pretty bad records but then again she did manage to get a couple of really good ones. One album that I heard that day caught me ear though. People that came to know me over the years associated me with two groups. One was The Beatles and the other was Three Dog Night. The day I heard that album for the first time and that moment in time would haunt my mother up until still today, but her ghost wouldn't be a song from this album. I had heard Three Dog Night a year or so earlier when one of my sisters bought the single "ONE". I thought it was a very good song and liked it but didn't give it much more thought. I ended up with most of each of my sisters records and I still have that 45 rpm of ONE. But this album was different. The album was their fourth album titled "IT AIN'T EASY". The songs on this album range from an Elton John ballad to a couple of rockin' numbers to a country leaning song. I think what grabbed me while listening to this album was not only the variety of songs but the incredible harmonies the three singers created. This album also contained their first number one hit, a Randy Newman song "MAMA TOLD ME NOT TO COME". This was the highlight of the album. Incredible lead vocals by Cory Wells with Chuck Negron and Danny Hutton joining in on the chorus. That song was the glue that held the whole album together into a work of art that buried itself into my head. I would eventually buy my own copy of it and after wearing it out purchase a second one to replace it. By the time it came out on CD I was on my third copy of the album. I don't consider this their best album, but when I go to play a Three Dog Night recording, this is the first one I listen to. This album is embedded in my life. It became part of my music soul. It began a lifelong love affair with the music of Three Dog Night. So to my mother, the next time you hear me playing or singing "JOY TO THE WORLD" just to irritate you, thank your daughter Elaine. This is a very special recording.
I have already written about this next album in a post titled "THE IMPORTANCE OF GOODBYE". I read it just a minute ago and I do not think I can write about it any better than I have already. It is a 2016 release by Leonard Cohen. Here is what I wrote:
I have been haunted as of late by Leonard Cohen's last album before he
passed away. Cohen had a special following of fans, some of them didn't
even know they were fans. Cohen's songs were covered by many other
artists who got a lot of airplay for their interpretation of his songs.
The most recent group to hit it big thanks to Leonard Cohen was a group
called Pentatonix, who recorded Cohen's "Hallelujah" on their Christmas
album last year even though the song has absolutely nothing to do with
Christmas. It is kind of like a group of Christian teens who decided to
sing George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord" in a Youth for Christ meeting
when I was young teenager. They decided not to do it once they realized
that Harrison's "Sweet Lord" was the Hare Krishna, a far cry from their
Lord that they thought they were going to praise that night. See,
this is why I always say "LISTEN TO THE LYRICS PEOPLE!". There are a
lot of songs out there that actually have some philosophical meaning if
you stop to actually listen to what the writer is trying to say.
Leonard Cohen's songs were like that. His writing was usually dark and
foreboding. He seemed to always slip in some religious themes in his
songs and most of the time his songs wrapped around broken or lost love,
lost loved ones and the poor future of our civilization that was to
come. At the same time he was penning these dark lyrics, he was putting
them to beautiful melodies.
As Cohen aged into his eighties, he set out to write a set of songs that
expressed what he was feeling as he became closer to facing his own
death. The album was titled "You Want It Darker" which was also the
title of the first track on the album. His health was failing as he
finished writing the songs and he recorded it a few months before he did
leave this earth. He had to sit in a chair in his apartment, which was
transformed into a small sound studio, to record his final verses. In
an interview about the yet to be released album Cohen said "I am ready
to die. I am not afraid". Cohen held a strong faith in his Jewish
heritage and leaned on that faith as death neared.
I have been a Leonard Cohen fan for many years. His dark sense of humor
seemed to match mine and his pessimistic outlook in the human race
seemed to mirror mine as well. His music made an impact on me that for
the most part I kept to myself. Me and Leonard. His was the one music I
really didn't share with others. If I could write music, I would want
it to be like his. I kept his music so much to myself, that I am not
sure even my wife knew who Leonard Cohen was when I informed her in my
sadness that he had died. I spent a couple of evenings with her playing
some of Cohen's tunes on YOUTUBE for her. A few of the songs she
recognized from the covers that had been recorded. It didn't take long
for her to come to appreciate the talent that this man had.
"You Want It Darker" is by far his masterpiece. The songs are honest,
spiritual and looks into the dark of night with more clarity than any
songwriter I have heard. This album has a hold on me and I listen to it
often. The words speak to me and I feel like I understand them and
therefore understand Cohen. This album was Leonard Cohen telling the
world "goodbye". I am so glad he took the time to tell us that.
This is a very special recording.
My dad loved music. He loved a variety of music. We always watched Hee-Haw and while us kids enjoyed the skits dad enjoyed the music. Lawrence Welk was also a favorite show of his. As he aged he developed an appreciation of classical music. His favorite was country music though. He taste in country ranged from Hank, Lefty and Ernest Tubb to the country crooning of Eddy Arnold, Jim Reeves, and Jimmy Dean. Along with those staples he absolutely loved the voice of Jim Nabors. He would play these albums when he was in the mood and I came to appreciate them as well. I have to put an exception to that last sentence. I could never get into Ernest Tubb. I tried, I sincerely did. Barb and I even took him and mom to see Mr. Tubb do a concert. I do believe dad was the only one who truly enjoyed that evening of music. Dad did not buy a lot of records but one year he took me out on a quest for what to him at the time was the Holy Grail.
The year was 1965. Yeah, my thought is The Beatles release of Rubber Soul but for dad it was a new album by Jimmy Dean. Jimmy Dean had a weekly variety show on television as so many other popular recording artists had. It was Jimmy Dean's 1965 Christmas special that lit the fire under him. On the show Mr. Dean performed a song that was on his brand new Christmas album "Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card". The song was "Yes, Patricia, There Is A Santa Clause". Dad immediately fell in love with the song and thus our search began. Little did we know what the hunt would entail.
Here is the situation. In 1965, the recording industry was caught in the middle of mono vs. stereo records. All music lovers were advised not to play stereo records on a mono system. Our family record player was a "portable" mono record player that must have weighed about 50 pounds so we had to find a mono recording of the album.
I do not exactly know how many stores we went to or how many miles we drove that November night. I remember it was cold. I also remember that it seemed like every store we stopped in they either did not have the album or they only had it in a stereo format. I am not even sure if it was a one night trip. It feels in my memory it could have gone on for two or three evenings. Maybe this is where I developed the habit of going into a record store and just flipping through every album bin in the store. It seems like something my 9 year old mind might hold onto.
We did eventually find a mono version of the album and we listened to it a lot that year ... and the following year .... and soon it became almost a Christmas tradition in the family to listen to it. I learned to love that album. Jimmy Dean had a wonderful tenor voice. The song that dad bought the album for is a wonderful story song that Jimmy talks through instead of singing. There was another of those speaking songs called "A Cowboy's Prayer" which is a beautiful Christmas message. The rest of the album is classic Jimmy Dean. I loved that album.
Barbara and I decided one Christmas that each year we would buy a Christmas album to build up a collection to listen to during the holidays. I usually deferred to Barb on the selection which resulted in me having to listen to every Christmas album The Carpenters recorded. On the positive side it also resulted in getting every Christmas album Harry Connick Jr. recorded. So it evened out. Then came the year I stood my ground. I wanted to get a copy of "Jimmy Dean's Christmas Card" that year. Barbara had never heard of it and I am not sure she was very familiar with the man's music. I insisted though and she gave in. It was not a great adventure to find it like I had gone on with dad all those years ago but it was special. Barbara liked it from the start. It became part of our Christmas collection. Actually, I sometimes listen to it outside the holidays. It is that good of an album. This album is listened to every year by me. It takes me back to the dad quest, it takes me back to Christmas season with my family. It is a reminder of how much my dad really did love music. This is a special recording.
There is a scene in Peter Jackson's "Get Back" documentary on The Beatles recording the LET IT BE album in which Paul McCartney is sitting at the piano while a young man who is interested in learning piano is standing next to him. McCartney tells the young man that the thing about the piano is that every song that ever existed resides within the keys on the piano. He is right. I have always loved the piano because of it's versatility in making music. You can play bass, chords, melody, the whole song in all it's parts. It is unlike any other instrument.
In 1964, Dr. Robert Moog introduced the electronic synthesizer to the music world. It took electronic waves and converted them into music. It was a monster instrument standing about 6 ft tall with a keyboard and a panel of knobs and jacks that manipulated the signals to make almost any sound you wanted. It looked like a telephone operator's station from the 50's. The Moog was a revolutionary instrument that has progressed through the years to be the foundation for car alarms and electronic devices of all kinds today.
A mere 5 years later in 1969 a student of the synthesizer, Walter/Wendy Carlos, put his talents to the test and brought classical music into the electronic age with his album SWITCHED ON BACH. It won the 1969 Grammy and became a huge seller.
It is hard to describe how this album made me feel. It would introduce me in the future to two of my keyboard heroes, Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson, who were masters of the genre. The beauty of Bach's music sounded brand new, modern. It did not sound like something written so long ago. It brought many music lovers who had ignored classical music into appreciating classical music. It was not the first classical album I owned but was the one I listened to most. Well, until Carlos did a follow up double album titled SWITCHED ON BRANDENBURGS in which he recorded all six of Bach's Brandenburg concertos. But it was SWITCHED ON BACH that had the magic. This is an album that inspires a lot of imaginations from 1969 up to today. It is beautiful. It is fresh. It plays as well today as it did in 1969. This album changed the way I look and listen to classical music. This is a special recording.
It was a fall evening in 1976 when our friend Mike arrived unannounced right at dinner time. This was not an unusual event. Often times either Larry or Mike and sometimes both would show up when Barbara was fixing a meal. It didn't matter what time of day it would be. For example, we might have had a busy day we didn't have dinner until 8:30 or so, but sure enough at about 8:15 they would show up just in time for a meal. This did not bother Barbara. She liked them a lot and use to joke about the way it seemed that they had a food radar built into their brains.
Anyway, Mike showed up this particular evening for dinner with an album in his hand. Mike was a good guitar player and always had his guitar with him. He would play songs in the evenings. It was something that was relaxing and enjoyable. Mike preferred country rock and folk music for the most part with a little bit of the new country that was beginning to emerge. He loved music as much as I did.
The album he brought that night was Willie Nelson's "THE SOUND IN YOUR MIND" which had been released earlier that year. At this point in my life Willie Nelson was not on my radar at all. Willie had been writing and recording for decades. He never broke out into the mainstream of country music though and so being raised on dad's country, I didn't know of him. I am sure that Mike had played some of his tunes now and then but I didn't know where the songs were coming from. Mike would just play a song and we enjoyed it.
We put the album on my stereo and sat and listened. It is a beautiful album. It opens with a cover of "Lucky Old Sun", which I recognized from Ray Charles. Willie sang it differently though. Softer and a little more emotional than Ray had recorded, which is a difficult thing to accomplish. It then moved into a faster song, with the rest of the album being soft, thoughtful country songs. The album ended with a medley of of three of Willies older better known songs "Funny How Time Slips Away/Crazy/ Night Life". Willie did a beautiful cover of the old hymn "Amazing Grace" on this album. I fell in love with it and went out the next week to get my own copy.
This album marked a changing of my country taste from my father's country to my own. Willie was the pioneer of a new sound of country. This album grew into a few more Willie albums and brought me to Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Merle Haggard and Tompall Glaser. These artists became the core of my country music. I still consider it Willie's best album, and yes I am including the classic "Red Headed Stranger" that Willie had recorded the previous year before releasing this one. Major impact on my music life. It is, indeed, a very special recording.
Even though I had heard jazz for most of my life I suppose through background music on television shows, that was just what it was. Background music. Pleasant, nice sounding and smooth. It was my friend Ronnie who really introduced my to actually listening to jazz. Ronnie has as wide of musical taste as I do for the most part. He loves music just as I do as well. Ronnie took to listening to Bob James and had a few of his albums. It was well polished studio jazz. He also like progressive jazz like Weather Report. I did get my own small collection of jazz of that style and enjoyed it a lot. I still do. There came a day when I discovered a second style of jazz. It was improvisational jazz that sounded like a jam session and it was just as great as the polished jazz.
One day I was in a record store at the mall while Barbara was shopping elsewhere in the mall. This was a thing of mine that I thoroughly enjoyed. It worked for bookstores as well. While in a record store I would start at one spot and start thumbing through albums. I would flip through every album by every artist. Probably start in the rock section, work my way through the country followed by jazz albums and finally seeing if there was something in the classical section. I could spend hours in a record store doing this. Every once in awhile I would come across an album that I had not seen before. and I would study the cover, reading the back of the cover to see what it was about. Many albums came into my possession in this manner. On this day I found myself in the jazz section when I came across what is still the most listened to jazz album in my collection. It was a simple grayish colored album with a small ink drawing of two grand pianos in the center. Across the top of the album in simple type were written the name of the album. "AN EVENING WITH HERBIE HANCOCK AND CHICK COREA IN CONCERT".
Now at that point in my life I was not too keen on live albums. I had a couple of live Albums I suppose. I know that I did have one that I do consider one of the best live albums ever. It was Neil Diamond's HOT AUGUST NIGHT. A concert taped over three nights in 1972 during his "Moods" tour. Other than that a live album didn't get much of my attention. This album was bought solely on impulse. These two artists were piano jazz players and I love piano. I did not have a Herbie Hancock album at the time but I did have Chick Corea's masterpiece album MY SPANISH HEART which I loved. This album was totally different though.
These two masters of the keys were on stage just the two of them and the pianos during a short tour in 1978. No backing band of any kind. Just two beautifully sounding pianos. They played each others compositions together but what caught my imagination was the improvisation that they played the songs with. It was fascinating. The core of the songs were there, but the two of them would go off in different directions, each piano complimenting the other perfectly. It was (and is) such a beautiful recording. When an artist improvises, a lot of the times it feels chaotic at times only to be brought back into perfect order. It was something that I had not noticed hearing in jazz before. I felt more at ease with the chaos of improvisation rather than the slickness of a polished studio album.
This double record album became a watermark for me. It was this album that opened a door to other improvisational artist in the future. Because of this album I came to appreciate and love the recordings of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Keith Jarrett among others. This album gave me an almost new genre of music and also brought me to appreciate live albums like never before. I will forever hold this album near to my heart and I consider it one of the best albums I own. I love it. It is an excellent recording.
I was very careful in choosing these albums. I did not want to just talk about my favorite albums. If I had done that some of these albums would not be pictured here. These had to be albums that did make a change in me as far as to how I see and listen to music that goes beyond these albums. I tried to express how each of these impacted my life and love of music. I am not sure I succeeded in that goal. As I was thinking about the albums that did impact my life, I knew they would be small in number. There should be very few that truly make an impact on your life. These albums, every one of them did make a change in my musical taste, they opened my mind to new and different things. All of these records are a part of the music part of my being. I love and am thankful for each and every one of the albums and the people who introduced me to them.
