Top 25 Albums in My Life

I posted this top 25 albums list on Facebook a while ago. It was so much fun, I thought I'd share it with the rest of you as well....

1. The Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour” – When I was a kid in the early seventies, we had a stereo in the living room. I made my mom play The Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" album over and over. That album was released in 1967 but I didn't hear it until the early seventies. The atmosphere in that album just floored me at that age. The song "Fool on the Hill" still sounds haunting to me.

2. Paul McCartney “Ram” - One of Paul McCartney's first solo albums, "Ram" had some wonderful songs such as "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" and "Smile Away". I wore out this album in the early seventies. Both this album and The Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour" always make me think of living in that little trailer in Lake Village, staring at the dull, brown walls, while I rocked back and forth with those huge head phones on - transported to another dimension of bizarre colors and shapes.

3. The Moody Blues “In Search of the Lost Chord” - As a child, I also remember certain album covers mesmerizing me and freaking me out a bit. The Moody Blues "In Search of the Lost Chord" is one scary-ass cover if you stare at it long enough.

4. In about 1974, I scraped up all my allowance money (about 5 bucks) and planned on riding my bike from the Lake Village trailer court to the Red Owl store so I could buy my own 45 rpm records. About half way there, I was caught in an intense hail storm that literally knocked me off my bike. Luckily a friendly couple with a station wagon saw me, made sure I was okay, and drove me the rest of the way to the store. Dripping wet and still stinging from the hail, I bought 4 records: Cher "Dark Lady", Jethro Tull "Bungle in the Jungle", Paul McCartney "Band on the Run", and Ray Stevens "The Streak" - Yes. That's correct. I rode my bike through stinging hail so I could buy "The Streak". Sigh.

5. Electric Light Orchestra “Out of the Blue”, “Discovery”, and “Time” - In the late seventies, I had my own paper route for two years (at age 13 - 15). Finally making my own money, I was actually able to buy whole albums. Woohoo! During this time (1979) I discovered The Electric Light Orchestra's single "Don't Bring Me Down" on the radio. This was a huge song for me at that time. I later went on to collect most of their albums. Now they remind me of my upstairs bedroom in my old house on Hamilton Street. I had to lay on my bed backward with my fan in the window blowing on my face because it would get so damn hot in the summer.

6. Rush “Permanent Waves”, “Moving Pictures”, and “Signals” - In 1981 I was a junior in High School. This was the year that Bruce introduced me to the band Rush. Although it took me some time to warm up to Geddy Lee's high-pitched singing, I loved the sheer intelligence of the music. This is the only band I've seen live three different times - once in 1982 and then two more times twenty some years later!

7. Devo “Freedom of Choice”, “New Traditionalists”, and “Oh No! It’s Devo!” - Eric drove us (the whole gang) around listening to Devo's "Freedom of Choice". The bizarre singing, catchy riffs, and goofy energy won me over immediately. It wasn't long before I owned every one of their albums as well. Love them or hate them, to this day Devo has been mentioned as an influence on a wide variety of popular bands today. More than any other band, though, they seem to remind me of the fun I had with all of my good friends Bruce, Mark, Eric, Todd, Chuck, Peter, and Uncle Jerry.

8. Soundtrack to the movie “Heavy Metal” – One twisted movie with a great soundtrack!

9. Blue Oyster Cult “Fire of Unknown Origin”, "Cultosaurus Erectus"– Great fantasy/sci-fi music that reminds me of all my friends.

10. The Cars “Candy-O” - Mark introduced me to The Cars "Candy-O" while we sat on the floor of his upstairs bedroom playing a cool board game he invented. Not only did they become another favorite of mine, but The Cars first and second album turned out to be the two albums I had in common with my then girlfriend, Paula when we met in 1983. When I listen to “Candy-O” now, I think back to Paula driving me around in her little Volkswagon Jetta.

11. Weird Al Yankovic “In 3D” and “Dare to be Stupid” - I know he annoys some people, but his sense of humor is the soundtrack of my life. I think it’s great that he continues to put out a new album every couple of years. I even saw him live a few years ago with Lee, Peter and his wife Siobhan. It was a blast.

12. Penguins From Mars - I and most of my friends created the album "Penguins from Mars" in 1983. This "classic" album was created late at night at Artie and Shirley's (while they were gone someplace) using Jerry's tape player, Shirley's Fun Machine keyboard, harmonica, and a guitar with missing strings. We stayed up until 4:00am making "song" after "song" until we were exhausted (from laughing).

13. Asia – This album reminds me of poor Chuck getting tickets for us to see Asia live in concert. The jerks canceled the tour on us. I like their first album, but I still haven’t forgiven them….

14. Oingo Boingo “Dead Man’s Party” – Lead singer/song writer, Danny Elfman has since gone on to compose the music to countless hit movies such as Batman and Spiderman, but in the 80's he was the leader of this quirky band. My wife and I went for countless drives in the country listening to this album. Paula didn’t always like the more bizarre aspects of my musical taste, but I always thought it was cool that she liked this album.

15. R.E.M. “Reckoning”, and “Fables of the Reconstruction” – In the mid 80’s, R.E.M. was still a relatively unknown band, but Paula and I wore out my tapes of these albums while going for drives in the country. Gas must have been a lot cheaper back then….

16. Rush “Presto” - In the late 80's I got married, got promoted to supervisor at work, bought a house, had my first child, and consequently my first anxiety attack. I landed in the Emergency Room for my trouble. Rush's 1989 album "Presto" got me through it. I remember dancing around the room to Rush's "Superconductor" while holding my son, Lee, who was less than a year old at the time. I’m glad he still likes Rush today.

17. Penguins From Mars “The February Sessions”, “Sci-Fi Visions of Lightning Bug Children”, “A Comedy of Errors, A Spectrum of Bright Red Goalie Masks” - In 1991 Todd, Peter, and I decided (at the spur of the moment late at night after polishing off a pizza) to resurrect our band, Penguins from Mars. We made three albums that year (“The February Sessions”, “Sci-Fi Visions of Lightning Bug Children”, “A Comedy of Errors, A Spectrum of Bright Red Goalie Masks”) and became legends in our own minds.

18. Rush “Roll the Bones” – Rush came out with this album in 1991 and I listened to it over and over all year. It reminds me of several difficult people I had to supervise at work. Yuck. I still like the album, though.

19. Rush “Counterparts”, They Might Be Giants "Apollo 18" – I was listening to these albums a lot in 1993 and 1994. They remind me of the birth of my second son, Ryan in 1994. It was a good year!

20. Smash Mouth – “Astro Lounge” – In 1999 Lee purchased Smash Mouth’s “Astro Lounge”. Lee was still small enough to sit on my lap as we sat and listened to the whole album using his old Sega Dreamcast. The album kind of sounded like punk rock if punk rock had emerged in the mid 60's. Later, Lee went on to other CDs, but “Astro Lounge” became one of my all time favorite albums. Most importantly, it reminds me of Lee looking at me and smiling during each song.

21. Penguins From Mars “Pimby’s Buried Treasure” - Around this time, Peter and I completed the final (so far) Penguins from Mars album. I don’t think I’ve ever worked so hard on something so silly and pointless. It was great. Later after recovering from my 2nd back surgery in May of 2003, I went back through all that goofy “music” we created and transferred the songs from cassette tape to my computer. I then had a blast creating album covers (front, back, and inserts) for each one.

22. Rush “Vapor Trails” - In 2002, and after 30 years of making music, Rush came out with “Vapor Trails”. It was invigorating and inspiring to listen to three guys in their early 50’s rock like there’s no tomorrow. Soon after, I was able to take Lee to see them live (along with Peter and his wife Siobhan, Bruce, and Mark). It was deafening, and great fun.

23. The Shins “Oh, Inverted World” and “Chutes Too Narrow” - A couple years ago, Peter mailed to me a CD of a band called “The Shins”. I had never heard of them before, but once I listened I was hooked. The Shins are a mid-tempo alternative band with strange lyrics and nice harmonies (almost like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel). By this time, Lee had an iPod and we were copying all our CDs into iTunes. Whenever Lee wasn’t using his iPod, I was listening to The Shins over and over and over……

24. Rush “Snakes and Arrows” – The band “Rush” came out with yet another new album “Snakes and Arrows” and this time I got to take both Ryan and Lee to the live concert. It was even better than their 2002 concert. My back was hurting me more by this time so I haven’t been able to do anything like that since. I’m really happy I made it to that concert.

25. Bad Religion “New America” - Ryan has really been getting into music much like his older brother (perhaps even more so). With his own iPod, Ryan has been downloading all kinds of great tunes by bands like Bad Religion, The Offspring, Green Day and 311 (just to name a few). However, when he found Bad Religion’s album “New America” and listened to it with me, BAM! I found a new favorite band. Bad Religion is mainly a punk rock band that also happens to be very melodic with wonderful harmonies. I’m sure this album will remind me of discussing and enjoying good music with Ryan more than anything else.