Musicology V - Albums of My Life

Time to leave the Glory Road for a moment and take a side trip on Memory Lane. Fortunately it's a sidespur that leads right back.

I miss record albums. Cd's sound great, but there's something about holding the vinyl in your hands, putting it on the turntable, and dropping the needle on to it. While you listen you can hold the jacket in your hands while you read the liner notes. You can't really do that with a CD. 

I have several crates of record albums downstairs that I seldom listen to anymore, but when I do it's like greeting an old friend, or remeniscing about an old lover. I keep some albums framed, on display in my living room, and I change them out periodically. Album cover art seems to be a thing of the past.

The first album I ever owned was In-a-gadda-da-vida by Iron Butterfly. The album came out in 1968, so I'd have been about 7 years old when I got it. I thought that cover was soooooo cool! I listened to that album all the damned time. To this day I love to hear the song "In-a-gadda-da-vida", especially the full version that was an entire album side.

But that really wasn't the first album I fell in love with.  That distinction goes to Screamers an album that belonged to my father. It was a collection of circus marches performed by the marching band at the Eastman School of Music, my parent's Alma Mater. I'm not really sure if my father played on this album or not.

My first inclination is that he did not, but I really don't know. What I do know is that this little boy would sit for hours listening to those marches played at maximum volume.

That's one thing that saddens me these days. Marching bands don't really play marches anymore. Which is not to say that what they're playing isn't good, but I really miss actually hearing a marching band play marches. But I digress. 

Endless Summer was my introduction to The Beach Boys when I got it around 1975. I'd heard the music before, but this was the first album I had from them. After just a few listens I was hooked.

Some might laugh, but a Beach Boys concert is some of the most fun you'll ever have. The music is fun, and you know all the words. I listened to this album all the time throughout Jr high.

Looking at this cover, it doesn't seem to be quite square, does it? That's because it was a double album. The records were supposed to be removed from jacket at the top of the picture, rather than the left side. The fold was actually underneath the top two heads, and the clean shaven guy was actually on the back of the album. Beneath it were some liner notes.

I note in passing that in my later years the bright colors made this album an ideal one for de-seeding pot. (For the really young ones, pot used to have seeds in it.)

I won A Night At The Opera from radio station KSLQ when I was in 8th grade. I've mentioned before that I won it for doing the best Dog Bark, but what I haven't mentioned is that it was not my first choice.

Originally I wanted Chicago At Carnagie Hall because it was a multi album set, but the DJ stopped me and said it had to be a single or a double album, and then we had to tape the whole thing again.  I figured it was worth a shot, but now I didn't know what album I wanted.

"Bohemian Rhapsody" was a hit at the time, and they were talking about the album A Night At The Opera all the time, so I blurted that one out without thinking. By purest chance I got one of my favorite albums of all time.

Sometime in 1976 I got a copy of Fly Like An Eagle. Up until I put the LP on the turntable, I'd never heard that cool intro before. It had wind sounds, and synthesizers, and then out of all that came the opening riff. Doo-doo-do-doot-do. Doo-doo-doo-doot-do. Then the drums, and Steve singingTick- tock doo-doot doot doo-doo Tick Tock .

Man, it was cool.

I Iistened to that album endlessly. A friend of mine from church, Bill C was also a fan. I'd go over to his house, and we'd sit up in his room smoking dope and playing those songs on the guitar. Let me tell you, we were the shit! Or maybe we were just stoned...

*shrugs*

Oh well. It was a lot of fun. 

Fast forward a couple of years to High School and you'll find me sitting in Barts room, stoned out of my mind with the stereo playing "The Grand Illusion" cranked up full blast. I liked this one enough to go out and get my own copy of it, something I seldom did if Bart had it. Since we spent so much time at each other's houses listening to tunes, it didn't make much sense for one of us to buy an album that the other one had. We listened to a lot of stuff then, but this one stands out for some reason. I guess it's mainly because it was something fresh, and different. 

That phrase could also be applied to Boston's debut album. It was the cleanest, hardest sound I'd ever heard. In my opinion, the quality of the music on their first two albums is something truly amazing. They still sound fresh when I listen to them nearly 30 years down the road. One thing about this album that I find somewhat embarrassing is that until I saw the 2nd album cover, I hadn't realized that the spaceships were guitars. Hard to believe i never looked at the album upside-down.

There are more. I could write close to a hundred posts like this.

But these are the ones that stick out in my brain. Kind of like those old girlfriends.

~Easy

A guy walks into the local welfare office, marches straight up to the counter and says "Hi. I want you to know that I'm sick and tired of drawing welfare and I'd really rather have a job."

The man behind the welfare desk says, "Well, your timing is excellent. We just got a job opening from a very wealthy old man who wants a chauffeur/bodyguard for his nymphomaniac daughter. You'll have to drive around in his Mercedes, but he'll supply all of your clothes. Because of the long hours, meals will be provided. You'll also be expected to escort her on her overseas holiday trips. The starting salary is $200,000 a year".

The guy says "You're bullshitting me".

The welfare clerk says, "Yeah, well, you started it".

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