10 records that changed my life

I like a LOT of different kinds of music. I think it’s because I’ve been fortunate (and open) enough to find certain records that sent me on new directions that I might not have taken had I not found them. They’ve been musical pivot points that in some ways changed me.

The single Twist and Shout by the Beatles was the first record I ever bought. It was loud and raucous and the screaming vocals were just cool. As far as I was concerned, Rock and Roll was it, and the Beatles defined Rock and Roll. For me and for millions of others, they changed music forever.

The next thing that altered my musical consciousness was Absolutely Free by the Mothers of Invention. Interestingly it came out the same year as Sgt. Pepper, another album that changed the view of rock music for many people. But listen to the two of them side by side and you will see that Absolutely Free is miles ahead musically of Sgt. Pepper, but it’s clearly not accessible to the average listener, so it’s no wonder that it didn’t alter music the way it should have. Sgt. Pepper was incredibly inventive but Absolutely Free smashes genres, combining rock, jazz, classical, and techniques of musical theater and opera to generate a cohesive (albeit weird) vision of life. Incredible and inimitable. Unfortunately Frank Zappa’s limited and negative world view stunted his genius over time. At the end of life his life he seemed more interested in keeping dirty words on the radio than he did in making ground-breaking music.

I was a huge fan of early shock and glam rock artists, such as Alice Cooper, David Bowie and T-Rex and of early hard rock. But after a while a steady diet of that became pretty depressing and I needed to find something else. The first artist I discovered was Bob Dylan; I know I came really late to the Bob Dylan party, (I had heard Jimi Hendrix’s version of All Along the Watchtower before I heard the original) but I bought a copy of his Greatest Hits, Volume II. All those songs in one place, just smacking you in the face with their power. I’ve been collecting Dylan’s music ever since.

Then a friend told me, “I just discovered this guy who sounds like he is playing lead, rhythm and bass all at the same time on one guitar. You have to hear him.” I went out and bought Leo Kottke’s My Feet Are Smiling and was amazed. The guy was right. As Kottke says on the record, he “takes simple melodies and drives them into the ground.” “Easter” is profound and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” is beautiful. He sparked my interest in other greats acoustic guitarists, such as Chet Atkins, Merle Travis (who have a great duet album called the Atkins/Travis Traveling Show) and Brownie McGhee, but for me no one can ever replace Leo Kottke.

Listening to Kottke made me consider something that up to that point had been unthinkable; I wondered if might like country music... I put on a country radio station and after a while heard Waylon Jennings sing Amanda (which I later learned was written by the great Bob McDill) and was hooked. I bought “The Ramblin’ Man” album and heard him playing hard core country music with rock sensibilities. Amanda was my introduction to the power of hard core country ballads. Simple chords, simply melodies, powerful stories. That sent me on a new journey that over time has led me to many artists, including Johnny Cash, and to Americana and alt-country music. But it all started with one great song.

I have since realized the question, “Do you like country music?” is a dumb question because it assumes that country music is monolithic. As with rock music, it’s not. There are nuances and subgenres that are rich and full. I couldn’t answer the question, “Do you like rock music?” anymore easily. Yes I do but it doesn’t mean I like ¾ of the bands that are out there, any more than I like the ¾ of the country music that is just plain awful (Kenny Chesney comes to mind). But when you find a good country song, there is nothing better.

I’ve always had a place for musicians with a sense of humor and a gift for story. Warren Zevon’s “Werewolves of London” was on the radio, and I thought it was interesting and I should check it out. I bought Excitable Boy and realized that—as fun as Werewolves is—it is not representative of the genius that is Warren Zevon. I know idolatry is a sin but I’ve come to closer to it with him than with anyone else. If any musician is sorely under-rated by his generation it is Warren Zevon. He wrote like no one else. His understanding of human nature was so on target it was sometimes painful; he understood loss and hurt, and he was wildly funny. Unfortunately he was also an insecure, self-destructive alcoholic who usually destroyed the relationships with the few people who really cared about him. He died on September 7, 2003 of lung cancer. That was a horrible week. Johnny Cash died 5 days later. That was the week the music died.

A lot of Christian music is lame. As Cartman noted on South Park, “All you have to do is take a regular song, and change the word “Baby” to “Jesus” and you’ve got a Christian song.” At the same time, though, I’ve always admired people who smashed the false dichotomies of sacred and secular and have approached their art and faith in a fully integrated manner. I’m pretty sure I feel that way, at least partially, because my first introduction to an artist of faith was Larry Norman, through his raw and gritty album Bootleg. It opened a whole new way of looking at music. It was just Larry singing about his faith, about the times, about his life, and telling funny stories about bad Jesus movies. He said that he never wanted to create a new genre, but he did. He was later rejected by the industry; too secular for Christian music and too Christian for secular music. I guess that means he got it right.

I went a long time before I heard any other artists expressing their faith in an integrated way. Then I head T-Bone Burnett’s rockabilly theology/philosophy on Truth Decay. Just incredible. That is smart music. A few years after that Steve Taylor came out with Meltdown. He took on celebrity Christianity, Bob Jones University, the main-stream press, and abortion in ways that had never been done. Hardhitting, funny, poignant (Baby Doe will have you bawling your eyes out) and it really rocks hard.

In the last few years I was taken down another road when I bought Johnny Cash’s first Rick Rubin-produced record, American Recordings. This time I wasn’t sent down a road that broadened me; I already knew Johnny Cash and country music well. This time it was a road of deepening. It inspired me to read and research Cash’s life. I found him to be another artist who truly integrates his faith and his art. He seemed to be a highly authentic Christian, in the way that many in the Old Testament were authentic and flawed, in their faith. His life has really inspired me in my walk. If he could crawl out of that cave and keep going then so can I.

As I look back on this list, I realize there are many albums I like as much or more than some of these, and today I wouldn’t really consider myself a huge fan of either Waylon or Zappa. But all of these records were pointers along the way. Musical Andrew’s, telling me “you've got to know what I know.”

I’ve realized a couple of things as I plowed through writing this. One is that I had to work really hard to get the list down to the ones that really mattered. I had 21 albums in my first draft. The second thing I thought about was “Who the hell cares? Man you have no life if this is what matters to you.” Ok, I admit it. I’m a shallow music geek. And now you know it too. The last thing I realized what that most of the music on here is at least 25 years old and the stuff that isn’t is by an artist who was in his 70s when he made the record. That could be because I’m old…I hope something comes along that really blows me away. I like a lot of current music but I haven’t found any new paradigms yet (at least ones that interest me). But I’m really happy I found these.

If you have any music that has changed your life please post a comment!