Important Albums

There's a challenge going around Facebook right now, asking people to post their most influential albums, without commentary. I was tagged, twice, and so . . .

But because I cannot follow directions, and because I find the stories behind influence interesting, I've blabbed on about my choices. I'll archive them here, for posterity. They are posted in no real order. These are just albums that, for one reason or another, continue to resonate and are mostly from my first half of existence (i.e., before about 1990).

1. The Beatles, Help

Here's the first album I ever received as a present, from my mother's best friend, Libby Robinson. It wasn't because I liked the movie (I'm not sure I'd seen it—my access to popular culture was limited when I was a kid), but because she went to a record store and asked what an 11-year-old would like. It worked! I did! It helped make me feel like I belonged, somehow. I distinctly remember the first time I ever heard the Beatles, in my friend Mary Ann Pobog's garage on Georgina in Santa Monica, on the radio. The song may have been "Love Me Do." I was not exposed to the Rolling Stones until much later, so yeah, I was a Beatles kid. Today, I like both bands. They're different. 

2. Randy Newman, 12 Songs

This album introduced me to Randy Newman, thanks to a review I read somewhere, maybe the LA Times or Rolling Stone, which commented that other artists I liked at the time (Joni Mitchell, Chrissie Hynde, Paul McCartney, that sort of folk—this would have been about 1970) were really impressed with this album, though it never gained popular currency. Sail Away is probably my *favorite* album of Randy's, but it all started here. We have heard him perform live several times, just him and his piano. It was always a treat.

3. Steeleye Span, Below the Salt / Jethro Tull, Aqualung

Steeleye Span was the opening act for the first big-arena concert I went to: Jethro Tull's Aqualung tour in 1972. I loved the spin they did on English folk tunes, and their song "Gaudete" delights me to this day. I still have the vinyl album Below the Salt. And, of course, Aqualung. So I'll just post both of them for #3: they are wrapped around each other in my mind. 

4. The Music Man (movie soundtrack)

When I was a kid, my mom took me to the theater, starting with musicals, and at that time, too, musicals were on the screen. I have a very short window from the 1960s with a few favorite musicals: West Side Story, Camelot, Man of La Mancha, Fiddler on the Roof, Paint Your Wagon, My Fair Lady, Oliver! The last two I saw overseas in the cinema: MFL in March 1965 in Tokyo, twice within a week—I was homesick for English, even if it was Cockney; and O! in a tiny theater in Munich, 1969. I also saw a stage production of Fiddler in Germany (after having seen Zero Mostel in Los Angeles), and one of Jesus Christ Superstar in Bologna, Italy. I will always love The Music Man best, though, and yes, I know every word of the soundtrack. Plus, Meredith Willson, the author, went to our church (not significant; I just find it interesting for its randomness).

And that's as far as I got. I might pick up the project again at some point, though for now I've lost interest. If I do, I'll post a Part II.