25 Albums - Part One

Ah, Crackbook. I've been getting tagged for meme's left right and centre, and have been ignoring every single one of them. And then the 25 Albums meme came along. I just cannot turn down anything music, and to get a chance to relive some musical memories while drinking coffee and Bailey's for breakfast? Hells yes, I'll take it. The hardest part was narrowing the list down to 25. I could EASILY pick 125 albums that rocked my world.

The rules are:
Think of 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you and how they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions, etc. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. No being cool, which albums have you actually listened to thousands of times?

The only problem I had with it, is that I wanted to explain my list. So, Crackbook got the short version, and the blog is getting a five part series.

1. Micheal Jackson- Thriller

I don't care what anyone says about MJ, this album is a fucking classic. I never actually owned it, but when I was little, a friend of my parents dubbed a copy on cassette for us. Me and my friend Chad, had a game we would play, while our parents were downstairs playing board games and getting slammered. We would sit in my room, in the dark, and play Thriller (the song). The person who could sit through Vincent Price's voice the longest, won bragging rights. Usually, it was both of us, running screaming down the stairs to our parents.

I did not listen to this album, and somewhat forgot about it, until I became bar age, and was going out dancing every weekend with my friends. When any one of the songs on this album get played at the bar, or at a party, I just cannot help myself...I have to get up and shake my money-maker. I hope that Smyrish is going to be okay with a bunch of Micheal Jackson being played at the wedding reception....if not, we're going to have words. :)

2. A Hard Day's Night - The Beatles

Before any hardcore Beatles fans start going on about how The White Album changed their lives, or Revolver was the most under-rated Beatles album, let me explain myself.


When I was growing up, all we had was a record player, and an 8-track player. Later on, we acquired a cassette adapter that could be played via the 8-track, but it wasn't until I was 17 or 18 that we even had a CD player in the house.

This meant, that my parents vinyl collection, Video Hits, and the radio, was about all the music we had. This album was the first Beatles album I actually took a listen to on my own. Sure, I had heard their music, and liked it, thanks to my mom and dad, but I was young, and not yet at an age where I really paid any attention. Still, when I see the album cover, it reminds me of the day that I taught myself how to use the record player, without scratching the vinyl...and deciding that, without a doubt, hands down, George Harrison was the cutest Beatle.

3. Saturday Night Fever - The Soundtrack

I listened to this 8-track for years, before I had even seen the movie. By the time I did watch the movie, I knew all the songs by heart, and to this day, I can recite all the dialogue and sing and dance along with the characters in the movie, from start to finish. I was born the year disco died...but in me, it lives on. ;)

4. Pinkerton - Weezer

Best Weezer album ever. Hands down.

I actually haven't listened to this album in years, but I think of it often. My high school sweetheart, J, bought it for me for Xmas one year, and later that year, when he went away on a school trip to Greece, I listened to it over and over...and over. I missed him so much, and this album's lyrics really helped me make it through that week. ( Oh, how things are so much more tragic when you're in high school!) Listening to sad, heart-wrenching, angsty music always makes me feel better when I'm down, and this album has it all.

Rivers Cuomo, I beg of you. PLEASE, go out and get yourself laid. Enough of this abstinence shit. Screw some dirty whores, get your heart broken...and write us something better than "Pork and Beans". The world could use another Pinkerton.

5. Ten - Pearl Jam

Although Eddie Vedder has a habit of getting on my ever-lovin' last nerve at times ( not as much as Bono and Bob Geldof, mind you), I am a huge Pearl Jam fan. When "Ten" came in the mail with all the other cassettes from The Columbia House Record and Tape Company, I was hooked from the first listen. I don't even remember the other albums that came with it. I overplayed this album to death for years...until my brother "borrowed" it, and I never saw it again.