007 - Formative Albums

Fuck all of you John Cusack wannabes and your “these are the most important formative albums that made me who I am” Facebook game. I didn’t want to be nominated to join in on your fun anyway. So there. The other d-bag reindeer didn’t include Rudolph and look how that turned out. He saved motherfucking Christmas in 1964. That’s how that turned out.

Um, yeah, so here’s my list all thrown up in one blast of vomitus. And I explain why this shit is important to me, cuz, rule-breaker, neh?

Tea for the Tillerman - Cat Stevens (1970): my pop listened to it all the time and drummed that beautiful voice and guitar into my young brain

Peter and the Wolf - Sergei Prokofiev (I think it was the 1970 London Symphony version based on a vague memory of the album cover): I was seriously traumatized by this thing when my parents explained the plot to me. Spoiler alert: I still hear that duck oboe in the wolf’s belly after the crickets go to bed at night

Pippin - lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Roger O. Hirson (1972): Not my favorite musical soundtrack. That would probably go to Jesus Christ Superstar with Rent a close second (or Grease when I’m feeling especially gay). But the legendary SB Riley drama director, John HB Kauss, needed a littl’un to play Theo and my blessed 5th grade self got to hang out with HIGH SCHOOLERS. So cool

The Stranger - Billy Joel (1977): Hanging with my boy, Randy Parsons, we knew every word to every song. “Vienna” will always be my fave

The Best of Earth, Wind and Fire, Vol. 1 (1978): I was a rock star in my own head belting out Phillip Bailey’s falsetto. Best sing-along album of all time

Back in Black - AC/DC (1980): Didn’t listen to this until ‘84 but we wore the fuck out of this cassette in Beck’s Suburban as we searched for putang along the strips and byways of our high school pubescence (editor’s note: the pejorative colloquial “putang” is acceptable in this context for the sake of historical flavor)

Foreigner 4 (1981): Shite and can’t make it through most of the songs now, but it was the first album I bought for my personal HiFi turntable. And don’t ask me why I was 13 before I bought my first album. Close runner up - Journey’s Escape, cuz I think I bought them at the same time

Queen’s Greatest Hits (1981): I went to camp in the summer of ‘81 and my counselor, the famous Ecuadorian Quique of Michiana soccer fame, played this in an infinite loop in our cabin. I promptly went home and threw out my Foreigner and Journey albums

Eddie Murphy: Comedian (1983): I misremembered that the audio album wasn’t called “Delirious”, the stand-up special based on similar material was. Eddie Murphy wasn’t the funniest person on the planet. My friends and I were because we could parrot every line on this album and crack ourselves up no matter how many times we heard the same words dribble from our teenage mouths

Appetite for Destruction - Guns N’ Roses (1987): Fall of my sophomore year, a few of us road trip from Purdue to Western Michigan to see our buddy, Randy Beck. Randy takes us to his room, pops a tape into his boom box and says, “you got to listen to this.” He hits play and our lives are transformed. At least for that weekend.

Batman Soundtrack - Prince (1989): Only somebody like Joel Fox or Rich Grey from high school could understand what this movie and by proxy it’s soundtrack could mean to a lifelong comic book geek

Yes, I listed 11. Who cares? Kind of odd that Randy Beck is 18% responsible for my formative audio growth.

Anyway, here are 16 more because I’m “Breaking The Law, Breaking The Law.” (And, no, Judas Priest will never be, in any way, on any list of mine).

Fleetwood Mac, Fleetwood Mac (1975);

Hi Infidelity, REO Speedwagon (1980);

Purple Rain, Prince (1984);

Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits (1985);

So, Peter Gabriel (1986);

Miscellaneous Carl Meert Mix Tapes (1987 – 2000);

Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, Edie Brickell & New Bohemians (1988);

It Takes Two, Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rock (1988);

Green, R.E.M. (1988);

Gordon, Barenaked Ladies (1992);

Automatic for the People, R.E.M. (1992);

August and Everything After, Counting Crows (1993);

Jagged Little Pill, Alanis Morrissette (1995);

The Eminem Show, Eminem (2002);

American Idiot, Green Day (2004);

Plans, Death Cab for Cutie (2005);

The Heist, Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (2012);

Coloring Book, Chance (2016)