Life Changers: Part 1.

Morning.  There’s a thing going around Facebook that invites you to name the 20 albums the changed your life.  Here are the instructions:  Think of 20 albums that had such a profound effect on you that 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. These are the albums that, no matter what they were thought of musically, shaped your world.

Dramatic description aside, I figured it would make for an interesting challenge to take on here so that I could show some vids and explain my choices a little.  The plan is to cover five records a day for the next four days and I’m going to try and do it in chronological order of my memory starting with my early years, as opposed to any order of preference.  Keep in mind that these selections are not necessarily my favorite records – just the ones that made the biggest impact.

1) Weird Al Yankovic – “Weird Al” Yankovic (1983)

I’m fairly certain that this is the first casette I ever owned.  Either this or the In 3D album.   I really loved the Mad Magazine style cover art, but of course I came to Weird Al for the music and stayed for the accordion.  Plenty of classics on this record, like “I Love Rocky Road,” “Stop Dragging My Car Around,” and this one – which just so happened to be about one of the early staples of my diet:

2) Michael Jackson – Thriller (1982)

You’ll notice that strictly speaking this should have been number one as it came out a year prior to Weird Al’s debut.  True, but I don’t think I owned this album; instead I listened to the copy that either my brother or my father owned and don’t believe I did so when it first arrived in the house (I was only five – cut a dude some slack).  That said, this album does represent the first music related t-shirt I ever owned.  Yep, I had a Tee (red?) with an iron-on of Michael and some zombies if I remember correctly.  And it was great, even though I have to admit the first time I saw the part in the “Thriller” video where he turns into a werewolf, I ran upstairs and hid behind my curtains scared out of my mind.  If that’s not an impact, nothing is.  I listened to this album recently and felt it didn’t hold up at all.  I may be the only person on the planet who feels this way, but so be it.  I’m calling it right now: Thriller, you’re officially overrated.  Here’s Michael and Sir Paul before they hated one another:

3) The Top Gun Original Soundtrack (1986)

When I first started thinking about doing this list, this particular album popped into my head pretty quickly.  God help me.  I think this is perhaps because I can distinctly remember what this one looked like on cassette as much as I remember any particular song.  It’s a visual memory, but it’s also tied to film which has become a big part of my life (though I don’t really count myself a fan of this particular flick), and to the guitar which also became a rather important part of my life.  I remember finding out that guitarist Steve Stevens (of Billy Idol fame) played the main “anthem” from this film and thinking that was somehow the coolest thing in the world.  In some respects, this song very likely sped up my transition from listening to pop music to getting into rock.  And that’s not even taking the Kenny Loggins Effect into account…

4) David Lee Roth – Crazy From the Heat (1985)

My older brother was a Van Halen fan but this first solo effort from Diamond Dave captured my attention more than “Jump” or “Hot for Teacher.”  That would come later, but I remember listening to this tape on a jambox while hanging out on our deck in the summer.  Add a couple nostalgic fireflies and a Coke in a glass bottle and you’ve got a picture Norman Rockwell would be proud of.  I think the goofiness of Roth on this record is what really drew me to it and for that I will always thank him for his lack of seriousness.  (Note to YouTubers: where are the original music videos from this album???)

5) Ozzy Osbourne / Randy Rhoads – Tribute (1987)

Now we’re talking.  As my memory serves me, this was the first metal album I ever really cherished.  And cherish I did.  I had a t-shirt of the album cover with Ozzy lifting the late, great Randy Rhoads off the ground with his polka-dot Flying V in maximum shred position, I had the guitar TAB book, and I’m pretty sure I had a poster of this album on my wall as well.  I suppose I should take the time here to thank my parents for not freaking out that I was listening to Ozzy, as his image then was certainly not the mumbling teddy bear of darkness that it is now.  Obviously though the focus here was on Rhoads and to this day I think if you’re a teenage guitarist who isn’t floored by the playing on this live album, then you should probably sell your guitar and buy a hermit crab or something.  Maybe take up golf.  Because rock n’ roll was not meant for you, my son.  So many great Ozzy songs on this record, which was also my first exposure to anything resembling classical guitar in the tune “Dee.”  There are even a couple Sabbath tracks on here, as well.  But my pick to take you out today is a simple choice.  This song changed everything:

The saga continues.  More tomorrow…