Music That Shaped Me
Music is a big part of my life. My wife is a serious music fan with really good taste. My kids are way into some good music like the Fleet Foxes, Monsters of Folk, Gorillaz and Spoon. I often find my daughter dancing around the house with her iPod singer here latest favorite.
As my kids come into their own in terms of music taste and start figuring out what they really like without mom and dad pushing music on them, I was thinking back at the music the I first got into when it was up to me to hit play.
Theses are the tapes that I wore out in my Walk Man when I was a kid in the early to mid eighties:
Pink Floyd | the wall
I’m pretty sure that I snaked this from my brother Mike when he wasn’t looking, or maybe he wisely slipped it into my Walk Man knowing he was mentoring the taste of a future Floyd fan. Either way, to this day, this is one of my favorite albums and rarely does a week go by that I don’t listen to a few tracks.
Bon Jovi | slippery when wet
Don’t hate, this album rocked your world too. What can you say about it other than it is loaded with hits that were are catchy and easy to listen to.
Dire Straits | brothers in arms
Not sure how I got my hands on this, I think it was my dad’s. This album was an early seed being planted that would make me want to play guitar.
What were some of the first albums you got a hold of as a kid?
What a great post! However my age is gonna show here….those were all in my college years! Here are the ones that had dramatic impact on me and how I “see” and “hear” music…
1) Take Five by the Dave Brubeck Quintet. Classic Modern Jazz and some incredible mixing by the engineers at Columbia Studios. Guaranteed to change any bad attitude.
2) Little Queen by Heart. Super album that taught me to appreciate ripping acoustic guitar and heavenly harmonies.
3) Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin. Showed me that every band has at least one great song (and in this case every song). Besides…it’s Zep!
4) All Over the Place by the Bangles. I fell in love with garagey sound that backed some of the best rock harmonies in existence. Ultimately leading to great hits like “Walk Like an Egyptian”, “Manic Monday”, and “Eternal Flame”, now they’ve gone back to their rock roots and harmonies again.
5) Abbey Road by the Beatles. What can you say about that album. I wore three copies of the vinyl listening to it…over and over and over.
and the list goes on, but these are the biggies!
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Vince Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 10:31 am
Can’t go wrong with some Zeppelin!
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I’m so jealous of you two. I was raised in a “MUCH” more “SPIRITUAL” house so I ended up with…
1. DC Talk – “Jesus Freak”
I played this one when I mowed and I grew up on a farm and mowing took 6 or 7 hours twice a week. I didn’t change out tapes, I just played it on repeat.
2. Michael W. Smith – “The First Decade: 1983-1993″
I don’t know why, but I used to get PUMPED by this album. I would listen to it while playing basketball and think it was awesome. Then I met Jock Jams and realized what a lame athlete I was sure to become…
3. AC/DC – AC/DC Live
Not real sure how this one slipped past my parents, but I think it’s because they were rebellious hellions in their childhood and they loved AC/DC (though not openly).
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Adam Lehman Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Also, just FYI, I was born in ’85, so that’d explain the timing of my jams.
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Vince Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 10:37 am
The DC Talk thing has still left scars. When that starting coming up in the early nineties I was listening to all the Def Jam stuff (Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, Run DMC) and then DC Talk started getting played at youth group and I thought it was a joke.
It took me a long time before I could trust ‘Christian’ music again.
Nobody can hate Michael W. Smith, yeah it was corny but that’s what he was going for.
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Adam Lehman Reply:
July 10th, 2010 at 1:06 pm
My first concert with Michael W’s “lead you home” tour.
I think the reason I love music now is that I started out with such a “low bar.” I used to try and convince people how tobymac was – by far – the best musical artist ever.
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My parents listened to Charlie Pride and Kenny Rogers (still love them today!)
First album I ever bought… Corey Hart – Sunglasses at Night
First Concert ever… The Jets
Didn’t really get into music until I was a Christian (20 years old in the mid 90s). First Christian Album – DC Talk – Jesus Freak
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Vince Reply:
July 12th, 2010 at 8:41 am
Kenny Rogers rocks!
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You’re going to think i’m crazy but here are the albums that made a big impression on me. I’m 43 now.
1) Donna Summer’s Bad Girls album. I specifically remember going to Cats Records in Knoxville TN after me, my dad and brother visited my mother in the hospital to buy this album. For the next several months i was absolutely mezmerized by the pictures on and inside the album. I even called my mother in the hospital to play her snipets of the songs.
2) Madonna’s Like a Prayer. I was captivated by the scent of patchuli the album was scented with and the “darkness” of the songs was incredible.
3) Sinitta’s Wicked album. You probably have not heard of her. An 80′s star with pop songs to rival Madonna and Kylie Minogue. I spent hours driving around town listening to this tape.
4)Kylie Minouge’s greatest hits album from 1990. In America Kylie is not very popular like she is in Europe but i adored her since her Locomotion song came out in 1988. After that her stuff was not released in the states. I thought about going over to Britain just to buy her albums but of course i didnt. Then low and behold in 2000 i found her greatest hits cd. I was ecstatic and it didnt leave my cd player for months….literally.
Those are the main albums that made big and lasting impressions on me.
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DC Talk’s side project, The Gotee Brothers…unfortunately.
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