Yes, it’s an internet thing. The prompt goes like this, and is irresistible: List 10 albums that made a lasting impression on you as a TEENAGER, but only one per band/artist. Don’t take too long and don’t think too long.
I turned mine in last week, before I knew it was a thing. I made two mistakes in my first pass, listed two elpees that hit when I was 12, though I suppose maybe I wouldn’t have gotten into them until the next year. Hard to know.
List 10 albums that made a lasting impression on you as a TEENAGER, but only one per band/artist. Don’t take too long and don’t think too long.
1. Commander Cody and his Lost Planet Airmen – Lost in the Ozone
2. Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street
3. Allman Brothers – Live at Fillmore East
4. The Who – Who’s Next
5. Stevie Wonder – Innervisions
6. Johnny Winter – Johnny Winter
7. New York Dolls – New York Dolls
8. Jethro Tull – Benefit
9. Paul Kantner – Blows Against the Empire
10. Kool and the Gang – Wild and Peaceful
Originally had Cream’s Disraeli Gears and Blood Sweat and Tear’s Child is the Father to the Man, but they were released before I was a teen. As I type this I realize that Blind Faith should be on, but I don’t know what to bump. I’ve written about all of these here before, except Benefit. And I’ve seen all these bands live, too, which may explain some of the attachment, except Jethro Tull. I once saw Commander Cody open for Jefferson Starship in Santa Monica. Weird show.
One odd thing to note is that I’m older than most everyone who made lists I’ve read. I turned 20 before punk broke or new wave hit. Feel free to add your list in the comments. In the meantime.
I love shit like this and, as always, my list is very different, because:
1) I’m a little younger than the other three senior citizens,
2) As such, my musical development was backwards sometimes. As I’ve mentioned many times before, with the radio already gone to shit and no internet for decades, my generation often wandered aimlessly. The records I bought were almost exclusively either recommended by a friend or a music critic, and critics like Marsh, Christgau, etc. were often too snobby for lots of rockin’ stuff I preferred. I didn’t come to appreciate many rock staples – Beatles, Zep, Ramones, etc. – until my 20s.
Not sure if the rules are the album came out in your teens or you discovered the album in your teens. To play it safe, I used both qualifiers, which eliminated Alice Cooper – Billion Dollar Babies, The Stooges – Raw Power and T. Rex – The Slider, because I was 12 at most when these albums were released.
Here goes, in alphabetical order by band:
1) AC/DC – High Voltage
2) Blue Oyster Cult – Secret Treaties
3) David Bowie – Diamond Dogs
4) The Depressions – Self-Titled
5) Devo – Are We Not Men?
6) Gang Of Four – Entertainment!
7) KISS – Self-Titled
8) Mott The Hoople – The Hoople
9) Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
10) Slade – Sladest (American release)
I’m still happy to listen to any of these and still do.
These are all great choices, Steve. I can even live with Kiss and I have four of these bad boys.
Never commented on Peter’s list, so here’s my two cents:
Being brutally honest, Peter, if there’s one way you annoy me musically it’s that your choices are always the “right” stuff – as if you and Marsh and Christgau could be lock step drinking buddies, and this list annoys me to that extent. I always felt the same way musically about Mike Salfino.
Surely I annoy you way more than you annoy me, although you’re pretty hard to annoy.
Great records, and one I didn’t know.
Steve, oh I wish you were alive to field this. I have Commander Cody and Paul Kantner on my list. I saw Cody open for Jefferson Starship once, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which is weird, but my two cents says go with what you like. I know you did. And, this is what I loved when I was a teen. Not exactly documentary, but I think this is true (I listened to a lot of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, too, but that didn’t seem to fit the definition, and Emerson Lake and Palmer, so clearly I could go on).
Salfino is committed to all the good stuff. Hard to argue with that aesthetically, but the best thing is when it gets weird.