20 Life-Changing albums

This list is organized more by chronology than by druthers. It is my belief that musical taste and influence comes from that which has preceded it, "without this I would not have found that."

The First two entries (this and Dare to be Stupid) were the first two albums that I ever bought with my own money in elementary school, the first wholly conscious musical decision I remember making.

This Album or at least the motivations that prompted me to buy this album was the entryway to "Hip Hop" for me. I think the only other hip-hop or rap I was privy to at the time was The Fat Boys and maybe a little Run DMC. I don't even think Yo, MTV raps was out yet. But I bought this and I loved it. Today I am heavily into street art, break-dancing and underground hip hop from around the world. I know I owe it all to this album and many of their subsequent ones, my love of not just hip hop but of the entire culture stems from it. As far as life changing albums go because it was one of the first it also became one of the most vital.

As stated above, I bought this album in conjunction with License to Ill, as my first two musical purchases. More than anything probably could, that fact defines two fundamental things of my being. First, the desire to explore a culture I identified with and wished to learn from and second the acceptance of where and what I am at the time (then and now). The Beastie Boys gave me hip hop and everything that would later come to mean to me and Weird Al gave me acceptance of who and what I am.

I was weird as all boys are at 8 or 9, still am I suppose, Weird Al let me accept that and enjoy the hell out of it. Polka isn't "cool" never was, never will be, did that matter to Weird Al? No. Did it matter to me at that age? Yes. The desire to "fit in" at an early age makes us drop away or bury that which makes us most creative. Weird Al helped me learn that. Do what you want, create whatever you want and have fun with it, to hell with anyone who labels it "weird"

A huge leap forward musically for me. I had heard various Jimi tracks on the radio, I'm sure, but this was the first full album I got my hands on. Holy crap did this rock my world, as literally as that can be said. This is the album that got me to to dig out my dad's old acoustic guitar and set about the 20 year process of getting anywhere close to as good of a player as what I was hearing in 1992 all the way from 1969.

Listening to this album opened up both time and space in my young mind, Jimi would be so proud. It dawned the realization that music worth listening to comes from all eras. As a fan of Motown, Blues and Bluegrass, I'm not sure I would've gotten to any of them had I not learned that fact from this album. And of course, the gift of the burning desire to peruse an instrument life-long isn't too bad either.

Thank you Mr. Hendrix, Thank you.

Ah, the blossoming of angst in a young lads heart. At the age of 14 I had already determined that the world I was to spend the entirety of my existence in was not all it was cracked up to be, and never would be. Needless to say I was not happy about this fact nor the knowledge of it. As many of us are, especially at that age, I was inclined to seek out other like minded souls for some reassurance that we are not alone in our less than appreciative assessment of the current state of affairs. There I found Punk. However the thought of pure anarchy didn't much appeal to my sensibilities so I continued looking until I found Bad Religion. More intelligent than most punk and with more logical goals and messages than "go out, get pissed" and a higher level of musical ability, this album in particular really appealed to me.