In 2018, a “challenge” went around Facebook that I was able to get behind and participate in – the first (and only) one ever. No Ice Bucket Challenges for me, but the 10 Most Influential Albums in 10 Days challenge was appealing. My college friend Leigh forwarded me the challenge, which had been almost universally worded to include “no explanation whatsoever,” but that seemed annoying, as the most interesting thing about this exercise was wondering exactly why each person was listing the albums they were. What about those albums were so influential to those people? Therefore, I ignored the “no explanation” aspect of the challenge and dove in, writing personal essays for each.
I had a great time putting this list together and revisiting the various times in my life that I associate with each of these albums. That’s one of my favorite things about music – how different songs bring back specific memories. But paring down the albums that were influential to me was difficult – my initial list had more than 30 records on it. I decided to use a mechanism to help winnow down the list to the titular 10, and that was to track albums linearly through the development of my own musical tastes up to now. I still couldn’t do just 10 albums, though I tried. Keep in mind – this is not a list of the albums I consider the “best of all time,” or my “favorites.” Just the most influential based on when I first became aware of them and the impact they had on me at that time. So read on, as I set the scene for what was going on in my life when I first heard these records and how the impacted me.
- Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
- Rock & Roll Over – Kiss
- At Budokan! – Cheap Trick
- The River – Bruce Springsteen
- Give the People What They Want – The Kinks
- Van Halen – Van Halen
- Appetite for Destruction – Guns-N-Roses
- Truth and Soul – Fishbone
- Steady On – Shawn Colvin
- Road Apples – The Tragically Hip
- There Is Nothing Left to Lose – Foo Fighters
- Gold – Ryan Adams
- Little Piece of Dixie – Blackberry Smoke
What are your favorites? Let me know in the comments.
