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First Album, First Song
If you’ve read my blog, you already know that I am a HUGE fan of Guns N’ Roses’ debut album Appetite for Destruction. So I won’t bore you more by gushing about “Welcome to the Jungle.” But in writing about that album three other times already, I got into a conversation with my buddy Eric…
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The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Before I was a fully formed individual with my own music tastes, I loved the Beatles. It seems less obvious now, because my taste in music has expanded in many different directions, and the Beatles are just about the oldest music I still listen to with any regularity. But I’m old, and when I was…
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Alice Cooper – Love It to Death
(Album ©1971, Warner Bros. Records) Alice Cooper was a band out of Phoenix that evolved slowly through the mid to late-’60’s, finally settling on a name that they thought sounded innocent, a “sweet little old lady name” that would contrast with their music and stage show. They were initially signed on Frank Zappa’s Straight Records…
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The Most Impressive Debut Albums
I’ve written about great Third Albums already, but in doing so, I glossed over acts that hit a home run right out of the gates. Given how hard it has been historically to get a record deal, and how different recording is from performing live, and how little money most new acts get to invest…
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The Most Influential Albums of My Life
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…
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Yes – The Yes Album
(Album ©1971, Atlantic Records) Yes helped to define the prog rock genre in the early ’70’s, and that started with their third album, 1971’s The Yes Album. After making two rather forgettable albums of marginally interesting rock music, where the highlights were covers of the Beatles, the Byrds, Richie Havens, and Stephen Stills, they were…
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Guns-N-Roses – Appetite for Destruction
(Album ©1987, Geffen Records) 1987 was a weird year in popular music. The top selling album for the calendar year was Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet (released in ’86) and, while the mid-’80’s were split between the era of hair metal and mainstream mega-stars like Michael Jackson, Madonna, Prince, and Bruce Springsteen, by 1987, hair…
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The Black Crowes – Amorica
(Album ©1994, American Recordings) This album cover was such a turn-on when I first saw it. The not-so-subversive sexiness was off the charts. Only recently did I find out that this image was originally shot as the cover of Hustler Magazine’s July 1976 Bicentennial issue. Of course, WalMart and Kmart objected to stocking this album…
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Fishbone – Truth & Soul
(Album ©1988, Columbia Records) As I have already written, after I had my senses rattled awake by Guns-N-Roses in college, I got my soul funked up when I found Fishbone! Their second LP was an amazing mix of rock, funk, punk, and soul, all of which were really good songs. “Bonin’ in the Boneyard” was my 1989 summer…
