I owe my friends for some of my favorite albums. Here's an incomplete list, in no particular order:
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. In college, someone anonymous left this to me on my doorstep. I was just getting into jazz - b/c there was no good radio station in college other than the jazz station. So it freaked me out that this person knew! He didn't remain anonymous, thankfully, or else I would associate KOB w/ a stalker! Thanks AH.
Radiohead's The Bends. This would be playing non-stop at Kris'. Everytime I walked in the door, I heard this vast, layered guitar and the beats and then Thom Yorke with "You can force but it will not come... " Ah. It's like finding something that's been missing. That was the beginning of my Radiohead fanhood and what a good way to begin.
Ray LaMontagne's Trouble. M practically almost burst when she pleaded me to listen to Ray. Then we found out he was in town. I owe you, M, for a lot more, but Ray is pretty up there.
Broken Social Scene's You Forgot It In People. Chad sent me this CD as a thank you for picking him up at the airport - or was it lending the car? - he swore it was the best album of the year. Who was I to argue?
Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Chad again. See why I don't argue with him?
John Coltrane's Blue Train & Love Supreme. Joel, Jeff, John, Wes - they'd always hum the opening notes and then giggle. You'd need to know those lines to understand why. One time we all slow-danced to Naima in the Fellows Ave. living room , impromptu. Wes walked in the door thoroughly bewildered at the sight of us. Good times. Okay so Naima isn't in that album but it's still about Coltrane and those 4 guys so I thought I'd mention.
Medeski Martin & Wood's The Shackman. Joe Getz! and Sarah too. We put on so much music that night. I can't remember what we were doing before or after but somehow we were there. Joe kept saying, "Do you know this?" and picking stuff off this collection. Bjork's Homogenic. Portishead's Dummy. We bopped, we played, we grinned. I love nights like that.
I guess I have many more favorite albums - the ones I can listen to over and over again w/out ever failing to notice/learn/appreciate/like something new in them; an instrument I didn't notice before, a line or two that might take on another layer of meaning and such. But there are those among them that also remind me of certain people, of friendships. And those are always fun to think about, whether or not the friendships last.
What are your albums and stories?
3 comments:
Jay-Z, "The Blueprint": Got it on double blue vinyl for $7 on ebay... sweet.
Kanye West, "The College Dropout": I bought Erika a "College Dropout" t-shirt and told her she should wear it to her work events (she's an academic advisor at USC).
Jay-Z, "The Black Album": Sandra thinks this is better than "The College Dropout." She's wrong, but it is really good. I have one of the songs from this album as my ringtone.
Nas, "Illmatic": I named my blog after a song on here called "N.Y. State of Mind."
Immortal Technique, "Revolutionary Vol. 2": Mindless commercial fluff, but I still like it anyway.
Eminem, "The Marshall Mathers LP": The soundtrack to my lack of studying in college.
You're so welcome! And yes, I beg all of you to please check out Ray Lamontagne. Your CD collection will be richer for it, and so will your life :). But I won't forget our Real Tuesday World experience, Faetryn. :)
ah. the RTW!! okay, must add that one then - didn't we happen to hear them live on KCRW and you were like,... let's go to this show. it's tonight. come on! come on! and i thought, it's a schoolnight though... whaddeheckk..
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