Six Albums That Changed My Life - by Scott Carr

The Albums That Changed My Life series on Pencilstorm was conceived and launched by our Virginia correspondent JCE (John Egertson to his friends & family) last November, and will continue as our regular Sunday feature until we run out of submissions. To view the complete series, click on the Music heading on the Pencilstorm home page.

Albums that changed my life? Man, that's a tough one.

I always struggle when it comes to making "best of" lists. I've been a music fan since my pre-teen days and there has been so much music in my life, it's not easy to whittle that down to just a few choices.

Along the way there have been records that have had a bigger impact than others, so here are some that could be considered "life changing"....

KISS - ROCK AND ROLL OVER (1976)

Kiss in the ‘70's without hesitation had the biggest influence on my musical journey.

You could insert any Kiss album from the decade here (yes, even Dynasty) and I would not argue.

Rock And Roll Over for me is Kiss sounding like Kiss. Bare bones, no frills Rock N Roll. I love the songs on this record and Eddie Kramer’s production captures Kiss at their best. Another highlight for me on this record is Ace Frehley’s lead guitar work, amazing! Ace was in top form on this release. I only wish he had been confident enough to supply a lead vocal on the record but in all honesty, I would not change a thing about it. Plus that cover artwork is probably my favorite Kiss album cover of all time.

Rock and Roll Over on most days is my favorite Kiss record. I don't know if I can pick one Kiss album as life-changing but I would just say experiencing Kiss in the ‘70's changed my life forever. According to my mom I first saw Kiss on television on the Midnight Special. She pulled me and my brothers out of our slumber to witness the spectacle, I have no solid memory of that event but I'm told I was present. I do remember seeing Kiss for the first time on the Destroyer tour and from there on the rest is Kisstory.

IRON MAIDEN - IRON MAIDEN (1980)

After Kiss, my next big evolution in music was "metal." Kiss really weren't metal, so I wasn't really sure what "metal" was. I had heard some Sabbath records but Sabbath didn't really feel like my band. I love Sabbath but they felt like they were a generation older than myself. When I was a kid I was told by older kids that Black Sabbath created Heavy Metal and I was like, "Cool."

Seeing Judas Priest open for Kiss on the Dynasty tour really opened my eyes to a new breed of metal that would soon be invading American shores.

In 1980 the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was taking shape and Iron Maiden led the way. I bought their first album just based on the cover artwork alone. The music on the vinyl sounded exactly the way the cover looked. It was heavy and raw. I loved everything about it. This started a new chapter in my musical journey. At that point I started buying all kinds of European metal by bands like Diamond Head, Motorhead, Saxon, Def Leppard and the list went on and on. From 1980 to 1985 or so, I was a total metalhead kid.

RAMONES - RAMONES (1976)

I discovered the first Ramones record from going through my uncle’s record collection. He had moved away and left all his records at my Grandma's house. He said I could go through them and take whatever I wanted. His collection was mostly hippie stoner rock records, which I didn't appreciate at the time. I left lots of cool stuff behind, but I did take all of his Budgie records.

One of the cool records I found in my uncle's collection was the first Ramones record. I had no idea what it was but seeing those four guys leaned up against a brick wall wearing leather jackets and ripped jeans and the bold RAMONES logo above them really caught my attention.

When I put it on the turntable for the first time, I felt like I was listening to something from another planet. I had never heard anything like it before. All the songs were fast and under three minutes long, I think the longest song on the record is maybe two and a half minutes long. Again, another album that sounded exactly how the cover looks. They looked like punks and sounded like punks.

I never became a full fledged punk rocker but this record certainly struck a chord with me and I've been listening to Ramones records for decades now.

CHEAP TRICK - CHEAP TRICK (1977)

Still my favorite Cheap Trick album to this day.

I saw Cheap Trick in 1978 opening for AC/DC and soon started buying their records. At the time I was only aware of In Color and Heaven Tonight.

My first exposure to the band’s debut album was on the soundtrack to the movie Over The Edge. Back in those days there was no quick resource like Wikipedia to look up a band’s discography, so you just kinda discovered things by mistake. In July of 1979 I took my birthday money to the record store to buy some new records and while looking in the Cheap Trick section, I found a copy of their debut album. I clutched onto it like I had found the Holy Grail. I rushed to checkout counter and gave the clerk my birthday money and ran home to put the record on my turntable.

The whole album is perfection. I think it's really the only Cheap Trick studio album that accurately captures their raw power-pop energy. They have other great albums, but this one is their best in my book. Again, like Kiss, you could put any ‘70's Cheap Trick album in this spot and I would not be upset.

THE KNACK - GET THE KNACK (1979)

Just like Cheap Trick's 1977 debut album, Get The Knack is pure power-pop perfection from beginning to end.

The Knack really had their own thing going, they weren't really new wave and they weren't punk but they fell somewhere in the middle of both genres.

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite albums.

I wrote about it in a past Pencil Storm piece and you can check it out here

JELLYFISH - SPILT MILK (1993)

An unlikely masterpiece of an album that came out during the fall of glam metal and the rise of grunge.

Jellyfish were equal parts Queen, Beach Boys, The Beatles and a pinch of The Partridge Family.

During the early ‘90's I was a bit lost musically because everything was changing and I had been knee-deep in the MTV Glam Rock scene. By that time glam metal was becoming pretty disposable and even bands like Guns N Roses seemed like their time had come and gone. I wasn't in tune with the Seattle stuff. I liked the sentiment of it all, but it just really didn't strike a chord within me.

Jellyfish was like breathing new life into my floundering musical journey. Their first album Bellybutton came out in 1990 and spawned a minor hit with the single "Baby's Coming Back." Almost two and half years later the band returned with an album that leaned more towards their Queen influences and is way more adventurous than their debut.

Sadly Jellyfish did not last long after this record. They were gone in a flash but with just two albums they gained a fan base that hopes one day maybe we will see album number three.

So, I think I will leave you with those six uniquely different records. If I look at my choices too long, I will probably rewrite this entire thing. I think that covers the bases pretty well for me, though: Rock, Metal, Punk and Power Pop.

_____________________________

Honorable mention: I don't know if these albums qualify as "life changing" but they are albums that I consider near-perfect ear candy and are go-to albums I listen to when I feel like there is nothing to listen to.….

BLUE OYSTER CULT - FIRE OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN

BILLY SQUIER - DON'T SAY NO

REO SPEEDWAGON - HI INFIDELITY

APRIL WINE - NATURE OF THE BEAST

DEF LEPPARD - HIGH N DRY

ALICE COOPER - FROM THE INSIDE

ENUFF Z NUFF - STRENGTH

THE POSIES - FROSTING ON THE BEATER

QUEEN - A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

THIN LIZZY - BLACK ROSE

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps and Returning April.  Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.

I own no content. Posted for fan based channel for comment and discussion only !

Show de 1980 com Paul Di'anno

Ramones performing blitzkrieg bop at CBGBs circa 1976....

Cheap Trick - He's A Whore - Night Gallery 1977

Мои предыдущие каналы (My previous channels): https://www.youtube.com/user/NoMadU55555/videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuK71d5hQd9F5DQLyO_d2aQ/videos

Spilt Milk tour, en vivo en Munich, Alemania 1993

The 4 R's: Readin', 'Ritin' and Rock & Roll by Ricki C.

"I've been inside of more libraries 

Than I have dope houses"

- from song, "A Life Of Rock & Roll," Ricki C. (c) 2009

From the ages of zero to twelve years old all I cared about was reading and World War II.  When I was 12 The Beatles (and, more importantly, The Dave Clark 5) appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show and my little seventh-grade Catholic boy head exploded.  As such, from the age of 12 to earlier this morning all I have cared about is reading and rock & roll.  (And maybe movies and sex, but not until much later on.)

Nowadays that means that I read way too many books about rock & roll that I get out of the library.  It also means that, problematically, I would now often prefer to read about rock & roll than to LISTEN to rock & roll.  (Have you HEARD & SEEN what's masquerading as rock & roll and/or music lately on your radio and T.V.?  Mumford & Sons?  The Voice?  American Idol?  Seriously?)    

Anyway, here's my two latest rock & roll book recommendations:

1) I Slept With Joey Ramone by Mitch Leigh.  This book was published in 2009 but somehow I never got around to reading it until now, and it's pretty great, I sincerely regret not picking it up sooner.  Written by Joey Ramone's younger brother - Mitch Leigh (who also served as guitarist & co-songwriter in rock critic Lester Bangs' band Birdland)  - it documents, in a really poignant and personal way, how Jeffry Hyman of Forest Hills Queens, New York, reinvented himself, pretty much by sheer force of will, to become Joey Ramone.     

The Ramones' story has been pretty well documented over the years.  Just in my collection I've got books by Everett True and Monte Melnick (The Ramones road manager for pretty much all of their existence) and I know there's a book by Johnny Ramone floating around out there.  (But Johnny was kind of a dick, so I never bought that one, though I'm pretty sure I read it out of the library.)  (At the same time I find myself calling Johnny Ramone a dick - largely for stealing away Joey's steady girl and then marrying her, maybe just to prove that he could and for running The Ramones like a military operation rather than like a BAND for all of their career - I find myself admitting that if Johnny hadn't run the organization that way, The Ramones most likely would never have played 2,263 gigs over a 22 year span, without ever having anything approaching a hit record.)  (On the other hand, as Colin and I have oft-conjectured on Watershed tours; maybe if The Ramones HADN'T been run that way -  traveling the world crammed together in a van, hating one another and literally not speaking  for years at a time  - two members of the band wouldn't have destroyed their immune systems with collected stress and died of cancer and a third wouldn't have OD'd.  We have no conclusive medical or psychological proof of this hypothesis, we're just sayin'.)     

But I digress.  You really oughta read this book.  It's simultaneously funny and heartbreaking in all the right ways as we watch Joey Ramone - who, due to various physical & mental problems, more than a couple of doctors declared "would never be able to function in normal society" - transition from existing as a marginalized basket case to being a rock & roll star.  Or are those really just two sides of the same coin?  Either way, it's still a truly inspirational human story, told with love, grace & humor by Joey's little brother.  (Most telling incident in the book: In 1977, when Mitch Leigh quit as The Ramones' first roadie, after getting a raise in pay from $60 to $70 A WEEK, Johnny replaced Mitch with TWO new guys, each making $250 a week.  In rock & roll, brothers so often get screwed.)     

2) A Light That Never Goes Out: The Enduring Saga of The Smiths by Tony Fletcher.  My lovely wife Debbie and I don't get out much in the winter.  In fact, if we could work it right and ensure that a steady supply of snack cakes, milk, Lay's potato chips and Mountain Dew would get delivered, we might not ever leave the house at all in December, January & February .  As such, I'll occasionally find myself just trolling the library website for something interesting to read.  That's where I ran across this book.    

Now let's get some parameters straight: I could give less of a shit about The Smiths.  They were the very first band, back in the 1980's, that all of my tastemaker friends LOVED (are you reading this, Curt Schieber?) that I finally wound up thinking, "Okay, the hell with it, I have tried and tried and TRIED to like this band and they just suck.  I should not have to work this hard to enjoy music."  (I later repeated that pattern with Guns & Roses, Nirvana, grunge and most recently with Arcade Fire and Mumford & Sons.)  But something about the library's description of the book hooked me, so I reserved it.       

When the reserve came in, Debbie and I were on one of our rare outings together to obtain food & literary supplies, so she ran into the library to grab the book for me while I kept the warm car running in the cold.  She came out lugging a book about 1/3rd of her diminutive five foot height and I thought, "What the hell is this?"  It turns out the Fletcher book is 698 PAGES LONG!  ABOUT THE FUCKING SMITHS!  HOW IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE! 

Pencilstorm readers, I was looking for maybe 237 pages about The Smiths, tops, not 698 pages.  If I had gone into the library myself rather than sending Debbie I'd have handed that book right back to the librarian for them to pass on to the next reservee - to some pale, wan, winsome Morrissey & Marr fan who might actually appreciate 700 pages about their heroes. 

Since it was already checked out and since it was too cold to ask Debbie to walk it back into the library I decided to give it a shot, and damn if it isn't actually pretty good.  Admittedly, I didn't start the book until page 210, chapter thirteen, as it takes Fletcher THAT LONG to get to Morrissey and Marr even meeting for the first time.  (I'm fairly certain Tony was being paid by the word for this tome, BIG MISTAKE for the publisher.)  But from there on the story moves right along.  The book chronicles the birth and growth of a young band in month to month - if not week to week - detail and I'm genuinely enjoying it, way more than I ever would have thought I would.  It's truly well written.  (By the way, I'm 200 pages beyond where I started and they haven't made their second album yet.) 

One of the true advantages of reading rock & roll books in the internet age is that virtually any television appearance mentioned in the text can be punched up on YouTube.  (By the way, if Debbie hears the phrase, "Just punch it up on YouTube" from me ONE MORE TIME this long winter/spring, there's gonna be trouble.)  I've found myself doing that more and more while reading this book, and you know what I've discovered?  I've discovered I STILL don't like The Smiths music.  Somehow I like the IDEA of The Smiths more than I actually like The Smiths.  I'm enormously heartened by the idea that Morrissey refused to go on Jimmy Kimmel's show alongside those cracker assholes from Duck Dynasty, solely because of his vegetarian beliefs.  Try to imagine almost any other celebrity or rocker turning down a paycheck or a T.V. appearance these days just because of their principles.  Or, indeed, try to imagine any other celebrity or rocker these days WITH a belief or a principle.  (Let's face facts, people, any one of the Kardashian sisters would fuck a llama in a closet if it meant they could get another reality show out of the deal.)

Come to think of, Morrissey probably wouldn't go on that show either.  Thanks, Steven. 

(ps. Best pop-culture Morrissey reference of the week: The Colbert Report, last Wednesday night, when an interview-guest pig farmer claimed their pork is made "naturally," Colbert asked, "At what point do the little piggies decide to naturally meander into the slaughterhouse?  Do you read them Nietzsche, play them a little Morrissey?") 

Ricki C. missed  The Ramones the first time they played Columbus, Ohio, in March of  1978 at a dive called The Sugar Shack, because he didn't believe The Ramones would  actually PLAY at the dive that was The Sugar Shack.   He did see them  the second time they played Columbus in July 1978 at a supermarket-converted-into-a-rock-club - Cafe Rock & Roll, by name - and damn, is he glad he did.  

  He never saw The Smiths live anywhere, anytime, and is equally glad of that.