Sunday, February 22, 2009

The Top 25 Most Influential LPs

Over at the Pole Hill sanitarium (Dr. Sardonicus' website) he posed a question I thought would be very difficult to answer. His question is....what would be the 25 most influential LPs of your life (his list has the top 15 but, there is no way on God's green earth that I could narrow it down that far)? Now, I take that as being not necessarily the Top 25 of your life but the top 25 most influential LPs that helped form your musical background more or less. This is hard. I would probably rule out anything that I listened to after the age of 22 or so, because, by then, my listening preferences were pretty much well formed, that leaves a few of my favorites out...
So, here they are...In alphabetical order....

Allman Bros Band-Eat a Peach
Beatles-Abbey Road
Jeff Beck-Blow by Blow
Blue Oyster Cult-debut
Chicago II
Creedence Clearwater Revival-Cosmo's Factory
Crosby, Stills Nash and Young-Deja Vu
Derek and the Dominoes-Layla and Other Love Songs
Doobie Brothers-Captain and Me
Jonathan Edwards-Have A Good Time For Me
Marvin Gaye-What's Going On
Jimi Hendrix-Smash Hits
Elton John-Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
King Crimson-In The Court of the Crimson King
Love Sculpture-Blues Helping
Dave Mason-It's Like You Never Left
Led Zeppelin-Houses of the Holy
Mahavishnu Orchestra-Birds of Fire
Moody Blues-Every Good Boy Deserves Favour
Potliquor-Levee Blues
Queen I
Bruce Springsteen-Born to Run
Steely Dan-Aja
Robin Trower-Bridge of Sighs
Wishbone Ash-Argus
Yes-Fragile

...and there are about 10 that tied for honorable mention. This was really hard to discard some old, great faves like Sly, Humble Pie, Deep Purple, Amazing Blondel, Elvin Bishop, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, Cat Stevens, Al Stewart, Shooting Star, Neil Young, The Stones, Jethro Tull, Iggy and the Stooges, ELP, Dan Fogelberg, etc.
And, if you'll notice, most of them were released in that 1970-73 range where I was influenced so much by music. Sometimes, these groups were my best friends, I spent hours with them.

1 comment:

Brian Holland said...

Here was my list:

Elton John--Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Kiss--Alive!
Motorhead--Orgasmatron
The Who--Who's Next
Black Oak Arkansas--Black Oak Arkansas
Van Halen--Fair Warning
The Beatles--Abbey Road
Paul Revere & The Raiders--Hard 'n' Heavy (with Marshmallow)
Z.Z. Top--El Loco
Ted Nugent--Double Live Gonzo!
Styx--The Grand Illusion
The Who--Quadrophenia
Dave Edmunds--Repeat When Necessary
John Hiatt--Perfectly Good Guitar
The Rainmakers--The Rainmakers
Led Zeppelin--Led Zeppelin IV
Jimi Hendrix Experience--Are You Experienced?

And even then, it only felt like I was just scratching the surface...

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