People have been posting a list of ten formative teenage albums to Facebook. I decided to flesh out my list with a little anecdote about each one.
The Beatles — Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
In sixth grade, I watched the Beatles Anthology television series with my parents and was immediately obsessed. Even though I had been listening to the Beatles since the womb, it had been mostly the early stuff and oldies station fare. Digging out my parents’ vinyl copy of Sgt. Pepper was a revelation: the colors, the enormous gatefold sleeve, the lyrics printed on the back like a personal message. I was floored, and I hadn’t even listened to it yet. I remember seriously wondering if anyone else was aware that such a treasure existed. It felt like it had been waiting there just for me.
Oasis — (What’s the Story) Morning Glory
Following on the footsteps of my Beatles obsession, I naturally latched on to the latest British group who sounded kind of like them. There was a lot about Oasis that I was really too young to understand, but Noel’s melodies made my heart want to burst even then. Aside from picking up a copy of Definitely Maybe a few years later, I mostly relegated Oasis to the pleasant 90s nostalgia bin of my mind. But a few years ago — nearly twenty years after buying Morning Glory — I experienced a profound Oasis renaissance, and they are now possibly my favorite band. Good job 12-year-old self!
Pink Floyd — Dark Side of the Moon
Early high school marked a move from oldies to classic rock. I can remember listening to Dark Side for the first time alone in my room at night. When I got to Brain Damage with its crazy laughter, I was legitimately creeped out. I had a real feeling that I was discovering something bizarre and dangerous. It’s strange to think how solitary music listening was for me at that time. Other kids didn’t necessarily share my interests (or I was too shy to know that they did), and there was no internet to calibrate my feelings and reactions against. Listening to some of the most famous albums of all time felt like an exploration.
Barry Manilow — Barry Manilow’s Greatest Hits
Yes, really. My sister and I would fire up Super Mario Kart on SNES, mute the TV, and listen to our parents’ records on their old turntable while we raced. (I was Toad, she was Koopa. We made up elaborate stories about a love triangle with the Princess.) This Barry record was our favorite. We kind of laughed at it, but we kind of loved it too. Nancy said that it was one of her life goals to see Barry live in concert, and in 2008 we made it happen. Barry was a true showman and a class act.
The Old 97s — Fight Songs
Perhaps more so than any one album, a formative influence on my music listening was radio. I grew up on the edge of the New York metro area, and my dad often listened to WNEW. It was long past its prime and had settled into a “classic rock, classic jocks” format. But on Sunday nights, some ghost of its freeform past still haunted the airwaves. I got turned on to Idiot’s Delight with Vin Scelsa and was amazed to learn that a whole world of music existed beyond the mainstream. This Old 97s record, particularly the track “What We Talk About,” was a Scelsa favorite and one of the first albums I bought that no else I knew had even heard of.
Aimee Mann — Bachelor No. 2 or, The Last Remains of the Dodo
I spent the second half of high school working at the local big box music store. It was the best job I’ve ever had for a lot of reasons, including access to music and people who loved music. We had a lot of regulars, and one of them, who we called the Iceman, was obsessed with Aimee Mann. Ice was in his 30s, allegedly worked as an embalmer, and loved to prosthelytize for his favorite artists. He made me an Aimee Mann/Michael Penn mixtape (that I still have). Aimee’s music was the perfect synthesis of the great pop melodies that I had always loved with super smart and cutting lyrics. Ice was a strange guy, but I have always been grateful for the music he shared with me.
The Velvet Underground — The Velvet Underground and Nico
It’s hard to imagine there was a time when the only ways to hear music were to hear it on the radio or to buy it. I was so intrigued by this album that I purchased the complete Velvets box set from BMJ Music Club just so I could find out what it was all about. Of all the albums I’ve listed here, this is the one that I like least as an adult. (Though I still think the Nico tracks are the best.) And if I’m being honest, I kept listening mostly out of a sense of obligation and a desire to be cool. These days, I much prefer Loaded.
Belle and Sebastian — If You’re Feeling Sinister
I bought the first four Belle and Sebastian albums as part of one glorious find in the used CD bin at my job. I was firmly into the phase where I was just buying stuff I had heard was cool, without even knowing what it sounded like first. (This was one of the perks of being 17 and cashing your paycheck at the grocery store.) I got lucky this time. B&S sounded a bit like the 60s groups I adored, but they sang about weirdos and sex. And who would have guessed that their best days were yet to come?
Dire Straits — Making Movies
Jeff was my boss at the store where I worked, and he was the first adult I had a relationship with who wasn’t a family member or teacher. He was working retail while pursuing a teaching degree. And while I’m sure supervising a bunch of teenagers at a retail store was not his dream job, he managed to both laugh at the absurdities he had to deal with and treat everyone with kindness. Jeff mentioned that he loved this album, so I bought it. It’s got beautiful guitar work and the lyrics (especially on side 1) have a wonderful cinematic grandeur.
Weezer — Weezer (Green Album)
I was a little young for first-wave Weezer, but I hopped on the bandwagon when Green came out. I was in love with a guy who loved Weezer, so what else was I going to do? Luckily this is a fantastic pop album, and it probably helped not having the baggage of early Weezer fandom to overcome. My most visceral memory of this album is listening during the summer before I left for college. I was playing Final Fantasy 3 on my by now hopelessly out-of-date SNES, again with the volume down, listening to this CD on repeat. Oh, to have that kind of free time again!