How music has changed (ruined) my life!
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Here I am pretending to be a musician like Michael Nesmith at a party in 2007.
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It's weird to think about how any one record has changed my life and shaped who I am today. It's odd how one record, one song can make such an influence on a person.
This list of records represents episodes in my life and and the basis of my musical tastes today.
One recent example of this has been with The Monkees. When I was 5, I discovered their record "Meet the Monkees", which started a twenty year infatuation with vinyl. I may not always listen to the Monkees, but I can't help but look back fondly to those afternoons spent listening to "Last Train To Clarksville" over and over again on my brown Fisher Price record player.
Over the years, my attitude towards the Monkees may have changed, but I still can't get over that album, I still think Michael Nesmith is cool, and I still dance around to their songs (when nobody's watching).
When I was 5, I asked my mom for a hat like Michael Nesmith. She refused, saying I'd look like a "dweeb". I'd periodically ask her to knit me one, and she'd always refuse. When I was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year, I asked her to knit me one for when I have chemo, and she finally agreed to it. Now I have three hats that make me look like Mike, though I still can't play guitar like him. This one quirk can be linked back to "Meet the Monkees".
Some of the criteria I used in selecting these albums are:
- I can remember the exact moment I moment I got the
record.
- The album acted as a gateway to other things.
- Was it responsible for my listening to other albums?
- Did it expose me to a new genre/style of music?
- Did it influence me as a musician?
- The album has continued relevance in my life.
- I still dance around my room (when nobody's home) playing air guitar
along with the album
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Me and Steve from the Hi-Fives on Lower Sproul, November 1999.
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Some of these criteria are a little vague, but I guess that happens when you're dealing with a visceral reaction to music. Some of the albums have very clear moments in time, like when I went to Tower Records on Watt Ave. in Sacramento and bought "Cosmic Thing" in October, 1989. That was the first casette I bought for myself.
Or April 22, 1995 when I ditched out of the Jazz Festival my middle school was playing at CSU Sacramento, only to stumble upon an outdoor music festival. That was when I saw The Hi-Fives and had an epiphany that made music seem right. I spent my lunch money buying their record "Welcome to My Mind". Eventually I followed them around Northern California, became their #1 fan, webmaster, and ditched prom and graduation to see them play. Had I not become so enchanted with "Welcome to My Mind", I never would have started playing in sixties garage bands in high school, nor would I have applied to UC Berkeley. It's sad, but true.
I lied to my parents and told them I was "checking the campus out". I didn't see anything but the parking garage and Lower Sproul Plaza. John, the lead singer of the Hi-Fives, admonished me for not taking my education seriously and started keeping tabs on my grades. I guess it paid off.
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