Self Discovery, the Safe Way

I used to read the almanac for fun. Therefore, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd became my favorite bands, and "Who's Next" by the Who became my favorite album.

Of course, now I have to explain the jump from statistics to classic blues- and psychedelic-rock. When I was twelve, I came across a list in the almanac of Diamond Award albums (like gold or platinum certification, but instead of 500k or 1 million in sales, respectably, it took 10 million units sold to get a Diamond Award). At the time I correlated sales with excellence, and noting that five Beatles albums had awards (with full knowledge of the Beatles, like Jerry Rice or Michael Jordan, being the Greatest of All Time), I became obsessed with this list of all time best sellers.

Now, there were two albums on this list by a band I had never heard of (Pink Floyd), one of which had a cool sounding name (Dark Side of the Moon). I looked it up online, and discovered an even cooler album cover for the album, and promptly ordered it from Amazon. After a few plays, I couldn't stop listening to the crazy awesome organ and guitar swirling around the intense dark melodies, and had to have more.

Conveniently, at the same time I watched both VH1 and MTV for the lame pop videos, and happened on a VH1 special on the 100 Greatest Albums of All Time. Noting that Dark Side of the Moon was 51st on the list, and four of the top ten albums were by the Beatles, I decided to buy every album on the list. My musical journey has been guided almost exclusively by these (arbitrary, flawed and biased) classic album lists ever since. (I do own all 100 albums, but have since disowned at least two of them). Once I complete the current list I'm working on (Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest), I'll probably branch out more.

I learned from the discovery of these lists that sales are sometimes (often?) the last determinant in how good an album actually is (I could give hundreds of examples right about now backing up both sides of that statement, but I think you get the idea). So no, I won't be buying a Garth Brooks CD any time soon (ever).

Now, you (and all of my friends) can make fun of me all you want about how lame sticking to the tried and true stuff is, and I won't totally disagree with you. My best friend Matt, though we share some similar favorites, can probably write a dissertation on the underground pop punk scene, and at least half of his music has never been touched by a major label. But seeing as how lucky I have been with these lists, I do suggest you check them out, at least for the sake of a strong foundation to work on. I'm not saying that all of my music falls into these lists. Indeed, among my favorites are Zappa's Apostrophe, the Offspring's Smash, and Rockets and Robots by the Phenomenauts (an awesome local band).

So I do admit that my approach so far has been cautious and dull, but without my boring lists, I still wouldn't have heard of Jeff Buckley (to this day, despite many efforts, I am the only person I know who owns or listens to Grace).