At my ninth birthday party I was given two albums, one each from two different friends. One was Earth, Wind, and Fire's I Am. The other was Nina Hagen's NunSexMonkRock.

This is a story of what could have been.

NunSexMonRock scared the hell out of my nine-year-old self. I think because it had the word "sex" in the title. Plus, there was some kind of avant-garde freaky religious looking thing on the cover. I may have even purposefully hidden the album in the bookcase, between two potentially less offensive somethings.

I listened to I Am, a few times. I think it was probably the single coolest album I owned. My parents listened to country and folk -- my father may have been the only person in the world to order Boxcar Willie's King of the Railroad C.O.D. -- so I was brought up listening to Kenny Rogers, and Glenn Campbell, and Peter, Paul, and Mary.

Ever since that birthday, though, I've wondered about that Nina Hagen album. Not regularly -- every other year, maybe -- but it's been at the back of my mind, gnawing away, and I've never had that magical moment where thinking about Nina Hagen coincided with an easy way to listen to her, until MOG.

Now, suddenly, I've found my current favorite album. Nina Hagen's Return of the Mother is amazing (wish I spoke German).

I have no idea where the friend who gave me the Earth, Wind, & Fire album is -- but now I want to look up the friend who gave me the Nina Hagen album.