1. The White Album, The Beatles
2. After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
3. Who's Next, The Who
4. Late For The Sky, Jackson Browne
5. Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield
Album back cover
In that FAV FIVE Albums blog, I didn't give a back story for any of my above selections and thought I'd share a couple of thoughts here about After the Gold Rush.
In September, 2015 I wrote a blog, The songs playing in our heads this week where I said this, "Next up and in my head this past week, a couple of songs from Neil Young's 1970, After the Gold Rush. I absolutely wore this vinyl record out on my bedroom record player. It is a classic with Tell Me Why and Only Love Can Break Your Heart as two more favorites of mine since I was a sophomore in high school. I remember once writing my first girl friend a letter (whom I had broken up with as a freshman) and included the lyrics to Tell Me Why. She wrote back and said she didn't understand what the hell I was trying to say to her. Well, being a 15 year old kid, I probably didn't know what I was trying to say either. So who better for me to quote than the brilliant and often abstract Neil Young."
The part above where I say I wore the album out in my bedroom is actually the part that I was reflecting on this past week. I'm sure you have heard Brian Wilson's In My Room,
There's a world where I can go and tell my secrets to
In my room, in my room
In this world I lock out all my worries and my fears
In my room, in my room
Do my dreaming and my scheming
Lie awake and pray
Do my crying and my sighing
Laugh at yesterday
Now it's dark and I'm alone
But I won't be afraid
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In my room, in my room
In My Room has always touched me deeply. I think as a young person when you're still living at home, your bedroom is your retreat, the place where you can sit still, think, and try to make sense of your world.
As a fifteen-sixteen year old, listening to After The Gold Rush was my go to 'in my room' album to listen to by myself. Most of the songs on After The Gold Rush would simply thrust me into a state of introspection that as I look back, was self-therapy.
Several weeks ago, I asked and got back many of my original vinyl albums from my youth from my ex-wife Pam, who happened to have them. She also gave me our old turntable that I connected to my current bedroom stereo system. Thank you Pam! It's kind of cool after all these years to have my old vinyl record collection back in my room.
Last Friday, I pulled out After the Gold Rush from the collection and listened to it while lying on my bed. It was very relaxing. My back-to-the-future therapy.
So my suggestion, make some time this week to listen to After The Gold Rush in a quiet space, by yourself.
Last week's blog, LIST Your FAV FIVE Songswas a lot of fun! I'm so thankful to the people who participated and made Monday Monday Music a little more interactive. For the little music blog that could, I got a larger number of hits than most weeks, as I think that some readers passed along the blog to family and friends who may have cast a silent ballot at home.
The feedback I got from several people was that it was really hard to pick only five songs, and that's why I liked it so much! So if you either electronically responded or silently made your list on a napkin, I thought I'd continue the reader participation theme this week by stepping it up a notch. This week let's all put our heads together and list our five favorite albums of all-time.
As I write this on the weekend before the Monday post, I've started a brainstorm list (on recycled printer paper) of 33 albums and initially only knew one album that would will make the final five. My suggestion- just start looking through your vinyl album/CD collections, or music streaming service favorites. That should get you going.
After studying my list of 33, it came down to:
Which Beatle album(s) to pick;
Which singer-songwriter album(s) to pick;
and most importantly, what albums did I know every song and played them into my heart and soul.
Paul Hobbs texted me last week after participating in the FAV FIVE Songs blog and wrote, "It would be interesting to hear what made one choose a particular song. As music is a time machine, specific incidents and events can certainly play a role in creating a list such as this." I couldn't agree more; and so my third bullet point above and Paul's words lead me to this list of five albums that have stayed with me since "the era" of the 60's and 70's.
The White Album, The Beatles
After the Gold Rush, Neil Young
Who's Next, The Who
Late For The Sky, Jackson Browne
Buffalo Springfield Again, Buffalo Springfield
This week I will forgo why I chose these five albums as your list will also come to me without an explanation to the "time machine, specific incidents and events" that influenced your short list.
What makes your list and my list interesting, is that we may or may not have some background information of 'why' one made a specific album selection, but the mystery and our speculation may be enough to make our music week a little more intriguing. So share this blog with friends and family as it may spark an interesting conversation.
Note- For kicks, you might be interested in 'my weekend brainstorm' of 33 albums and I've included it here at the end of the blog. I made my list within a hour and then put my pen down and did that on purpose because knowing myself, it quickly would grow to fifty, then one-hundred and hey thats' a horse of a different color.
One last thing before I turn you loose to think and create your own list; I want to simply make the distinction between 'best' and 'favorite.' Citizen Kane is often ranked by critics as the best movie of all-time and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is similarly ranked as the best album of all-time. My list could have easily included Sgt. Pepper, but the emotional impact of The White Album for me comes from a place in the time machine that makes it an extra special favorite.
I'll be looking forward to making and posting Your FAV FIVE Albums playlists this week, so come back to see everyone's playlists! (note- I will create the playlists in the order I receive them on my end.)
Doug McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums
Mary Kit McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums
Paul Hobbs' FAV FIVE Albums
Ron Ouellette's FAV FIVE Albums
Desperado, Eagles (on Spotify, as the complete studio album is not available on YouTube)
Desperado (pieced together with various studio and live song versions)
Shawna McIntosh's FAV FIVE Albums
Vicki Forman's FAV FIVE Albums
Ken Forman's FAV FIVE Albums
Ron Zieman's FAV FIVE Albums
Are You Experienced • Jimi Hendrix (This link is available on Spotify as there are only a few original studio tracks from the album available on YouTube)
Note - Ron suggested I get this album as I purchased Are Your Experienced and Buffalo Springfield Again at the same time in 1968 as these two albums were the first albums I actually bought with my own money (from my paper route). It's so fitting to find it here as one of Ron's FAV FIVE along with my Buffalo Springfield Again pick above.