Most Influential Albums: Day Three

I was probably first introduced to Billy Joel on the heels of Storm Front and "We Didn't Start the Fire", but it was Greatest Hits Volume I & II that really unlocked the world of Billy Joel to me.

Storm Front was his 11th album, and so for a kid with a limited music budget it was not practical for me to acquire the entire Billy Joel library. Instead, I just went back to Greatest Hits when I was in the mood for some Billy Joel. It's pretty good for a road trip. 

I was reviewing his career a little bit and apparently he wasn't always the musical legend he is today. Columbia Records was on the verge of dropping him from the label before the release of his fifth album in 1977. The Stranger wound up peaking at #2 on the Billboard charts and selling the most copies of any album in Columbia's history. He won five Grammys between 1978 and 1980, and the rest is history.

Even though he hasn't produced anything new in 27 years, I can still discover new favorites that weren't among the chart toppers that populate Greatest Hits. A lot of them are songs that I wouldn't have appreciated when I was younger. The latest of these is "Leave a Tender Moment Alone" from An Innocent Man. Without Greatest Hits Volume I & II in my youth, I probably wouldn't be having these experiences as an adult.

Most Influential Albums: Day Two

I know part of the reason for this challenge is to show how interesting your tastes are - the more obscure alternative bands you can mention, the better. You won't find any of that here. My tastes lean pretty heavily towards Top 40 and if that makes me shallow, so be it. The main radio station we listened to growing up was KOB out of Albuquerque and that's what they played.

Whitney Houston basically ruled the world for a 10-year-period from the mid-eighties to the mid-nineties. Whitney was released in 1987, just before I hit my adolescence, so it's probably the one that had the most impact on me. I was beginning to go to school dances, so it was like, yeah, I also wanna dance with somebody (who loves me). I never had to purchase any of her albums with my own money because my dad was a big Whitney fan and so we had everything. In fact, when she did her post-Gulf War HBO concert, not only did my dad videotape it, but he also figured out a way to copy it onto a cassette tape so that we could listen to it on a car trip.

I suppose my admiration for Whitney led to a later enthusiasm for the early-90s version of Mariah Carey. When she hit the big screen with The Bodyguard and the accompanying "I Will Always Love You" in 1992, I was ALL IN for that, even though I was a junior in high school and should have been listening to Nirvana or Pearl Jam or something. I was just never had the requisite angst for grunge metal. Whitney Houston seemed to be about celebrating and appreciating life, so she was basically the opposite. I just wish her story had a happier ending.

Most Influential Albums: Day One

I'm currently on a nearly two-month hiatus from Facebook, so that's not where I saw this challenge. Rather, I saw my sister's list on Instagram (which is a platform I still don't really get, by the way) and began thinking about what would be on my hypothetical list. I still don't really know how my list will fill out. I guess I'll figure it out as I go along. I'm blatantly breaking one of the rules of the challenge, which is that you're not supposed to explain. Well, what's the fun of that, especially if you're posting it on a blog?

Where it all started...

I think we inherit a lot of our musical taste from our parents. My dad always had a ready supply of music in the car when we were growing up, so that was where a lot of the early exposure took place. When I first began expressing an interest in music, he gave me Lionel Richie. I was probably about 10 years old and listened to Can't Slow Down quite a bit. All these songs are still in my head today. I only had to go to the internet to refresh my memory on one of the eight, but it came right back as soon as I heard it. At the time, "All Night Long (All Night)" seemed to be the ultimate dance party anthem, not that I ever danced. Can't Slow Down won the Grammy in 1985 for Album of the Year, spawned a pair of #1 hits, and eventually sold in excess of 20 million copies.

My dad was like an early version of a computer algorithm, because once it was established that I liked Lionel's stuff and I was ready for another artist, he gave me the Neil Diamond and Billy Ocean. But Lionel was my first love, and a couple of years later I made my first own-money album purchase - Dancing on the Ceiling. In later years as I combed through BMG and Columbia House catalogs, I would find these things classified as "Soft Rock" or "Easy Listening" - so yeah, I basically started out as a 40-year-old man when I probably should have been listening to Def Leppard or Van Halen.

Inside Out

I was impressed yesterday by a scripture towards the end of Alma chapter 4. The Nephites have just survived an insurrection but are struggling with problems in their church and their society. Alma, the chief judge over the people and high priest over the church, decides to give up the judgement seat and devote himself to the ministry.

"And this he did that he himself might go forth among his people, or among the people of Nephi, that he might preach the word of God unto them, to stir them up in remembrance of their duty, and that he might pull down, by the word of God, all the pride and craftiness and all the contentions which were among his people, seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them." (Alma 4:19)

I thought this was interesting in light of the rioting, looting, and violence taking place around the country the past few days. I don't think any of it leads to a meaningful solution. The outcome of the election won't change anything. Legislation and government programs will be attempted but fall short. Bickering on social media only makes things worse.

Alma realized what Ezra Taft Benson expressed in his 1985 general conference talk, "Born of God":

"The Lord works from the inside out. The world works from the outside in. The world would take people out of the slums. Christ takes the slums out of people, and then they take themselves out of the slums. The world would mold men by changing their environment. Christ changes men, who then change their environment. The world would shape human behavior, but Christ can change human nature."

A month later, Benson became The President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints following the death of Spencer W. Kimball, and like Alma, became the high priest over the church.