Posted in: Musicouching by DerekH on October 7th, 2008 | 0 Comments
Derek Hart describes his list of five special albums from the rock / pop era that everybody ought to own in their lifetime.
It is safe to say that music has played a fairly significant role in my life.
I have participated in the music programs of almost every school I attended, from elementary through college, playing tenor and baritone saxophone in marching, concert, and jazz bands. I even tried playing the string bass in high school for a year.
Like countless millions of others, popular music, including Rock, Pop, and R&B, has made an immense impact on me, starting when I was around five years old and listening to people like Elton John, Carole King, the Spinners and the O’Jays while lying in my bed at night, listening to AM stations on my green box radio.
After nearly forty years of my mother playing me her records, buying cassette tapes and CDs, and watching MTV and VH1, I have made a list of five albums that, in my opinion, everyone should own in their lifetime.
Let me go ahead and reveal my list, starting with two albums by a group in which it would be holy blasphemy to not include any work by them
Remember that scene in “The Wizard Of Oz” when everything changes from black and white to color?
This record gives the exact same effect – it marks the point in rock / pop history where things go from black and white to color. It even manifests itself on the album cover.
Chosen as the number one album of all time by Rolling Stone, this set of 13 songs, from the title track segueing into Ringo Starr’s feel-good “With A Little Help From My Friends”, to John Lennon’s “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds”, to Paul McCartney’s senior citizen ode “When I’m 64″, made the Beatles into the legendary iconic gods that they remain today, and got them out of their “yeah yeah yeah” mind-set once and for all. Oh, and it issued in the “Summer Of Love” period to boot.
BEST SONG No doubt John Lennon’s “A Day In The Life”; a true symphony if there ever was one. The way the orchestra crescendos at the end to a big climax, then that huge piano chord – it was perhaps the greatest ending to an album ever. All coming from John reading the morning paper!
And to think that the idea for this album came from a desire to compete with Brian Wilson’s Beach Boy masterpiece, “Pet Sounds”.
