Influential Album Day 7

Day 7

This is the seventh post in a series of ten documenting the albums I consider influential. My first post, found here, provides some insight into the rationale behind this journey. The first album I selected was the Soundtrack to Oliver, which I discovered in 1973 at about age 8. My second choice can be found here and was The Cars Debut album. The third selection was All the World's A Stage from Canadian band Rush (found here). The fourth, Duran Duran's Rio is (here) and the firth, Pink Floyd's Wish you were Here is (here).

So far, I have been moving chronologically through my top 10 albums. I left off in 1985, with the release of Peter Gabriel’s So. 1985 is also important because it marks the arrival of Compact Discs into the mainstream market. Sure, they were officially available for purchase in 1982, but it wasn’t until 1985 that they became reasonably affordable. I spent $500 on my first player (which was portable and had a rechargeable case - with a 1 hour battery life).

I was an early adopter to this technology, so there were not many CD choices available. Many artists did not release their catalogue because they still had to figure out the financial implications. Few artists predicted this technological evolution - David Bowie did - his whole catalogue was released almost immediately. Go figure, the Starman was a forward thinker!

Between 1986 and 1991, I began collecting CD’s. I was attending university on a part-time basis, working nearly full-time and, for most of the time, living at home. Consequently, I had plenty of disposable income. This was also a time when the Columbia House Record Club began offering 10 CD’s for a penny (with the commitment to buy 4 more at regular prices).

Additionally, CD rental outlets at the University of Western Ontario and the Software Library began to make collections available. I would rent discs and make copies on tape. It was like Netflix for music to me. I was also buying discs - probably two a week. I immersed myself in music and had headphones on all the time. I went through phases - deep dives into the catalogues of so many artists - The Beatles, Queen, Dire Straits, or genres - blues, jazz, big band swing, southern rock...I even tried to explore opera.

I was tempted to put the compact disc logo up as my choice for pick #7. Then, I remembered Achtung Baby! - which I played almost daily for a whole year. It was when I lived in Brampton. I was working at East Side Mario’s in Oakville, and my girlfriend (now wife) was attending Sheridan College. It was the first time we had lived together. The lyrics were incredibly dark because they were written during a time when the guitar player, Edge, was going through a painful divorce. It was the perfect angsty stuff for a brooding twenty-something who was feeling out of step with the world. I had an English degree that was expensive and seemingly useless. In fact, I hung it on the wall of the bathroom as a sign of disdain. I was still a server/bartender at a terrible restaurant and, foolishly in retrospect, felt that I was old.

The drive from Brampton to Oakville was about 45 minutes and perfect for cranking that disc --- what a murderer's row of songs for that journey...

Zoo Station
Even Better than the Real Thing
One
Until the End of the World
Whose going to Ride your Wild Horses
So Cruel
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Tryin' to throw your arms around the World
Ultraviolet
Acrobat
Love is Blindness

There are some who believe that The Joshua Tree was the best U2 record...but they are mistaken. Song for Song - I'll put Achtung Baby! up against it any day.

At first I thought my love for it was due to the awful funk I was in - the record spoke to me. I've revisited it and, I still think it is one of the great records of that decade.

Things got better for me soon after- A return to school and Teacher's College were around the corner for me - but, I didn't see that coming at the time, and I needed this bitter soundtrack.