My Ten Favorite Pieces of Music

       Music is my main thing in life. I listen to all kinds of music; everything from rock to jazz and classic to country. A friend of mine asked me one day what my ten favorite pieces of music are. Not what my favorite songs are, but what my favorite albums are of all time. I was unable to give an answer. I said that it was too hard for me since I listen to so much music (I made a list once and there were over 140 musical groups and musicians on the list), I can’t pick just ten that I would consider my favorites. So I thought about it and I was finally able to come up with ten albums that hold a very special in my life in terms of how they have affected my look on not only music, but also on life. Now there are a lot that of albums that did not make this list, but I feel that this list is a fair representation of some of my favorite albums in music over the years.  

     Jazz Suites Nos. 1 and 2 by Dmitri Shostakovich is one of the finest pieces of Russian classic music ever written. Shostakovich wrote Suite for Jazz Orchestra No. 1 in 1934 and was constructed in three movements: Waltz, Polka, and Foxtrot. The piece made its premiere on March 24, 1934 and was written for one soprano, one alto, and one tenor saxophones. Two trumpets, trombone, wood block, a snare drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, xylophone, banjo, Hawaiian guitar (lap slide guitar), a piano, violin, and double bass. The piece is still played regularly in Russia.

     Suite for Jazz Orchestra Nos. 2 was written in 1938 for the recently established State Jazz Orchestra of Victor Knushevitsky. It premiered on Novemeber 28, 1938 on Moscow Radio by the State Jazz Orchestra. During World War II, the music was lost for want to be believed for good, until a piano score of the music was discovered in 1999 by Manashir Yakubov and three movements were reconstructed and performed at a London Promenade Concert in 2000. The three reconstructed movements were: Scherzo, Lullaby, and Serenade. There is now another piece of a Suite, in an eight-movemnet written by Shostakovich has mistakenly been recorded as the Suite is in fact Suite for Variety Orchestra. The work is scored for an orchestra of 2 flutes (with piccolo), an oboe, 4 clarinets, 2 alto saxophones, 2 tenor saxophones (the first tenor doubling on soprano saxophone), a bassoon, 3 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, a tuba, timpani drums , 3 percussionists (with triangle, tambourine, side drum, bass drum, cymbal, suspended cymbal, glockenspiel, xylophone and vibraphone), guitar, harp, celesta, 2 pianos, accordion and strings.

    It is a good thing that this wonderful piece of music as recently been rediscovered, and while it may be performed under the wrong name, it is still a wonderful piece of music that gives off the feeling of winter in a city, forest, or anywhere for that matter.

      Jazz music is probably one of the best forms of music around. There have been many jazz greats and legends over the years: John Coltrane, Stan Getz, Miles Davis, and many others, but one of the most legendary and most well-known jazz artists of the 20^th Century is Dave Brubeck. With his group, The Dave Brubeck Quartet, they brought the entire pureness of jazz that had a late night city or a California staying at home night sound. And even though Brubeck has been recording since the late 1940’s, his 1959 Time Out is arguably one of his best and most well known works.

     The Dave Brubeck Quartet by 1959 had already been recording music for ten years already and had plenty of albums under their belt. When Brubeck and his fellow musicians entered the studio in 1959 to begin recording what would become Time Out, they did not intend for it to become a huge and influential success. The Dave Brubeck at this time was composed of: Dave Brubeck on piano, Paul Desmound on alto saxophone, Eugene Wright on double bass, and Joe Morello on drums.

     Unlike the rest of their albums, or any other jazz albums up to that point, the songs on the Time Out contained unusual time signatures and were mainly waltz or double-waltz time signatures. A fine example is the opening track on the album “Blue Rondo à la Turk” which was written in 12/8 and 9/8 time and the rest of the songs are in 5/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/4, and 5/4 time. The best known song on the album is “Take Five”, ( in 5/4 time) which was inteded to be a Jo Morello drum solo ended up being on the best known jazz songs in both the jazz and pop hits worlds.

     Dave Brubeck is still performing to this day with new incarnations of his quartet all around the world at the age of 89 and in the years since his phenomial 1959 album, he has released many albums, but nothing that has amounted to Time Out.

      There is no one as mysterious in the music world as Robert Johnson. There is little known about the blues legend, considering he has influenced so many musicians in both blues and rock music. Artists such as, B.B King, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Robert Cray, and many, many other musicians. Since there is so little known about the man, what the entire world only knows one thing for sure and that is his recordings and the 1990 box set released by Columbia records, The Complete Recordings, gives the best insight to the mystical legend of Robert Johnson.

       It is believed Robert Johnson was born on May 8, 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. However, there has been so speculation over the years that he was born in either 1911 or 1912 which is the first part of the mysterious legend. Johnson, his mother, and ten other siblings moved to the area of Tunica, Mississippi in 1919 and went to school from 1924 to 1927. In 1929, noted blues musician Sun House moved to the town and Johnson started following Son House around town. Upon a formal meeting between the two, House taught Johnson how to play guitar. Johnson was a celebrity in town for his harmonica and jaw harp (Jew’s harp) playing skills. Johnson moved back to Hazlehurst in 1930 with his new guitar techniques. Although he was only 18-years-old, he was already married and widowed due do his first wife, 16-year-old Virginia Travis dying shortly after child birth. Once he settled into Hazlehurst and remarried, he started traveling up and down the Delta, playing wherever he could. He wanted to be the best blues musician around, it is rumored that he went down to the Crossroads in Clarksdale, Mississippi, met the Devil and sold his soul to the devil to achieve his goal. This would become the inspiration for most of his songs.

        In early 1936, Johnson sought out H.C. Speir in Jackson, Mississippi who ran a general store and was also a talent scout. Speir put Johnson in touch with Ernie Oertle, and two men traveled to San Antonio, Texas to record the songs that Johnson had. There were three recording sessions: the first on November 23, 1936, the second on November 26, 1936, and the final on November 27, 1936. In 1937, Johnson went to Dallas, Texas and recorded more songs that he had and continued to travel the Delta. In August of 1938, Johnson was playing at a small club in Greenwood, Mississippi and started flirting with the owner’s wife. The owner sound out about it and wanted to teach Johnson a lesson. The owner offered Johnson an open bottle of whiskey, something that fellow blues musician Sonny Boy Williamson told Johnson never to do. Johnson accepted the bottle unknown that it was poisoned with strychnine and died three days later on August 16, 1938 at the age of 27.

      Johnson’s recordings were released in on 78 RPM format 1937 on the Vocalion label and where not available until 1960 when Columbia records bought the rights to the songs and released two albums King of the Delta Blues and King of the Delta Blues Vol. 2 , but the collection did not offer the 41 songs (including alternate versions) that Johnson recorded in his four different recording sessions, until 1990 with The Complete Recordings box set. The set offered all of the released versions of the songs and the alternate versions along with a complete lyrics box set.

      Considering the fact that Robert Johnson has so little truly known about him, he is an  important figure in music. The music that he recorded in his short life time has had a powerful influence on musicians in all forms of music. With this wonderful box set, it helps preserve the music of the legend and also helps keep it around for new generations to hear the music of pre-World War II music.

      1968 was when music was starting to take off with the psychedelic rock scene, the blues-rock music scene, and the new idea of concept albums developing, music was changing. And while this was the time of when the never ending instrument solos where taking flight and jam bands became more dominant on the music scene, it was mostly rock music that topped the charts. But in November of 1968, Northern Irish musician Van “The Man” Morrison released an album that was unlike any other album at the time: Astral Weeks.

      Van Morrison was not new to the music industry when he released his second album in 1968. He had been in Irish blues-rock band, Them from 1964 to 1966 and was a minor success in both Europe and the United States. When Morrison was growing tired of Them and wanted to try new forms of music he was offered a solo deal contract by Them producer Bert Berns for his new label, Bang Records. Morrison really didn’t read the contract and signed it just to breakaway from Them. Berns set up a studio band and they recorded some songs that Morrison had written. He was under the imprecation that the sessions were only rehearsals for the album, but Berns released the album without Morrison’s permission or knowledge and wanted out of his contract. Burt Berns died of heart failure in 1967 and his widow would not let Morrison out of his contract since the album, Blowin’ Your Mind, had the top ten hit single “Brown Eyed Girl”. Morrison hated the song and the album and still to this day does not consider it his proper debut solo album. After a court battle, Morrison went with the first record company that would sign him and ended up with Warner Brothers Records. Warner Brothers allowed him the artist freedom that he always and said he could release any type of album that he wanted to.

        For his first album with Warner, Morrison decided he wanted to explore new musical forms and didn’t want to release another pop music oriented album. Morrison met with producer Lewis Merenstein and asked him to assemble a band for him while he wrote some music. Merenstein brought, Jay Berliner on guitar, Richard Davis on double bass, Connie Kay on drums, Warren Smith Jr. on percussion and vibraphone, and John Payne on flute and soprano saxophone. The band met up at the studio and began rehearsing the songs with Morrison on vocal on guitar. Morrison only had eight songs that he had written, but there were enough songs for an album if the songs were extended out. Recording took place over two days: one with the band and Morrison recorded live in the studio and the second with orchestral overdubs. The album was considered rock but it wasn’t a rock album. It had contents of jazz, blues, folk, rock and R&B to it. The album sold very poorly and did not make the charts.

      In the years since its release, Astral Weeks has become a huge influence among many well known people including Elvis Costello, Steven Van Zandt, actor Johnny Depp, and numerous other musicians in rock, jazz, blues, and every other musical form has citied the album as a big influence. The album is regarded as one of the best in music history ad is found on many “best of” lists, including this one, and is almost like a religious experience when ever the album is played.

      People deal with divorce many different ways. Some people will find someone new and start all over again, some will have a hard time and maybe hard to motivate to get over it, and some will try to find items to help make them happier. Bob Dylan dealt with the issue of divorce by releasing an album called Blood on the Tracks on January 17, 1975 and it showed a more emotional side to Dylan, a side that not many people would have expected for the singer.

     Bob Dylan was very well known during the 1960s as the “voice of the people” for his protest songs. But in the 1970s Dylan took on a new form of music, one that consisted of his rock style, but also had some country music aspects to them. Album sales and reviews were fairly stale for Dylan in the early 1970s and were also having problems at home wit his wife, Sara Dylan. The couple separated in 1974 and Dylan was so over come by separation that his songs become very personal, something he always tried to stay away from when it came to his music.

      The songs on Blood on the Tracks are some of Bob Dylan’s best. The opening track “Tangled Up in Blue” was one of the first Dylan songs to tell a story of people as opposed to his previous songs. Most of the songs told stories of people and the problems in their life with the significant other and the life that they are living. The songs could be of a somber mood and some could also be harsher. Songs like “Idiot Wind” attacked a person and how stupid and juvenile a person can be. And a song like “If You See Her, Say Hello” showed how hard it is for people to get over problems in a marriage.

     Dylan has stated many times that the album and the songs on the album have nothing to do with his marriage to Sara. However his son, Jakob Dylan has said: “The songs are my parents talking.” Any listen to the album one can tell that the songs are about the problems of lost love and separation that people face everyday. And it may be wrong to like an album that deals with the problems of a person’s life, but it is everyday life.

     The 1980s was a terrible decade for music (except for The Smiths). There were way too many bands and only a few were good. You could not turn a radio on without hearing a Casio keyboard or a drum machine on a song. A lot of the music that was being produced was so over produced in its production and all the music sounded the same after a while. An Irish new wave band from Dublin called U2 would change the music of the 1980s and the music of the future with their album, The Unforgettable Fire.

     U2 made their debut in the music world in 1980 with their album Boy. The album had a sound that was new in new wave music and was a huge success in both Ireland and the United Kingdom, with mild success in the United States. The band composed of Bono (Paul Hewson) on vocal, The Edge (David Evans) on guitar and harmony backing vocals, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums. 1981 saw the band’s second album October, an album about God and Christianity, and War in 1983 which dealt of the issues of war and the conflicts I Ireland at the time. For their fourth album, U2 wanted to make a new kind of record, one that their fans would ever expect from them. For this they enlisted Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to produce the album.

     Work on the album started at Windmill Studios in Dublin, but the band and studio crew were not satisfied with the studios atmosphere, so Slane Castle in County Heath was chosen as the recording studio for the album where the band and crew lived form May to August of 1984. Slane had big rooms which gave great sound quality for recording and the atmosphere of the castle was relaxed and experimental. The songs on the album were of a deeper, more emotional level than the first three albums. The songs dealt of love, personal hardship, drug addiction, and heroes of years past.

     When the album was released on October 1, 1984 it was very well received and helped launch U2 superstardom and resulted in a huge and successful tour all around the world. A performance at the 1985 Live Aide concert made U2 a household name and helped with album sells and made the albums two hit singles; “Pride (In The Name of Love)” and “The Unforgettable Fire” huge radio hits. The success of the album made U2 the band of the 80s and could only move up from there.

      In the years since the albums release, U2 has achieved stardom that many bands can only dream of. But its there 1984 album that holds a place in so many people hearts and is an album that has a first love, hot summer nights, and a yearning feel all on one album.

       Grunge was the music that really needed to happen in the early 1990s. It helped to get rid of all the pop, hair metal, and new wave music of the 1980s that was dominating the charts. Grunge was always supposed to be a new underground form of music and had been around for a few years with bands like Alice in Chains, Soundgarde, and Mudhoney leading the way for the new music coming from Seattle, Washington. In 1991, after grunge had been around for a few years, it was brought into the man stream media by two albums: Nirvana’s second album Nevermind album and Pearl Jam’s debut album Ten.

       Peal Jam formed out of grunge band Mother Love Bone in 1990 after singer Andy Wood passed away. Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament formed the band along with Mike McCready on guitar and Soundgarden drummer Matt Cameron on drums. They recorded a demo tape of music that Gossard wroteand were looking for a singer. Jack Irons the drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers suggested his friend Eddie Vedder in California. The tape was sent to him and he recorded lyrics that he had written, sent the tape back to Seattle and become the singer of the new band. Matt Cameron still had to perform with Soundgarden and had to leave. He was replaced by Dave Krusen and named the band Mookie Blaylock, after the basketball player of the same name. They started to get gigs playing with the other Seattle faction bands at the time and were signed to Epic records in early 1991. They began to work on the album and were ready for immediate release; however the band had to change their name because the record company thought the band may get sued for using Blaylock’s name. They came up with Pearl Jam and Ten was released on August 27, 1991.

       The album received mixed reviews. Many hailed the album, while some claimed the band to be a rip-off of Mother Love Bone. But when Nirvana’s album became huge when the album was released, Pearl Jam’s album started to receive the same kind of attention and started a feud between the two bands as to how was better. The album dealt with serious issues that included: depression, homelessness, abuse, broken relationships, religion, and suicide. The tour for the album was a huge success with Pearl Jam selling out every night no matter where they played. By 1992, all of the albums songs were being played on the radio in heavy rotation and four of the songs; “Alive”, “Even Flow”, “Jeremy”, and “Oceans” all became number one hits.

       The album has sold very well in the past 20 years and continues to still this day. Even though grunge died out in the mid 90s, Pearl Jam never stopped and is still touring and releasing albums and has all the original members in the band still, with Matt Cameron back on the drums. And while Pearl Jam may not be as popular as they were in 1991, they are still one of the most important and influential bands of all time.

      The 1960s was a time of change, especially in music. When the British Invasion happened in late 1963 and early 1964, it got rid of American pop singers that had dominated the Billboard charts for the past three years. And in 1965 when Bob Dylan played an electric set at the Newport Jazz Festival that year, it showed that music was taking a completely new turn. Music was becoming a lot more experimental the following year thanks to albums like Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys, Revolver by The Beatles, and Aftermath by The Rolling Stones. 1967 looked like a something really new was going to come to music, but no one really knew how much it was going to be so radical from what they were used to. A new band from Los Angeles would prove this with their eponymous album, simply called The Doors.

       The Doors consisted of Jim Morrison on vocals, Ray Manzarek on keyboards, Robby Krieger on guitar, and John Densmore on drums. The group formed in 1965 and played at L.A. clubs like the London Fog and the Whiskey a Go Go on the Sunset Stripe. In the summer of ’66 they signed Jac Holzman’s Elektra Records to record an album. The album was recorded from August 24-31, 1966 at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood with a majority album being recorded live with very minimal overdubs. When the album was released on January 4, 1967, it was the first album released that year and was unlike any other album up to that point.

      The Doors music was dark and moody and was something that not many people would listen to in early 1967. The album was censored by the record company on two songs, “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” omitting the line “she get high” and “The End” erasing a part in the song were Morrison ways the f-word other and over again. (Both have been restored on the CD releases of the album.) Songs on the album reached over the three minute time length for most songs at the time and despite this, the album produced a number hit song for the band in the summer of ’67: “Light My Fire.” The song ran at 7:08 on the album and in order for it to become a hit song it had to be cut down to 2:52 for radio air play. The song helped The Doors become a huge success just about seven months after their first album was released and performed “Light My Fire” on The Ed Sullivan Show later that year. When the appeared on Sullivan’s show they were asked to omit the line “girl we couldn’t get much higher”, that band said that they would be willing to, however they didn’t and were banned from ever playing on Sullivan’s show.

      The Doors would last as a band until Jim Morrison’s death on July 3, 1971 at the age of 27 and would be hailed as one of the greatest bands of all time with all their albums hailed as classics, especially The Doors. Since the album was released over 40 years ago, it is regarded as one of the best albums in music and has inspired a whole new generation of musicians to come.

       Every now and again, an artist comes along that is so new and unlike any thing else available before or since. Jeff Buckley is a fine example, with his guitar playing and song writing skills, his wonderful voice that had never been heard in music before and his whole persona was unlike anything being recorded or released in the 1990s. Even though he only released one official album due to his tragic untimely death, Grace is an album that stands as one the best musical efforts ever recorded and is one of only albums to emotionally move people.

      Jeff Buckley grew up in Orange County, California and was the son of 1960s folk cult singer, Tim Buckley. Jeff did not grow up with his dad because his parents divorced when he was a baby, and only met Tim twice before he died of an overdose in 1975 at the age of 28. Buckley was always attracted to music every since he was a kid and had a great musical gift, something that many saw he inherited from his father. In 1990 he moved to New York and lived in the Greenwich Village scene where he met Gary Lucas and the two performed around New York performing cover songs and songs written by Buckley and Lucas. Jeff went solo in 1992 and got a local residency at a local coffeehouse called Sin-é. Buckley would perform with just a blonde colored Fender Telecaster and would sing songs he wrote and cover songs ranging from his favorite singer, Billie Holiday, his favorite band Led Zeppelin, and songs by artist like Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen. He was attracting big crowds at the coffeehouse and record company A&R men started showing up, hoping to sign the young musician. He settled on Colombia Records a legendary label that had been around since 1888, who was now owned by Sony Music, and in December 1993 they released his first EP, Live at Sin-é. The EP receieved moderatley good reviews and left critics and fans wondering what his offical album wouls sound like.

      Buckley started work on the album in late 1993 at Bearsville Recording Studio in Woodstock, New York. He enlisted Nirvana engineer Andy Wallace to help prodcue the album and set up an band consisting of Mick Grondahl on bass and Matt Johnson on drums. The album was recorded in a time span of about four months with the three msuicans live and then vocal, orchestra, and other instrument overdubs. The album was ready for release until Buckley asked his old friend Michael Tighe to join as rhythm guiatarist in his back up band. In April of 1994 Columbis sent Buckley and his band out on tour before the album was even released, something that is very rarely done in the music industry.

      When the album was released on August 23, 1994, it received graet reviews and was hailed as on eof the best albums of the year, however the album sold very poor just making it to #149 on the Billboard album charts. The album had three cover songs: “Lilac Wine”, Janet Baker’s version of “Corpus Christi Carol”, and Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. The rest of the songs on the album were Buckley compostions or songs he wrote with Gary Lucas or his band members. The album resulted in only one hit song, “Last Goodbye”, which went to #19 on the song charts and had a video of MTV that received heavy playing rotation.

      Buckley and his band did non stop touring for all around the world to promote the album until 1996 when the band took a year off until they where ready to start any new projects. Jeff moved to Memephis, Tennessee in 1997 and started work on what would be his seocnd album My Sweetheart the Drunk. On May 29, 1997 Jeff and his roadie where waiting for the rest of his band to arrive from New York to work on the album, so they went to go find the recording the studio but never found it so instead they went to the Wolf River, part of the Mississippi river, and Buckley went fro a swim in the water with all his clothes on. His roadie went up the car to get something and when returned, Buckley was nowhere to be found. He called the police and the search began for Jeff. His body was found three days later, washed up on the shore of Beale Street in downtown Memphis. It was reported that he was sucked in by a tugboat current and drowned. He was 30-years-old.

Grace was Jeff Buckley’s only official album release, what would be his second album released posthumously the following year as Sketches for (My Sweetheart the Drunk). Since his death Grace has sold millions of copies worldwide and is regarded as one of the most important albums to be released in music. Jeff Buckley’s only real album is something truly a wonderful piece of music and could bring tears to a glass eye. And while he never reached full potential of more music, it leaves one to wonder what the future held for his music.

     Third albums for rock bands are their make or break point in the music industry. It is the album that determines wither or not the album will stay with the record company or be dropped due to lack of interest from the general public. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are no exception to this. After the mild successful albums; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers in 1976 and 1978s You’re Gonna Get It! Petty and his band really had to up the ante for their next effort. Which sounds simple enough, the only problem is when you are brought into a legal dispute with your old record company and you have to file for bankruptcy.

       Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, composed of Tom Petty on vocals and guitar, Mike Campbell on lead guitar, Benmont Tench on piano and keyboards, Ron Blair on bass, and Stan Lynch on drums, originally signed with Shelter Records which was owned by ABC Records in 1976 with whom they released two albums. Petty & the Heartbreakers was Shelter’s biggest selling band on the label. In early 1979, MCA Records bought the rights to ABC Records, which included Shelter, and was to own the copyrights to all the artists songs on the label. Petty found out the company’s plan and decided he was going to sue MCA to own the rights to his songs. He struggled to break away from MCA; and was forced to file for bankruptcy. But while all this was going, Petty and the Heartbreakers had to record and release a new album by the end of the year. But since he was suing his old record company he had no producer, so Petty sought out Jimmy Iovine to the job.

      Jimmy Iovine was very well known in the music business for his engineer work on Bruce Springsteen’s third album Born to Run and his production work on Patti Smith’s third album Easter. The Heartbreakers wanted the sound similar to the sound on Patti Smith’s song “Because the Night”, a song she wrote with Springsteen. The first thing Iovine did was bought the band all new instruments and soon recording on the album started. But Petty was still in a legal dispute with MCA and was being threatened that MCA would take everything that he and his band had recorded and would destroy the master tapes of the songs. They also said they would make sure that he would never record with another record company ever again and would end his career for the good. Petty won’t give up and continued to battle the record company while recording his album. He would have legal meeting in the morning and afternoon with MCA and would record during the night with the rest of the band. Once the record company saw that he wasn’t going to back down, it resulted in huge media attention and a high demand for the new album. Once the record company saw the amount of money they could make off of this whole ordeal, they negotiated a deal to where he could keep all his songs, release the album on a subsidiary label, Backstreet, and would have complete control over his music for now own. Petty agreed and Damn the Torpedoes was released on October 19, 1979.

     When the album was first released it received rave reviews in all the music presses and went double platinum in the first month it was released and spent seven weeks on the Billboards albums chart at #2, being kept off the #1 spot by Pink Floyd’s The Wall. There was a huge tour of America and Europe in early 1980 to support Damn the Torpedoes and resulted in the bands playing arenas and where being hailed the biggest and best musical group along with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Every song on Damn the Torpedoes received heavy radio air play and four of the album’s songs; “Refugee”, “Here Comes My Girl”, “Don’t Do Me Like That”, and “Even the Losers” were all top 20 hits of the Billboard charts in 1979 and 1980 and are now regarded some of Petty and the Heartbreakers best songs.

      The circumstance in which the album was recorded and released is something that would never happen now, and never did happen again in the music business. With its success, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are regarded as America’s truest rock’n’roll band and is still actively touring and recording to this day with Petty, Campbell, Tench, and Blair still in the band and show no real signs of slowing down or stopping anytime soon.

      This list is just ten of my favorites; of course there are many more albums that hold a very important place in my life, but there is not enough room to list them all. And with the discovery of new albums and music, I’m not real sure if there could ever be a real definitive list, but for now this will do until something new comes along and possibly takes the place of one of these albums.