15 Life-Changing Albums

I decided to start doing all those Facebook things over here, because it feels more like writing when I do it here. Which is silly, but whatever.

The challenge is to come up with 15 "life-changing" albums...but after doing this list I see that some of these were life-changing, but some were soundtracks to major changes in my life. Regardless, here's the list, minus the tagging:

1. Tanya Tucker, TNT: It was the first album I ever bought for myself, and it was life-changing less for the music (though she does a rendition of "Send Me" that's wonderful) than for the album cover, which is the primary reason I bought it. Picture this: the LP cover opens up like a centerfold, and there's Tanya in a red leather jumpsuit (halter, I think), with the microphone cord snaking between her legs. Spot the baby dyke, buying the LP at Gateway Village--what was that? Fred Meyer Music, by then? 

2. The First Saturday Night Live Cast Album: One or both of my sisters bought me this, I think for Christmas, and I can still recite dialogue.

3. The Cars. I belonged to the RCA Record Club, and I ordered a David Gates album as one of my freebies for joining. The muses intervened, and sent me this record inside the David Gates sleeve. Thank you, o muses.

4. Pete Townshend, Empty Glass: I perpetually forgot to mail back those stupid record club postcards to say I didn't want the month's selection, and this one came. And instead of sending it back, I listened to it. Interesting, raw rock and roll. My taste is nothing if not eclectic.

5 & 6. Hair (Broadway cast recording) / Fame (soundtrack). It's a tie. And this is sheerly for the number of times I listened to these, drama geek that I was. And to whomever stole my cassette copy of the Hair movie soundtrack from a party in Walla Walla sometime during 1982/1983, that was mean.

6 & 7. Patti Smith, Horses and Easter (tie). My first girlfriend introduced me to a lot of music, but Patti was definitely the most life-changing. I had seen her years before on Saturday Night Live, her voice shot, and I didn't understand it. Then I heard these albums and I got it. If you ever want to get in touch with your inner wild woman, play these. 

8. Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams. You will begin to note a trend: strong, independent women. Hmmmm....

9. Indigo Girls, Indigo Girls: Ah, the trend continues. 

10. Melissa Etheridge, Brave and Crazy. First saw her on VH1 and said, "Hey, there's a dyke on that there TV!"

11. k.d. lang, Ingenue. Loved the early albums, too, but Ingenue was in my Walkman for months during a particularly turbulent time in my life. There's something about k.d. lang's rich, powerful voice right in your ear...oh, and I saw the second night of her tour at a small theater.

12. Two Nice Girls, Chloe Liked Olivia. Witty, clever, eclectic. They rocked. The antidote to the melancholy I indulged in with lang.

13. The Traveling Wilburys Vol. I. If for no other reason than this list needs a few more guys.

14. Susan Tedeschi, Just Won't Burn. And we now return to our regularly scheduled trend. Her huge voice has been described as a blend of Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt. I first saw her when she opened for Keb' Mo in Seattle years ago. 

15. Brandi Carlisle, Brandi Carlisle. Again, the soundtrack for a major transition in my life. Standing on the subway platform listening to "Follow" on my mp3 player. If you haven't heard her, check out her second album The Story. A voice that makes your heart ache. 

Great Blue Heron

Two weeks ago, you stood at the edge of the small pond on the edge of campus, wings half-stretched akimbo in the sun. I almost didn't see you as I drove past, just a gray shape out of the corner of my eye. But something made me turn around and go back, and I parked in the student lot alongside the path that winds past the pond, and sat on the grass, admiring your gawky elegance. A student sat on the other side, crossed legs, upturned hands resting on knees, meditating.

When I saw you again on Tuesday, did you know? Did you know that boy was beneath the water? Were you waiting for the search team to reach that spot? You gave me such joy when I saw you then, again, my heart lifting at the sight of you against the backdrop of daffodils and lawn.

Now, I'm afraid to look, afraid I'll imagine what might have happened on his walk home early Sunday morning, back to the residence hall that he was to move out of in only a few weeks. Afraid to think of the family that still awaits him. Afraid to think of fellow students, in shock, confronting mortality in a way 18-year-old Americans, particularly those at a private college on a hill, seldom have to.

This Long and Winding Road...

...that leads who the hell knows where...

Well, not quite totally unknown. I took a job in what folks around here call The North Country. It's a tenure-track job at a state school that has traditionally offered two-year agricultural and technical programs, but is moving more and more to four-year-degrees, though none yet in the humanities. I'm really impressed by the faculty and administrators I've met, as well as the great students, and I like their attitude toward writing.

And, clearly they liked mine. So there you are.

So, I'll be moving northward this summer, and I'm really looking forward to living within walking distance of campus. The search for an apartment has just started, but signs are good--it's even cheaper to live there than here, so I'll be able to have a good-sized place all to myself.

What, you may ask, does this mean for me and the GF? Well, it offered a time to reassess and ask ourselves what we really wanted. And, what I wanted didn't gibe with what she wanted. So, another twist in the road. I'm working through my seven stages of grief (chocolate is one of those, right?), but when my head is clear I know this really is for the best.

That's when my head is clear.