List 25 albums that had such a profound effect on you they changed your life or the way you looked at it. They sucked you in and took you over for days, weeks, months, years. These are the albums that you can use to identify time, places, people, emotions. These are the albums that no matter what they were thought of musically shaped your world. When you finish, tag 15 others, including me. Make sure you copy and paste this part so they know the drill. Get the idea now? Good. Tag, you’re it!

The challenge: do this in fifteen minutes; as if nobody is judging your answers…

Here’s my list:

1.  The Lizard – Saigon Kick
2. Blood Sugar Sex Magik – Red Hot Chili Peppers
3. Core – Stone Temple Pilots
4. Pornograffitti – Extreme
5. Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
6. Traveling Without Moving – Jamiroquai
7. Continuum – John Mayer
8. 101 – Depeche Mode
9. Master of Puppets – Metallica
10. Images and Words – Dream Theater
11. The Mission – Ennio Morricone
12. S.C.I.E.N.C.E. – Incubus
13. Grace – Jeff Buckley
14. Dr. Feelgood – Motley Crue
15. Raising Sand – Alison Krauss and Robert Plant
16. The Fragile – Nine Inch Nails
17. Happenstance – Rachael Yamagata
18. Nothing Like The Sun – Sting
19. III Sides to Every Story – Extreme
20. MTV Unplugged in New York – Nirvana
21. Dark Side of the Moon – Pink Floyd
22. The Bends – Radiohead
23. Slave to the Grind – Skid Row
24. The Joshua Tree – U2
25. Purple – Stone Temple Pilots

They’re obviously in no particular order. Amazing how listing these memories bring back memories. III Sides to Every Story is what I listened to every night when I was in BMT. Master of Puppets was my rebellion album back in secondary school. My ex let me listen to Grace and we both wept together when Jeff Buckley passed. Core had “Plush” which my first band used to jam to. I’ve learnt every bassline in Blood Sugar Sex Magik, then I learnt every bassline in Traveling Without Moving.

Go do yours and you might just remember a few things that you’ve forgotten lately.

I wish you were here, holding me tight
If I had you near, it would be alright.
I wish you were here
’cause I feel like a child tonight.

There’s rain on my window
and I can count the drops
But I can’t help feeling lonely
There’s no way I can stop

I wish you were here, holding me tight
If I had you near, it’ll make it alright.
I wish you were here
’cause I feel like a child tonight.

Each moment is a memory
Time is so unkind
Every hour filled with emptiness I can’t hide.

There’s distance between us
And you’re on my mind
As I lay here in the darkness
I can find no peace inside

I wish you were here, holding me tight
If I had you near, it would make it alright
I wish you were here
’cause I feel like a child tonight.

“Wish You Were Here”
by Fleetwood Mac

Esperanza Spalding is a 24 years old jazz bassist and singer. I don’t know about you, but a chick wielding a double bass is just too sexy.

I’ve been looking for her album, Esperanza for a long time and I finally found it.  It’s been a while since I heard jazz that is so refreshing.  Her singing is crisp and light at times, embracing and soulful at others.  The bass playing is spot on, carrying the groove deep in the pocket without being overbearing.  The arrangements are perfectly assembled and every instrument has it’s time, every note has it’s place.  

To her, its not about how great her bass chops are, or how perfectly she sings each note.  It’s about the song coming to life and in this album, every song breathes life.

For a young jazz artiste, she has so much maturity in her playing its as if she was born to play music. Even crazy-haired Pat Metheny said she had the X-factor in music.

Almost immediately after graduating from Berklee College of Music, she was hired to teach, and is one of the youngest professors in the institution’s history.

She’s definitely a musician that’s on my favorites list. And if at 24, she has already achieved so much, I’m sure she’ll share plenty more groove in the years to come.

I heart Esperanza.

Forgive me please for I know not
What I do
How can I keep inside the hurt
I know is true.

Tell me when the kiss of love
becomes a lie
That bears the scars of sin too deep
To hide behind this fear of running
unto you
Please let there be light
In this darkened room.

All the precious time have been put
To rest again
And the smile of the dawn
Brings tainted lust singing my requiem
Can I face the day when I’m tortured
In my trust
And watch it crystalize
While my salvation crumbles to dust.

Why can’t I steer this ship before
it hits the storm?
I’ve fallen into the sea but still
I swim for shore.

Tell me the kiss of love
becomes a lie
That bears the scars of sin too deep
To hide behind this fear of running
unto you
Please let there be light
In a darkened room.

“In a Darkened Room”
by
Skid Row
 

I just came back from the musical, “We Will Rock You”, and it really really rocked. As a jukebox musical, the songs are entirely made of Queen material. When the opening song Radio Ga Ga played, I felt tears welling in my eyes. Yes, I’m emo like that. And it got worse when Somebody to Love and No-One but You (Only the
Good Die Young) started playing, the latter was sung to a short black and white montage of musical greats who have passed too early including Freddie himself.

I won’t describe the whole musical, for fear of spoiling it for you if you intend to watch it sometime in some other part of the world. But as the music played, I was hit by waves and waves of memories and emotions to which I remember those songs when they were the soundtrack of my life.

Performing Crazy Little Thing Called Love with my band.

Listening to Somebody to Love (over and over) when I was rejected by a girl I had a crush on.

Making out with a chick in the car, in the middle of the pouring rain with the radio playing A Kind of Magic.

Sweet Memories.

Tonight I was reminded of how powerful Queen’s music still is, and how much it has been a part of my life. The musical was truly magical as it really brought their music to life, and made it accessible to the masses, especially the current pop-consuming generation who never had real exposure to Queen’s music like folks of my generation.

Tonight I was reminded of the simpler and happier days of my life and how I’ll always hold on to those memories and the music that played along with it.

Sometimes I get the feelin’
I was back in the old days long ago,
When we were kids, when we were young,
Things seemed so perfect – you know,
The days were endless, we were crazy, we were young.
The sun was always shinin’ – we just lived for fun.
from “These Are The Days of Our Lives”
- Queen, “Innuendo”, 1991

Freddie, Brian, John and Roger… Thank you for the music.

Visit the official musical website for more info.