Top 10 Coming of Age Albums (Part 2 of 10)

Pt. II

On to the second album in my top 10! Let me just start by saying that this one is huge! There was a time between the ages of 13 and 15 that this band rivaled my love for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The group is Nirvana. The album is "Nevermind".

Nirvana: "Nevermind"

Hearing Nirvana for the first time for me was a defining moment in my life. Just like when I heard RHCP's "Under the Bridge", I remember exactly where I was when I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I was again a passenger in a vehicle listening to the radio. It was 1992 and I was 12 years old sitting in the back seat of our Dodge Ram van. I can't remember the what station was that we were listening to but I had tuned out whatever was playing. Then I heard the opening guitar riff to SLTS.

It was almost funky in its rhythm, kind of a "Wild Thing" strumming pattern (think the Troggs, not Ton Loc). The guitar was raw and brittle sounding and I was immediately drawn in. Then all of a sudden Dave Grohl's drum fill enters the picture and BOOM! Everything is to 11 and rocking hard! It was so wicked sounding to me at the time. I remember feeling a huge rush of adrenaline, like I had just been rudely awaken from a nap followed by an urge to go out and break something. And then as soon as it boiled over, it simmered down to a quiet, steady pulse. Kurt Cobain's haunting vocals were at the same time dark and melodic. I could have recited the melody after the first listen. The chorus comes in like an explosion and his voice shreds like knives and you get worked up all over again! It goes on like this for just over 5 minutes. It was pure excitement. I had never heard anything like it.

This sort of loud, soft, loud dynamic was something Nirvana would use again and again in future recordings. In my opinion, it always worked well for them and I never really tired of it. It's a dynamic they stole from the Pixies and in years ahead would be stolen from them by countless other bands like Radiohead ("Creep") and Green Day ("Longview").

I purchased "Nevermind" right away and it took no time at all to grow on me. I loved every song on that record. And I mean I absolutely loved every single aspect of every single song on that record! I had just started playing guitar when Nirvana got a hold of me and after I learned two power chords, I could play along to the whole record. In years to come I would have an internal conflict on whether or not to take the Nirvana path and write short, edgy, and loud punk rock songs or to take the RHCP path of embracing black music, classic rock, and guitar solos. I would ultimately choose the latter.

Whenever I bring up the importance of Nirvana in shifting pop culture, I always have to defend them from naysayers. I argue against the sentiment that they were only popular because of the angst ridden figure that Kurt Cobain played and the tragic end that he would meet. To that I say "bullshit"! While that may be true in some cases (Sublime, Blind Melon) Nirvana and Kurt Cobain weren't one of them. They showed me that you don't have to be a virtuoso musician to make powerful music. They carried the underground punk rock ethos of their forebearers in to the mainstream. They infiltrated pop culture like a disease and single handedly erased a whole genre of trivial music (hair metal) while at the same time knocking Michael Jackson out of the #1 position on the Billboard top 100. Not bad for a trio of greasy punks from small town Pacific Northwest! And to me their songs were great. Cobain's music and lyrics were completely original in their strange beauty and darkness. He wrote catchy, pop songs that were both gloomy and bright at the same time. There has yet to be another band or artist to rival the importance of Kurt Cobain and Nirvana.

"Nevermind" to me is an all time classic record not just for the 90's and rock music but for any era and genre. I would go on to fall in love with their next album "In Utero". An album that would take time to grow on me but would ultimately get more plays in time by me than its predecessor. I was 14 on the bus ride home from school when the radio DJ announced that Kurt Cobain had commited suicide. The next day at school kids would make jokes about it while I was genuinely heartbroken and sad. More than any other artist that met their end too soon with the exception of Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain is the one who's music I've missed the most. I loved Nirvana! Still do......

Jace

Top 10 Coming of Age Albums (Part 1 of 10)

Pt 1

Ok, so in my last blog I talked about the songs that take me back to my teenage, or what I consider my "coming of age" years. I had mentioned that some of those particular songs weren't favorites of mine, they really didn't do much to shape me as a musician or as a person in general. Although they hold a special place in my heart, the songs that I had mentioned were and are, with some exceptions, pure nostalgia.

After writing the blog I got to thinking, "What were the songs, scratch that, albums that shaped me not only as a musician but as a person?" Which albums released during my coming of age period most greatly affected me? Which ones had the biggest impact on the way I approached writing, playing, and listening to music? Which ones influenced all aspects of my life big and small from my attitude towards the world around me to the way I dressed and wore my hair?

This is a top 10. I could probably do top 20. I could definitely do top 30 if I include albums of the past 10 years as well. But, I'll keep it a top 10 between the years of 1991 to 1999. Here we go:

1. Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"

BSSM came out in 1991 when I was 11 years old. At the time of the album's release I was completely unaware of the band. I think I owned 3 CD's at the time: A "DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince" album (don't ask me which one), Michael Jackson's "Dangerous," and an obscure, and bizarre reggae/rap album by an artist named "Papa San". Anyone remember Papa San? Didn't think so. Needless to say, my taste in music was pretty bad in retrospect. It didn't go much past kitsch and novelty. But hey, I was a little kid! What were you listening to when you were 11?

My first encounter with the "Chili Peppers" came a when I was about 12 years old. I was riding in the car with my oldest brother, Jared. I can't remember where we were off to but, I remember our exact location when I first heard "Under the Bridge". From the first six notes of John Frusciante's opening guitar riff, I was immediately captivated. It sounded so raw and real. It was as if he was playing in the back seat of Jared's brown Celebrity Station Wagon. All of the rock music that I had experienced prior to the Chili Peppers to me was slick, overproduced Hollywood BS. Layers upon layers of guitars, big boomy drums and singers singing from their dicks instead of their hearts and souls. I felt no connection to that music whatsoever and was completely uninterested.

"Under the Bridge" felt to me like all of the 60's soul, British Invasion and Garage Rock songs that my Dad listened to and played on guitar. It sounded personal and it moved me. It was apparent that Anthony Kiedis wasn't a great singer right from the beginning. But I listened to every lyric that he sang and I loved the sound of his voice. It was a heartfelt ballad about the pain of life as a drug addict with an undertone of straight up funk and Kiedis projected pure emotion in his vocal delivery. I fell in love with that song after just one listen. I remember asking Jared, "Who is this?" In which he replied, "The Red Hot Chili Peppers". "The what?!" I asked. I thought he was kidding.

A year would pass before I would own the Blood Sugar Sex Magik CD. But once it was in my hands, it was all over for me. I was a rabid fan, listening to all 17 tracks of the CD over and over again on a daily basis. That album alone turned me on to artists like Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, the Clash, and Sly and the Family Stone just to name a few. BSSM pretty much single handedly gave me the inspiration to pick up the guitar and still inspires my music today. It would be impossible to overestimate the influence that the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blood Sugar Sex Magik have had on me over the years.

What is your numero uno? Please share!

Jace

Note: Please forgive my grammatical errors, my editor is out of town!