Red and I met because of record albums. She was tired of hauling two boxes of vinyl LPs from one house to another, so after her latest move she looked on AOL for people who listed vinyl collections among their hobbies.
“I’ll give them to you, no charge, I just want to get rid of them,” she said. “Are you interested?”
I was. But the more we talked, I became interested in more than just the records, and by the time we got together to exchange the two boxes, it was more like a first date than a transaction.
The rest is history, and her ploy backfired. Instead of two boxes to move next time, there are dozens. On the other hand, she personally won’t have to haul them.
In other words, music is an essential oil. It soothes the savage breast and moves the wild thing and all that.
The first major purchase of my life was the $2.74 I plunked down to buy, of all things, Ballads of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler. I have kept purchasing albums at a clip where I’m sure I now could go several months playing them day and night before I started repeating.
But some do find their way onto my turntable or CD player more often than the others, and as we approach my 70th, here are 70 of those most beloved albums (in no particular order — I only numbered them to make sure I hit 70).
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles
2. Wildflowers – Tom Petty
3. Smile – The Beach Boys
4. Conversations – Sara Groves
5. Judee Sill
6. Kongos – John Kongos
7. John B. Sebastian
8. Parallelograms – Linda Perhacs
9. On the Threshold of a Dream – The Moody Blues
10. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
11. Uncle Charlie and His Dog Teddy – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
12. But Not For Me (Live at the Pershing) – Ahmad Jamal Trio
13. The Concert at Carnegie Hall – Benny Goodman
14. Lil Beethoven – Sparks
15. Abbey Road – The Beatles
16. The Beatles (White Album)
17. Heart Food – Judee Sill
18. Blue – Joni Mitchell
19. Ladies of the Canyon – Joni Mitchell
20. Love and Theft – Bob Dylan
21. Will the Circle Be Unbroken – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and friends
22. Mirror Ball – Neil Young
23. Crosby Stills and Nash
24. Deja Vu – Crosby Stills Nash and Young
25. Again – Buffalo Springfield
26. Led Zeppelin IV
27. Artie Shaw and the Gramercy Five
28. Portfolio of Ahmad Jamal
29. The Four of Us – John Sebastian
30. Cracked Rear View – Hootie and the Blowfish
31. Unchained (American Recordings II) – Johnny Cash
32. Not Fragile – Bachman Turner Overdrive
33. Close to the Edge – Yes
34. Thick As A Brick – Jethro Tull
35. Songs From the Wood – Jethro Tull
36. Age to Age – Amy Grant
37. Heart in Motion – Amy Grant
38. Bachman Turner Overdrive
39. Band On the Run – Paul McCartney and Wings
40. All Things Must Pass – George Harrison
41. Rise – Anoushka Shankar
42. Cosmo’s Factory – Creedence Clearwater Revival
43. Bayou Country – Creedence Clearwater Revival
44. Sladest – Slade
45. Headquarters – The Monkees
46. Lucky Town – Bruce Springsteen
47. Neil Sedaka Sings His Greatest Hits
48. Anthology – Tommy James and the Shondells
49. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
50. Greendale – Neil Young
51. Who’s Next – The Who
52. Parsley Sage Rosemary and Thyme – Simon and Garfunkel
53. Without Rhyme or Reason/Anything You Choose – Spanky and Our Gang
54. Know – Jason Mraz
55. Tufano-Giammarese
56. Crimson and Blue – Phil Keaggy
57. Phil Keaggy and Sunday’s Child
58. More Power to Ya – Petra
59. Circling Back – The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and friends
60. Add to the Beauty – Sara Groves
61. Three Chords and the Truth – Van Morrison
62. Emmy Lou Harris and the Nash Ramblers At the Ryman
63. The Bluegrass Session – Vassar Clements
64. Rachael (Price) and Vilray
65. Texas – Rodney Crowell
66. Black Cadillac – Roseanne Cash
67. Solitary Man (American Recordings III) – Johnny Cash
68. Minstrel in the Gallery – Jethro Tull
69. E.T. the Extraterrestrial Soundtrack – John Williams
70. No Secrets – Carly Simon