The Year That Changed My Musical Life

Allow me to introduce you to someone:

10-year-old me. Handsome fella, isn’t he?

When I put on that Nike sweatshirt for school pictures that day, I had no idea that my musical life had already been changed forever.

My dad had an excellent collection of Motown records that I grew up listening to, and still love to this day, but it was in the year or so prior to this photo that I had started to branch out and build a little music library of my own.

On cassette.

For my boom box.

‘Cause that’s how I rolled.

Something else I didn’t realize was that I had the great fortune of being a budding musician during an epic season in popular music history.

As I was searching for images and processing names for my last post about musical heroes, I had a much more specific thought:
What ALBUMS have been most influential to me?
Taking the classic “desert island” question a step farther, I began to think hard about which ones really mattered to me. Narrowing them down is a nearly impossible task, so I decided to choose five or six records that were released in my lifetime and here is what I came up with:

Thriller – Michael Jackson
The Way It Is – Bruce Hornsby and the Range
Graceland – Paul Simon
Joshua Tree – U2
Hysteria – Def Leppard
Ten Summoner’s Tales – Sting

I began to realize something interesting about this list … with the exception of the masterpieces by Michael Jackson & Sting, the other four albums were released around the same time. In fact, they were released within 16 months of each other!
It kind of blew me away.
Here’s the list again along with their release dates:

Thriller – November 30, 1982
The Way It Is – April 1, 1986
Graceland – August 12, 1986
Joshua Tree – March 9, 1987
Hysteria – August 3, 1987
Ten Summoner’s Tales – March 9, 1993

FACT: 1986–1987 was a profoundly prolific time for GREAT albums!

Deep down I guess I was vaguely aware of this record-making renaissance, but I had never really been conscious of it until recently. I mean, think about it: not one of those albums SOUNDS like an “80’s record.” Each one was ahead of its time … sonically, the production, the songwriting … they are superbly crafted recordings all the way around. The standard benchmark of a great album is how many hit singles it produces, and each of these had several, but these records are fantastic all the way through. There isn’t one “filler track” and to this day, I cannot skip around when I listen to them … my ears demand an all-track long-play. These albums are that great.

(A quick aside: Peter Gabriel’s So and Steve Winwood’s Back In The High Life would almost certainly be included in the list if I were to round out my top-ten. Everything I’m saying here absolutely applies to those albums as well. They were released in May and June of 1986 respectively … further proof of the significance of this 16-month period. In fact, if you do a Wikipedia search for all the albums released between the Spring of ‘86 through the Summer of ’87, you’ll find a ridiculous list of fantastic records. I am not aware of another timeframe that so many influential records have been released in such a short period of time.)

The Way It Is, Graceland, Joshua Tree, and Hysteria came out at the height of 80’s synth-pop, when the top of the charts featured singles from The Bangles, Billy Ocean, and the soundtrack to a little movie about a ‘maverick’ Navy pilot with daddy issues that had a few hits you probably still know all the words to. These four records bucked all the trends and refused to adhere to the sonic formula of the era.

What was it about those 16 months that produced such a plethora of legendary recordings? Was it the height and culmination of the 80’s? Was it the social change that was happening at a lightening-quick pace? Was it a mere coincidence? Or maybe it was the fact that the release of these albums just happened to coincide with the beginning of my 2^nd decade of life and I was just starting to discover my own unique and varied taste in music? I’m not really sure I have a good answer, but I think it was likely a combination of all of those things.

What I do know is that each one of those recordings has an amazing story behind it, including many obstacles, setbacks, and plenty of hardship and heartache encountered during the process of its creation. Most of these albums have excellent documentaries telling the stories of their production and they’re all very well done. Several are available through the wonder of Netflix and definitely worth watching.

I like the fact that none of these albums came together easily. It gives them more weight and credibility somehow. It makes their impact on my own musical journey that much more meaningful and causes me to enjoy them that much more.

Great work is never easy and I’m so thankful that each of these artists persevered to give the world, and me, the gift of these wonderful recordings.

In addition to my musical heroes, I have decided that the “wall of fame” above my workspace should also feature some album covers that have been most influential to me starting with these:

And I just might even include a small copy of that picture of 10-year-old me.

After all, it was the year that changed my musical life.