Prelude

Last week, I was having a conversation with someone and I was reminded how closely music can be tied with our emotion and memories.  This person was listening to music and a track came on that that left him sobbing.  The next day, in my yoga class (while almost twisted upside down) I was suddenly transported back to age 7 sitting in my dad's home office.  All because a specific song was played.

While I knew fundamentally that music is powerful, I hadn't actually thought about it in a while.  And since it came up twice in 24 hours, I figured what better time to pull out the record player and dive into some albums.

This blog is going to serve two purposes for me:

1. Take me back to some of those albums my dad listened to when I was little.  He loved to listen to his records and my mom and I would often find him in our family room listening to anything from Led Zeppelin to Queen to Rush.  (There was a lot of classic rock in our house. And Dad, if you ever read this - lets get back to that!)
2. Because I was exposed to so much music from the 60s and 70s, I want to know more about the classic albums from that time period.

The Plan

During a trip to Amoeba Music (a walk down memory lane in itself since I went to Berkeley) I picked up the book 101 Essential Rock Records, The golden Age of Vinyl From The Beatles to the Sex Pistols by Jeff Gold.  I thought this was a good place to start because after taking a quick look, I recognized many of the albums and almost all of the artists.

Over the next 100 weeks, I'm going to buy an album from the list each week and take a listen.  My intent is not to review the album from a historical perspective or evaluate the music itself, but rather to just make note of what I thought, any memories it may evoke and how it made me feel.

I recognize that this is someone's else's list of the greats and debating that alone probably provides enough material for a blog.  My purpose though is not to comment on what is or is not on the list but rather use it as a starting point to listen to some really good music.  I'm sure there will be hits and misses but for me, that's part of the fun.

Oh - and I'm also going to do this all with vinyl.  (I'm sure you are surprised given the name of the blog, right?) There is just something special about putting an LP on the record player, hearing that catch and letting the music fill the room. 

So tomorrow we shall begin with the top of the list:  The Beatles - Please Please Me