masckedman's 15

1. "Beautiful Noise" from Beautiful Noise. Neil Diamond, 1976.
My earliest musical influences came from my parent's vinyl collection. I remember dancing around to this album, and this song in particular, so energetically the needle bounced off the record. This is not a particularly well regarded Neil Diamond album (are there any?), but it has a unique sound, it could have been a Broadway soundtrack...

2. "Ridin' on the City of New Orleans" from Judith. Judy Collins, 1975.
Another from my Mom and Dad. This is an amazing number, I can visualize my dad singing along to this while standing in the kitchen of our house on South Orchard. I must have played it thousands of times. When I hear it today, I'm still blown away by her vocal quality.

3. "The Mayor of Candor Lied" from The Road to Kingdom Come. Harry Chapin, 1976.
The last of the songs on this list from K. and K. Very long, narrative song, about a guy who falls in love with the mayor's daughter, only to learn that the mayor was his father too. I remember the moment of realization about what all of that meant, I was shocked. It is sad and weepy, about lost love and growing up. Haven't heard it in a long time.

4. "Thriller" from Thriller. Michael Jackson, 1982.
We were on a ski vacation, probably the winter of 1984, we had rented a chalet with 4 or 5 other families. The Lund twins were much older, probably 9 or 10 to my 6 years, they were impossibly hip. They had this song on tape. We listened sprawled out on the red shag carpet while playing "Hungry Hungry Hippos". That weekend, I think we also watched "E.T." either on Cable TV or Beta...

5. "I Think We're Alone Now" from Tiffany. Tiffany 1987.
Instantly, I'm at Skate World. It is the Eastern Elementary Skate Night, I'm wearing dorky rented roller skates, skating in circles under orange fluorescent lights and a mirror ball. I probably didn't have the courage to actually ask Megan M. (or Megan S., or Lindsay P.) to hold my hand and skate with me, but I'd like to think that we did...

6. "We Didn't Start the Fire" from Storm Front. Billy Joel, 1989
106KHQ did an all-request countdown every weeknight, the "Northwest Nine at Nine". If you called in and recited the previous night's list, you won a free tape. I called in (long-distance!) and won, Halloween night 1989. This song was on the countdown, and this was the tape I picked. One of my dad's students had to pick it up, since we didn't live near a Tape World store. I remember spending a dollar at the Copy Plus to enlarge the lyrics large enough to read. Then I spent a happy afternoon with the World Book Encyclopedia at the library, looking up everything. Still a favorite song, the first of many favorite "litany songs".

7. "Notes/Prima Donna" from The Phantom of the Opera. Original Cast Recording, 1987.
The Phantom. Imagine something changing your life as much as this show changed mine. Crazy. We went to Toronto to see it, and this continues to be my favorite song. Not one of the hits, but lots of words, and a little look at life "backstage." I was hooked from then on...

8. "Overture" from Jesus Christ Superstar. Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, 1973.
I don't remember when I heard this the first time, definitely long before I ever saw the movie. I know it was the first time I heard (and recognized) a Moog synthesizer. It is an amazing piece of orchestration, rock and roll meeting the musical, really and truly.

9. Appalachian Spring Suite, Aaron Copland, premiere in 1944. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein/NY Philharmonic 1962.
My friend Larissa was much cooler than I. She was also a fantastic musician. She shared this CD with me when we were in 9th grade or so, I had never heard something as beautiful. Parallel 4ths sliding into each other in the first movement. Of course I had no idea who Aaron Copland was, or Martha Graham or what any of this meant, I just knew I liked it.

10. "Merrily We Roll Along (1961-1960)/Bobbie and Jackie and Jack" from Merrily We Roll Along. Original Broadway Cast, 1982.
I'd like to take this moment to write a thank-you note to whatever librarian at the Traverse City Public Library bought CDs. They had a phenomenal collection, music of all kinds, and show music was no exception. I didn't know what it meant to be a confused teenager growing up in the Northwoods, mostly because I could get all kinds of musicals from the Library. This is another "litany song", Sondheim rhyming internally, amazing. It necessitated another trip to the World Book Encyclopedia.

11. "Ants Marching" from Under the Table and Dreaming. Dave Matthews Band, 1994.
In High School, everyone else had heard this during the previous summer. I missed it totally (see above). Joey D. had a T-shirt, and I recall being embarrassed after asking what it was. The snapping snare at the beginning drops me right into high school angst.

12. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" from Joshua Tree. U2, 1987.
Similar to the experience above. I was working at Interlochen, during the summer of 1997. Hot hot P. Eberhard had just been to see U2's "PopMart" tour. I had no idea who U2 were, but I knew that if Parker liked them, I should too. He shared generously. I think I stole his copy of Joshua Tree when the summer was over.

13 Symphony #9 "From the New World", Antonín Dvořák, premiere in 1893.
Another Interlochen experience. We worked late frequently, hanging lights, loading out shows. I was awakened early one morning, just hours after going to sleep, with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra outside my window, playing this. I didn't go back to sleep. The recording that I bought later was some obscure Eastern European Orchestra, it hardly matters anyway.

14. "Super Trouper" from The Abba Generation. The A*Teens, 1999.
So I'm at the University of Michigan. Still not out. I don't think I knew who Abba were, actually. Of course I knew what a Super Trouper actually was, having spent months running one at Interlochen. Super Trouper was the name of my 1993 Ford Escort, and this was the theme song. Those Swedish teenagers took me a long way down the road to who I am now. When I met Court, he not only knew who the A*Teens were, he had the DVD too.

15 . "When My Boy Walks Down the Street" from 69 Love Songs. The Magnetic Fields, 1999.
Sarasota Opera, Sarasota, Florida. The incomparable Elicia C. introduces me to 69 Love Songs, as well as many other amazing artists and ideas. This was one of the first actual gay love songs I'd ever heard. It made me think that good things were possible, and they were generally right...