Talking about revolutions

When he was young at the beginning to the 20th C my grandfather sang temperance songs with his family. My dad birddogged to the Red Tops at high school dances in the Mississippi Delta. But by the time I was growing up he only hummed country tunes from AM stations.

My budding music tastes were nurtured by Don McClean's "Miss American Pie," (B'rer Bob received it for Christmas) and the Stylistics' recreations of the '70's pop parade (mail order). My neighbor Charlie introduced me to "Rubber Soul" and "Mystery Tour" in 5th grade. I had my brief Kiss infatuation, via my older brother, when I was in 6th grade. Then by 7th grade it was the Blues Brother's album, Jethro Tull's live "Bursting Out," another Aerosmith's "Bootleg"- another live recording that disappointed me because it didn't have snippets of Joe Perry addressing the crowds. By 8th-9th grade it was all over. I was gaga for prog rock- Yes, Genesis, King Crimson- and Skynyrd live and Black Sab's "Paranoid" for those special Genessee Cream Ale moments.

My brother's music tastes were highly influential in those early years. It wasn't until I was 17 that I became fixated on Elvis Costello's "My Aim is True" and Adrian Belew's "Twang Bar King" that I ventured on my own. Then senior year it was all Beatles all the time with the Fra.

By the '80's and'90's I tried to label a certain recording as my favorite, or in hindsight I can identify favorites by their heavy rotation that year:

1985: many Windham Hill artists

1986: Sweet Honey in the Rock

1987: The Feelies "The Good Earth"

1988: tie- Tar Babies "No Contest" and the John Water's Hairspray soundtrack

1989: any Galaxy 500

1990: Pere Ubu "Modern Dance", "Dub Housing"

1991: Talk Talk "Laughingstock"

1992: Victoria Williams "Swing the Statue"

1993: quadruple tie: Uncle Tupelo "March 16-20, 1992", Jayhawk's "Hollywood Town Hall, Boredom's "Pop Tatari", and Bettie Serveert "Palomine"

1994: Liz Phair "Girly Sounds"

1995: K. McCarthy "Dead Dog's Eyeball"

1996: Mary Lou Lord and Palace Brother's firsts

1997: The Olivia Tremor Control "Dusk at Cubist Castle", Elliott Smith "Either/Or"

1998: Neutral Milk Hotel "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea", Tortoise "TNT"

1999: Jim White "Wrong-Eyed Jesus"

By the new millennium swung around I was in way too deep to identify anything but the main veins that I continue to mine: Elephant 6, '70's punk, 60's pysche, just about anything out of New Orleans, delta blues, field recordings, Richard Thompson, Montreal bands, krautrock, and indi pop favorites like the Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens and Yo La Tengo.

Somehow I've managed not to list James Blood Ulmer, Patti Smith, Dinah Washington and Dylan, but so it goes. At this point, my collection database lists almost 2,200 CD's (that doesn't include vinyl or mp3's).

But, I assure you: All of them are special to me.