For me the late 90s was the onset of adulthood. By then I had moved out of my parents' house, and I'd moved on to a series of girlfriends, rented rooms, used cars, jobs and whatever else goes into forming the adult version of yourself. It was a good time overall, and in a much larger sense it was a good time for America. Were mistakes made? Sure. Were any of those mistakes the end of the world? No, not even close.
In terms of music I was listening to a lot of different stuff at the time. With the passing of Grunge/Alternative from the public consciousness, I took a deeper dive into music and styles of music that I'd ignored or been ignorant of before.
1. Miles Davis - Miles in the Sky
At some point I crossed paths with Miles Davis, specifically Bitches Brew. It was the most beautiful/nightmarish thing I'd heard up to that point. Afterward I bought up a lot of Davis' discography on LP, with my hands-down favorite being Miles in the Sky. I already loved Miles, but Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams really sealed the deal for me with this album. It will always be one of the coolest things ever.
2. The Inner Mounting Flame
Of course for most of us Rock guys, jazz is the gateway to Fusion (or vice versa). Soon after discovering Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk I moved on to Fusion bands like Tony Williams' Lifetime and (of course) The Mahavishnu Orchestra. Do I enjoy The Mahavishnu Orchestra as much now? Not really, but at the time I couldn't get enough of them.
3. Bach's Italian Concerto
Sorry if this transition is jarring, but I was big into Baroque at the time too. Part of the reason was college - I found that studying was easier with music that didn't have vocals. As far as Classical goes I pretty much started with Bach, and from there moved on to Vivaldi and other Baroque composers. The Italian Concerto remains my favorite.
4. Isaac Albeniz - Asturias and Other Pieces
Those of us exploring Classical from a background in Rock are bound to come across music for the classical guitar sooner or later. In my case a few misguided guitar lessons with a classical guitar teacher helped. This teacher recommended one of Segovia's recordings, and that led me to Albeniz.
5. Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Tarkus
I still listen to this album quite a bit. I always thought it was the best thing that band ever did, even if I do have a soft spot for their first album. I loved ELP so much that I even went and bought all of The Nice's albums - hell, I even bought other albums by The Nice's bass player! This said, none of those related albums are half as good as Tarkus, an album which continues to rock my world today.
6. Yes - Close to the Edge
I'll agree that it's a bloated album. I'll agree that the lyrics don't make a lot of sense. I'll even agree that Fragile might be the band's most concise statement. But man, when this album builds to a climax it REALLY builds to a climax. I can't tell you how many hours I spent driving around Seattle with this blasting in my car. "Seasons will pass you by/I get uuuuuuuup!!!/I get down...." Fuck yeah.
7. Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You
I had this on tape when I lived in Seattle's University District. Back then I inhabited a tiny basement room that occasionally flooded when the upstairs people flushed too much. It was squalid, but I managed to lure female classmates into that hovel anyway. And what were those female classmates likely to hear in that dilapidated space? Death Walks Behind You. I played it so much I broke the tape.
8. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
Sometimes you get tired of Prog Rock. Too many notes? Whatever the reason, towards the end of college I switched over to Glam. My point of entry? Bowie. I formed an easy friendship with albums like Ziggy Stardust and Hunky Dory, but it was The Man Who Sold the World that really blew me away. It helped that I'd loved Cream for ages. This lineup of Bowie's band sounds like a gender-bent version of Cream.
9. T-Rex - The Slider
Where Bowie goes Marc Bolan is soon to follow. I kind of, sort of liked the first Tyrannosaurus Rex album, but like most people I didn't like Bolan until I heard him play electric guitar. Of course it helped that Bolan had Bowie's pal Tony Visconti producing his albums. In the absence of Visconti, Bolan wouldn't have been as good.
10. Creedence Clearwater Revival - Cosmo's Factory
The first time I heard Creedence I could have sworn they were a bunch of black dudes. Imagine my surprise when I learned they were all white guys from San Francisco. I got into Creedence about the same time I got into John Denver, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, James Brown and countless other bands. In the late 90s the record and thrift stores were overflowing with that kind of stuff. I found of a lot of great albums by a lot of great bands through them.
Of course in 2020 collectors/speculators have ruined stuff like that. Back in the 90s Ebay and sites like it weren't much of a thing, and YouTube hadn't arrived yet. To make matters worse there wasn't much on torrent sites. Where did we go hunting for music? CD stores, record stores and thrift stores.
And it might seem like a lot of work for those of later generations, but I sure picked up my share of girls in those places.
Or maybe they picked up me.
However it worked.
Back then.
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