Tuesday Tunes: Music Of Your Life

Over at The Music Memoirs they're asking you to pick one album you remember the most about every 5 years of your life and tell us why it's important to you. So, let's start at the very beginning:

1964-1968: While I could easily pick lots of great albums released in my first five years of life, I can't actually remember any from that time (possibly because we didn't have a record player at the time).

1969-1973: Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (1970): One of my uncles, who was staying with us at the time, had this on tape (one of the big massive tape recorders with big round tapes rather than a cassette tape) and would play this a lot. It was in these five years that I also bought my first albums, but on reflection they don't quite stand up to Paul & Art's effort.

1974-1978: Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell (1977): Bizarre as it seems now, once upon a time, in the UK, I was one of the few people I knew who had this album (at this point You Took The Words Right Out Of My Mouth and Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad had stalled just outside the top 30, and the only TV appearance of Meat here had been hidden away around midnight). Anyway, looking back, I must have bored my friends silly recommending it all the time. I guess honorable mentions for this five-year period must also go to the Muppet Show album and the Star Wars soundtrack which I played in those moments when I wasn't boring people about Meat Loaf.

1979-1983: Paul Simon - Hearts and Bones (1983): Sorry to be repetitive, but if it hadnt been this, it would have been more Meat Loaf-related stuff like Dead Ringer or Jim Steinman's Bad for Good. Anyway, somewhere along the line, I bought a cassette recorder and this was the first tape I bought for it. Really good and under-rated album.

1984-1988: Suzanne Vega - Suzanne Vega (1985): Just before I left university in 1985, I saw Suzanne Vega performing Marlene on the Wall, and on the strength of that, plus the lyrics to Cracking on the sleeve, I bought this, shortly after I'd finally found employment and using the money I got for relocation expenses, and then proceeded to play it to death.

1989-1993: They Might Be Giants - Flood (1990): Saw the Birdhouse In Your Soul video and promptly bought this, followed quickly by their earlier albums, and have been a fan ever since. Honorable mentions here for Kirsty MacColl's Kite, Tori Amos's Little Earthquakes and Voice of the Beehive's Honey Lingers.

1994-1998: Blur - Parklife (1994). To be honest,I'm slightly grasping here, remembering few albums from that time. Somewhere around 1994, some burglars, no doubt hearing of my terrific musical taste, made off with my CD collection, so I remember just trying to rebuild my music collection again from the ground up during this time (it'd have been so much easier with the internet) so didn't really listen to much new music during that time.

1999-2003: Peter Bagge's Rockin' Poppin' Favorites (1999). A compilation album full of great pop tunes over the decades with a great booklet written and illustrated by Peter Bagge discussing the songs. Just thought this was a great collection, but again no other albums are leaping out at me from this period, apart from maybe the Buffy, Once More With Feeling soundtrack and Darling Violetta's The Kill You EP

2004-2009: William Shatner - Has Been (2004). I bought it for the novelty value to be honest (the same reason I'd bought his earlier The Transformed Man), but this was a terrific album, and the greatest improvement over a first album ever. Humour, pathos - it's got everything. Honorable mentions go to The Divine Comedy's Absent Friends and the Flight of the Conchords' eponymous album.