Short Story Challenge - Song Guide

So, with just one week to go until my Short Story Challenge, I decided to write up a little on each of the tracks to explain why I picked these particular albums...

1. Death on Two Legs
Growing up, there was a row of vinyl LPs that sat, neatly stacked, between the book shelf (which also held the black and white TV) and a short brick cube upon which the record player was positioned. It was an eclectic collection of music spanning a couple of decades and, as a child, I'd often listen to them. A Night at The Opera is considered by many to be Queen's definitive album but, for me, it was just the first Queen album I ever heard and its wide range of styles are possibly responsible for the fact that my own musical tastes are fairly broad. I listened to this album an awful lot...

2. What Is and What Should Never Be
If Queen served to ignite my love for music in a plethora of shapes and forms, then Led Zeppelin surely ignited what has become a lifelong love for the guitar. Among that same row of vinyl LPs, was the Led Zeppelin II album and I am not ashamed to say that, by repeated listening to tracks such as Heartbreaker, I became a highly proficient air guitarist at a very early age. While the UK charts may have been home to acts like Buck's Fizz and Abba, this was an era where I discovered the joys of amplified guitars...

3. The Carpet Crawlers
At the age of ten or eleven, I went through a huge Genesis phase. My dad had been (indeed still is) a fan of Genesis and I remember that the one album I listened to more than any other was The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, which was an epic double LP of progressive rock filled with all manner of strange music and even stranger lyrics. My music tastes at this point were, frankly, about as far out of sync with my peers as they had any right to be but I didn't care - in this era of Genesis there was a complexity of construction and rhythm that I found infinitely more appealing than Culture Club and Duran Duran...

4. Call on Me
This album, Straight Shooter. hailed from a similar era in my musical development as the first three on this list and I thought Paul Rodger's voice was just brilliant - I would sing along to the album when there was no one else home. And probably a few times when there were people home. Truth be told, I've sung along to a few of these tracks more recently as well as I'm still of the opinion that Paul Rodgers has a great voice for classic rock...

5. Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers was, as far as I can remember, the first album I ever bought for myself. I can still remember heading to WH Smith, armed with a voucher that I'd received for my birthday, and wandering around the aisles looking for something interesting to buy. I'd had a chance to listen to the Deep Purple in Rock album at the house of a friend of the family and knew that I wanted to own some Deep Purple myself. This was their new album and, while maybe it wasn't one of their classics, I played the cassette tape on the little black cassette recorder I owned until the print wore off the plastic...

6. Social Disease
I still remember when Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album hit and, suddenly, guitars and guitar solos were cool again and my musical tastes - which had been considerably different from that of my friends up until this point - suddenly were aligned with those of my peers. For a while at least. This became another album I sung along to quite a bit and I dreamed of being able to play like Richie Sambora, who seemed to my teenage ears, to be an utter Guitar God...

7. The Animals and Me
I remember, by the time I got to 14 or 15, I'd become friends with a completely different bunch of people from High School and this saw me introduced to 'alternative rock' in the shape of bands like Pixies, The Cult, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, and The Wonder Stuff. I had a copy of The Eight Legged Groove Machine on one side of a C90 tape and, for a couple of teenage months, it was the most listened to cassette in my collection.

8. Your Emotions
Delving into alternative rock led me to discover a whole range of other bands that I'd not been aware of before and also into hardcore punk where I discovered the Dead Kennedys; music that was loud, relentless and with vitriolic lyrics. It was a combination that fitted perfectly alongside 15 year old me and I bought the Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables LP (as well as others) and played them at volume...

9. Mystery Train
By the time I was 16, I was beginning to grow tired with alternative rock and found myself going back to listen to older classic rock and early metal; one album that I stumbled across (and I'm still not quite sure where it came from - possibly from a family friend that loaned it to us) was UFO's No Place to Run and the air guitarist in me enjoyed the wealth of guitar solos - with the hard rock version of Mystery Train being a favourite to 'play along' to...

10. The Riddle
I still remember the first time I heard Steve Vai. It was in an Art Class and I was listening to that UFO album I just mentioned and one of my class mates - Jon Dimmock - told me that if I wanted to hear fast guitar I should have a listen to this and played me the solo from Fool For Your Lovin' from Whitesnake's Slip of the Tongue album on his walkman. Steve Vai blew me away. And the heavy metal magazines of the time were full of the news that he was about to launch an instrumental album, so I bought it as soon as it came out. Passion and Warfare changed everything. It redefined my expectations for what was possible on guitar and persuaded me that listening to guitar just wasn't enough - I needed to learn how to play guitar...

11. Walking By Myself
School was over, it was the summer holidays prior to my starting college, and I'd taken on a part-time job at the DIY store, B&Q - which meant, for the first time ever I had money. Money! More money than I had ever had in my life. So, I did what any 16 year old boy would do, I blew my wage instantly every month as soon as I got it. The first month, I imported a Sega Megadrive from Japan, and the second month I got myself my very own CD player. And the first CD I bought was Gary Moore's Still Got The Blues...

12. Judgement Day
I'd heard one track from the Slip of the Tongue album earlier in the year, but my Whitesnake phase was really kickstarted on 18th August, 1990 when I went along to the Monsters of Rock festival at Castle Donington. This was my first real concert and it was one attended by between 75,000 and 100,000 people. My mind was blown. So I bought the album and would do my best David Coverdale impression when no one was around (or when I thought no one was around, at least). A special mention must be made for the truly horrendous level of innuendo on this album - it's up there with Spinal Tap in places!

13. Red House
I was slightly unusual in that I had heard Steve Vai before I heard Jimi Hendrix and the first CD I got was Jimi Hendrix Concerts which featured Jimi at his pyrotechnic best. It was rawer and less technical than the likes of Steve Vai, but there was a kind of power in that rawness and in among the fuzz tone and the divebombs. I'd listened to a lot of Gary Moore, that was obviously blues, but this album was the starting point for me diving into blues much more and led me to discover people like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, BB King, and more...

14. Fuel to Run
I remember getting this EP, Love/Hate - Live EP, free with an issue of Kerrang! magazine and I just loved how raw it was. Quite simple stuff, but there was such an energy to the band. Even if, in retrospect, they had more than their fair share of questionable lyrics...

15. Phantom Lord
I still remember the visceral shock of hearing Metallica's album Kill 'Em All for the first time - this was metal at a 1000mph; an unrelenting aural attack with crushing power chords and ripsaw lead guitar. I remember going on a coach tour of California in April 1991 and listening to this almost non-stop throughout the two and a half weeks.

16. The Phone Call
I'd been introduced to Joe Satriani due to the fact that he taught Steve Vai how to play guitar, and listened to his Surfing with the Alien album, but I found that I enjoyed his Flying in a Blue Dream album more (which may put me in the minority). His music was a lot more accessible than that of Steve Vai, who had such complicated arrangements and melodies, and the lead guitar often seemed to just take the part of the lead vocal. At this stage of my life, I dreamed of being able to play this kind of space-age guitar (although this particular track is pretty much the antithesis of that!)...

17. Voodoo Kiss
I have my sister Lora to thank for introducing me to Mr. Big and the album Lean Into It, although I didn't realise at the time that I'd already listened to both Paul Gilbert's previous band (Racer X) and that of Billy Sheehan (Dave Lee Roth). Mr. Big ticked a lot of boxes for me - great rock voice (check!), songs to sing along to (check!), and plenty of instrumental virtuosity (check!).

18. Give it Away
I remember borrowing a copy of Blood Sugar Sex Magik from a friend (who actually, if I remember rightly, also introduced me to Joe Satriani) and just loving the funky rhythms, the playfulness, and the underlying humour of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was something quite different to everything else I was listening to at the time...

19. Up in the Sky
I have Philip Dunne from Rare to thank for introducing me to Oasis. When we are at Rare, we used to take turns to play our CDs in the office and, one evening, he popped on Definitely Maybe and I was taken - much like I had years earlier by Love/Hate - by the band's raw energy. There was something special in that first album, like catching lighting in a bottle, but - for me at least - the band got less and less interesting as they become more and more over produced. But, this first album was listened to a lot...

20. Wake Up
I'm guessing it was also at Rare that I first heard Rage Against The Machine. Wow. Just like Dead Kennedys had amazed me with the power of their message, this album was just an attack on the status quo wrapped up in a far more sophisticated blend of musicianship. Blending together elements such as Beastie Boys (whose License to Ill album, in retrospect, should have been on this list!) with complex metal riffs and guitar virtuoso solos, this album saw many late night plays as I debugged our game.

21. Dirty Pool
I bought the Texas Flood album towards the end of my time at Rare, and Stevie Ray Vaughan rapidly became the biggest single influence on my guitar playing. There was just a majesty in his playing, a combination of tone and technique and fire that I'd never come across before; it was like he played constantly on the edge and yet nailed it every time. I cannot tell you how many times I've listened to this, headphones on and eyes closed, just enjoying the sound of one of the finest blues guitarists of all time...

22. Dr. Glee
I'd heard about Richie Kotzen years ago from my guitar teacher, Des Sherwood, but never really listened to any of his stuff before running across a copy of Electric Joy in a record shop. He had great legato technique and his playing had this organic feel, but never ended up being predictable. Later, I'd find out that not only was he a superlative guitar player but he was also in possession of a fabulous rock voice. The git.

23. Guardian Angel
I was working at Sony Computer Entertainment and, one of the perks of the job was buying CDs at a reduced price. I remember going through the catalogue and picking out about thirty different albums - with one of these being an acoustic album I'd remembered hearing about somewhere called Friday Night in San Francisco that featured an acoustic guitar trio of Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin, and Paco de Lucia. It was a mix of jazz, flamenco and fusion and was - and still is - just a masterclass of acoustic guitar playing.

24. Solution
Another job move, this time to Acclaim, that - for several months, before relocating - involved a 210 mile drive on a Monday morning and on a Friday afternoon. Particularly on a Monday, leaving at 5am in the morning, I depended upon a good selection of music to keep me going (and awake). I'd been a fan of Tesla for some time and listened to this, their final album (until they later reformed) on repeat for hours on end.

25. Bad Meets Evil
Another album from my driving period; I remember hearing Eminem on a late-night radio show one Friday when I was driving back and loved the quirky style of his rapping, that was so different to the work of more traditional artists. I bought the Slim Shady LP and - at one point - knew pretty much the whole album back-to-front...

26. Anxiety
I came across the Elephunk album thanks to my wife, Anna; her students were doing a cover performance of the song 'Let's Get It Started' and that got me listening to the album. I remember a series of six hour long drives to and from the airport when my wife was still living in Moscow in which this album was played fairly constantly. It was a fun album; the sound of a band enjoying themselves and not taking themselves too seriously (although, this wasn't to last!) and it is always an album that will have positive memories for me. This was the toughest track to actually find a link to...

27. Girls Who Can Read Your Mind
I had been listening to Paul Gilbert in bands like Racer X and Mr. Big for many years but Beehive Live was the first solo album I'd bought and this was just a perfect introduction to his solo material. Quirky, humorous, and possessing truly monstrous technique, Paul Gilbert was another big influence on my own guitar playing (even if that is more in spirit than ability!)...

28. Dirt in my Pocket
I'd be listening to a lot of blues, by people like Matt Schofield and Robben Ford, and really enjoying it - but I'd not come across anyone who really blew me away for a long time. And then I came across Joe Bonamassa. Possessing a style that echoes that of Eric Johnson in places, he was just a breath of fresh air and I particularly enjoyed his Sloe Gin album. Provided another influence on my playing and got me excited about the blues all over again...

29. Uncle Skunk
I'd being aware of Guthrie Govan for years as he wrote articles for Guitar Techniques magazine and I knew that he was an excellent guitarist. What I wasn't prepared for was just how excellent. Listening to his Erotic Cakes album made me reconsider the boundaries of electric guitar all over again - he could play things that seemed impossible but managed to wrap it all together into something melodic and musical. This wasn't shred, this was just superb musicianship...

30. Flatlands
The Aristocrats brings together three truly virtuoso performers in an environment where they can make the kind of music they want to make. I've enjoyed all three of their albums but their first album, The Aristocrats, occupied more time on my playlist than anything else when it came out.  This wasn't po-faced virtuoso prog-rock; this was the sound of people having fun and enjoying their sheer command of their instruments. Listening to it always induces a strange combination of smiling and jaw dropping simultaneously...