The First 100 Albums That Occurred To Me, Roughly In The Order In Which They Occurred To Me

When I got out several pieces of paper and a pen to write down the 100 greatest albums of all time, these were the first 100 to occur to me.

The Beatles, Abbey Road

The Beatles, The Beatles (The White Album)

The Moody Blues, Seventh Sojourn

They Might Be Giants, Flood

They Might Be Giants, They Might Be Giants

Kirsty MacColl, Kite

The Beatles, Let It Be

The Beatles, Revolver

Scot Ninnemann, Moon June Spoon

Scot Ninnemann, Slight Change of Plans

Flip Nasty, Guitool

UFO Catcher, The Tale of a Sad And Lonely Boy Who Dreamed of Love

Kaptain Karl, Art Is A Lie, Baby

Kaptain Karl, The Chicago Tapes

Kaptain Karl, The Kepler Agenda

Jubilant Dogs, Abby

Prince, Purple Rain

Prince, Dirty Mind

Simon and Garfunkel, Bookends

Simon and Garfunkel, Bridge Over Troubled Water

Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds Five

Ben Folds, Rocking the Suburbs

Bob Dylan, Highway 61 Revisited

Bob Dylan, Blonde on Blonde

Bob Dylan, Blood on the Tracks

Bob Dylan, Oh Mercy

Bob Dylan, Time Out Of Mind

Bob Dylan, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan, Bringing it All Back Home

Bob Dylan, Desire

Bob Dylan, "Love And Theft"

Bob Dylan, Live 1966

Lou Reed, Transformer

Lou Reed, Set the Twilight Reeling

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground and Nico

The Velvet Underground, The Velvet Underground

The Velvet Underground, Loaded

Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville

Trip Shakespeare, Across the Universe

Trip Shakespeare, Lulu

Matt Wilson, Burnt White and Blue

The Beatles, Rubber Soul

Billy Bragg, Worker's Playtime

Billy Bragg, Don't Try This At Home

Joni Mitchell, Hejira

Joni Mitchell, Blue

Joni Mitchell, The Hissing of Summer Lawns

Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark

Paul Simon, There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Paul Simon, Graceland

Paul Simon, Paul Simon's Concert in Central Park

Joni Mitchell, Ladies of the Canyon

Paul SImon, Hearts and Bones

John Coltrane, Giant Steps

John Coltrane, Africa/Brass

John Coltrane, Live at the Village Vanguard

Charles Mingus, Mingus Ah Um

Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy

Sarah McLachlan, Surfacing

Enya, Paint the Sky With Stars

Steve Miller Band, Greatest Hits 1974-1978

James Taylor, Greatest Hits

Gram Parsons, GP

Gram Parsons, Return of the Grevious Angel

The Minnesota Orchestra, The Complete Beethoven Symphonies

Les Miserables, Original Cast Recording

The Byrds, Mr. Tambourine Man

The Byrds, Sweetheart of the Rodeo

The Band, Music From Big Pink

The Band, The Band (The Brown Album)

Bob Dylan & The Band, The Basement Tapes

Paul McCartney (or whatever), Band on the Run

Billy Joel, The Stranger

Billy Joel, Turnstyles

Billy Joel, Cold Spring Harbor

Paul McCartney, Tug of War

Paul McCartney, Venus and Mars

Paul McCartney, Flowers in the Dirt

Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced?

Jimi Hendrix, Axis: Bold As Love

Cocteau Twins, Heaven or Las Vegas

Elvis Presley, The King of Rock and Roll: The Complete '50s Masters

Elvis Presley, From Nashville To Memphis: The Essential '60s Masters I

Elvis Presley, Promised Land

Elvis Presley, From Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee

Elvis Presley, Memories: The 1968 Comeback Special

Elvis Presley, Elvis Country

Elvis Presley, Moody Blue

Elvis Presley, That's The Way It Is

Bruce Springsteen, Born To Run

Bruce Springsteen, Darkness on the Edge of Town

The Kinks, The Kinks are The Village Green Preservation Society

John Lennon, Imagine

John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Double Fantasy

George Harrison, Brainwashed

George Harrison, All Things Must Pass

George Harrison, George Harrison

George Harrison, Could Nine

The Moody Blues, The Other Side of Life

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Dare To Be Stupid

"Weird Al" Yankovic, Alpocalypse

Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster

David Bowie, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars

David Bowie, Hunky Dory

David Bowie, Low

David Bowie, Heathen

David Bowie, Reality

David Bowie, Station To Station

The Kinks, Muswell Hillbillies

Falco, Falco3

And I think that was 100.

Next time I sat down/stuff I thought of immediately afterwards:

John Hartford, Areo-Plane

Guster, Keep It Together

Guns -N- Roses, Appettite For Destruction

The Carpenters, 1969-1973

Big Star, #1 Record/Radio City

Big Star, Third/Sister Lovers

Evan Johnson, How Could I Know

Colin Spring, How I Came To Cry These Tears of Cool

Trip Shakespeare, Volt

Semisonic, Feeling Strangely Fine

Ted Hawkins, The Final Tour

I thought about looking over my CD collection and adding anything I forgot, then cutting up the pieces of paper and physically assembling the absolutely definitive list, in order. But I'm 41 not 14.

Top Ten Most Inspiring Keyboard Moments

Number. Title - Artist - Keyboard Player - Album - Year

Description/Justification

10. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces - Ben Folds Five - Whatever And Ever Amen - 1997

My reaction upon hearing this in 1997 was, "Hey! Someone is making great piano music in a way that no one else has since Billy Joel and Elton John started dramatically overproducing their records in the 1980s! Hallelujah! Must acquire everything by him."

9. Let It Be - The Beatles - Paul McCartney - Let It Be - 1970

I have basically fetishized every aspect of this entire performance. The way the left hand octaves interact rhythmically with the right hand block chords. The way the F chord has an e in it which goes down to a d that sounds like a mistake at first. The actual mistake on "Mother Mary" during verse three. The way the gospel riff happens exactly one and a half times total. This song provides the crossover with my top ten guitar solos list. Fascinating alternate version from the movie.

Shoot, I could make this whole list Beatles songs. I could ALMOST make the whole list from Let It Be. So let's give honorable mentions to Billy Preston, electric piano on One After 909 and Get Back and Paul again for The Long And Winding Road. Don't know who did the Moog solo on Because from Abbey Road. George Martin's double speed classical solo on In My Life, which was copied by me on Jubilant Dogs' Stratosphere.

8. Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf - Jerry Corbetta - Sugarloaf - 1970

I love the snaky riff, but what grabbed me the most was the punchy, breathy SOUND of this thing. I'd never heard anything quite like it and I still haven't.

7. Hungry Heart - Bruce Springsteen - Danny Federici - The River - 1980

The solo, (1:39) in a different key from the whole rest of the song. Little grace notes sliding up to the main notes. Like the previous entry, the sound of this solo is awesome - part ice rink, part silent movie, all rock and roll. Listen on headphones. It's panned all the way across the stereo picture but isn't monolithic. The Phantom never sounded sweeter.

I can't believe I didn't put any Roy Bittan on the list. Let's just give honorable mention to his work with Springsteen (duh) but also Meatloaf's Bat Out Of Hell and Bob Seger. While I love his playing, I can't honestly say he's literally inspiring to me because, like Eddie Van Halen on guitar, his playing seems impossibly out of my reach.

6. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - The Stranger - 1977

Mainly the part (2:48) where everything drops out except the rolling octave bass in the piano (I think, like me, Billy Joel listened to Let It Be a few dozen times or more) and then the right hand comes in, tumbling down the stairs a couple times but landing on its feet.

See also the fast piano intro and outro of Miami 2017. I have played them many, many times and never quite perfectly.

5. James - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - Turnstyles - 1976

The always groovy Fender Rhodes. The melodic and harmonic shifts you didn't expect but recognize as perfect. The little scales. I have played the intro approximately 95 percent of the times I have sat down at an electric piano.

I could make the whole list Billy Joel, too, of course. The gorgeous flow of "Summer, Highland Falls", the simply perfect intro triads of "She's Got A Way", the guitar-doubled arpeggios of "She's Always A Woman", and even the funky, electric live version of "Los Angelenos" from Songs In The Attic.

4. Philosophy - Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds - Ben Folds Five - 1995

So many little grace notes ripping up to the main melody notes. It's like Floyd Cramer times a thousand and speeded way up. It displays such a huge range of feelings, the piano basically sings this song and everything else is background.

3. Bennie & The Jets - Elton John - Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - 1973

The solo! The solo! (2:22) This also has a whole lot of little grace notes ripping up to the main notes, which I seem to love. Huh! Never thought about that quite so overtly before. Love the way it starts folky then builds to a honky tonk scream.

2. Streetlife Serenader - Billy Joel - Billy Joel - Streetlife Serenade - 1974

It's the long bridge passage in the middle (2:24) with just piano where a mournful, graceful melody plays then gives way to a cascading fountain of notes before the singer comes back in. I explicitly copied this idea on my song "Eddie Gee". Now that I think about it there are two such passages in just this one song! This is my favorite Billy Joel piano moment of all.

1. Still Crazy After All These Years - Paul Simon - Barry Beckett/Richard Tee - Still Crazy After All These Years/Simon & Garfunkel The Concert in Central Park/Paul Simon Concert in the Park - 1975/1981/1991

Not many people who study twelve-tone serialism come up with an evergreen top forty hit. Even fewer have it played on a silky, liquid Fender Rhodes electric piano. The 1991 live (skip to about 49:50) version has Richard Tee and Michael Brecker (both now jamming in another world) taking the song to the next level.