I made a list the other day of the 50 most influential albums on my life. I know some of you probably don't put influential and music together very often but it is a major fact of my life. The first music in my life was singing hymns in church. Choruses didn't exist back then. As the years go by I find myself more and more grateful that I was raised in that tradition.
My mom and dad didn't listen to the radio at all as far as I can remember. I'm not really sure what kind of music my dad likes or if he even cares about it. My mom on the other hand loved southern gospel music, mostly quartets. I don't know that any of the quartets caught my ears but I do remember listening to a ladies trio called the johnson sisters out of Birmingham. For some reason I have always thought that I heard them in concert once when I was very small.
Anyway, the album that we had contained a version of swing down chariot that I absolutely loved. I always liked it better than Elvis's version with the Jordanaires or the Imperials I forget which. I brought the album home with me at Christmas and it's still good though not as good as I remember. That song was probably the closest I got to rock and roll for the first 6 years of my life. it didn't make my list of most influencial albums but it probably should have.
Another album that I was really into growing up wasn't an album at all it was a 78 single of Little Jimmie Dickens doing I'll be back a Sunday, Sunday which was actually side B. Side A was take an old cold tater and wait but it was serious song and Sunday was hilarious at least to me as a kid. It is one of the few songs that I have been unable to find a recording of. My folks must have thrown out all their 78's because it's not at the house anymore, and it doesn't exist on any available albums. I actually talked with a long time member of his band last year but I'm not sure he even knew the song. I knew I liked obscure stuff but this is ridiculous.
We had a box set of country songs that I'm not exactly sure where it came from. It was one of those As Seen On TV sets. i think there were 4 or 5 albums of music of classic country from the late 60's. the songs that I remember most were Kenny Rogers and the first edition singing Ruby, don't take your love to town and roger miller's King of the Road.
Those didn't make it onto my list either but they certainly went through my head enough.
When I use the term influencial I don't mean that they were musically influencial though they probably were but rather they helped shape me into who I am in some way, some almost unspeakable way. I lived in a world of music. I lived, and breathed it. It was my life, because though no one could tell on the outside on the inside I had no life by the time I was 5 or 6.
That's probably hard to imagine I know.
I've been taking my life back now for close to 20 years and I find that I am more alive than ever before. Music is still a big part of my life but it isn't my life any more. I will always be grateful that God helped save me through music by allowing me to hide in it until I could find better ways of taking care of myself.
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