March 2020

I think Counting Crows gets a bad rap sometimes, like maybe they’re lumped in as some kind of low-rent Hootie and the Blowfish or something. I don’t know why.

Despite the disrespect, Adam Duritz is one heck of a songwriter and, though I’ve never met him, he seems, too, like a transparent, REAL human being.

In this day and age, when bands and rights holders slap down YouTube videos just for the mere MENTION of their songs (just ask Rick Beato, if you don\’t believe me), De La Soul\’s \”Three Feet High and Rising\” would never have been made.

I still bristle at the term \”grunge.\”

I don\’t know why. I know it\’s easier to talk about all these bands in terms of the large genre into which they (like it or not) reside, but I feel like it takes away from their distinctiveness.

I fell in love with hip-hop in middle school. \”Planet Rock\” had been a staple at the skating rink, but my friend Richie was the first person to turn me onto \”Jam On It\” by Newcleus, which kind of blew my mind at the time. If I remember correctly, he wanted to go walk around the neighborhood, but I just wanted to hear that song again.

On Facebook, my friend David challenged me to do one of those \”one-a-day lists\” of music, probably as a way to cut through the mind-numbing boredom of being quarantined.

This is a list of the albums that influenced my taste in music. They set me on a path in a way — one that I haven\’t really strayed from in more than 30 years of music geekery. Enjoy!