9. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Neil Diamond

 9. Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Neil Diamond

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdlYnrwaQ6w&list=OLAK5uy_lelFztmiUGVIAvJvu3oFxaeSvEyFhp118

In the late '60s, Richard Bach wrote a series of short stories about a seagull that was trying to learn how to fly and, in doing so, become a more perfect being. These short stories got published in book format in 1970, but it became a best-seller in 1972 and 1973. A film based on the book was released in 1973, but it pretty much bombed in the theaters. However, the soundtrack by Neil Diamond did very well in the record stores, selling over 2 million copies. It also won a Grammy in 1974 for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or a Television Special. In fact, because of all the Neil Diamond fans that were out there, the album made more money that the movie did.

The book, movie, and soundtrack escaped the attention of everyone in the Olson family until the passing of my brother Jeff in 1976. At his funeral, his band teacher, Ms. McKnight, played the song "Lonely Looking Sky" on Jeff's trumpet. It was a song that Jeff had been practicing for band class. My aunt Beverly (who has been the subject of many a joke I've told over the years) did something quite unexpected and completely awesome that I will always be incredibly grateful for. She went out and bought a copy of the book "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and drove up our lane to give it to my family. My dad read the book to us while we sat in the living room together. For some reason, it touched us all deeply, and it was very comforting to us as a family. After that, I went out and bought my own copy so that I could read it in bed over and over before I went to bed. Also, the family bought the Neil Diamond album, and I would listen to it on the record player before going to sleep. It found it to be extremely comforting, and while it reminded me of my brother, it just reminded me of the good things, and not all the fights we used to get into.

Several weeks after reading the book to us, Mom and Dad went to the temple in Idaho Falls, and my dad was impressed by the mural in one of the rooms that had clouds with seagulls flying through the air. Dad looked up in the corner of the mural, and he could see an image in the clouds part of Jeff's face with a hand placed on his head. And the opening lyrics to the song "Be" came to his mind--"Lost on a painted sky where the clouds are hung for the poets eye. You may find him, if you may find him." After that, Dad would share with us that he could see that same image every time he went to the temple, and the image got clearer and clearer to him each time. Later on when I went through the temple in preparation for my mission,  Dad was by my side through the whole ceremony. He pointed out the section of the mural where he could see Jeff's face. At first I didn't see anything, but as the temple ceremony continued, I was able to see the outline of a face in the clouds. I didn't recognize Jeff in it, but I could see the face that Dad had talked about all those years. And I was able to continue to see it whenever I went through that temple ceremony in later years.

While I was in Sweden and having a very difficult time, I got a copy of the soundtrack to listen to on tape, and it had that same comforting effect on me. That tape, along with The Man From Snowy River soundtrack, helped me tremendously. They reminded me of home in a way that inspired me instead of making me homesick. I also broke mission rules and purchased a copy of Jonathan Livingston Seagull in Swedish and read it repeatedly, which actually helped me with my Swedish a lot because I knew the book so well I could figure out the meaning of the Swedish words without even consulting a dictionary. 

Because I loved this album so much on my mission, later on I sent copies to all of my nephews and my niece that served missions. I told them it was sacred music in the Olson family, so it was okay to listen to it as much as they wanted. 

While I've continued to listen to this album over the years, there has not been any additional memories that I relate to the album except for one follow-up story. My sister got in contact with Ms. McKnight on Facebook and told her how much we appreciated her playing "Lonely Looking Sky" at Jeff's funeral. She responded by telling my sister that while teaching at Marsh Valley Jr. High she had never been interested in attending the Mormon church or learning its doctrine. But she had an experience on the day of Jeff's funeral that changed her life. Right after she finished playing the song, she said she clearly heard Jeff's voice say to her "Thanks Ms. McKnight." She said that she was stunned by this because she had never thought that there could be an afterlife until that moment. Because of that experience, she eventually investigated the church and converted, and she has even served a mission with her husband. 

So that's why this album is in my top ten. I have lots of other reasons for the other albums in the top ten, all of which are much less spiritually oriented and, in fact, quite profane. In putting this list together, I even thought about leaving it out completely. But then I thought that it really wouldn't be a very honest list if I didn't include it and recognize the impact that this music had on my life. So this is the one album on this list that has a strong spiritual meaning for me. And because I'm such a practiced old sinner, 1 in 60 seems to be about right. 

Nardo

10. Laevitas by Winter Forever

 10. Laevitas by Winter Forever

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htGFmRH-MeE&list=OLAK5uy_mzG7OjAg2lcEYn5vmtIhpX_X1fZxxFm94

Laevitas is the second album released by Winter Forever, a Boise band that consists of three guitarists--the singer plays rhythm guitar--and a drummer. And the reason that I have seen them in concert, and the reason I have a Winter Forever t-shirt, and the reason I clicked on the Like button and subscribed to their channel on YouTube--the only rock group that I've ever done that for--is because the bassist, Max Graham, is a friend and former work colleague. That's right. I know the bass player. I have the bass player's phone number. We text from time to time. And he's the reason that I've been eating vegetarian (mostly) for the last two years. He's the guy on the far left in the picture of the band below.

On the day at work when I discovered that Max was in a rock and roll band, I stopped working and spent the next two hours talking to him about his band and what they were doing and what their plans were for the future. I became an instant fan, and I enthusiastically supported him in any way I could. And being a superfan of the group, Max even let me have an advanced listen to the instrumental versions of the songs on Laevitas before they even recorded the vocals. So this is the only album I've ever heard where I remember listening to the songs before the album was even finished. Max also shared with me details about how the album was recorded and the whole process he went through to just record his bass parts. That means I feel a personal connection to this album unlike any other that I've heard during my life.

But I feel obliged to give a word of caution about listening to this album in front of the kids--don't. Cory lets the F-word rip too often on too many songs for this to be a kid-friendly listening experience. I think their video for "Inadvertently" is clean, but he's drinking and smoking in it, so again, probably not for the kids.

https://youtu.be/bUpKtaBnZDY

After they produced this album, the band was ready to release it and go on a tour of cities in Washington, Oregon, Utah, Nevada, and Utah. And then Covid hit and every gig they possibly could have played at got cancelled. And some of the venues where they wanted to play simply went out of business. And there was no way to even play the songs locally. So they released the album online and on Spotify anyway. They don't have a lot of traffic going to their YouTube channel, but their Spotify numbers are much better. Still, they haven't broken through to fame and fortune by any means. But they did manage to catch the attention of an independent record company and signed on with it. (I don't remember the name.) Once the Covid pandemic gets under control, or at least once everyone stops caring whether or not they'll die from its unchecked spread through the population, then I think the group will be ready to release another album and go on tour. Until then, Max is still working as an instructional designer at a company in Boise. He left CWI after working there a couple years because (a) the company paid him more than what my boss at CWI makes (and she's a dean) and (b) he wanted to make more money so that he can support the band's plans to put out more music. So he's definitely committed to the band, and I think they do have a future as a touring band, but it will be a while before anyone will see them in concert in Boise because all of the local music venues have shut down. 

My hope is that the group does very well over the next decade. They've made the decision to be an indy band for now, but I think that if they put out a few more albums, they might get some interest from the major labels. What they really need more than anything right now is to get their online presence ramped up with  a website, some more music videos, and some new music that gets released on Spotify and other music platforms on a regular basis. Also, when I finish my Red Fox Rising series, I want them to do the music soundtrack for the audiobooks. I'm thinking of the softer sound that they have at the beginning of "Central Parke Circle," "Josephine," and "Brown Recluse." Of course, that means I've got to save up some money to pay for it. But I think they'll do it if I ask Max nicely--and have at least five thousand bucks to throw their way. Musicians gotta eat too.

Nardo

11. A Kind of Magic by Queen

 11. A Kind of Magic by Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bqzbej78JHM&list=PL-Dlrh3xUEoR5hvzcGlIuUlYYebLWdnv4

I was a BIG fan of the original Highlander film (the sequels were pretty bad) and the Highlander TV series. And one reason I liked them so much was because Queen wrote the soundtrack songs used on both. I think the music on this album does a fantastic job of capturing the themes explored in the film and the television series--life, death, love, hate, friendship, grief, sacrifice, loyalty, betrayal, cruelty, kindness...and more. My nephew Ryan and I can talk about these shows for hours. He liked the TV show so much that he named his first son Mac (which was Duncan's nickname on the show). We have discussed at length changes that would need to be made in a remake of the series which would avoid the plethora of problems that the storyline had in the movies and TV show. But one thing we wouldn't change would be the use of Queen's songs as the soundtrack to the series.

Now, if you're a Queen fan and not a fan of the Highlander shows, then you probably think this is an okay album, but not Queen's best work. And I can see why you might think that--because you're not considering the context in which the songs were written or their ultimate purpose. But if you take those things into account, I defy you to find a better movie soundtrack for any movie by any rock group. And it's infinitely better than Queen's soundtrack to Flash Gordon. In fact, It's a Kind of Magic is so good as a movie soundtrack that it ended up being in two movies! "One Vision" wasn't included anywhere in the Highlander movie, but it ended up being included in the movie Iron Eagle.  However, the lyrics to "One Vision" are definitely based on the Highlander film. So when I hear the song, I imagine either Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod or Adrian Paul as Duncan MacLeod fighting bad guys with Japanese swords, not Louis Gossett Jr. as Colonel Charles "Chappy" Sinclair fighting bad guys with an F-16 fighter jet.

There is a major clunker on this album though. Listening to "Pain Is So Close to Pleasure" is much more pain than it is pleasure. 

The 2011 remastered version of the album has a nice piano / synthesizer instrumental "Forever" which is just a variation of "Who Wants to Live Forever." It's played by Brian May, not Freddie Mercury.

Also, there were two songs in the movie that were performed by Queen that aren't featured on It's a Kind of Magic. And after you hear these two songs, you'll understand why that's a good thing.

A Dozen Red Roses for My Darling

https://youtu.be/-DGQzSYFWaQ

New York, New York

https://youtu.be/Rtx5qYjSLNk

Although the album was released in 1986, I really didn't see the Highlander movie until 1988. And the TV show started in 1992. And that was when I started listening to the songs on this album more and more. So most of my memories associated with this album are of the early to mid-'90s when I was a new husband and a new dad and was teaching 7th grade at Irving and trying my hand at being a toy store owner. Shortly after the TV show ended in May of 1998, I ended up moving to grad school in Logan. And since I didn't have my weekly viewing of the TV series to prompt me to listen to the songs as much, I ended up listening to a lot of new music in a vain attempt to make all of the HTML coding I was doing a little less boring. But I do remember that "One Vision" became somewhat of a battle cry for me, as I was one man with one goal--to get my PhD. I used to listen to that song whenever I felt discouraged with my academic progress, and it always managed to psych me up. And although it took me a hell of a long time to finally reach that vision, I somehow got through it with the help of my family and friends. Actually, during those same years that I spent in grad school, Brian May was going to grad school to get his PhD in physics. He graduated in 2007, and I finished up mine in early 2008. Of course, he had started his studies 30 years earlier, so that made me feel a little less bad about taking 10 years to get through mine.

Anyway, this album is almost my favorite Queen album because of all the reasons I listed above. That's right. Almost. It was close to the top, but it didn't quite make it. Which is kind of sad, but we just have to accept it. Because in the end, there can be only one. 

Nardo

12. Discovery by Electric Light Orchestra

12. Discovery by Electric Light Orchestra

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pU9qoM5S2xY&list=OLAK5uy_kxLsiLo3uUk4X2Gl335o91SjkTzZtWGu8

This is the album that made me an ELO fan. I really liked some of their songs before this album, but when I heard "Don't Bring Me Down" back in 1979, my 9th grade life changed, and for the better. That's because it wasn't just a catchy song, it was an anthem for the Virgin Lips Club / He-Men-Woman-Haters Club that helped sustain me through the heartbreak of repeated rejection of those handful of high-school girls that I opened my heart to--most of which never really knew I'd opened it or, for those who did know, how far I'd flung it open. Of course, I'd done my share of rejecting girls that liked me, some which I knew liked me, and some of which I'm sure I was completely oblivious to their feelings for me until it was too late to actually do anything but apologize because I'd managed to hurt them without even knowing I'd hurt them. But such is the nature of young love. 

I remember singing along to "Don't Bring Me Down" during lunchtime in the Jr. High building for a while until the Jolly Green Jolley decided that the line "One of these days you're going to break your glass" was too suggestive and wouldn't let us listen to the song anymore. What a douche! 

Of course, there were other songs on the album that I liked then, especially the disco classics "Shine a Little Love" and "Last Train to London," as well as the under-appreciated "On the Run." But over the years, I grew to like all the other songs just as much or even more. "Need Her Love," "Confusion," "Wishing," and "Midnight Blue" are great for dealing with the conflicting feelings that come with unrequited love, and they are also a good balance to the I-don't-give-a-hairy-crap-about-you-anymore attitude on "Don't Bring Me Down."  But "The Diary of Horace Wimp," which is now my favorite song from the album, gives me goosebumps and makes me want to cry for joy when I think about the time HondoJoe got out and found himself a wife. 

My only complaint about this album is that there should have been more songs on it. Unfortunately, the B-sides to the hits from this album were songs from previous albums. But there were two songs that are definitely related to Discovery.

Little Town Flirt 

https://youtu.be/20FDKjGIQqs

This was a bonus song on the 2001 remastered release of Discovery. It is a remake of the 1962 song by Del Shannon, so it doesn't quite fit with the disco vibe on Discovery. Still, it's a fun listen. But I think it might have been a better fit if they'd included it on their 1983 album right after "Rock and Roll Is King," as there was a bit of a revival of that '50s and early '60s sound in '83, which in my mind was led out by Billy Joel's album An Innocent Man.

Second Time Around

https://youtu.be/8ubvK-oZTg8

Another bonus track from the 2001 remaster. It's a bit short though. Needed some more development for sure.

And to my disappointment, that's it. There are lots of rare and unreleased ELO songs floating out in the interwebs, but none from the Discovery time period. Of course, part of the reason for that is because ELO produced a lot of albums every few years, so I guess I shouldn't complain. There aren't a lot of "in-between album" songs during this time period because they were too busy writing songs that actually made it onto the albums--which is a pretty damn good excuse for not finding more rare Discovery gems. 

Musically speaking, I think I should probably rank this album much higher on my list. In fact, it started out in my top ten albums, but I had other albums that have such sentimental value to me that I had to push this album down to number 12. 

But speaking of sentimental memories, anytime I listen to this album it takes me back to that 9th grade year and all the fun I had with the Arimo Mafia on campouts and other activities. It's the year I started to really love playing in the band. It's the year I started playing football with Chris as the manager. And it's also the year I started running track and loving the long-distance races, which eventually led me to run a marathon with HondoJoe in later years. So it's a year with lots of good memories of good friends and, thanks to ELO, some damn good music!

Nardo

13. No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

 13. No Jacket Required by Phil Collins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5soq6RLoIz8&list=OLAK5uy_k-NheJU7cAhkVHX4w1pEEw27yVOhCM73M

One of the best things about returning home from Sweden was finally getting the chance to listen to No Jacket Required as much as I wanted to, which was A LOT. I pirated a copy of the album from my brother-in-law and played the tape over and over during the summer of '87 while driving around Twin Falls in the black step-side Chevy pickup. And my reaction to the album back then is still the same reaction that I have today, which is "What the hell, Phil?! Do you love her or hate her? Can't you pick a mood and stick with it?!" I remember thinking that this album would have probably killed me if it had come out during my senior year. The song progression swings wildly between the expression of desperate love for a woman and complete rejection of the same woman. The album is like this emotional rollercoaster that just keeps going up and down and up and down and up and down. It would have wrecked me emotionally if I'd had it in my record collection during that first year of The Great Depression. 

I do remember this album in connections with one occasion that summer when I went to the Arimo churchhouse to look for Sheldon. A bunch of people were getting prepared for his wedding reception in the Arimo church gym. When I got there, I didn't find him, but I did run into that red-head that I'd pined over during my senior year. It was quite a shock to my system. I thought I'd gotten completely over her after my mission, but those same old feelings came rushing back and hit me like a freight train. I don't think I even said anything other than hello to her, and I was just so befuddled as to why she was helping Suzanne with the reception. But that's what she was doing. Anyway, I found it hard to breathe or even think because of how overwhelmed I felt, so I got the hell out of the church as soon as I found out Scapell wasn't there. And then for the next two weeks I listened to No Jacket Required practically nonstop because it was simply the best album to accompany the super-strong rollercoaster emotions that I was feeling. It was just so frustrating to not have those feelings for a couple years and then to have them rush back like that. Phil's music therapy was really the only thing that made me feel like someone else understood what I was going through, so maybe I wasn't completely going insane.

Of course, I didn't really understand what had happened to me until I took a couple more college psych classes--including abnormal psych--and realized that I'd experienced a kind of post-traumatic stress event that triggered really strong past emotions. And as a missionary, I had enjoyed a kind of psychological protection against those emotions because I'd had to spend so much of my mental energy just trying to figure out what in the hell drunk Finns were yelling at me at the bus stop. But once I'd come back home, that protection was gone. Also, because I didn't have a chance to prepare mentally for the encounter, I got the full force of those emotions. It was kind of like how when you get hit by someone that you can see coming at you--there is time to prepare for the blow and get an arm up to defend yourself. But when you don't see the person coming at you, and you're just standing there clueless in the middle of a grocery store, and suddenly there is a hammer blow to the back of your head--yeah, you're going to see stars for a while after that.

Anyway, with the help of this album, I was able to eventually stop seeing stars later on that summer. And once I got back into college, I really did not have those same feelings for her anymore. In fact, I remember that sophomore year of college as being probably the happiest year of my life--which put a definite end to The Great Depression and, at the very end of that school year, brought me a new lover that I've been able to keep loving for over 30 years now. Like Phil said:

Turn your head and don't look back
Just set your sails for a new horizon
Don't turn around don't look down
Oh there's life across the tracks
And you know it's really not surprising
It gets better when you get there

Nardo

14. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd

14. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HW-lXjOyUWo&list=OLAK5uy_l1x-JAx0w53suECoCI0YJtW6VB8DBQWRQ

If anyone is looking for a prime example of what a holistic "Album" is--verses just a collection of songs on a record (which is what most albums put out over the last 50 years really are)--you need look no further than Dark Side of the Moon. It is a rock-and-roll masterpiece.

But it's one I didn't really get into until my adulthood when I was in grad school at Utah Sate. I bought it to listen to on a super long day trip to eastern and southern Utah to set up computers in classrooms for special education teachers that were so far out in the boonies that they didn't have anyone in the school system that we could count on to do the installation for them. While I wouldn't say it was the best trip I've ever had in my life, it was utterly fantastic listening to this album as I drove through Zion's National Park. 

Fun Fact: Without Dark Side of the Moon, we may not have ever had the pleasure of watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The band used money made from this album to help fund that movie. 

As you've learned from my past entries about Pink Floyd songs, the connection between Pink Floyd and my cousin Randy is a strong one, as listening to Pink Floyd in the dark while laying on our beds was a regular event during my junior year. But for some reason, Randy never bought this album, as he favored The Wall instead. Still, when I listen to this album, like I am now as I write this entry in my Top 60 list, my thoughts always bend toward Randy and my life as a 16-year-old in Arimo. Of course, then I reflect on where my life is now, and I become supremely disappointed in myself. Why? Because the lunatic is in my head. 

But then I remember how last week, for just a moment, I got this flashback while looking at the bright red bare limbs of a sapling tree in the winter morning sunshine, and I remembered with absolute clarity how I felt and thought about myself and my life when I was sixteen--in the days before The Great Depression--and I felt this enormous rush of happiness, like the kind of happiness I felt when the Arimo Mafia got together to play basketball at the church gym or play ping-pong in Scapell's basement or play pool at HondoJoe's grandma's house or ride snowmobiles at the Big Onion or hang out in a cherry Hilton tent in the middle of a forest and play Hearts and rate girls.

So, while I can definitely connect with the themes about life and death and the psychological ugliness of human experience in the lyrics and music of Dark Side of the Moon, I also have abiding memories of precious lifelong friendships that remind me that there's a bright side of the moon too.

Nardo

15. Cargo by Men at Work

 15. Cargo by Men at Work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqYug49O7xA&list=OLAK5uy_kq7QCVIo2veRrifljkVJ12GVNPt238wqc

As good as Business as Usual was, I rate Cargo just a tiny bit ahead of it--mostly because of the song "Overkill," which came in at #18 on my Top 200 list. The entire album, but particularly "Overkill" is actually a pretty good summation of the range of emotions I felt during my senior year of high school. It was one of my Dave Edmund's Mood records that I turned to repeatedly during my senior year, and even through the entirety of The Great Depression. While there are some albums on this list that I liked to listen to while I worked out lifting weights and jumping rope in the basement, this is an after-workout album that I found was best listened to after a jogging workout that consisted mainly of running around the outside streets of Arimo at least once (during the winter) or running up and down the gravel Arkansas road when the weather got better. I'd come home exhausted, hit the shower, and then lay on the bed and listen to this album and get lost in my thoughts. That isn't to say that there aren't songs on the album worthy of placement on a workout playlist. If I'd had a Walkman during my senior year, I definitely would have had a running tape with "Upstairs In My House," "High Wire," "I Like To," and "No Restrictions" on it. But it's the slow songs on this tape that were my favorite to listen to while I was in my Dave Edmund's Moodiness. "Overkill," "No Sign of Yesterday," "It's a Mistake," and "Blue for You," were the songs that had the most meaning for me during my last year of high school. 

As was the case with Business as Usual, I think Cargo should have been released as a double album. Since the album's release in April of 1983, the band released some other songs that were written around the same time as Cargo and that have that Men at Work sound that I love so much (the sound of the band before their third album). The first four are included on the 2003 remastered version of Cargo, and they are all quite good and worthy of being included on the original album. Three of them were B-sides to the four singles that got released from the album.

Shintaro

https://youtu.be/t4fwy7QUKkI

Till the Money Runs Out

https://youtu.be/zuIGE_W0y8o

Fallin' Down

https://youtu.be/uZJYS_QnZOg

The Longest Night

https://youtu.be/lLa0rlhOTvw

There are also the following additional songs that I think could have been released on a second Cargo album. 

Coldfinger

https://youtu.be/kriOmLagNHA

Stimulation (Feeling So Good)

https://youtu.be/ZRPb-NhW058

And I'm not sure if this last one is album-worthy, but they played it a lot in their live shows, and the video is worth watching if for no other reason than you get to see Collin dance wildly and jump around the stage like a kangaroo. 

Mr. Entertainer

https://youtu.be/kEEWlGvTC5A

I can't find any other rare, unreleased songs from Men at Work during this time period prior to the release of their third album, so I guess that second record on the Cargo double-album would have been short a few songs. Seven songs just doesn't seem to be long enough for an entire album. Still, I'd rather listen to these "throwaway" Cargo songs than most of the songs on Two Hearts. 

And that concludes my back-to-back Men at Work album entries. They were one of the most important bands to me during my high school years, and I still enjoy listening to their songs today--especially when I get in a Dave Edmunds Mood. And maybe (just maybe) I'll go buy myself a pair of running shoes and some sweats and put together a Men at Work playlist that will help me get back into some kind of shape where running a mile or two around Arimo won't seem to be an unachievable feat anymore. If I do end up running around Arimo again, I will be running it in the dark, because I learned back in 1983 that's the time when there are pretty lights that nullify the night as ghosts appear and fade away.

Nardo