32. Third Stage by Boston

 32. Third Stage by Boston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4mCIsmiAWc&list=OLAK5uy_mBidq4wAzrJo82dOE--ILZnAUReiP_xAA

Third Stage was released in September of 1986, at which time I was in Eskilstuna, Sweden. So I didn't become aware of this album or any of the songs on it until I got home from Sweden in 1987. Even then, I don't think I had any memories associated with any of the songs on the album until after I started dating Julie in March of 1988. But after that, it became THE album of our courtship. We listened to this album all the time while driving around in the Chevy pickup. I especially remember listening to the album on my birthday date with Julie to Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park. By then I had completely fallen in love with her, and I knew I wanted to marry her. And the themes of the album of moving onto a new stage of life and discovering what it takes to be a man really resonated with me. 

The album has two of my Top 200 songs--"We're Ready" and "The Launch/Cool the Engines." But I like all of the songs on it. Even more, I like how all the songs support each other thematically throughout the album even more. And the guitars...oh, the guitars! If you like thunderous power chords, this album has got some of the best you'll ever hear. The guitar solos are also very well done. And none of the special effect sounds on this album were made by synthesizers. They were all made with guitars and special Rockman amplifiers built by Tom Scholz, one of the founders of the band. 

The other fun memory I have of this album is how Ryan used to sing alternate lyrics to "Amanda" in honor of the sexy immortal Amanda on "The Highlander." My favorite alternate line was, "I'm gonna spank you like a man and make you call me Stan, Amanda!" 

Ah, John would be proud!

Nardo

33. Heartbeat City by The Cars

 33. Heartbeat City by The Cars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXpJ0bM5zbM&list=OLAK5uy_l8zCHgq3Utr7f1dAf9jqop3lbCzugN2Dc

Released in March of 1984, Heartbeat City showed up just in time for senior year track and band tour. From the moment I first heard "You Might Think," I couldn't get enough of this album. And when I went to the state track meet and ended up rooming with Darin Woolstenthume from Bear Lake High School, my former track nemesis turned into an immediate friend when he agreed with me that Heartbeat City was an excellent album. 

This album had a strong radio presence all the way through the summer into freshman year of college too, with "Magic," "Drive," and "Hello Again," keeping the album on the charts through the end of 1984. "Why Can't I Have You" also charted in January of 1985, but it didn't get into the top 20 like the other four hits. However, it did have one of the best B-side songs ever with "Breakaway," which I think would have been a top-20 hit if it had been added to the original album. 

https://youtu.be/GkBqZKMROtA

But with "Breakaway" being a B-side release, plus it having some pretty obvious references to heroin in the lyrics, it was kind of doomed to not get the radio play it deserved. Still, I think it's a better song than the title track "Heartbeat City," which apparently made it onto the low end of the charts in September of 1985, but I was in Sweden by that time, so I don't remember ever hearing it on the radio. 

Listening to this album always makes me remember that last year of running track in high school, the summer of lifeguarding after that, and my first semester at Ricks. I had sworn off dating by then, and I stuck to that oath for over a year, so this album doesn't have any associated memories of any particular girls. I was just too depressed to want to risk dating anyone again. So, the major slow-dance song "Drive" only reminds me of living in the dorms and watching MTV late at night in the foyer while most of the other guys were out on dates. Chris also went home a lot during that first semester, so I was alone on quite a few weekends at the beginning of school. But that was actually a good thing, because I needed that time to do homework. And after leaving Arimo for college, I was determined to apply that self-discipline I'd learned from running track to change my life and prepare for my future, which is exactly what I did for that whole first year of college as I prepared for my mission. So by the time I got my call to Sweden in February of 1985, I felt ready to face whatever might come my way.

Of course, I was completely wrong about that, and my first two months in Sweden nearly broke me. And it was hard. So hard to take. There's no escape without a scrape. But I kept it goin' till the sun went down. I kept it...goin'.

When I got back off my mission, Heartbreak City was one of the albums that I pirated from my brother-in-law and played while driving around in the Black step-side Chevy, so I have some good memories of the album during my summer after Sweden and my sophomore year at Ricks, too. But it's definitely an album that I mostly associate with that time around when I turned 18, which mentally wasn't the best time for me, but physically I was in the best shape of my life. Oh, how I wish I could still run a mile in under five minutes like I did back then! And when I listen to this album now, I am able to feel just a little bit of that 18-year-old long-distance runner determination to change my life and make it better. And when that happens, it makes me say to that 18-year-old that still lives inside my head, "Hello! Hello again!"

Nardo

34. Breakfast in America by Supertramp

 34. Breakfast in America by Supertramp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-nrv4iVYFQ&list=PLIqdcWWN8Sl7YO-1CZeK5VBt19kiL9QRd

Three songs from this album are in my top 200 songs list, so yeah, it was destined to be on my Top 60 albums list. 

Of all the memories that my brain could dredge up about this album, for some stupid reason, it has chosen to remember that back at the beginning of the 9th grade, Breakfast in America was Piney Votzel's favorite album. I learned this from one of those student newspaper articles filled with factoids learned from a published interview with someone in the student body that warranted special attention. And at that time it simply struck me as odd that Piney would like Supertramp so much because one of my sisters had purchased Breakfast in America shortly after it came out in March of 1979, so I had heard the album plenty over the summer, and it just didn't seem like the type of album that would end up being the absolute favorite album of a girl like Piney Votzel. I guess I expected that she would have been into rock bands that didn't have album covers featuring a big glass of orange juice.  

Just to be clear about this, I never had a crush on Piney Votzel. Ever. And I'm pretty sure she never had a crush on me, either. She probably thought I was that annoying jerk that told pickle jokes in middle school and played his trumpet way too loud in pep band. I think I may have had her in some of my classes--probably something supremely forgettable like science or math or English. But I don't ever remember even talking to her at any time in middle school or high school. Piney wasn't in band or drama or track or any other extracurricular activity that I was involved in after school. As far as I know, Piney wasn't friends with any of the girls that I had a crush on, so I wouldn't have associated with her casually in the hallway. I don't remember her ever coming to Lava Hot Springs while I was lifeguarding during the summer. I did not ever dance with Piney at a school dance. I never sat next to Piney at lunch. No group project in any class ever put me and Piney into a forced exchange of ideas. I never unexpectedly ran into Piney at any store or restaurant in Pocatello. I do not recall ever seeing Piney at the truck stop in Downey. I never sat next to Piney on any bus. I did not ever drive to school and park next to Piney's car. No Halloween party or Christmas party or any other kind of party had me and Piney playing some ridiculous game together. Piney and I had zero friends in common. When my friends and I rated girls during our summer high adventure campouts, Piney was never a source of debate among us. I never had a fight with Piney. I never had a mutual laugh over something with Piney. As far as my addled brain can recall, I simply had zero connections with Piney. In fact, I have exactly four memories related to Piney Votzel. 

My latest memory is from when she got up at the one and only high school reunion I attended about 15 years ago and made a hilarious public speech in which she apologized for everything she had done in high school and expressed affection for everyone in the room. 

Before that, I remember running into her at the grocery store in Downey during those three weeks I was living in Arimo after my mission but before the family moved to Twin Falls. She was the cashier, and while I was paying for root beer and some Fig Newtons, she asked what I'd been up to since high school, and I said that I went to a year of college and then just got back from a two-year mission in Sweden. She gave the usual wow-Sweden response that I always got from people in Marsh Valley when they saw me and asked me why they hadn't seen me in three years.

I think I may have also had some dreams in which Piney Votzel had a guest appearance. But I don't remember the particulars of any of those dreams.

And the fourth memory is, of course, that Breakfast in America by Supertramp was her favorite album in 9th grade. 

That's it. That's all the Piney I've got. There ain't no more.

So why in the hell do I think about Piney Votzel every time a Supertramp song from this album starts playing on the radio?! I do have other memories associated with this album. Sometimes I'll remember hearing the songs on the way to and from scout camp at Little Lemhi. And sometimes I remember my sisters playing the album on the stereo. And once in a while, I'll think about drinking a tall glass of orange juice for breakfast. But I ALWAYS remember that this album was Piney Votzel's favorite. I just can't stop the thought. 

There are lots of other thoughts I could have about the album. Like how for those of us that like hearing keyboards in a rock song, this album is about as good as it gets. Or how the lyrics to "The Logical Song" and "Take the Long Way Home" only get better and better the older I get--and it's pretty much the same with all the other lyrics on the album. Or how even the non-hit songs on the album are pretty damn good and have a consistently high quality in both music and lyrics. Or how the album art is so clever and fun yet still communicates a rather serious message when you put it in the context of the lyrics of the songs on the album. I think the cover symbolized the way that people from other countries (like Sweden) look at America as some land in which they'll be welcomed with a smile and all of their needs will be taken care of and they'll find all of their fantasies fulfilled, but in the end, it's all an illusion, just like how all of the breakfast items look like the New York skyline when you see them from far away out the window of a jet plane, but up close, they're pretty common and colorless. 

But all those possible thoughts about the album take a back seat to the thought that Breakfast in America was Piney Votzel's favorite album in 9th grade. So what does that say about me? Why would my brain prioritize this fact over all the other thoughts i could have about this excellent album? Is there something wrong with me? Is this a sign that I'm losing my mind? And did I start losing my mind clear back in 9th grade? Is Piney a symbol of something deep in my subconscious mind that reveals how genuinely empty my relationships were with all the girls in high school? Or is she representative of the general disconnection I feel with all of humanity? Is Piney the Stranger that, like Billy Joel says, we all have to face at some point in our lives? Is Piney simply the Stranger that I just can't say goodbye to? 

The questions run too deep. I know it sounds absurd. But please tell me who I am.

Nardo

35. Purple Rain by Prince and The Revolution

 35. Purple Rain by Prince and The Revolution

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXJhDltzYVQ&list=OLAK5uy_nZh8Bqp7b-jedaxIGOtSoNPwk_FnqtaCk

The summer between high school graduation and college was three glorious months of lifeguarding at Lava Hot Springs and driving tractor out in the fields. I didn't get to hang out with my friends as much as I wanted, but that's because we were all working on farms and making money for whatever was to come next in life. 

I remember that a lot of good music came out during that summer, but there was one album that I really found that I couldn't stand--Purple Rain. My friends and I had made fun of the Purple Pervert on his previous albums, so I was predisposed to dislike Purple Rain from the moment I first heard it. But it was impossible to go through that summer without hearing "When Doves Cry" and "Let's Go Crazy." And the album had hit its full stride by the beginning of my freshman year of college with "Purple Rain," "I Would Die 4 U," and "Take Me With You" dominating the airwaves. I remember that some of the girls I met at college REALLY liked Prince, and I just didn't get why. I mean, just look at the cover of the album! This doesn't look like any of the rock and roll singers that the girls in high school liked. 

I had not seen the movie, but I heard it was pretty bad, and I kind of figured that the rest of the album besides the hit songs played on the radio must really suck, so I never listened to it all the way through. And of all the videos I saw on MTV from the movie, the one song that I liked the most was actually by Morris Day and The Time's "Jungle Love"--oh-ee-oh-eee-oh!

https://youtu.be/N2FPQvwhSDY

Purple Rain also wasn't one of the albums that I got into after my mission, even though Prince had become a much bigger deal by then with lots of other hits. And I'm not sure why, but the producers of "Batman" decided that Prince would make the ideal artist to do the soundtrack. So we all had to endure hearing "Batdance" on the radio in the summer of '89, which turned me off to Prince even more. 

But about eight years later, I went to graduate school at Utah State, and I ended up buying Purple Rain because Julie said that she liked the album, and I was trying really hard to please her during that time, so I put aside my dislike of the Purple Pervert and gave the entire Purple Rain album a listen. And I was pleasantly surprised by how good all of the other songs on the album were, with the exception of Darling Nikki, which I still hate. But the rest of the songs grew on me so much that I got to the point that I even put "Computer Blue" on my Top 200 songs list. I also like "Baby I'm a Star" very much. Because I enjoyed Purple Rain so much, I ended up getting a Prince greatest his album, and I found that I liked even more of his music. Moreover, I found that I liked the music from his Purple Pervert days much more than the tamer music he put out once he got religion and joined the Jehovah's Witnesses in 2001. 

So this is one of those rare '80s albums that I hated in high school and college but eventually grew to appreciate much later on in life. Of course, I also rented "Purple Rain" the movie, and I discovered that my instinct that it would be a truly crappy movie was...absolutely dead on. It was about as bad as a movie can get--except for the music, which was very purple and very rainish. So it just goes to show that the old saying is true--you can't judge all perverts by their color.

Daren

36. Frontiers by Journey

 36. Frontiers by Journey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LatorN4P9aA&list=OLAK5uy_kve61SToeMDTxIrG__bH39SA4QAkdy-II

Both "Separate Ways" and "Back Talk" were on my Top 200 songs list, so it is no surprise that Frontiers makes it onto my Top 60 albums list. Ruth bought it, but I basically turned it into my record, playing it whenever I wanted at full blast in the basement while lifting weights, vegging out on the couch, or laying on my bed with the stereo speakers placed on two night stands on either side, and my head placed perfectly in between them so that I got the best stereo sound I could. 

This album was just about the perfect thing to listen to whenever I felt pissed off during my senior year, which covers basically all the time between November 1983 through May 1984. Ironically, it contains two slow-dance songs that reminded me of dates with the girls that made me perpetually pissed. the album did double-duty in dredging up painful memories. I'd torture myself listening to "Send Her My Love" and "Faithfully." But then the other songs would give me the psychological salve of driving rock guitars to accompany my angry weight-lifing workouts. "Chain Reaction," "Edge of the Blade," and "Balk Talk" were especially energizing. But the rest of the songs provided plenty of acoustic fuel to keep the workouts going for a couple of hours at a time.

The 2006 reissue of the album includes four more songs. "Only the Young," "Ask the Lonely," and "Only Solutions" had been originally recorded to be included on the Frontiers album, but then the record label guys wanted to save those songs for movie soundtracks instead. These are all quality songs that I think would have made the album even better than it was. "Ask the Lonely" and "Only the Young" both hit #3 on the Billboard charts when they were released after Frontiers. If they had been included on Frontiers, the album would have had had the following Top-40 charting songs:

Separate Ways
Send Her My Love
After the Fall
Faithfully
Ask the Lonely
Only the Young

Another song titled "Liberty" was cut from consideration, and frankly, I think it was wise to leave it off the original album. 

But there you have it. Frontiers was a great album when I listened to it back at the end of high school, but it could have been even better if it had included the stuff that was rather thoughtlessly cut out just because someone thought their future would be so much better without me them. 

Nardo

37. Eliminator by ZZ Top

 37. Eliminator by ZZ Top

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae829mFAGGE&list=OLAK5uy_lNkF0KnpICFVl079NmbTulL2wPaAexiVU

Toward the end of my junior year in high school, ZZ Top entered the charts with "Gimme All Your Lovin'," and over a year later after high school graduation, the album was still on the charts in the summer of '84 with "Legs." Other charting songs off the album included "Got Me Under Pressure," "TV Dinners," and the MTV monster video hit "Sharp Dressed Man." So, yeah, this album is definitely a big part of the senior year soundtrack. 

Strangely enough, one of the reasons I think it lasted so long on the charts is that none of the songs were big hits as far as chart-topping singles. That means that people didn't tire of hearing a bunch of songs from the same album all charting at the same time. Instead of getting cooked really fast on high heat on a front burner, this album sat slowly simmering away on the back burner. 

I didn't buy this album in high school, partly because I didn't want to experience the supreme embarrassment of having my sisters and mother ask about the appropriateness of the very unsubtle lyrics on "I Got the Six." But I did get a copy of the album from my brother-in-law after returning home from Sweden. I found that while I still enjoyed listening to the hit songs the most, the other songs had a pretty consistent quality with that signature ZZ Top sound. 

In a lot of ways, ZZ Top is a lot like another of my favorite bands, ACDC. They pretty much stick with one kind of music that works for them, and they don't stray too far away from that Texas Roadhouse formula. When Eliminator came out, some people criticized the group for using synthesizers and drum machines on it. But I think the essence of the band's sound is still there. I mean, you don't hear any song off this album and think, "Hey, is this a New Wave song from some English group with androgynous costumes and strange hairdos?" No, you think, "This sounds like those two guys with long beards form ZZ Top."

It was because of this album that I decided to give other ZZ Top songs a listen whenever they came on the radio. And that's why "La Grange" ended up being the only ZZ Top song on my Top 200 song list, even though the album Tres Hombres predates Eliminator by a full decade. 

It's the combination of all of the ZZ Top hit songs together--and the fact that all of those songs remind me of my high school years--that make this a Top 60 album, whereas no single song from this album made it onto my Top 200 list. But if I had to choose one song from this album as my favorite, it would have to be "TV Dinners," what with all those clever lyrics, including the best line of all, "I even like the chicken if the sauce is not too blue." That's the kind of lyric that lets you know this band is all about having fun, even though their music tends to sound like something that you would hear while two bikers in black leather jackets get into a fistfight, and one of them pulls out a switchblade, to which the other grabs a beer bottle and breaks off the bottom on the bar counter, and then the whole place erupts into an all-out brawl, but the band never stops playing.

Nardo

38. The Game by Queen

 38. The Game by Queen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_5O-nUiZ_0&list=OLAK5uy_kkHhuEInejU2gl6gTx1ALT7nb9UrmmBpo

While I do think Queen had other albums that were better artistically, this is their best selling album with their only two #1 hits in America with "Another One Bites the Dust" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." But lets all face the facts--"Another One Bites the Dust" is the monster hit that made this their top-selling album. It's definitely the reason I bought this album at the beginning of 9th grade. 

This album got played a lot from 9th grade through 12th grade, but in the end I threw my copy of the album in the garbage. Why? Because although I had heard rumors that the album had backwards masking, I didn't believe it. But after Randy showed me how to play the records backwards, I discovered that on "Another One Bits the Dust" there is backwards masking that says "smoke marijuana" in the same spot where the lyrics "Another one bites the dust" is played. Because at one point in my senior year I got really mad about how Randy's marijuana smoking had basically ruined what could have been a really good relationship between the two of us. He knew he couldn't smoke around me, so he decided that I wasn't going to be his friend, even though we shared the same bedroom my whole junior year of high school. So in my fit of anger, I threw my copy of "The Game" into the burn barrel. 

But I'd already memorized all the songs on the entire album, having listened to it at least once a week for over 3 years. And eventually after my mission I got another copy of the album. I couldn't resist how it triggered memories of my youth. One of those memories is of sitting in on a planning meeting for a school dance, and some girl suggested that the theme of the dance be from a song that was over a year old. And Sean Haney--who for some inexplicable reason had been invited to take part in the meeting--said in a supremely sarcastic tone "Why don't we make 'Crazy Little Thing Called Love" the theme song?" It made the girl feel really bad, but I have to admit it was kind of a funny thing to say. Also, I admit that I would have really liked it if we had made "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" as the theme song for the dance. But the group opted for a new song that was starting to get radio play--I don't remember which one. Probably something really stupid by Air Supply. 

The one song on this album that I skipped a lot while listening to it was "Don't Try Suicide." That's because it had the problematic line "You can't be a prick teaser all of your life." That was just not something I could blast out of the speakers and not have someone else in the house hear it and report it to Mom. So, yeah, that song got skipped the most.

But I enjoyed all the other songs on the album quite a bit. There's a pretty good range of sounds from the different songs, from the Elvis Presley vibe on "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" to the new Disco sounds of "Another One Bites the Dust" to a more classical Queen sound on "Sail Away Sweet Sister." It's got solid contributions from all of the group too. They all shine at one point in at least one song. 

If they just hadn't put on that damn backwards masking, I would have enjoyed the album throughout all of high school and into college. And in the end, throwing away the album didn't do a thing to fix the broken relationship between me and Randy. It was what it was.

And the album is what it is--a solid, all-around musical performance by Queen with a gigantic monster hit.

Nardo