Album Challenge 10 Records that Shaped my Life by Scott Macklin

Number 00: When I was just a wee lad, my Pops worked the split shift at Parckard Electric in Warren, Ohio. This meant that as I was being put to put bed he would be going to work and when I was waking up in the morning he would just be getting home. There are two sounds generated by my Pops that have deep imprints on the primordial soundbox of my soul. One is the needle drop coughing from side one of the Black Sabbath Master of Reality and number two is the gut rumble revving up engine of my Pop's 400 cubic inch(6.6 L) V8 GTO.

“Here come the Judge – This car has authority, but like the Road Runner and its ilk, it doesn't take itself too seriously."

Number 01: The strong charismatic winds stirring up revival in the late 1960's swept up my Mom and Pops and they re-tuned our lives, sold the GTO and headed the call into ministry. When asked why he did not purge his rock music collection during this shift he said, "that, this music kept him grounded and connected to those that matter." He would play this 8-track offering ad-infinitum in his powder-blue Buick LeSabre while his 3 sons jammed out in the back seat - which was literally bigger than our living room. Santana Abraxas was particularly shaping in that this was our soundtrack as we made the winding drive along the Ohio River as my Pops practiced his sermons on our way to church 3 times a week.

Number 02: In the 1970's we moved to California and Saturdays were always an adventure with my Mom trekking around Costa Mesa in a VW Karmann Ghia – making the rounds from from the Swap Meet to garage sales to the laundry mat. One of the best pieces of advise my Mom imparted on me way-back-when was, "Never buy underwear at a garage sale." And The Commodores Greatest Hits record was our Saturday soundtrack.

Number 03: During the summer of 1976, I received 50¢ a week for mowing the yard. I was saving up to buy KISS Destroyer. After 10 weeks of saving, my Pops drove me to K-Mart to make my well earned purchase. I had not yet learned of the magic and wonder of a proper record store. When I picked out the KISS album, he informed me that I was not allowed to buy that record. I don’t know if it was because he was a youth pastor or if he was just putting his aesthetic foot down, but he convinced me to buy Peter Frampton Comes Alive instead. He even contributed the extra 2 dollars - it was a double album and cost $7.98. Good call, Pops. This was my first record purchase. I still have this record to this day. "

I was yet to own my own record player and used the family's Fisher 432 1975 Silverface Studio Standard 250W STEREO Receiver.

"Do you, you, feel like I do? (how'd ya feel?)"

Number 04: I can't help bending the rules and stick to writing about just one record, so I am including a montage of sorts. The Columbia House Record Club (12 records for a 1¢) afforded me the opportunity to build the foundation of my album collection. The deal was that you would receive the initial 12 albums for 1 penny with the promise and commitment to buy 12 more albums over the next year at market price. A good deal I thought, though inching towards a Faustian bargain.

Even though, I was still pre-teen, I did get good guidance. At the time my Pops was a Youth Pastor at Melodyland Christian Center and the high school student members of his your group pointed me in some good directions. Selecting my initial 12 records was quite the daunting task and though I still own all these albums today, I came to realize that spending time listening, viewing art work, reading lyrics and liner notes is quite satisfying, however it is only part of the experience. The other part is the searching for and flipping through record store bins for treasures and engaging in conversation for those who curated such places. The word “curate” comes from the Latin “curatus,” the past participle of “curare,” which means “to care for one's soul" – a priestly function. But that is a story for another time.

How many of you fulfilled your purchase commitment and how many of you, like me did not...and are now living in fear of the yet-to-come Columbia House retribution – even more so than the effects of watching the film "A Thief in the Night?"

Be sure to look for the secret gold box.

Number 05: As we entered the 1980's we moved back to Ohio and my friend Kevin Lilly who was a couple of years older than me got his driver’s license and purchased a 3 on-the-tree Plymouth Satellite. Along with friends Kyp Ross and Chris Rhodes, we all pitched in to buy the B-52’s Planet Clare on 8-track. This was most appropriate when 3 of us would climb into the trunk to sneak into the Belpre (Ohio) Drive-In along the Ohio River across from Parkersburg, West Virginia. We must have went 4 nights in a row to “watch” the film "Heavy Metal." Beware the Loc-Nar!

“She came from Planet Claire / I knew she came from there / She drove a Plymouth Satellite/ A-faster than the speed of light.”

Number 06: I was 16 and had just received my drivers license...it was now time to learn to drive a stick shift. I met my Mom and Pops at the Ohio University Coliseum parking lot expecting a lesson on how to use a clutch, instead they drove off in the Buick tossing me the keys saying, “you’re a somewhat smart kid, figure it out and we'll see you when you get home.” Jaw drop moment. I opened the door to the Fiat 128, sat down, grabbed the steering wheel, put the key into the ignition and did what any somewhat smart kid did...popped Rush Moving Pictures into the cassette deck, cranked up the volume and proceeded to grind some gears. This album deeply parallels and reflects my fears, anxiety and eventual mastery of driving a manual 5 speed transmission. Time to level up.

"Jump to the ground / As the Turbo slows to cross the borderline / Run like the wind / As excitement shivers up and down my spine”

Number 07: In the summer of ’84 I hit a heavy funk. It felt like I had stubbed my head. It was one of those June rainy weeks in Ohio and I was holed up in my basement listening to way too much Prog Rock: King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd and the like. I was suffering from PRHS (Prog Rock Hole Syndrome) the continuous sense that one’s feet are not quite connecting to the ground while simultaneously experiencing the feeling of a paper cut on the eye ball. I needed an intervention and an antidote.

In step (or down step) into Haffa's Records on Union St in uptown Athens, Ohio owned by Ron Esposito. After hearing my plight, Ron prescribed a dose of Minutemen Double Nickels on the Dime to be ingested via Vinyl transmitted through a Harmon Kardon 580i receiver. Taking all the money I had been saving to buy a car by working at Wendy’s (Home of Fresh, Never Frozen Beef), I heeded his advice and bought the the audio receiver instead. I also added a pair of Boston Acoustic speakers. High School HiFi – Best diagnosis ever!

“Our band could be your life / Real names'd be proof / Me and Mike Watt played for years / Punk rock changed our life"

Number 08: As a freshmen at Ohio University I was given a work-study job at WOUB Radio station. Connie Stevens, the AM Program Director, introduced me to the Cut-Out Bin. These were records that were deemed unacceptable to the radio format which was news by day and Top 40 by night. She said, "why don't you dig through that pile and see if you find anything interesting." What a set up. Sometimes in life either through providence or serendipity moments are presented that fundamentally flip ones script. These 9 albums set the flipping in motion not through recommendation or research but because a very wise person pointed me to the rejected section and said go have a spin.

After doing some deep hanging out with these pulled from the rubbish bin selections, I pitched and then produced a Saturday Night radio show that I called the C.O.W.s Hour – Constantly Off the Wall.

Number 09: In 1986 I trucked out to Southern California and started an internship at White Field Recording Studios. On my first day Thom Roy, head of the studio, had me stand in the middle of the studio and told me to listen. I said, "but there is no music being played." He countered, "listen to the silence and don't leave 'til I come back." To this day I don't know if this was a test or if he just forgot about me. He did not return for over 3 hours. When he did, he asked, "What are you still doing here?" "Listening," I whispered. He followed, "What did you hear?" "Well," I said, "that depends upon where I stand. If I stand near the back of the room, the sound gets heavy but if I move to the left it sounds like you are opening the curtains and letting the light shine through." "Not bad," he responded, "come back tomorrow, I have a job for you." The job consisted of painting walls, wrapping cables (over-under), setting the bias levels on the analog tape recorders, popping corn and fetching Dr Peppers. But I also learned how to mix by being allowed to play with the 24 track master tapes. The album Doppelgänger by Daniel Amos and produced by Thom was my Yoda learning moment. "You must unlearn what you have learned." Each track was recorded in a non-reducible yet sonically integrated way with the whole. Each aspect had an acoustic kernel of meaning emerging in the mix. (Telefunken Mics, Neve Mixing Board & Stephens 821B - 24 Track 2 Inch Tape Recorder)

[Coda] Dit dit doo”

The first album that I served as the lead audio engineer was the Dead Artist Syndrome album "Prints of Darkness" led by singer-songwriter Brian Healy (RIP). Healy was dubbed the "father of Christian goth" and was an ordained minister.

Number 10: It is was a sweaty summer night in Long Beach. My orange VW Thing was on the move. I was with the Steve(s) at Bogarts – a small club holding less than a 100 people. Primus, 24-7 Spyz and Living Color took not only the stage but the rage and energy of all in attendance to evolutionary biotic shifts. The mosh pit was a churning like a benevolent spiders web shimmering with a constant rotation of stage dives and crowd surfing. At one point my friend Steve McMahon reached the stage and launched into an angelic head first, jack-knife swan dive. As he was reaching the crescendo of the space between band and audience, the crowd separated faster than Moses parting the Red Seas and he proceeded to go nose first into the concrete floor. The music and the crowd stopped cold. Steven Tuck knelt to help Steve McMahon and raised his head...his nose was smashed like a picnic potato. Tuck turned as the weight of silence framed the moment, and calmly spoke, “The floor is broke.” The concrete had indeed been deeply imprinted by the nose of our friend. Corey Glover, the lead singer of Living Color, then yelled from the stage, “Now that’s Hard Core!” The crowd let out a primal scream and then Vernon Reid launched into the primordial sound box of the soul erupting guitar riff to “Cult of Personality.” Living Color Vivid Aamped it all up a notch!

“I know your anger, I know your dreams / I’ve been everything you want to be / I’m the cult of personality”

Number 11: Yes, to quote the esteemed Nigel Tufnel, my list, "goes to 11." Artivism is a portmanteau word combining Art and Activism. These 4 albums represent friends who are deeply committed to the simultaneous renewal of collective mind, body and spiritual salutogenesis. It is a false distinction to make a binary out of Art and Activism. To be an Artivista is to embrace our unique and intertwined histories — to inspire resistance, empowerment, and social change — to bridge translocal and transnational borders by creating deeper networks of human flourishing — to create the conditions of lovework. These works become the tools to strengthen the cultural architecture upon which we may build a more just and dignified future. All done with flow, wit, prosody, and tasty beats to boot. Faith, hope and love in action. Rock On!

"It aint't what you got, it is how you freak it" – Gabriel Teodros

Projects that I have had the honor of producing with:

Bonus Records: Digging through my journal from my time in Grad School at the Institute for Christian Studies in Toronto, Canada, I found these two concepts of Herman Dooyeweerd sharpied onto the pages: Modal speciality of meaning" [NC,I:9]: This refers to the diversity of meaning, that meaningfulness has distinct modes or aspects, or spheres of meaningfulness. It is the meaningfulness in which we function. Plastic horizon of experience [NC,II, 557-8; III, 3]: The horizon of human experience is that beyond which we cannot see or understand. Since our knowledge of the aspects is continually being opened up, the horizon itself is not fixed and static but plastic and dynamic.

These 4 Canadian bands were part of the local scene at that time helping me to make meaning out of things seen and not seen — living in between anticipatory direction and analogical anticipations.

I must also add, that I walked through some pretty dark days at that time and got by with more than a little help from my friends. (Jim, Janice, Ron, Cheryl, Andrew, Lotte, Greg, Jason)

I got to attend these show. Kind of neat what you can find on the web.