If I find solace in rock music, sue me. These are a couple of classic albums (they came out before the age of CDs so I call them albums) I just listened to.
The first is Sergeant Pepper by the Beatles. Even with the Beatles having revolutionized the music world it was seismic. One rock station played it continuously for a week. Any list of best rock albums puts it at the top or near the top of the list. It is a slightly strange album, different from anything that had come before. The album cover alone has inspired endless speculation, including the "Paul is dead" fever that I have always believed John thought up as a laugh over a pint. Lines like "fixing a hole where the rain gets in" and "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes". The impossibly long rideout of "A Day in the Life" when the world still consisted of 3 minute singles. It is no exaggeration to say they were revolutionary. Game changers. The amazing thing is their entire recorded work came in 8 years, IOW from now back to 1996.
The other is Layla. The band was billed as Derek and the Dominos to minimize Eric Clapton's role. He had recently emerged from a couple of years of heroin addiction when he didn't play publicly and "Clapton is god" signs sprang up all over England. Reportedly he still wasn't straight when Layla was recorded. Nonetheless, he reemerged into public and with the help of Duane Allman and others recorded some of the hottest marks ever put on vinyl. They all did drugs straight through the sessions. Along with any number of jazz classics it is proof of mental alteration unlocking the doors of perception. (Yes, that's where that band got their name; it was from a line by William Blake -- "If the doors of perception are wiped clean they will reveal life as it is, infinite"). You can't listen to that album/CD/whatever without feeling transcendence. I could make 10 song choices here just from one release. Listen to the guitar interplay between Eric and Duane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrWK5XWuGpkOK, one more --
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ruy3dLT5ssMy biggest fear of rehab and recovery isn't that I can't do it. I know I can. What I fear in that 3 a.m. of the soul is that I will become a sober droid with no wild imagination.
