This is one of the hardest posts I’ve ever written. I’ve loved music for as long as I can remember. But, I’d never thought about why I like the things I do and how it all started.

Turns out, my parents had a profound effect on my musical inclinations. They instilled in me an appreciation for diversity in music, lyrical content and experimentation. Every album they introduced to me marked a turning point in my life, shaped me in ways I couldn’t grasp. Without them, there would be no sexy gypsy. I’d probably be off somewhere listening to Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em, turning my swag on. Thank God they saved me from that fate.

So with that in mind, The Great White Gypsy and I would like to dedicate Old School Week to our parents and parents everywhere. Without them, we’d suck at life.

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue (1959)

From a very early age, I, like many other kids, was forced to learn to play the piano. And I fucking hated it. I hated practicing. I hated the stupid little tunes in my piano books. I hated everything about it. Until one of my piano teachers played me Kind of Blue.

It was my first exposure to jazz. Only then did I realize that music could be so fucking cool. To me, music until that point had been so…generic. To listen to Miles and Coltrane and Bill Evans play together was surreal. Everything was so tight, so meaningful. No note was wasted. You could almost hear them speaking through their instruments. That album sparked my love for music. It taught me that music was more than just background noise. It lived. It breathed. It consumed. Music was your soul manifested in sound.

Artists I Listen To As a Result: The Killamanjaro Dark Jazz Ensemble, Charles Mingus, The Bad Plus

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Marvin Gaye - What’s Going On? (1971)

After Kind of Blue, my earliest memories of music playing in the house was Marvin Gaye. My Dad used to play it like it was his only album. Which was strange, considering my Dad has the largest record collection I’ve ever seen—literally thousands of albums, neatly organized alphabetically by artist and then by album.

To this day, What’s Going On? remains one of my all-time favorites. A concept album, Marvin’s lyrics encapsulate its time in a way few musicians have ever accomplished. It covers everything from Vietnam to drugs to social injustice. Add to that the amazing Motown studio band, Funk Brothers, and production by Marvin himself and you have one of the greatest records of all time. It’s a classic in every sense of the word.

[SIDENOTE: Marvin Gaye was from Washington, DC. DMV STAND UP!]

Artists I Listen To As a Result: Anthony Hamilton, Erykah Badu, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings

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Queen - Night At The Opera (1975)

When I was started to define my own tastes, my musical world began to shrink. I discovered Hip Hop in midst of the East Coast revival. After that, music pretty much existed in two categories for me: Hip Hop and everything else. It was the first sound with which I could truly identify. It was my music. Biggie’s Ready To Die, Nas’ Illmatic, Jeru The Damaja’s The Sun Rises In The East and Wu-Tang’s 36 Chambers—that was my world. Everything else was on the fringes. Yeah, other stuff was cool, I was aware of it. But it just wasn’t Hip Hop.

Then my Mom played me Bohemian Rhapsody. And it blew my mind. Dude was screaming, singing, doing this weird opera thing, telling his mother he killed a man…shit was crazy!

I had never heard anything like it. Freddie Mercury’s piano, Brian May’s guitar, and those fucking harmonies—it was new. It was intriguing. It was addictive. Night At The Opera became my gateway drug to the realm of rock ‘n’ roll and revealed a world outside Hip Hop.

Artists I Listen To As a Result: The Smashing Pumpkins, Cake, Ben Folds

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Black Sabbath - Paranoid (1970)

I discovered Black Sabbath while rummaging through my Dad’s collection for something new to discover. The first thing that caught my attention was name, Black Sabbath. That alone was enough for me to check it out. It sounded so evil and subversive and agreed with my growing pre-teen-fuck-the-world sensibilities. I took it back to my room and listened to it on repeat for days.

Paranoid started me on a metal binge that lasted almost 4 years. Ozzy spoke of dark, abstract things like electric funerals, hell’s angels and death. Tony Iommi played the guitar like he wanted to kill it. And Geezer Butler was the dopest bass player I’d ever heard (Seriously, he is. Check this shit out). I loved Black Sabbath so much I ended up going to OzzFest every summer till I was 19 and gave me an appreciation for heavy, aggressive rock I’d never knew existed.

Artists I Listen To As a Result: Deftones, A Perfect Circle, The Fall of Troy

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King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969)

King Crimson’s In The Court Of The Crimson King was the first old school discovery I made on my own. I was starting to get into experimental, avant-garde, prog-rock like, Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s Lift Your Skinny Fists To Heaven, The Mars Volta’s De-Loused In The Comatorium and Tool’s Lateralus.

Thanks to the relatively new Internet, I was able to delve deeper into these bands and find artists I’d never heard. And that’s how I stumbled across King Crimson. Apparently they had influenced a lot of the bands I was listening to at the time. I’d never heard them and decided to pick up In The Court Of The Crimson King.

It is one of those rare, perfect albums. A record that captivates you from the opening beat and doesn’t let go till the final track fades out. Choosing one song to accompany this post was damn near impossible. Every single one is amazing—each connected to the next. So instead of laboring over this decision, I went with the oft-covered, opening track 21st Century Schizoid Man. But if you dig this or any of the other bands I listed above, this record is required listening.

Artists I Listen To As a Result: Dillinger Escape Plan, dredg, Fuck Buttons

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Honorable Mentions

• Isaac Hayes - Hot Buttered Soul (1969)
• Marvin Gaye - Let’s Get It On (1973)
• Miles Davis - Bitches Brew (1970)
• Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath (1970)
• Love - Forever Changes (1973)
• Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (1972)
• The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street (1972)
• The Delfonics - The Delfonics (1970)
• Sly & The Family Stone - Fresh (1973)
• Elton John - Madman Across The Water (1971)

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