How Do The Themes Displayed Within Your Favorite Album Reflect Your Personality?

a terrific and thought provoking question...

My first reaction was to go back to childhood..

Growing up I was not a Beach Boys fan, oh I loved some of the songs; “In my Room”, “Surfer Girl”, “Don’t Worry Baby,” “Wouldn’t it be Nice”, “God Only Knows”, “Caroline No”, and “Good Vibrations”. But I was a huge fan of the Beatles and from an early age I devoured their records and read anything I could get my hands on regarding their story. My earliest memory of the Beach Boys were references in Beatles books to their album PET SOUNDS and I remember thinking that it was weird that all these familiar songs were together with so many unfamiliar titles . The problem was that when I was growing up it was not cool to like the Beach Boys, they were square and unhip, and sadly to this day most people feel the Beach Boys to be some archaic musical group with some nice harmonies. When I was 9 or ten a friend gave me a cassette tape containing the Motown classic “What’s Going On” album on one side and the Beach Boys PET SOUNDS on the other. To say that I was blown away is an understatement, I was frankly floored by both albums....

From the first few times that I really listened to Pet Sounds, it was clear that this was the cohesive and very personal vision of one man.When I was twenty, I was newly in love and just beginning my first committed relationship and it was uncanny how songs composed twenty years before I was born could resonate so deeply with a 20 year old young man.. Songs of love and of longing.. songs of beauty and loss.. songs about not fiiting in and wanting to simply " Go Away For Awhile"..

Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth is on record as stating what an influence Pet Sounds was for him, and if you listen to the album, thats not much of a stretch....

I began to collect other Beach Boy albums at this point, later period gems like Friends, Surf’s Up, Sunflower, 20/20 and Holland. When I heard Brian Wilson's first solo record it became very evident to me who was responsible for producing all the great Beach Boys’ music. The papers began to mention an unreleased project called SMiLE in articles and reports were that Capitol Records was preparing a boxed set of the sessions for release (which never happened). For all the albums flaws, I still love that first solo record, especially Love & Mercy, Melt Away, Rio Grand, and I began to collect the Beach Boys records as they were released on CD for the first time.

Soon I had an idea of what SMiLE would have been and I began making my own SMiLE tapes, using SMILEY SMILE versions and later period songs like “Diamond Head” in an effort to hear for myself what SMiLE might have been like. When I was 13 or 14 I went to a record collectors “swap” and while browsing vendor’s collections of rare and unreleased vinyl albums I discovered my first SMiLE bootleg, a beautifully packaged collection that included a huge full color poster of the SMiLE cover, session log sheets and three albums of outtakes and sessions pressed on colored vinyl. Now I could make tapes that included the original sessions and I was truly converted. I have since collected every single scrape of SMiLE that has ever been bootlegged; it is a collection that contains hundreds of alternate and rare session recordings, so now I make CDs, collecting some of my favorite SMiLE pieces to give a more detailed example of the brilliance and prolific genius of Brian Wilson. In February 2004, days after the London Brian Wilson presents SMiLE performances, I began to collect computer files of the SMiLE shows and was bedazzled by what I heard, of course Brian was able to compile the greatest SMiLE of all, surprising and amazing me with every selection. I have terrific memories of attending Brian’s Santa Monica tribute show (where Brian met the Wondermints), millennium New Years Eve show, PET SOUNDS and SMiLE shows, I have met Brian twice and treasure my signed copy of his autobiography

Other records that are intensely personal for me..

Forever Changes- Love a masterpiece that is like a walk through the world before I was born

Welcome To The Boomtown-David And David

an amazing cinematic album that’s like a walk through Hollywood on an overcast day

Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars-Davis Bowie

the first ROCK record I ever heard and a personal journey through a world of sound that led to the Jesus And Mary Chain and to the depths below

Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret-Soft Cell

a walk through the neon colored corners of my mind.. a world of alienation, casual sex, drugs and loss

Psycho Candy –Jesus & Mary Chain

The album that introduced this impressionable child to Lou Reed, New York and Noise..

I am still shaking its hand and making its acquaintance

Temple of Lowmen-Crowded House

If you wanted to know about me.. and frankly who would even care to… I would offer this album as evidence of thoughts and, dare I say it, emotions.. “I feel Possessed”.. I have gone “Into Temptation”.. I live in a “Mansion in the Slums”… I will “Never Be The Same”… I am going down “In The Lowlands” oh well Like Gibberish I “ Better Be Home Soon”……

My favorite song right now is Wagon Wheel by Old Crow Medicine Show. "Rock Me Momma Like A Wagon Wheel, Rock Me Any Way You Feel, Walking South Out Of Roanoke Caught A Ride With A Trucker Out Of Philly Had A Nice Long Toke".

Great question.

Hard to say, really. They fit me to a T, metaphorically speaking. But in itself, taken as literal word for word, they do not reflect my personality one bit.

I've been rode hard and hung up wet all my life, but I always took it with a grain of salt and just moved on and grew and learned from my experiences. The writers on my favorite album express their thoughts, experiences, and emotions very well. In a way I can take to heart and use to get past maybe some of the bitterness and grief I shouldn't be harboring inside. Poetically.

If one were to take them in their literal sense, I'd look like a sick cold blooded murderer.

Despised Icon-The Healing Process

http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/despisedicon/theh...

I think my favorite album (Lucy Gray, by EOTC) reflects my personality well. My thoughts constantly dwell on life and death; of how I'm going to be remembered once I'm gone; of the thoughts of other people, and what type of people they'll grow up to be -- just as the album does. And just the way that the lyrics talks about those subjects, about how they leave room for thought and imagination, basically mirrors the way that I think about those things.

Can You See the Real Me. Super ego - Romantic - John Entwistle

Helpless Dancer. The Ego - Tough Guy - Rodger Daltry

Love Reign ov'r Me. The Id - A begger - Peter Townsend

So that is the dilemma, A "Triphenia"

No Lunitic....Right?

Led Zeppelin IV is my favorite album. Here's my take. One of the songs is Rock and Roll so that's a pretty important thing in my life. Four Sticks is like the rhythm of life for me. Stairway to Heaven is the epic times of my life. The Battle of Evermore can represent my struggles. Misty Mountain Hop covers my love of dance. Going To California means traveling. Black Dog is my insecurity of feeling like the black sheep. When The Levee Breaks represents fear to me of "having no place to go".

my favorite album is "horses" by patti smith. i've never thought about this before, but i guess there is a theme of getting left behind:

"you'll never return into my arms cause you were gone gone..." (redondo beach)

"no, daddy, don't leave me here alone..." (birdland)

"but i think it's sad, it's much too bad, that our friends can't be with us today..." (elegie)

and i guess that's reflected in my personality cuz i don't really miss things. like i don't miss people or places or anything, probably cuz i've felt rejection so many times, i've gotten this trent reznor notion in my head that "everyone i know goes away in the end..."

hm...that's kinda depressing. lemme see if i can find a more positive theme. well, i guess singing along to the very first line of the very first song ("jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine") so many times as taken its toll on my faith in the years since i first fell in love with this album. that's not much more positive....gosh, i never realized how bitter and sad this album is......****, this is like a therapy session for me :/

Umm well I'm really . Quirky. Experimental. Fun..?

The main thing is experimental and the album is... Different. Each songs different and .. Idk . I like mixing things up and having psychedelic mixed with rock and synth. I'm a bit hippy-ish and free and relaxed and the music is... like that too.

This was hard haha

Oracular spectacular.

The Wall by Pink Floyd, my life is somewhat like Pink's, people don't treat me the best, so I tend to isolate myself in my mind.

My life is like 'Blood On The Tracks', full of anger and regret.