FORGET COCONUTS!
By John Degroff

I was asked by Daniel to do something else for Petra 1, and it was his suggestion to do a "favorite album list", or "top ten list". I've seen these lists published in various periodicals over the years. One publication calls them "desert island discs", the concept being if you were stuck on a deserted island and were only allowed 10 Cds, what would they be? I've always kind of enjoyed reading these lists, especially the ones from well known musicians. It's always interesting to me to find out what other players listen to, and what their personal listening habits are. There are usually some real surprises, such as the heavy metal guy who listens to blue grass, or things of that nature that you would not expect.

Most Christian musicians of my age bracket didn't grow up listening to Christian music. Pretty much all that was available was either Southern Gospel quartet music, or church hymns. Certainly no Christian rock. Consequently, what you'll find on my personal list is all secular, with the exception of Phil Kaeggy in my Honorable Mention List.

Most of my personal listening time is spent with instrumental music, which works for me on several levels. I'm always trying to improve as a player, and I find a certain degree of inspiration listening to great players from all genres. Another reason is that since moving back to my home town in Ohio, I've pretty much become a professional journalist. I write for a weekly entertainment/music guide out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, called Whatzup. (Feel free to check out their web site at www.whatzup.com. I have several articles that are archived in the back issues link.) While I listen to everything that's sent to me by any given artist's publicist, when I'm actually writing, I can't listen to anything with vocals. I'm too easily distracted. I've discovered a lot of wonderful instrumental material that I listen to while I'm working.

I went back and read my first interview with Daniel and realized that I had said I'd never play Christian music again. Well, one thing I've learned after all these years of being a Christian is to never tell the Lord "I'll never do that..." Guess what...people, and attitudes, change. The Lord has put me in a place where I'm now doing Christian music again, as well as some acoustic material from the classic rock era. Having been a part of the Petra reunion show this last summer was an experience I'll never forget. What meant more to me than being on stage, though, was the fan reaction. I've never been received like that in my life and it's thrilling, even humbling, to know there are people who care what happened to the original guys. For anyone reading this who was there, I wish I could say more than just "thank you", but I really do mean that. It was an honor.

Now, on to the list, which I think will surprise some people. I'm a life long student of music, and my tastes range all over the place. Being a bass player, you'd think I'd listen to a lot of other bass players, but I really don't. I listen to the entire presentation of any given song or instrumental piece. I'm fascinated by arrangements and how other musicians express themselves. I hope that people reading this thing might develop some curiosity towards some of the music I've mentioned. And I'd also like to invite anyone who wishes to contact me personally (jdegrf@aol.com) with any thoughts, or even their own lists, after reading this. I love talking about music and always will.

Thank you everyone, for your time and consideration.

DEGROFF'S TOP TEN

1. YES "Close To The Edge" This album was released in 1972 and I consider it to be definitive Yes. I'd heard only the previous album, "Fragile" which had the hit "Roundabout", up to that point and while I really liked it, I never bought it. A friend lent me a copy of Close To The Edge and well, that was it. I became a die hard Yes fan. The music was unlike anything else out at that time. While the album only has three tracks, with the longest being the title cut at 18 minutes, 50 seconds, it stretched the envelope of what bands were supposed to do. Seeing Yes in concert is an experience-everything is note perfect and Jon Anderson's voice just get better with age. I also became a very big fan of Chris Squires because of this album. He really opened the doors to using bass guitar as more than just a part of the rhythm section. I've never tried to copy his sound or style, but I've been told by more than one person that my playing can be as intense when I want it to be.

2. GENESIS "Selling England By The Pound" (1974) At this period of time, Genesis was not the Top 40 type band they were later to become. Peter Gabriel was still in the band in '74, and the album after "Selling England...", "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway", was the one that caused a lot of turmoil in the band, opening a way for Gabriel to pursue his solo career. "Selling England By The Pound" is a somewhat rough sounding record by today's standards, but the song writing and Gabriel's vocals made this the peak for that line up of the band. There's something almost magical about it.

3. KING CRIMSON "In The Court Of The Crimson King" This was their first release, in 1969. Greg Lake played bass and did vocals on this. I bought the album right when it came out, based on a very positive review I'd read for it. Once again, it was not like anything being played on radio at the time. Every band out there playing heavy material owes a debt to the Crimson of over 30 years ago. The first track, "21st Century Schizoid Man" was remarkably heavy considering the time period. Crimson could also do jazz riffs and could get very soft and mellow, as with the tunes "I Talk To The Wind" and "Moonchild". Crimson also used a sort of keyboard called a mellotron. Each key on a mellotron ran a tape loop that could contain anything you wanted to record on it, usually orchestra sounds. When you took your hands off the keys, it would take a second or so for the note to finally decay. Plus, these things were very touch. You could get everything in synch, pick the instrument up and move it five feet, and it would be out of synch. Crimson toured with more than one of these things, which is hard to imagine. But, you have to remember the era-before computers and digital anything existed. Samples were those little bars of soap that came in the mail. Robert Fripp is the only surviving member from this period, but he's always steered King Crimson into territory that's experimental and eclectic. Plus, members of various versions of King Crimson went on to work in bands such as Foreigner, Bad Company, and Asia. It's music that's not for fans of pop music, for sure.

4. Z.Z. TOP "Tres Hombres" When I want to listen to just good, basic, fun rock, Z.Z. Top's earlier albums, especially this one, their third, always does it for me. I like to call it "shower music"-it's great to crank up the stereo loud enough to hear it in the shower with this album. I consider this definitive Z.Z. Top, before their MTV days and the mountain man beards. Good, clean guitar playing, short songs, and just a fun thing to listen to. It came out in 1973, but still holds up well. Plus, with the old vinyl album, when you opened the cover, there was a gigantic picture of a huge plate of Mexican food. I can never look at this without getting hungry.

5. THE BEATLES "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" It's hard to imagine any musician in my age bracket who wasn't influenced by The Beatles in some way. I remember seeing them on the old Ed Sullivan show in 1964, although I was too young at the time to really appreciate it. The year after that, my best friend, Dan Leu (whom I'm playing with again in an acoustic thing called way2cool), bought a Beatles album and that was it. I was hooked, addicted, and wanted to be a musician. The Sgt. Pepper album is considered by many as The Beatles masterpiece. It often appears as number one on lists of the top 100 albums, or the most influential, or the best of...on, and on. It also scared the life out of other recording artists at the time because the bar had definitely been raised very high. It came out in 1967, and is considered to be one of the first, if not THE first concept album. However, there's not much of a "concept" to be found in the songs, but no one seemed to care. It's also remarkable to know that it was recorded on four track, but of course, they had George Martin behind the board.

6. THE BEATLES "Rubber Soul" (1965) I could never have just one Beatles album on my all time favorite list. What's remarkable about The Beatles is that if you get the chance to listen to all their albums in chronological order, you hear them getting better with each release. The songs and the musicianship got more sophisticated each time. I choose Rubber Soul because I just plain like the songs on this one. One tune in particular, "Think For Yourself", has a lead that's actually Paul McCartney playing a bass part through a fuzz box.

7. ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER "White Winds" Some people call this type of almost ambient music "new age", which has a tendency to freak some people out. The term "new age" is simply a way to describe music that doesn't fit into any other category. Andreas Vollenweider is from Switzerland, and plays a modified electric harp, which he refers to as an electracoustic harp. He designed and modified the instrument himself, and it's often played with mutes. he seldom uses a bass player, as the lower register strings on the harp have enough, if not more, low end. This particular album, "White Winds", came out in the mid-1980s-I believe in 1985. Vollenweider won the first New Age Grammy for it. It's a short album, but it's some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. Subsequent released have experimental moments on them where Vollenweider incorporates different instruments that you would not expect into new age music. The best examples are found on an album called "Book Of Roses", in which you can hear banjo, wind instruments, accordion, and the South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Carly Simon is a big Vollenweider fan, and as such, has lent her vocal talents to another Vollenweider projected called Eolian Minstrel. Previous to going solo in the 1980s, Vollenweider was part of a very eclectic group called Poetry And Music, whose work was only available in Europe. "White Winds" is available as a solo recording, but is best purchased as part of the "Trilogy" set, which has his first three albums-"Behind The Garden", "Caverna Magica" and "White Winds". The trilogy also contains the short "Pace Verde" and Eine Art Suite', which was only available in Europe until this release. What I really like about Vollenweider's work is how relaxing it is and how it goes to places musically that take you by surprise. It's also very contemplative music. There have been times when I've been traveling somewhere, and start to notice a really beautiful sunrise or sunset. I've often pulled the car over, put on some Vollenwider, and just sat back and thanked God for what I'm witnessing. (I know I'm sounding like a very liberal tree hugger type, but nothing could be further from the truth. I'm devoutly conservative. I just appreciate beautiful music, especially stuff out of the ordinary.) I'd also like to recommend this album to you married folk out there. It's great for those times when you've pawned the kids off to relatives for the weekend, and you and your spouse are planning some real quality time together. Trust me on this.

8. BEETHOVEN'S 6TH SYMPHONY "The Pastoral" I started developing an appreciation for classical music in a sort of roundabout way. Back during the Petra years, I heard so much "rock is of the devil" talk that used to really make me a bit angry. On an emotional level, I could argue against it, sometimes vehemently. But, i wanted something more than just emotion to develop dialogue with. I spent the better part of a year reading everything I could find on music history, and in particular read several biographies on Beethoven, Bach, and Richard Wagner. I choose those three because, to me, they seemed to have the most lasting influences beyond their eras. I found Wagner to be particularly fascinating in that he was one of the major influences in the life of Adolph Hitler. Yet, Wagner wrote some beautiful music; in particular a piece called "Forest Murmurs" from the opera Seigfried, which is part of the Ring Cycle. I had to question how someone who could write something so emotional could have influenced such evil. But, that another topic altogether. It was through reading about Beethoven that I went out and bought all nine symphonies to acquaint myself with his work. While most classical music aficionados would point to the 5th Symphony as one of the world's great musical masterpieces, and others regard the 9th the same way, I found the 6th to be very moving and contemplative. It has a great dynamic range and when you listen to it, just lay back and close your eyes and let it take you. You can really get the sense of being in a place where it's spring and everything is blooming and sprouting life. The symphony itself is often referred to as programme music, which is music that is indicative of a certain poetic or literary idea. More than one biographer has pointed out that Beethoven no doubt had a deep appreciation, even a love, of nature. What's also fascinating is that Beethoven was beginning to go deaf by 1802. The 6th was composed in 1808, which was one of his most prolific years. I personally don't see how any musician, for any genre of music, could not appreciate the genius of Beethoven.

9. JETHRO TULL "Benefit" This is the third Tull album, which was released in 1970, way before the operatic length project such as "Thick As A Brick" and "Minstrel In The Gallery". Benefit contains short songs, and just has a kind of light quality to it. It's hard to categorize it as rock, and it's definitely not as progressive as yes. Tull had stared as a sort of pseudo jazz band, and it's easy to tell those influences. Still, there's just something about this record I've always liked and always will.

10. ERIC CLAPTON "From The Cradle" I would have to have some Clapton AND some blues in my all time favorite list. It's therefore quite easy to do two things at once with this particular Clapton album. When it was released in 1994, it was THE Clapton album everyone was sort of waiting for-nothing but pure blues. The day it was released, it was on the Billboard album chart at #1. Picking one Clapton album to me is like trying to pick only one Beatles album. The guy has a career that goes back to the early 1960s, and he's done so much and played with so many people. His "Riding With The King" album with B.B. King was two old masters getting together to pay homage to each other. Clapton's latest, "Me And Mr. Johnson", has Eric paying homage to his greatest influence, Robert Johnson. In every bit of work Clapton has ever done, you can always find a blues moment. It's there in the Yardbirds, definitely with John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and especially with the long extended jams Cream became known for. Derek And The Dominoes certainly paid tribute to the blues, and this trend continued through every subsequent album Clapton has ever done. He also made sure that the credit for these great old blues tunes went to the original bluesmen, many of who had died or were extremely old. He made sure they got the credit and royalities they deserved. I respect Clapton not only for his musicianship, but also for his humbleness in showcasing the older players who inspired him.

HONORABLE MENTION LIST

Okay, so this is my list and I'll add what I want. The top ten listed above are the recordings I've found that I've gone back to time and again, either to find inspiration or just because they mean a lot to me. Granted, it's a diverse list, but I've never been content to listen to just one thing all the time. I'd like to mention the following projects that could be included on my next list, provided I would get a chance to do another. These are projects and musicians that have also inspired me for various reasons.

THE ROLLING STONES "Let It Bleed" (1969) Okay, so the Stones are kind of a "guilty pleasure". They've been a working band for over 40 years now, and many critics rate this as probably one of their best albums. It had the London Symphony on it, as well as some of the last recorded performances by Brian Jones before his death. They also did a very slow, bluesier version of Robert Johnson's "Love In Vain", which comes across as pure blues.

Any other YES album would also do, but particularly "Tales From Topographic Oceans" and "Fragile", both of which is often called Classic Yes.

Any BELA FLECK AND THE FLECKTONES album. If there is such a thing as jazz/new age banjo playing, Fleck can do it. The Wooten Brothers are also just plain incredible and have to be seen live to be fully appreciated. Even as a writer, it's hard to verbally describe what these guys are capable of.

LED ZEPPLIN I & II I learned to play some of this stuff in the first bands I was in. It still holds up. Many people thought of Zep as heavy metal, but they really were a blues band with an incredible edge. Bassist John Paul Jones (who, by the way, if you ever get to see in concert, do so...you'll be doing yourself a favor) was greatly underrated and definitely under-appreciated.

As I've already said, I listen to mostly instrumental music when I'm working. Therefore, I've developed a fondness for the jazz guitarist LARRY CARLTON. He has a very smooth, fluid style, and it's just plain great to listen to. I feel the same way about PHIL KEAGGY (who is really the only Christian artist I listen to). A personal favorite of mine is his instrumental, acoustic project "Lights Of Madrid". I remember seeing Phil with Glass Harp in a bar in Toledo, Ohio in 1971, before Phil went solo. In Petra, I got the opportunity to jam with him a couple of times, which is a fascinating and humbling experience, all at the same time. Truly one of the best guitar players I've ever seen, and he's turned into quite a prolific composer as well. What's nice about it is that he's also a very humble person, and his spirituality is real, not put on the benefit of a Christian audience.

I'd also like to include the first JAMES GANG album, "Yer Album" (1969). James Gang is the band Joe Walsh came from. I still have the old vinyl record, but nothing to play it on. It's kind of rough by modern standards, but the songs on it show some great writing and beginning of Walsh's guitar style. I saw James Gang front the band Chicago the week this album came out. Great moments there.

~ John Degroff