BootsnAll Travel Community

It doesn't necessarily have to do with traveling; just that one album that inspired you to be a better person, or take that chance, or face that day....

For me it's Springsteen's "Darkness on the Edge of Town." This album made me realize that sometimes we must have to work hard to achieve our dreams--dreams are not something that will be handed to you on a silver platter. "Darkness" stands as an album for the hopeless and the lonley trying to live with that realization that maybe dreams are just that.

As depressing as this may sound, there still is a ray of hope within these songs. "Badlands" stands as a powerful march that says we will not retreat in the face of broken hearts and dashed dreams; "Promised Land" remains as a song for the hopefull, ever looking to the future when everything will be alright; and "Prove it All Night" proves that love is the most basic desire a man (or a woman) can have.

I love Darkness on the Edge of Town, too. That was when I used to stay in my room on Saturday afternoons and listen to the same album, over and over.
But for me, the album I always come back to is the Pretenders first album. That album formed me/informed me....I think it was Elvis Costello who said that their song "Private Life" is like every Joni Mitchell song rolled into one. When I heard the lines (from "Precious") "Trapped in a world they never made/but not me,baby/I'm too precious/ I had to fuck off....." my wandering ways were set....God, it's that good.

Joni Mitchell is great. I often think of her as a female version of Simon & Garfunkel. I love her traditional folk sound, exemplified with her classic "Big Yellow Taxi."