Long-playing records: 5 albums that got Sanjoy Narayan started on his musical journey
‘It’s been 50 years since I got hooked. From Wish You Were Here to Abbey Road, tracks from these albums still find their way onto my playlists,’ he says.
The coming year, 2025, marks a personal milestone: 50 years since I first got hooked to popular music, and then became a hopelessly incurable addict.
I clearly remember how it started. It was mid-December, 1975. We had just finished our Class 10 final exams and were hanging out at a friend’s den in a city that was still known as Calcutta.
He was the only one of us who had his own room, secluded from the rest of the house (an added luxury), on a mezzanine floor above his father’s garage. He could come and go as he liked. He even had his own record player, a hand-me-down from his elder sister.
For a bunch of 15-year-olds, all this was pure paradise.
We “borrowed” steadily from the sister’s record collection, which happened to be fabulous. The albums we sneaked out became our gateway drug, our first fixes, and they would turn me into a lifelong addict. They were what started me on what, half a century later, continues to be a mind-blowing trip.
I can think of five albums that became the most potent fixes for me. To this day, their tracks find their way onto my playlists. I am, incredibly, as in thrall of them as I was when I first heard them half a century ago.
Here, in no particular order, are the five.
Wish You Were Here; Pink Floyd
For many, The Dark Side of the Moon (1973) is the English psychedelic rock pioneers’ most iconic album, but for me it is this one, from two years later. A concept album that explored themes of alienation and critiqued the music industry’s impact on artists, it holds Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a nine-part tribute to former band member Syd Barrett, who had suffered from acute mental health issues and left the band in its very early days.
The album’s spacey, progressive rock, with lengthy instrumental sections, rich synthesiser textures and guitar work, was what hooked me. Even today, as I play the title track and it opens with the sound of a radio dial being moved and the first notes of a Tchaikovsky symphony barely audible, I feel a rush of excitement, nostalgia, and deep familiarity.
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Aqualung; Jethro Tull
Every song on this English band’s 1971 album became similarly familiar: the lyrics, the notes, frontman Ian Anderson’s flute solos. Aqualung blended acoustic and hard rock exquisitely and with complexity. Its lyrics, often critical of organised religion and social hypocrisy, provoked my evolving teenage mind. Some of those words, such as on the title track, about the marginalised life of a homeless man, I know by heart and they ring true.
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Abbey Road; The Beatles
Songs and albums by The Beatles were ubiquitous long before we became teenagers, but Abbey Road (1969) became my favourite. Everything about it was incredible: the iconic cover photograph of the four Beatles on a zebra crossing (Paul McCartney barefoot because his shoes were too tight); the sophisticated, polished sound; the medley on side two that blends multiple song segments; the overall versatility of the tracks (from the ballad Here Comes the Sun to the intense I Want You (She’s So Heavy)). It was an album guaranteed to convert one into a rock fanatic.
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Fresh Cream; Cream
This was our first experience of what a supergroup might sound like. Cream was a groundbreaking British band comprising Eric Clapton (guitar), Jack Bruce (bass, vocals) and Ginger Baker (drums). Their blend of blues, psychedelic rock and jazz was pioneering stuff and Fresh Cream (1966) was their debut album, with original tracks as well as covers. Songs such as I Feel Free and Spoonful turned me on to what musical virtuosity was all about and, channelled through Clapton’s still-emerging greatness, what a lead guitar could actually do and how addictive its sound could become.
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Led Zeppelin IV; Led Zeppelin
When I first heard Led Zeppelin IV (1971), what struck me were the high energy levels of the music. The iconic Stairway to Heaven, which blended hard rock, folk and mystical sounds, was like nothing I had heard before. Another track, Black Dog, opened the door to heavy rock. When the Levee Breaks took me to a world where rock and blues could fuse to create something truly wondrous. Led Zeppelin IV would become a classic and the band (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and the late John Bonham) continues to influence generations of heavy-rock bands.
It’s still incredible to me, the power of music to leave such an indelible mark on one’s life. Each note, each line, transports me back to those days of discovery and excitement. All these decades later, I can’t help but feel a deep gratitude for the music that has shaped who I am.
(To write in with feedback, email sanjoy.narayan@gmail.com)
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