BOB DYLAN
Infidels
COLUMBIA, 1983
I’m a massive Bob Dylan fan, and always have been since I was very young. I remember falling crazily in love with the song “Sweetheart Like You” – I learned it on guitar and would play it all the time around the house. Bob Dylan has sung in many voices, and to me, Infidels is peak form. People think of Bob Dylan as one of the greatest writers and one of the greatest contributions as an artist; I don’t know that people regularly think of him as a spectacular singer. But he was always one of my favourite singers and biggest influences. What his voice lacks in dexterity, it more than makes up for in character and depth. As a singer, that’s what I’ve always aspired towards.
PINK FLOYD
Animals
HARVEST/COLUMBIA, 1977
It’s a record that was introduced to me pounding through the bedroom wall from my older brother’s side. He was obsessed with Pink Floyd and Robin Trower and a lot of progressive rock’n’roll music from the ’70s. We listened to The Dark Side of the Moon of course, but I always found Animals to be the most interesting – that record just really resonated with me as a kid. To this day, I’m still completely obsessed with Pink Floyd. I have always felt that there’s a beautiful record in me where you can bridge some of the qualities that they had with my voice and my style of lyric-writing and the way I express myself. It’s just a fantasy at this point, but I’ve never given up on that fantasy!
MARVIN GAYE
Marvin Gaye Live!
TAMLA, 1974
This was recorded at the Oakland Coliseum, fairly close to where I grew up. I didn’t go to this concert, but I was always a Marvin Gaye fan my whole life. This record has a song on it called “Distant Lover” which I personally think is the greatest ever live recording, and it’s probably the single most influential piece of music that helped form me as an artist. It helped me to see the value of being a singer, that it could be a means to to connect with people. Later on, there’s live recordings of him where he was really all over the place. But this recording is so flawless in its delivery and the way he’s gelling with the band, and his spirit seems at the height of its connectedness with his talent.
LED ZEPPELIN
Physical Graffiti
SWAN SONG, 1975
I started out as a heavy metal guitar player – my first band was called Fry By Nyte with Mike Bordin from Faith No More and Cliff Burton from Metallica! So I grew up with Led Zeppelin, and I saw them play the Oakland Coliseum when I was 12 years old. To this day, I’m surprised at how lenient my parents were. We were there when they opened the gates and we ran across the field to get the best place. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were just off the chain, the greatest of the rock’n’roll era. So I always had this idea in my head of, in order to be a rock star, you’ve got to have swagger and be a maestro. I knew nothing of subtlety at this time, I only knew that you’re supposed to flex!
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE
There’s A Riot Goin’ On
EPIC, 1971
It’s so beautifully broken, beautifully reckless. Up until [I discovered this album], I only saw the value of being good. But I learned from Sly & The Family Stone that the imperfections can be the most beautiful parts of a song. I was kinda like, ‘What is this? This is so destroyed and undone and broken, and I love it! It’s perfect. I wouldn’t change a thing.’ And that was life-changing. It introduced a whole new realm, a whole new way of how to make music for me. “Space Cowboy” is one of my favourite songs ever. His lyrics were so potent and so playful. He had this healing vibe to his message, and yet he himself was struggling. It’s like they say, doctors make the worst patients.
SLY & THE FAMILY STONE
Greatest Hits
EPIC, 1970
Even though it’s songs from separate records, it somehow gives you clarity on how clear their voice was. It’s all these songs coming together and shedding even more light on this artist that I love so much. I have to be honest and say that that part of “Holy Hell” where it goes, “Ooh, hey baby”, I totally got that from “Stand!” So to this day, Sly is part of my writing vocabulary, my toolbox. His daughter Novena Carmel is a DJ on KCRW, and they’ve been such big supporters of my music. Many times I’ve fantasised about asking Novena, ‘Is there a piece of a vocal floating around that I could incorporate into a song and have a sort of made-up duet with my idol?’ I’m sure I’m not the only one, but that would be really cool…
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
Nebraska
COLUMBIA, 1982
This is another story about the beauty of letting things be as they are. From what I understand, Nebraska was his original demos that he had done in his house, on a cassette. He was carrying it around in his back pocket forever, getting into the songs and thinking about how he wanted the actual record to be. But after much thought, he just decided that this is the record and released it as it is, and I love that. I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan and I would refer to his records when I was teaching myself how to write songs. I read in an interview about lyric-writing that he said he aspires to make each individual line stand as a complete thought. That really resonated with me.
MARVIN GAYE
What’s Going On
TAMLA, 1971
Marvin Gaye is another one that I appointed as a teacher and mentor, and What’s Going On is one of the most important records in my music studies. He was a part of the Motown pop machine, and What’s Going On was his time to rebel and make the record that he wanted to make and show that he was now a fully cooked artist. As a result, I think it’s his most potent work. I’ve never quite been able to do this myself, but I aspire to make a conceptual record where the songs all run into each other like a seamless piece. I heard that people don’t do it today because of Spotify and the way things are. But, gosh, these concept albums are some of the most beautiful records.
Eddie Chacon’s Lay Low is out now on Stones Throw