Tinnitus, an Introduction

It's 2010. For those of you who are counting, it's the 50th anniversary of the 1960's. The 60's was a decade of great, sweeping social change, or so I have been told. It was also a decade of men looking good in suits and women looking good in everything, if Mad Men is to be believed. People smoked indoors, people littered. It was pretty sweet. They even drank at work. What a lifestyle!

The lasting cultural output of the 1960's was the music. Ask anybody younger than 40 what the most significant aspect of the 60's was - most of them will tell you the music. They'll identify the great artists and albums of the 60's. The Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones. Pet Sounds, “Live” at the Apollo, the soundtrack to West Side Story. In an effort to put things into perspective, I checked Acclaimed Music, a site that has collected music reviews from the past century, aggregated them and used advanced - possibly boolean - math to scientifically prove who the greatest artists and albums of all time are. The overall list isn't very surprising. Beatles, Stones, Dylan. Pet Sounds, Revolver, Nevermind. Not exactly a shock.

I then checked the list for 1960. John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Muddy Waters - three artists with whom I wasn't very familiar. Obviously I know the names, but I had never sat down and listened to an entire John Coltrane album, and I couldn't name you a single Muddy Waters song if my life depended on it. Same thing with 1961. In fact, I hadn't listened to a single top-five album from any year until 1963, which gives me Beatles For Sale and The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. (In my defense, the top two albums of 1959, Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and Dave Brubeck's Time Out are two of my all-time favorite albums. I'm not a total philistine.)

In light of this discovery, I have made it my mission to listen to three of the most acclaimed albums of each year every week, starting with 1960 and making my way to the present. I figure if nothing else, it ought to give me another year's worth of writing material, and I'll finally have an excuse to write about music. My goal for each year is to listen to the number one album, another album in the top five, and one outside the top five. I will do my best to listen to at least one album that I've never heard before in an effort to broaden my horizons. Looking ahead, I'm going to have to listen to at least two Prince albums. I'm not thrilled about this.

On a personal and related note, I've developed tinnitus over the past few years. For the uninformed, tinnitus is an incurable chronic condition that causes a ringing sensation in your ears. Forever. It really sucks. I think I've always had it, but it has been particularly bad over the past four or five months. A sure sign that things aren't going great: The best Christmas present I got this year was a white noise maker from my wife's mother.

Long story short, I'm going to listen to (at least) three albums per week and write a review of about 500 words for each one, as well as a letter grade. I may end up going totally deaf. I'd like to hear as much important music as I possibly can before that happens.