Plenty of Albums in this Post ( #AtoZChallenge )

       Plenty of albums will be found in this post.  Not as many as some posts, but more than the preceding post or the next post.  For P we have a piddling plethora. 

       I'm a bit puzzled that I allowed my Gram Parsons album to leave my possession--I really liked that album a lot.  However, the letter P holds a place of prominence in my collection.  Just look at the P's please...

Links to the music are included throughout the post if you want to hear the music.

Alan Parsons Project  "Eye in the Sky"  (1982)  The first time I heard the song "Eye in the Sky" I was sitting in a grocery store parking lot on a June day in Billings Montana.  To me it was one of the greatest songs I'd ever heard at the time and it remains high on my list of favorite songs.  At the time I went right out and purchased a copy of the Parsons Project album on cassette.  Later I got the vinyl and eventually the CD.  This is such a splendid album in my opinion.  Even though I have copies in cassette and CD, the vinyl album package looks beautiful and it means a lot to me so I intend to keep it.  

Peace and Quiet  (1971)   When I saw this album cheaply priced in a cut-out bin the front cover art immediately slapped me into attention.  And I liked the name of the band.  Flipping the album over I looked at the credits to see that Jerry Goodman (I knew him from The Flock and Mahavishnu Orchestra) played violin on some of the cuts.  Album sold!  By now you should know me and my affinity for the violin if you've been following my posts.  This is an album of excellent Southern Rock music and it's probably not a very common album to find so I think it's worth keeping.

Prince  "Around the World in a Day"  (1985)  When I saw this album in a cut-out bin in a discount book store on Kingston Pike in Knoxville TN, I was drawn to the cover art which depicts a colorful array of strange characters including a juggler and a violinist--that would have been enough for me to buy the album.  There's no indication who the artist is on the outer sleeve and I would have not known who the album was by had it not been for a small sticker on the cellophane wrap indicating that the album was by Prince.  Since the price was right I added this album to my purchases for that day.  The music is interesting and the album contains two major Prince hits "Raspberry Beret" and "Pop Life".    I decided to keep this album.  Besides I've only listened a few times and might want to listen more later.

Plasterscene Replicas   "Glow"  (1988)  If you don't know this group then it's no surprise since I'd never heard of them before acquiring the album in 1988 and hadn't heard of them since.  They are one of those indie pop bands a la REM and other similar bands.  The album was sent to me by their agency which also handled the Tragically Hip, a Canadian band that I was considering booking some tour dates for.  The agency wanted me to consider both bands.  It would have been a good show line-up, but I never managed to follow through on booking a tour.  But I did get this album and since it has a story for me and the music is good, I'm keeping this album in my collection.

Pink Floyd  "The Wall" (bootleg concert recording) (1980?)  This is an unofficial concert album that if memory serves me correctly I found in a Chicago area used record store in 1981.  It's well recorded though limited in any jacket information or credits.  At the same time I bought another bootleg concert album by David Bowie that I wish I had kept.  At least I kept this Pink Floyd album and since it's the only Pink Floyd  that I still have on vinyl I figure I should keep it for now.

Potliquor  "Levee Blues"  (1971)  I seem to recall hearing Pot Liquor's "The Train" on the radio and liked it enough to buy the album.  Most likely since it was not a common album to find in most stores that sold records, I probably bought it for full retail price at the University of Tennessee Bookstore.  This is some hard rocking Southern boogie blues music.  This was the band's second album and they made others after this one, but this is the only one that I can ever recall seeing in record stores.  This is a solid rocking album that is worth having in a collection.

The Police "Ghost in the Machine"  (1981)     "Message in a Box"  (Police complete recordings CD box set) (1993)   I was a fan of The Police from the beginning of their career.  There was something about their new wave punk reggae that appealed to me during the late seventies and I started buying their albums on cassette.  In 1982 my wife-to-be Susan and I went to the arena in Richmond VA to see the "Ghost in the Machine" concert with The Police headlining and The Go-Go's as the opening act.  It was a great concert filled with energy with a massive crowd.  The Police is a band with a sound and songs that I still enjoy.  Nothing to get rid of here, folks, so move on. 

Petra  "Captured in Time and Space"   (1985)   Though I recall hearing a story about the Christian rock group Petra on the CBS Sixty Minutes show sometime in the seventies, I didn't start taking a strong interest in Contemporary Christian Music until 1985 after tuning in to a radio show that was featuring the genre late one night as I was driving down I-95 in Northern Virginia.  The outstanding songs that I can still remember hearing that night were by Joe English Band and Petra.  Soon after that night I went out to search for those artists and rapidly became a big Contemporary Christian Music fan.  I have many Petra cassettes and a few of their albums on CD, but this live performance is the only vinyl LP by the group that is in my collection.  I also have the same album on video where you can see and hear why this album is so good.  This is one of my favorite concert albums and well worth keeping.

      Which of these artists do you have in your own music collection?   Do you have a favorite among these artists and albums?    What are your favorite artists beginning with the letter P?