Wanted to do something different today. It’s my birthday, and I already built a playlist last week celebrating a bunch of great music that came out during the year of my birth. But the music of 1973 isn’t what made me into who I am now – that’s an ever-growing, ever-evolving store of musical moments and memories. And so I wanted to make another playlist, of the songs that inspired me, moved, me, marked significant moments of my life.

Why do I love music so much? Here are 52 reasons why, presented with little to no context. Some you might understand, some you might even agree with, although probably for reasons that differ from mine. Some you won’t, and that’s okay, too. This list could go on to the hundreds, but since today I am 52, we’ll stop there.

1. The drum beat that opens “Little Miss Lover”
2. The first trumpet theme Miles plays on “E.S.P.”
3. The “Crazy Train” riff
4. The “Mike Sleap” sequencing for My Aim Is True
5. The sequence of “Johnsburg, Illinois” to “16 Shells From A 30.6”
6. All of “Tangled Up in Blue”
7. Martin Barre, but especially his guitar tearing up the intro to “Hunting Girl”
8. The production on …And Justice For All
9. The chorus to “Everything”
10. The vocal melody and rhythm in “I’ve Just Seen a Face”
11. The opening to “Everything In Its Right Place”
12. Finally nailing that stupid pentatonic lick in the riff to “Back in Black”
13. Hearing the perfect articulation of three acoustic guitars playing 100mph
14. The main riff in “The Trooper”
15. The blown out majesty of the guitars in “Printemps Émeraude”
16. The way the vocal melody plays with the guitars on “The Things You See (When You Haven’t Got Your Gun)”
17. The stacks of vocal harmonies on “Skyscraper”
18. The way the riffs connect on “Voyage Into Infinity”
19. Minor Threat’s choice of covers
20. Bowie showing the 90s kids how to craft a killer hook for the dance floor
21. The chorus in “Cover Me Up”
22. Making “Behavior Control Technician” my theme music in my head.
23. The bass in “Three Days”
24. That guitar riff on “The Sentinel”
25. Hearing a reference to “The Sentinel” in “The Czar”
26. When the already great riff goes monster-sized in “Stockholm Syndrome”
27. The sequence of “Pure Concentrated Evil” to “Her Song”
28. The chorus of “Sanzen”
29. The way “Transylvanian Hunger” sounds great played clean and slow
30. The double bass kicks in on “Dead Skin Mask”
31. Hearing “Going, Going, Gone” live
32. The keyboards and vocal harmonies on “Set Me On Fire”
33. The anticipation the 7-second pause causes before “The Grudge” kicks off
34. The opening theme on “Giant Steps”
35. Discovering the joy of beautiful noise via “Only Shallow”
36. The live version of “Cosmic Slop” on Hardcore Jollies
37. Mark Zonder’s drumming on “Part of the Machine”
38. The vocal version of “Oh No” on Make A Jazz Noise Here
39. Re-discovering the prog side of Genesis with “Dance On a Volcano”
40. The a cappella intro to “Knots”
41. The production on Lemonade
42. Hearing “Keys To The Castle” with my son in the car
43. The needle drop in the film Forever Young that gave us our wedding song
44. When the guitars kick in on “What Is and What Should Never Be”
45. Hearing Ben Watt sing “Walking to You” and “25th December” on Amplified Heart
46. The chorus on “The World Stopped Turning”
47. The way “Poo-Tee-Weet” breaks me at the end
48. Nirvana’s choice of cover songs
49. Hearing Opeth for the first time
50. Falling for Ty Segall, and his choice of cover songs
51. The harmonics Steve Howe plays to open “Roundabout”
52. “Echoes” in any version, but right now the gorgeous SW mix from Live at Pompeii