Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
  • Artist news
  • Guitar Amps
  • Guitar Pedals
  • Synths
  • Guitars
  • Drums
  • Keyboards & Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Software & Apps
  • More
    • Recording
    • DJ Gear
    • Acoustic Guitars
    • Bass Guitars
    • Tech
    • Tutorials
    • Reviews
    • Buying Guides
    • About Us
More
  • EVH trance state
  • Antonoff on Please Please Please
  • “Mick looked peeved. The Beatles had upstaged him”
  • 95k+ free music samples

Recommended reading

Matteo Mancuso wears a white T-shirt and plays his Yamaha Revstar in Tobacco Burst live onstage during a soundcheck before his festival appearance at at Casa del Jazz, Rome.
Artists “Pat Metheny is one of the best composers”: Matteo Mancuso – 10 albums that changed my life
Getty Compile of Artist Pics
Artists 9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
Justin Hawkins [left] of the Darkness plays an open G on his offset electric and closes his eyes as he performs onstage; soul-reggae icon Johnny Nash [right] frets a chord on his acoustic and wears a patched denim jacket.
Artists How Darkness’ Justin Hawkins learned diminished chords from a reggae-soul icon
Clem Burke, Ancienne Belgique (AB), Brussels, Belgium, November 1998
Drummers "I've analyzed hundreds of players over the years. They're all a part of what I do": Clem Burke's 10 essential drum albums
Steve Stevens
Artists “I was thinking, oh, the monkey’s going to be jumping around…”: When Steve Stevens played on a Michael Jackson hit
Duff McKagan in 1987
Artists “I loved Prince. 1999 became the soundtrack to my life”: How the Purple One’s classic album was life-changing for a Guns N’ Roses star
Steve Albini
Producers & Engineers 6 of the quirkiest producers who pushed recorded music further than ever before
  1. Artists
  2. Singles And Albums

Stephan Jenkins (Third Eye Blind): the 10 records that changed my life

News
By Matt Parker published 17 September 2015

Eclectic selections from Jackson 5 to Jane's Addiction

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Introduction

Introduction

“I want to throw out a disclaimer here,” says Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins. “We could do this interview again and I could give you another completely different list of my 10 favourite records of all time.”

I think of it like chapters with roman numerals

As it is the San Franciscan songwriter behind 90s rock mega hits like Semi-Charmed Life and Jumper still pretty much refuses to stick with 10.

“I think of it like chapters with roman numerals [within them],” he explains. “There’s all these things that lead on, so there’s this early funk and RnB, then this thing with open lyric sensibilities, then this glorious British roots rock period with Led Zeppelin and Bowie and Queen, and then this destructive element in The Clash and Joy Division, then this period of duelling hip hop and this rock that’s reinvigorated.”

Here, then, are the 10+ records that changed Stephan Jenkins’ life…

Catch Third Eye Blind on tour in the US throughout September/October and in UK/Europe from 5 November. Head to thirdeyeblind.com/tour for tickets and information.

Page 1 of 11
Page 1 of 11
Jackson 5 - ABC

Jackson 5 - ABC

“My father never liked pop or rock music at all. He was strictly into Beethoven and that was about it. His world was motherfucking Beethoven and because it was being sold to me I kind of flatlined on it.

They asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. I was like, ‘I wanna be THAT!’

“I went to school and there was a copy of Jackson 5’s ABC that someone had cut-out of a cereal box [the record came free with Alpha Bits!]. It was first recess in the morning and they cut it out and we got up on the lunch tables and they danced to it and did this Jackson 5 thing. I just thought it was the most exalted, glorious thing I’d ever seen.

“So I remember the very moment I heard something RnB/pop and that was it, I was in. They asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. People wanted to be firemen and astronauts, but I was like, ‘I wanna be THAT!’”

Page 2 of 11
Page 2 of 11
Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On

Sly & The Family Stone - There's A Riot Goin' On

“I think the first thing I got [of my own] was Sly & The Family Stone and it’s just so cool that that was my first choice. Just this greasy, super drugged-out, funky daze – ‘It’s a family affair!’

There just wasn’t the money for records, so where I could I would seek out pop radio

“My Dad was a college professor and he didn’t get tenure and my parents divorced so he became a furniture maker, really out of desperation because he was raising us and he had to do something.

“There just wasn’t the money for records, so where I could I would seek out pop radio, so I don’t even know how I got across Sly & The Family Stone but I saved up and bought the album.

“We also had Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman in that house. I really liked the narrative and the songwriting in that, so those are both lumped together at the very beginning.”

Page 3 of 11
Page 3 of 11
Led Zeppelin - IV

Led Zeppelin - IV

“[I remember] I was walking by this girl’s house and I was probably nine or 10 years old and there was this music coming on that sounded dangerous and ominous and dark.

It’s still in my memory as like a swirl of black and white – like a dark magic

“I didn’t really know what ‘sexual’ was, but it was that. It’s still in my memory as like a swirl of black and white – like a dark magic. And that was Led Zeppelin IV! [Laughs]

“I’m not nostalgic about music. I don’t look backwards, but they still sound dangerous to me. There are records that still sound like they have some kind of immediacy to it. Led Zeppelin has that quality. David Bowie does. Blondie’s first record Parallel Lines has that quality. Like it could be released right now.

“Like if you put on The Strokes and Blondie’s Parallel Lines, which would you think is most current?”

Page 4 of 11
Page 4 of 11
The Police - Outlandos d'Amour

The Police - Outlandos d'Amour

“I was a little kid in Palo Alto and in my house we didn’t have radio, so hearing music for me was actually kind of difficult.

The singer had this screamingly high voice and the beat was really shocking to me

“I loved it so intensely, though, because as a kid primary school was very difficult for me. My parents were divorced and I didn’t understand that and I had dyslexia and I really couldn’t function that well in a classroom. Music was this thing that I was incredibly drawn to and I needed to play it from an early age.

“My next door neighbour had a drumset and I would sit and play it forever. The records they had totally, totally compelled me. [One time] I heard this sound and the singer had this screamingly high voice and the beat was really shocking to me. I was super fixated on drums at that point and it sounded so exotic – and that was The Police. I was so compelled with it and how raw it was.”

Page 5 of 11
Page 5 of 11
Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

Fleetwood Mac - Fleetwood Mac

“The other thing that I would listen to was the first Fleetwood Mac record from when Stevie Nicks had joined the band, the self-titled one, and it had Rhiannon on it.

So many of these records are about how I was learning them as a drummer

The other day I saw Rolling Stone re-printed their review from 1975 and they thought it was shit! But it’s one of the best records ever made!

“They didn’t like Led Zeppelin either, they thought that was crap! So Rolling Stone’s just so awful about picking any of these things, they should just stop.

“I was getting these rhythms super-ingrained. So many of these records are about how I was learning them as a drummer. I loved Stewart Copeland and he was these strange, one-drop reggae beats. Then Mick Fleetwood had this very strange groove that I could internalise and replicate when I was nine years-old.”

Page 6 of 11
Page 6 of 11
David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust

David Bowie - The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust

“Before The Police and Fleetwood Mac, there was Bowie. I remember I went up to this wake with my mum and there was this very odd kid there who was fascinated with David Bowie. It was the Ziggy Stardust record.

He’s always letting you know it’s artifice and yet you’re drawn in anyway

“I was looking for that sense of ‘the other’ and the surprise of it. It’s a surprise that I like Bowie that much because he’s all about artifice, so why would you want to hear Ziggy Stardust? He’s always letting you know it’s artifice and yet you’re drawn in anyway. He’s revealing the tricks as he’s does them. I don’t claim to understand it, but there’s like a decade of Bowie that’s just like, ‘How the fuck did you do that!?’”

“Around the same time as I heard Bowie, Queen’s A Night At The Opera came in. I was really moved by that. Freddie Mercury is one of my favourite singers of all time.”

Page 7 of 11
Page 7 of 11
This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears

This Mortal Coil - It'll End In Tears

“There are three singers that have remained transformative. Freddie Mercury is one, so is Edith Piaf and, for me, the other was Elizabeth Fraser from Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil.

It was from the 4AD group and I loved so much of that

“The first time you hear them you feel utterly transformed. Elizabeth Fraser has that quality. Have you heard Song To The Siren from This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End In Tears? For god sakes let’s put that on the list!

“It was from the 4AD group and I loved so much of that. I loved the sparseness of Joy Division and New Order. And how the simplicity of it could speak volumes and how Peter Hook would play all the melody on the bass.

“I think there was some connection among that whole scene. 4AD, the London record label, were into that and I loved their whole super-dark goth modernism and minimalist covers.”

Page 8 of 11
Page 8 of 11
The Clash - London Calling

The Clash - London Calling

“Years after hearing this I tried to cover a Clash song, Train In Vain – and it’s a terrible idea to ever try to cover The Clash. They’re so deceptively good as a band because they were punk rock, but their groove, you just cannot replicate it.

It’s a terrible idea to ever try to cover The Clash. They’re deceptively good

“You can sample it – like when MIA sampled Straight To Hell for Paper Planes – but you cover them at your peril! It really exposes how, deep down, you’re a non-believer!

“At the time there was all this punk rock that was really exciting to me. I wasn’t a Sex Pistols fan at the time. They sounded like Poison to me! Now I look back at it and I like it. They have a line like, ‘Fuck this and fuck that… I don’t wanna baby that looks like that!’ It’s pretty good, I’ve got to say.

“At the time I thought it was a bit of a pose, but now I think there was something legit about it.”

Page 9 of 11
Page 9 of 11
De La Soul - Three Feet High And Rising

De La Soul - Three Feet High And Rising

“This record had such a huge effect on me.

Suddenly you could spread out and increase the lyrical real estate

“When I got into hip hop, it really opened up the horizontal space – the arrangement space – for lyrics.

“It mean that suddenly you could spread out and increase the real estate that was available to sing in. As a lyricist that was so freeing to me. Even more so than Bob Dylan.”

Page 10 of 11
Page 10 of 11
Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking

“I loved the way Jane’s Addiction would play – [half the time] it was just two chords.

Every once in a while you have a record that just owns you

“I went backpacking across Europe and I took that record with me. Every once in a while you have a record that just owns you. So there was this period where I could listen to Jane’s Addiction Nothing’s Shocking and Camper Van Beethoven Key Lime Pie and the Pixie’s Surfer Rosa. At that time I could just listen to those three records and be consumed by them, so I put those three together on this list.

“And you know… I’ve still left out Dre’s The Chronic, Miles Davis… I feel undone by this whole thing! There’s all of these things I’ve left-out. If you’d put it to five, I would have just quit!”

Catch Third Eye Blind on tour in the US throughout September/October and in UK/Europe from 5 November. Head to thirdeyeblind.com/tour for tickets and information.

Page 11 of 11
Page 11 of 11
Matt Parker
Matt Parker

Matt is a freelance journalist who has spent the last decade interviewing musicians for the likes of Total Guitar, Guitarist, Guitar World, MusicRadar, NME.com, DJ Mag and Electronic Sound. In 2020, he launched CreativeMoney.co.uk, which aims to share the ideas that make creative lifestyles more sustainable. He plays guitar, but should not be allowed near your delay pedals.

Read more
Matteo Mancuso wears a white T-shirt and plays his Yamaha Revstar in Tobacco Burst live onstage during a soundcheck before his festival appearance at at Casa del Jazz, Rome.
“Pat Metheny is one of the best composers”: Matteo Mancuso – 10 albums that changed my life
Getty Compile of Artist Pics
9 fresh long reads on tracks with astounding musical moments
Justin Hawkins [left] of the Darkness plays an open G on his offset electric and closes his eyes as he performs onstage; soul-reggae icon Johnny Nash [right] frets a chord on his acoustic and wears a patched denim jacket.
How Darkness’ Justin Hawkins learned diminished chords from a reggae-soul icon
Clem Burke, Ancienne Belgique (AB), Brussels, Belgium, November 1998
"I've analyzed hundreds of players over the years. They're all a part of what I do": Clem Burke's 10 essential drum albums
Steve Stevens
“I was thinking, oh, the monkey’s going to be jumping around…”: When Steve Stevens played on a Michael Jackson hit
Duff McKagan in 1987
“I loved Prince. 1999 became the soundtrack to my life”: How the Purple One’s classic album was life-changing for a Guns N’ Roses star
Latest in Singles And Albums
Singer Joey Ramone (1951 - 2001), of American punk group The Ramones, backstage at the Paradise Theater (now the Paradise Rock Club) in Boston, Massachusetts, 22nd March 1978. In the background are bassist Dee Dee Ramone (1951 - 2002, centre) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949 - 2014).
"At first the tension was unbelievable. Johnny was really cold, Dee Dee was OK but Joey was a sweetheart": The story of the Ramones' recording of Baby I Love You
Bob Marley and the Wailers
"Reggae is more freeform than the blues": Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
Joe Bonamassa [left] plays his Epiphone 1955 Les Paul Standard and wears a bright blue suit and polka-dot; Sammy Hagar [right] wears shades, a black Cabo Wabo T-shirt and plays his red Gibson Explorer with white pickguard.
“The track is a monster!”: Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar have got the Fortune Teller Blues
beyonce album cover
“Part of a beautiful American tradition”: A music theory expert explains the country roots of Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and why it also owes a debt to the blues
prince
A music professor breaks down the theory behind Prince's When Doves Cry
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani on the No Doubt song that “changed everything” after it became their biggest hit
Latest in News
Electro-Harmonix Oceans Abyss Advanced Reverb Laboratory: not so much a reverb pedal as a MIDI-enabled workstation.
EHX promises a “completely unique soundscape building experience” from the Oceans Abyss über-reverb
Isaac Carpenter Guns N Roses
Welcome to the bungle… Watch Axl Rose take umbrage when GNR's new drummer plays the wrong song
Laufey
Laufey on how a vintage guitar and amp inspired recent single Silver Lining
The Kramer Volante is offered with the choice of a AAAA quilted maple veneer or plain top, but features a newly engineered neck joint, Gibson USA-designed pickups, an elliptical C profile neck and Floyd Rose vibrato as standard.
With AAAA quilt maple veneer, US pickups and new neck joint, Kramer ups the ante with the Volante
Bon Iver
“I knew it was good because I couldn’t get through it without sobbing”: Bon Iver breaks down his duet with Danielle Haim
Mark Knopfler of Dire Straights performs onstage in 1985 with his red Fender Stratocaster. He wears a dark suit and a burgundy shirt with an open collar.
How Mark Knopfler grew up wanting to be Jimi Hendrix until he ditched the pick and went fingerstyle

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...