Guest Contributor: Lewis Black

You may recognize him from The Daily Show. You may have seen one of his comedy specials on HBO or Comedy Central Presents. You may have read his snarky yet heartfelt memoir, Nothing's Sacred. Hell, you may have even caught one of his segments on The Weather Channel. Who is he? The fiercely hilarious political comedian/author/playwright/actor - Lewis Black. And he comes to us this month as a special contributor to show you his softer side... his love for what music once was. I'll let him do the talking:

I love music. It's as close as we have to a natural drug. It transports you to places unimaginable, filling us with images, colors and a sense of something grander. It's power is extraordinary. And its fucking fun and fun to fuck to or dance to or think to or eat to or clean to and it makes exercise nearly bearable. It is an exquisite mystery. The pisser is that between the record companies and radio stations that computerize a series of asinine and homogenous playlists... good music, REALLY good music, is becoming tougher and tougher to find.

Here are the albums that shaped me:

Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" -
The essence of Dylan!
Selection: Shelter From The Storm

The Beatles' "White Album" -
A double album that never ends.
Selection: Happiness Is A Warm Gun

The Allman Brothers' "Live at the Fillmore East" -
Saw them live when Duane was alive, and this is as close as it gets.
Selection: Hot 'Lanta

The Rolling Stones' "Exile on Main Street" -
Helped me survive a divorce and it never gets old.
Selection: Rocks Off

Laura Nyro's "Eli and the Thirteenth Confession" -
Nothing like it.
Selection: Eli's Comin'

Janis Joplin's "Cheap Thrills" -
The grittiest of all the angels.
Selection: Combination of the Two

Blood, Sweat & Tears' "Child is the Father to the Man" -
No one has made anything that's sounded like this since.
Selection: My Days Are Numbered

Chicago's "Chicago Transit Authority" -
A bunch of kids who sold their genius so that we could hear it the way they intended... and never came close after.
Selection: Listen

And all of Motown.

We'd like to thank Lewis for taking time out of his insane schedule to write for WNR. It's not easy being funny all the time, we know. That's why we're not funny.

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Expect more special contributions like this as we get them. Hope you enjoyed it, folks!