9. When REM's "Murmur" was named Rolling Stone's album of the year in 1983, I had never heard of them — but they looked like farm kids to me, and I liked that. (One of them had on an FFA jacket in the first photo I saw!) After seeing their TV debut on Letterman, I got their second album, "Reckoning," through the Columbia Record Club. They were my favorite band for a decade. Probably my biggest single influence as a musician, overall.