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My musical tastes were changed and sudden head slap albums that changed the way I listened, as well as what I listened to happened in 1967-1970 for the most part.
The Band in 1968 released Music From Big Pink and I became aware of just how good world class players could interact and how tightly woven music could be. And that off the wall drumming...jesus!
Axis Bold As Love in 1967 forever changed what rock music was, what it meant and how it was done. It was the album that made me buy Altec Lansing Voice of the Theater speakers for my front room. It was a shear wonder, even without LSD.
Workingman's Dead in 1970 was an astounding and brave step forward for a band that had started life as Pigpen's blues vehicle. No longer could they be a blues band, Pigpen was lost in the shuffle, unable to add much to this new twist in the band's direction. Bobby finally began to play the electric rhythm guitar in such away as to let Jerry play those improvised leads that he did so well. It was a return ...in some ways...to the days of Jerry being a folkie and playing to a crowd of 15 in coffee houses in Palo Alto.
Liege & Leif by Fairport Convention in 1969 turned the English folk world on it's pointed little head. Adding the rock sensibilities to trad folk tunes and lyrics after the accident that killed their drummer and Richard Thompson's GF it came out of the chute and forever changed the way I looked at folk music. It also made me reach back into the existing world of trad folk and explore and pursue it. Also, Sandy Denny was the only ...in a long line of English female singers...who could sing folk with a rock drive...no others pulled it off.
Anyway those are 4 corner stone albums that changed my musical life....
Follow Ups:
I'll come in a decade later than most of you. As we all know, the 1970's had it's riches in popular music. Just gobs of great acts , great musicians, great live and studio music... just a prolific time in pop music.
But you basically had blues based rock and R&B (which morphed into disco etc..).
Then came along Van Halen 1 and everything changed. They completely had a new sound that was fresh, fun and hip and it was pure southern Cal. They made The Who and Led Zeppelin sound like "old timey" music. I was in High School and we went gaga over this album.
Along that same era a couple of other new sounds started emerging. Talking Heads was completely new and cool and kind of UN-describable... not disco, not reggae and not quite straight out rock but damn good whatever it was.
Some Girls by the Stones was a new and groovy disco-rock that was a lot of fun along with Tatoo You. Give them credit for that transition which prolonged their greatness and radio presence for another 5 or so years.
College radio was playing REM and IXS... some more great new fresh sounds emerging around 1980.
Marvin Gaye/ What's Going On
Pink Floyd/ Wish You Were Here
Black Sabbath/Master Of Reality
Nirvana/Nevermind
That was my first move to listening to music totally alien to anything my parents had ever heard, and also to my parents hating everything I listened to ..............Kraftwerk - Autobahn - I think I bought ~1976 - totally mesmerising un-pop
The Residents Eskimo - ~1981 - totally un-everything!
Both of these albums gave me patience and some kind of sense of delayed gratification - The ability to enjoy things that were longer than 3 or 4 or 5 minutes! They were both "headphone albums" that had me glued to the lounge for nights on end.
Leadbelly - Library of Congress Recordings - Got it maybe 1982 - Finding some real roots!
Definitely all this stuff served to cement my not very pop taste, that follows on even today.
Edits: 05/07/15
White Album
Dire Straits (Debut)
The Pretenders (Debut)
nt.
"The thought that life could be better is woven indelibly into our hearts and our brains" -Paul Simon
At age 16, I was an a place I had moved from a few years back. I stayed at my formerly best friend's house. At the time, he was experiencing a devastating and prolonged family trauma, and had gone down a dangerous and highly illegal life path. I learned some things I probably didn't need to know, got hot-rodded around the city streets in his buddy's souped up car, and was introduced to an album called Waiting For Columbus. I had never heard of the band. Little Feat? It stuck. Those sounds....
Decades later, he is a successful entrepreneur and computer guy, and a happy family man. Little Feat -- Lowell George era -- is still my favorite band.
Then there's the time I went to NYC, bought London Calling, and spun it for the first time. And again. And again. I didn't get it at first -- but I knew I would, and I knew right off that it would be a long-lasting favorite. That album, which I still love, sent me down more musical paths -- including punk and reggae -- than any single album I have ever owned.
Great thread.
Aram
when someone loaned me Disraeli Gears by Cream. I'd never heard anything like it, since Top of the Pops on the BBC didn't cover anything but top 20 pop.
So, this was blues then?
The second was a double first. I was in a record store after school and heard a stereo system for the fist time, and Whole Lotta Love, from Zeppelins second album was on the turntable. I just stood open mouthed at the way the lead guitar phased across the room.
Reading album sleeves and finding out who Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Howlin Wolf etc were was a great adventure from there on.
My first live concert was ELP for the TARKUS tour, so I went out and discovered Progressive Rock from that beginning.
The fourth, to keep in line with the general thread, would be Dixie Chicken. My favourite band from the far side of the pond, and just fantastic musicians with a groove no-one else can imitate.
If I spend more more time thinking, the list may change and it is hard to limit it to four. At the moment I would list (in no particular order):
Richie Havens, Mixed Bag - Representative of my early interest in acoustic folk/singer-songwriter music.
Jimi Hendrix, Band of Gypsies - No one else played guitar like that.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath - While I never gravitated to the genre in a significant way, I considered them the masters of heavy metal.
The Doors, Weird Scenes... - A best of LP, but a good sample of what they were about. As a youngster, I always felt older somehow listening to the Doors.
Return to Forever, Where Have I Known You Before / Herbie Hancock, Thrust - Freshman year in college (or thereabouts). Was my first real introduction to jazz on any significant level.
Special Mention: Gorecki's 3rd Symphony: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs - While I knew it at some level already, I discovered how powerful music (not necessarily with lyrics) alone can affect a person.
Neil
Second Note;
On the Jazz side (4) pivotal albums from 1959;
Miles- Kind of Blue
Dave Brubeck - Time Out
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of things to Come
Charles Mingus - Ah Um
Thanks! for sharing- LWR.
For me, it all begins w/ the top (3) concept albums;
Moody Blues- Days of future Passed
Beach Boys - Pet Sounds
The Beatles - Sgt Pepper
Yes - Close to the Edge
Genesis- Foxtrot
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Marillion- Clutching at Straws
Now...Steven Wilson...
Taking it as only ALBUMS...
The Who My Generation. Summed up my teenage feelings and Im loved the NOISE of their early records. Revolt into style.
Grateful Dead Anthem Of The Sun. I realised that music could be so much more than I had thought. I'm pretty certain it's not their finest moment, but its effect was profound back then.
Curtis Mayfield There's No Place Like America Today. By the 70s I was over "ROCK", too sludgy, to conservative. Here was a way out without just heading back to old soul and country.
Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks. Between the music and the actual personal connections, it in quite a real sense showed the way forward.
Kraftwerk Trans Europe Express. A completely European record and the other side of the Neu heritage to the Sex Pistols.
Global Communication 76:14. Where I found my crossover between contemporary classical and dub dance and I stopped listening to genres.
Paul Schutze Apart. 2 CDs, one like an updated early 70s Miles Davis and the other a perfect ambient late night in the dark with 4 tracks, 3 of which are called Sleep.
I seem to have lost track of why I picked them. So it goes.
Got me hooked on guitars, many moons ago.
8^)
.
Wanda jackson: "Rockin with Wanda" (released early 60-ties on LONDON. mono in Europe)
Jerry Lee Lewis First LP on SUN, here on the London label, mono.
Fats Domino "This is Fats" London mono.
Little Richard first and second LP Specialty label.
Merrill E Moore 2 LP's on Ember label early sixties.
Amos Milburn, Little Willie Littlefield, Nina Simone at Newport, Ray Charles "in person" "at Newport", Louis Prima at the Sahara, at Tahoe, Just a Gigolo, Jump Jive & Wail, Buona Sera.
Rock 45's on the Sun label
Rock 45's various from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson.
Hank Snow, Hank Williams.
Opera: Alceste von Gluck with Nicolai Gedda Dir George Pretre.
Callas, Del Monaco, Bjorling
Bach Beethoven Mozart, Rachmaninof, Verdi, Puccini.
Still in my head: 78's fifties music. Best sound ever.
Just to name a few.
There were Three pivotal albums for me, all given to me by my uncle (himself a pretty darned good synth programmer and B3 player) during Christmas 1983. They are (in no particular order)-
1. Genesis, Selling England by the Pound. I already was aware of Genesis at the age of 13, having bought Abacab a few months before (based on the hit "No Reply at all"), but when I heard this one at Christmas '83 for the first time, I was amazed. No! BLOWN away by just how good it was!
2. Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Greatest Hits. Hadn't heard of them (short of Lucky Man on the radio). This started my journey down the prog path!
3. Alan Parson's Project, Greatest Hits. sound quality (even for a "digitally mastered" compilation) was pretty good, and it made me yearn for a decent 'table and system. The start of becoming a music lover AND audiophile...
Dman
Analog Junkie
"Devotion", "My Goal's Beyond", "Bitches Brew" made absolutely no sence to me until September 1971 when a friend said, "hey stop by I got a new album". I got to his house and asked him what it was he said the new John McLaughlin album ( "The Inner Mounting Flame" ). I promptly said, "seeya". He convinced me to stay and within two minutes of the opening song ("Meeting of the Spirits"), I was hooked, FOR LIFE.
"The Yes Album", the album and group most responsible for driving me too progressive rock. I first heard it in 1971 while listening to WNEW-FM in New York. Ran right out and bought it and still have it and play it regularly to this day.
Up until "Larks' Tongues in Aspic" came out I could take or leave King Crimson. When Bill Bruford left Yes for them I was intrigued but not moved. Not until a concert in Central Park which I went to see the opening act and Crimson was the headliner. I stayed for them and remember Bruford walking out on stage where he began playing an assortment of electronic percussion instruments. Then the rest of the group came out and played and as they say "the rest is history".
I went to sit in the studio of a college radio station to watch a friend DJ. He pulled out and played "Mister Magic" from the similarly titled album. I was bitten and to this day love what many call contemporary or smooth jazz.
Just played most of Larks the other day in 5.1. One of those records where 2500 watts at 200lbs is just enough power. Aaa maybe a little more would be better. LOL
I recall an amazing afternoon with my roommate listening to that, followed by The Rite of Spring. This topic is dredging up a lot of good memories.
Led Zeppelin II my first or second album purchase
Stanley Clarke S/T at 14 wow Tony Williams, Bill Connors tone & Jan Hammer
Miles Bitches Brew - sorry I have more fun w/electric Miles
Trilok Gurtu Usfret the first true world beat jazz record I heard
Nastacha Atlas Diaspora deeper into world beat
Nguyen Le Three Trios
E
TI knew I'd remember more Mothers Just Another Band from LA the first FZ I ever heard and it was in 73 at a church retreat I was 13 maybe and the guy had a very nice Concord Boom Box. First big boom box I ever saw. Tape only,no tuner.
Edits: 05/02/15
Good topic. Hard to separate albums which I just love from albums which were pivotal in my music life. Meet the Beatles, specifically I Wanna Hold Your Hand was unlike anything I'd ever heard in my 14 years on earth and started me down that whole Beatles, British Invasion path. Absolutely Free by the Mothers of Invention was funny, weird and interesting, and started me down too many musical paths to mention. In the Court of the Crimson King was again unlike anything I'd ever heard and again led me down numerous pathways which I still explore. Basket of Light by Pentangle exposed me Jacqui McShee's voice, Bert Jansch and John Renbourn's guitars, and led directly to Fairport Convention and the whole English folk-rock thing which I still love. That music pretty well dates me but I expect it is much the same for most of us, less things to distract us when we're young.
The first was Van Halen's debut in 1978. I was 10 years old and my mom had taken me to a house party. She was still young herself, only 30. The guy at the stereo system was playing a lot of LPs and when I heard this I was no longer a bored kid trying to stay out of the adult's way. I picked up the jacket and studied the pictures and song titles and just knew I had to own this. The DJ guy asked me if I wanted to listen to the new Tom Petty and I distinctly remember saying "No, I wanna hear THIS again!" It was my first exposure to anything approaching heavy metal and I loved it. I had no idea that 'You Really Got Me' was a Kinks cover...or even who The Kinks were. Eddie Van Halen playing 'Eruption' is something I wish I could experience for the first time many times.The other life-changing album for me was Judas Priest's 'Point of Entry' released in 1980. 'Heading Out to the Highway' was a big FM hit and it was the first song I'd ever heard from them. The melody, guitar harmonies, and lyrics promising freedom and independence really grabbed me. That summer I went to my first metal show; it was Judas Priest on this tour with a very raw but powerful Iron Maiden as the opening act. I had seen Queen, Zappa, and The Cars only a few months before but this....this was something else entirely. The power of the aural/visual assault was overwhelming and seemed dangerous to a wide-eyed twelve year old. I'll never forget how dazed I felt coming out of the venue and how I recognized that this was indeed a life-changing event: I was simply not the same kid that I'd been three hours before. When my mom picked up my friends and I outside the concert hall she asked "How was it?" and I couldn't answer....I had no words to describe what I just saw and heard and I remember struggling to answer. "I liked it" or "it was great" were simply inadequate.
While my musical tastes have expanded into most all genres I still listen to these two records quite often. Both led me to explore other powerful albums froma variety of artists.
Edits: 05/02/15
The first Van Halen was quite good. To me they never came close to that again.
E
T
That record was as dark and depressing as they got. Their last flash of brilliance.
Excellent thread topic. Here are a few of mine:
Meet the Beatles: My older sister had this record, and she occasionally let me play it on the BSR turntable in my dad's console. I was 7. The fire was lit.
Crosby, Stills and Nash: This was the first album I bought with my own money, earned mowing lawns when I was 12. I was enthralled by the frank adultness of the lyrics, as opposed to the bubblegum pop I was used to hearing. And the harmonies were intoxicating.
Yes: Fragile: At 15, I was growing disenchanted with corporate FM radio fare. Roundabout helped me to realize that I could find plenty of music to love if I took control of my listening instead of deferring to djs. Also, Bill Bruford's snare drum remains my single favorite musical sound ever.
Pat Metheny: American Garage: The twin scourges of punk and disco left me feeling disenfranchized by the music industry in the late 70s. Metheny showed me that the musical values I cared about were alive and well in the jazz aisle.
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
Beatles: Sgt. Peppers
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed
Doors: Soft Parade
Renaissance: Novella
...and all these years later I still enjoy them.
Dean.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
Beatles: Sgt. Peppers
Concept album ...art album ...an album that flowed from beginning to end. I'd never heard anything like it. The packaging was icing on the cake. I was all of 8 years old and it was the album responsible for my listening to the radio every chance I got ...often long past my bedtime.
Moody Blues: Days of Future Passed
Precursor to progressive rock? Progressive rock? Like Peppers, I'd never heard anything like it. Rock with an orchestra. I thought that was cooler than cool. Most of my friends preferred The Monkees and thought I was weird.
Doors: Soft Parade
Horns, jazz and blues from a rock band. This was as far from the norm as any rock record I had heard at the time and I loved it. Shaman's Blues, Wishful Sinful, Runnin' Blue. As much as I liked Jim Morrison, I was a bigger fan of Krieger's. Great writer and player. I'm not a big Door's fan ...I only occasionally listen to LA Woman and the ST LP and pretty much ignore the rest of their catalog. But Soft Parade ...an absolute game changer for me. This was the LP that made me realize the best music wasn't on the radio.
Renaissance: Novella
I finally got to see Annie Haslam a few months ago at what is billed as her last tour. I saw the first show of the US tour. She was very forthcoming about how nervous she was having not performed in a while. Between songs she bantered with the audience. She's very personable, charming and witty. I've had a crush on her since I was 18 and still do. Progressive rock with a pretty female lead singer with a five ( !! ) octave range. That worked for me.
Dean.
reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.
I was 13, attending boarding school, when a hippie friend laid Quicksilver Messenger Service's "Happy Trails" on his Dual 1019 - and that was the beginning of many musical happy trails for me.A returned from Vietnam war vet who worked for my Dad invited me over to his house and put on Jeff Beck's "Blow By Blow" - wow, my mind was for ever blown by that experience!!
One day, just before heading off to high school, the local underground station, WHFS, fired up Blue Oyster Cult's "Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll" and I was truly a hunka-hunka burnin' love that morning.
And the greatest band I've ever seen in concert, ELP, taught me that I was indeed a Lucky Man to be growing up during the golden age of Rock 'n' Roll.
Man, those were the daze!!!
-RW-
Edits: 05/02/15
I remember hearing Blow by Blow on the progressive AM station in Baltimore WAYE 860 AM when it came out in 74. I used to take a tube radio with me when I cut lawns and listened to it while cleaning up and trimming. I remember where I was and can see it in my mind clearly. I had the album within a few days.
E
T
If you were in the WHFS broadcast zone, we were in the same area. I saw ELP in the summer of 1974 at the Capital Center. I remember the acrobatics more than the music, but it was a great show.
Happy listening,
Jim
"The passage of my life is measured out in shirts."
- Brian Eno
This was the tour that almost bankrupted the group - they had just released Brain Salad Surgery. Their tour setup required 5 18-wheelers to carry the gear and took 8 hours each to do the setup and teardown.
I was already a HUGE ELP fan and when I entered the Civic Ctr. I looked up front and saw these HUGE stacks of amps and monitors - WHOA!! And then I happened to look to the back of the arena and saw virtually identical gear. Ho-lee-shit!! I suddenly realized that this show was gonna be done in full quadrophonic sound.
Carl Palmer's drum kit was mounted atop a spinning platform - incredible. But the absolutest coolest part of the show was when Keith Emerson sat down at his grand piano and strapped on a seatbelt. Huh?? He had to do so because as he was playing the entire piano, bench, and Keith started to rise in the air and then began spinning ass over tea kettle as he hammered away on the keys. My head damn near exploded when I saw that little stunt!
To this day that is still the best concert I ever saw - and I've seen me quite a few concerts, pardner.
Confusion will be my epitaph, as I crawl a cracked and broken path. If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh. But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying....
-RW-
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