10 Albums That Shaped Your Musical Experience...

Procol Harum - Shine On Brightly
Procol Harum - A Salty Dog
Bob Dylan - Bringing It All Back Home
Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited
Bob Dylan - Blonde On Blonde
Dave Edmunds - Get It
The Mahavishnu Orchestra - The Inner Mounting Flame
Mott The Hoople - Mott
Robert Johnson - The Complete Recordings
Frankie Miller - Once In A Blue Moon

Bubbling under:
Dr. John - Dr. John Plays Mac Rebennack
Ian Hunter - Ian Hunter

 

This is a nice idea as it allows a bit more breadth than just picking one album.

You've said these should be albums that shaped our musical experience, and a lot of people have gone understandably for albums from their youth, or from their parents’ record collections.

Mine are slightly different because my musical experience is still being shaped, and that continues every time I hear something new that strikes a chord, and so a number of my choices are fairly recent, including one from last year. I hope never to stop appreciating new music - I'm 40 years old and yes, there were many records I loved growing up, but most have since fallen by the wayside as I've discovered new things, and so looking back now, I wouldn't really say they shaped my musical tastes in any meaningful way.

I hope that's OK!

Also apologies for the length of this, I can't help but want to explain my choices and Info tend to waffle on a bit…! The titles are in bold so are easy to pick out. They are roughly in the order I came across them.

1. Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room / Songs Of Love And Hate
I came across these (and I can't separate them - in my head they're one album!) almost by accident. I had bought them on CD for my mum as a Christmas present, and had an urge to listen before wrapping it as I was curious to learn about her tastes.
I felt naughty, and it seemed like ‘grown up music' to 14/15 year old me.
Something about it just clicked straight away and I loved it. As a teenager who loved English literature, the poetry appealed to me, and I have always been a sucker for a baritone voice. Bird on the Wire in particular has always stuck with me.
I’m by no means a Cohen super-fan, and do find some of his music a bit limited and some lyrics a bit preachy, but these albums, especially Songs of Love and Hate, are wonderful and helped shape my love of poetic language in music, and of artists who have something to say and are able to express it eloquently.

2. The Divine Comedy - Promenade
This album is just magical, but when I first heard it I was really confused as it is the complete antithesis of laddish, beer-swilling 90s culture that dominated the radio.
It is so different from anything I'd ever heard, and opened my eyes to the possibilities that exist in music outside of stifling ‘genres’.
The album tells the story of a couple (old friends? Lovers?) meeting up and spending the day together in a seaside town on New Year's Eve.
It blends elements of ‘classical’ music (string quartet, piano and oboe) with really good pop in the vein of the 1960s music I grew up listening to. It also references a load of authors, mythological figures, biblical passages, hymns and French arthouse cinema. At 15 this was just a revelation. This stuff was remotely not ‘cool’, but it was stuff I loved.
The record is unapologetically middle class, bookish, joyful, embarrassing, nerdy, silly, mildly bonkers, profound, and great fun, and I soon grew to love it.
It shaped my experience by helping me worry less about fitting in with others and more about doing the best I can and expressing myself in my own way.
Nowadays I like to listen to it one a year, on a chilly winter's evening by a roaring fire with a glass of port.

3. The Magnetic Fields - Get Lost
Get Lost is the first TMF album I got hold of when I was about 16, and it just tapped into that dark, emo side that I think most teenagers have. It is deliciously dark in places, and some of it makes me uncomfortable now (e.g. references to suicide and drugs) but at the time it felt just the right amount of edgy.
It contains just the right number of songs, and there are none I want to skip, even now. If I had to pick an album to cover as a musician, it would be this one as the tunes are great, and it feels like there's room to bring something different to it musically. I'm not comfortable with some of the lyrics but could get around that!
If you're not familiar with the Magnetic Fields their sound is very sparse and quite cold, and this record is fairly electronic/synth heavy.
It is another example of someone doing what they want to do, in the way they want to do it; Stephen Merritt sings slightly off key, and the instrumentation and production have a ramshackle, lo-fi quality to them.

4. Beach Boys - Smiley Smile
I got plenty of chances to listen to the Beach Boys as a kid as they were my dad's favourite. When I went off to uni I found this is a bargain bin and bought it, possibly because I was feeling homesick. It wasn't what I was expecting, as my favourite Beach Boys songs up to that point had been the more reflective ones like God Only Knows and Sloop John B, but I totally loved it! The craziness of it all appealed to me perfectly at that point in time and again it is an example of a unique record that couldn't have been made by anyone else.
It no longer holds the same appeal for me now, but it perfectly fitted in to the group of artists who can be as silly as they are serious, and helped cement that as part of the backbone of my musical taste, which it still is now.

5. Nina Simone - Little Girl Blue
Nina Simone's debut album, recorded live in New York. The performances on here are for me head and shoulders above her later and more famous recordings of songs like My Baby Just Cares For Me. They aren't as slick, but her playing and singing are always impeccable and hearing them live and when she was young is so special. I first got into her music when I was at uni, through a ‘best of’ CD, but came across this recording a bit later on, and it made me rethink how I saw her music. I could listen to this album forever.

6. Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love
Such a good album that definitely deserves all the hype. This is another example of someone who has not compromised their music for commercial success, and hearing a woman doing this and being respected for her actual music is inspiring to me (I'm also a woman). I came across this when I was at uni, but didn't give it proper attention until only a few years ago.
So many women in pop music are valued primarily for their looks and don't always get the opportunity to get their own music out there in the way they would have wanted.

7. Olivier Messiaen - Quartet For The End Of Time
I have a version played by the Nash Ensemble in 1998 at the Wigmore Hall in London and it's gorgeous.
This piece was written by Messiaen in a Görlitz concentration camp, and is for piano, cello, violin and clarinet because those were the available instruments. It was performed for the first time in that camp on 1941, a s listening to this and knowing the context has definitely helped shape my musical journey.
It is a wonderful piece of music anyway, but this context really adds to it.
I find the most beautiful part to be the fifth movement, ‘Louange à l'Éternité de Jésus’, with it's gorgeous cello. Some of it is not that comfortable to listen to as it is modernist in it's sound, but I do think it's one of the most approachable modernist pieces, and it has helped me to better understand that style.

8. Cathy Davey - New Forest
This is Cathy Davey's most recent album (2016) and I'm hoping it wasn't her last as she seems to have largely swapped music for running an animal rescue centre. I admire her for that but selfishly wish she'd make more music!
I think her albums have got better and better each time, and although I love The Nameless, I find New Forest so much fun, and so thoughtful and evocative too. There's an amazing song about a squirrel burying nuts called ‘And Then I Eat It's, and a beautiful, dreamy meditation on creatures that roamed the earth long before us, but are really the same as we are (dust, clay) in ‘Thylacine’. The title song is just lovely and I used it as a lullaby for my little one when he was younger. It's a gorgeous appreciation of the natural world.
I love her percussive songs and offbeat kind of way of playing and singing. She definitely has a great sense of humour and also understands the important things in life. Another unique artist.

9. Lisa O’Neill - All Of This Is Chance
This record is altogether wonderful. Like most of my choices it transports me to another world. Lisa O’Neill really engages with her Irish folk roots and carries on that tradition in a really genuine waywith her own fearless, unsentimental modern folk music.
This album is just full of brilliant, vivid songs, and Lisa is an amazing storyteller with her marvelous, rough voice juxtaposed against some rather sweet yet wise lyrics like ‘I was frightened by the underground in London, and by the speed of my generation’.
I have more recently taken an interest in folk music, and to hear younger people taking up those traditions is wonderful. Her approach is fascinating and is helping to shape my experience with contemporary folk music.

10. Ben Castle - Blah Street
This is a very recent favourite. I saw an offer on Bandcamp and impulsively purchased all of Ben Castle's albums and I'm so happy I did so.
Ben Castle is another artist with a brilliant sense of humour. He's also a fabulous saxophone and clarinet player who plays jazz with a really fun and funky twist. It feels like he and the band are having a great time, and in consequence so am I. It's definitely made me think about jazz differently, and to get away from it's rather serious kind of reputation.
My favourite track is Carousel, a weird little song that has phrases of three bars instead of the expected four, making it feel like a carousel you can't get off… a nightmare…!
Brilliant, bonkers, fun, jazzy!!

Almost made it!
Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water

 

Velvet Underground & Nico had me walking around sing Waiting For the Man when I was 12 thanks to hearing it coming from my brother's room so I rapidly got my own copy

Stooges s/t, Fun House both of these were things my brother played a lot in the late 70s as were Can.

Birthday Party Junkyard not sure which my entry to these were but reading their press lead me to a number of bands including Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu and
The Pop Group Y- which became a favourite lp of mine as well as several other similarly maverick post-punk bands

Pretty Things s/t was discovered in my moddy boy days through a friend's brother. One of several bands of the era I was disdcovering at the time. Also Small Faces, Who, Yardbirds, Action

Grateful Dead Live Dead this was a few years later but I had been into psych for several years already but this was my introduction to extended rock improvisation outside of Can

Great Society Conspicuous Only By Its Absence or maybe this was., Think I may have had this a couple of years earlier. Got given the copy that had been in Sweet Charity psychedelic clothes shop

Meat Puppets s/t certainly original and has shaped some musical taste. Though maybe more part of a wider wave of things I was getting into in the early/mid 80s.
I was into hardcore/NY noise too. This has obvious echoes of psych I liked beforehand.

James Brown In The Jungle Groove: one of a number of JB lps I picked up over several years but I think there were a load earlier. This is him getting into heavier funk some of it withb the Collins brothers in his band.

So that's 10 though I could go 3 or 4 times that with things I needed to cut out that I would see as inherently interconnected to those.

 

Frank Sinatra Sings Only for The Lonely, Watertown, In The Wee Small Hours
Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit
Joy Division
Suicide
Irma Thomas - I Wish Someone Would Care
James Carr - Dark End Of The Street
Baby Huey - Hard Times
Neil Young - Tonight's The Night and On the Beach
John Coltrane - Alabama
Lonnie Mack - Why

 

I could be lazy and simply repeat the albums on the thread from four years ago but I thought I'd do it slightly differently (and cheat) by including some gigs and a label which have opened my eyes to new music over the past 50+ years.

Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill
Heard “Do It Again” on the radio, then “Reelin’ In The Years” and was even more interested so bought this in probably early 1973. #1 on my chronological list of albums, and although I had a few albums already this was the first that wasn’t (i) cheap and (ii) a compilation. It made me aware of music outside the Top 30.

Patti Smith - Horses
When record shops had listening booths, I went into one in Dean Street in London and asked to hear this. I only heard one side but…Wow! Sparked a lifelong love of the lady and her music.

Wire - Pink Flag
I went to see The Tubes in early December 1977 and the support just blew me away. So for Christmas I asked my brother to get this for me as it had only just been released. Made me a lifelong fan.

Weather Report - Heavy Weather
Interesting one this since I bought the single “Birdland” and saw them live at the Rainbow before I bought the album. I think I mainly went for the thought of seeing Wayne Shorter after hearing that solo on “Aja” and after hearing “Birdland”. Then I started seeking out other things that Shorter had played on which led me to Miles, Art Blakey, and Shorter’s own albums. Over the years I saw WR four times, and WS seven. I guess you could call me a fan…

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme / Eric Dolphy – Out To Lunch
I can’t really split these as they were both heard at roughly the same point and as a result of me scouring a book I bought – the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz – for who to investigate. The Dolphy entry was pretty short and led me straight to OTL, the Coltrane entry far longer but did point to ALS as being a career highlight. Lots of jazz album buying followed…

Company – ICA Aug/Sept 1980
I said I was going to cheat a little. This was a series of improvised music gigs at the ICA in London organised by Derek Bailey and held every Sunday. Some pretty famous names in the field played. I found it…challenging as I’d never really come across fully improvised music before.

Bach – Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 (English Concert / Trevor Pinnock)
These and others were my gateway in the early 1990 into what has been called music on period instruments but now seems to be Historically Informed Performance (HIP). Using wiki it is the “the application of the stylistic and technical aspects of performance, known as performance practice; and the use of period instruments which may be reproductions of historical instruments that were in use at the time of the original composition, and which usually have different timbre and temperament from their modern equivalents.” It’s the bit of the vast history of classical music I tend to listen to most these days.

AMM – The Crypt
The first title I encountered pf this very long-running outfit which began in 1966 and played its final gig (which I was at) in 2022 at Café Oto. Probably the most extreme and challenging of the many titles they put out. All fully improvised.

Roscoe Mitchell – Café Oto Jan 2013
Cheating again. I saw notice of this gig in a guide that The Guardian used to print in their Saturday edition. Being a lover of Mitchell and the Art Ensemble of Chicago I found the website and booked to go to a venue in London I’d never even heard of before. 360-odd gigs later, you could say that it changed my musical life. They also have vinyl racks and CDs but I’d better gloss over those as I’ve spent a far amount of money on those over the years at gigs.

Mark Knoop, Catherine Laws, Philip Thomas, John Tilbury – John Cage: Winter Music
Again, a slight cheat because it is not so much the album itself but the label it was released on. I’d had an album from the same label, I realised, a few years before. White card covers with details on the reverse and a small picture/painting on the front. I saw more and more of these from Another Timbre, and eventually began to order each batch as they came out. Very varied, mostly very quiet, minimal music.

 

I did this not long ago. In rough chronological order of when I first heard them:

1. THE BEATLES 2ND ALBUM-the first Beatles album I ever heard (I was 6 years old) and the start of my musical journey. The Beatles are still my favorite band!
2. THE VENTURES PLAY THE CLASSICS-gave me an appreciation of classical as well as rock music
3. REVOLVER (Beatles)-I bought this when I first got to college and purely by chance got a German Import that was in with the regular LP's and thus got the full 14 song album and not the US "Revolver Lite". Still my favorite album!
4. MEATY BEATY BIG & BOUNCY (The Who)-introduced me to all those great early Who singles that were UK, but not US hits.
5. THE KINKS ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETY-it was so cool to hear someone expressing some of the nostalgic feelings I'd often had!
6. PIPER AT THE GATES OF DAWN (Pink Floyd)-this blew me away. Syd Barrett's songwriting combining childlike whimsy with wild experimentation has never quite had anything like it before.
7. NUGGETS (various artists)-gave me a love of one hit, regional hit, and just plain little known music that lasts until this day!
8. FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION (REM)-I knew a couple REM songs, but this was the first album I got. Side 2 (which I thought was side one at the time) remains one of my favorite album sides and REM is my favorite post 60's band!
9. ODESSEY AND ORACLE (The Zombies)-I knew the 3 singles and had heard this album was great, but it still exceeded my expectations!
10. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO-Until the late 90's I had heard exactly one VU song. I got this album and it exposed me to a whole new sound

BONUS: FIVE LEAVES LEFT, BRYTER LAYTER, and PINK MOON (Nick Drake)-I bought all 3 of these albums on the same day in the early 2010's. I had only ever heard "pink Moon" (the song) on YouTube, but I had read about Nick Drake and when I saw all 3 CD's on sale at Border's, I bought them with a birthday gift certificate. What great songs! Incredible that I went over 30 years without ever having even heard of Nick Drake and another 10 or so years before hearing these songs. He remains a favorite artist of mine!

 

A difficult task in many ways, but as best I can, off the cuff

Elvis Presley Golden Records vol 1, UK version....
As a bambino, this obviously effected me.
My parents have a reel to reel of me singing Heartbreak Hotel when I was 5, that is surprisingly effective.... for a five year old...

Kiss Dynasty
As much crud as the band gets given, this was an important record for me.
Christmas 79, at the tender age of 11, my parents bought my sister and I this album and Get The Knack to share.
I ended up hanging on to the Kiss album, my sister The Knack, that she later gave to me anyway.
This triggered the idea in my head that I could have my own records, and the journey began.

Bob Dylan
Not so much a specific record.
Dylan's early material opened a lot of doors in my mind.... the idea of poetic, substantive writing, rather than cars and girls.
The sound.... fresh and ancient all at the same time, opening the way for me to comfortably explore old folk and blues, without being distracted by the aged sound... I love that aged sound.
Then with the 65-67 albums it exposed me to the fact that pigeonholes are for pigeons, not musicians... and I can't decide, and don't have to, whether I prefer acoustic or electric Dylan.

Pink Floyd
Not a specific album...
The cinematic presentation.
The sort of simple writing, but arranged and written so well as to make it compelling and engaging.
The use of sound effects in such a way as to really grab my attention and retain coherence.

Frank Zappa
Not really a specific album, but One Size Fits All and Sheik Yerbouti broke the ice.
The insanity of it all.
Something so completely different from what I had become used to... musically and lyrically.
He basically showed me that there aren't really any rules.

George Benson and Miles Davis.... and the Round Midnight movie about Dexter Gordon
I bought George Benson Breezin, then after reading a guitar magazine suggesting Miles' Kind Of Blue was an important album for guitarists to hear, then not long after seeing that movie......
This series of things slowly moved me into enjoying Jazz, which had previously been impenetrable for me.

Jean Michel Jarre - Oxygene
I started off being all about guitar and drums, and those nasty plastic synths sucked....
This album opened the door to synths and such, and again broadened what I was comfortable listening to.

Apologies to the OP for not exactly following directions, but for me, it was these kinds of things that shaped my .... "musical personality"(?).... journey.....

 

My first ten albums are the formative albums which shaped my musical tastes ranging from power pop, psychedelic rock, progressive rock, folk rock to heavy metal. These are the source albums to go back to.

The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night
The Byrds: Mr. Tambourine Man
The Who: The Who Sings My Generation.
The Beatles: Revolver
The Beatles Sgt. Peppers
Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?
The Beatles: White Album
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin 1
Rolling Stones: Let it Bleed
Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath

However, my tastes did evolve or maybe devolved when I got more into other music. These ten albums further shaped what I listen to now. I have all albums on vinyl

Otis Redding: Otis Blue:
Velvet Underground & Nico: The Velvet Underground & Nico
The Doors: The Doors
King Crimson: In the Court of The Crimson King
The Who: Who’s Next
Boston: Boston
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack: Sorry cannot pretend I did not like disco.
Pink Floyd: The Wall
Rush: Permanent Waves:
Van Halen: Fair Warning.

 

1.Queen - A Night At The Opera.
2.Springsteen - Darkness On The Edge Of Town.
3.Status Quo - 12 Gold Bars Vol.I+II.

Had these three for xmas '84 after getting into I Want To Break Free. Saw Queen on the Magic Tour. Quo on the Magic Tour and at Byron Bay Blues Fest in '13. Saw Springsteen in ' 13 & '14. The second time he played all of Darkness.

4.AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.

One of two LP's I took out of my Dad's collection when I left home. UK version. Probably my favourite LP of theirs. Saw them on The Razors Edge Tour in Hannover. Went with three fellows built like brick ****houses who aimed straight for the barrier and I followed in their wake. Took a few days for my ears to recover.

5.Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here.

Got it with DSOTM on cd from one of those 5 for a quid subscription things. Wonder how many cd's they gave away for free. Got me into Roy Harper amongst others. Never saw Floyd. Saw Waters in '12 on The Wall tour. Most expensive gig I ever went to.

6.The Rolling Stones - Early Lp's my mates had and it got me into a heap of music they had been inspired by. Can't remember the last time I played any Stones. Last one I bought was Steel Wheels.

7.Levellers - A Weapon Called The Word.

Saw them at a whole bunch of festivals and gigs. Probably the band I've seen the most. Go to their own Beautiful Days festival every year. Loved the fiddle, got me to check out other fiddle players.

8.Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland.

What an album. Managed to pick up a decent copy once I was earning. These days whenever I think of it, it reminds me of travelling on a coach in full combat gear as we were driven through the Croatian (I think) countryside. We were part of the UN Protection Force. I listened to it on headphones watching the countryside pass by. We had to show our passports to get in. Seems crazy now.

9.Pearl Jam - Ten.

Not a bad song on it. Got me into other stuff. Cornell, Mother Love Bone. Saw them in Brisbane in '09 and the Big Day Out in '14.

10.Buddy Guy - Damn Right, I've Got the Blues.

Fantastic LP. Got me into all kinds of blues. My Dad had loads of blues that I should have swiped along with the AC/DC. He'd play them all the time so I suppose all that blues, Sabbath, Purple, Zeppelin sunk in. My Mum's Jim Reeves LP's did not. Saw Buddy Guy in Byron Bay. Fantastic.

 

At Fillmore East- Allman Brothers Band
Green River- Creedence Clearwater Revival
Johnny Winter And Live- Johnny Winter
Tapestry- Carole King
Stardust- Willie Nelson
The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle- Bruce Springsteen
Chicago Transit Authority- Chicago (Transit Authority)
Silk Degrees- Boz Scaggs
Dark Side Of The Moon- Pink Floyd
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band- Beatles

The earliest influences

 

Cool thread. I've tried to pick albums that are not necessarily my favorites (some are though), but rather, albums that impacted my musical journey and led me on some interesting musical paths along the way. In order:

Duran Duran - Seven and the Ragged Tiger (1983) : The first album I ever bought, on cassette. My family was heavy into KISS and Duran so they influenced my childhood musical tastes pretty heavily at this point.

Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill (1986): The first album (cassette again) that I bought without any familial influence. I love early hip hop and this album was my gateway into BDP, Public Enemy, EPMD, etc. The Beasties were, and are, also very influential to me in their musical tastes. To this day, I'll hunt down something they've sampled, or check out a few songs (or entire genres, Zamrock!) on Mike D's radio show. I've discovered TONS of new/old music from these guys.

Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction (1987): This album took me to another level. Massive to me. I went from a pop/hip-hop kid to a full blown rocker. Via GN'R I discovered Aerosmith, AC/DC, and tons of other music, including my next pick.

Joni Mitchell - Court & Spark (1974): It was probably odd to my friends that a teenage rocker like me was listening to this album in 1988, but hey, Slash's dad did the artwork so I just gotta hear it. Joni took me down a whole 'nother rabbit hole which included the Laurel Canyon/California music I still love to this day: Jackson, CSN, Neil Young, and Eagles.

U2 - Rattle & Hum (1988): Probably my favorite band, but not my favorite album by them. It was, however, the first album of theirs I remember actually waiting impatiently to come out. I had only gotten into them half way through the Joshua Tree era, so there was much anticipation. Rattle & Hum introduced me to a whole new world of music like blues, early Sun Records and more. I was pretty much discovering American music at the same time as the band was. We've been on that journey together ever since.

R.E.M. - Eponymous (1988): I adored all these early R.E.M. singles, and still do. They remain a huge influence on my musical listening habits and tastes.

The Beatles - The Beatles (1968): I believe the first time I heard this album was on a reel to reel at my friend's house, on his dad's equipment. I was just getting into the Beatles but hearing this album really changed something. The variety of the songs was extremely appealing to me.

Stevie Wonder - Talking Book (1972): I think I found Stevie's music via George Michael (who should really be on this list as well), but this album began my love of soul and funk music, particularly from the 60's & 70's.

Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era (1972): HUGE album for me. It was actually that Rhino Records Nuggets box set where I first heard this, as the original album was a bit before my time. Like the poster above said, it got me into the one hit wonders and regional songs. Opened up a whole new front of musical conquest.

Kanye West - 808's & Heartbreak (2008)/Yeezus (2013): Couldn't choose just one so I gave it a tie. I wanted to make sure I added something more contemporary as I do listen to lots of newer music in addition to all the old guy stuff. Love him or hate him, Kanye was an innovator. These albums are timeless, IMO, and have not aged one bit since they were released.

 

Kate Bush - The Kick Inside
David Bowie - Aladdin Sane
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin 4
The Beatles - The White Album
The Who - Who Sell Out
Small Faces - First Immediate album
Van Morrison - Veedon Fleece
Love - Forever Changes
The Stranglers - Black and White
Rolling Stones - Exile on Main Street

 

Love this list. It's like my alternate list.

 

I’m going to restrict my list to the music that truly shocked/electrified/gobsmacked me, and changed my listening forever. And so, here is my short list - I mean, events of this magnitude haven’t occurred that often in my life.

1. Harry James - One o’clock Jump - Columbia 78.

I bought this for my brother who was starting trumpet lessons. He didn’t put it on the record player so I did, and it felt like the heavens had opened and a ray of light fell upon me. I was transfixed and played it over and over until my grandmother stormed over and took the needle off, popping my bubble of rapture.

But where to buy more music like this? I lived in a really small town and the only place to buy records was in the furniture store and they had only a few 78s. Then I came across an ad that had the great idea of getting records through the mail, and the first LP I received was

2. Giants of Modern Jazz - Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie. Jazztone LP J-1204.




The Slam Slam Blues really slammed me. First a Slam Stewart solo that flummoxed me (what IS that sound??) and then Charlie Parker blazed forth. I was shocked and thrilled- the Sound of Surprise indeed.

Then, a lucky break - a record store opened in town!! One of first purchases was actually for my sister’s birthday.

3. Jazz Goes To College - Dave Brubaker Quartet - Columbia CL 566
The first time I heard this, I couldn’t get it. But when she played it again, ahhh, then I got it and it all made beautiful sense. I still have this record as a momento (it’s very battered and scratched - my sister was very hard on records) and I can see it every day.



4. Beethoven- The Late Quartets Budapest SQ Columbia SL 174

I bought this box set at the local record store when I was in high school. I bought it because some critic said it was great. And you know what? It was - I loved it from the get go. It taught me not to be afraid of “great” music - just try it.

5. Ravel - Piano Trio
I first heard this on the radio a year or so ago and it stopped me in my tracks. Now this is a famous piece and I had gone through my entire life without hearing it before. It proved that no one - especially me - has heard it all.

Isn’t it comforting to know that there’s still astonishing music out there that we haven’t yet heard.

 

Zappa/Hot Rats
Blood Sweat and Tears 3
Pink Floyd Meddle
Jimmy Buffett/A White Sport Coat...
Beatles/Let It Be
John Prine S/T
Jim Croce/Life And Times
Ozzy/Blizzard Of Ozz
Sly Stone/Riot
Miles Davis/Bitches Brew

 

Bob Lind - Don't Be Concerned
Richard Harris - The Yard Went On Forever
The Beach Boys - Sunflower
Donovan - Sunshine Superman
Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water (could have chosen any of four S&G)
Genesis - Foxtrot
Yes - Close To the Edge
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
Fleet Foxes - s/t

 

I suppose it’s all in this lot somewhere. Rock, noise, collage, song, melody, out-there-ness, lyric, long form, modernism, diy, atonal composition, interesting arrangements, instrumental music, experimental song form, willingness to push and expand beyond what had come before, individual voices.

The Faust Tapes
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Meet The Residents
Trout Mask Replica
Can Tago Mago
The Henry Cow Legend
L Voag The Way Out
Albert Marcouer s/t
Nico The Marble Index
Terry Riley A Rainbow In Curved Air

and hearing Bartok string quartets on radio 3.

 

The Beatles -Revolver
The Beatles -Sgt Pepper
The Beatles -White Album
Rolling Stones -Let it Bleed
The Who - Tommy
Pink Floyd- The Wall
The Clash - Combat Rock
U2 - War
The Police - Zenyatta Mondatta
Bob Marley - Rastaman Vibration.

 

-Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
-The Clash: Sandinista
-Genesis: The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
-U2: The Joshua Tree
-The Rolling Stones: 12 x 5
-Black Sabbath: Vol.4
-The Police: Outlandos d'Amour
-Cream: Disraeli Gears
-CSN&Y: Deja Vu
-Pink Floyd: Animals

Ah! Tears For Fears: Seeds Of Love

 

Meet The Beatles
Freak Out
Are You Experienced
The Doors
Credence Clearwater Revival
The Monkees
Led Zeppelin I
We’re Only in it For The Money
Days of Future Passed
Chicago Transit Authority

 

Not in any particular order

Nilsson Schmilsson - Harry Nilsson
Deep Purple - Made in Japan
Santana - Santana
Gold! - Neil Diamond
Abbey Road - The Beatles
The Best of Hank Williams
Paranoid - Black Sabbath
Bridge Over Troubled Water - Simon & Garfunkel
Bayou Country - Creedence Clearwater Revival
24 of Hank Williams’ Greatest Hits

 

Astrud Gilberto - Girl from Ipanema. (my 1st girlfriend. Astrud just didn't now it. I was 6. )
Meet the Beatles (of course it's 'Meet the Beatles'.)
Are You Experienced (this one before Meddle! / Hendrix was from Outer Space!)
Led Zeppelin 1 (blew my socks off!! I couldn't believe it - just stunned. Had to turn everyone on to it!!! Blew them away too!!)
Meddle (this one!! It became a life-long all-time favorite.)
Black Sabbath - S/T (it was like ... OMG - what is THAT!!) / Paranoid
Rides Again / Thirds (I love those 2 albums)
Days of Future Passed
Made in Japan (WoW - Hard Rockin')
Cricklewood Green ~ 10 Years After (Rock & Roll!!)
& ... Santana 1. (& 2 & 3)

And others during the '70/'71 era. Zappa.
Got turned on to 'a lot' of 50s/60s Jazz too. Love Jazz.

That was fun!

 

Robin Trower-Bridge of Sighs
Bad Co-Bad Co
Heart-Dreamboat Annie
Bonobo-The Plug
Zero 7-Simple Things
ZZ Top-Tres Hombres
Lynyrd Skynyrd-Second Helping
Pink Floyd-The Wall
U2-War
CSN&Y-Four Way Street

 

Between The Buttons - The Rolling Stones
Bird/The Savoy Recordings - Charlie Parker
Blonde On Blonde - Bob Dylan
Can't Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan
Fleetwood Mac In Chicago
My Favorite Things - John Coltrane
Pet Sounds - The Beach Boys
Solo Flight - The Genius Of Charlie Christian
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo - The Byrds
What's Going On - Marvin Gaye

 

In no particular order.

1. Let There Be Rock.
2. Sgt Peppers
3. Rising Force
4. Star People
5. Them or Us
6. Metal Fatigue
7. Passion, Grace and Fire. Paco, John and Al
8. Led Zeppelin IV
9. Procession. Weather Report
10. A Love Supreme