Musical Turning Points

[scruff]

I'm interested in those songs that made you want to be a guitar player (bass player, singer, etc).

Personally, I think the field is too wide to pick a "favorite" guitar song. Stevie Ray would have two or three songs on that list, as would Jimi Hendrix, of course. Clapton, Beck, these are no-brainers. But would you include Slash? Satriani? Steve Vai? Randy Rhoads?

For me, someone handed me a guitar when I was a kid, and I thought I was gonna be a guitar player until I tried it. Ended up playing the bass line instead, but I still wanted to be a guitarist, not a bassist. It was only after hearing The Lemon Song (Led Zeppelin, from Zeppelin II) that I knew I wanted to be a bass player. When hearing a song one time makes you change what you want to do with your life, it's easy to list that song as a favorite. A musical turning point.

What about you folks? Not just your favorite songs and artists, but what (who) changed your life, musically speaking? What songs made that big difference?

[jpfeifer]

Early on for me, there were a few songs that really knocked me over, musically
- Stairway to Heaven
as cliche as it might be, the guitar parts in this song are still some of the most interesting parts to ever be heard on the radio. When I first learned this song I was hooked on guitar. The guitar store in my home town finally posted a sign in the window with the a big red X over the words "Stairway to Heaven" I suppose the song has been worn out by now. But what a great piece of writing. Jimmy Page was a genius.
- Room 335 (Larry Carlton)
this song really did it for me. I learned as much as I could from this song and it taught a whole new style of playing to me, got me interested in Jazz, etc.
- Europa (Santana)
This song taught got me how to go beyond the basic pentatonic blues scale that I'd been using for everything up to this point.
- Skuttle Buttin (Stevie Ray)
this song completely blew me away the first time I'd heard it. The song still does it for me. Stevie Ray had such a great tone and amazing phrasing. The song just rips!
- Message in a Bottle (the Police)
this song got me interested in Andy Summer's guitar style. His parts were so inventive and his tones were so interesting.
- Cross the Heartland (Pat Metheny)
I bought my first Pat Metheny record when I was in high school after hearing about him in a magazine. His tone, phrasing, and writing are very unique. He is still one of my favorite Jazz players.
- Affirmation (George Benson)
When George Benson's "Breezin" record came out I listened to it like crazy. I loved his tone and style.

--Jim

[Tig]

- Europa (Santana)


Let's go back to around '76 to '78. While many of the guitarists influential to me at the time like Jimi, EVH, Jeff Beck, & Brian May were technically unattainable, guys like Santana and Billy Gibbons at least felt reachable. When I listened to my Dad's copy of Santana's Amigos, "Europa" hit home. It was so expressive with a deep soulful connection. I wanted to express myself and play that way. Sure, the aforementioned players also made me want to pick up a guitar also, but Santana connected in a different way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBDLQZgntYE
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/d3a5dd25ef9a313a79a045f01e5c9a66/5609.jpg

ZZ Top's Fandango was rich with gutsy, raw energy-infused blues that grabbed me and said, "Son, you know your gonna' have to do this some day, right?"
http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/586080888b0628d60a2ef29cebd1cea3/5676.jpg

[tunghaichuan]

Two that stand out for me:

"Mercury Blues" by David Lindley from the El Rayo X album. I heard that song and was hooked, I was a David Lindley fan for life. I originally checked the vinyl album out of the library circa 1986. I must have listened to that album straight through 3 or 4 times that day.

"Seven Laws of Woo" by Buckethead from the Transmutation album by Praxis. This song forever changed the way I wanted to hear the guitar. I believe that was back in 1993 or so. That album was mind-blowing back then, and still sounds incredible even today.

[Eric]

No trendy picks for me. I just liked "Wonderwall" by Oasis. Still do, actually. Other songs that made me want to play guitar were "Lyin' Eyes" by the Eagles and "Goldfinger" by Ash.

Like I said, not very sexy or high-brow songs, but there you go.

[duhvoodooman]

Easy one for me. Though I had been a big Beatles fan for a couple of years, that didn't really get me interested in guitar. But I went to a classmate's birthday party in early '67 and somebody gave him a copy of an album by some new British trio, entitled "Fresh Cream". When I heard that, my fate was sealed....

[Spudman]

Initially it wasn't something that made me want to play guitar. It was that I wanted to be involved in music mostly. I wasn't sure of the instrument at that early age. Our family was moving all the time and I figured that a guitar would be easy to transport. That's when I started guitar but I never got anywhere initially with it. I think I was 7 or 8 years old.

Two years later we finally moved to a place where I was more settled down and that's when I started being able to think about really learning the instrument and making some music with it. Still at 10 and 11 years old I didn't have any idols or someone I wanted to emulate.

At 15 yrs old I spent the night at a friend's house and his brother put on Deep Purple's "Who Do We Think We Are" and my head exploded. I had never heard anything like that before. I wanted to make that sound and play all those notes along with some heavy mysterious music. Very shortly afterward, maybe two weeks, I was riding my bicycle home at 1 am and heard music coming from a parked car. I stopped and the car was locked but someone had left Robin Trower's "Bridge of Sighs" playing on the 8 track. I sat in the dark street and listened to the whole album...and my head exploded again.

It was those two events that really sealed my desire to play music on the guitar and to try to master it to some degree. I fell in love and I'm still doing just that.

[omegadot]

In all honesty:

Baby I'm an Anarchist was a big one for me. Also the Nirvana version of Man Who Sold the World.

[mapka]

Seeing Johnny Cash in 1969 at the age of 7 with my dad. Got my first guitar a year later and have never regretted it. Lost interest a few times. Didn't care for some teachers and had periods of 5 or more years in my life where I never picked up a guitar, but always came back.

[marnold]

What made me want to play guitar is listening to my uncle play some old hippie songs on an acoustic. We had a special version of John Denver's "Country Roads" that we would sing in seven-part off-key harmony. The worse it was, the better. We'd laugh like idiots.

Beyond that, going into my classmate's room in high school and listening to Dokken's "Tooth and Nail" and Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" back-to-back sealed me as a metalhead forever.

[wingsdad]

First, Chuck Berry's 'Maybelline', 'Johnny B. Goode' and 'School Days (Hail, Hail Rock N' Roll), then 'The Ventures: "Walk, Don't Run" (and their '64' remake of it).

What else can I say? I'm no spring chicken, that was the era in which I picked up the guitar, and my older cousin, my first teacher/mentor, taught me how to play them.

[piebaldpython]

Watching the Smothers Brothers TV show and seeing Mason Williams play Classical Gas. I thought that was the coolest thing ever. Guess I was 12???

[deeaa]

Easy...Judas Priest and Killing Machine & British Steel albums off a cassette, on 4th grade, making it circa '81.

Before that I had been only listening to what my parents had; mostly classical, jazz, swing, motown, that kind of jive. Judas changed it all for good.

I did have a period in my early 20's that I quit playing guitar and listened only to things like Dire Straits, U2, Buddy Holly, Grateful Dead, even some progressive rock and such, but that went quick thankfully and these days I again enjoy proper metal music again :-)

[R_of_G]

Two words, George Harrison. I was obsessed with the Beatles since I was seven and knew that someday I'd try to learn to play guitar to be like George.
I didn't start playing until I was 29 so obviously other artists influenced me along the way but for me and the guitar it always comes back to George.

[sunvalleylaw]

I did not start playing until almost 40, and really after that. Interestingly enough, it was punk and grungey/indie (I know indie is overused. maybe garage is better) sounds that made me want to play guitar. Both electric and unplugged. The Clash, MxPx, Weezer, Green Day, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Neil Young, The Kinks, stuff like that. And jazzier sounds. I love lush, jazzy chord voicings. The traditional guitar heroes were not even a consideration for me. I learned to appreciate them, and want to learn some of what they played, later.

Also interestingly, the seemingly simple punky, garage stuff is not so easy for me to play. It may be simple, but to do it well, you need good rhythm chops and timing. A lot of those songs can point out weaknesses I can hide better playing blues and blues rock lead lines.

[NWBasser]

It was The Spirit of Radio (Rush) that turned me on to the bass. Prior to that I wanted to be a drummer but my guitarist friend wanted me to play that "boring" bass instrument.

Then I heard SOR on the radio (of course) and that rumbling bass line. I was hooked after that. I think I was about 13 or so at the time.

[guitarhack]

Definitely hearing The Beatles on the radio for the first time. Their sound just burst from speaker and blew me away!

[Monkus]

James Taylor's Shower the People and Copperline. I wanted to play that. Whatever he did with the guitar to make that sound. Reaffirmation came with Queensryche's Silent Lucidity.

[syo]

When I was about 9, I heard Jimi doing Foxy Lady in a head shop somewhere in Montana (recording that is). Blew me away. For a couple years after that, whenever I got my hands on a guitar I tried my best to try to play some of it. About 20 years ago, when I finally got my first guitar, it was all Pete and The Who. Starting with "A Quick One" (from the Dang, Dang, Cello, Cello part), then on to "I'm a boy", "Won't Get Fooled Again" etc., etc. Sometimes windmills included...:whatever:

[Duffy]

At the beginning of my teens I was turned on by the emergence of the surf sound bands and the "Beach Boys" etc, those bands being tied in popularity contests on local radio stations with Elvis until they eventually overwhelmed the Elvis sound with their own developing sounds. Around that same time I got into the "Spencer Davis Group" including, of course the young Steve Winwood. I also was into bands like "Sam and Dave". These sounds had soul and a high level of musicality and distinctiveness.

Then I remember watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan and of course thought they were real good; but so was the Spencer Davis Group, the Beach Boys, Sam and Dave and a lot of others. But the Beatles intensively evolved from, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to a lot of other highly enjoyable music. The "Stones" quickly followed with their own rock and roll and blues rock: "Satisfaction", "RubyTuesday", etc., really made an impression on me with their special sound. Of course Chuck Berry, Little Richard, and others were already rocking the airwaves with a modern type of music. This type of music was a far cry from the "Ray Charles" type music my parents were grooving on - or rather, listening to.

Of course one monumental turning point happened when Bob Dylan hit the big time. His music evolved seemingly symbiotically with the times and lent a type of intellectuality to rock and roll that gave it a way greater depth of meaning, especially in the lyrics and overall vibe. Dylan changed music, people, and the world.

A lot of other turning points occurred when I first heard the first album by "Elton John". That had a form of musicality that no other music of the time had and it blended in real well with the compounds of the day. Hendrix was rocking the house and we were dancing in night clubs to songs like "Purple Haze".

I got turned on to modern blues or blues rock, whatever you want to call it by, "The Life Adventures of Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield" and I have these CD's today and listen to those classic songs like, "Dear Mr. Fantasy", ". . . Feeling Groovy (59th Street Bridge Song)", "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong", and "Together 'Til the End of Time", not to leave out the great improvization of, "The Weight". As far as I was concerned Blues couldn't get much better than that.

Then another turning point came with the cool new sounds of Southern Rock as delivered directly to NYC by the Allman Brothers with, "Live at the Fillmore East", a really cool old classic theater. Blues, rock, and jazz from a bunch of white hippies and at least one black dude from WAY Down South, integrated and rocking the house, at a time when predjudice was riding high Down South and blacks were still very segregated. You knew the Allman Brothers were a new phenomenon from the South that was probably a sign of the future - you know, forget all that predjudice BS and let's just change the world, no looking back. The rest of the Southern Rock bands followed in their wake. Many to great success, even to this day.

Of course Led Zepellin totally signified a turning point with their heavy metal sound and ripping drum lines.

Santana and Crosby, Stills, and Nash broke thru at Woodstock and music would never be the same.

These were some of the main turning points in my personal appreciation of music.



Today I am getting, somewhat retrospectively, into a lot of electric blues as purveyed by such souls as Albert Collins, Albert King, Buddy Guy, Edgar Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Van Morrison, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Tom Waits, and the various endeavors of Eric Clapton and his friends.

So in the seeming vacumn of emerging great musicality I have been getting into the music of the blues rock tradition, history, and present day incarnation.

All of these things turned me on to playing drums and guitar. It is with awe that I look back across time at these great musicians and think about the effects they have had on my musical development.

So my turning point in music was not a single point in space and time like dropping a*** and listening to the Grateful Dead or going to one of their concerts, but it was a combination of all those things and the things mentioned above. It is like looking back into the depths of a kalidascopic space/time vortex of sights and sounds that stretches all the way back from where I am to unrememberable and incomprehensible places and times. Sometimes when I sit down and play and just let myself go I wonder where some of these sounds come from: my heart, my soul? Certainly not of my own creation.

[sunvalleylaw]

I may be having a turning point in the last year or two. I am finding less and less that is offered widely commercially to like. I am turning more and more to stuff I find on places like Austin City Limits, and that you don't generally here on the radio. Wilco, The Decemberists (though they are getting some air play), stuff like that. Other than sort of enjoying the latest stuff from Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters, it is hard to find newer stuff I enjoy. So "indie" seems to be the way I am heading.