5 Albums that shaped you

[sunvalleylaw]

Over on facebook, folks are picking 5 albums that shaped you and I thought it might be fun to do here. I added in the comments 3 more I wanted to fit in the 5. So here are the 5 I listed, and the 3 runners up. Please list your five and up to 3 runners up (no more, or it gets to be just an endless favorites list).

1. Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Elton John
2. Boston - Boston
3. 1962-1966 (red album) - Beatles
4. U2- Under a Blood Red Sky, Live
5. Clash - Combat Rock.

___Runners up

Dark Side of the Moon - Pink Floyd
VanHalen, VanHalen
Gratitude - Earth, Wind & Fire


This is not a favorite albums list. I tried to pick ones that impacted my life in some way. These are the ones I listened to most and/or changed my directions in musical taste in some way. I could list way more, but then the point of the exercise is lost. So what say you guys?



EDIT: I am also going to add that I went back on Facebook and changed my list, swapping in Gratitude by EWF and bumping Combat Rock. Only because I am trying to answer really honestly, and though Combat Rock did get me into punk (that is why I picked it and not London Calling, which I now like better than Combat Rock), and I have listened to like music ever since, EWF was more of a shaping influence in my earlier years.

[tunghaichuan***]

Since I did three of the "5 Albums that Shaped Me" lists on Facebook, I'll do a compilation with comentary.

Okay, here are mine:

1. Transmutation (Mutatis Mutandis) by Praxis; the first album I heard Buckethead play.

2. El Rayo-X by David Lindley. Introduced me to David Lindley

3. Vol. 4 by Black Sabbath. I used to listen to this for hours when I was a jaded teen metal head.

4. Lyle Lovett and His Large Band by Lyle Lovett. Made country music "acceptable" for me.

5. The Wall by Pink Floyd. David Gilmour made me want to play guitar.

Runners up:

1. Nevermind by Nirvana (killed hair metal/shred gutar dead which, at the time, was a good thing)

2. Guitar Town by Steve Earle (Further indoctrination into C&W)

3. Born Again by Black Sabbath. Yet another of my jaded teen era guilty pleasures. I'd put this cassette on and skip rope to build up my endurance for wrestling when I was in high school.

tung

[Spudman***]

Beatles - Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
Yes - Fragile
Deep Purple - Who Do We Think We Are
Robin Trower - Bridge Of Sighs
Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

I think that's right

[piebaldpython***]

Hmmmmmm......geez.......are we different or what??? These albums shaped my musical taste to the guitar more than anything else
In no particular order:

SRV debut album......Just brilliant....The Renaissance after The Dark Ages as it were.

ABB---Eat a Peach.....First there's Duane slidin'; then the twin lead guitars (side by side) churning it all up; without ABB to spur it on, would there have ever been Southern rock as we know it?

SANTANA debut album......the intro to the genius that is Carlos Santana

George Thorogood--Move It On Over-----proved that the debut was no fluke and showcased that his blues/rock playing could work just as well on country-ish tunes.

C,S,N & Y-----DEJA VU/4 WAY STREET-----yeah, I know it's TWO albums but taken as a combined unit it displayed the awesome and varied talents of Stephen Stills as an outstanding guitarist. Scorching yet creamy smooth electric leads and quite dazzling on acoustic too.

[R_of_G]

1. Leave Home by The Ramones - I practically played this one into the ground when I was in high school. There was a long stretch during one of my high school years where this album (and the other three first Ramones albums) were the only things I listened to.

2. Abbey Road by The Beatles - The first Beatles album I ever got and a record I played endlessly. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was George Harrison.

3. Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. - I didn't really like or understand jazz when I was a teenager but for some reason I always liked this record. I think it was hard for me to get into other jazz at the time because it didn't sound like that.

4. Moving Pictures by Rush. - This was the first album I ever bought with my own money when I got my own stereo. I couldn't get enough of it. I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I still think it's a pretty damn good album.

5. American Beauty by The Grateful Dead - This was my intro to the Dead. There isn't really a way to accurately describe how much things changed for me after that. I have never looked at music the same way again.

SVL got to give a few honorable mentions so I will give but one. My first exposure to Tom Waits was Rain Dogs. It was not only the first time I heard Waits but the first time I heard Marc Ribot. Nothing's been the same since.

[sunvalleylaw]

Hmmmmmm......geez.......are we different or what???

Absolutely! I have more extensive lists around here somewhere that track the development of my taste or favorites list, but to boil it down to what albums (not bands, not songs, albums) shaped me, these rose to the top. Obviously when you were raised makes a big difference, and now that I have had many more years to discover more, I like a broader spectrum, and love all those you posted too. That is why the question is interesting to me, if one sticks strictly to the question.

[sunvalleylaw]

R_of_G, I really wanted to include a jazz album, since I do love jazz, and have a long time. But I couldn't truly find one jazz album that was a huge influence in shaping me. At least in my earlier life. I love that Coltrane album though. Ditto the Ramones, I would love to have listed them, but The Clash, Combat rock brought me to the Ramones, and not the other way around.

Tung, "Nevermind" was a big influence in my adult years. I was in my late 20's when it came out, and being a Tacoman, I have always related to it.

[Tone2TheBone]

1. Beatles: Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band
2. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Texas Flood
3. Jimi Hendrix - Axis Bold As Love
4. Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
5. America - Greatest Hits

[tunghaichuan***]

R-of_G, I really wanted to include a jazz album, since I do love jazz, and have a long time. But I couldn't truly find one jazz album that was a huge influence in shaping me. At least in my earlier life. I love that Coltrane album though. Ditto the Ramones, I would love to have listed them, but The Clash, Combat rock brought me to the Ramones, and not the other way around.

I'm not a big fan of jazz, but if I had to pick one or two, I'd have to say either Guitar by Sonny Sharrock or Ask the Ages by Pharaoh Sanders and Sonny Sharrock.

Tung, "Nevermind" was a big influence in my adult years. I was in my late 20's when it came out, and being a Tacoman, I have always related to it.

For me, there was something liberating about "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Not the pinnacle of guitar playing, but there was something raw and emotional about it: something honest.

I was in my late 20s as well when it came out as well. It reminds me of a very happy period in my life: I had just met my future wife to be, I was in grad school, finally learning something that was interesting to me. I had just quit my crappy college job and all I had to do was go to class, study and turn in papers. Good times.

tung

[sunvalleylaw]

Yeah, the "Nevermind" through "Vs." years were good for me too. I had finished law school, met my wife to be, had disposable income and no real responsibility. Fun times!

[msteeln]

#1 - Electric Ladyland's, 1983..., this was my first heavy trip 'without any outside help', into what music was all about.

#2 - The Doors - Starts off with the best album opener of all time, Break On Through, and doesn't let up 'until The End'. My top band for a year+ during my 'wonder years', until Jimi.

#3 - Led Zeppelin II - After hearing Whole Lotta Love on the radio, it was obvious something new was afoot.

#4 - Black Sabbath, the group, the album, the song.

#5 - Tie, between the first Dust, and Captain Beyond LPs, and Ted Nugent's - Call Of The Wild. All were favorites to blow minds of those yet to know.

Runner's up - Jimi's Woodstock masterpiece, The Star Spangled Banner, or BOG's Machine Gun.

[just strum]

I'm still being shaped, but here goes (not in any particular order)

The Beatles early releases all played a role, but the one with a real kick

1) Rubber Soul - The Beatles
2) Exile on Main Street - The Rolling Stones
3) My Aim is True - Elvis Costello
4) London Calling - The Clash
5) From The Cradle - Eric Clapton

Too many runner-ups to mention.

[Geraint Jones]

Harvest - Neil Young
The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths
Surfa Rosa -The Pixies
Let it Bleed- The Stones
Wish You Were Here - The Floyd...man

[Suhnton]

I wish I had a cooler list, but these albums are "turning points" for me:

1) Troops Of Tomorrow - The Exploited. This was the first punk album I bought (I missed the first wave). IIRC I was 12 years old.

2) Holy Diver - Dio. The first "HM" album I bought. It took a while to get into it, but once I did it never left the cassette deck.

3) Sketches Of Spain - Miles Davis. I'd been turned on to "jazz" by a friend, and although I wasn't the biggest fan of the genre, kept buying stuff from noisy ol' Ornette Coleman to muzak-ey Lyle Mays. In reality it's a tie between Kind of Blue, Sketches of Spain and Pat Metheny's Still Life Talking, but S.O.S is the album I bought twice.

4) Apocalypse 91 - Public Enemy. The first rap album I bought. I'm pretty sure PE was the catalyst for me getting into drum'n'bass in my 20's.

5) Ágætis byrjun - Sigur Ros. As a genre, "post-rock" is pretty generic sounding stuff, but this band and Mogwai seem to stand out from the crowd.

[street music]

Abbey Road-The Beatles
Scarecrow-John Mellencamp
Highway Star- Deep Purple
House of The Rising Sun- The Animals
One -Three Dog Night

Their not in order but it gives you an idea of my warped mind.

[Algonquin]

Not sure how to interpret the word 'Shaped’, whether it's emotionally, socially, or musically... but all of these albums had some type of influence on me.

Outlandos d'Amour - The Police
Frantic City - Teenage Head
London Calling - The Clash
Fully Completely - The Tragically Hip
Scarecrow - John Mellencamp

[WackyT]

Here are the albums I played the most growing up.

1) Aerosmith (1st album) BAY STATE ROCKERS RULE!
2) Led Zeppelin II
3) Toto (1st album)
4) Beatles: White Album
5) Pink Floyd: Dark Side Of The Moon

Runners Up:
1) Rush: 2112
2) Boston (1st album)
3) Moody Blues: Days Of The Future Past

[bigoldron]

I guess I'd have to say these 5 did it for me:

(pronounced leh-nerd skin-nerd) – Lynyrd Skynyrd
Bridge of Sighs – Robin Trower
The Captain and Me – The Doobie Brothers
Fandango – ZZ Top
Casting Crowns - Casting Crowns

There were countless others. Many times, it was a single song by an artist that turned me in the direction I took. I like Led Zeppelin (OK, who doesn't?), but "The Immigrant Song" was the first Zep song I ever heard and one of the earliest "rock" songs I ever heard and I wore out a record playing that one over and over. I didn't start collecting albums until late high school. Before then it was 45's and compilation albums.

[R_of_G]

I'm not a big fan of jazz, but if I had to pick one or two, I'd have to say either Guitar by Sonny Sharrock or Ask the Ages by Pharaoh Sanders and Sonny Sharrock.

Those are both phenomenal albums and I listen to both quite a lot. Pretty much all of Sonny Sharrock's work has had a tremendous effect on me, but keeping in line with SVL's original post, I'm not sure I'd have ever listened to Sonny's stuff or Pharoah Sanders or a lot of other people I listen to all the time now had it not been for Kind of Blue. It's not my favorite jazz album, or even my favorite Miles album, but without it, it's possible I'd never have listened to others. It opened the door for me. If we do another "change your av" month, I'll do my favorite jazz albums.