Twelve Albums That Changed Your Life

[Moonlit Dreamer]

Some wonderful lists here! :)

 

There is no way I could place these in order according to favorites because I love all of these albums. I’m not going to go into detail, but here are the albums that are most important to me:

 

01. Rush: Hold Your Fire

02. Rush: Signals

03. Rush: Roll The Bones

04. Genesis: Foxtrot

05. Genesis: Nursery Cryme

06. Yes: The Ladder

07. Yes: The Yes Album

08. Yes: Time And A Word

09. Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways

10. Steven Wilson: The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

11. Pink Floyd: The Division Bell

12. Camel: Moonmadness

[Rutlefan]

keep trying to write a list and failing

 

Just as I'd expect from The Mayor of Pithyton ;) .

 

As the man says, you can do it if you really want (but you must try, try and try, try and try; you'll succeed at last. Hmm hmm mmm mm.)

Edited March 20, 2014 by Rutlefan

[Tinwoodsman]

I cannot nail the list down either, but will keep on trying ... mayor of what?

[Rutlefan]

Play on XTC's Mayor of Simpleton, as in he tends to be pithy, concise, to the point, etc. I, on the other hand, have been spared that malady (to the chagrin of family and friends).

[Principled Man]

Wonderfulness (Bill Cosby)

Class Clown (George Carlin)

They Only Come Out At Night (The Edgar Winter Group)

KISS: Alive!

Frampton Comes Alive!

2112

All The World's A Stage

Led Zeppelin IV

Paranoid

Dark Side Of The Moon

Quadrophenia

Van Halen

 

Child of the 60's, man-child of the 70's.......my audio-formative years seem like a museum now..... :D

 

:) :) :)

[Rutlefan]

Wonderfulness (Bill Cosby)

Class Clown (George Carlin)

They Only Come Out At Night (The Edgar Winter Group)

KISS: Alive!

Frampton Comes Alive!

2112

All The World's A Stage

Led Zeppelin IV

Paranoid

Dark Side Of The Moon

Quadrophenia

Van Halen

 

Child of the 60's, man-child of the 70's.......my audio-formative years seem like a museum now..... :D

 

:) :) :)

 

Good list, mine could have been similar. I quoted George Carlin just last night: "If a man says something in the forest, and there's not a woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?"

[g under p]

Here's my first six....

 

1. Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxary....Disposable Heroes Of Hypocrisy I first saw them when they were one of the opening acts for U2 on the Zooropa Tour. drank too much to notice anything special about them. I was hooked one night when watching MTV and the song Language Of Violence came on I was mesmerized by the lyrics. I'm not into rap that much at all but I must say I proudly played and wore that album out ever since and Micheal And I have become good friends since that 1992 chance MTV findings.

 

2. Stay Human....Michael Franti & Spearhead...years later he came out with this innovative album. After DHOH he gave up rapping for singing writing lyrics. His first album after DHOH Home I hated it and wanted more rap. Which led to SH which is probably his best or second best album to Yell Fire. Toured with him a couple times in Europe and we had the best time. THIS was the album that got me into politics once again.

 

3. War....U2 Even though I was a fan from the Boy album, War was the one that really got me hooked. Also that performance at the US Festival was unbelievable and time in the middle of the Cali heat you can get 500,000 fans attention you are a band to be reckoned with and they STILL are today.

 

4. Grace Under Pressure....RUSH Big fan before this album but they captured my attention live on tour with this album. I was amazed that they could make such good noise from only 3 people. The song Red Sector A was the one I loved in particular because after what they sang about takes some grace to handle that pressure. I fashioned my life handling life's uneasy pressure moments with grace. I named my daughter Grace passed down from my mother,

 

5. Master of Puppets...Metallica first heard it in a vynil record store at College Park MD 1978. iI asked the attendant who is that with great enthusiasm and he looked at me annoyed and said Metallica. Oh I thought that's the band all these kids keep wearing around town. I bought the vynil took it home and literally wore it out then went backwards to get earlier releases. This album got me into Heavy Metal.

 

6. Not Of This Earth...Joe Satriani I was in Circuit City looking for speakers 1987 I think. The walls started shaking from inside a sound room I went in and groove from the song Hordes Of Locusts was mesmerizing. The volume was on 7 I turned to 10 wishing it was 11 and the whole place began to shake and rock. Bought the speakers, next bought it on vynil and I was hooked on JS and instrumental rock ever since. Luckily I got to meet years later JS after a 9:30 Club show in DC, a really cool nice guy that gave me an autographed poster.

[Blue J]

01. Rush: Hold Your Fire

 

Excellent! Hold Your Fire is on my list, also. I love to see that that album is so important to somebody else, too.

[TFEman]

-5150

-90125

-AC/DC Live: Collector's Edition

-Hemispheres

-Moving Pictures

-Presto

-Clockwork Angels

-The Division Bell

 

That's all for now.

[Moonlit Dreamer]

01. Rush: Hold Your Fire

 

Excellent! Hold Your Fire is on my list, also. I love to see that that album is so important to somebody else, too.

That album has gotten me through so much; I wish it wasn’t so heavily criticized. Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, and Presto are way underrated too, IMO. I guess if you’re more into Rush’s first eight albums you aren’t necessarily going to be into that type of sound, which is understandable. Everyone has their own musical preferences. I love all of their albums, but there are certain albums I’m more emotionally attached to.

[Moonlit Dreamer]

01. Rush: Hold Your Fire

 

Excellent! Hold Your Fire is on my list, also. I love to see that that album is so important to somebody else, too.

That album has gotten me through so much; I wish it wasn’t so heavily criticized. Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, and Presto are way underrated too, IMO. I guess if you’re more into Rush’s first eight albums you aren’t necessarily going to be into that type of sound, which is understandable. Everyone has their own musical preferences. I love all of their albums, but there are certain albums I’m more emotionally attached to.

I don't believe I've ever used the word "album" so many times at once.

[Jaminbenb]

Ok, sit back and pull up a glass of wine....this is long! Only 12 was a tough thing...

 

12 albums that changed my life:

 

The Monkee’s, Headquarters. Technically, the SHOW changed my life in as much as it pushed me into playing drums…watching Mickey Dolenz was a hoot, and for some reason, I liked wearing Mike Nesmith’s stocking cap…so I was hooked on music at an early age. The album was just pretty much my first album that was NOT technically a kids album, since the Monkee’s were attempting to be a legitimate band, and this album was the first that they didn’t rely upon studio musicians to play everything. The next album came a few years later…in between the time of the Monkee’s album and the next one, I listened to a LOT of music, but nothing really changed my life in terms of music, although the bands Simon and Garfunkel, The Beatles, and the Beach Boys really pushed me into different directions musically, and with the diversity of those three bands at this time period, coupled with the big band stuff my father listened to, my musical knowledge grew, and other guys like Harry Chapin, and Cat Stevens came into play, and to this day, I like the acoustic/singer songwriter kind of music!

 

 

Jesus Christ Superstar, Original Soundtrack.. At about this time, I was going to Catholic school, and participating in the school choirs, musical programs, and a church boy’s choir. The fact that some of the people were playing some of this music at rehearsals, got me interested in some of the music, and subsequently was a album that my brother owned, that I stole occasionally. The reason this album “changed my life” is that it got me interested in musical theater, and to this day, my wife and I attend shows up in New York, and at local theaters that are on tour. There are some that I have seen several times, and some that I have walked out of, but musical’s, and theater are definitely a part of my life, and I have this album to thank for starting me in that direction of diverse music.

 

 

Queen, A Night at the Opera. My brother also owned this album, he received it as a gift from a friend. I recall after he got it, hearing him play it and going “OH MY GOD!” At that time Bohemian Rhapsody came on the radio with a vengeance, and broke barriers as a song that no one knew how to edit down to three minutes, so they just let it fly! The fact that I knew my brother had this album, and the fact that I knew what was on it, caused me to steal it from his room when he wasn’t home, and play that track…well as one thing lead to another, I decided that I’d give the rest a listen, and found out that this album is a freaking masterpiece! My brother wasn’t a HUGE fan of it, but did give it the occasional spin, and as he’d come to find out, the album was wearing…and he wanted to know why…so for my next birthday, I got my OWN copy!

 

 

Rush All the World’s a Stage. THIS is the album that pushed me over the edge, musically! When I first heard Working Man, into the drum solo, my life was changed forever, and as a drummer, I knew which direction I personally wanted to head into. Rush is a band that I go see as often as I can, and will as long as I can, and Neil Peart is just one of those guys that makes you smile as a drummer, while shaking your head going “how did he do that?” This music put me into such a different direction, I don’t know where’d I’d be musically without it.

 

 

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Brain Salad Surgery. Getting into Rush pushed me into a different direction musically, at about this time, I started hearing different other bands, and someone played a snippet of Karn Evil 9 for me, and I fell in love with Carl Palmer’s drumming as well. At about this time in my life, I was getting into marching percussion, and this album proved to me that you needed lessons to become a better drummer since Carl used rudiments and not just grooves when he played… Also, Keith Emerson put keyboards at the forefront in my musical palate..I had to have more so logically…

 

 

Yes, Yessongs. I was also jamming with a few friends, and one of them had this album playing in his car when we went to grab a bite to eat after practicing in my basement. Hearing what Keith Emerson could do on keyboards, definitely piqued my curiosity and Rick Wakeman came into the picture. So the “progressive rock” sound was definitely stuck into my palate of music, and the more I could find, the better…The other thing this album introduced me to, was Bill Bruford. Bill didn’t play on ALL of the record, but he played on a few tracks, and the ones that stuck out to me happened to have him on them, but Alan White also stood out. Two great drummers on one awesome album set!

 

 

Frank Zappa, Joe’s Garage. This time frame also introduced me to Frank Zappa. I was at a party, and a friend brought the album over, and I was immediately hooked on the craziness of it all, but more so Vinnie Colaiuta! Sticking with the drummer theme, Vinnie just FLOORED me with his polyrhythmic playing! The first part of the album (Vol.1) was amazing, but the second part (Vol.2 & 3) put it out of the park! Keep it Greasy was just something to behold, and showed me that some drummers are just super human!

 

 

Pink Floyd, The Wall. I already had some experience with Floyd, I’ve heard Dark Side of the Moon, and Wish You Were Here several times, liked them and put them into a category of good music to listen to when relaxing, chilling out, what have you. When The Wall came out, I was just totally intrigued! I heard it at a friend’s house, and endured Another Brick in the Wall Part II on the radio constantly, but that wasn’t good enough, so I had my mother order the album set for me from Columbia (remember them) and I think this was the first album that I ever just wore out! I also had it on cassette, another album, and now CD which doesn’t wear out! The fact that I was finally able to see it live when Roger Waters toured with it was one of those “I can die now” moments! Just an album that TOTALLY changed my life!

 

 

ELO, A New World Record. Another album I just can’t seem to live without. One year at Christmas, my mother went through my album collection, and tried to fill in some blanks for a few bands that she knew I liked, so she went into my room while I was at school with her Columbia House catalog, and try to find albums by bands I apparently liked, and fill in holes in my collection… God bless her, she inadvertently thought ELO was ELP, and immediately ordered a few ELO albums. When I opened up my Christmas presents, I found Ole, ELO, and New World Record. Not being one to shy away from something, I decided to play them. So I dropped the needle on New World Record, and immediately just fell in love! That’s just one of those albums I like to reserve for a trip, so I can listen to the whole thing at one pop. Great music with a symphonic twist!

 

 

Sting, The Soul Cages. I discovered Sting’s solo music purely by accident. I was on a date, and we were trying to find a movie to go see, so when we went to a theater and saw that Sting was in the movie, and the both of us liking the Police, we decided to just chance it. Little did we know it was Bring on the Night, the story of putting his first solo band together after the Police, and their first live show…I fell in love with the music, but my life changed two albums later when Soul Cages came out. THAT was one of those albums that you just can’t get enough of, and I continually played it. Still just one of those albums that puts me in a better mood after listening to it!

 

 

Steely Dan, Aja. In high school, I played in the jazz band. The first year I played, I was stuck with an upperclassmen drummer, who pretty much took the tunes he wanted, and stuck me with anything he didn’t want to play. Peg, was one of those tunes, neither one of us really knowing this band or album (he was in 12^th grade, I was in 10^th) So since he didn’t want it, I got it. Little did he know it was a cool tune, and he ended up wanting it, but he band director said “no I like the way he’s playing it, and it’s about time you let him play something other than a slow one” So of course, I went out and got the album in order to get more “pointers” into playing this tune, and fell in love with the rest of the album.

 

Dream Theater, Falling Into Infinity. I got into Dream Theater because someone mentioned them in one of the old Spirit of Rush “Fanzines” (I think it was Neil Elliot, but can’t find the article off hand) He mentioned that this new band reminded him of older Rush, and was just off the wall intense! So I searched high and low looking for this CD, and finally found it. It wasn’t the “end all” to old Rush like he stated, but it was pretty damn good! The album was “When Dream and Day Unite” it was a good album, and as their subsequent albums came out, I was interested. When Falling Into Infinity came out, I was immediately amazed! Just one of those albums that stayed in my CD player more than one spin! Of all the DT albums I’ve owned (and that’s all of them) this one will always be my favorite! I think after this album, the band’s whole demeanor changed, and they went into a “notes for the sake of notes” kind of posture, and they never regained the chemistry this album had. This also pushed me into other bands like Spock’s Beard, and Mike Portnoy’s other band Transatlantic!

 

 

Honorable mentions: Simon and Garfunkel, the Concert in Central Park. Elton John, Here and There. Kansas, Point of Know Return. King Crimson, Red. And other albums by some of the same bands mentioned above...There are just way too many albums that put me over the top!

[Presto-digitation]

In no particular order:

 

Kiss – Rock And Roll Over: Certainly not a revelatory experience of an album unto itself. In fact it’s pretty much a stark, meat-and-potatoes Kiss album through and through, but it did two important things for me. One, while I had already discovered Kiss visually and heard Beth (in my first grade music class, no less), it was the first Kiss album I owned. I begged my mother to order ANY Kiss album for me from Columbia House (only a penny!) and eventually she did. It felt like my own private world. My record, my interest. It was personalized immediately. Beyond that it was the first time I really noticed the guitar specifically, and I’m referring mostly to the solo in Calling Dr. Love, which at the time was just this cool sonic thing I couldn’t put into words. That initial impression is why 40 or so years later an Ace Frehley solo still brings a smile to my face, because my love of guitars, types of guitars, and tonality began here. This is a completely sentimental choice, but it was so formative that I could never honestly avoid mentioning it.

 

Van Halen – Self-titled: So my buddy played me Running With The Devil over the phone around 1981 or so and, of course, it was like nothing…ever. Period. It was so off my beaten track at the time it was almost a little scary. I was unfamiliar with the punk scene and this brand of rock and roll was really hectic and frantic and adrenaline-infused and almost despite my complete unfamiliarity, I dug it right away. When I see that scene in Back To The Future where Marty puts the headphones on his pop and plays him “VAN HALEN” that’s sort of what it was like….still. And of course nothing was really ever musically the same for me. Guitar playing was just redefined forever in my head. Vocally too. I was used to Kiss singing songs and here is Roth rapping and scatting and crooning and howling. Wouldn’t experience anything quite like this until hearing GNR for the first time.

 

Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast: While it wouldn’t be my first purchase of theirs, it was my first experience. Yes, the shit scared me a bit. Just creepy cool, playing with images and “Satanic” stuff (hey, I’m a kid) in a cool way. Wasn’t familiar with Thin Lizzy so I had no frame of reference for the dual leads, nor Deep Purple for that obvious influence. Bruce’s voice was just powerful…almost operatic at times, not to mention the lyrics told stories, which was way different than the f**k me/suck me Kiss and Van Halen bent. A very visual band, from their songs to their album covers. If ever there was a band made for a 12-13 year old it was Iron Maiden. (Sidebar: Maiden Japan would prove to be my first actual purchase).

 

Guns N Roses – Appetite For Destruction: I was visiting my sister and her live-in boyfriend, who somehow discovered GNR in Arkansas not long after their album was released (and keep in mind this album had a very slow year-long build to it, so to be on an Arkansans radar so soon was pretty surprising, looking back)….and he said you have to hear this. In 1987 this album was a complete kick in the dick. It reminded me of the dirtier sides of Van Halen fused with 70s Aerosmith (including all of the substance abuse issues), which for 1987 was pretty amazing given the climate. Thrash bands were obviously around and kicking it hard, but for rock bands, most seemed to be trying to survive in the hairspray world of the mid-80s and MTV, including many of the afore-mentioned 70s hard rock bands. GNR was a throwback, both in attitude and in sound. I distinctly remember the Les Paul tonality front and center….current riffing, yet still very retro. So yeah, one for the ages. A one-and-done band or not, this was a landmark release at a critical time…and one listen always brings me back.

 

Pink Floyd – The Wall: My all-time favorite album was a slow and long burn and culmination. If you were alive and at least a pre-teenager in 1979-1980, you no doubt heard Another Brick In The Wall Pt. 2 on the radio and what a different kind of radio smash it was. Even my mother bought The Wall, God help humanity. I’m not sure she bought into the totality of it all, but eventually I sure did. Talk about a complete immersive musical and visceral experience. Yes, this album is a bit divisive among fans (No, Animals is better…! No, Dark Side…! No, it’s Meddle..!!), but nothing has resonated on a full album experience basis like THE WALL, which is equal parts lovely and maddening, calming and frantic, fragile and destructive….stable and neurotic. It’s a modern masterpiece like nothing before it or since.

 

Ozzy Osbourne – Blizzard Of Ozz: Long before Ozzy ruined his mystique with his television show, he was indeed the Prince of Darkness. I had no idea who Ozzy was. Had heard of Sabbath, but never made the connection between them (inexplicable as that seems). Ozzy was my very first real venture outside Kiss that really spoke to me. The music was heavy, the guitar playing was off-the-charts (to be topped in style only by EVH to follow), and the songs were killer. Mr. Crowley was so cool with the organ it touched that part of me that already loved and was very into horror films, as did the image he projected.

 

Rush – Moving Pictures: Before I was even a fan of theirs I long-since owned Moving Pictures and considered it one of the best albums by anyone, ever…and still do. Why and how I never pursued them more at the time I don’t know. I subsequently bought Grace Under Pressure and then Presto…and really loved both, so my avoidance of them is pretty inexplicable. Moving Pictures remains one of the all-time great prog rock albums, unique in tonality, style, vocal delivery….general musicality. They were the first full BAND where I thought, wow, it’s like an entire band full of Eddie Van Halens so to speak, in terms of their talents per position. It’s not just one virtuoso, but three…! Rush remains the complete package. I’m so grateful to have finally gotten on board and gotten the full experience, eventually…but as delayed as it may have been (2006 to be honest), it all started here. And it still does. If I listed the five greatest albums of all time, Moving Pictures would be somewhere in that top five.

 

The Stars On 45: So…..huh? I know. My first experience with the music of The Beatles was here when, in 1982, this group of musicians did a full album medley of Beatles songs, featuring 30 seconds of this cut, 40 seconds of that, etc. While I’m certain I’d heard Beatles music already, it was in these digestible bits that I became enamored with the deceptive sense of simplicity these songs offered. They were melodies that sounded as if they could never be another way, almost universally and subliminally CORRECT…as if proven mathematically. That’s what I think of the Beatles songs (for the most part)….that these were pop songs so well written that they sounded familiar, logical, and natural on first listen, your first listen seeming like your tenth without knowing why. So this set me on my path towards my own discovery of The Beatles, which forever shaped how I viewed melody and harmony and song construction. I’d been exposed to these things, but naturally The Beatles music made me take that idea, shake it around a while, and re-examine it. The older I get the more brilliant I think it is. There are no shortage of ad nauseam discussions about The Beatles and I don’t intend for this to be another except that true greatness is never overstated and never dulls. The Beatles are as close to this as anything.

 

Led Zeppelin - IV: Got this from a cousin of mine around 1980 or so. In fact, looking back Bonham may have just died around the time I got this. Anyhow, I’d never heard of Zep (I was 10 pushing 11) or at least was not aware that I had….and so when receiving this cryptic fourth album with no title, no band name…and only the lyrics to Stairway To Heaven inside, it was intriguing. At first the only song I ever listened to was Stairway. It was a discovery moment and one my own son had many years later when he discovered the album and, with no prompting from me, found himself lost in the same experience. It took me a while to come around on the rest, but once I did Zeppelin became one of my favorite bands (still love Battle Of Evermore so much) of all time and this one of the all-time great rock albums.

 

Tori Amos - Under The Pink: This album struck me at a very susceptible time in my life when I was looking for MORE than just what I usually liked and listened to. I had heard Silent All These Years and a few other songs and had, in fact, picked up Little Earthquakes. But just after I did, her then new and second album dropped and it became a staple in my car and on my headphones at home. I was at the university at the time, so it became an integral part of my collegiate experience. This led to a love affair with her music and to this day no other artist touches me the way she does, emotionally speaking. There are few artists whose new material provokes more curiosity and interest than a new Tori Amos album. They’re not all grand slams, but she often just levels me with a handful of amazing songs each time that take me back to the first time I felt that way. Nothing makes me feel the way a great Tori Amos song makes me feel. It’s a complete, immersive, and unique experience.

[bluefox4000]

i posted here but i never actually listed.

 

1. Rubber Soul-The Beatles

2. The White Album-The Beatles

3. Zappa in New York

4. Trout Mask Replica-Captain Beefheart

5. Controversy-Prince

6. Permanent Waves-Rush

7. Ram-Paul Mccartney

8. Aja-Steely Dan

9. A Night at the Opera-Queen

10. Scenes from a Memory-Dream Theater

11. Small Change-Tom Waits

12. Black Sabbath

 

There's a lor more but.......that's 12

 

Mick