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What Records/CDs Had a Profound Effect on You?


al

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Warning. Participation in this little questionnaire could potentially date you. :D

 

I'd be interested to know what records/cds, when you first heard them, stopped you in your tracks and made you say, "Wow, what is this?" And, got you thinking about music in a different way.

 

I have several that I call "turning point records", but if I could narrow it down to just one, it would be War by U2.

 

It was like riding along on a smooth mulit-lane highway, and then finding oneself on a cowpath in a magic forest--Or something like that. :D

 

Bye for now.

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Electric Ladyland and Bitches Brew. Both because of the history of what was happening in the studio for them. So many techniques were invented during these two records and they really opened my eyes to creativity in the studio beyond merely the performance.
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...chronologically...I can't pick just one!

 

Elvis Presley - 50 Golden hits (not sure about the title...greatest hits collection in the 70's...dude was the first rock star)

John Williams - Star Wars Soundtrack (episode IV now but was just Star Wars then...my introduction to classical styling)

Kiss - Kiss Alive II (these guys made me want to play, Van Halen made me want to play well)

Pink Floyd - The Wall (my introduction to Floyd...I got into Darkside later)

Van Halen - Women and Children First (again, the introduction to the band)

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary of a Madman (can you tell I'm a guitarist?! :lol:)

The Police - Synchronicity (what The Edge is to others, Andy Summers is to me...love them both, though)

Run DMC - "King of Rock" (single) (first fave rap tune...kinda fuzzy on when it came out)

Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force (Malsteen and Vai set the bar in this era)

Nirvana - Nevermind (the punk Beatles)

NIN - The Downward Spiral (it was around this time that I started listening to production as well as songs...great for both)

 

There are a lot more that kicked me in the head but these have made me what I am today (for better or worse). 8)

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Great post dvgtr! You definitely put up some classics. I'm going to add..

 

- Van Halen - Fair Warning: I was blown away that Logic had a preset that even tried to emulate this guitar tone. One of the most elusive guitar tones in history.

 

- Sting - Nothing Like The Sun

- Parliament Funkadelic - The Clones of Dr. Funkenstein (in-credible.)

- Yngwie Malmsteen - Marching Out & Trilogy ( :wink: I Am A Viking. What? sickness.)

- Led Zep - Zeppelin 2

- Beatles - almost everything

- Kiss - Kiss Alive 2 (2nd vote from me, that record may be why I play music)

- NWA - Straight Outta Compton

- Ice Cube - Death Certificate

- Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation..

- Pat Metheny - ST (the one w/ Face Dances)

- Bob James - One

- Miles Davis - On The Corner

- Tom T. Hall

- Merle Haggard

 

o.k. I'll stop there :lol: Anybody that's playing music from the gut I like, no matter the genre.

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For me it's probably Dylan - John Wesley Harding. Awesome, awesome album with some of the most amazing lyrics. Check out The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest.

And yes, TOTO are heroes. Hold the line is amazing, for all the reasons mentioned. I would also say Africa, but I just can't help laughing at the lyrics... Oh, and have you seen that video!!!???

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Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

Pop Will Eat Itself - This is the day, this is the hour, this.. is this

U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky

Pink Floyd - The Wall

Dire Straits - Alchemy

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel (1983)

Rage Against The Machine - Rage Against The Machine

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique

Prodigy - The Fat of the Land

Faith No More - We Care a Lot

VAST - Visual Audio Sensory Theater

Nirvana - Nevermind

Radiohead - OK Computer

Tool - Aenima

New Model Army - Thunder & Consolation

 

... and currently on my CD player:

Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

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-Micheal Jackson, thriller. i was still a kid ok

 

-the Prodigy, experience , my introduction into electronic music

 

-Coldcut, let us play... has been the major shock in my life!!!

 

-DJ shadow, entroducing

 

-Aphex twin selected ambient works, on of those soundtracks of my life.

 

and of course...Come to daddy, yeah that was shocking

 

-Kruder & Dorfmeister the K&D sessions, i definetely stopped breathing there for a moment...This is the one for me

 

These definetely have been the major CD's in my life and I still listen to all of them.

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I was hesitant to put 'The Prodigy, Experience', or even 'Music for the jilted generation', but the truth is my first really big big shock was when I heard the single "Breathe with me". Still love their older stuff.

 

Michael Jackson - Thriller. I was a kid, and listening on a tiny radio. What a shock when I got the vinyl and discovered it was a male singing!!!! :wink:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The Beatles - The White Album

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon

The Stooges - Fun House

The Cure - Pornography

The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy

The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand

Radiohead - Amnesiac

Mercury Rev - Deserters Songs

The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

Fleetwood Mac - Rumors

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space

The Clash - London Calling

Bowie - Changes

 

And many more, actually.

 

These are the ones that I would be a different person if I had not heard.

 

Best, Marcel

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Pink Floyd- All

Radiohed- The Bends.

Simon and Garfunkel- my first tape as a child was a best of, later it was nearly everything they recorded.

Joe Jackson- Blaze of Glory, Jumpin' Jive, Stepping out

Leftfield- Leftism

Loyd Cole- Loyd Cole and the Commotions, best of 84-89.

 

But the most important album for me and most inspiring to play an instrument (Tenor Sax) was The Waterboys. Bought on a whim and not knowing anything about them other than what I saw on the cover. It was the best of the Waterboys, 81-90, Mike Scott plaing Mandolin on the front cover with Anthony Thistlethwaite on Saxophone.

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This is always harder after others have posted. Makes the list potentially much longer :lol: ...but for me:

 

Joy Division: Love Will Tear Us Apart! Possibly the greatest pop song ever!!! Made me realise that it is about communication, not technique!

 

Marvin Gaye: What's Goin' On.

 

Beatles: Everything...!

 

Pink Floyd: Again, everything, but especially the early albums.

 

Doors: Morrison Hotel!

 

NIN: Everything

 

And finally, my hero, Bob Marley:

 

The albums 'Catcha Fire' and 'Burnin' radicalised my thinking about music and life! ( I wish you were still here man!!! :cry: ) Also like Exodus !

 

Great link here if you want to read about Bob Marley's life and career:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley

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  • 2 weeks later...

&otThe recording that has affected me most is by Vladimir Horowitz, the inspired Russian Pianist.It is from his Album ;The Historic Return to Carnegie Hall.

It's a recording of Bach's Tocatta, Adagio, and Fugue in Cmajor... which was transcribed by Busoni for Piano. Mister Horowitz had taken a leave from touring for reasons of fatigue. A leave which lasted some ten years. He walks on stage to a standing ovation. Everyone is so glad he is back. Opening phrase... he makes a mistake, (which he refuses to edit out of the recording).

The music procedes to sheer mastery and another standing ovation.

The King is back. So cool.

I have broad eclectic musical taste but I regularly return to this recording specifically, and Horowitz generally, when I feel the need to contemplate how it is that someone can touch everything he/she does with magic and finesse.

Did I mention depth?

Still blown away.

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Public Enemy - Fear Of The Black Planet

Nirvana - In Utero

DJ Shadow - Entroducing

Portishead - Dummy

Hybrid - Wide Angle

BT - Movement in Still Life (UK and US editions)

BT- This Binary Universe

The Dandy Warhols - self titled

The Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales

Brian Jonestown Massacre - Tepid Peppermint

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - self titled

Deftones - Around the Fur

Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

Prefuse 73 -

Massive Attack - Mezzanine (HOW COME NOW ONE HAS POSTED THIS ONE ON HERE YET?!?!?!)

Bob Marley - Legend

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

Ani DiFranco - Joyful Girl EP

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  • 3 weeks later...
For me it's probably Dylan - John Wesley Harding.

AGREED!

John Wesley Harding is such a great album among so many great Dylan albums

(Blonde on Blonde/Planet Waves/Bringing It All Back Home etc.)

Levon Helm mentions those strange indian dudes posing on the cover of JWH with Bob in his book "This Wheel's On Fire".

 

Kenny Buttrey kills me - all those nashvillee cats- i though that Norbert Putnam was playing bass on JWH but it's Charlie mcCoy the harmonica guy(?)

Anyway any LP with those guys on it at around that time is worth checking out e.g. Moonshot or Quiet Places by Buffy Sainte Marie, Any Day Now by Joan Baez.

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The first Psycotrance CD in the ongoing series under Moonshine. Released in 94' this was psychedelic trance techno at it's early stages (before all the sub-genres and before synths came with "trance" presets... despite the technical limitation (compaired to todays standard) these guys were moving mountains with there sounds and sequences. [i should note that phychotrance is a DJ mixed compalation]. There was nothing "cookie cutter" about these tracks. The producers where venturing into unknown territory and as a result reported back with there very unique take on trance techno.

All the above rambling was in hindsight... At that time then I was becoming aware of such sounds, I felt blessed to have found such strange and wonderful music. And the knowledge that people were capable of making these soundscapes.

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Massive Attack - Mezzanine (HOW COME NOW ONE HAS POSTED THIS ONE ON HERE YET?!?!?!)

I LOVE Massive Attack, but I don't think I ever got a revelation when I first listened to it.

 

I DID, however, have a revelation the first time I heard Black Steel from Tricky's first album. I think that changed my life.

 

I got the same kind of trip a couple of years ago when I first heard Hot Ride by Prodigy.

 

Love that stuff.

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