Name a few albums which helped determine your musical tastes
How about a short list of albums that shaped your listening from early on in your life?
Not just albums that became favorites (though they could be now). Let's call them historical turning points for you that shaped you as a listener, now.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band - Nightingales And Bombers Gregg Allman - Laid Back The Replacements - All Shook Down Bread - The Best Of Bread Stevie Wonder - Innervisions Carole King - Tapestry Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band - Live Bullet Steely Dan - Aja Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks Radiohead - OK Computer Dave Brubeck - Time Out UFO - No Heavy Petting Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak
in Grade school - I had a brother 4 years older The Beatles (aka white album) Jefferson Airplane - Crown of Creation (Lather :) ) Mothers of Invention (Anyway the Wind Blows)
in JR High - Frank Zappa
in High School (very high) Roxy Music David Bowie Pink Floyd Fog Hat Alice Cooper
in U S Army Pink Floyd Kraftwerk Boston Queen Bowie
then suddenly BAM right at the end of my service! DEVO Talking Heads Elvis Costello Police Sex Pistols
now Returned to America all of the above plus Joy Division Throbbing Gristle Caberet Voltaire
I remember the late night after getting off work at midnight . A friend told me to try Genesis new album Trick of the Tail, I had picked it up but never had a chance to play it. I came home and in a dark room fired that album up. Stunningly amazed at what I was listening to, I was thinking "What the hell did I just listen to" ! ? Their next one Wind and Weathering was just a "different". I think that was the beginning of my Allman Bros, Supertramp and such type albums. But nothing reached out and grabbed me on the first go round like Trick of the Tail
Polygon Window - Surfing on Sine Waves Newcleus - Jam on Revenge Beastie Boys - License to Ill Suicidal Tendencies - Suicides an Alternative House Hallucinates Pump Up the World
"Dodgealum"...I love your taste. I have four albums framed and on the wall of my audio listening room including "Hasten Down the Wind" and "Karla Bonoff"...with the latter signed by the artist! I told her when she was signing that she was responsible for me spending too much money back in the 70's in upgrading my speakers. And you can guess what song on the album was most instrumental!
Black Sabbath - Paranoid Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon Van Halen I Judas Priest - Hell Bent For Leather Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs Rush - Permanent Waves Beach Boys - Endless Summer Led Zeppelin II & Houses of the Holy
Even though I moved on to heavier metal later on, I still play songs from all these albums (except Beach Boys) on guitar.
Cannot help but to comment on Lyle and his large band: in the summer of (about) 2004 in Madison, WI, Aretha cancelled with short notice as the headliner in the summer MusicFest on the lake. I had two tickets, and decided to go even though I could not see the Queen. Lyle and large band subbed. Holy crap. Their comprehensively massive soundstage was mind-blowing. The power, balance, articulation, and precision of every musician was flawless. Barely noticed Lyle singing, leaning up against things in his body cast after breaking his hip in a bull ring(?). His audio engineers have to be the best around.
Janis Joplin - Cheap Thrills Cream - Wheels of Fire Steve Miller - Nr 5 Dave Brubeck - Time Out Allman Brothers - Live at the Fillmore East Jethro Tull - Aqualung Rolling Stones - Beggers Banquet Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited John Lee Hooker - Hooker and Heat ZZ Top - Tres Hombres
I left out my classical side and only took the top ten of what truly influenced me as I heard 9 out of 10 of these when they were released and very much formed my musical preferences.
Not only albums, but WNEW FM in New York early 70’s with Alison Steele (the night bird). She was a big Moody Blues fan. She introduced me to On the Threshold of a dream. That shaped my listening and inspired me to look for bands with orchestra backing. Some others... Time Out Take Five - Dave Brubeck Sargent Peppers - and early stuff from the Beatles 2001 Movie soundtrack really introduced me to classical music.
al jarreau - we got by/glow michael franks - art of tea crusaders - southern comfort coltrane - my favorite things miles davis - sketches of spain dire straits mingus - tijuana moods kenny burrell - guitar forms
Thanks Mapman, you're damn right about “Machine Head” by Deep Purple followed by “Demons and Wizards” by Uriah Heep. How could we forget?And one more, Black Sabbath's first. My Catholic neighbor bought it and was so afraid his parents would find out we waited a week before we could listen to his on his dad's high end system. Blew our minds...He's since become a musician, and has worked with Jon Anderson (YES).
Vanilla Fudge Turning Point, John Mayall Hank Williams Led Zeppelin, 1st Album Richard Thompson, Fairport Convention Joni Mitchell Riding with the King, John Hiatt Lucinda Williams Allman Brothers Van Morrison
The Who Live at Leeds Queen 1 2 and 3 Jethro Tull This Was Benefit Stand up Cream fresh Cream Disraeli Gears Mountain Climbing Nantucket Sleigh ride Telarc 1812 Overture
Rubber Soul The White album Madman Across the Water Chicago 2 Teaser and the Firecat Woodstock Zoso Who's Next Loggins and Messina "Sittin In" All Things Must Pass Blood on the Tracks Born To Run Darkness on the Edge of Town
@mdalton Thanks for your list and the vignettes, too. Very sorry for your loss.
I was a grad student in Austin and saw a lot of great local and national acts there. I saw Lyle Lovett and his large band at the Paramount in June 1993, and saw him at Kerbey Lane cafe that summer, too.
Your lists sound like the bulk of my record collection. I have scads of these albums listed here, but cannot fathom the mindset that led to the dearth of classical and jazz, especially jazz. Are musicians mainly the jazz lovers? Maynard Ferguson: Sextet, and Live at Jimmy's. Lots of Coltraine and Miles! ELLA! for CHRIST SAKE, so to speak. My first jazz album: Quincey Jones Quintessence, which I have not heard for over a half century. Gotta dig that one out! PLUS: Chase. Chicago Transit Authority. JJ's Pearl. Red Hot Chili Pepper's Stadium Arcadium, especially the Blue CD. Don Ellis: Live in 11/3 time or was it 11/7? DIZZY's All Star (non0North) Ameican Band, with Arturo Sandoval. D to D albums; Harry James, Rosie O'Grady's Good Time Jazz Band. ad infinitum
I have scads of these albums listed here, but cannot fathom the mindset that led to the dearth of classical and jazz, especially jazz.
To help you fathom, people are not listing what they think is *best* or *most worthy, musically* because that’s not the question posed in the OP.
Because people are listing the music that first set them off as music lovers, chances are they were exposed early on (early teens or before) to rock or pop, not jazz or classical.
What I really wondered was how did this audiophile group all get influenced by rock music, and not jazz. I do understand that tastes evolve, but my band mates and I were always into jazz and did not embrace rock for a long time. Maybe, the big amps needed for electric instruments had an influencece on who became an audiophile.
Probably because they came from a world where pop and rock were already dominant. Really dominant. I tried to find stats from earlier eras, but that would take a while. How many kids in high school did I know that were into jazz? Maybe 1% or less. But lots listened to music, bought stereos, etc. so some found there way to better products without necessarily liking jazz or classical. Here’s 2018: https://www.statista.com/statistics/310746/share-music-album-sales-us-genre/
The Beatles blue and red compilation records Yes Fragile Deep Purple Made In Japan Frank Zappa Overnight sensation Montrose Foghat Energized ELP Welcome back my friends. Earth Wind and Fire Gratitude my early musical education was somewhat odd. I went from a M radio to almost 3 years in a little fundamentalist Christian day school in Miami we’re on more than one occasion, they had record stomps. For those who are not familiar with these, that’s when everyone brings in their evil black devil music rock records and smash them along with their Ouija boards. Perhaps a kinder gentler version of book burning. So I spend the last couple of months of my eighth grade year in a somewhat scary public junior high school in Connecticut. Like I said I was a television and I am radio guy so I had heard the Beatles from the cartoons… Yeah I know. And I had heard Some reasonably normal music on the AM radio in Miami that didn’t involve anyone named Osmond or Jackson. That’s where I heard the kinks Lola for the first time. But when I got to that school in Connecticut amidst all the current stuff like David Essex and such, a couple of the guys there were listening to those Beatles records, Yes and Deep Purple. The following fall I started ninth grade a military boarding school in Pennsylvania. That first year Yes when I was introduced to Zappa Montrose Foghat Earth wind and fire and some others. Over the summer I got my parents to buy me one of those cheap all in one stereos with the Garrard turntable the radio and an eight track player in one hideous chassis And equally ugly speakers. Along with that my mother bought me four records. They were the Herbie Mann album where he went shirtless and Pop, Crosby stills Nash and Young déjà vu, Neil Young harvest, and Elton John Honky Château. Of the four the only one I really listen to any of that time was Elton. I listen to a couple of songs on harvest and a couple on déjà vu but didn’t come back to those until years later. Really started listening to Elton a year or two later with goodbye yellow brick road. The ELP was what my friend next-door was listening to him at the beginning of my sophomore year when I switched dormitories. If I went from there you’ll see a bunch of stuff fromThose guys, yes, Kansas, Rick Wakeman, and some obscure stuff like triumvirat that he had. That’s also when I heard rush for the first time. The other music I was listening to was pretty blues Rocky. Johnny Winter Road Buchanan and eventually pretty much any guitar God. I also started listening to the deep purple again around this time. And that weird add mixture of blues bass guitar dirt rock and pro rock carried me for many years. Obviously everyone back then was listening to queen and other folks like that. I didn’t rediscover Led Zeppelin until I was a junior and I had a marked tendency to discover the new bands I liked based on a live album they put out. So exhibit was the soundtrack to the song remains the same, rush all the worlds a stage Ted Nugent… Yeah I know… Double live gonzo. Frampton, Foghat live. Etc. I believe the two obvious bands that I should’ve been tuned into didn’t come around really until senior year in high school and early college, those being Allman Brothers and Genesis. Hell, I didn’t get into Peter Gabriel era Genesis until after I heard Peter Gabriel solo stuff in the early to mid-80s. And on top Over that I was digging on stuff like P funk and such. That first summer with the stereo one of the next records it was bought for me was just lie and the family stone dance in the music and then we countered that summer of 76 with all three of the current Bad company records. As matter fact that’s how I eventually discovered Mott the Hoople the next year. Interestingly, I didn’t really branch out that much until I started looking into this whole audio file thing in the late 80s when I was in Gainesville. That’s when I started reading stereophile and TAS And that’s when I discovered folks like John Hiatt, Richard Thompson and started listening to some of my old favorites a bit more critically. It is quite interesting listening to an original vinyl copy or a Remaster from the original mix of some thing like trace hombres. It should come as no surprise that it was all downhill from there. LOL
Beatles--Meet the, et al Byrds--Mister Tamborine Man Neil Young--Sleeps with Angels Kinks--Muswell Hillbillies Warren Zevon--Excitable Boy Yes--Close to the Edge Jethro Tull--Stand Up Grateful Dead--American Beauty Ventures--Ventures Leo Kottke--Peculiaroso Roches--Roches Aimee Mann--Mental Health Kate Wolf--Give Yourself to Love Steeleye Span--Parcel of Rogues Sharon Shannon--Diamond Mountain Sessions
Circa 1968, The Byrds Greatest Hits was one of my first albums; it helped shape a life-long enjoyment of jangly folk-rock (and later indie pop).
More recently, Beth Orton's Trailer Park and Sugaring Season, along with Molly Burch's First Flower, helped introduce me in retirement to a newer generation of singer-songwriters.
The Celtic Music of Brittany by the Celtic Angels pushed a bit on my understanding of what Celtic music can be (beyond old school Irish styles).
Beatles: Revolver Doors: Strange Days Peter Gabriel: 1 Brian Eno: Before and after Science King Crimson: Red David Bowie: Station to Station David Bowie: Heroes John Cale: Guts Talking Heads: Fear of Music Clash: London Calling XTC: Drums and Wires Material: Memory Serves Ry Cooder: Bop till you drop Peter Hammill: Enter K John Coltrane: Ballads Neil Young: On the Beach Steely Dan: Aja Bob Mould: Black Sheets of Rain Johnny Cash: American Recordings Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Another Green World - ENOMy life in the bush of ghosts - ENO / BYRNE CHANGES ONE BOWIEMark Hollis - Mark HollisCloser - joy divisionBanana album - velvet undergroundPrayers on Fire - birthday partyCorrect use of soap - MagazinePerverted by Language - The FallDesire - Tuxedomoon
Supertramp- crime of the century Little Fear- Waitting for Columbus Steely Dan-Aja Beatles-White Album -Rubber Soul Al Stewart- Year of the Cat Doors-LA Woman Elton John- Tumbleweed Connection
@danvignau : "
What I really wondered was how did this audiophile group all get influenced by rock music, and not jazz."
I started with rock and as I became more enmeshed in the audiophile world started listening to classical and a little jazz, but I quickly realized I was just doing it to fit in and sound sophisticated and didn't really like most of it. It's not that I don't respect it. It just bores me. As I matured I stopped worrying about fitting in or what people thought. You've got to listen to what you like or why bother wasting time listening at all.
There's a mistaken idea that classical or jazz show a system's capabilities. But there are a few problems with that idea. The main and overarching one is, if you don't listen to classical or jazz then what do you care about what it sounds like with them? Regardless, if I want to show off my system I'd play electronic music for the low end, Metallica's Sad But True for drums, extreme metal for its ability to handle congestion, James Taylor or Doobie Brothers Steamer Lane Breakdown for strings, and a variety of rock vocalists for vocals. Classical or jazz isn't necessary to enjoy the "audiophile" quality of your system.
I imagine there must be some audiophiles arguing that one has to listen to jazz or classical to enjoy one's system. We're talking about audiophiles, after all. Some audiophiles argue one has to use cable risers to enjoy one's system. Some audiophiles argue one has to stack two quarters and a nickel on top of each speaker to unlock all the inner detail in one's system. Any sentence that starts with "Some audiophiles argue..." is most likely true. Let's face it: this is a hobby where one encounters a lot of fatheads.
All that said, a lot of audiophiles do enjoy non-rock music on their systems, and that's okay, too. They (we) should try not to be fatheads about it, but it's okay. Being open to the possibility of finding music we like in any genre is usually a good thing, too. Try it out. See if you like it. If you don't, cool. If you do, cool, you've just found a whole new nook of the musical world to explore and enjoy.
I bounced off of jazz a couple of times over the years before I found my way into it via a few specific albums/artists that really clicked for me, and from there I've found more and more of it I enjoy. Even in my 50s, I still give a listen now and then to something from genres I have not historically enjoyed, just to see. (Using a streaming service makes this very easy and, essentially, free. It's not like the old days, when I had to shell out my limited funds to take a chance on something I'd heard one track from on the radio, and then if I didn't like it, figure out what the heck to do with the piece of physical media I was stuck with.)
Nobody needs to harangue anybody for not liking any particular style of music. Nobody needs to get their nose out of joint because people *do* like a particular style of music.
An audiophile should optimize his system for the music he enjoys, and then enjoy it, and let others do likewise.
The question wasn't what we like. It was what helped determine our musical tastes. I like CCR, but it didn't introduce me to any genre, style, or sub-genre I hadn't heard before. By the time I heard CCR, I'd already heard southern rock/swamp rock I liked, so it didn't help determine my tastes.
To the person who asked, "Doesn't anyone like Creedence (Clearwater Revival)?I will repeat the valid criticism of my prior post: They were just fine, but they certainly did not influence me in any way, which was the title question to this thread.
To the person who claims that classical and jazz are not something one necessarily needs to "Shoe Off) an audiophile system. BfS! Nothing demonstrates our systems' superiority as much as the tightness of an acoustic bass, or the accurate reproduction of acoustic instruments, no matter how many (in the case of classical) how many instruments there are. Still, for my rocker friend, I am obligate to rock out with The Chili Peppers, Audioslave, Body Count, but especially Santana's Supernatural album. For extreme acoustic sound, it is hard to beat The Violent Femmes white CD of their double album.
Queen - The Works (that's when I fell in love with them) Rage Against The Machine - Self Titled (I never heard anything like it) Pearl Jam - Ten (My favorite grunge era album) 2 Live Crew - Me So Horny (single) (I didn't know one could sing those lyrics) Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks (Perfection) U2 - Achtung Baby (A complete 180 from Joshua Tree. Masterpiece.) AC/DC - Back in Black (Perfection)
Violent Femmes - Debut album Elvis Costello - My Aim is True The Clash - Sandinista Juana Molina - Son Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie Califone - Roots & Crowns Lhasa De Sela - The Living Road
@danvignau :"
To the person who claims that classical and jazz are not something one necessarily needs to "Shoe Off) an audiophile system. BfS! Nothing demonstrates our systems' superiority as much as the tightness of an acoustic bass, or the accurate reproduction of acoustic instruments"
Not so. As someone who plays a Taylor 410, I've heard several systems that could fool me on acoustic guitar, even as far back as the early '90s (Magnepan III). But I've never heard one that could mimic my Marshall into a Celestion Vintage 30 cabinet. Not even close.
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