Let me add a couple to the above list.
My discovery of fusion, lead me to post bop, avant-garde, chamber, and other progressive forms of jazz.
My discovery of the 1st album by Swedish band, Anglagard, in the mid 90's, led me to the knowledge, that prog was in the early days of coming back. And has not let up since.
Even though I am no longer a fan, Dream Theater helped my determine, that progressive music can also be made with the trappings of metal. This led me to bands I consider quite a bit better. Pain of Salvation, Opeth and The Contortionist, for example. |
Nice idea for a thread!
I will list bands, not just albums.
Very early on:
Sgt Pepper’s - informed me that rock could be a bit more than 3 minute, 3 chord, songs.
Next:
Deep Purple - In Rock, Black Sabbath- 1st, Uriah Heep - Very Humble, and others - informed me that rock could be even heavier, and be bit more focused on musicianship
Next:
T2 - It’ll All Work Out in Boomland, YES - The YES Album, King Crimson - ItCotCK, ELP, Gentle Giant, - informed me that rock could totally break free of it’s blues roots, and that there is an entirely new level of musicianship and complexity from the previous bands I listened to.
Very soon after:
Bands - PFM, Banco, Le Ormer, Triana, Grobschnitt, Museo Rosenbach, many more - informed me that world class prog, as good as what was coming out of England, was being made all over the world, and that those countries put their own cultural spin on it.
Around the same time:
Discovery of fusion, like - Mahavhishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Brand X, Iceberg - While not exactly the same as prog, the creativity and musicianship was there.
Next:
Henry Cow - Unrest, Univers Zero - Heresie, Art Zoyd - Generation sans Futur - informed me that atonality and dissonance had it’s place in music. Soon to be followed up with most of the rest of avant-prog.
Stravinsky - Rite of Spring, Bartok - Music for Strings, Percussion Celeste - Informed me that classical could be more than all the famous warhorses that I found boring. This lead directly to the even more avant-garde composers - Scheoenberg, Elliott Carter, Berg, Joan Tower, Charles Wuorinen, etc. |
Led Zeppelin II - Led Zeppelin
Obscured By Clouds - Pink Floyd
Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan
The Basement Tapes - Bob Dylan and The Band
Duane and Gregg - The Allman Brothers (lesser-known album from '68)
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The first was probably Grand Funk Railroad Inna Goda Divida.
I probably wore that side all the way thru
Queen Day at the Races
Talking Heads Fear of Music
Steely Dan Gaucho
Joe Jackson Look Sharp
My current obsession is
Maria Bethania Que Falta Voce Me Faz
Buika Mi Nina Lola
I get stuck in a loop and tend to to play the same albums over and over. The best part of digital is you can't wear them out
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Doors
zeppelin
judas priest
def Leppard (early albums)
humble pie
clarence brown
bb king
buddy guy
koko taylor
venom
raven
motorhead
y&t
rainbow
UFO
Samson!!!
much,more blues,
the rest is history.
Been metal since,...
still love the good stuff!
wishbone ash
uriah heep
thin lizzy
when I heard sin after sin and sad wings of destiny, my life changed!
Rock on! |
Doors any album,Led Zepplin II,Sound track from GiGi,Bruce Springsteen Born to Run,Cream Fresh Cream,Marvin Gaye Solitaire Man,Four Season 2ndGolden Vault. Beatles White Album,Stones let it bleed. |
I got ELO’s Out of the Blue for my 10th birthday. I listen to Porcupine Tree now because of that gift. And ELO of course... |
And , of course, if we will just follow with open ears the list should go on and on.... I an older than most of you, I think, though certainly not better or wiser, and though I agree with numbers of the music listed, I can certainly add a few. I don't remember a time when music wasn't important to me and everyone in my family. A maybe apocryphal story is that after I was born, when I first came home from the hospital, my father held me up before his big monaural speaker to play his new love of a hot very young trumpet player- Miles Davis. Of course I have no memory of this. But Miles music was always one thread of the sounds in the homes of my family of origin.
When I got swept away by Miles though was when Miles Ahead came out and impactful albums included all of his later collaborations with Gil Evans. As an older child I wore out a copy of Sketches of Spain and I even loved his less respected Quiet Nights. I came to Kind of Blue later.Other early loves of mine included, Everybody Digs Bill Evans And the Bill Evans Trio albums especially Song For Debbie (I ended up marrying a woman named Debbie who I am still with and in love with after 52 years) and Polka Dots and Moonbeams. I also loved anything by Duke Ellington or Count Basie.
My first classical loves, well after some kid records (Sparky and the orchestra, Atlanta and the Golden Apples) were Rites Of Spring (I think it was Ansermet conducting), Lt. Kije Suite and Brahms' Symphony No.4.In my early teens I was influenced by older kid friends and was formed again by Hoyt Axton's Greenback Dollar, the first Joan Baez album, Pete Seeger and this scratchy voiced kid's first Columbia album, Bob Dylan of course. That album is still tied in my memory to a weeks vacation at Newport Beach in southern California.
Having said all of this, I was and remain a rock 'n' roller before anything else. I can still remember the first time I heard the Beatles (my sister 1 1/2 years younger got to them before me and it was her single of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" that was my hello from them, hearing the Animals version of "House of the Rising Sun" and early Kinks though it was Something Else that was the kicker for that band. The first live rock band I saw, I think, was Dick Dale and I stayed moved by those surf bands ever after.The first album I bought with my own money was Turn, Turn, Turn by the Byrds, which I still have. About that time my father was given his first set of stereo speakers by a drummer friend of his.Formative albums included Da Capo & Forever Changes- Love; People Are Strange - Doors; Tim Buckley and even more Happy Sad; Are You Experienced - Jimi Hendrix, Astral Weeks -Van Morrison, Young Brigham - Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Vincebus Eruptum - Blue Cheer, Soft Machine 1 - Soft Machine, My Favorite Things, A Love Supreme - John Coltrane, Town & Country - Humble Pie, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake - Small Faces, the Sex Pistols album but even more the first Bucocks album and London Calling - Clash, Europe '72 -Grateful Dead. Ooops gotta stop now as it's dinner time maybe to return later.Take care and be safe y'all.
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The bread of those early years:
Phil Ochs—pleasures of the harbor
John Fahey—days have gone by
John Mayall—the turning point
Leonard Cohen—songs from a room
Golden Ring—a gathering of friends for making music
The Band—music from big pink
Bob Dylan—John Wesley Harding
Cannonball Adderley—mercy, mercy, mercy
Roland Kirk—we free kings.
George Harrison—all things must pass
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mahgister -- A true musical journey. I hereby allow you to use expensive audio components...
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Laura Nyro - New York Tendaberry
John Martyn - Live At Leeds
Beatles - Sgt Pepper
Sibelius Sym 5 - Colin Davis
Nick Drake
Richard and Linda Thompson - Shoot Out The Lights
Eva Cassidy - Songbird |
One album of the best military marches ( 13 years old) hate them with contempt till this day..The album was given free with the purchase of a stereo furniture....I think to kill myself after that listening.... 😁 Johnny Hallyday 14 years of age like him for few months only...He save me of my only military album... We were very poor and i had not great purchase choices near my house... Rolling Stone first album same age , dont hate it but dont like it either.... Beatles and Mamas and the papas like them better...But not enough to buy something else after... Leo Ferré same age liked him and loved him instantly....( French anachist poet singing Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Verlaine absolute poetry in interpretation)... Same year in love with Joan Baez....Bob Dylan also... Bach concertos for violin in a musical class at 16 years old, fall in love for life...Vivaldi same story around the same time....Bach teach us all.... Frank Zappa at the same age, dont loved it, dont liked him either....He was introduced to me by my friend of 52 years old friendship now.... I was not able to understand his English poetry....Too bad....I like him today... 😊 Choral music, Desprez, Jannequin, Monteverdi Schutz etc were my heart companions at 16 years old... Moondog the viking of the 50th street... The real creator of minimal music in America... A street musician who draft from musical school and recreate music for himself in the street.... A myth....At 24 years old with my new Tannoy speakers....I loved with nostalgia till today...I owned all his albums... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Y80QulpLUo&list=PLiN-7mukU_REyKvKlRJMwGjsNCamUhqpd Choral music and baroque composers mainly after that... 35 years old, The impactful discovery of Bruckner.....Change my way to understand musical form after Bach initiation... 40 years old, the discovery of Scriabin and Sofronitsky and of the Russian piano school...Change my way to listening to colors and tones... 50 years old, the discovery of all Indian music, instrument and voice, and the impactful discovery of my first Persian/iranian master, one of the greatest musician i ever listen to with the pianist Nyiregyhasy, my first album : the celestial harmonies of Ostad Elahi...Change completely my way to understand the power of music for therapeutic of the body and soul... It is no more music like a pleasure in the body, it is music like a walk out of the body...Other discoveries with natural frequencies conforted my experience with this Persian genius master....That is also a sufi saint.... My discovery of jazz at 50 years old , which i was knowing before but falling in love is not liking someone... Chet Baker were my master initiator and Bill Evans...They dont play their instrument like others, they lost their ego at the profit of the hidden song in any melody... 55 years old the discovery of the greatest pianist i ever heard... Ervin Nyiregyházi with this piece of Liszt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLk6vqaxU1YThis Hungarian god live a life that is unbelievable and after absolute world fame at young age, quit concert after 34 years old and live in total anonymity, and regain world fame easily in his first concert after 40 years to save his 10th wife...I read 2 books about him....Listen to him and compare with anyone else... 55 years old the discovery of the greatest feminine voice ever because she can deliver emotion on par with any other female voice but contrary to all others can sing in ALL styles of music without fail...Opera from Monteverdi to Puccini, lieds, bach, Handael, negro spiritual, popular, even Jazz all that with the more powerful emotional force ever seen...His voice reproduce all that which is in the soul.... Marian Anderson.... And the most beautiful woman i ever see, soul,voice and body.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXhdUC43Jq0 Today, around 10,000 albums in files perhaps a bit less.... I love Classical, Jazz and Indian and Persian music dearly.... I am in love mainly with choral voices, piano and trumpet..... |
Albert Collins
Frozen Alive
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@spiritofradio -- you are most welcome! And YES to The Köln Concert |
Great thread @hilde45, thanks. |
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Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Montrose
Machine Head
Fly By Night
Tres Hombres
Rock & Roll Outlaws
Bridge of Sighs
Phenomenon
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You all are stocking my next playlist "Audiogon Pantheon"
+1 Hendrix, Axis Bold as Love
Bowie, Ziggy Stardust
Lou Reed, Transformer.
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@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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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 |
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)
To name a few... |
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.
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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.
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Sgt Pepper Beatles
Freak Out Zappa
Yer Album James Gang
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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. |
Didn't anyone like Creedence Clearwater Revival ?
CCR?
ozzy |
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.
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@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. |
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 |
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
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Shocking how many of my favorite albums show up in this thread. I guess that's why they call so many of them classics.
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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 |
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). |
Leo Kottke--Peculiaroso
Nice. |
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
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The Clash Sandinista,Steel Pulse True Democracy, Dire Straits Live at bbc, Bad Brains I against I |
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 |
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/ |
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.
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@danvignau 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. |
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
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@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. |
Well blow me over with a feather.
I figured with this hi-fi lot it would jazz city up the wahzoo.
What a pleasant surprise. |
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
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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
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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
To name a few. . . .
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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).
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