The albums that have shaped your life

Icky Mettle

Icky Mettle

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I realize there is music thread, but I figured this is sort of a diversion from that more general topic so I am posting this in a separate thread. What are the music albums (including proper albums, EPs, soundtracks, compilations, and greatest hits collections) that have shaped your life?

I will hit the half-century mark this coming weekend. Approaching that milestone has made me reflect on a number of things, and one of those things is my musical journey through life.

Music has always been a big part of my life and there is a pretty much a soundtrack to my memories. I compiled album covers to 250 albums that have shaped my life thus far. I put them in approximate chronological order based on when in my life I got into each album (to the best of my recollection). It goes all the way back to the first album I remember listening to over and over again: The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack, which I got when I was 4 or 5. And it goes up to two very recently released albums that I currently have on heavy rotation: Alex G’s Headlights and Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band’s New Threats From the Soul.

There are more that could be included in there and it certainly doesn’t cover all the music that has shaped of my life (a great deal of music that has impacted me has not necessarily appeared on albums that I’ve had on heavy rotation). But the following album covers are albums that moved me and that I have had on pretty heavy rotation on whatever music-playing mechanism I was using at the time to listen to music:

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Love it. I see a lot of familiar albums there, which means I'm gonna explore some of the others that are new to me.

I'll humbly add Sigur Ros's Takk. Still a regular listen twenty years on and, in my head at least, a soundtrack to many life moments.

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Will the Circle Be Unbroken

It got me started playing bluegrass guitar.
Joined a bluegrass band in 1974
Started doing gigs in 1977
Continued through college
We got a gig as the “house” bluegrass band at Kings Dominion near Richmond… 2 summers in a row
Parlayed that experience into moving to Europe as a busker
Learned to play jazz while in Europe
Moved home in 1992 started teaching school and coaching (while still playing bluegrass and jazz gigs on the side)
Now retired and still playing gigs.
I doubt any of that happens had it not been for the Dirt Band and that album with Doc Watson, Earl Scruggs and other giants of the genre.

Talk about shaping my life….
 
Rollins Band, The End of Silence.

^^ this album exhausted my older brother’s knowledge of cool music, but it was enough to launch me into Black Flag and Minor Threat, the SST and Dischord catalogs.

Hot Water Music, Fuel for the Hate Game & Forever and Counting

^^^ there was a hardcore/emocore pipeline in the mid to late 90s from Richmond to Gainesville, and these two albums were its pinnacle.

Isis, Oceanic

^^^The earlier Isis records were great but goddamn this 2000 one launched my ongoing obsession with Aaron Turner’s projects.

…About ten lost years listening to too much indie rock…

Andy Stott, Passed Me By/We Stay Together (2011)

^^^ experimental/left field electronic music is now something I apparently like!

Miles Davis, Tribute to Jack Johnson

^^^Holy fucking shit now post-bop and fusion records make sense to me!

Sumac, The Healer (2024)

^^^ My favorite record of the 21st century
 
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Neil Young's Harvest

CSNY . . 4 Way Street

Springsteen's Wild, the Innocent & E Street Shuffle

The Who . . Who's Next

Black Sabbath . . Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

The Who . . Quadrophenia

Led Zep . . #1 & #2

Elton John . . Madman Across the Water

Phil Collins . . No Jacket Required

Moody Blues . . This is the Moody Blues

Marvin Gaye . . What's Going On

Beatles . . Sergeant Pepper

Cat Stevens . . Tea for the Tillerman
 
Icky Mettle said:
I realize there is music thread, but I figured this is sort of a diversion from that more general topic so I am posting this in a separate thread. What are the music albums (including proper albums, EPs, soundtracks, compilations, and greatest hits collections) that have shaped your life?

I will hit the half-century mark this coming weekend. Approaching that milestone has made me reflect on a number of things, and one of those things is my musical journey through life.

Music has always been a big part of my life and there is a pretty much a soundtrack to my memories. I compiled album covers to 250 albums that have shaped my life thus far. I put them in approximate chronological order based on when in my life I got into each album (to the best of my recollection). It goes all the way back to the first album I remember listening to over and over again: The Empire Strikes Back soundtrack, which I got when I was 4 or 5. And it goes up to two very recently released albums that I currently have on heavy rotation: Alex G’s Headlights and Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band’s New Threats From the Soul.

There are more that could be included in there and it certainly doesn’t cover all the music that has shaped of my life (a great deal of music that has impacted me has not necessarily appeared on albums that I’ve had on heavy rotation). But the following album covers are albums that moved me and that I have had on pretty heavy rotation on whatever music-playing mechanism I was using at the time to listen to music:

IMG_3687.jpeg
IMG_3688.jpegIMG_3689.jpegIMG_3690.jpegIMG_3691.jpegIMG_3692.jpegIMG_3694.jpegIMG_3695.jpegIMG_3696.jpegIMG_3698.jpeg
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Geezer Lake sighting!
 
BillyL said:
Neil Young's Harvest

CSNY . . 4 Way Street

Springsteen's Wild, the Innocent & E Street Shuffle

The Who . . Who's Next

Black Sabbath . . Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

The Who . . Quadrophenia

Led Zep . . #1 & #2

Elton John . . Madman Across the Water

Phil Collins . . No Jacket Required

Moody Blues . . This is the Moody Blues

Marvin Gaye . . What's Going On

Beatles . . Sergeant Pepper

Cat Stevens . . Tea for the Tillerman
Click to expand...
There are at least a couple on there that I could have included in my collage, for sure. Tea For the Tillerman, in particular, was a big one for me.
 
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
1984 my Dad died of lung cancer, I was 16 and growing up in White Lake, NC. A very lonely place in the winter. Within the span of three months my Dad was gone as was my equilibrium. I used to sit out on our pier and watch storms, sunsets, alone, under a big sky. The lake implacable, offering no answers.

I'd take my trusty boombox out to the pier and play the TUF over and over. "A Sort of Homecoming" acknowledging my bruised soul and my desire to go back to something that was no more. "Pride" giving me some temporary strength, "Bad" allowing me to properly ache, "Wire" letting the anger out, and "MLK" teaching me to accept a peaceful transition. That album was/is therapy for me. "Shaping" me? More like interwoven with my soul and sense of who I am. That album helped me accept that I was still here (and that was ok) in the middle of the unexplainable.
 
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BoonetheAiredale said:
The Unforgettable Fire - U2
1984 my Dad died of lung cancer, I was 16 and growing up in White Lake, NC. A very lonely place in the winter. Within the span of three months my Dad was gone as was my equilibrium. I used to sit out on our pier and watch storms, sunsets, alone, under a big sky. The lake implacable, offering no answers.

I'd take my trusty boombox out to the pier and play the TUF over and over. "A Sort of Homecoming" acknowledging my bruised soul and my desire to go back to something that was no more. "Pride" giving me some temporary strength, "Bad" allowing me to properly ache, "Wire" letting the anger out, and "MLK" teaching me to accept a peaceful transition. That album was/is therapy for me. "Shaping" me, more like interwoven with my soul and sense of who I am. That album helped me accept that I was still here (and that was ok) in the middle of the unexplainable.
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Wow. Thanks for sharing that.
 
Europe '72 == Grateful Dead

Babylon by Bus -- Bob Marley and the Wailers

Live at the Cafe-au-Go-Go -- John Lee Hooker,

My Aim Is True -- Elvis Costello

Harvest -- Neil Young

Ella in Berlin -- Ella Fitzgerald

Twisted Laurel -- Red Clay Ramblers

What's Goin' On -- Marvin Gaye

Diamond Dogs -- David Bowie

English Settlement -- XTC

Fogaraté -- Juan Luis Guerra
 
I think the first song that I heard that made me fall in love with rock and roll would be "You Can't Always Get What You Want" off the Stones' Let it Bleed. Followed loosely by Rod's "Every Picture Tells a Story", Dylan and the Band's "Before the Flood." I discovered the electric Dylan before his earlier stuff, giving me a second bite at Dylan. Springsteen's Born to Run was released the day before I turned 18 and moved into Granville Towers. Led Zep's Physical Graffiti is in there as well, and even the White Album.
 
I grew up at exactly the right time to stick a transistor radio in my ear when I was about 6 years old and never stopped listening so my influences go back a way and vary a bit.
Modern Sounds in Country and Western-Ray Charles
Sounds of Silence-first album where I really paid a lot of attention to the lyrics.
Moondance Van Morrison
Abbey Road-The Beatles
Disraeli Gears which introduced me to the whole British blues scene like John Mayall, The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac and on and on.
Steampowered AreoPlain -John Hartford
Making Movies-Dire Straits
Gilded Palaces of Sin-Flying Burrito Brothers
Stop Making Sense- Talking Heads. Not their best but a great introduction to that scene
My Aim is True as mentioned
Novocaine for the Soul-The Eels
Cure for Pain- Morphine
Kiko and the Lavender Moon-Los Lobos

There's a bunch more I'm skipping but those have a lot to do with about 70% of what I listen to now.
 
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Recovering The Satellites by Counting Crows - I know it's not regarded as one of their best albums but it came out during a particularly difficult time in my life and listening to that CD helped get me through it
 
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