The albums that have shaped your life

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...
That's a solid list right there. Spot on IMHO and agree with every album. (If I didn't have one of those albums, my sister did, and we exchanged regularly). Definitely formative music and led to a well-rounded and well-shaped life no doubt. And for those questioning lack of female artists - I'll bet Tapestry was in the mix in that collection too.
 
Centerpiece said:
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….
Click to expand...
Any chance you can tell me what notes /tab Norman Blake is playing on Railroad Blues from about 4 seconds ton6 seconds. I’ve been playing around with this tune (I think Assault on G would have been a good name) for awhile but I can’t figure out what he’s doing on those blistering runs that he’s doing . I’ll be plugging away on this for awhile.
 
Phil Collins - No Jacket Required
Simon and Garfunkel Greatest Hits (cornerstone Columbia Houseselection)
Def Leppard - Hysteria
REM - Automatic for the People
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Van Halen - 5150
Toad the Wet Sprocket - Fear
Matchbox Twenty - Yourself or Someone Like You
U2 - Joshua Tree
Outfield - Play Deep
Singles Soundtrack
Thelonius Monk - Criss Cross

And in the Latin Music category:
Juan Luis Guerra - Bachata Rosa
Mana - Donde Jugarán Los Niños
Carlos Vives - La Tierra del Olvido
Bacilos - Caraluna
Soda Stereo - El Ultimo Concierto
 
I am older than most here so the albums that impacted me at an impressionable age will reflect that.

Allman Brothers- Live at Fillmore East and Eat a Peach
Jethro Tull- Aqualung and Living in the Past
James Taylor- Sweet Baby James and Mudslide Slim
Faces- A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse
Carol King- Tapestry
Todd Rundgren- Something/Anything and A Wizard, a True Star
Steely Dan- All 7 albums from Can’t Buy a Thrill thru Gaucho, with emphasis on The Royal Scam and Aja
Led Zeppelin- I-III plus Houses of the Holy
Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town
Stevie Wonder- Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life
Chicago- The 1970 Silver double album (I was a horn player)
Blood Sweat & Tears- the self-titled 1968 album, the first with David Clayton-Thomas (I was a horn player!)
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World thru Diamond Dogs
Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup
Al Jarreau- Live…Look to the Rainbow
Joni Mitchell- Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira
Talking Heads- 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Stop Making Sense
Blondie- Parallel Lines
Little Feat- Dixie Chicken, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, Waiting for Columbus, Down on the Farm
Patty Smith/Group- Horses, Easter
Leon Russell/Mark Benno- Asylum Choir II
Boz Scaggs- Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees
JJ Cale- Really
Alan Parsons Project- I Robot, Eve

I’ll stop now.
 
Last edited:
finesse said:
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.
Click to expand...
Another solid list…
 
farce© said:
I am older than most here so the albums that impacted me at an impressionable age will reflect that.

Allman Brothers- Live at Fillmore East and Eat a Peach
Jethro Tull- Aqualung and Living in the Past
James Taylor- Sweet Baby James and Mudslide Slim
Faces- A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse
Carol King- Tapestry
Todd Rundgren- Something/Anything and A Wizard, a True Star
Steely Dan- All 7 albums from Can’t Buy a Thrill thru Gaucho, with emphasis on The Royal Scam and Aja
Led Zeppelin- I-III plus Houses of the Holy
Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town
Stevie Wonder- Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life
Chicago- The 1970 Silver double album (I was a horn player)
Blood Sweat & Tears- the self-titled 1968 album, the first with David Clayton-Thomas (I was a horn player!)
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World thru Diamond Dogs
Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup
Al Jarreau- Live…Look to the Rainbow
Joni Mitchell- Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira
Talking Heads- 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Stop Making Sense
Blondie- Parralel Lines
Little Feat- Dixie Chicken, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, Waiting for Columbus, Down on the Farm
Patty Smith/Group- Horses, Easter
Leon Russell/Mark Benno- Asylum Choir II
Boz Scaggs- Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees
JJ Cale- Really
Alan Parsons Project- I Robot, Eve

I’ll stop now.
Click to expand...
Yet another solid list.
I like you old folks…
Prolly cause I’m one haha
 
farce© said:
I am older than most here so the albums that impacted me at an impressionable age will reflect that.

Allman Brothers- Live at Fillmore East and Eat a Peach
Jethro Tull- Aqualung and Living in the Past
James Taylor- Sweet Baby James and Mudslide Slim
Faces- A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse
Carol King- Tapestry
Todd Rundgren- Something/Anything and A Wizard, a True Star
Steely Dan- All 7 albums from Can’t Buy a Thrill thru Gaucho, with emphasis on The Royal Scam and Aja
Led Zeppelin- I-III plus Houses of the Holy
Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town
Stevie Wonder- Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life
Chicago- The 1970 Silver double album (I was a horn player)
Blood Sweat & Tears- the self-titled 1968 album, the first with David Clayton-Thomas (I was a horn player!)
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World thru Diamond Dogs
Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup
Al Jarreau- Live…Look to the Rainbow
Joni Mitchell- Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira
Talking Heads- 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Stop Making Sense
Blondie- Parallel Lines
Little Feat- Dixie Chicken, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, Waiting for Columbus, Down on the Farm
Patty Smith/Group- Horses, Easter
Leon Russell/Mark Benno- Asylum Choir II
Boz Scaggs- Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees
JJ Cale- Really
Alan Parsons Project- I Robot, Eve

I’ll stop now.
Click to expand...
Good list. Agree 100% with Allman Brothers, Springsteen, Little Feat and any JJ Cale. I like Tull's Stand Up best, earlier Faces, BST with Al Kooper, Leon Russell and the Shelter People best among many and the Boz Scaggs album with Duane Allman on it that has Loan Me a Dime. I'm not much into favorite anything since mood, company, climate and state of reality all matter but if pressed to pick a favorite song, that's the one I give.
 
Rubber Soul/Revolver - The Beatles

Exile on Main Street - Rolling Stones

The Wild the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle/Born to Run/Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen

London Calling - The Clash

Never Mind the Bullocks, Here's the Sex Pistols - the Sex Pistols

My Aim is True - Elvis Costello

The Ramones - The Ramones

Doolittle - The Pixies

Murmur - REM

Tim - The Replacements

Talking Heads '77 - The Talking Heads

The Queen is Dead - The Smiths

Blood on the Tracks/Blonde on Blonde - Bob Dylan

I'll stop.
 
farce© said:
I am older than most here so the albums that impacted me at an impressionable age will reflect that.

Allman Brothers- Live at Fillmore East and Eat a Peach
Jethro Tull- Aqualung and Living in the Past
James Taylor- Sweet Baby James and Mudslide Slim
Faces- A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse
Carol King- Tapestry
Todd Rundgren- Something/Anything and A Wizard, a True Star
Steely Dan- All 7 albums from Can’t Buy a Thrill thru Gaucho, with emphasis on The Royal Scam and Aja
Led Zeppelin- I-III plus Houses of the Holy
Bruce Springsteen- Darkness on the Edge of Town
Stevie Wonder- Talking Book, Innervisions, Fulfillingness First Finale, Songs in the Key of Life
Chicago- The 1970 Silver double album (I was a horn player)
Blood Sweat & Tears- the self-titled 1968 album, the first with David Clayton-Thomas (I was a horn player!)
David Bowie- The Man Who Sold the World thru Diamond Dogs
Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers and Goats Head Soup
Al Jarreau- Live…Look to the Rainbow
Joni Mitchell- Court and Spark, The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Hejira
Talking Heads- 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Stop Making Sense
Blondie- Parallel Lines
Little Feat- Dixie Chicken, Feats Don’t Fail Me Now, Waiting for Columbus, Down on the Farm
Patty Smith/Group- Horses, Easter
Leon Russell/Mark Benno- Asylum Choir II
Boz Scaggs- Slow Dancer, Silk Degrees
JJ Cale- Really
Alan Parsons Project- I Robot, Eve

I’ll stop now.
Click to expand...
That's an awesome list of albums . . !
 
Grateful Dead - Workingman’s Dead (yes, the endless live recordings are why the Dead are the best, but the stripped down acoustic country-western versions of some of the core songs in their catalogue on this album are what got me into the band in the first place).

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs

John Prine - John Prine

Led Zeppelin - III

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

Willie Nelson - Shotgun Willie

Steely Dan - almost every album, gun to my head I’ll take Gaucho.

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

Frank Zappa - Joe’s Garage

Soundgarden - Superunkown

Derek & The Dominoes - Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs

Pink Floyd - Meddle

Paul Simon - Graceland

Boston - Boston

Ween - The Mollusk

Kanye West - too close to call between Late Registration and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy

The Game - The Documentary

50 Cent - Get Rich or Die Trying

Phil Spector - A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector

ABBA - Super Trouper

Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

Etta James - At Last!
 
There are so many but a few pivotal ones:

Peter Gabriel - So. Probably the first album I liked as a kid that was in line with what grown up me would come to like. Before that it was various pop stuff, some of which I still love, but So felt more serious and adult to me. It was also the first album that was "mine." I didn't like it because my parents or older sisters liked it. I remember listening to it with headphones on in the back of the family car leaving a beach vacation and felt like I'd created my own world, separate from my family, that they simply could not understand and we're not invited to participate in. This of course was middle school.

Led Zeppelin - all of it. Completely obsessed with it in high school. Can't say I had a favorite album but Going to California was my favorite song. Which led to:

Joni Mitchell - all of it. At some point I ran out of new (to me) Led Zeppelin and furiously searched for a new obsession. Nothing really stuck until I went into the record store and got to the Joni Mitchell section. I had no idea who she was but had read somewhere that Plant and Page were obsessed with her. I didn't even know then that Going to California referenced her. Coincidentally, I picked up Blue and bought it simply because it had a song called California. Fucking hated it the first couple of listens and almost put it aside but something told me to give it one more listen while reading the lyrics. I was completely blown away and remain so to this day. IMO there is no greater combination of musical and lyrical genius in one person.

Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball. We had a shared CD player in a computer department I worked in and a colleague brought it in one day. I suggested that she put it on and she told me she didn't think I'd like it. Fucking loved it. Opened me up to a whole world of non-shit country/Americana - Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Townes Van Zandt etc.

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks. In college I went to visit a high school friend. It was a very odd visit and I didn't pick up on her not really wanting me there. I asked if she had any music I could borrow, that'd I'd return when I saw her back home over the holidays. She never saw or spoke to me again. I kept and wore out that CD. Ultimately it was a pretty good deal for me. She threw in a Beck album, too, which I also loved.
 
2nd West Granville, freshman and sophomore years.

Just walking down the hall and discovering from open doors....REM-Reckoning, The Replacements-Hootenanny and Let It Be, Hoodoo Gurus-Mars Needs Guitars. Cat's Cradle shows that led to important albums over time...Hege V, The Veldt, Dillon Fence.
 
Peppers49 said:
Steely Dan - almost every album, gun to my head I’ll take Gaucho
Click to expand...
Every Steely Dan album is my favorite when I am listening to it, except Countdown to Ecstasy and Katy Lied (which are fine albums, but a tier below Can’t Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho, IMO)
 
Since my earliest experiences all were reliant on my parents album collections, here are a the first album I listened to full repeatedly as a younger kid:

1757101284541.jpeg

1757101317777.jpeg

1757101379117.jpeg

1757101427534.jpeg
1757101455384.jpeg

1757102804627.jpeg
 
Last edited:
BoonetheAiredale said:
2nd West Granville, freshman and sophomore years.

Just walking down the hall and discovering from open doors....REM-Reckoning, The Replacements-Hootenanny and Let It Be, Hoodoo Gurus-Mars Needs Guitars. Cat's Cradle shows that led to important albums over time...Hege V, The Veldt, Dillon Fence.
Click to expand...
Sounds like my experience in Granville freshman year.
 
farce© said:
Every Steely Dan album is my favorite when I am listening to it, except Countdown to Ecstasy and Katy Lied (which are fine albums, but a tier below Can’t Buy a Thrill, Pretzel Logic, The Royal Scam, Aja, and Gaucho, IMO)
Click to expand...
Those are some great albums. Still sound fresh today.
 
"Hair" (musical) - first album
S & G "Bridege over Troubled Waters"
Beatles "Sgt. Pepper" - and many more of theirs
Dylan "Blood on the Tracks"
Mike Cross - "Child Prodigy" - my Cat's Cradle years
Janis Ian - "Between the Lines" [and many others]
AWB - "Pick up the Pieces"
Eagles - "Desperado"
Indigo Girls - "Strange Fire" [and alll]
Lucinda Williams - "Sweet Old World" [and all]
Joni Mitchell "Blue" [and all]
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top