12 Albums That Changed Your Life
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This is from a forum I used to frequent that is dead now. They had a thread called "12 Books That Changed Your Life," and creating a thread with this topic was my answer to that. I thought this might be an interesting thread for some of the music lovers here.
1. Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxary....Disposable Heroes Of Hypocrisy I first saw them when they were one of the opening acts for U2 on the Zooropa Tour. drank too much to notice anything special about them. I was hooked one night when watching MTV and the song Language Of Violence came on I was mesmerized by the lyrics. I'm not into rap that much at all but I must say I proudly played and wore that album out ever since and Micheal And I have become good friends since that 1992 chance MTV findings.
2. Stay Human....Michael Franti & Spearhead...years later he came out with this innovative album. After DHOH he gave up rapping for singing writing lyrics. His first album after DHOH Home I hated it and wanted more rap. Which led to SH which is probably his best or second best album to Yell Fire. Toured with him a couple times in Europe and we had the best time. THIS was the album that got me into politics once again.
3. War....U2 Even though I was a fan from the Boy album, War was the one that really got me hooked. Also that performance at the US Festival was unbelievable and time in the middle of the Cali heat you can get 500,000 fans attention you are a band to be reckoned with and they STILL are today.
4. Grace Under Pressure....RUSH Big fan before this album but they captured my attention live on tour with this album. I was amazed that they could make such good noise from only 3 people. The song Red Sector A was the one I loved in particular because after what they sang about takes some grace to handle that pressure. I fashioned my life handling life's uneasy pressure moments with grace. I named my daughter Grace passed down from my mother,
5. Master of Puppets...Metallica first heard it in a vynil record store at College Park MD 1978. iI asked the attendant who is that with great enthusiasm and he looked at me annoyed and said Metallica. Oh I thought that's the band all these kids keep wearing around town. I bought the vynil took it home and literally wore it out then went backwards to get earlier releases. This album got me into Heavy Metal.
6. Not Of This Earth...Joe Satriani I was in Circuit City looking for speakers 1987 I think. The walls started shaking from inside a sound room I went in and groove from the song Hordes Of Locusts was mesmerizing. The volume was on 7 I turned to 10 wishing it was 11 and the whole place began to shake and rock. Bought the speakers, next bought it on vynil and I was hooked on JS and instrumental rock ever since. Luckily I got to meet years later JS after a 9:30 Club show in DC, a really cool nice guy that gave me an autographed poster.
Ok my eyes are shot, I'll give my second half of my dirty dozen later.
Peace
1. Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxary....Disposable Heroes Of Hypocrisy I first saw them when they were one of the opening acts for U2 on the Zooropa Tour. drank too much to notice anything special about them. I was hooked one night when watching MTV and the song Language Of Violence came on I was mesmerized by the lyrics. I'm not into rap that much at all but I must say I proudly played and wore that album out ever since and Micheal And I have become good friends since that 1992 chance MTV findings.
2. Stay Human....Michael Franti & Spearhead...years later he came out with this innovative album. After DHOH he gave up rapping for singing writing lyrics. His first album after DHOH Home I hated it and wanted more rap. Which led to SH which is probably his best or second best album to Yell Fire. Toured with him a couple times in Europe and we had the best time. THIS was the album that got me into politics once again.
3. War....U2 Even though I was a fan from the Boy album, War was the one that really got me hooked. Also that performance at the US Festival was unbelievable and time in the middle of the Cali heat you can get 500,000 fans attention you are a band to be reckoned with and they STILL are today.
4. Grace Under Pressure....RUSH Big fan before this album but they captured my attention live on tour with this album. I was amazed that they could make such good noise from only 3 people. The song Red Sector A was the one I loved in particular because after what they sang about takes some grace to handle that pressure. I fashioned my life handling life's uneasy pressure moments with grace. I named my daughter Grace passed down from my mother,
5. Master of Puppets...Metallica first heard it in a vynil record store at College Park MD 1978. iI asked the attendant who is that with great enthusiasm and he looked at me annoyed and said Metallica. Oh I thought that's the band all these kids keep wearing around town. I bought the vynil took it home and literally wore it out then went backwards to get earlier releases. This album got me into Heavy Metal.
6. Not Of This Earth...Joe Satriani I was in Circuit City looking for speakers 1987 I think. The walls started shaking from inside a sound room I went in and groove from the song Hordes Of Locusts was mesmerizing. The volume was on 7 I turned to 10 wishing it was 11 and the whole place began to shake and rock. Bought the speakers, next bought it on vynil and I was hooked on JS and instrumental rock ever since. Luckily I got to meet years later JS after a 9:30 Club show in DC, a really cool nice guy that gave me an autographed poster.
Ok my eyes are shot, I'll give my second half of my dirty dozen later.
Peace
*We CAN bomb the World to pieces, but we CAN'T bomb it into PEACE*...Michael Franti
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
*MUSIC IS the expression of EMOTION.....and that POLITICS IS merely the DECOY of PERCEPTION*
.....song_Music & Politics....Michael Franti
*The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite INSANE*....Nikola Tesla(a man who shaped our world of electricity with his futuristic inventions)
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Kiss - Dynasty. But this was basically because of the cover. I was a very impressionable 8 year old. Thought these guys were cool. It was the 1st time I started to like music that was different from my dad's music.
Van Halen - 1984. Now this one was for the music. Like everyone else at the time, I thought Jump was the best song ever. This was the 1st album where I decided I HAD to check out the band's back catalog.
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil. As I hit my teenage years, I started to like the heavier stuff a bit more.
Guns and Roses - Appetite for Destruction. Made me realize that I was wasting my time on hair bands.
Metallica - ...And Justice for All. Still tot his day, one of my favorite CDs.
Pearl Jam - Ten. Immediately drawn to it. No CD ever hit me like this one. Not then, and not since
Nirvana - Nevermind
Pearl Jam - Vs
Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
Blur - Parklife
Pulp - Different Class
Radiohead - Kid A
Tom Waits - Rain Dogs
Arcade Fire - Funeral
National - Alligator
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Burial - Untrue
Probably the seminal albums of my life. Clearly some are obvious game changers, others were doors to a larger world of sound or soundtracks to significant periods of my life.
The Doors / Waiting for the sun (made me want to try acid)
Led Zeppelin / Houses of the holy (made me want to smoke weed)
The Beatles / White Album (made me take acid and smoke weed)
Sepultura / Roots (made me buy a drum kit)
Black Sabbath / Vol.4 (made me take acid, smoke weed and play the drums)
Neil Young and Crazy Horse / Rust never sleeps (made me want to be in a band)
Bob Dylan / Highway 61 revisited (made me think maybe even I could be a singer)
Cosmic Psychos / Cosmic psychos (made drinking fun)
Beastie Boys / License to ill (made me think maybe I could rap)
Pearl Jam / Ten (made me love music even more)
Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
Led Zeppelin- BBC Sessions...it was my first foray into real music and it launched a love that stands to this day and I've passed to at least one of my daughters.
There are other albums that I love and have broadened my musical horizons and inspired me as a musician, but none have changed the course of my life the way that album and the rest of the Zeppelin catalog have.
Michael Jackson - Thriller
Prince - Purple Rain
Beastie Boys - Licensed to Ill
Metallica - Metallica
Pearl Jam - Ten
Nirvana - Nevermind
Rage Against the Machine - s/t
NIN - The Downward Spiral
The Roots - Do You Want More?!!!??!
Devin Townsend (Biomech) - Ocean Machine
Tool - Lateralus
Opeth - Blackwater Park
The Wall (reigns supreme)
Wish You Were Here (a classic)
Zeppelin II (wore out many a cassettes)
Zeppelin IV (see above)
Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (Over the Hills and Far Away)
10 (refreshing new sound from the west coast where I lived and went to school)
Vs. (wow... this band's for real)
Tattoo You (on eof the best rock albums ever... play Waiting on a Friend at my funeral)
90125 (fucking great album... other side of the 90 minute tape I had playing before basketball games)
War (headphones before my basketball games)
Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (classic summer music)
News of the World (sweet times)
HM:
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars
Aenima
Lateralus
Toys in the Attic
Nevermind
Moving Pictures
Dirt
So
1. Collide by Skillet. This has to be number one because it is was introduced me to rock. I lived in a very strict household with my super Christian family and when I first heard this sound my mind was blown and hungry for more at the same time!
2. Demon Hunters self titled album. It's the album that brought me into metal.
3. David Bowies greatest hits cd. I think the first album I ever bought with my own money and it ment alot to me, also he was one of my first secular bands I started listening too.
4. Let It Be by the Beatles. It was the first Beatles cd I had bought and before it all I listened to was the songs I downloaded onto my MP3 player and when I got this cd it was played nonstop
5. Ten. Probably the most important record ever to me. It's the cd that finally pushed me to learn guitar, I remember listening to it all the way through atleast twice a day wanting and yearning to be able to play these songs for myself so badly and then oneday I was watching Pearl Jam at Pinkpop 92 and they were on the song "Why Go" and I said I'm going to be like that oneday. So I picked up my little star caster fender and got to it. That day I learned Jeremy and Black.
Beastie Boys- License To Ill
Pearl Jam- Ten
Pearl Jam- Yield
Metallica- Metallica
Soundgarden- Superunknown
Alice In Chains- Dirt
Tool- Aenima
The Strokes- Is This It?
The White Stripes- Elephant
Led Zeppelin- Led Zeppelin
10/31/09- Philly
5/21/10- NYC
9/2/12- Philly, PA
7/19/13- Wrigley
10/19/13- Brooklyn, NY
10/21/13- Philly, PA
10/22/13- Philly, PA
10/27/13- Baltimore, MD
4/28/16- Philly, PA
4/29/16- Philly, PA
5/1/16- NYC
5/2/16- NYC
9/2/18- Boston, MA
9/4/18- Boston, MA
9/14/22- Camden, NJ
9/7/24- Philly, PA
9/9/24- Philly, PA
Eddie Vedder- 6/25/11- Philly, PA
RNDM- 3/9/16- Philly, PA
Led Zeppelin The Song Remains the Same
Cheap Trick at Budukan
Aerosmith Live! Bootleg
Pete Townshend Empty Glass
Supertramp Breakfast in America
AC/DC Back in Black
Dire Straits Making Movies
Prince Purple Rain
Pearl Jam Vs.
Public Enemy Yo! Bum Rush the Show
Beastie Boys Paul's Boutique/Licensed to Ill
Ice Cube AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted/N.W.A. Straight Outta Compton
those last two are like double albums to me
there's a lot of honorable mentions...
Eminem Slim Shady LP
The Beatles Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (White Album)
Neil Diamond Hot August Night
Joe Satirani Surfing With the Alien
The Who Quadrophenia, Who's Next, Who Are You
Pink Floyd The Wall
Neil Young Live Rust, Harvest
I didn't even bring up the Rolling Stones, Some Girls, Tattoo You, Exile on Main St. Emotional Rescue, Sticky Fingers, Let it Bleed or Beggars Banquet
Super Hard. I could easily list 150. Easily.
Flex Your Head compilation from Dischord. This album single handedly changed me forever. Politics, sound and energy.
Master of Puppets. Battery into Puppets was sick then I heard Orion…
Kiss, Destroyer. There were things that I heard on Vinyl on this album that were truly unbelievable to a young kid. I was a "paperboy" (last one in my area) and found this record being thrown out. I still own this til this day…
Walk Among Us, Misfits. Speed Metal/thrash was in it's infancy. Everything you listened to in the late 80's to now revolves around this band.
Tool Undertow. Drums, guitar and lyrics are just over the top! Bottom and Undertow were songs off the beaten path that moved me.
Iron Maiden Number of the Beast. I was 9 when I first heard this. This started my love of music.
Eric Johnson Avia Musicom. I woke up to this on my alarm clock. I haven't heard a guitar song like Cliffs of Dover ever, and to wake up to this?!?
We're the Meatmen and You Suck! One of the funniest hardcore albums that I ever heard. I hate the Beatles to this day because of them…
Matt& Kim Sidewalks. New Hipster music with a great sound. I've seen them 3 times and love them!!!
Exit Planet Dust, The Chemical Brothers. I heard the techno music coming out of NYC that was starting a movement. When I found this album I was hooked! I always wanted to go to Europe and be in a crowd of a 100,000 dancing to this.
Discovery, Daft Punk. This music made me want to groove. Awesome samples and composition. Beats just jammed!
This is Happening, LCD sound system. I got into these guys really late. I heard Pow Pow and loved it. So I start listening to them and they decide their final concert is now… Greatest show I ever went to…
I wish that I could comment to all the others because there is soooooo much cool stuff happening and a lot of WTF?!?
My tastes are all over the place. It's not for everyone but I bounce around!
2. Leonard Bernstein conducts Beethoven’s 5th Symphony. This one still blows me away. What more can I say?
3. The Beach Boys- Shut Down Vol II. This was the first pop album I ever owned. My sister gave it to me. The Beach Boys were my introduction to a life long love of rock and roll.
4. Bob Dylan- Highway 61 Revisited. One night while listening to music on my little transistor radio this incredible song played that went on and on and on- “Like a Rolling Stone”. A whole new world of music opened up for me.
5. Sandy Bull- Inventions. In my Sophomore year in high school my English teacher brought this record to class and played it. She told us that while we listened to the music we were to write whatever came to our heads. The music inspired me to let loose with a stream of ideas such as I’d never experienced. In those moments, I developed a love of writing.
6. The Jimi Hendrix Experience- Are You Experienced. If Dylan was a whole new world of sound, Hendrix was a whole new universe. A long time favorite of mine.
7. John Mayall- The Blues Alone/ Bluesbreakers Crusade. Mayall’s British blues led me to explore the real deal via J. B. Lenoir, and from there a never ending love of the blues.
8. Sun Ra and His Arkestra- Pictures of Infinity. I had roommates in college who were jazz fans- particularly avante garde jazz- and I absolutely hated the stuff... until one night while they were playing this record I suddenly got it and have ever after been very passionate about this kind of music.
9. Neil Young- Zuma. By the early seventies rock, for me at least, had become bloated, stagnant and boring and I was listening mostly to jazz. A kid brought this record in to a class I was teaching in 1976 and we listened to it and my faith in rock and roll was restored.
10. The Replacements- Let it Be. Despite Neil Young giving to to rock once again for me, I was still dissatisfied with hippy aftermath and when The Replacements played two songs on SNL hosted by Harry Dean Stanton I was electrified. I’ve been a huge ‘Mats/Westerberg fan ever since.
11. The Ramones- Ramones. I kind of worked my way backwards to punk when, well after this was released, I discovered how great the Ramones were and how important they were to the development of punk rock.
12. Pearl Jam- Riot Act. I liked PJ from the get go but when I finally caught on to this album I really began to take the band seriously and it led me here to 10 club, the forum and the making of some great friendships!
And for good measure, I'll add this one: Luna Rex- All Kinds of Terrain. And not just because Jonny Pistachio is a good friend, but because Jonny and Co. have made an excellent record. Check it out through the Luna Rex thread here on "Other Music". Great stuff!
Brian... you come by your gentle, wise ways honestly my hippie friend!
Have a good night!
KISS Rock N Roll Over (Calling Doctor Love and Hard Luck Woman played to death on my parents' cabinet stereo)
The Cars (from top to bottom one of the greatest debut albums by any band- perfect for the time)
ACDC Back in Black (I thought I was real cool listening to these guys)
Judas Priest Screamin' for Vengeance (my portable stereo needed countless 8 D size batteries as I played the shit out of this album playing basketball)
Led Zeppelin II (greatest ever maybe?)
Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy (First time I heard Over the Hills and Far Away I thought it was a perfect song)
The Who Who's Next (brilliant)
U2 War (a different sound that what I typically listened to, but one that I really, really dug)
Pink Floyd The Wall (best concept album ever... by far)
Rolling Stones Tattoo You (played to death on the Okanagan Lake with my pals)
Pearl Jam 10 (I was in disbelief hearing this album throughout)
Pearl Jam Vs (again in disbelief that this band followed such an unreal album with an even better one)
Rage Against the Machine (flat out awesome... first heard this on my sports Walkman from a Swiss traveler while backpacking in Costa Rica... I gave him AIC Dirt to listen to)
Tragically Hip Fully Completely (an underrated Canadian band an underrated album that ranks up there with any)
Tool Aenima (brilliantly dark and loud and awesome)
Sorry. Must have 15.
MJ- Thriller- first album I was just a fucking mark for. this is such a good album, but to get me to dance like a Zombie...
PJ- Ten, No Code and LB Ten led me to to race, and launched full on craziness, No code ws the perfect album at the time in my life I needed a reflective awesome rock record. LB let me have some faith they still have a bone to pick despite their wealth.
Zep- remasters- so much damn good music and so many styles- really made me love crossover music
Thievery Corp.Radio Retaliation- really helped me see the greatness of some of the electronic dj type bands
Explosions In The Sky- The Earth Isn't a Cold Dead Place- fuck this band is good.
Pink Floyd- The Wall never analyzed an album like I did for the wall, really made me want more in tunes
My Morning Jacket- It Still Moves brought a new relationship with my little sis I never had, an album we both fucking loved
Duran Duran -Rio Young, pre-teen, really made me love 80's synth. still love the electronic keys today Simon, you are amazing
NI N-Broken- helped me get through the pissed off at the world stage of my life
David Bowie - ChangesBowie/Labyrinth Soundtrack. My parents made me watch Labyrinth as a kid, which led to my Bowie obession, and lifetime love of music. My all time favorite, he is all I listened to for years until discovering PJ. Literally, I didn't listen to anyone else.
Hole - Live Through This. My favorite album of all time. I don't care what anyone says. This album makes me feel good about being a girl. Such a powerful, dark, and incredible record.
PJ - Ten. I don't think this needs explaining here:)
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - The Best of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. I fucking love Nick Cave. How I didn't discover him immediately after David Bowie is beyong me. I'll just stop there before I start babbling and a third Nick Cave thread forms on the 10C boards...
The Carpenters - The Carpenters. My favorite to listen to on Vinyl. There is no other way. Thank You, Karen and Richard Carpenter, and Burt Bacharach.
Temple of the Dog - PJ and Soundgarden. YES. There are few things more impressive than Chris Cornell's lyrics and vocals on TOTD. How is he good looking too?
MJ - Thriller. I can't say anything about it that hasn't been said before.
The Velvet Underground and Nico. GUH. I don't want to believe Lou Reed is gone.
Nirvana - In Utero. I love it so much, but can't listen to it very often because it's so depressing, and makes me wish Kurt was still around.
Tori Amos - Little Earthquakes/Boys For Pele. I couldn't choose between the two. Both so wrenching, raw, and unique.
Jeff Buckley - Grace. Quite possibly the most beautiful album ever. I probably had it in my stereo for a year after I bought it.
PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. Such an optimistic, positive album, without pretension, and she plays almost every instrument on it. She won the Mercury prize for a reason. I have a girl crush on her voice. And her. So sexy.
Depeche Mode - Violator. Depeche Mode's Thriller. 9 nearly perfect songs. Dave Gahan is so underrated.
Kanye West - My Dark Twisted Beautiful Fantasy. The album that made me truly understand the power of Rap. Say what you want about Kanye, This album floors me.
Honorable mentions:
The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead. This should be on here. Same with Louder Than Bombs. Seriously
The Cure - Staring at the Sea. Dark, perfect singles.
REM - Monster. This turned me into an REM fan. So different than anything else they ever did. I have like 3 copies of it if anyone wants one, lol
Great Pop Music: (Madonna - The Immaculate Collection. The title is legit; Perfection. Janet Jackson - Janet./Rhythm Nation. I can't choose. Both sexy, confident, socially conscious. Beyonce should thank her everyday. Kylie Minogue - X. Completely rules.
Thank you, TBU!
1. Kiss Alive II....The 1st Rock music that I ever owned, or listened to.
Metallica - Kill Em' All...I had never heard anything so fast, or hard, that was also good, before then.
Minor Threat - Out of Step...Not my first Punk, but the 1st punk I understood, since they added the lyrics to the liners.
AC/DC - Back In Black.....Angus made people come up with a new term for what they did....Head Banging!
Twisted Sister - Stay Hungry....Good Hair Band music before they crapped out.
T.K.O. - In Your Face....Grunge, before they defined grunge.
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's....My parents owned lots of Beatles albums, but I thought it was Old Peoples music until I listened to this one all the way through.
Pink Floyd - The Wall...my 8th grade teacher let us listen to this in class while we were doing our work. Who can ever forget anything that cool.
REO Speedwagon - Hi Infidelity...A Junior High School thing. The only thing that wasn't Disco that the girls would dance to.
Foreigner - 4....Another girl thing. My first Girlfriends favorite songs were on this one.
Garth Brooks - No Fences....Who knew you could have any fun listening to Country music.
Hanoi Rocks - Two Steps from the Move...Nobody has ever done Glam rock better.
Jimmy Buffett - Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes....I spent 4 whole summers just listening to Jimmy Buffett music during the summers after I heard this one.
Soundgarden - UltraMega OK....Bought my "Fuck Happens" shirt on this tour, and got kicked out of J.C. Pennys for wearing it there. Who can ever forget something like that!
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers EP....would have never guessed he was a white guy.
Violent Femmes - S/T...Defined Alternative for me.
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables....any album that has a song called Too Drunk to Fuck is a life changer.
I don't think I am even close to being done yet, but as some people say.....I'm Too Drunk To Post
Not sure if you ever saw the shirt, but in 6 inch White letters on a Black shirt, they printed "FUCK HAPPENS".
I wore it to see Sir Mix-A-Lot and his crew, and they all signed their SWASS record, and one of them wrote fuck happens along with their signature after they joked about it for a few minutes. Funny as hell
sometimes it's my favorite, sometimes it's not. But it was my first love, and really was the transition into coming into my own as a music fan. I remember it well: I had to go with my buddy to his tennis lesson and needed a way to kill time. Although I had my walkman (cassette mind you) with me, I either had no tapes or a tape I was sick of (that part I do not remember). I looked at his tapes and nothing caught my eye. So I went to his younger brothers room and looked at his collection. He had a burned copy of MP. All I knew about Rush at that point was from the few songs I had heard on classic rock stations. I neither liked nor disliked them, and I do distinctly remember having heard their recent single "Show Don't Tell" on the radio and not liking it (though I do now). So that places this somewhere around 1990-1991. Anyway, I grab MP and think to myself that if anything I have some filler for the next hour. My buddy had his tennis lesson, and I had a life changing listening session. All these years later I've seen Rush 20+ times, and I can trace it all back to that day, at 14 years old, watching my buddy hit backhands while losing my mind to The Camera Eye et al.
Pearl Jam - Ten
As with Moving Pictures, it's not necessarily my favorite, but I can't deny it's place in my musical journey. Before "grunge" was the big in thing during the Spring of '92, there were rumblings of something big happening to music. I had seen the videos for Man In The Box and Outshined, and Smells Like Teen Spirit was blowing up. Then I heard the song "Alive" on the radio (eiher Dec of 91 or Jan of 92). The DJ must have said something about a connection to Nirvana, or to other bands, and I just thought to myself this song...this singer...was something special. I had to have it. I immediately went out in search of this album. I came home, popped in the disc, and immediately went to track 3. My dad, who sometimes digs individual songs from my collection, walked into my room and gave it a thumbs down. I knew I was onto something...
Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
I "snuck" this one into my collection (on tape no less) because my parents were not too fond of me owning albums with explicit lyrics stickers. I found the "less offensive" alternate cover, which at least lessened the blow I suppose. Man...this album blew my mind. All I knew by them at this point was Been Caught Stealing. "Stop" hit me like a ton of bricks. And the album kept unleashing awesomeness into my warped little brain. To this day I still maintain Three Days is the greatest song of the past 30 years, and is alt rock's Stairway to Heaven.
Phish - A Picture of Nectar
I'm a Phish fan. A big fan. And I'm all about bootlegs and live stuff. but this is where it all started. I knew absolutely nothing about them when I bought this album. I had read a review that had a really weak/wrong reference to them being alternative. So imagine my surprise when I think I'm going to hear a great new "grungy" band and instead...Llama kicks in. I was soooo disappointed that they were, instead, this weird quirky band. But I grew to love it as I gave it more and more spins.
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour
I didn't own a lot of Beatles stuff as a kid, because my dad was a huge fan and my sister went through a long phase...so I was kind of burnt out. then in college I decided I needed to have a few of their albums in my own collection. This was one of the 4 I got. I completely dove into MMT, still my favorite Beatles album, and still thing this is their finest work in terms of studio wizardry and layers of complexity. Every song has all of these little nooks and crannies that keep coming out even after hundreds of listens.
Nick Drake - Pink Moon
I jumped on the Nick Drake bandwagon kind of late. I kept meaning to get his stuff but never got around to it. Then sometime around 2001 I was with my buddy in a CD store and saw a used copy of Pink Moon for like $8. I bought it on a whim. I told my buddy all I knew about Nick's story (he had never heard of him at all), and he just said "I'm intrigued...put it in" as we drove back to his house. We were mesmerized. How somber. How beautiful. How perfectly sad. How...perfect. It's a perfect album. And it clocks in at a whopping 28 minutes. I believe my buddy owned it about a day later.
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Again, not my favorite album from him. But this was my entrance into jazz. for the holidays one year I asked my dad to get me a few jazz CDs. i felt like I had to try. He got me a couple, including KoB. It's kind of the Sgt Pepper, Pet Sounds or Dark Side of jazz: every fan kind of needs to have it. It's a landmark. I "got" it immediately...it's just so perfectly executed. It's patient, exploratory, and warm & inviting. Now that I am a huge jazz fan with dozens of jazz albums, I can look back and see how KoB is even more perfect than I originally could have contemplated.
(to be continued in post #2 because of length issues)
Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
I have a soft spot for angry/hardcore music. Freshman year in college these guys came around in support of 311, and I went to the show (it was winter of 1994/1995). It was at Club Toast in Burlington, VT and there were maybe 200 people there. I went to see 311 (who killed it that night), but fell in love with the raw energy and positive vibe of Shootyz. Holy cow did those guys absolutely rip it up on stage. I saw them several times after that. This album reminds me of college probably more than any other. Its rap/rock done absolutely the right way.
Joe Satriani - self-titled
I've been a fan for many years, and I love pretty much everything he has put out. He can shred, he can be soulful, he can be quirky and experimental. But this album is just so deep. You almost never hear anyone talk about it, but this is the album I go to when trying to convince someone that he is SO much more than just a soulless shredder. Satriani is a very deep player, and this album shows how bluesy, dark and warm he can be.
Billy Cobham - Spectrum
I bought this album after hearing his work on the first couple of Mahavishnu Orchestra albums (which are incredible). Quadrant 4 kicked me in the face and made me beg for mercy at first listen (Tommy Bolin's guitar work is ridiculous, along with Billy's absurd drumming). That song is just soul crushingly intense. And then Stratus? Is there a funkier, in your face, funk fest of funkiness in the history of fusion jazz? Nope. As history tells it, Quadrant 4 was Billy's nod to the Mahavishnu legacy in his past (see guys, I can create an absolutely ripping fusion song too), and then the album goes on to foretell the direction he would be heading for the next few years to come.
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
I alternate between this and Meddle being my favorite (and Animals, The Wall and Dark Side also pop into the discussion sometimes...duh). WYWH is the album that I dove into first, and the whole sound and concept just hooked me. This was before the internet - I was just trying to figure out what the songs meant and what the transition sounds were all about. And that solo in Shine On? Mesmerizing. I didn't know Syd's story, and I certainly didn't know what the theme of the album was at that time - I just knew this was something deep...something big.
GnR - Appetite for Destruction
Oh how my 11 year old brain thought this was the most bad ass thing in the history of bad assedness. It's easy to look back and view GnR differently after all this time, but was there a more, again, bad ass thing to happen to rock...ever? These guys blew up and it was SO god damn cool. They were angry, loud, obnoxious...and they played the bad boy rock persona thing SO well. As a little kid I just thought they were the coolest things to ever happen.
Steve Morse - High Tension Wires
I realize that some people might find some of the textures and sounds on this album to be a bit cheesy. I don't care. This album brings me places. I remember listening to it while on a ski trip with my family back in like 91/92. All of these landscapes and sonic textures that Steve tried to create...it worked so well with the mountains and forests passing us by as we drove to that day's ski mountain (Sundance). Yes there is flashy playing on it (Tumeni Notes...), but much more than that it's an adventurous album. I just dig his tone on the entire thing.
Primal Scream - Screamadelica
I bought this album way back in the day because I liked the song I heard on the radio (Moving On Up). I had NO idea that the rest of the album was absolutely nothing like the 1 song. I loved it. It was happy, psychedelic, weird, funky...I didn't know what the album was or how it would come to be viewed over time...I just knew it was freaking cool as hell.
Zep - IV
What rock fan didn't have a moment with this album at some point in time? My favorite is either III or HoTH, but IV is pretty much what is responsible for me having a large place in my musical experience for classic rock. C'mon...if you're a little 12 year old kid listening to this album and you don't think side 1 just rocks...I'm not sure rock and roll is the thing for you.
Tommy Emmanuel - Only
A perfect instrumental acoustic guitar album. Literally perfect from start to end. The man is not human.
There are so many albums I could put on this list, from Nirvana to Coltrane to Metallica to the Beastie Boys. But eventually lists have to end. I'll probably lost sleep over it, as I think of a dozen more albums that should have been on it. But I suppose I should get some work done today.
Typo Man: "Thanks kidz, but remembir, stay in skool!"
Rage Against the Machine - S/T
Metallica - S/T
Pearl Jam - Ten
Nashville-03
Chicago-07
E.V. Milwaukee-08
Chicago 1 & 2-09
Alpine Valley 1 & 2-11
Wrigley-13
St. Paul-14
Milwaukee-14
Denver-22
St. Paul 1 & 2 - 23
1. Jeff Buckley, Grace
2. The Clash, London Calling
3. The Clash, Sandinista
4. Stevie Wonder, Talking Book (really a tie between Talking Book and Inner Visions)
5. Peter Tosh, Equal RIghts
6. Public Enemy, It Takes a Nation Of Millions...
7. NWA, Straight Outta Compton
8. The Frames, Fitzcarraldo
9. Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here
10. Billie Holiday, Compiliation
11. Otis Redding, Compilation
12. Radiohead, OK Computer
13. Hole, Live Through This (although, and I know this is blasphemy, but I really consider it a brilliant collaboration between Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, as opposed to an album Courtney wrote on her own. I think Kurt wrote a LOT of it!) But this album got me through the Bar Exam and a few other milestones so I can't leave it off.
Look at that, I'm surprised I got to 13 and actually there were a few others I had to weigh so I guess I could've gone to 20. I like the question.
Would be interesting to know (for those who didn't already say it) WHY those albums were life-changing, and what life-changing even means, because I'm sure it's a bit different for each of us. Even on my list, those albums are lifechanging for different reasons.