Your Five Most Influential c.d.s (Share Why, Stories, etc.)

[Death on Credit]

These are not my 5 favorite albums, although I love them all, of course...

5. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars by David Bowie

Bowie was my first musical love. I bought this album at the tender age of 7, because I loved the movie Labyrinth. Rock 'n roll was always playing in my house, so I can't say it was my first exposure to the genre, it was just the first thing that I took notice of. I sang Starman to my 2nd grade class, and argued with people about Bowie being better than Elvis. I've always made sure to have a copy ever since. I just bought my first vinyl copy yesterday.
Ziggy played guitar...

4. The Ramones' eponymous debut

Admittedly, my feelings toward punk rock have always been mixed. Still, there's no denying that it's always been a vital force in my life. My father joined the scene back when he was 13 in 77, so it's always been around. I first heard this album, along with Never Mind the Bollocks in a roadtrip from Oregon back to Los Angeles when I was 14. It was revolutionary, and really shaped my attitude about life for the rest of my teen years.
They're pilin' in the back seat/They generate steam heat/Pulsatin' to the back beat/The Blitzkrieg bop

3. Raw Power by Iggy & the Stooges

I bought this album with a gift certificate that I won at a Halloween contest at school. I got it at the Tower Records (RIP) on the Sunset Strip. While all of my friends were goofing off at the bus stop, I threw this into my portable CD player, and it was like getting sucker punched. From the opening bars of Search and Destroy, I knew that it was going to be something special. I probably listened to that album 3 times that night.
Soul radiation in the dead of night, love in the middle of a fire fight.

2. Sticky Fingers by the Rolling Stones

As a rebellious punk rock teenager, bands like the Stones and the Beatles seemed like the enemy. I always knew, of course, that the New York Dolls, the Stooges, and the entire NY punk scene would not exist if not for the Stones, but I still assumed that they were terrible corporate rock. And then, for no reason, I went into my dad's CD collection, grabbed Sticky Fingers, and never looked back. This was were all the music that I loved came from, but it was even better than any of them. I went around to all my friends raving that they had to hear the Stones. I'm still trying to get them to give the band a try.
I know I've dreamed you, a sin and a lie/I have my freedom but I don't have much time/Faith has been broken, tears must be cried/Let's do some living, after we die

1. Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan

This album changed everything. After the Stones and various garge rock bands opened the doors to the 60's, I heard Dylan's name frequently, but he didn't make any sense to me. When I was 17, I took a bunch of acid and watched Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and the song 'Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again' came on. I thought it was perfect, and it blew me away. After that, I didn't listen to anything but Bob Dylan for months, and afterward when others bands entered back into the mix, Dylan still dominated 10 to 1. This album really changed my life. Suddenly, I didn't want to be a musician anymore. Dylan already did it, why bother? I dropped out of guitar class, and bought a bunch of books, pursuing a literary life in the hopes of someday being able to use words as effectively as Bob Dylan. To this day, Blonde on Blonde is still my favorite album. There's a mystic quality to Dylan that has never ceased to amaze me. He's made bad records, his current concerts are terrible, but he has a certain indescribable power that no other artist can even come close to.
Now the rainman gave me two cures,
Then he said, "Jump right in."
The one was Texas medicine,
The other was just railroad gin.
An' like a fool I mixed them
An' it strangled up my mind,
An' now people just get uglier
An' I have no sense of time.
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.

​

Honorable mentions:
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Electric Ladyland by the Jimi Hendrix Experience
Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols
Rubber Soul by the Beatles
The New York Dolls

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Nirvana - Nevermind

First album I bought myself when I was 7 at the mall. The cover really stood out and I remembered that year that Cobain was all over the news along with Nivrana since that was the year he was found dead.

I conisder it a punk album and a great one at that. Plays a huge part on my musical style

Nirvana - Unplugged

Really made me appreciate Nirvana as a band and love playing acoustic guitar as well.

Sex Pistols - Nevermind The Bollocks

Greatest punk record IMO and it really got me into punk/alternative rock.

Green Day - Dookie

A great punk record that is sarcastic and fun. Makes me not take writing music so seriously.

Pantera - Cowboys From Hell / Vulgar Display Of Power

These two are just great heavy metal records and really plays a part in the agression that I sometimes unleash in songs I wrote and still write.

I'll put them on when in a depressed mood and it will brighten the day up a bit.

 

[Soot and Stars]

Awesome replies guys, seriously!

@ MidiP-I'm flattered that my post made you want to contribute! Great first post and a great start! Feel free to make an intro thread to get to know us better as I'm positive you'll fit right in here!

@ Death On Credit-Awesome write up man! You're are definitely in the right field if you are trying to be a writer! I'm not a Dylan fan by any means. The doors not shut but your writeup makes me want to be a fan. I'll wait though so when I finally get into Dylan it won't be because I'm biased due to your cool selling of him! By the way, I LOVE the shit out of Labyrinth!

@ CN-Great picks man and the fact that it influences music that you make adds an extra layer of coolness to the whole thing!

 

[Death on Credit]

Thank you, Soot...You made my morning

 

[joe]

1. Kiss Alive(1975) The first album I bought from my first pay cheque from my paper route in grade five when I was 10 years old. From that day on for the next two years everything was Kiss. There was not a piece of wall showing in my bedroom as Kiss posters covered the entire room. Two years later, Kiss was to perform here in Victoria, B.C. I had won a pair of tickets off the local radio station. The show was cancelled due to the concern off the structure off the old Memorial arena not being able to with stand the decibals of the band. I was in tears. Til this day I still don't believe it.

2. Black Sabbath-Black Sabbath(1980) It was a Saturday that I went into the city to the record store to purchase this album. I had picked up Paranoid a couple of weeks earlier and it had a big impact on me. I hadn't heard anything like this before. While I was downtown I picked up a hit of acid for me and my girlfriend and rode the bus back to her place as her parents were out for the night. That Lp was spun all night until I had to leave at 1:00am. I had about a six mile walk home. It was a late October night with a foggy mist and the smell of decaying fallen leaves. Pictured in my mind was the album cover and the ringing of the Black Sabbath intro. I was scared shitless, yet somewhat captivated and intrigued from all my hyper senses and the ambience of the night. A six hour journey home making it alive and defying shadows, noises and yes, evil.

3. Fragile-Yes(1981) Hitch hiking home late one night after smoking weed with a bunch of buddies I was picked up in a Porsche 924. I'm guessing this guy was in his early 30's and had been partying. He pulled off on a dirt side road and turned on the interior light of the car. The driver had asked me if I knew what this was, holding a plastic bag which contained white powder. I responded no, but the thought of cocaine crossed my mine. At the time I was 16 years old and had never seen coke. He held the baggy up to the light and asked me,"what color do you see?". It glowed a pinkish hue. He told me it was Pink Perubian cocaine and if I wanted to try it. "Yeah, I'll try it". Wow! I had snorted a couple of lines and was feeling mighty fine. He then passed me a beer. The driver, after a line, now was more jacked up and started the car and preceeded back onto the rural highway and popped in a cassette in the stereo. For the next hour I sat in that Porsche listening to Fragile on a car stereo that had an unbelievable sound and the rush of navigating the hills and curves along the coast. He did take me home and as I was getting out of the car he said,"here, you can have this". It was the cassette. This introduced me to progressive rock. Up to that point it had always been hard rock. This was a completely different sound that I was used to. To this day, I'm still a big fan of most of the sub-genres of prog.

4. Reign In Blood-Slayer(1986) What was the struggling, suffering, pompous music of the 80's to that point, Reign In Blood was the contradiction, inimically antagonising refute to overwhelm and entomb the mainstream music. Metallica and Maiden had taken the war to the frontlines, but it was Slayer who broke the morallity and will and took it to the next circle of hell "The Unholy Trinity"(Reign in Blood, South of Heaven, Seasons in the Abyss) turned my allegiance "to fight behind the crooked cross" and "march on thru the rivers of red".

5. Dirt-Alice in Chains/Superunknown-Soundgarden(1992-94) These two pieces of music both have a positive and negative conatations for me. This was a time in my life, my late 20's, that that I went on a rapid descent into the depths of addiction. For five years I aimlessly walked the seven terraces of purgatory. A place of suffering, misery, and banishment. Every so often I will listen to either of these two albums and remember where I came from and where I am today. I made it out alive and for that I'm grateful.

 

[Soot and Stars]

@ Joe-Great to see a user who digs some Grunge artist and thanks for sharing the personal details about your past and how those c.d.s remind you of what you've been through. Great personal stories and it's obvious music has been a huge influence in your life!

 

[Abraxas]

In no part. order:

The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips



My first Flaming Lips purchase. This album really opened my ears and eyes to what could done with music. This album proved that you can write about life, death, deep thoughts and the state of the world/the human condition with honesty and emotion. For the longest time I had trouble writing lyrics based on many deep thoughts I've had about the world, the universe and the human condition. The Soft Bulletin showed me how it was done and helped me unlock my thoughts I've had for years into lyrics. This album has greatly influenced my writing and has expanded my musical horizons even further. There's something on this album for everyone to relate to.


Under The Pink - Tori Amos



The abstract lyrics, baroque soundscapes and the mood of the album as a whole grabbed my attention from the first note to the last. It's also one of the very first albums that I've enjoyed from start to finish.


On The Threshold Of A Dream - The Moody Blues



An excellant album from start to finish along with an awesome and mysterious album cover that I wish I painted. Along with Days Of Future Passed, On The Threshold Of A Dream got me interested in symphonic prog plus the idea of having poetry read to a musical or bizarre background (in the case of The Dream) is frickin' cool in my book.


Emerson, Lake And Powell - E.L.P.



This is the album that got me into progressive rock. After watching the Touch And Go video on MTV, I went out and got the album. I was totally blown away when I listened to side one (The Score, Laerning To Fly, The Miracle). The music was adventurous, exciting and it rocked! I was totally hooked and it made me a prog rock fan for life. Soon afterwards I got into many bands from the genre and never looked back. Plus the idea of taking a classical piece like Mars, The Bringer Of War and giving it a rock twist was frickin' cool. This record also got me interested in the original incarnation of the band when Carl Palmer was in the group and they got me interested in classical music, broadening my musical tastes even further. A great album.


In The Court Of The Crimson King - King Crimson



Even though I was into many prog bands by the time I got ITCOTCK, this album really woke my senses. I like the use of vocal effects, playing in unison and the use of silence in places. An excellant album from start to finish. One of my fave tracks is Moonchild even the long improved section that I know most people wished was shortened down.

 

[AboutAGirl]

The 5 Records that Most Influenced my music listening:

1. Untitled -- Led Zeppelin

I was maybe 12 at the time and I didn't know where to go musically. I had fallen in hate with the music of my era and not listening to any music was starting to look like a good option for me. That was up until I overheard an elder brother listening to The Battle of Evermore... an otherworldly war ballad that not only sounded completely unlike any teeny bopper, R&B, or rap music I had heard before, but it still sounds pretty much unlike anything I've ever heard since. I was never a rock n roll type of guy up to this point, and in all seriousness I could have gone in any number of different directions. But a band capable of crafting such a uniquely moving piece as The Ballad of Evermore was worth my undivided attention, and I spent the next four years of my life not only completely submersed in, but wholly loyal solely to Classic Rock.

2. Dirt -- Alice In Chains

Something I didn't know about myself at the time was that I absolutely, positively require variety in my life. Give me the same thing day after day and after a while the monotony will strip it of everything good, and mutate it into a grotesque burden. Such was the situation between me and Classic Rock by the time I had been gorging myself on it for 4 years. My problem was... my allegience to it was so strong that I flat out refused to let any other forms of music have a chance. The process that broke me free of my elitism was long and arduous, and featured many important milestones. But no milestone carried as much impact as Dirt. Dirt broke the final boundary by becoming a post-1980 record that not only sounded modern and represented its era but also garnered my unflinching, unsarcastic, guiltless respect. It started with the song Hate To Feel, with its bluesy overtones, then spread to the whole record, then spread to their other records, then to Nirvana, and by then my eyes were finally open to 25 years of music I had never before been allowed to see.

3. Harvest -- Neil Young

Let's backtrack just a smidgeon. My early days as a Classic Rocker were filled with beefy, no-holds-barred rock music. It wasn't uncerebral music: Pink Floyd, The Doors, Yes... But it was full-figured, electric, and hard-driving. After a couple years of hearing that stuff, my ears began to wander. They wandered and they came to rest upon a quiet little melody called The Needle and the Damage Done. I bought Harvest and it was a whole new world for me... a world of quiet contemplation, of bittersweet solitude, and of sparce, wide-open, minimalist acoustic instrumentations. Harvest has a mood so palpable you could caress it with your fingers. Not only did it open me up to sentimental acoustic music, but it opened me up to the idea of a record having an overarching atmosphere, and having a deeper resonance than just the sum of its parts.

4. "... Best Of ..." -- Pantera

Until I was maybe 19, I never cared for metal. I tried to get into it but found it far too technical and far too slick to be enjoyed. And I don't even own this particular record. A friend convinced me to go to this party with her... and for the most part it sucked, and they played awful rap music. But at the end of the night, like at 4am, her metalheaded friends took over the stereo and put on Pantera's greatest hits album. Two songs resonated with me: Walk and Cemetery Gates. It was very metallic but it was a much grungier style of metal than I had ever heard, and it somehow seemed to capitulate the weird phase of life I was going through... masculine and angry but IMO very wistful as well. Pantera dominated my universe for the next 2 years straight as my most favoritest band, and more impressively they opened me up to the wide world of metal and allowed me to likewise forge close personal relationships with the music of Metallica, Burzum, and others.

5. The Marshall Mathers LP -- Eminem

The history between me and the music of Eminem is rather sordid and convoluted and I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say that I had been familiar with him in my youth. In fact, I had owned this record, before my mother confiscated it from me (she called it "the most disgusting thing I've ever heard") and I became disillusioned with modern music. Well, the most peculiar thing happened a good 10 years later... she returned the record to me! What's more peculiar is that it happened to be the absolute perfect moment for this album to fall into my lap. I love few things more than rediscovering my youth (see my avatar?). Since my personality itself is subject to vast ebbs and flows and redefinitions, I am gifted the opportunity to forget about and then completely reimagine things I used to like. What's more, successfully enjoying things from my past makes me feel almost as if I'm not some shape-shifting basket case but as if maybe I actually like things for some semblence of a good reason! Although most of rap music does not relate to who I am and therefore I do not enjoy it, Eminem opened up that world to me and I now believe it to be one of the genres with the highest potential (even though it is often wasted), plus I found one of my all-time favorite artists: Immortal Technique.

I'd like to get more personal but... that would be a much, much harder list to compile. My music listening history has many obvious turning points, while my emotional relationship with music can be hard to track accurately.

 

[gregjohnson1229]

1) Sting is a huge influence to me as an artist. I love his songwriting style, he can be writing about one thing but others take it for something else. "Every Breath You Take" is a song about stalking but most people thing it is a love songs. I loved his rangy high pitch singing voice. Not to mention he plays so many different string instrument
2) Abbey Road is one of the best albums created and IMO the best beatles album. The songwriting really stuck out to me on this album
3) Elvis Costello is one of the most talented all around musicians and also heavily underrated. The longevity he has shown through the years is amazing. Cosntantly reinventing himself. Elvis Costello taught me he how to write a great ballad.
4) Are You Experienced- Jimi showed me what it meant to give your all to the music. How to get music coming from every pore. Also he taught me there was no boundaries for the electric guitar. "The Wind Cries Mary" is one of my all time favorite songs.
5) The Third Eye Blind self titled album probably seems out of place to most if not all of you. 9 of the 14 songs on the album were singles. Not many bands can say they got 9 singles out of an album. Stephen Jenkins probably spoke to me the most as a songwriter. I remember being 10 years old when this album came out. I was playing a lot of guitar and started writing songs. I Stephen has this style where he writes extremely poppy melodies but with a dark lyrical content. This has became me style throughout most of my songwriting.

 

[Riff Raff]

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