Albums That Have Influenced Your Life

[Kaleo]

Are there any specifica albums that have influenced your life, and if so, what are/were they?

For me, I would probably have to say Seasons In The Abyss and Show No Mercy by Slayer. Apart from being the first two really heavy metal albums I heard, the material on each album has influence my own guitar playing style.

[TinMan]

1. The Pixies - "Doolittle" for influencing the majority of the artists that I listen to and being an amazing album on it's own, I'd say it's The Pixies' greatest album because of the tracks contained on it. To quote Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) on an interview about the song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - "I was trying to write the ultimate pop song, I was basically trying to rip off the Pixies."

2. The Flaming Lips - "Soft Bulletin" it's probably the happiest album ever recorded, I think that listening to it can have a major influence on anyone's mood.

3. Texas Is the Reason - "Do You Know Who You Are?" from the band named in tribute to the Misfits' lyrics of "Bullet" (Texas is the reason that the president's dead!), it came out at the perfect time (1996) to introduce and lead the genre of post-hardcore emo, of if you don't follow the genre b.s., I can dumb it down as "emotional lyrics from the D.C. punk scene".

Those are my top three most influential albums that have affected my life and how I live with music as a large part of it.

[Rocinante]

• Pink Floyd - The Wall, Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of the Moon
• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II (that, and The Wall, were my first two CDs, and I still have many of Zep's albums on vinyl that I play on occasion)
• Rush - Exit...Stage Left (introduced me to the fact that not all live albums have to suck)
• Yes - Close to the Edge (the title track tells a nice story, as much with the music as with the words)
• The Beatles - Abbey Road (my first audio cassette)
• Chicago Transit Authority - Chicago Transit Authority (their first, before they shortened the name to "Chicago")
• Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
• Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
• Simon & Garfunkel - Bridge Over Troubled Water
• Jethro Tull - 'M.U.' - The Best of Jethro Tull (I used to play this on repeat while playing Ultima VI, and I still remember parts of that game whenever I hear "The Teacher"

Those would be the early influences, which I fell in love with from the ages of 6-12 I guess.  I'd pick an album to play depending on the mood I was in, and let it run - most of them would make me feel better, or enhance the mood I was already in by the time the last note ended.  After that, it was mostly an expansion of an artist's collection: Anything else by Pink Floyd, just about everything from Rush, Led Zeppelin's entire catalog, all Hackett-era Genesis (and a few gems here and there after he left), everything from Yes.  There's plenty more that I love to hear now, but it's pretty much guaranteed that if you play anything from any of the above mentioned albums I'll stop what I'm doing to reflect for a moment.  Or slam my foot harder on the gas pedal :>

Then according to the man who showed his outstretched arm to space,
He turned around and pointed revealing all the human race.
I shook my head and smiled a whisper, knowing all about the place.

[player1]

Yes - Close to the Edge
 

In charge of who is there in charge of me.
Do I look on blindly and say I see the way?
The truth is written all along the page.
How old will I be before I come of age for you?

[player1]

Everyone knows rock achieved perfection in 1973.

Yes - Tales From Topographic Oceans

What happened to this song we once knew so well
Signed promise for moments caught within the spell
I must have waited all my life for this
Moment moment

[player1]

Yes - Relayer

Listen your friends have been broken
They tell us of your poison
Now we know
Kill them give them as they give us
Slay them burn their children's laughter
On to Hell

[player1]

Motorhead - No Sleep 'til Hammersmith

(including one of my favorite songs of all time, the LIVE! version of Ace of Spades)

You know I'm born to lose, and gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby,
I don't wanna live for ever,
And don't forget the joker!

[Kaleo]

Since you are all going into such detail, I think I will to.

Chronological order, as far as I remember.

First off: The Vines - Highly Evolved. I loved The Vines back in the day. I remember downloading Outtathaway from Limewire and then going out a buying the CD the next day. I have since moved onto heavy things.
Secondly: Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf. One of the first albums that I can remember buying with my own money (there was one before that I remember, but I'm not telling what it was). QOTSA is one of my most influential artists.
Thirdly: Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

. My friend lent me his copy of this, and subsequently got me almost addicted to NIN.
Fourthly: Metallica - ...And Justice For All. While Metallica are not on my Favorite Bands list, this album is the album that got me into metal. A milestone.
Fifthly: Slayer -  Every album up to Divine Intervention. Show No Mercy was awesome, Hell Awaits was awesome, Reign In Blood is a classic, South Of Heaven was awesome, Seasons In The Abyss is my favorite album of all time and Divine Intervention is the most evil album I have ever heard.

[Archangel]

Oceanlab.

[Jedarus]

Awesome album.

[player1]

<img>linky parky</img>

Awesome album.

Unfortunately, they fell into the Boston Syndrome, and just kept remaking it. I really liked that album, though, as well as the Puddle of Mudd and Godsmack from the same era.

[player1]

Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

PERSONNEL: Miles Davis(t), Julian Adderley(as), John Coltrane(ts), Wyn Kelly(p, Freddie Freeloader), Bill Evans(p), Paul Chambers(b), James Cobb(d).

TRACK LISTING:
1. So What
2. Freddie Freeloader
3. Blue In Green
4. All Blues
5. Flamenco Sketches
6. Flamenco Sketches (Alternate Take)

Original Release Date: 1959

[+ OPTIMUS +]

×.×

[player1]

Jimmy Smith - Back at the Chicken Shack

Track listing:
"Back at the Chicken Shack" (Jimmy Smith) — 8:01
"When I Grow Too Old to Dream" (Oscar Hammerstein II, Sigmund Romberg) — 9:54
"Minor Chant" (Stanley Turretine) — 7:30
"Messy Bessie" (Smith) — 12:25
"On the Sunny Side of the Street" (Dorothy Fields, Jimmy McHugh) — 8:01 (Appeared as a CD-only bonus track, not part of the original LP configuration).

Performers:
Jimmy Smith - Organ
Kenny Burrell - Guitar
Stanley Turretine - Tenor Saxophone
Donald Bailey - Drums

[player1]

John Coltrane - Blue Train

Track listing:
On the 1957 LP, and the 1990 CD release:
"Blue Train" – 10:43
"Moment's Notice" – 9:10
"Locomotion" – 7:14
"I'm Old Fashioned" – 7:58
"Lazy Bird" – 7:00
Alternate takes:
"Blue Train" (alternate take) – 9:58
"Lazy Bird" (alternate take) – 7:12

Personnel:
Recorded on September 15, 1957.
John Coltrane - Tenor saxophone
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Curtis Fuller - Trombone
Paul Chambers - Bass
Kenny Drew - Piano
Philly Joe Jones - Drums




John Coltrane - The Best of John Coltrane

Track listing:
Afro Blue
The Promise
Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye
Bye Bye Blackbird
Chasin' the Trane

Personnel:
John Coltrane (ts/ss)
McCoy Tyner (p)
Jimmy Garrison (b)
Elvin Jones (d)

[snb]

one word: Rockwell

[Lava Croft]

3 Feet High and Rising


Debut


Nearly God

[Bajsefar]

AFX- Chosen Lords

For making me feel incredibly good, as well as providing eccelent music for working.
(No vocals, suble tracks- good for concentration)
And for opening me up to a new genre of music.
Here are some tracks:
Fenix Funk 5
Boxing Day
Crying In Your Face

[Lava Croft]

<3 The Aphex Twin, Drukqs is his best work ever.

[Tycho]

Mine would be Rage Against the Machine - Battle for Los Angeles


I loved it and it generally changed my attitude and musical taste Still one of my ever favorite albums
(RATM - Calm like a bomb) -3rd song on that album

[TinMan]

Debut

Hell yes, Björk.

[Kaleo]

Debut

Hell yes, Björk.

Isn't she a nazi? Or am I misinformed?

[TinMan]

Debut

Hell yes, Björk.

Isn't she a nazi? Or am I misinformed?

Very very misinformed.
It might have come up because of the umlaut in her name, but she's not German, she's Icelandic.

Her views on sexuality, national liberation, and not having a religion clearly distance her from the Nazi party.

[Kaleo]

I knöw she wäs Icelandïc... Can't remember where I heard that she was a Nazi though.

Speaking of umlats...

Mötorhead!

[Lava Croft]

Bjork and Nazis, I haven't heard that one before.

[Tycho]

page one in a music thread and Godwin's Law is already in action great...

[Kaleo]

After a brief google search, I discovered that Tycho is indeed right.

Less Nazis boys.

[Lava Croft]

Google said it was and therefore it's a fact!

[TinMan]

After a brief google search, I discovered that Tycho is indeed right.

Less Nazis boys.

What about Les Boys, Dire Straits?

[Plague]

Having a friend introduce me to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon was the biggest album to change both my life and my musical interests/guitar playing. From the opening chords of Breathe/Speak to Me it was just an entirely new sound to me. Hearing David Gilmour's (who I had the amazing opportunity to see live with Rick Wright and Dick Parry) emotive, lyrical guitar playing was what made me change to a Strat. Subsequently, the other Pink Floyd albums starting at Atom Heart Mother and ending at the Wall, and the early- to mid-era King Crimson and Yes albums have all been influential.