consciousness-altering songs or albums

[Jazz Ad]

Seriously I could go for days posting stuff that changed my vision of the world.
Here's one that did on a musical level. Erik Satie's music.
Oh, so it means you're allowed to go straight to the bone and put out instrumental music that's raw emotion, with little regard to flourishes and formal beauty. Just emotion.

 

[Resonance129]

I honestly can't think of any albums that had THAT kind of effect on me. I'm not a super emotional guy, and music tends to be something I dissect and inspect as I listen. Basically envisioning the instrumentalists playing their respective parts, attempting to understand what they're all doing.

BUT, I am human.

The TOOL album "10,000 Days" hit me in the feels a few times, and there are a few tracks (throughout the band's entire discography) that helped create some interesting mental imagery. In particular, The songs "Wings for Marie 1 + 2" actually made tears well up in my eyes. The sadness and anger MJK put into the lyrics, the initial melodic drone of the bass part mingling with the whine of the guitar, driven by the 1-2-3-4 of the drums, tension steadily building... And building... Until, ultimately, the song seems to scream and cry along with Maynard.

A little dramatic of a description, but those songs, back to back, headphones on, eyes closed... It's kinda heavy.

 

[Bushmaster]

so, how about you - has a single album or song changed the way you see life and the world?

As a teen I already used to listen to quite diverse stuff. But one day I saw these guys live and I also came to like hanging out with people belonging to this kind of "alternative" scene... (Of course, this is not what later on became labeled as "alternative".)



Another great inspiration was the Canterbury Scene...

 

[yodedude2]

2 albums that caused a life ricochet when i was much, much younger and more impressionable: rush / 2112 and miles davis / kind of blue .

 

[Relsom]

My early influences were a milquetoast combination of R&H Musicals, Disney, Gene Pitney, Rat Pack, Cowsills, Monkees, & The Supremes. I wasn't even really all that tuned in to The Beatles, even seeing them appear on Ed Sullivan in '64. I'm not sure what happened, but at age 12 I received Black Sabbath/Black Sabbath and Santana III for Christmas. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[Durham52]

I was 11 and my family had just moved to London when The Beatles had their first hit and I bought their first UK EP and The Animals, House of the Rising Sun, though my family didn't have a record player! But a friends family did.

During the 60's in London I listened to anything I could get my ears on, Rock, Pop, Motown, Ska, Reggae, everything, there was seemingly no limit and no walls back then. We all seemed to listen to pretty much anything and no one poo pooed one type, or though another type was superior, it was an exciting time to be a teenager and we were just sponges. (Or maybe I was just lucky with the company I kept. )

But for me the real high impact, in terms of albums that I discovered after I had begun learning to play an instrument and which made me take some serious steps particularly as I was starting to write lyrics and music, began with Jethro Tull's Stand Up. My family had recently moved to remote Tasmania, Australia, and I had started at art school and I saw this record cover, that's what caught my attention. I had no idea who the hell Jethro Tull was, or what sort of music they played, but I thought any band who had a record cover like that had to be OK. That was 1969. Then soon after I found Van Morrison's Astral Weeks via a friends collection, a folk, rock, jazz, stream of consciousness through song after story telling song.

The journey has never ended, today there is just so much music out there that I hope I've got another 20 years or so left to keep finding something that shakes me up, and if I can play a bass line to it in my late 80's, then so much the better.

 

[bigswifty1]

I have two:

1. Zappa - "Roxy and Elsewhere" ... I had never realised people could actually play stuff like that. Even my classical piano teacher (who was actually a professional cellist and incredible square) liked it. Mostly

2. Yes - "Going For The One" I don't have words for what that album did for me. And I don't know why. But it did. Still does.

 

[jamro217]

As a teen I already used to listen to quite diverse stuff. But one day I saw these guys live and I also came to like hanging out with people belonging to this kind of "alternative" scene... (Of course, this is not what later on became labeled as "alternative".)



Another great inspiration was the Canterbury Scene...

Wow!!! Thanks for this. Spaceguerilla sounds like an early '70's CTI LP and GonG sounds like Eric Dolphy and Alan Holdsworth jamming with the Headhunters.

 

[Tom Kinter]

For me, it would be the arrival of 'Fresh Cream' and 'Are you Experienced' when I was 17 or so... we had a decent band already doing Kinks, Hollies, Animals etc. and could play well enough to tear right into Hendrix and Cream. I also recall that my musician father, who up to that point was really supportive was SHOCKED!

 

[PWRL]

Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park. I heard it when it first came out and it was entirely unlike anything I'd ever heard before.

 

[Pauly 4001]

The first King Crimson album showed a whole new world as far as I could see and hear back when I first heard it shortly after it came out. And that world wasn't necessarily real pretty.

 

[ElectroVibe]

The entire Moondance album by Van Morrison.

 

[Troy Eggen]

I grew up in a household in the 70's with Country. I loved it. My aunt gave me a stereo and record player, and I do t know if it was accidental or on purpose, but Ted Nugent "Double Live Gonzo" was in the record player. I was hooked to say the least! It had it all-distortion, screaming, guitar feedback, raunchy banter and double entendre-you name it. Bonus because it really really irritated my parents! It's still a favorite some 40 years or so later!

 

[dalkowski]

I can't think of a single album, but this double album definitely had an impact:
View attachment 4175608

I survived adolescence thanks to this album, and that is no exaggeration.

 

[buldog5151bass]

Two others:

- Tommy when most other albums were collections of independent songs, this was the first truly tell a story.

- The Wall - No other album hit me the way this one did, so incredibly heavy, yet melodic. Never would have happened without Tommy, but it took it so much further.

After these two, it seemed like every big band was make it a "concept album" or a "rock opera", but I'm my opinion, no one else has ever approached these two.

 

[40Hz]

Late on a windy Autumn night. 1968. Lying on my bed with all the lights off and headphones on.

And on the turntable:

Other notable mind altering experiences while listening to music (in no particular order):

 

[Ostie]

The first time I heard the Allman Brothers Live at the Fillmore album I was floored. It was my introduction to the Blues. I had never heard that kind of music before. I had grown up listening to Pop music on AM radio. Of course some British Invasion bands were doing blues covers, but for some reason the ABB just knocked me out. I looked at the song credits and saw Sonny Boy Williamson and Elmore James and I wondered who they were, so I started digging and found their original music in libraries and record stores. It opened up a whole new world for me.

 

[MeLikeBass]

I was 12ish. My step dads copy of Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon caught my eye. Put headphones on(best decision ever) and was introduced to a different world of music I didn't know existed. My cousin playing Rush's Permanent Waves album for me was a bit life changing as, after that, I wanted to play music, not just listen to it.

 

[Bushmaster]

GonG sounds like Eric Dolphy and Alan Holdsworth jamming with the Headhunters.

Actually, Steve Hillage was the lead guitarist. Holdsworth indeed played on some later albums, e.g.

 

[Killing Floor]

Lots of songs and albums impacted me but this one started me down the wrong path, so to speak.