consciousness-altering songs or albums

[juancaminos]

OMG music was a big part of my growing up life. We had the KRLA & KHJ hits albums along with Beatles 45's. Then my hip uncle bought the white album for me. Boy did I wear that out. From there it was Grand Funk the Black Sabbath. CCR was a big thing to me as well. Then Yes, Zep and all of that. By the time I got married it was Steely Dan, Marshal Tucker, Dave Mason, Eagles, Doobies, Bad Co. Then a whole bunch of obscure stuff I got frm FM radio.

I was lucky enough to be able to listen to radio at work all day long. So, as a young man, I listened to KMET for 10 hrs a day at work. Then on the 1/2 hr drive home, then again once I got home. KMET played great music! In fact when I moved to Phoenix in 1977 the local FM stations were way behind the curve. They were more like AM radio.

As far as life changing. Yeah The White Album. Close behind would be Yes, early Black Sabbath and believe it or not early Alice Cooper. IDK...there was so much it's hard to say.

 

[ProbablyTooLoud]

in maybe 1970, i was a fairly normal middle-class 13 or 14 year old who played a little guitar, never cut class or smoked anything, and listened to KHJ radio, the beatles and a lot of single releases.

i was in a local neighborhood record store when an album in the clearance section caught my eye. the cover seemed at a glance to be a woman climbing out of a grave, the entire thing colored in pinkish. i've never impulse-bought an album before or since, but i grabbed it and took it home.

well, that cover doesn't show a woman coming out of a grave, and the album was zappa's hot rats, and believe it or not, it changed me.

coming from "normal" radio friendly music starting with the monkeez and with a background of classical, folk and jazz music courtesy of my parents, hot rats was an eye opener. not only was the music freeform, skilled and completely different than anything my middle-class ears had yet experienced, but it taught me several new words and concepts (i was unfamiliar, for example, with the word "pimp" till then), and lead me to check out captain beefheart, the singer on willie the pimp. in that same clearance bin where i found hot rats, i found trout mask replica.

for me, although i didn't realize it at the time, hot rats - the songs, the musicians, the longer format, the lyrical concepts when there was lyrics, even the cover - changed what music could be for me. it also changed how i saw the world, although i didn't realize it then or even for many years later. everything didn't have to follow a format, lyrics and poetry could be about literally anything and could be snarky. everything didn't have to be G or PG rated, and it didn't have to be something the average person would understand. the album literally caused a paradigm shirt for me that opened up - well, everything.

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

A Love Supreme

 

[Jon Lars]

This spoke to me, opened a new world and inspired me to play bass . . .

 

[Hahaha]

Daddy Don't You Walk So Fast by Wayne Newton caused my brain to shrivel to half it's original size.

 

[Yellow Bang66]

in maybe 1970, i was a fairly normal middle-class 13 or 14 year old who played a little guitar, never cut class or smoked anything, and listened to KHJ radio, the beatles and a lot of single releases.

i was in a local neighborhood record store when an album in the clearance section caught my eye. the cover seemed at a glance to be a woman climbing out of a grave, the entire thing colored in pinkish. i've never impulse-bought an album before or since, but i grabbed it and took it home.

well, that cover doesn't show a woman coming out of a grave, and the album was zappa's hot rats, and believe it or not, it changed me.

coming from "normal" radio friendly music starting with the monkeez and with a background of classical, folk and jazz music courtesy of my parents, hot rats was an eye opener. not only was the music freeform, skilled and completely different than anything my middle-class ears had yet experienced, but it taught me several new words and concepts (i was unfamiliar, for example, with the word "pimp" till then), and lead me to check out captain beefheart, the singer on willie the pimp. in that same clearance bin where i found hot rats, i found trout mask replica.

for me, although i didn't realize it at the time, hot rats - the songs, the musicians, the longer format, the lyrical concepts when there was lyrics, even the cover - changed what music could be for me. it also changed how i saw the world, although i didn't realize it then or even for many years later. everything didn't have to follow a format, lyrics and poetry could be about literally anything and could be snarky. everything didn't have to be G or PG rated, and it didn't have to be something the average person would understand. the album literally caused a paradigm shirt for me that opened up - well, everything.

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

C'mon! My brother was heavily into Pink floyd when iwas like 14-15, every night was like a PF concert. just listening to DS of the moon or the wall would freak me out for the next day! I remember It was either PF or the doors almost all the time! Funny the Doors freaked me out more than PF! both were creepy.

 

[maxschrek]

YES' To Be Over

Quite possibly my all time favorite YESSONG.

 

[maxschrek]

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.

Going For The One is my personal favorite of YES's output. Indeed, otherworldly.

 

[maxschrek]

Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow

 

[david osborn]

Hi P Cake, I laughed my ass off at your description of the hot rats cover..
It's never been described better!
In 1970 I too was 13 and listening to
KHJ. Were you in L.A. as I was?

YES totally rewired everything I thought I knew about music in general, then Pink Floyd had Dark side of the moon, wow. Love F.Z. too. Started the day with One size fits all.
Dave O.

 

[Pet Sounds]

@pcake, I'm about your age, and I thought the '60s music was consciousness altering enough! I loved Dylan, the Beatles, Airplane, Springfield, Byrds, etc., and never cared for proggy stuff. Just one guy's opinion.

 

[Standalone]

i was in a local neighborhood record store when an album in the clearance section caught my eye. the cover seemed at a glance to be a woman climbing out of a grave, the entire thing colored in pinkish. i've never impulse-bought an album before or since, but i grabbed it and took it home.

well, that cover doesn't show a woman coming out of a grave, and the album was zappa's hot rats, and believe it or not, it changed me.

I stopped in to a Providence, RI record shop while college visiting by train, and asked for recommendations. The guy in the shop laid Hot Rats on me. Popping that into my cassette walkman changed my perspective on music for sure. I learned how to listen deeply for complexities in composition and attitude that I hadn't listened for before.

 

[Polfuste]

I was 11/12 years old. At this time, i was listening to the radio with no particular taste for music. I was liking all that i was listening. The 1982/1984 pop soup, plus guys like Micheal Jackson, Bruce Springsteen (Born in the USA was the first original K7 i've bought with my pocket money .. ). My parents were liking music but not so much. There was not too music at home. And one day I took this LP from my dad little collection. An uncle has had given it to my dad. It was the PINK FLOYD album: Animals.
It hit me. It hit me so hard that today, 38 years later, this album is my last refugee. All my musical vibrations are in these 5 tunes..
At this time, i was not speaking or understanding english at all. So i was hit first by the music. All these guitars sounds, nice rounded acoustic ones, burning electric guitar solos, all these strange synthetic sounds with these long tunes.. And the emotions of singers.
Even the pics on the LP. At this time, i was in french guyana where my father was working at the rocket lauching base. We were there from 2/3 years. And I was coming from an industrial town (half ot the town was the PLANT where my dad have worked before leaving for french guyana). These pics were speaking to my inner roots.
And i think this disc has defined what would be my musical path. In first was the acoustic guitar, and one of the first tune i've learned was Pigs on the wing. Only this Roger voice with this guitar. Then came my first electric guitar, and David Gilmour has become like a second father. I've run through all Pink Floyd discography and it became my foundation.
Then one day the bass arrived, and hit me like this album had hit me long years before. And at each moment of my musical path, each time i listen this album, i found a sign, a sound, a particular chord, or bass line that i've always loves, as if it always been there. Very strange feeling.. And this below tune is the #1: and the first thing that hit me was this bass... and it was 14 years before i've found in love with bass..
And years later, as i've started to learn english langage, i've learned that Georges Orwell had inspired this LP thematic. I've read the book and it hit me hard; as it's exactly what i'm feeling with the world today. As if i've understood the lyrics before be able to understand the langage.
This LP will always be with me until the end.

Thank you for this topic !

 

[Thundertips]

in maybe 1970, i was a fairly normal middle-class 13 or 14 year old who played a little guitar, never cut class or smoked anything, and listened to KHJ radio, the beatles and a lot of single releases.

i was in a local neighborhood record store when an album in the clearance section caught my eye. the cover seemed at a glance to be a woman climbing out of a grave, the entire thing colored in pinkish. i've never impulse-bought an album before or since, but i grabbed it and took it home.

well, that cover doesn't show a woman coming out of a grave, and the album was zappa's hot rats, and believe it or not, it changed me.

coming from "normal" radio friendly music starting with the monkeez and with a background of classical, folk and jazz music courtesy of my parents, hot rats was an eye opener. not only was the music freeform, skilled and completely different than anything my middle-class ears had yet experienced, but it taught me several new words and concepts (i was unfamiliar, for example, with the word "pimp" till then), and lead me to check out captain beefheart, the singer on willie the pimp. in that same clearance bin where i found hot rats, i found trout mask replica.

for me, although i didn't realize it at the time, hot rats - the songs, the musicians, the longer format, the lyrical concepts when there was lyrics, even the cover - changed what music could be for me. it also changed how i saw the world, although i didn't realize it then or even for many years later. everything didn't have to follow a format, lyrics and poetry could be about literally anything and could be snarky. everything didn't have to be G or PG rated, and it didn't have to be something the average person would understand. the album literally caused a paradigm shirt for me that opened up - well, everything.

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

Ozzy Osbourne-Tonight

 

[Corbusier]

I have to laugh; I bought Exile on Main Street, because it was the follow-up to Sticky Fingers. The new Stones album, you just bought it. Took it home, played it and hated it: It just sounded like this murky, all-over-the-place mess, I just really, really didn't like it. Over the next year, I'd play it a few times, same reaction.

Then somehow, I put it on a year or so later, and BOOM ! !, the little light came one and it's been a fave ever since. For sure, there's still a few tunes that are just might sketchy to me, but the rest of it is Mother Lode stuff. And of course, the lyric 'the sunshine bores the daylights out of me' are words to live by in some of my play all night / sleep all day gigging years.

I remember reading the first 'Exile' review in Rolling Stone a few weeks later. They went on and on about how bad it was. Then, later on they declared it one of the best albums of the year and then the decade. There's a movie out on them making the album. It's very good.

 

[Robscott]

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

He is sitting on a Vespa, probably a GS but I can't be sure from that pic. In 1968 (Can't Explain, Substitute, My Generation, The Who's finest era IMHO) I was riding around my home manor in East London on a Vespa GS with the reg plate WHO 46. Had the Parka, the 3 ply mohair suit, the crew cut, full tilt boogie. Needless to say my Vespa was a coveted item locally. Equally needless to say my precious Vespa disappeared from outside my house one night, never to be seen again......... Did The Who change my life? Dunno, but they definitely made me sit up and take notice!

 

[butterfingers1]

Elvis woke me in early childhood, was wide awake for a few decades, now slowly drifting away.

 

[Drummerboy2]

I can recall the exact details if where I was and what I was doing the first time I heard the song Roundabout. It really blew my mind. I can't do that with any other song/album! I'm not really a big Yes fan either but I love that song and Fragile as a whole.

I love that tune (Roundabout) Chris Squire play the hell out of that tune. I remember one time me and my older Brother (Guitar player) we were walking into the local GC and that tune came on. My Brother stopped dead in his tracks and told me to check this tune out. He didn't care too much for the guitar line during the song but he loved what the bass player was doing. He also liked the tune they did later on Owner of a lonely heart.

 

[DingwallDingus]

Roundabout for me is one of those special songs where it's such a synergy of what is being played and a great tone that yields something greater than the sum of its parts. Where nobody had heard anything like that before, reminds me of Van Halen's brown sound in that regard. A perfect blend of a player's voice and style.

 

[_Obra_]

Yes, few albums...

-Prince - Purple rain
-Pink Floyd - The Wall
-Radiohead - OK Computer
-Led Zeppelin II & IV

and a lot more...

 

[Son of Wobble]

In Time by Jefferson Airplane.
This song saved my life. I was heavily depressed and my habits at the time weren't helping. I think "Crown of Creation" was the 3rd or 4th album of theirs I picked up (accumulated them pretty quickly once I got hooked). These days it's might actually be my favorite album of all time, but I still remember the first time I listened to "In Time" on good speakers. For me it's just the tone of everything, the way the vocals interact with each other and the rest of the mix, and the way the song moves overall. Really special. Speaking with other Airplane enthusiasts, seems like it's a commonly overlooked gem of a song.

One of my all-time favorite bass parts, it so seductive!