consciousness-altering songs or albums

[SDC1-ClickClack]

The first records by The Beatles had a huge impact on me, instilling in me the deep love of music that has dominated my mind since childhood. There were other albums that likewise resonated powerfully with me, but I would have to say that the following ones were particularly important milestones for me, even life-altering, and I actually had to listen to them more than once before I knew what to make of them and then decided that yes, I liked them... a whole LOT.

• Axis: Bold As Love - Jimi Hendrix Experience
• Uncle Meat - Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention
• Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band
• LEG END and Unrest - the first two albums by Henry Cow, a British group who were mostly unknown in the USA, and who played a mixture of avant-garde free improvisation and the most complex and dynamic (loud & soft) progressive rock I had ever heard. Listen to "Nirvana For Mice" and then "Ruins" (original version, NOT the later remix) and "Deluge" for good examples of what I mean. I cannot find a good clip of the original LP version of "Ruins," but here is a fine live version that lets you hear the juxtaposition of composed parts against chaos and sparse notes.

 

[BassToGoGo]

My journey started with hearing the 5th Dimension's "Let the sunshine in"... I had no idea what a bass was but Damn. I loved that sound!

I was the youngest, blessed to have sisters who had great taste in music (well, most of it). I grew up with a steady dose of Motown followed by early Elton John, James Taylor and Alice Cooper. Then a friend gave me two albums by Deep Purple, "Who do we think we are" and "Made in Japan" and Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here".

I was already playing trumpet and had recently moved to baritone in school band and hearing Deep Purple introduced to me to hard rock/blues. I fell in love, how could you not?

But "Wish you were here" turned out to be the monumental album for me. I disected that album... listened to it as I went to sleep for years. I quickly found "Dark side of the Moon" and later was blown away by "The Wall".

Later came albums by Kansas ("Left Overture" and "Monolith"), then Stanley Clarke's "School Days" and Jeff Berlin's "Champion".

On a different note, In the early 80's Rodney Crowell showed what a true song writer was.

These days I'm into Americana (Jason Isbell is the modern day Johnny Cash) and acoustic rock/country (as in old country). After years of making fun of the music I have become a devotee of the genius of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and the rest of the Dead.

I didn't see that coming.

 

[HardNHeavy]

hmm maybe Zeppelin physical graffiti, YES (fragile/drama albums) and definitely Bad Brains for their message and energy aspect. There r quite a few artists, i'd never listen to in a million yrs that my wife or a movie score made me want more. Eric Serra a french composer, did a song for the movie The 5th Element, that plays during the end credits is real cool...Many other oddball songs from various artists i've heard over the years that are special to me..but too many to list.

 

[Bassic_desires]

"Stillpoint" by Madder Lake, a '70s Australian band. I love the way that it builds from the slow 'Salmon song' to the rockin' '12lb Toothbrush'.

 

[dorseylogan]

The Who Live at Leeds when I first heard it was an awakening that led to a love of Rock and then punk ,playing in bands etc. everything rock and roll came from that album...Wore out the grooves on Quadrophenia in my teen angst years (Moon and Entwistle were Gods to me at this point)...and years later on a lark (wasnt a huge hairband kid) I went to see Van Halen at Madison Square Garden...when I saw and heard Eddie something broke in my brain...I was literally blown away...whatever black magic voodoo he was laying down worked on me man...maybe i was just ripe for the taking on that night but that got to me.

 

[Tim Skaggs]

It's happened to me several times through the years, but once was kinda' overwhelming.

My cousin returned from three years in Japan (my uncle was in the Air Force). He breaks out a few albums he bought at the BX during that time and I heard all of the albums listed below, for the first time, in the first 3 or 4 days after his arrival & heard them all again multiple times in the next couple weeks.

Santana - 1st album & Abraxas
Led Zeppelin - II
Grand Funk Railroad - On Time, Red album, Closer to Home
Cream - Wheels Of Fire & Goodbye
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Sly & the Family Stone - Dance To The Music
Three Dog Night - Three Dog Night & Live At The Forum
James Taylor - Sweet Baby James
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced, Smash Hits, Electric Ladyland, & Band of Gypsys
Woodstock Album
Alice Cooper - Love It To Death.

To tell the honest truth, I'm not totally over the effect this had on me. It was by far the biggest consciousness - altering event related to music in my life and it's looking like it always will be unless something really big happens soon.....

 

[Bassic_desires]

@Tim Skaggs - same as you re Black Sabbath. I'll never forget hearing that album at a mate's place played on a reel-to-reel deck.

 

[Drummerboy2]

My journey started with hearing the 5th Dimension's "Let the sunshine in"... I had no idea what a bass was but Damn. I loved that sound!

I was the youngest, blessed to have sisters who had great taste in music (well, most of it). I grew up with a steady dose of Motown followed by early Elton John, James Taylor and Alice Cooper. Then a friend gave me two albums by Deep Purple, "Who do we think we are" and "Made in Japan" and Pink Floyd's "Wish you were here".

I was already playing trumpet and had recently moved to baritone in school band and hearing Deep Purple introduced to me to hard rock/blues. I fell in love, how could you not?

But "Wish you were here" turned out to be the monumental album for me. I disected that album... listened to it as I went to sleep for years. I quickly found "Dark side of the Moon" and later was blown away by "The Wall".

Later came albums by Kansas ("Left Overture" and "Monolith"), then Stanley Clarke's "School Days" and Jeff Berlin's "Champion".

On a different note, In the early 80's Rodney Crowell showed what a true song writer was.

These days I'm into Americana (Jason Isbell is the modern day Johnny Cash) and acoustic rock/country (as in old country). After years of making fun of the music I have become a devotee of the genius of Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh and the rest of the Dead.

I didn't see that coming.

That Album from Kansas "Left Overture" is a serious workout on the drums! Love that tune!

 

[Corbusier]

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 !

Animals is my favorite Pink Floyd album.

 

[Michedelic]

I started listening to Top 40/rock radio in the golden era a little late in the day, so I missed all that silly cheesy British invasion stuff like Freddie and the Dreamers, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Wayne Fontana, etc. But I was just in time for this game changing single...

Too far ahead of its time to be a big hit, but it sounded like nothing else I'd heard. Beck and Page together, it was the cusp of psychedelia and heavy rock, over half a year before the arrival of Hendrix, although I did finally catch up with "Shapes Of Things" during the Million Dollar Weekends. Had I heard "Tomorrow Never Knows" in that time period, that probably would have blown my fragile eggshell mind, but FM underground stations hadn't quite come along yet.

 

[4Mal]

The Led Zeppelin album (1) was the death of my cello career and onset of electric bass. Later, John McLaughlin's My Goals Beyond was an album I wore out, multiple times. That started a long affair with fusion for me. I still get chills from the opening of Inner Mounting Flame... that stuff was truly Jazz Rock fusion as opposed to smooth jazz which likes to call itself fusion...

 

[Sid Fang]

...I still get chills from the opening of Inner Mounting Flame... that stuff was truly Jazz Rock fusion as opposed to smooth jazz which likes to call itself fusion...

This thread has been about songs and albums, as opposed to concerts, but the first time I heard the Inner Mounting Flame material, it was in a small midwestern opera house when Mahavishnu were first touring it. It was both inspirational and terrifying. Who would have known that humans could play that stuff?

 

[4Mal]

This thread has been about songs and albums, as opposed to concerts, but the first time I heard the Inner Mounting Flame material, it was in a small midwestern opera house when Mahavishnu were first touring it. It was both inspirational and terrifying. Who would have known that humans could play that stuff?

I saw that tour a couple of times and it was simply beyond belief.

 

[J-Bassomatic]

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?

Muswell Hillbillies by the Kinks. Wasn't a big Kinks fan, barely knew their stuff (You Really Got Me, etc) but something about MH woke me up. Maybe a sophomore in high school. "If life's for living what's living for?" from 'Oklahoma USA'. This record still hits me where I live, right in the heart. Dave Davies guitar parts are perfect.

 

[Outbush]

Every so often there is a totally amazing thread on TB. It is inspiring me, amazing me and bringing the odd tear to my eye.

I was raised all classical so much so that when my wife put on Mozart because I was cranky fighting with an errant piece of household machinery it drove me totally wild and I had to go off for a bike ride. For me they were
An Australian Band called "The Laughing Clowns" (I think there are a few songs on Youtube like Holy Joe and Mr Uddich Smuddich Comes to Town). Rightly or wrongly I always think of it as punk jazz or visa versa.

Black Sabbath Paranoid and

Roger Glover's "The Butterfly Ball" with its message of caring for our world.

 

[58kites]

1964 and 1965

House of the Rising Sun by The Animals

Followed by
Dirty Water ..by The Standells
Gloria ..by Them (Van Morrison)
Little Red Rooster ..by The Rolling Stones
Light my Fire ..by The Doors
The End ..by the Doors
It's my Life ..by The Animals
We Gotta Get Outta This Place ..by The Animals


I was 7 years old when I first heard House of the Rising Sun...and soon these other songs.
Somehow, I understood that there was a much bigger world out there, realized that music could make you feel a certain way, create a feeling.
By the time I was 8 or 9 years old, I badly wanted to be a teen ager like my oldest brother, music was the reason.

 

[dog1]

I'm thinking either Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother (recorded with the London Philharmonic and the Westminster Choir) or their next album, Meddle. And I must include their soundtrack from the movie "The Valley" called "Obscured by Clouds". Changed the way I looked at music

 

[Womber]

Funny thing - like Pcake, Hot Rats caused a huge paradigm shift in my adolescent brain. As I continued reading other responses I realized that so did Yessongs, Quadrophenia, and most of the other albums listed. Wish You Were Here opened my mind even further. The first time I heard Return to Forever, Romantic Warrior ( RIP Chick ) I was absolutely floored. That almost never happens anymore, even with great music. Does that mean that I am old?

 

[Frank Vozak]

Morning Dew- Grateful Dead 1967
This song turned me into a dead head for life

 

[Fuzzbass]

Old phart alert. My earliest moment was when I was a little kid in the mid 60's and learned about The Beatles -- I got to watch them on Ed Sullivan with my mom, who was also a fan. My first real "what-the-fudge?" epiphany was hearing "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin not long after Zep IV was released in 1971.

Not long after that I enjoyed the wonderful benefit of local progressive radio: the "Rock'n'Roll Jukebox" show in late afternoons on WAMU (public radio), which included progressive rock and early "metal": Aerosmith, ELP, Atomic Rooster, early Queen. Even better was WGTB from Georgetown University, which had a strong signal and many great shows: most of which were truly progressive, but there was also an early punk show, and an early metal show. The Tangerine Dream live album "Encore" was partly recorded in Washington DC's Warner Theater, and the emcee who introduced the band on that album was WGTB DJ Professor Mota.

Anyway -- it was on 70's prog rock radio that I first heard Fripp/Wetton/Bruford King Crimson, and that was another epiphany. They were darker and heavier than the popular harder rocking bands: Sabbath, Zep, Deep Purple, The Who, etc.