consciousness-altering songs or albums

[bassclef112]

I grew up in the 60's-70's (graduated H.S. '73) so I was playing a lot of everything that influenced me constantly (Beatles, Stones, Who, Santana, Tull, Yes etc etc).

The one album that completely blew me away was Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I had never heard people play that way - the entire band was over the top. And Rick Laird, though not the solo meister the others were, held it together with exactly what was needed.

To this day I listen to it and that initial sense of amazement still holds true for me.

 

[Doug P]

Yes. “Time and a Word”

 

[Chad Michael]

 

[TJL]

93 KHJ....I can still hear that jingle in my head from 1970. That station introduced me to Led Zepplin, Elton John, and Jimmy Hendrix. Ah, the good old days!

For me, the moment that changed my concept of music was in 1974 when I found a cassette tape my brother left lying around the house. It was the Headhunters album by Herbie Hancock. That made me stop listening to KHJ, and start searching for jazz fusion and funk like George Duke, and eventually Stanley Clarke, Louis Johnson, and Patrice Rushen.

 

[reverendtony]

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery. I remember as a kid seeing it at the local drug store when it came out and bought it strictly because of the cool HR Giger cover. That record started me on my progressive rock journey.

 

[ratdoc]

Musically, it was the Beatles "All My Lovin'" when I was 6.
Lyrically, it was Aimee Mann's "Wise Up" when I was 40.

 

[MYLOWFREQ]

I was not into music really until I heard the band Queen when I was about 13. That band got me into playing music. From there, things I listened to got heavier and more extreme and I became a metalhead \m/. After the extremists bands, I calmed down and started appreciating anything that sounds good, but it took some time. So the band Queen really changed my life I guess..

 

[stevieg]

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?

Steely Dan "Deacon Blues". Reminds me of a very specific time in my life.

 

[wpatton11]

14 years old and just starting my lifetime musical obsession. And THIS came out of the AM (!) radio. I'm thinking " You're allowed to do that?"

 

[dasherf17]

Bitches Brew, Miles Davis...heard bits and pieces of it on the radio, but...wow...
Also in later days, Hejira...and the live concert video that had Jaco in it...I love that woman for her mind...it's her chords...

 

[berman3313]

I grew up in the 60's-70's (graduated H.S. '73) so I was playing a lot of everything that influenced me constantly (Beatles, Stones, Who, Santana, Tull, Yes etc etc).

The one album that completely blew me away was Inner Mounting Flame by The Mahavishnu Orchestra.

I had never heard people play that way - the entire band was over the top. And Rick Laird, though not the solo meister the others were, held it together with exactly what was needed.

To this day I listen to it and that initial sense of amazement still holds true for me.

I had to go 9 pages in to find IMF - but I knew someone here would list that as consciousness and being altering. How they got a hydrogen bomb in a piece of vinyl, I'll never know. I got to see them live for the first time May 5, 1972 at Woolsey Hall in New Haven on a double bill with Tower of Power. Got to see them several more times - always amazing. And of course, still listen regularly to this. Consciousness still twisting.

 

[BruceG63]

I remember 74 thru 75 living in northwest ohio listening to cklw out of Windsor,canada hearing them play the song Child of a Novelty by Mahogany Rush.About a week later I was at a friends house and he played the whole album and I was absolutely blown away and have been a fan ever since.Some other albums that impacted me t also were Agents of Fortune by Blue Oyster Cult,Moontan by Golden Earing,Force IT by UFO and 2112 by Rush.I soon took up bass playing along with those and other albums and Im still playing in a blues band at 64!

 

[StereoPlayer]

 

[Charlie28711]

I grew up in the '60's with two older sisters. It was a lot of dance party rock 'n roll in our house. Then came the Beatles if you weren't there I won't try to explain it other than, THEY CHANGED EVERYTHING. The transformative change in how I perceived and experienced music was Led Zep II. I listened to all the Beatles, and everything else through new ears. Or so it seemed. That Zeppelin album allowed for the all the amazing music to come as well as to be able to listen to old jazz, ragtime, big band and the crooners and really appreciate the work of the artists, song writers, composers and arraigners in a whole new way.
Then I took the red pill....the blue pill too and the music and I ascended to another level....
Harry Chapin floored me and still moves me emotionally whenever I hear his story songs.

 

[davebike]

I learned to play bass by playing along to "Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles! Live!"
I learned how powerfully expressive the bass can be listening to John Wetton on "King Crimson USA," another live album.

 

[dasherf17]

I learned to play bass by playing along to "Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles! Live!"
I learned how powerfully expressive the bass can be listening to John Wetton on "King Crimson USA," another live album.

Carlos and Buddy...what a great LP! Weston is great, too...
Jaco is expressive, as well...

 

[oddeotek]

Late one night in 1975, listening to an FM station on headphones, “Song For America” came on. I had never heard the song before nor had I ever heard of the band, Kansas. Although I had been singing and playing bass for 10 years by then, I immediately realized that I needed to be playing music that touched me like that. I wanted to be able to sing like Steve Walsh and to be able to play bass with the surgical precision of Dave Hope. It was a life changing experience and inspires me to this day.

 

[bigtone23]

There have been quite a few albums that altered my consciousness.
I'm just going to discuss a few things that grabbed me at a very young age and certainly molded and directed me into the bass and drum lover that I am. These were all discovered via radio, where many a young kid of the 70s would hear stuff if their older brother or sister didn't have the 12" or 45.
1. The rhythm track to 'Dreams' by Fleetwood Mac. I was a 7 year old kid laying on the floor in front of the console stereo when this would come on the radio. I was mesmerized, entranced. I was laser focused on the bass drum and bass guitar. The fact that the song was mostly that repetitive groove throughout helped keep me in that trance. Still does it to this day. I got my first guitar a year later.
2. Same thing with the rhythm track of 'Hey Nineteen' by Steely Dan. I would just fall into that bass/drum pattern. Got my first drum set right around this time.
3. 'Silly Love Songs' by Macca & Wings. Same mid 70s era early elementary aged kid as 'Dreams'... That prominently mixed, bonky sounding, bouncy bass line could be heard blasting from mid 70s era portable radios and car stereos at the park up the street. I would be in my front yard and that bassline/song could halt whatever little kid thing I was doing and make me stand still and listen.

 

[Womber]

Pcake mentioned Hot Rats. Actually, the first Zappa that I heard at fifteen years old was Stinkfoot. I remember the moment I heard it, thinking, “What in the world is this incredibly different music with such crazy, zany lyrics?” I was hooked. After buying the Apostrophe album I went to the record store the next week and grabbed the first Zappa album that I saw which happened to be Hot Rats. That blew my mind too and totally changed my life; it was the first time that I realized that great music didn’t have to be hard rocking.

 

[Sid Fang]

I owe a lot to my next door neighbors growing up. One of the boys was my age, but he had an older brother who played guitar, had musical ambitions (he later became a somewhat successful producer), and had some very cool records for suburban Ohio, 1970. Thanks to his collection, I discovered Zappa (Mothermania), John McLaughlin (Devotion), Jethro Tull (Benefit), and Atomic Rooster (Death Walks Behind You), all of whom became big influences on me.