5 Records from Parents/Family Members That Changed Your Life-Listening

This is an offshoot of the Top 5 Favorites/Most Important/etc., and probably means more to the younger generation of Americana listeners who had so many of their parent's classic rock records to work their way through.

My dad had a fairly good collection of vinyl but stopped buying a lot of music when CDs came into vogue. With a broken record player, me and my brother were stuck exploring only a small slice of what he collected. My top 5 from that is...

1. Bob Dylan - Time Out of Mind [Everybody's first Dylan record hits them hardest, I think. Unless it was like Street Legal or some crap like that]

2. The Rolling Stones -Exile on Main Street (one of the few records he bought twice)

3. The Allman Brothers Band - Live at Fillmore East

4. Eric Clapton - From the Cradle and/or Blind Faith - S/T

5. The Wallflowers - Bringing Down the Horse [you can pretend you don't like this record if you want to, but I still love it]

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Permalink Reply by David Shaw on March 29, 2009 at 12:47pm
I think my elder daughter got into the Doors and Jimi Hendrix from my vinyl collection but she discovered Janis Joplin, the Grateful Dead and others elsewhere. My father was very into music but his tastes ran more to Django Reinhardt, Charlie Christian, Joe Venuti and others (though he enjoyed some of the music I brought home). I got interested in Paul Robeson thanks to an uncle's record collection.

BTW I love Bringing Down the Horse ... another zinger T Bone Burnett production.

I think I mentioned somewhere around here before that my father brought me to Bob Dylan when he called me down to see him on a CBC special in the early 60s (Dad couldn't believe that someone who sang so badly was actually on television ... Bob blew me totally away when I heard him sing "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll that night).
Permalink Reply by michael on March 30, 2009 at 2:47am
It was less a single album than it was a general philosophy of listening. In our family, you could hear everything from the Hair soundtrack (NOT the movie, but the original Broadway cast), Roberta Flack and Donnie Hathaway, to Firehouse Five Plus (Two or three or four). Everything from New York City to Kansas City to Chicago to New Orleans. Which is why I'm not content with one style for too long.
Permalink Reply by michael on March 30, 2009 at 2:54am
Oh I got The Cars self-titled debut because of my sister Lisa. I mean -- I bought it on CD because, back in 1979 or 1980 she bought the lp and played it about 50,000x a day after that and I never once got tired of it. Not a dud track and all kick-ass New Wave synth-ROCK.

Fleetwood Mac -- Rumors. That one just kinda migrated from my sister Sue's collection to mine. Funny, that. She bought it. I played it..and played it...and played it. Then one day it was in my closet and not hers. C'est la vie.
Permalink Reply by Dangerbird on March 30, 2009 at 5:23am
i think i said before that my mum was the music-fan in the house.
my father (who was killed tragically when i was a mere bub) would have been the bigger music fan had he stuck around.
mum tells me he worked in a record store when she first met him, and he'd travel to the city on record-buying sprees... doing exactly what i did, and still do.

in fact i was in the city on the weekend with my 13yo and i took him to a few favourite stores... unfortunately, he's part of the iPod generation, and could give a shit about the physical product.

i've got my father's copies of Led Zep's IV and Deep Purple's 'In Rock'.
i've also got my mum's Monkees and Cat Stevens 45's.
Permalink Reply by modernacoustic on March 30, 2009 at 6:41am
The Freewheeling Bob Dylan - my parents record collection
The Doors - I remember hearing "Light My Fire" during a house party my parents threw when I was a kid. In fact, people were having a jumping contest during the song, trying to see if anyone could touch the ceiling... I'm guessing there were some illegal substances circulating that night.
"Revolver" and "Magical Mystery Tour" - my older sister's Beatles collection
A Pete Seeger album (not sure which one) - my parents collection
"Give It Up," Bonnie Raitt - my mom's collection
Permalink Reply by Scott on March 31, 2009 at 7:04am
My aunt moved to Hawaii and left 10 Beatles LPs at my grandmothers. Wasn't too long b/f I got those back to my house once I discovered this motherlode. Spent my next few birthdays and xmas rounding out the rest of the collection.
Permalink Reply by Tara Aaron on March 31, 2009 at 7:10am
My parents were a little older than the classic rock generation, but they had (and still have) a stellar vinyl collection, mostly of sixties folk singers. Not sure which albums were my favorite, but my parents' collection is where I found John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Leonard Cohen, Judy Collins, and Buffy St. Marie. My parents were the original Americana fans!
Permalink Reply by Rudyjeep on March 31, 2009 at 8:35am
My parents were also older and not into rock at all, but I did pick up an appreciation of Sinatra from them. Jerry Vale?....not so much! Most of my musical education came from my oldest brother. I can remember listening to Carole King's "Tapestry" in his Dodge Dart when I was 7 years old. It made me want to take piano lessons. I got into the Beatles, the Stones and Dylan through him, but also Commander Cody and CCR. The other one he turned me on to was "The Band" who he saw at the big Watkins Glen show in 1973. I thought Levon Helm was the coolest man in Rock and Roll...and I still do!
Permalink Reply by Terry Roland on March 31, 2009 at 10:50am
My parents were born in the early 20's. While my mom never bought records, she steered me toward some great American music and gave me the foundation for my favorite music today. If I can point to the most influential record she bought for me it would be:

Hank Williams Greatest Hits---on MGM

others that she influenced me to buy or I heard from my older siblings are:

The Best of Johnny Cash

Woody Guthrie/Alan Lomax Library of Congress Interview--a box set released in 1969--three albums

Buddy Holly Peggy Sue-----my siblings had Buddy's music going all through the late 50's and early 60's.

The Doors first album changed my life like a rock bar mitzpha. Influence would be my older brother.
Permalink Reply by John Weaver on March 31, 2009 at 4:45pm
Well, my father got his music degree from the University of Michigan and had a gigantic collection of records, 99% of them classical...But he also had quite a few folk records from the 50s and 60s, a lot of Weavers and Pete Seeger, Joan Baez and the like. Hidden away in his collection, though, was a copy of The Band which he bought because of The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down. I listened to this thing because of The Weight, but it turns out, I really enjoyed the rest of the record as well.

And then my older brother and sister both shared a great love of the Beatles, so I was exposed to them from a very early age. And my other brother was a fan of some Southern rock, so I got a little bit of that influence as well. My sister also LOVED Simon & Garfunkel...

Somehow this managed to make me into a punk rock/hardcore fan as a teen and yet, I still managed to listen to A Prairie Home Companion every Saturday night because they had some of the coolest music...I still love Greg Brown because of that show and some of the memories from my teen years that I associate with his music.
Permalink Reply by Nate Wallace on March 31, 2009 at 5:46pm
Neil Young's Trans - I used to put this on because I loved the cover art
Linda Ronstadt - Greatest Hits Vol 1, i didn't know at the time how many of her "hits" were covers
John Stewart's - California Bloodlines - My dad played the shit out of this one and I feel it rubbed off on me in the best way.
Traveling Wilburys
George Harrison's - Cloud Nine, don't know why but this was in the car for years...

Honorable mention: my mom's ride featured the Pointer Sisters and Carly Simon
Permalink Reply by music genius on March 31, 2009 at 11:02pm
Luckily, I too grew up with parents who had large music collections.

1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
*I would always listen to this on headphones while going to sleep and everytime that damn alarm clock rang in the song, I would sit straight up but it was totally worth it!

2. Fleetwood Mac - The Dance
*First Mac album I was exposed to, and the only one I truly love. All the other versions of the songs sound wrong after this.

3. The Beatles - Rubber Soul
*My mom and aunt had all of The Beatles on vinyl, and I truly got into them after the Anthology series came out. I would always play Norwegian Wood on repeat.

4. The Eagles - Greatest Hits 1971-75
*I can recite Take it Easy word for word to this day and everytime they say Winslow, Arizona I picture mountains and desert for miles around. What an escape!

5. Various 50's rock
*My dad made a tee ball video once and it included game highlights with songs such as Splish Splash by Bobby Darin, Chantilly Lace by the Big Bopper, and Hot Rod Lincoln by Johnny Bond.

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Created by No Depression Feb 17, 2009 at 9:06pm. Last updated by No Depression Apr 9.