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5 Records Which Changed Your Life
I'm spinning off Grant's latest rant here. For those of us with shorter memories, how about five records that have changed your life?
I'll start, because that's only fair. I found doing this that the records that fit in the "changed my life" category haven't necessarily been what I would consider the "best" records. At any rate, my list, in no particular order:
Billy Joel - '52nd Street'. The first record I ever really loved. It was released into the world one year after I was and, even though he's a piano player, for some reason he's holding a trumpet on the cover. I've recently started learning his piano parts for all these songs on guitar. Can't get much better than "Honesty is such a lonely word / everyone is so untrue."
Liz Phair - 'Exile in Guyville'. My memory of musical taste starts with Billy Joel, Elton John, and Paul Simon, and then sinks into a very long period of bubble gum pop before emerging with a little more integrity sometime in my teens with this record. I don't at all remember where I found it or who turned me onto it, but it was exactly opposite of everything else I'd been listening to and, by proxy of its sort-of-borrowed title, turned me on to the Stones. It also led me to believe that I could write songs--a delusion I hold to this day.
Ani DiFranco - 'Not a Pretty Girl'. This is not her best record, but it's the first one I heard the summer after I graduated high school. She was saying all the same stuff the Riot Grrls were saying, was playing guitar way better than them, and was doing it all in a much more poetic, thoughtful sort of way. I didn't throw away my Babes in Toyland and L7 records, but I definitely moved on. This is also the record that clued me into the Buffalo music scene, where I wound up living for a few years and where I still believe there is an endless supply great singer-songwriters that nobody will ever hear.
Woody Guthrie - 'The Asch Recordings Vol. 1-4'. Until that point, I never knew "This Land is Your Land" had so many verses and was so ballsy. It had always just been a stand-alone chorus we repeated over and over in grade school. I also hadn't known anything of the man behind that song, much less the fact that he was responsible for hundreds--if not thousands--of other songs that would blow my mind.
Townes Van Zandt - 'No Deeper Blue'. Again, this isn't his best record, but it's the first one I heard and it opened me up to the rest of his catalog, each entry of which has changed different parts of me. My friend Michael Meldrum, who knew what he was talking about and whose opinion I very much respected, insisted I go buy any TVZ record and wear it out. I liked the title of this one, so I spent a white-out winter in my apartment in Buffalo with it on heavy rotation.
...Okay, your turn. What five records have changed your life?
I'll start, because that's only fair. I found doing this that the records that fit in the "changed my life" category haven't necessarily been what I would consider the "best" records. At any rate, my list, in no particular order:
Billy Joel - '52nd Street'. The first record I ever really loved. It was released into the world one year after I was and, even though he's a piano player, for some reason he's holding a trumpet on the cover. I've recently started learning his piano parts for all these songs on guitar. Can't get much better than "Honesty is such a lonely word / everyone is so untrue."
Liz Phair - 'Exile in Guyville'. My memory of musical taste starts with Billy Joel, Elton John, and Paul Simon, and then sinks into a very long period of bubble gum pop before emerging with a little more integrity sometime in my teens with this record. I don't at all remember where I found it or who turned me onto it, but it was exactly opposite of everything else I'd been listening to and, by proxy of its sort-of-borrowed title, turned me on to the Stones. It also led me to believe that I could write songs--a delusion I hold to this day.
Ani DiFranco - 'Not a Pretty Girl'. This is not her best record, but it's the first one I heard the summer after I graduated high school. She was saying all the same stuff the Riot Grrls were saying, was playing guitar way better than them, and was doing it all in a much more poetic, thoughtful sort of way. I didn't throw away my Babes in Toyland and L7 records, but I definitely moved on. This is also the record that clued me into the Buffalo music scene, where I wound up living for a few years and where I still believe there is an endless supply great singer-songwriters that nobody will ever hear.
Woody Guthrie - 'The Asch Recordings Vol. 1-4'. Until that point, I never knew "This Land is Your Land" had so many verses and was so ballsy. It had always just been a stand-alone chorus we repeated over and over in grade school. I also hadn't known anything of the man behind that song, much less the fact that he was responsible for hundreds--if not thousands--of other songs that would blow my mind.
Townes Van Zandt - 'No Deeper Blue'. Again, this isn't his best record, but it's the first one I heard and it opened me up to the rest of his catalog, each entry of which has changed different parts of me. My friend Michael Meldrum, who knew what he was talking about and whose opinion I very much respected, insisted I go buy any TVZ record and wear it out. I liked the title of this one, so I spent a white-out winter in my apartment in Buffalo with it on heavy rotation.
...Okay, your turn. What five records have changed your life?
Tags: ani, billy, difranco, guthrie, joel, liz, phair, townes, van, woody, More…
Views: 79
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Larry Here on -
After the Gold Rush was one of three albums I bought as my first three albums ever when I was 13. Your "kindred soul" feeling was mine, as well. I still can't get enough of that record, or Neil for that matter, and it's almost 40 (!) years later... Also, Wide Swing Tremolo has been my favorite Son Volt disc, and and endless player in my car since it's release. LOVE THAT DISC. Oh, and Poco was big for me, though I've still never heard Rose of Cimarron. Good Feelin' To Know still gets me off. Were/ are you a Deadhead at all?
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Permalink Reply by Katelyn Hackett on -
Goodie Mob - Soul Food This was the first hiphop album I took the time to really hear. I desperately wanted to understand and love it because a gorgeous half-Mexican man gave it to me, and I desperately wanted to understand and love him. Soul Food led to Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik led to all the hiphop I could get my hands on, and the rest is history--history including the guy, actually, since he dropped a few cacti plants off on my porch and split for Syracuse three or four years ago. My thanks go to him for opening up an incredibly fascinating new musical world to me.
Stevie Wonder - Innervisions My dad had Innervisions on vinyl, and I discovered it one day while pawing through his collection of Korean chamber choir music and '70s hippie Christian folk for something new. When Stevie kicked everything up a notch on the second chorus of "Don't You Worry Bout A Thing," I fell face-down in ripe, steaming, r&b love. That soaring feeling I got while listening to that album is now is my go-to standard for truly good music.
Buena Vista Social Club - Buena Vista Social Club My spiritual lips were turning an unhealthy shade of blue during what would be one of my last semesters at my college in Spokane, Washington. To shake things up and earn an easy art credit besides, I took a night film class and thereby encountered Ry Cooder's documentary about the Buena Vista Social Club. It wasn't long before the album became a well-loved, sorely-needed spiritual oxygen tent for me. Since then, I've danced to it, made dinner to it, even given massages with this album playing in the background, innumerable times.
Grateful Dead - American Beauty Like Soul Food, this album came to me by way of a man I wanted to understand. This one was a hunchback in Jersey with a verified mania for classic rock and the Dead. He emailed me dozens of tracks for my edification, freshly ripped from his vinyl collection; I fell for "Box of Rain," the lyrics of which the man would later weave into a genius memorable guilt trip designed especially for me. The relationship petered out, but my delight in this album has persevered. It's very comforting to me, but only when played with the crackly vinyl sounds woven into it.
Rebecca St. James - God Okay, okay, so this isn't a brilliant album. It's no Nevermind, it's no Exile on Main St. But it's the first compact disc I ever purchased for myself, and I remember everything about buying it: the dusty, quiet Christian bookstore in Bellevue where I plunked down my precious dollars, the crinkly sound when I unwrapped the album, the first time I listened to the songs I would know by heart backwards and forwards by the month's end. Runner up in this vein would be Jennifer Knapp. I still admire the powerful voices of these women, voices which gave me the courage and the permission to sing in multiple worship bands in churches across the country until I finally, painfully left the flock. Somehow this list didn't seem complete without God.
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Permalink Reply by Tom on -
You didn't say 5 record albums.
First would be a 78 RPM by Russ Morgan - "Cruising Down the River"
Mom had other 78s, and she eventually donated them to the firehouse for the carnival where you would throw balls at the discs and try to break them. I have a Columbia Grafonola now and another copy of the record.
Second is the 45 RPM by Jimmy boyd - "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"
Never saw that, but I thought it would be real cool if my mom got to kiss him. Recently learned that the Catholic church in Boston banned this song because it contained sex.
Third is the 45 RPM by Patti Page ( love that name too for some reason) - "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window?"
We never had a dog, but this little boy sure wanted one...
Fourth is the 45 RPM by The Cowsills - "Indian Lake"
Susan Cowsill, 'nuff said.
Fifth is the 45 RPM by The Royal Guardsmen - "Snoopy VS. The Red Baron"
This is probably what led to my fascination with psychedelic drugs later in life (That ended long ago BTW).
Albums would be far more difficult to narrow to 5.
Cheers, Tom
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Permalink Reply by Sean Kagalis on -
well....
Kiss - Alive II (1977) - it really was more about the gatefold image inside more than the music.
U2 - Achtung Baby (1991) - the first good front to backer i ever owned. Amazing record.
The Fugees - The Score (1996) - I'm glad they got to make this record while they were still a band.
Ani Difranco - Living In Clip (1997) - I will never forget the drive home listening to this for the first time upon purchase. Intense, beautiful and funny.
Spirit - Twelve Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus (1970) - Didn't discover this until 2004, but it instantly left it's mark in my musical psyche forever.
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Permalink Reply by simon2307 on -
Sound Effects - The Jam, I think the first album I brought with my own money, pretty much what kick started my love (others would say obsession) with music
Waterloo Sunset - 7" Vinyl single, lesson learnt - just because it's old don't mean in ain't good
Exile on Main Street - Rolling Stones, discovered in my old man's collection, never thought he was that "cool" until then
Guitar Town - Steve Earle, for setting me of in another direction
Decoration Day - Drive-by Truckers, for reminding me that rock and roll lives on
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Permalink Reply by T Hanssen on -
5 is not enough, but in keeping with that limit:
Rush - Moving Pictures
The Replacements - Pleased To Meet Me
Public Enemy - It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back
Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
Shellac - at Action Park
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Permalink Reply by Dangerbird on -
5 is definitely too few... (forgive my breaking of the rules)
Judas Priest: Priest... Live! As a teen my uncle moved into my room while he sorted himself out some. One day he came home with the 2LP Priest... Live! which he bought as a gamble. He didn;t much like it so passed it down to me. It was here I really started to devour music. Other albums of this period that shaped me were Metallica's ... And Justice For All, Iron Maiden's Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, Anthrax's State of Euphoria, and Slayer's Reign in Blood.
Vengeance - Human Sacrifice If it wasn't bad enough that I was a teenage metalhead, I was also a Christian metalhead. This album was the most in-your-face Christian album at the time, and set me on a path of always being left-of-the-musical-centre. Other albums of this time included The Crucified's self titled album, The Lead's The Past Behind, and the first version of Circle of Dust's self-titled.
Pearl Jam: Ten After years of being entrenched in Christian music, Pearl Jam came along and I suddenly became aware that the world was infinitely more complex than the church was telling me. Vedder's lyrics spoke to me as an adolescent viewing the world from a rather isolated place. My then-girlfriend/now-wife left our cassette copy on the dashboard of her Holden Torana one summer's day, and upon her return found it completely melted - morphed into an unplayable sloppy piece of plastic. Other albums that became a soundtrack for this time were Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger, Nirvana's Nevermind, Temple of the Dog's one and only album, Faith No More's Angel Dust and the Singles soundtrack.
Carcass: Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious During my grunge years I concurrently became immersed in the world of death metal. It was dirty, it was aggressive, it was fantasy. What more could a young male want? Other albums of this period include Amorphis' The Karelian Isthmus, Anathema's Serenades and Disembowelment's Transendence into the Peripheral.
Lull - Continue Blast beats, guttural growls and songs about the destruction of the world can get tiring after a while. Thus, I soon became interested in an even more annoying style of music; experimental/noise. My wife tells me that this was the worst period of long fascination with obscure sub-genres. Other albums of this time included Tribes of Neurot's Silver Blood Transmission, Darrin Verhagen's Soft Ash, and Bang on a Can's live interpretation of Eno's Music for Airports.
Counting Crows - Recovering the Satellites I didn't know it at the time, but my love of this album became the precursor to my passion of alt.country and americana. I bought it cheap after falling in love with the song 'Long December' which, to this day, remains one of my all time fave tunes. I absolutely loved Adam Duritz's view on the world. His ability to dissect his muse (Maria) was a revelation to me. For someone so averse to pop music, this album made me realise that pop music can be a valuable medium to express ideas about your environment. Other albums of this time included U2's Achtung, Baby!, Bjork's Post and The Cure's Disintegration.
Songs: Ohia - The Magnolia Electric Co. And this is where years of experimenting with death-metal, spirituality, experimentalism and pop-culture culminate in a coherent, past-respecting, forward-looking moment. Again, the lyrics just draw me in. Though I rarely have any insight into the meaning of Jason Molina's words the imagery is no less astounding. The mystery surrounding the band at the time intrigues me (is it the last Songs: Ohia album or the first Magnolia Electric Co album?) and there is not a dud tune amongst them all. Brilliant! Other labums of this time include Death Cab for Cutie's Plans, Damien Jurado's Where Shall You Take Me? and Greg MacPherson's Night Flares.
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Permalink Reply by Easy Ed on -
Not so easy to stick to five...
Thumbelina: My first record was a 78 RPM yellow plastic (I don't think they had invented vinyl yet) kid's classic. I think I was between 0-4 years old, and I was not only fascinated by watching this thing spin around and around, but the song was kinda catchy. "Thumbelina Thubelina...tinier then your thumb."
The Jive Bombers: I'm just a Bad Boy...45 RPM....it was my sisters but I wore it out and still have it in my closet.
Meet The Beatles: I bought this at E.J. Korvettes in Philadelphia on February 20, 1964 for just 99 cents. It was a "doorbuster sale" and my dad told me to crawl on my hand and knees through the crowd waiting to get in, and run as fast as I could to the record department. I was the first to get it that day and it seems like it just happened a few days ago. I still get chills when I listen to it.
Moby Grape: First saw these guys the week after the Monterey Pop Festival with the Mamas and the Pappas, Scott McKenzie and the Blues Magoos. Their album electrified me....changed the way I listened to music and how I played the guitar. A few months later they played The Trauma in Philly, and I set on the stage all night at the feet of Skip Spence and Peter Lewis. Bob Mosely tried to kick me away a few times but the other guys told him to leave me alone. Listen my friends...
Steve Earle: I found him way too late in my life...maybe six or seven years ago. I Feel Alright...I think that was the first one I heard. There's no one CD I can pick, but the entire body of work by the real deal from Texas.
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Permalink Reply by William on -
SonVolt: Trace... Turned me on to the alt-country genre
Drive-by Truckers: Southern Rock Opera... I found a band that truly speaks to me.
North Mississippi Allstars: Hill country Revue (the live Bonnaroo one) Holy cow this jams.. Love me the Luther guitar and the R.L. stuff... lets me find out about R.L.
R.L. Burnside: Burnside on Burnside... Live R.L. is goot and this gets me into the hill country blues.. leads me to find Junior Kimbrough and other Fat Possum artists.
R.E.M. Reckoning: I love it and when I hear this as a teenager and leads me to quit listening to hair bands.
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Permalink Reply by country danny on -
Wow, where to start. I can think of three off the top of my head that changed the way I thought about music.
Chuck Berry - 22 Golden Greats
A best of compilation bought on cassette. My first love was the Beatles and through them I discovered Chuck. Now I was hooked and had to get my hands on a guitar immediately and get myself a band. Johnny B Goode has a lot to answer for...
The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (shortly followed by Beggars Banquet)
Sloppy brillance and attitude you can hear. I felt like I was being unfaithful to John, Paul, George and Ringo all at the same time but there was no looking back.
The Band - The Band
Just one of the greatest, most soulful records ever. The lights came on, you don't need tracks of over driven guitars to rock. You just need unbelievable songs and an incredible rhythm section.
Setve Earle - Train a Comin'
Now it turns out you don't even need drums!? Also introduced me to Townes and that's a whole other story...
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Permalink Reply by Lee Thomsen on -
1. Beatles "Something New" was the first LP I ever owned that was my own. I must have played "Anytime At All" 1000 times.
2. Rolling Stones "Sticky Fingers" -- they became my favorite all time band from this album. Such a great mix of styles within 45 minutes of music.
3. Miles Davis -- Black Beauty -- Live at Fillmore East" -- first foray into electric Miles period and jazz period.
4. Gillian Welch "Hell Among the Yearlings" -- took me from a mostly male only album collection, led me to Lucinda Williams, Kasey Chambers, Tift Merrit,Caitlin Cary, and Neko Case among others.
5. Not an album but a concert -- seeing Prince on the Purple Rain tour. I thought that he was useless until I saw this tour and was blown away by his playing. Been a giant fan ever since.
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Permalink Reply by gumbo31 on -
Great list. I think many of us of a certain age bought "Something New". It was my first record purchased with my own money. Miles Davis drew back the jazz curtain for me, shedding light and meaning. And I'm with you on seeing Prince live - changed my opinion of Prince after experiencing him live. Amazing how many shared experiences there are and we don't even realize it. Thanks!
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