Fields of fire by Big Country. The fact that the bagpipes in that song made the hair on the back of my neck stand up was a revelation. i was 13 or so. i think thats when i really knew i liked audio, if i remember that long ago. good times. |
1967, ten years old, and having immigrated to this great country (USA) a mere two weeks earlier, I heard "Hey Jude" by The Beatles on my uncle's tube radio (Fisher). Couldn't understand a single word of the lyrics, but my God, I had never heard anything like it! Had never heard r&r. I will never forget that moment. In a way it encapsulated everything that was new about leaving a communist country for a free one.
Then there was Navrath singing Canteloube's "Songs of the Auvergne" thiry years later, and ..... |
Cool Jerk was the first song that penetrated my skin and awoke my soul. But the one which melted my brain was The Pusher, performed live by Steppenwolf at mt first concert. That was a game changer for me. |
Bonnie & Delaney's "Never Ending Love Song" |
In the mid seventies Al, Judy Collins Send in the Clowns was played frequently by the audiophiles for a b different types of equipment. You could easily hear her breathing on that song and it was easy to detect which source brought out the best detail. Getting back to the subject it was Nat King Cole Unforgettable that blew me away and made me appreciate music. |
A P.S. to my previous post: This is Judy Collins' original release of "Both Sides Now." There is at least one other YouTube video which shows the cover art from her "Wildflowers" album, but includes a later (and IMO much inferior) re-recording. Regards, -- Al |
Dayglow, thanks for reviving an interesting thread. 12-04-06: Drubin
Blues Project, "Steve's Song", live. First time I heard a really loud band. Awesome! I'm mostly a classical music person, but that is my favorite song from what is perhaps my all-time no. 1 favorite rock album, "Projections" (notwithstanding its less than ideal sonics). Regarding the original question, as a kid in the 1950's I had a great many favorites, most of which have not withstood the test of time. It would be hard to single out one or two for mention. But a recording from a later year (1967) that blew me away the very first time I heard it, and that has withstood the test of time, was Judy Collins original release of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now." The version that was included in her "Wildflowers" album that was released around the same time, NOT the re-recording that was included in some of her later albums, which IMO loses all the magic. Regards, -- Al |
Around age 12 I started listening to FM-AOR radio. Had very little interest in disco that was taking over Top 40 radio. The first time I heard Slow Ride by Foghat(live version)I couldn't believe how loud and large a rock band could sound! |
Little Black Egg..... Top that ! |
this thread's been around for a while now so I'm giving myself permission to add some more songs that weren't the first, but blew me away none the less.
Mike Oldfield - "Ommadawn" It's an album-long song.
Jan Hammer - "Darkness, Earth in Search of the Sun" from The First Seven Days. |
Rainy Day Women - Bob Dylan, what a trip riding in the car with the folks when that came on the radio. |
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road Elton John
Go All the Way The Raspberries |
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Miles Davis on his "Jack Johnson" album. I'd never heard anything like that before or since. |
the opening guitair riff on "satisfaction",summer of 65, heard it for the 1st time on the radio,man did my head turn. |
California Dreamin': I just had to find out who that was played that song and find the album it was on. The line "I take a walk on a winter's day" was the hook. |
When I was a kid I was obsessed with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. I must have made my mother play that Lp until you could see through it. My recollection is that it was by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Ormandy. I also saw the original Santana band play Soul Sacrifice live, which rearranged my molecules but good. |
"La Fiesta" Maynard Ferguson when I was just a budding young impressionable trumpet player. Also hearing "Give It One" being played live by Maynards band was a real kick in between the ears. |
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Sweet Leaf by Black Sabbath. In eighth grade Ozzy Ozbourne's first two solo albums were a big deal (although they are really clownish in retrospect). I was a guy in our gang who discovered Sabbath and introduced with something like, "Yeah, Ozzy is cool, but check THIS out."
And I haven't tried to kill myself even once in the ensuing twenty five years. |
"Surrealistic Pillow" by Jefferson Airplane |
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I've been blown away a few times in my life. For Christmas one year my parents gave me a new 45 rpm release by John Lennon called Cold Turkey. I knew John was in the Beatles and I liked a couple of their tunes (Tomorrow Never Knows) but I never heard any solo work by him. I've gota ask why my parents why they gave me that 45? Anyway, when the needle hit the groove I heard a guitar the likes of I've not heard since. John started singing like he was deranged and about to take succumb to some awful fate. I played that 45 at least 20 times that Christmas Morning and learned there were things much worse than the Bogeyman who lived beneath my bed.
Also one day while riding in the car of a high school friend I was blown away by a song that fit everything I had been searching for in the way of cosmic sounds. "Lucky Man" by ELP fulfilled my wildest dreams of the possibility of music. What was that sound? It was a Moog synthesizer. The journey had begun...WOW! |
Melancholy Man by 'The Moody Blues'
Dont ask me why,but the first time I heard this just a few years ago, I was literally frozen with tingles up my spine to my brain.
I felt like running into the street and screaming like a madman..I 'am' serious.
I dont know why,it was never a hit for them or stuck out as one of their better songs,but it sure blew me away like no other song I have ever heard.
Now when I listen to it I think "was I psycho that day?"
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I Am The Walrus - Beatles
Very tough time for me when I heard it on Boston radio as a kid and it made me think that there were others in worse shape than I was in at the time so I think that helped.
The opening chords haunt me to this day. |
double shot (of my baby's love) the swingin' medallions or peter rabbit by dj and the runaways.....can't recall which was first and second |
Metallica, Black Album- Enter sandman. Mind blowing |
Very recently, Mary Gauthier "Falling out of love" |
'Suger Suger' by the Archies, when I was knee high to a grasshopper. |
I'm 52 and can no longer remember the fisrt song to blow me away. It's been too many years and too many songs. The mention of Tommy James and the Shondells does bring to mind "Crystal Blue Persuasion." |
no doubt Jimi Hendrix, "purple haze" 1967 before & after I became experienced |
Blues Project, "Steve's Song", live. First time I heard a really loud band.
Also, We Can Work It Out by those British lads. |
Probably Hey Jude when it first came out |
Many songs have "blown me away", but the first one was when I was in high school around 1970. "The Pusher" by Steppenwolf. |
Ken Dodd and the Diddymen...I must have played that on my old hand me down gramophone about 10,000 times...that and an old Chet Baker album of my Dad's....I was only five years old, I guess I started collecting vinyl at quite a young age. Danny Kaye and Tubby the Tuba was another favorite...as well as TV themes including "Joe 90", Stingray and Thunderbirds. |
Two more that I've really felt: Santana's Evil Ways and Steely Dan's Do It Again (my personal theme song for two decades). |
Lonnie Mack-"Wham", CCR-"Fortunate Son". My brother is 13 years older and I thinK I was about 5 at the time. |
Compare to What - Les McCann and Eddie Harris |
"Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" The Beatles |
Avguygeorge, perhaps you were like Bill Hubbard, out there in "no man's land" and dripping with sweat.
An amazing piece of music. I have two copies on LP, one to play and one for backup in case something happens to the first. Too important a piece of art to ever be without. |
The first song "tbma" was my first record purchase.-- Les Paul and Mary Ford's The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise.--(Even tho How High The Moon came out first.)
This was a 78 rpm--played on our windup player. I must have played it so many times the needle cut thru to the other side.(Stylus force must have been 3 lbs.) Altho I must have a million favs---The cd I've listened to the most has to be Roger Waters' Amused To Death. I would come home; put this on repeat and this went on for 2/3 months---Without listening to anything else. This confession may explain somethings about me?? |
I see some of you other geezers had to dig through a deep pile w/ feeble tools for this one. Seems like there were quite a few light bulbs, fire crackers, earthquakes, quasars and omeletes. Can't be sure what did it first... Donovan/ Sunshine Superman, Stones/ Jumpin' Jack Flash, Hendrix/ Puple Haze, Them/ Gloria. If you're cruising at a Pink Floyd elevation you can get shelled by Crimson, Can or Mahavisnu Orch. after that you're toast. |
"Surealistic Pillow" by Jefferson Airplane back in 1967 in LaCrosse, Wisconsin at around 10:00pm in the dark with earphones on at the Spook House (the name of our place at college). It was the first time I believed that perhaps levitation was possible. |
For so many reasons. First pop song to be recorded in a modular style. The song was recorded in five different recording studios taking more than 6 weeks to complete.....bouncing from 4 track to 8 track machines...try to hear that on the final recording. Brian Wilson somehow got the same sound from all 5 studios. Any recording engineers here will realize the difficulty of doing that in 2006, but in 1966??? The tempo changes so many times in a 3.5 minute span it's amazing. The song starts in the key G flat major (six flats) and starts with the verse descending from the relative minor: E flat minor. It was probably played in the key of F (one flat) with the verse starting on the chord of D minor and sped up at the mixdown stage. The song uses a solo cello and a theremin to build the rhythm section for one section, and in another section doubles a honky-tonk piano with a jaw's harp (this, at a time when typical pop songs used bass guitar, electric guitar, sometimes piano and drums) The instrumentation changes radically from section to section; the bass plays in some parts but not in others, drums and vocals drop in and out, and the voices sometimes accompany fully developed backing tracks (such as in the chorus) and are in parts almost a cappella. The beat, although the standard four-to-the bar, has a triplet feel, a three's over fours type thing. The second eight bars have a broken drum pattern, and the 16-bar chorus was edited into the multitrack master tape at some point during the construction of the track. When my ears first heard this Brian Wilson masterpiece in 1966, they took notice. This song forever changed not only my musical direction, but also changed the way music was recorded. Still quite an accoplishment even by todays standards. Great song, amazing production. |
Purple Haze.
Our art teacher put on a psychedelic light show for our class & played Purple Haze full blast. I'd never heard anything like it and yes, as a mere boy in the late 60s, IT BLEW ME AWAY!!!!
Thanks Mr. Finegan :) |
I've got two tunes that send me to a another zone. The End by Doors and Logos By Tangerine Dream. There are some great song listed in this thread. I am going to made a play list of some to them and just float for an hour or so this weekend. Thanks all. |
I was driving down I-65 today when Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" came on the radio. It took me back to 1965 or 66 when I was riding home from the store with Mom and "Like a Rolling Stone" came on the radio. We got home before the song ended so I ran into the house to turn the radio so I could catch the end of the song. Yeah, that was probably the first. I was maybe 12 years old. |
Qdrone - Awesome! Had no idea there was a live version. THANKS!! Take a magic carpet ride on me. |
Another one falling prey to Led Zep, in my case "Immigrant Song". I vividly recall being in the garden on a freezing cold night (interested in astronomy, nothing else) when it burst out from somewhere in the neigbourhood. I didn't know who or what it was, just stood there mesmerized, emotions rippling down my spine. Weird enough, several months later at school the art teacher - knowing how to keep his audience interested - did a music quiz and, finally, there it was again! Yep, a school teacher taught me Led Zeppelin.
Shortly thereafter, major blows were to follow
Yes, "Heart of the Sunrise" (actually, the album "Fragile" altered my state of mind for all times, I guess)
Pink Floyd, "Careful with that Axe Eugene"
Japan, "Adolescent Sex"
Genesis, "The Knife"
Jackson Heights, "Bump and Grind"
... with many more to come until this day. |
Rockadanny, pick up Steppenwolf "live at the matrix" on Dunhill. It has a 20+ minute version on side 2 of The Pusher that is killer.
rlwaignwright,pick up Maximum Darkness by Mann. It is a great live offering with John Cippolina that is sure to please. |
