Name a few albums which helped determine your musical tastes


How about a short list of albums that shaped your listening from early on in your life?

Not just albums that became favorites (though they could be now). Let's call them historical turning points for you that shaped you as a listener, now.

Me:
  • Quadrophenia or Who's Next
  • Sgt Peppers Beatles
  • Floyd, Wish you were here
  • Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick
  • Metheny, Offramp
  • Glenn Gould, Goldberg variations
  • Joni Mitchell, Court and Spark
GO!
128x128hilde45
hilde45,

We have similar tastes:

Beatles-Rubber Soul
Cat Stevens-Tea for the Tillerman
Jethro Tull-Stand Up
Joni Mitchell-Court and Spark
Gordon Lightfoot-Sit Down, Young Stranger
Steely Dan-Aja
Rolling Stones-Let It Bleed
Doors-Strange Days
James Taylor-Sweet Baby James

...to name just a few.
Post removed 
Gordon Lightfoot - Sundown
Floyd - DSOTM
CSNY - Deja Vu
Peter, Paul and Mary - Self-Titled First LP
Karla Bonoff - Self-Titled First LP
Jackson Browne - For Everyman
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run
Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends
Van Morrison - St. Dominic's Preview
Beatles - SPLHCB
Little Feat - Waiting for Columbus
Skynyrd - One More From the Road
Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down the Wind
Dead - Workingman's Dead


Beatles - Meet the Beatles
Led Zeppelin I
Led Zeppelin II
Led Zeppelin IV
Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers
Moody Blues - DOFP
King Crimson - In the Court of..
The Who - Who's Next
Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like A Wheel
Buddy Rich - Various LP's


Many things on your lists gets big hurrahs from me! Many I didn’t discover until college (e.g. Steely Dan, a favoriteband of mine to this day). BUT, if I stick to my early "pivotal" requirement, I have to +1 this:

Simon and Garfunkel - Bookends (and Wed. Morning 3 am)

My parents had ever Simon and Garfunkel album (not that many) and a relatively small range of other records (lots of Telemann and Bach). They got played over and over. My only other source of music was good FM radio from SUNY Stony Brook and WPKN Bridgeport.
Post removed 
Shaped me? Never cared for Porters until I tasted Winthrop's Bull's Tooth Porter. Something in it said, "THIS is what they're tying to do!" From then on I was able to appreciate porters, or at least some of them at any rate. In that sense I guess you could say Winthrop's Bull's Tooth Porter shaped me. 

With music its hard to think of a single record that has done that for me. Nothing in Smells Like Teen Spirit turned me on to anything else on that album, let alone any of the other junk of that genre. Couldn't stand Kansas, which was a cheap knockoff of Foreigner. Or maybe it was the other way around. Same difference. They were all just trying to be the next Journey, or Boston, anyway. 

In fact its almost exactly the opposite. There's any number of albums that I was luke warm to when they were new and then over time my appreciation has only grown. A standout in that category, Bellafonte at Carnegie Hall. Just a superb record, and recording, and performance, with all kinds of deeply human archetypal themes (that would be impossible to perform today!) and my appreciation has only grown over the years. But it hasn't shaped me. Hasn't made me want to buy more music like that. Not even more Bellafonte! The others I have just don't do it for me.  

Good music is for me very much like a good book or a good movie. When its good like Fido I enjoy it. Doesn't shape me into chasing zombie movies. Once again it seems I stand alone. Oh well. 

But if instead of shaped me you mean albums I really liked a whole lot, which seems to be the way people are taking it, well then we can talk.
MC, you can do what you will with the question.
By "shaped" or "pivot" I mean those albums which turned me on to music, and also to those bands. E.g. Beatles -- lead to a love of the Beatles, of course, but to rock more generally and to the less straight ahead (psychedelic-style of openness) which made my tastes in Pink Floyd, Fripp, Eno, etc. later on. Or, Joni, which opened me toward more female vocals; or Tull, Simon/Garfunkel which created a taste for folk. Etc.
Radiohead - Kid A
Bjork - Post
Beck- Odelay
Neutral Milk Hotel - In An Aeroplane over the Sea
Stereolab - Emperor Tomato Ketchup

Cavalli, Ercole Amante (Corboz, cond.)

Mozart, Cosi fan tutte (K. Boehm)

Wagner, Gotterdammerung (Boehm, Bayreuth) 

Beetles, Sgt. Peppers

Hendrix, Axis Bold as Love

J. Airplane, After Bathing at Baxters

Shostakovich, Quartets (Borodin Q.)

Gould, Goldberg Variations (studio version, Sony)


in the beginning, these spring to mind

Rolling Stones, 1st and all till Goat's head soup
Beatles Rubber Soul on (too simpy up till then)
Moody Blues, original band, Mike Pinder, piano based blues, before Justin Hayword
Animals, Awesome music and Eric Burdon's voice
Kinks, great stuff
Zombies, oh yeah
Dylan, hated at first, finally listened, amazing songwriter
Donovan, still terrific live
Simon and Garfunkel. Mad for years when they broke up.
Ian and Silvia, irresistable vocal talent
Everly Bros, irresistable vocal talent and some great lyrics
Doors, attitude
Janis Joplin, attitude
Jose Feliciano
Van Morrison
Fontella Bass, voice, songs, horns
Otis
The Mamas and the Papas




Records that turned my head around and opened new worlds.

Tchaikovsky Fifth Symphony, conducted by Sir Adrian Boult.
Meet the Beatles.
Peter, Paul & Mary, In the Wind.
David Bowie, Aladdin Sane.
Sex Pistols -- Never Mind the Bollocks.
Kind of Blue.
The Harder They Come soundtrack.
You all are stocking my next playlist "Audiogon Pantheon"

+1 Hendrix, Axis Bold as Love
Bowie, Ziggy Stardust
Lou Reed, Transformer.

Solti's Mahler cycle with the Chicago symphony.

I think I nearly memorized those LPs.
As I look back at my list, I can’t believe I left off Bob Dylan, Simon and Garfunkel, Jackson Browne, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Moody Blues, Van Morrison, CSNY...it never ends! I still feel like I’m forgetting someone.
Caravan- in the land of grey and pink
Robert Wyatt- Rock bottom
Magma- self titled
McDonald and Giles- self titled
Kevin Ayers- Whatevershebringswesing
Cream- Disraely gears
Edgar Broughton band- self titled
Pete Brown and Piblokto- Thousand on a raft
Lovecraft- Valley of the moon
NIN- Pretty hate machine
Pretty things- SF Sorrow
Procol Harum- Shine on brightly
Red hot chili peppers- blood sugar sex magik
Spirit- twelve dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
Tempest- self titled
Supertramp- Crime of the century
Zappa- Apostrophe
To name a few :)
As a guitarist, stumbling across Mississippi John Hurt's 1928 recordings on Okeh Records was life altering in terms of a vibe I wanted to integrate into my playing.  It became total comfort food for my soul while playing it or listening to it.  Country blues and John Hurt really only make less 1% of what I listen to now as my interests are truly diverse but that was a lifechanging album for me for sure.
Silly Sisters - June Tabor & Maddy Prior et al.
The Power of the Organ - Robert G. Owen, organist
Fire on the Mountain - The Highwoods Stringband
The Bothy Band 1975: The First Album - The Bothy Band
Medieval Roots - The New York Pro Musica
Historic Organs of Spain - E. Power Biggs
Their Satanic Majesties Request - Rolling Stones
Anthology of American Folk Music - The Harry Smith Collection
The Doors - The Doors
Switched-On Bach - Wendy Carlos, Rachel Elkind
Several titles - David Munrow & The Early Music Consort of London
The Dillards ‎– Live... Almost - The Dillards
Et many al.
Boston-self titled
police- outlandos, ghost in the machine, all of them 
sex pistols- never mind 
bob Marley-kaya
peter tosh- mama africa
the smiths- meat is murder
the cure- head in the door 
stooges- fun house 
roxy music- Avalon 



Rocky and the 13th Floor Elevators
Beach Boys
Steppen Wolf
Paul Revere and the Raiders
Too many others I no longer remember..!
James Taylor (Apple)
Jimi (Eddie Kramer) - Axis..
5th Dimension (Jimmy Webb) - The Magic Garden
Brian Protheroe - Pinball
Al Jarreau (Jay Graydon) - Jarreau
Wondermints - Mind If We Make Love...
Mahsvishnu - Adventures In Radioland
Kevin Gilbert -The Shaming Of The True
Scofield - AGoGo
Ray Chen live anywhere

Pink Floyd
Weather Report: Mysterious Traveler, Black Market, Heavy Weather
Chick Corea: Romantic Warrior
Brian Eno: Another Green World and his collaborations!!
Peter Gabriel: 1-6 or 7
Led Zeppelin 1-6
Frank Zappa
Talking Heads first 5 albums
Kraftwerk




Off the top of my head, here’s a few:

CCR - Chronicle
Chuck Berry - Greatest Hits
AC/DC - Back in BlackLed Zeppelin I
G N’ R - Appetite for Destruction
Neil Young - Harvest
Nuggets box set
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Steve Young - Seven Bridges Road
The Dream Syndicate - Medicine Show
Music that opened my eyes to different directions (in order):
Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends; The Who: Who’s Next; Yes: Close To The Edge; Elvis Costello: Imperial Bedroom; Peter Gabriel 3; Debussy’s Tonal Works- my introduction to classical; REM: Chronic Town - single-handedly saved the world from White Snake; Jane’s Addiction: Ritual de lo Habitual; Beethoven’s 9th - one of those epiphanal moments; Radiohead: OK Computer; The Shins: Oh, Inverted World; Ralph Vaughan Williams - Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis; Sun Kil Moon: Ghosts of the Great Highway; Sufjan Stevens: Illinois; Gorecki’s 3rd
Now this is an interesting question! I’ll probably have a boring answer, but the question is fascinating.

This is slightly odd for me, because my life has two very distinct parts. I’m going to focus on the things that have shaped me in the second part. Nothing in the first part is worth focusing on, and not much in it was worth listening to (and I don't just mean the music).

  • Gillian Welch / Revival
  • Greg Brown / Slant 6 Mind
  • Townes Van Zandt / Rearview Mirror
  • Wilco / Summerteeth
  • Jim White / No Such Place
  • Beatles / Rubber Soul
  • Mississippi John Hurt / (can’t remember the album name)
  • Alligator Records / (I think it was their 20th Anniversary compilation)
  • Miles Davis / Kind of Blue
  • Derek & The Dominos / Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
  • Frank Sinatra & Antonio Carlos Jobim / Francis Albert Sinatra and Antonio Carlos Jobim
  • Neil Young / Harvest Moon
  • Rufus Wainwright / Poses
  • Spoon / Kill the Moonlight
  • Van Morrison / Astral Weeks
  • Bob Dylan / Time Out of Mind

There are others, but I imagine this list is already long enough nobody will read it. :)
Bb king
clarence brown
muddy waters
johnny winter
etta james
Some country...waylon, willie
captain & tenile

ratt
twisted sister
riot
tank
raven
Motörhead 
spartan warrior
crossfire
samson

mercyful fate
bathory
venom
napalm death
satan jokers
celtic frost

the list goes on and on and on and......
Kate Bush - Kick Inside
Graham Parker - Stick to Me
Any Dylan after 1966
Roxy Music Avalon
Willy DeVille - Miracle
GNR Use Your Illusion 1&2
Clapton - Slowhand
Van Morrison - Wavelength
Willie Nile - Willie Nile
The Band - The Last Waltz
REM - Automatic for the People
Concert for Bangledesh
Against Me - New Wave
Social Distortion - Sex Love Rock and Roll
Elvis Costello - Get Happy
Warren Zevon - Sentimental Hygene
Bruce Cockburn - World of Wonders

Kind of Blue
Lust for Life
Allman Brothers at Filmore East
Dark Side of the Moon
Swiss Movement
Absolutely Free
Highway 61 
Being 64 most of my musical taste came from the early 1970's.
Allman Brothers.
Marshall Tucker Band.
Steely Dan. 

Yes, Fragile
Genesis, Foxtrot
King Crimson, Court of the Crimson King
Miles Davis, Kind Of Blue
Dave Brubeck, Time Out
The Allman Brothers, Live At the Filmore
The Doors, First album
Led Zeppelin, II
Blood, Sweat and Tears, First album
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon,
Aaron Copeland, Appalachian Spring
Dmitry Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5
and all the countless stuff my dad exposed me to. He listened to everything (except Country).
Pink Floyd DSOTM, Animals, The Wall 
Elton John Madman Across the Water
Steely Dan Aja
John Denver Poems Prayers and Promises.
This post is a joy because it is so packed with great listening ideas. I have several in different eras of my life but most have been listed above. When I was a child, six or seven years old, my parents took me to the movie theater to see Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. I was so enthralled by the images and music even if it didn't exactly have a narrative aimed at kids. That Christmas, in the early '70's, I received my own copy of the MGM soundtrack. I played it on our Sylvania phonograph hundreds of times; I was allowed to use the stereo from a young age. I've loved stereos and music since.


Floyd-wish you were here
Black Sabbath- sabbath bloody sabbath
Queen-Night at the opera
AC/DC-Powerage 
Stevie Ray- Texas Flood
Tull-Thick as a brick
Vanhalen- first album
Doors-LA Women
Floyd-The wall

Emy Lou Harris “Wrecking Ball”
Steely Dan “Aja”
Frank Sinatra “September of my Years”
Doors “LA Woman”
George Winston “Autumn”
MN Orchestra “ Pines of Rome”
Too many to list! However here's my entry into the world of Jazz: June 1970 I bought Bitches Brew at Woolworths! At the age of 18 I perceived it to be on a higher artistic plane than the average rock alblum! And tried to get some of my peers to listen to it!
Had to be The Chipmunks Song Book back as a wee lad.

Peter and the Wolf (Bernstein version on Columbia  Masterworks) probably influenced me as well as in scaring the bejeebers out of me along with the cool music. Yes, we are talking childhood nightmares there! The wolf was after me!
"Quadrophenia" and "Who's Next"
"Frampton Comes Alive"
"Got to Get You Into My Life" (45)
"Dark Side of the Moon"
"War" and "Live at Red Rocks"; but especially "The Unforgettable Fire

Mozart, Clarinet and Oboe Concertos, L'Oiseau-Lyre
Mozart, Serenades (I Musici)

"A Love Supreme"
"Kind of Blue"
Tord Gustavsen, "The Other Side"
Bill Evans, "Live at the Village Vanguard" set
...then as a young man in high school DSOTM WYWH and Animals by Pink Floyd. Also “The Yes Album” and “Genesis Live” and “This is the Moody Blues”. Not to mention “The White Album”. Also DSMIOTPP by Elton John.
In college lots of new influences. “The Outlaws”, “Brothers and Sisters” by Allman Bros. “The Cars”, Sex Pistols “NMTBHTSP”, and Talking Heads 77. Country rock and emerging new wave was big.

Also had a lot of exposure to “The Kingston Trio” as a kid.   Lots of good stuff!
Lots of great choices so far. Here's a few others worth considering:

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Love - Forever Changes
The Doors - The Doors 
Renaissance - Turn of the Cards
Roxy Music - Siren
Rickie Lee Jones - Rickie Lee Jones
The Cure - Seventeen Seconds
Talking Heads - Remain in Light
XTC - English Settlement

1967-68 - The Byrds, the 45, “Hey, Mr. Spaceman”:  my first purchase of music, at 7 or 8 years old, at The Grande Place in Brussels, Belgium.  I was the youngest of 4, didn’t have my own record player at the time, but by God I was gonna keep up with my older siblings.

1972 - Emerson, Lake & Palmer, “Trilogy”:  ok, definitely not my style now, but it was my first lp (as a Record Club of America member).

1973 - Pink Floyd, “Dark Side of the Moon”:  My family stayed for a week at the beach in Bethany Beach, Delaware.  The condo had a record player and one lp.  We listened to it a lot!  I think this may have been the same week I experienced my first serious kiss, and my first beer; the kiss was great, the beer was awful - a Colt malt liquor, and warm to boot.

1975 - Jeff Beck, “Blow by Blow”: It would take me about 30 years to recognize it, but this was a harbinger of my future passion for jazz.  

1977-78 - Elvis Costello, “My Aim is True”; The Cars, “The Cars”,; Bruce Springsteen, “Darkness on the Edge of Town”: A collective delivery from disco hell.

1978 - Mighty Joe Young: Not an lp, but my intro to chicago blues, freshman year (at a frat party of all places!), and definitely life-changing.

1989 - Lyle Lovett, “Lyle Lovett and His Large Band”: Was in grad school, and saw him perform “Here I Am” off that lp on Austin City Lights.  Jazz, blues, country and even a little rock all in one place. Opened my eyes not just to the possibilities of country, but bluegrass and roots music more broadly.

1991 - Bonnie Raitt, “Luck of the Draw”: didn’t really happen until 1995, but “Something to Talk About” off that lp became a little bit of a soundtrack of my life as I wooed my future wife (the love of my life)

1996-99 - Bob Marley, “Legend”:  Ok, so this was released in 1984, but as my soon-to-be wife (1999) and I blended our 5 children into one family, this CD played frequently on the cd player in the 7-seat Mitsubishi Montero (nicknamed “the beast”) that we hauled the kids around in - much dancing in seats ensued whenever we put it on: “No woman, no cry....”

2013 - Pachelbel, “Canon”:  This was the piece my ex-wife and I listened to frequently at lamaze class when she was pregnant with my oldest son in 1984-85.  We played it at the celebration of his life after he died in June, 2013.  

Jimmy Reed
The Troggs
Paul Revere & the Raiders
The Animals
James Gang - Rides Again
The Band - II
The Brandenburg Concertos - Rampal
Beatles - White Album
Who's Next
Tull - Aqualung
Hendrix - Smash Hits
CSNY - Deja Vu
Miles - Kind of Blue
Stones - through '72
Pink Floyd - through '77
The Crusaders
Spirit - 12 Dreams
Weather Report - Black Market
the list goes on and on.......
Grand Funk 'Closer to home'Supertramp 'Crime of the Century'Beatles 'Sgt Pepper'Van Morrison 'Veedon Fleece'Joni Mitchell 'Blue'Beach Boys 'Pet sounds'Klaatu 'EST'Aretha Franklin's greatest hitsSinatra 'September of my years'Cloud Cult 'The meaning of 8'The Shins 'Whincing the night away'Hendrix 'Rainbow Bridge soundtrack & first album'Tull 'Aqualung'Wishbone Ash ‘Argus’Stones 'Flowers'

Allman Brothers - Live at Fillmore East
Cat Stevens - Tea for the Tillerman
CSN&Y - Deja Vu
Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees
John Mayall - The Beano Album
Derek and the Dominos - Layla
Steve Miller - Brave New World
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Grand Funk Railroad - Closer toHome
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Jethro Tull - Aqualung



Oops how did I forget the first real rock music album I ever bought which of course is “Machine Head” by Deep Purple (quad version) followed by “Demons and Wizards” by Uriah Heep. 
@mdalton 

Sorry for your loss.  Can't even imagine.

That Bonnie Raitt album made a big impression on me, too.  And Lyle Lovett's "Step Inside This House" two-disc set, too.
Beatles, Beatles, Beatles, DC5, Stones and the British Invasion later Cream and Hendrix, Pink Floyd and the Allman Brothers.
@mapman 
+1 on "Machine Head," I wore mine out. My garage band played Smoke on the Water. So did every other band.
@trentmemphis 

Thanks for your note - yes, it’s not something you recover from, but something you survive.  

Re Bonnie Raitt, yeah, she first hit my radar with “Give it up”, in 1972; my sister had it, and I would “borrow” it from time to time.  

Re Lyle Lovett, have remained a huge fan - my wife and I try to see him every year at Wolf Trap (great outdoor venue near DC).  This year we also had tix to Lovett with John Hiatt at the Strathmore before Covid put the kebosh on it.  What a bummer. If you’ve never seen him live, you should do it.  Great band - he often would have both Leland Sklar and Russ Kunkel playing with his large band; great musicianship.