Name a few albums which helped determine your musical tastes

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.

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.