The most influential albums in your life.

[M'Sharak]

Hardly a definitive list, but (in no particular order) ...

Anton Webern - Quartetto Italiano : Complete Music For String Quartet

Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra - Pierre Boulez/New York Philharmonic

Deep Purple - Made in Japan

Zappa / Mothers - Roxy & Elsewhere

Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables

Lambert, Hendricks & Ross - The Hottest New Group in Jazz

J.J. Johnson / Kai Winding - Jay and Kai + 6 (trombone octet)

James Gang - Yer' Album

Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland

Fairport Convention - Full House

Focus - Focus 3

Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica

The Who - Live at Leeds

King Crimson
- In the Court of the Crimson King

Yes!!!

Masterpiece if you ask me.

I'd say Red. It's maybe considered a less influencial album but I like it better.

King Crimson is the best live "thing" I have seen, like "I'm not certain I did understand everything but that was great".

The only time I saw King Crimson live was when they were touring for Three of A Perfect Pair, and that was a really good show. I also like a lot of their older stuff, though.

 

[USS Triumphant]

Oh, so that's the black hole they vanished into...

Does that mean we'll hear them on the Trek 2016 soundtrack?

My list:

Bridge of Spies (aka just "T'Pau" in the US) - T'Pau

Jagged Little Pill - Alanis Morissette

Hysteria - Def Leppard

The Promise - T'Pau

Don't Close Your Eyes - Keith Whitley

Rage - T'Pau

In 3-D - "Weird Al" Yankovic

Greatest Hits - Waylon Jennings (not sure if Greatest Hits albums really count, but since this album was how I was introduced to this music, and I paid a price for it to be on this list*, it's on it.)

Wayne's World Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Various Artists

Red - T'Pau

*Growing up, I was only allowed to have a certain number of records (and later CDs) - 12 - so if I got a new one I had to get rid of an old one, and there were all sorts of other crazy rules, too, because my father is insane - but I digress. Anyway, when I was five years old I was made to keep my records in my bedroom, but had to play them on a record player downstairs in the basement. And Waylon's Greatest Hits was my favorite, especially "Amanda". One day, I missed a step on about the second step coming down, and fell the rest of the way down the steps to the concrete basement floor. Without thinking about it - obviously, I mean I was 5 - I tucked my body so that I kept the album in the middle all the way down. I was ALL tore up and beat up. The record had not one scratch.

 

[auntiehill]

The English Beat, I Just Can't Stop It

Warren Zevon, Warren Zevon

I didn't discover Warren Zevon until right before he died, unfortunately. But I'm glad I did discover his music because it's fantastic--some funny, some cool, some heartbreaking. I love his stuff. I just wish I found him sooner.

 

[J.T.B.]

I didn't discover Warren Zevon until right before he died, unfortunately. But I'm glad I did discover his music because it's fantastic--some funny, some cool, some heartbreaking. I love his stuff. I just wish I found him sooner.

I got onto him because David Letterman was such a fan and had him on a lot in the '80s, then I realized I knew some of his songs from Linda Ronstadt. I was lucky enough to see him four or five times, he was a really entertaining performer, just as oddly funny as you'd imagine.

 

[Botany Bay]

Actually the Stones' '70s output is pretty solid, "Exile," Black and Blue and Some Girls being the high points, but It's Only Rock and Roll and Goat's Head Soup are highly listenable. In the '80s Tattoo You and Dirty Work were also great albums. Personally, I never bought into the Beatles vs. Stones thing much, as it mas mostly clever marketing on the Stones behalf. I love the Beatles, all of it, but they never really grabbed me like the Stones. Partly it is the Stones' stronger connections to blues and country, which carries my interest further. Partly it is the unique dynamics as a live band (Mick and Keith, Keith and Charlie, Keith and Woody) and the way they have evolved over the years. Partly it is the way they reacted to and/or embraced soul, funk, reggae, punk, etc.

We'll said. Agree with all this. Seeing them next month for what will likely be their last tour to my part of the world. Fingers crossed Mick Taylor makes the trip.

 

[Sci Fi Fan]

As someone old enough to remember it coming out, I'd also list the White Album, not because it was one of the 10 greatest albums but because of the excitement when it came out.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Isle of Q (Self Titled)

Live - Throwing Copper

U2 - Achtung! Baby

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I remember the first three records I ever bought, so they were pretty influential:

Let's Dance (David Bowie)
Business as Usual , Cargo (Men at Work)

 

[trekkiedane]

Rendezvous - Jean-Michel Jarre

Oh yes, Jarre, Oxygene was the first record I actually had to replace due to wear

and

Oldfield: Tubular Bells.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Oldfield: Tubular Bells.

D'oh. Consider that added to my list also.

 

[trekkiedane]

D'oh.

Kinda what was going for

 

[thestrangequark]

I remember the first three records I ever bought, so they were pretty influential:

Let's Dance (David Bowie)
Business as Usual , Cargo (Men at Work)

My first My Very Own album was David Bowie as well! I got it for Christmas when I was seven!

 

[Star Wolf]

More or less in the order I remember discovering them:

1. Earth,Wind & Fire, Gratitude
2.Freddie Hubbard, First Light
3. Steely Dan, Aja
4. Al Jarreau, All Fly Home
5. Pat Metheny group, Pat Metheny Group
6. Isley Brothers, Harvest For The World
7. Rick James, Street Songs
8. Billy Idol, Rebel Yell
9. Meshell Ndegeocello, Peace Beyond Passion
10. Israel & The New Breed, Live From Another Level

 

[LOKAI of CHERON]

The Police - "Reggatta de Blanc"
The Police - "Synchronicity"
Van Halen - "1984"

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Influential is too heavy a word for me.. and it's hard to remember albums as wholes after years of listening to playlists. BUT, these ones "baptized my imagination" to quote C.S. Lewis.

Bob Dylan: Desire
The Cure: Disintegration
Ferron: Testimony
Shakira: Laundry Service
Melissa Etheridge: Breakdown
Placebo: Sleeping with Ghosts
Brandon Flowers: Flamingo
John Grant: Pale Green Ghosts <--current passion

 

[Random_Spock]

I had no albums, as in records...

But I was inspired by some via tape, cd...

Bad Hair Day -- Weird Al Yankovic (1996 (iirc)) -- First heard this one when I was at camp one year. Was hooked ever since. The man is talented. Period .

The Black Album -- Metallica -- Got this one from a friend and love it. Had them burn it onto my ipod after I carefully cleaned the cd off. It's an old one, and there were a lot of scratches on it.

Jagged Little Pill -- Alanis Morrisette -- I remember this one from back in the day . Whenever her songs came on the radio, I had to listen to it. Only got it recently on my ipod though from my little cousin of all things . He really liked her music as well.

 

[Pingfah]

^ I saw Metallica on the tour for the black album, they were amazing. That album is a lot less heavy than their earlier stuff, but it is bloody good. The last bloody good Metallica album in my opinion.

 

[trekkiedane]

I had no albums, as in records...

Well there are other options...

But I was inspired by some via tape, cd...

Boy did we do a lot of those in my youth... (cc)tapes, that is... cds came alot later.

 

[RJDiogenes]

This is a lot different from the book thread for me. I could never come anywhere near listing ten influential albums. I listened to the radio a lot when I was a kid and there were plenty of songs that inspired me with ideas or influenced my writing, but I almost never bought albums. The only albums that influenced me were the ones I listened to (on 8-Track ) when I was in grade school in the early 70s:

Bridge Over Troubled Waters, Simon & Garfunkel
Sounds of Silence, Simon & Garfunkel
Jesus Christ, Superstar, Soundrack
Donovan's Greatest Hits, Donovan
Peter, Paul, and Mary - Ten Years Together, Peter, Paul, and Mary

Some people dance to music-- I sat there intensely with my ear next to the speakers, devouring the lyrics, absorbing the flow of the lyricism, marveling at the artistry, admiring the cleverness of the wordplay, and memorizing the vocabulary. Yeah, in grade school; I was a weird kid. The lyrics on these albums, as much as any book I ever read, made me know that I needed to be a writer.

 

[Rincewiend]

and I wouldn't bea ble to precisely place Ray Charles either)

Never saw The Blues Brothers?!?