Five albums that changed your life

I spent 10 years enjoying music via free radio (Top 40, AOL, Live365 etc.). I didn't start purchasing music until mid 2006. 
Radio is free, but buying all those albums was WORTH the money. 

1. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust

The first classic album that I liked (and eventually loved). Without this, my music taste would have sticked to the likes of Spice Girls and Pink.

2. Blackwater Park

The first metal album I liked, and the first prog album I liked. Now I'm a progressive metalhead (or metallic proghead). Blackwater Park started it all for me.

3. Alive in Athens

My all-time favorite album. Pretty much explains who I am in three plastic discs.

4. Oceanborn

Expand the soundscape in my brain to a whole new symphonic era. Everything is broader, deeper and more beautiful.

5. (insert my breakthrough album here)

yeah, I'm a prog musician, and this spot is reserved for the album that would make me famous. 

A topic that I love thinking about. I shudder to think what I would be listening to if it weren't for these albums. There are many other albums that have changed my life besides these five, but these had the most impact (particularly the first three).



1) Close to the Edge   
To say this album changed my life would be a gross understatement. This is the album that changed my life. It was my very first experience with prog, much less an artist that focused on the album instead of merely a single track. Up to this point I had listened to the garbage on the radio and whatever greatest hits collections were lying around the house (Billy Joel....cringe...). The opening of "And You And I" still takes my breath away. The album that served as the starting point for my whole taste in music.



2) Tago Mago
This was the album that introduced me to what other people call "weird" music, if I can get them to call a piece like "Aumgn" music. Anyways, the moment opening track "Paperhouse" kicked into high gear, I was hooked. Needless to say, "Halleluhwah" is incredible. Oddly enough, I quite enjoy "Peking O". I still can't comprehend how amazing Jaki Liebezeit is on drums.



3) Frances the Mute

Not a whole lot to say with this one. It's flawless (not that the two above weren't). "Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus" is still incredible, as are the other four pieces. It took me a little longer to warm up to "Miranda That Ghost Just Isn't Holy Anymore", but now I can't get enough of it (particularly "Pisacis (Phra-Men-Ma)"). This is still my favorite album ever, and it remains the "hardest/heaviest" album (and band) that I listen to.



4) Rock Bottom
Up until I heard this album, vocalists had never really been a factor in whether I liked an album or artist. Unless I couldn't stand the singer (very rare), they didn't really sway my opinion of an artist. This came crashing down as soon as Robert Wyatt starts singing the magnificent opener, "Sea Song". His voice sends chills down my spine, as does the story behind the album. Of course, the music behind the voice is equally phenomenal; it's soothing with a subtle hint of "madness", as Wyatt puts it. Sadly, this album (and his piece "Moon In June" written with the Soft Machine) remains my only exposure to the Canterbury scene of the late 60s. Hopefully I'll get around to hearing more.



5) Pink Moon
Nick Drake is tied with Robert Wyatt as my favorite vocalists ever, and this album makes a compelling case for the former. The first song I heard off this masterpiece was "Place to Be". Wow. Possibly the most beautiful piece of music I've ever experienced. As soon as he started singing, I just sat there. I couldn't grasp how emotional his voice was. I was frozen long after the song ended. The rest of the album is just as entrancing. Additionally, his skills as a guitarist are fairly impressive as well. If only he had been around longer than the 26 years he lived. I know it's not prog, but it doesn't matter to me. This may be the most emotional album I've ever heard.

I know I used a lot of superlatives to describe these albums, but they really do mean this much to me. Truly awe-inspiring music.

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Mike Oldfield: Tubular Bells - First LP I ever bought

Genesis: A  Trick of the tail - First Genesis LP I heard when I was 15

Santana: Caravanserai - Wow. I can still remember hearing the sound of Carlos's guitar for the first time when at a pen pal's in Germany

Frank Zappa: Roxy and Elsewhere - It was so different from anything I had ever heard...and yet so right.

Dream Theater:- Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Rediscovered prog via this DT album 3 years ago

This is rediculously hard and I have fried my brains thinking of this but the ones that immediately spring to mind have to be right as they are life changing records for me -  I knew every track and cherished every thing about them. No, not all of them are prog related sadly.

 

Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - July 09 2009 at 23:45

Great topic! It really makes you think a bit.

1) Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime. My initiation into prog metal. I fell in love with the story, and even the fact that it HAD a story. Simply put a good intro to concept albums.

2) Fluent Blue: Lingua Franca. Probably zero people on here have heard of them, but they remain important to me. A rock band touring the college circuit when I was an undergrad. I saw them just twice, and they sold just this one CD with eight songs. But they played some fun bluesy rock. They are important both for the memories of my boyfriend(now husband!) and I seeing them and for the sound that would later draw me to bands like Gov't Mule, The Doors an Led Zeppelin as well as traditional blues.

3) Metallica: the self titled "Black" album. This one I rarely listen to, but it was the first time I found metal could be worth listening to and have meaning.

4) Phantom of the Opera. Beautiful singing, cannot say it changed my life but it influenced musical tastes. I love the opera style voices and the duets.

5) The Doors Greatest hits: this was important because it helped me forge my own musical identity. As the youngest of three, my tastes were influenced by my brother and sister; Pink Floyd, Queensryche, Dream Theater, I heard these all through them. The Doors were the first band I really grew to enjoy from actively seeking different music to enjoy rather than passively listening to my siblings music or the radio.   

1-Donald Byrd-Black Bird.Funk,Hard-bop,Soul,RnB....the guy was brilliant

1.Beach Boys-Made In U.S.A.

i was going to post about Ava Inferi's Blood of Bacchus, but apparently I am the onloy person not allowed to post photos. Obviously some hateful admin at work...

Dean wrote: darksinger wrote: i was going to post about Ava Inferi's Blood of Bacchus, but apparently I am the onloy person not allowed to post photos. Obviously some hateful admin at work... Really? That doesn't sound like the kind of behaviour we expect from an Admin - perhaps I can assist in helping you post some pictures here?

ah...okay...sorry then...