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Post by berkley on Oct 25, 2024 1:11:13 GMT -5
#2 - Greatest Hits by Bob Dylan (1967) The first song I ever learned to play on guitar was Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". I received a cheap acoustic guitar for my 15th birthday in 1987 and my dad, who had been in a short-lived rock 'n' roll band in his youth, had a bunch of folk music books for guitar that he got down from the loft for me. Trouble was, I didn't know any of the folk songs in these books. There was a Bob Dylan chord book there too and, although I'd heard of him, I didn't know any of his songs either! "Blowin' in the Wind" was the first song in the book and the words really intrigued me. So, I stopped into a record shop on the way home from school one day and bought Dylan's first Greatest Hits album, which included that song. This is the UK variation of the album, by the way, which differs slightly in its song selection to its U.S. counterpart. Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits opened up a whole world for me. Not only was it my first introduction to Dylan's music, but it was also my introduction to topical protest songs, folk-rock music, and the utter poetic genius of Dylan's lyrics. I managed to learn "Blowin' in the Wind" pretty quickly and while I enjoyed playing it, there were other songs on this album like "It Ain't Me Babe", "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and "Like a Rolling Stone" that absolutely blew my young mind. Soon, I was able to do a pretty reasonable rendition of a number of tracks from this album. This is just one of those seminal albums for me. Obviously, I'm a big Dylan fan today, but this album's impact goes way beyond that. This album represents a watershed moment in my personal development; by prompting me to learn to play guitar, it might be the single most influential album I've ever owned in terms of how it has affected the trajectory of my life and career. Here's the simply incredible "Subterranean Homesick Blues", which might just be Dylan's greatest songs of all…
I remember seeing this album, or probably the American version, in the local record stores in the early 70s, when I first started buying albums, and many times being on the verge of buying it but never actually doing so. I was relatively slow getting to know his music. I had heard Lay Lady Lay and Knocking on Heaven's Door - two of his few AM radio hits, I suppose? - but not much else until I bought Blood on the Tracks for myself soon after it came out in 1975 - upon which I soon became a serious fan.
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Post by berkley on Oct 25, 2024 1:36:30 GMT -5
Final Influential Album For Me The Allman Brothers- At Fillmore East (July 1971)Double LP live concert recorded in March. All these years later after listening to so many live albums, I'd have to say this is my all time favorite. The band at it's peak with Duane Allman alive and brother Gregg functional. The guitar interplay between Duane & Dickie Betts is topnotch. The soulfulness in Gregg's vocals is perfect. A mixture of classic blues and original songs. Some great long jams that do not falter. The original released album runs about 76 minutes, nothing wasted, all essential. Some left over songs from the set wound up on their next album Eat A Peach and longer deluxe versions have come out as the years went by. I already had an appreciation for blues rock before this came out (Clapton, Bloomfield, Hendrix etc.) This album took it to another level As a sample, I chose one of the shorter tunes, an original
I have to admit that I'm not a great lover of this kind of thing in general. Much of rock is based on the blues, so I can't say I don't like blues-based rock, period - but the long jams and endless soloing over the same repetitive chords usually end up making me feel bored and sometimes annoyed. I suppose it's a similar reaction to how people who dislike prog feel about the self-indulgent noodling they often hear in that kind of music.
But, as always, I don't mean this as disparagement of the music itself, just an account of my reaction to it. I recognise that this could be a fault or failing of my own because so many people, both fans and musicians, do seem to love this kind of thing. But I'm one of those guys who thinks George Harrison's All things Must Pass might be the greatest solo album by any ex-Beatle - except for the long blues jams on the third record (I think they're mostly on there?).
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 25, 2024 9:20:11 GMT -5
Final Influential Album For Me The Allman Brothers- At Fillmore East (July 1971)Double LP live concert recorded in March. All these years later after listening to so many live albums, I'd have to say this is my all time favorite. The band at it's peak with Duane Allman alive and brother Gregg functional. The guitar interplay between Duane & Dickie Betts is topnotch. The soulfulness in Gregg's vocals is perfect. A mixture of classic blues and original songs. Some great long jams that do not falter. The original released album runs about 76 minutes, nothing wasted, all essential. Some left over songs from the set wound up on their next album Eat A Peach and longer deluxe versions have come out as the years went by. I already had an appreciation for blues rock before this came out (Clapton, Bloomfield, Hendrix etc.) This album took it to another level As a sample, I chose one of the shorter tunes, an original My love for the Allman Brothers is not as great as it once was, but I am still a fan. This is a fantastic album. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 25, 2024 11:41:18 GMT -5
2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World
I'm in a bit of a quandary to choose which Bowie album was the most influential because I got to know a lot of his early albums in quick succession and I think Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust I first heard when my older brother borrowed them from friends of his. My memory is a bit hazy in this. But I am sure that the first two I bought on my own were Diamond Dogs, which was his new album at the time, and The Man Who Sold the World. I've gone with the latter since it was the earlier of the two in Bowie's catalogue and also because I happen to have been listening to it lately for one reason or another. I'll continue this and also hopefully post my final pick later tonight. sample: the eerily haunting After All
edit: "Eerie and haunting" describes for me the ambience of this album as a whole, not just this song. The title track, which was brought to a new and wider audience in the 90s by Kurt Cobain's unplugged rendition, is a good example. I've always felt this to be a very "heavy" record and I think it's maybe the closest Bowie ever came to doing a metal album. Not that it's loud, as you can hear in these samples, but something about the style and Ronson's guitar sound on this one has always struck me that way. Lyrically it's very dark, with songs about madness, future dystopias - e.g. Saviour Machine (about an all-powerful, sentient computer) and The Supermen - and strange, dreamlike scenes - e.g. that famously enigmatic title song. And the music fits the mood of those lyrics perfectly.
Here's another sample, since I mentioned it and it might be one that listeners unfamiliar with the album might not have heard:
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Confessor
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Post by Confessor on Oct 25, 2024 11:49:07 GMT -5
#1 - Greatest Hits and More by Donovan (1989)  It was hard deciding which album to choose for my last pick, since there were a few up for consideration. Ultimately, I've decided to go for this late '80s Donovan compilation, which I bought when I was around 17. The reason I've chosen it is because, outside of the Beatles' late '60s work, it was my first venture into listening to psychedelia and folk-rock. Back when I was a kid, my best friend's parents were a couple of right old Hippies with a fantastic record collection, packed full of mind-expanding, esoteric late '60s weirdness. They were a very cool couple and allowed my friend and I to drink a moderate amount of alcohol at their house once we had left school, and a little later smoke pot too. I first heard Donovan one smoky evening round at their house, when they played the double album box set A Gift from a Flower to a Garden to me. As I say, I was already really enamoured with the Beatles' psychedelic music, and Donovan's seemed even more spacy, childlike, and precious. I decided that I had to own some Donovan myself, and in those pre-internet days, this compilation was the only album of his that I could find in my local record shops (all of Donovan's individual albums were out of print at that point). Greatest Hits and More served as a fantastic gateway drug for me, not only for the rest of Donovan's '60s output, which I acquired over the next two or three years, but for the whole late '60s psych, folk-rock, and counter-culture rock scene in general. This type of music is one of my favourites today, so this is a really important album in my journey as a music fan. Here's the deliciously 'hippie-dippy' 1967 hit "Wear Your Love Like Heaven". Far out, man… 
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 25, 2024 12:15:17 GMT -5
2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World I never was able to generate much enthusiasm for Bowie even when I listened to rock music regularly. Just not my thing at all. #1 - Greatest Hits and More by Donovan (1989) I pretty much only know Donovan from his handful of radio hits. Not someone I'll go out of my way to listen too, but I generally won't turn away. Which is kind of high praise from me. |
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Post by impulse on Oct 25, 2024 13:22:49 GMT -5
Sorry guys, haven’t had a lot of free time the last few days. We’ve been prepping for company, and they just arrived yesterday. I’ll post my last two entries when I can steal time, and people have posted a lot I’d like to comment on. Though I guess there’s not much rush as I doubt anyone else here is going to like the rest of my entries.  |
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Post by berkley on Oct 25, 2024 18:32:54 GMT -5
#1 - Greatest Hits and More by Donovan (1989) It was hard deciding which album to choose for my last pick, since there were a few up for consideration. Ultimately, I've decided to go for this late '80s Donovan compilation, which I bought when I was around 17. The reason I've chosen it is because, outside of the Beatles' late '60s work, it was my first venture into listening to psychedelia and folk-rock. Back when I was a kid, my best friend's parents were a couple of right old Hippies with a fantastic record collection, packed full of mind-expanding, esoteric late '60s weirdness. They were a very cool couple and allowed my friend and I to drink a moderate amount of alcohol at their house once we had left school, and a little later smoke pot too. I first heard Donovan one smoky evening round at their house, when they played the double album box set A Gift from a Flower to a Garden to me. As I say, I was already really enamoured with the Beatles' psychedelic music, and Donovan's seemed even more spacy, childlike, and precious. I decided that I had to own some Donovan myself, and in those pre-internet days, this compilation was the only album of his that I could find in my local record shops (all of Donovan's individual albums were out of print at that point). Greatest Hits and More served as a fantastic gateway drug for me, not only for the rest of Donovan's '60s output, which I acquired over the next two or three years, but for the whole late '60s psych, folk-rock, and counter-culture rock scene in general. This type of music is one of my favourites today, so this is a really important album in my journey as a music fan. Here's the deliciously 'hippie-dippy' 1967 hit "Wear Your Love Like Heaven". Far out, man…
I like Donovan but never have owned any albums of his or heard any all the way through. I know this song from the radio - though I didn't know the title until now and never could figure out exactly what he was saying in the chorus - "Where your love lies gently" or something like that I think is what I used to make a guess at.
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,197
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Post by Confessor on Oct 26, 2024 9:47:30 GMT -5
2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World I'm very much a "greatest hits" type of David Bowie fan, so I don't know any of his albums in their entirity. But the title track of this album is one of my favourite Bowie songs. So much so, that it's the only Bowie song I play live in my day job. I really should investigate the album itself at some point. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 26, 2024 15:27:46 GMT -5
2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World I'm very much a "greatest hits" type of David Bowie fan, so I don't know any of his albums in their entirity. But the title track of this album is one of my favourite Bowie songs. So much so, that it's the only Bowie song I play live in my day job. I really should investigate the album itself at some point.
I'll be curious to hear your reaction if you do. It isn't necessarily the easiest introduction to Bowie's music but you already like the title song and while I think that's probably the stand-out track on the album, the others are not far behind and I think are very much in the same overall mood.
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Post by berkley on Oct 26, 2024 15:59:43 GMT -5
1. Emerson, Lake, & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
I decided I should include at least one prog album, since that was such an important part of my music listening, and I'm pretty sure this is the first one I owned myself and the first time I got deeply into this kind of music. It caught my imagination right from the opening track, a re-invention of a famous old hymn (though I think this was the first time I'd heard it), a William Blake poem set to music by prolfic hymm-composer Sir Hubert Parry (who also wrote the music for the Ode to Newfoundland, our once-national, now provincial anthem, for you trivia buffs):
Then it got really strange, with Toccata, a modern classical piece. A couple short tracks, including this nice ballad by Greg Lake:
And then a long 4-part piece that probably typifies the kind of thing some people hate about prog: lots of solos, "pretentious" lyrics, etc. But the 12-year old me (this album was released the month of my 12th birthday and I bought it a few months later), didn't hear pretension, I heard a really cool science fiction story set to music. And the music opened up my ears to a lot of new ideas: that hymns weren't necessarily boring old church music, that a long, jazz-style piano piece could be something I enjoyed hearing, that there was a whole world of experimental music out there that did things in ways I had never heard of before.
So even though this isn't my favourite prog album and probably not even my favourite ELP album - I think that would be Trilogy - it was an important album in that it introduced me to "progressive rock" in general as well as several other kinds of music I hadn't known about previously.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 26, 2024 16:09:09 GMT -5
The first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album (1970) would be my fav from this group. There's no track from the LP I would skip
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Post by commond on Oct 26, 2024 16:42:24 GMT -5
2. David Bowie - The Man Who Sold the World I'm very much a "greatest hits" type of David Bowie fan, so I don't know any of his albums in their entirity. But the title track of this album is one of my favourite Bowie songs. So much so, that it's the only Bowie song I play live in my day job. I really should investigate the album itself at some point. i find this very surprising. You should give The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars a listen at some point. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 26, 2024 17:55:32 GMT -5
I'm very much a "greatest hits" type of David Bowie fan, so I don't know any of his albums in their entirity. But the title track of this album is one of my favourite Bowie songs. So much so, that it's the only Bowie song I play live in my day job. I really should investigate the album itself at some point. i find this very surprising. You should give The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars a listen at some point. I really think you can't go wrong with everything from The Man Who Sold the World through to Diamond Dogs. Then another string from Station to Station through to Scary Monsters. The one with Space Oddity and Young Americans are OK but not essential, for me. But yes, Ziggy would be one of the big ones, for sure. |
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Post by berkley on Oct 26, 2024 18:00:41 GMT -5
The first Emerson, Lake & Palmer album (1970) would be my fav from this group. There's no track from the LP I would skip
Yes, that's another favourite too and probably a good introduction to the band for anyone curious. Although Brain Salad Surgery ended up working for me as my intro to their music, I think I'd probably recommend trying that 1970 ELP album and Trilogy first, especially for anyone who feels a little sceptical about the whole idea of prog in the first place. |
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