Life-changing Records

[Slim]

I vividly remember being absolutely blown away by this when I first saw it on TOTP. I think I can just about say that it was life-changing. And for me, it's aged beautifully - it still gives me a buzz 50 years later. It seemed like an unbelievable blast of energy at the time.

Listening to it now, it has so much more balls than the likes of Sweet and Suzi Quattro, whom they were competing with in the charts.

[Slim]

My first proper "album experience" - where you listen to the whole thing as a single artistic statement, an aural "journey" if you like - was Help! by The Beatles. I loved the pics on the back cover. My brother's copy didn't have the "Help Mini-Documentary (Insert into computer to view)" of course.

[Slim]

Over the Christmas holidays at the end of 1976 (I like to think it was the end of December, but it might have been the beginning of January) I called in on my friend Arthur. His mum showed me to his bedroom and he was playing this on his record player, on the floor.

[The Picnic Wasp]

It was a three phase thing for me really;

Pre-teens
T:Rex - Slider (their next album Tanx left me a bit cold).

Teens
Queen - A Night At The Opera: I became fanatical about the band for several years.

Adulthood
Rush - Permanent Waves. Obsessive consumption of their back catalogue and desperation for new releases thereafter. There's nothing that will ever come close to my love for this band.

[captainkurtz]

Hearing Hemispheres on a proper stereo record player - my first experience of a turntable hifi player - some point in 1978?

Hearing Nirvana's 'Smell like Teen Spirit' in our price and thinking Wtf is this - I'll be honest, December 1991.  My housemates at the time had seen them at the Mayfair a few months before but I completely ignored them.

Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral in May 1994.  Never heard anything so abrasive and melodic and so in tune with my own feelings at that moment.

Jeff Buckley's 'Grace'
Was given it as a gift in August 1994.  Didn't like it.  Slowly it started to make sense.  Has been an obsession ever since.

Those are the 4 that immediately spring to mind.

[Fishy]

Utopia RA... which I seem to recall my brother borrowed from one of his pals.... anyway was instantly intrigued by the cover and the back cover having the band members dressed up in Egyptian garb.. also the make your own pyramid insert... that was the starting point of my musical journey with Todd Rundgren ...
Another album my brother borrowed which I then managed to grab a listen was Rush A Farewell to Kings and so started another journey
One more that sticks in my mind was ELP Brain Salad Surgery

[Slim]

My initiation into Jazz in my 20s was brought about by a sort of pincer movement. On one side, Jeff Beck's Blow By Blow and Wired and the Mahavishnu / McLaughlin records. But also the likes of Anita Baker and Mica Paris. I loved this album, actually I loved all her records.

[pxr5]

Mine is probably hearing A Farewell to Kings for the first time. 

[dom]

A mix tape put together by a friend at school, Simon. On one side 'Just Supposin' by Status Quo, which even though I enjoyed, turned into a bit of a dead end. Other than that it had the likes of Deep Purple 'Highway Star', Wishbone Ash 'Blowin Free' and 'A King Will Come', Fleetwood Mac'Go Your Own Way' and 'I'm So Afraid' and Lynyrd Skynyrd 'Free Bird', 'Was I Right or Wrong'.

To a 15 year old who only knew what the charts were offering up to that point, this was revolutionary stuff!

[Ali]

A few that spring to mind that whetted my appetite for music, specifically rock, from a very early age (8-10):

Fleetwood Mac - Albatross (I'd never heard such haunting sounds)
Quo - Mean Girl (had it on a Ronco compilation in ours)
Focus - Sylvia (immediately entranced by the sound of Jan Akkerman's guitar)

Interestingly 2 of them instrumentals, guess I was always destined to be a Prog-head! 😁

[Slim]

That Sylvia record was a big one for me, probably not life-changing but I loved it. I did go on to buying Focus albums a few years later. But Hocus Pocus was probably the catalyst for that.

[Fishy]

Focus 3 was the one for me and Moving Waves

[The Picnic Wasp]

Mine is probably hearing A Farewell to Kings for the first time.

One of my life mysteries is buying this, not liking it particularly, swapping it for Rainbow - Down To Earth and then just a few months later, falling in love with it and everything else Rush.

[Slim]

I think I'm fortunate in that my first Rush experience wasn't A Farewell To Kings. For me, it would have put me off listening to any more of their stuff. Just personal taste.

[R6GYY]

A couple of moments spring to mind, but I know there were others.

Seeing, and more importantly hearing, Tubeway Army's hypnotic Are Friends Electric? on Top Of The Pops - I assume 1979 as that was when the album was released. I had never heard sounds like this before. Who cared what the lyrics were about?

Rush's almighty The Spirit Of Radio, which I got on the 'album of the month' in my mail order record club (remember them? Britannia Music or something I think it was called). I don't know who the editor of the club was who chose Permanent Waves, but I will be forever thankful to you for enriching my musical life.

I was genuinely gobsmacked by both of these. One indeed was genuinely life-changing, leading to a lifelong interest and devotion to Rush and later in life bringing me into contact with the lovely folks on t-n-m-s.

whilst I cannot say quite the same of Tubeway Army and Gary Numan, the 2 albums (both released in 1979!) Replicas, followed by The Pleasure Principle, will always be somewhere close to hand as I frequently dip into these. The powerful synthery (just made that word up) still has the power to get under my skin and thrill me. Dark, powerful, stirring, and catchy.