In your personal musical history, what albums are the ones that (to use the cliché...
CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

And how?
In chronological order, please.

Judas Priest - Point Of Entry
The first music that was my own, and not my parents'. Also inspired me to pick up the guitar.

Derek & The Dominoes - Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs
Showed me that there was other music outside of metal that had great guitar playing.

Meat Puppets - Up On the Sun
My intro to the weird, wonderful world of the Underground.

Replacements - Pleased To meet Me
The song is the thing.

Uncle Tupelo
Country music can be cool.

Television - Marquee Moon
Reintroduced me to the concept of virtuosity in punk/underground rock.

Grew up on early rock'n'roll, country, and pop radio. Then I heard...

Bob Dylan - Greatest Hits Vol 1., Bought it at Wal-mart when I was 15. Had never heard a Dylan song besides covers that I didn't realize were his. Changed everything. Never heard music the same again. Nothing else has really blown my mind again.

Hum - You'd Prefer An Astronaut
My gateway band from modern rock/alternative into indie.

Wilco - Summerteeth
Introduced myself to a more sensitive Tommy

Godspeed You Black Emperor
Got me to explore more avant garde music through its side projects.

Public Enemy - Fear of a Black Planet
There's other music out there besides rock.

Miles Davis - The Birth of the Cool
There's other music out there besides rock and rap.

god I could make a list of a hundred of these for various reasons, but Slanted & Enchanted was probably the heaviest impact on me. and maybe Beggar's Banquest. One for being itself, the other for being so what I didn't think the Rolling Stones were capable of doing.

approaching this from an entry into music angle:

Paul Westerberg - 14 Songs...got me into the Replacements, Big Star and a lot of that 80s/early 90s rock

Buffalo Tom - Big Red Letter Day - similar to above

Bob Dylan - Desire - got me into Dylan hard-core

Neil Young - unplugged - same as above

Purple Rain - Prince

Nevermind - Nirvana

mellon collie and the infinite sadness - the smashing pumpkins

(i typed out the "how?", but it seemed boring & trite, so i deleted.)

The B-52's self-titled

First record I ever bought with my own money. The rest is history. This is the only "milestone" record I have.

The Cramps "Bad Music For Bad People"

Not a milestone, but a great annectdote. When my mom freaked over the cover, and wanted my dad to force me to throw it away, I played it, and my dad's comment was, "Hmm, sounds like Elvis". Still have it.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
First band that i became infatuated with

The Cure - Disintegration
got me through some tough and good times

Nofx - Punk in drublic
got me back into punk rock

Beatles- Magical Mystery Tour
The first tape I ever owned

Nirvana- Nevermind
As much of a cliche this is it introduced me to Alternative Music plus I discovered a lot of bands by buying cds kurt mentioned in interviews, plus it made me want to play guitar

Bis- New Transitor Heros
One of my favorite cds of all time

Sage Francis- Personal Journals
The first rap cd I bought, it introduced me to underground rap

Neil Diamond - Tap Root Manuscript
Fell asleep listening to this on my Fisher Price My First Record Player when I was 2-3 years old. Listened to it so much I wore out the grooves and my parents had to buy a second copy.

Elvis Presley - 20 Greatest Hits
Found the cassette at Target on the $3.99 rack when I was a kid and listened to it constantly. Gave me a solid base at a young age.

Lynyrd Skynyrd - Skynyrd's Innards
Got me out of top-40 radio, into Classic Rock.

Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Introduced me to a world of music outside of Classic Rock in high school.

this is hard to do, off the top of my head....but...some immediate standouts

Ratt - Out of the Cellar : until this point, i was a music fan, but more towards singles. I really didnt know anything more then what i heard on the radio. didnt really know that full albums existed. i just had 45's and such.....Ratt was my first full length cassette; my first favortie band; and the intorudction to my first favorite genre of music, which i still love to this day... the old stuff that is...

Beastie Boys: License to Ill.... same deal.... i liked run DMC, whodini, sugarhill gang, etc....but the Beasties birthed my love of old school rap...

Janes Addiction: 1st record (live).... in junior high, the weird gothic girl on the bus use to listedn to this every day. at first i hated it, but i grew to love it, and was my introudction to indie rock....

Blind Melon - s/t: being a huge guns n roses fan, when i saw the don't cry video for the first time, i always thought that the other guy (shannon hoon) singing in the video was real cool... then MTV started playing the Melon's first video "Dear Ole Dad' a good 6 months before the record even came out. I was obsesed by that point, and blind melon is one of my all time favorite bands.

Mother Love Bone: 'Shine' ep: ahhhh...MLB, Andy Wood...bought this at a store cause i liked the cover. amazing band....they were me and my friends great little secret.......the band broke up prior to their full length came out...wonder what ever became of some of the guys in that band.. hahaah.

Nirvana: nevermind - yes, very cliche. im gonna give the same answer that everyone else will...was shopping in a record store. i had a good friendship with a guy who worked there. always pointed me in the direction of new bands i should check out...handed me a promo copy, no artwork of 'nevermind' and told me, this is gonna be the cause of something big.....took it home....and no lies.... my jaw hit the floor upon hearing 'smells like teen spirit' the first time. it was so different then everything that was out there. i remember calling my friend in awe, just telling him he had to hear this....

Pearl Jam ' Ten': ahhhh, so thats what happened to my mother love bone boys....it really started with temple of the dog. after andy wood died, chris cornell and soundgarden did a side project with ex members of mother love bone and their unofficial new singer, eddie vedder. they were still called mookie blaylock at the time of the recording....this is all before temple of the dog got a repush from the label. when it was first released, it sold very modestly....anyways, i waso ne of the few who was drooling at the mouth, waiting for 'ten' to be released......then it all blew up (do a search for my pearl jam - limelight story)...

Afghan Whigs: Black Love. - i had owned 'gentlemen' but never really played it too much. i lied it but didnt love it....going back to my pearl jam fixation, guitarist stone gossard had a side project called BRAD. their first record was amazing and i loved their singer, shawn smith's, voice......one day, reading a magazine, i read that shawn smith was pals with greg dulli, and sang on their new CD, black love....so , i ran out and bought it, and my infatuation with the whigs began......looking back, it all started with mother love bone.

Black Mountain: s/t: always wsaw this in the stores. lied the cover. liked what it said on the sticker. eventually bought it. love at first listen. opened my ears to a whole new slew of bands.....


there are records tat may seem obvious that i left out, but the ones i did list, immediately came to mind, as to makign a significant impact in my life. whew.

Son Volt~Trace
There's something in those notes that speaks to a portion of Americana I didn't know about til those first three guitar notes

Lucky Dube~House of Exile
Realized where in the world I belonged listening to this, packed my shit and moved back to the islands, never leaving again.

Big head Todd and the Monsters~Sister Sweetly
Saw the wisdom of relationships and the energy that they take comes back in spades if you commit to it.

Poi Dog Pondering~Wishing like a Mountain Thinking Like The Sea
Grounding and spiritual for me, made me see the positive side of life and beauty of my surroundings...and makes me think of Austin everytime.

Spearhead~Home
Again, there's a message of connectivity here that binds me to friends and family. Franti's lyrics on this disc run deep through my ideology on life.

son volt - trace. forgot that one. got me into wilco, uncle tupelo, and then all sorts of country stuff. good call.

I am loving this thread.
Some interesting reading here.
Thanks, y'all.

First tape bought w/ own money?
Huey Lewis and the News, Sports. =awesome.

Hendrix, Axis: Bold As Love. Set my head spinning, lasted several years.

Beatles, Love Songs. 2-record set my mom had, tons of great songs, listened to it every day in elementary school. Couldn't wait to get off the bus, go inside and listen to it instead of playing with other kids... beginnings of things to come.

Self, Subliminal Plastic Motives. Heard "cannon" on local radio, found cd at Best Buy, put on headphones, and wore... it.. out. SUCH a good headphones cd. Layers, harmonies, heavy guitar but in a pretty way.

aaaand lots more that've been mentioned.

Ice Cube - Death Certificate - First CD I ever bought. Loud, mean, but thought provoking.

Weezer - The Blue Album - I went to visit my sister one summer, and heard the Sweater Song on the KU station - reminded me that music made by white people is awesome, too.

Beastie Boys - Paul's Boutique - Bloor and another friend were shocked to know I hadn't heard this, about 5 years after its release. They rectified the situation. I always say they "Taught me to be cool"

Wilco - Being There - Read a review and bought the album. Loved it immediately. Later turned Bloor et al onto this band. Still a weird point of pride for me.

There are many more, but these stand out

the beastie boys ~ licensed to ill
i think this album came out when i was in the 6th grade.
i remember i had to walk downtown 3 different times because the record
store kept selling out of the cassette. at that point it became a MISSION. but once i got the album.....they came my favorite band from the beginning until my sophomore year in college.
this album in particular isn't my FAVORITE of theirs. but it's what opened me up
to them.
one time in high school.... my friends and i threw this disasterous hotel party in this seedy hotel in my town.... and amongst the craziness that ensued....my stereo got confiscated by the cops. but, my friend that was in the room at the time all this was going down....made sure to get my beastie boys tape out of the stereo before they took it.
and it's more than 'fighting for your right to party'...
it's all about:
slow and low that is the tempo.

guns n roses ~ appetite for destruction
i went to catholic school most of my life. in the 8th grade i was ALL ABOUT this album. we were synonymous. i think the nun even told my mom i listened to too much heavy metal. ha ha.

nirvana ~ nevermind
senior year in high school. at the time, it was unlike anything my friends or i had been listening to at the time. loved it.

the grateful dead ~ skeletons from the closet
discovered them on my own when i went to college. i didn't really know anyone who listened to the gd. i picked a used album up and liked it. though, now i know that the true essence of the grateful dead is not in the studio albums. but the live stuff. but i thank this album for intriguing me enough to immerse myself in wanting to hear more, more, more!

ani difranco ~ dilate
ani difranco has been my #1 favorite (tied with the grateful dead)
for almost ten years now. her lyrics always seem to speak to me
directly ... with whatever phase i'm going through in my life.
just when you think no one understands..... ani does.
(geez, that sounds cheesy, no? oh well....)
"you walk through my walls
like a ghost on tv
you penetrate me
and my little pink heart
is on its little brown raft
floating out to sea
and what can i say
but i'm wired this way
and you're wired to me
and what can i do
but wallow in you
unintentionally"

sunny day real estate ~ diary
i loved this album so much. but haven't really listened to it in years.
so, i'm not sure what to say about it. it meant a lot to me, though.

phish ~ live phish
this album prompted me to drag my friend to a phish show .... and opened my world up to a whole SLEW of heady things.

pavement ~ crooked rain, crooked rain
this was my jumpstart into 'indie bands'. though, this album, in particular played non-stop the summer i learned to drive.

wilco ~ being there
this is the soundtrack to a love affair of mine. love affair and then subsequent broken heart. it's so bittersweet.

I pretty much did the same. Didn't hurt that it was $12.99 at Circuit City, either. It wasn't until a few months later that I got Summerteeth, but by then I loved Being There. Summerteeth rings more on a personal level, but Being There is still my favorite Wilco album.

About the 4th or 5th listen (was homebrewing in mom's kitchen) it struck me that this was gonna be one of those album's I'd need a year to digest, and that it would be a very good year.

Great idea. I'll be back when I have some more time.

They failed like a preggo test after prom night.



Guns N Roses- Appetite for Destruction- First band and album I ever really became obsessed with.

U2- Joshua Tree - Came out the same year and redefined pop music for me.

Drivin N Cyrin - Mystery Road - first concert I ever went to and the first regional band me and my friends all go into at the same time. (Add The Connells into this category as well)

Nirvana- Nevermind - what can I say, I was 16 when it came out and it blew everyone my age away. Opened the floodgates for Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., etc.

Superchunk- Here's where the strings come in
Big Star - #1 Record/Radio City

--the first two records I bought in college that NONE of my friends had ever heard of thus sending me down the track of music obsessed bliss.

Madonna - 'True Blue' (1986?)
First LP I ever bought! I'm always a little suspicious of people who say "Oh! I liked The Velvet Underground when I was 9!"

Iron Maiden - 'Somewhere In Time' (1987?)
I got this out the library because I liked the picture on the cover. The first band I really got into big time.

Mudhoney - 'Bigmuff Superfuzz' (1988?)
Again I bought this just because I liked the cover. I thought they were a metal band because they were all headbanging in the photo. Took me in a different direction and out of the metal ghetto.

The Smiths - 'Hateful Of Hollow' (probably about 1990)
I knew the Smiths before because they were always on Top Of The Tops and liked what I'd heard but this was the first album of theirs I'd really heard and it blew me away.

Primal Scream - 'Screamadelica' (1991?)
I guess like a lot of people at this time Primal Scream (along with The Happy Mondays/Stone Roses) got me interested in dance music and the rave scene which had just emerged at that time.

Probably the biggest musical influence on me wouldn't be an album at all, it would be the John Peel Show.

i'm not gonna lie...
new kids on the block- hangin' tough (on tape):
first showed me an obsession with a band (whether they are shitty or not) can actually exist and the dedication of buying every and anything they put out including t-shirts, buttons, etc. and the power of waking up at the butt-crack of dawn to get front row seats.

the cure- disintegration:
this album got me through some tough times.

red hot chili peppers- bloodsugarsexmagik:
first opened my eyes to rock music in general. i also bought the record to impress my 7th grade crush so he would think i was cool. but then, i realized he just had good taste in music and he introduced me to a lot of other bands as well.

a tribe called quest- the low end theory
THE album that never got old for me in high school.

radiohead- the bends:
you say ok computer, i say the bends. this album got me through some tough times in high school.

dieselboy- 97 octane:
one of the first albums that got me into drum n' bass and used to be my "soundtrack" for going to parties and such (mind you, i grew up in the electronica/dance aka raving scene).

mark farina- san franscisco sessions:
same as above, except replace drum n' bass with "house." these 2 albums were huge for me for 5-6 years of my life which also introduced me to a lot of other dj's/artists in the rave culture.

these are the albums that came across off the top of my head.

Nirvana - Nevermind
Probably the first I was ever aware of "alternative" music or punk, around the time I was 11 or 12. I remember at the time it seemed kinda grouped in with metal, or at least where I lived, it was the metal crowd that embraced it. It grabbed me immediately, but I later went back and forth with liking and not caring about Nirvana.

Radiohead - The Bends
Pearl Jam - No Code
These played a huge part in defining my tastes in high school and directed my further musical exploration as the internet became available. I played the hell out of both these well into college, and they became standards that I measured new rock albums by for a little while. No Code was particularly reflective of my insular, introspective, 16-year-old state of mind. A little before these came out, I had started listening to Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin. This is when my musical tastes began the path to "maturity".

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album, I Care Because You Do
Squarepusher - Hard Normal Daddy, Big Loada
Autechre - EP 7, LP 5
Mouse on Mars - Instrumentals, Niun Niggung
I didn't hear these until I was in college, but they drastically altered the way I heard music at the time, and they prompted me to look into and appreciate all sorts of music outside of rock. The Aphex Twin, Squarepusher stuff significantly altered my ideas of what electronic music had to offer. It didn't need to be 4/4 dance beats, and it didn't need to sound mechanical. It could be incredibly expressive and unpredictable, and in it's own way, it could rock.

Silver Jews - American Water
Songs: Ohia - Didn't It Rain
Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I See a Darkness
I got into these albums over the span of a few years leading up to the release of that S:O album, and they epitomize, along with Smog and some Mountain Goats, what I feel are the strongest of the more traditional-styled songwriters out there now.

Boredoms - Super Ae
Animal Collective - Here Comes the Indian, Spirit They're Gone...
Deerhoof - Reveille, Apple O'
Need New Body - s/t, UFO
These have all played a part in keeping me excited about the possibilities of new music. There are still plenty of intersting ideas out there that aren't too heady or academic to be fun.

wow, GREAT thread.

I'll add a couple that haven't been listed....

Marty Robbins - Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs
Listened to this a LOT as a kid growing up on vinyl. One of my most treasured records I own today. I grew up in West Texas, loved cowboys and stories of the rugged life and this captured the glamour of it all.

]Led Zeppelin - IV
One of the first cd's I ever bought, solely on the fact that I had heard of a song called Stairway to Heaven. It was this album that gave me a true affection for music and gave me the desire to play some kind, any kind, of an instrument.

Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
As others stated, the first album I really clung to. It was personal, it was everything I needed at the time. The soundtrack to my life for the first couple of years after I got a hold of it.

Countless others that had some sort of an impact. Great memories.