Non Jazz Albums (Or Songs, etc.) That Rocked Your World

[paul secor]

Albums that rocked my world include Nichols & May Examine Doctors, the first Moms Mabley releases that got played on WLAC,

and Beyond The Fringe with Peter Cook & Dudley Moore.Songs that woke up my ears, at various young ages, include

Spike Jones / William Tell Overture

Joe Turner / Shake Rattle & Roll

Coasters / Searching

Jimmy Reed / The Sun Is Shining

Ray Charles / Rock & Roll (album)

Johnny Cash / Big River

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (on an LP with Cantata Profana)

Santo & Johnny / Sleep Walk

(don't remember the singer) / Here I Am I'm Drunk Again

Bayreuth 1936 (album of Wagner arias; Hitler was allegedly there that year)

and the first rock-&-roll record I can remember hearing on the radio. It was by a male quartet and the first five lines were

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby

Huh?

The next strain was the same. Anybody know the singers or the name of the song? It was ca. 1953 or 54

Maybe Webb Pierce on Here I Am Drunk Again?

[SMB1968]

I was never the same after this one.

[David Ayers]

Good idea for a thread, not sure how I fit in. For me it was certain chart things that really got me into music. As the thread is about albums, I can say the first album artist I followed was David Bowie, then after that a move to non-chart with King Crimson. Once you are hearing KC you are already hearing British free improv, so when a few years later I first accidentally bought an Ornette Coleman record (James Blood Ulmer, Tales of Captain Black, in fact) then I was hooked on him, followed by Coltrane, Dolphy, Shepp, Ayler, Taylor, and other things I read about in The Freedom Principle, including those (over here) bastard-arse hard to find Nessa albums (ah but when you stumble across Saga of the Outlaws in the second-hand rack...). So my jazz obsessions were quite a few tracks/albums of Ornette (Atlantics, Golden Circle, some bootlegs) and JC (all the Impulses!), with Far Cry, Fire Music as major obsessions, and a big impact from my earliest Ayler and CT albums, Witches and Devils and Dark to Themselves. I guess I should add EP's Saxophone Solos as another favorite and big step into the abstract.

After that the earth has never moved. After 20+ years of following classical and attending many performances, I'm still just getting used to it. Too grown-up to get over-enthusiastic I guess, which is a pity.

But, you know, lots of favorite 'pop' songs and even some albums which do more for me than most of the other stuff I actually listen to...

[John L]

Sam Cooke: Bring it On Home to Me

Robert Nighthawk: The Moon is Rising

Muddy Waters: Too Young to Know

Bob Dylan: Just Like a Woman

Jimmy Rogers: That's Alright

Aretha Franklin: Angel

Van Morrison: Tupelo Honey

Johnnie Taylor: We're Getting Careless With Our Love

Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter

Jimi Hendrix: Voodoo Chile

to name a few

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I posted a few non-jazz things on the jazz thread, so I'll list them here

In 1959

The Drifters - There goes my baby - Atlantic (London)
Ray Charles - What'd I say - Atlantic

in 1991

Youssou N'dour - Immigres - Saprom
Sidiki Diabate, Batourou Sekou Kouyate & co - Cordes anciennes - Barenreiter Musicaphon

To supplement those, some that were almost as important in different ways:

In 1956

Fats Domino - I'm in love again - Imperial

The first Rock & Roll I ever heard. I've always thought it was significant that I heard Fats before Elvis. I bought most of his late fifties and early sixties singles (and several LPs) and now have the 5 CD set of his complete Imperial singles.

1961

Phil Upchurch - You can't sit down pts 1 & 2 - Boyd

Ray Charles - One mint julep - Impulse

These 2 singles were my introduction to the jazz organ. Nuff sed.

1964

Alvin Robinson - Something you got - Tiger

James Brown - Out of sight - Smash

As important as the Drifters and Ray Charles singles had been to me in '59 - signals of something new in the air.

1967

Ambrose Campbell - Highlife today - Lansdowne Columbia UK

First album of African music I bought. I liked it a lot but after several months, I could tell I wasn't really getting it. So I ditched it. But it started me reading West African history and that enabled me, when the time came, to get other things.

1968

Debussy/Boulez/Pierre Louys; Chansons de Bilitis - Vera Zorina (who was Goddard Lieberson's missus) - Columbia

My introduction to French chamber music. I went to the UK first performance of this work, with the recitation by Ms Zorina, accompanied by half a dozen beauties from Sussex University who danced around in what greatly resembled baby doll nighties. I've never sold this LP, which I'd bought a few days before in the WHSmith sale. (The B side is 'Herodiade' by Hindemith/Mallarme.)

1975

Fela Kuti - Gentleman - EMI Nigeria

I walked into Spillers one day and side 1 of this was playing in the shop. When it got onto side 2, the lady at whose behest it was being played didn't want it (!!!!) so I said, 'I'll have it!!!"

MG

[alankin]

Here are some of mine:

Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (w/ Duke's "East St. Louis Toodle-Oo")

The Band - Rock of Ages

Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks & Desire

Allman Brothers Band - Live at the Fillmore East

Rolling Stones - Let it Bleed

Fairport Convention - Liege & Lief

Steeleye Span - Please to See the King

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

Soft Machine - Third

Soft Machine - Triple Echo

[Sundog]

Not sure how I stumbled on this thread but it's a good one! My rock oriented list below.

Elvis Costello- Watching The Detectives

Squeeze- Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)

Pretenders- Mystery Achievement

Rolling Stones- Respectable

Talking Heads- Life During Wartime

David Bowie- Stay

The Clash- Know Your Rights

Paul McCartney- Jet

The Kinks- Victoria

Bob Dylan- Idiot Wind

[danasgoodstuff]

Albums that rocked my world include Nichols & May Examine Doctors, the first Moms Mabley releases that got played on WLAC,

and Beyond The Fringe with Peter Cook & Dudley Moore.Songs that woke up my ears, at various young ages, include

Spike Jones / William Tell Overture

Joe Turner / Shake Rattle & Roll

Coasters / Searching

Jimmy Reed / The Sun Is Shining

Ray Charles / Rock & Roll (album)

Johnny Cash / Big River

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra (on an LP with Cantata Profana)

Santo & Johnny / Sleep Walk

(don't remember the singer) / Here I Am I'm Drunk Again

Bayreuth 1936 (album of Wagner arias; Hitler was allegedly there that year)

and the first rock-&-roll record I can remember hearing on the radio. It was by a male quartet and the first five lines were

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby, booly otten boo

Booly otten boo, baby

Huh?

The next strain was the same. Anybody know the singers or the name of the song? It was ca. 1953 or 54

Could it have been the Clovers? time period is right and sounds like something they might've done...they di do"Boo diddy boo dah do day"

[Chuck Nessa]

Blue by Mostly Other People Do the Killing.

[jazzbo]

I'd say Band of Gypsys is the one that most rocked my world and "changed my way of thinking."

Then there's Jobim's "Stone Flower." Just keeps opening up its beauty to me.

Finally there's Sade's "Promise."

[Hardbopjazz]

Can't You see - Marshall Tucker Band.

Just about everything by Jimi Hendrix.

[paul secor]

I am getting old. I saw this thread this morning and was going to respond to it. Then I saw that I started it a year ago. Have absolutely no memory of doing so.

[His Boy Elroy]

I was a late bloomer, music-listening wise. My parents weren’t really into it and had a small, mostly-uncool collection. I grew up listening to radio, but it was all mainstream stuff where I lived. Over time, I gravitated to classic rock. In the ‘80’s, I was exposed to a bit more here and there – some college radio type stuff, some punk, reggae, but I was always flat broke and didn’t really have money for records. I didn’t really start opening up, musically, until the late ‘80’s, early ‘90’s, and even then it took a few years to get done with schooling and finally get myself into a spot where I could start buying music in earnest. Still, there were some along the way that sort of stand out in my memory . . .

“Hey Jude” and Abbey Road by the Beatles. My brother and I rubbed some coins together in the late ‘70’s and bought these on 8-track to play on my father’s stereo. ‘My first intro to late Beatles, which led me to a ton of other ‘60’s and ‘70’s rock bands.

“The Ramones,” “Rocket to Russia” and “Rock-N-Roll High School.” My intro to punk music . . . still a bit of a guilty pleasure . . . but perhaps moreso, in its influence on a lot of post-punk indie music that came after, which I eventually got around to.

“The Violent Femmes” – Debut. This one rocked my world when I first heard it. It’s pretty adolescent in a lot of ways, but had a certain stripped-down, low-fi rawness that still appeals to me. I’ve always tended to lean toward organic-sounding rock.

“The Free Wheeling Bob Dylan” – really opened me up to pre-electric folk music. Neil Young may have laid the groundwork.

“Life’s Rich Pageant” by R.E.M. Early R.E.M. really influenced my listening back in the ‘80’s, nudging me out of purely classic rock and into some more indie-type sounding stuff.

“Skylarking” by XTC – this one took it a step further . . .

“Love of the Land” by Irish-born Robbie O’Connell. My brother, who was working at a record store in the mid-late ‘80’s, made me a tape of this one, which began a long interest in celtic music – which eventually expanded to include other European folk music, and possibly even led me to bluegrass.

“Taj Mahal” – Taj Mahal. I didn’t stumble across this one until later, but it really opened me up to electric blues, and remains one of my favorite blues albums of all-time.

“In The Aeoroplane Over The Sea” – Neutral Milk Hotel. This one is only 15 years old or so, but I probably wouldn’t own half of what remains of my rock collection if I hadn’t encountered this one. It really got me interested in modern indie rock again, after I’d been heading in other directions for a while.

Anyway, a few off the top of my head . . . I’m sure there were many others. 'not the coolest list of all-time, lol, but they eventually got me into some pretty interesting stuff, I think . . .

Edited November 11, 2014 by His Boy Elroy

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well - my world, I find, is still being rocked. Earlier this year, by this first encounter with hot Meringue

Felix Del Rosario - Felix Llego - Borinquen. When I saw the sleeve, I couldn't resist...

Felix died a couple of years ago. He was lauded in the Dominican Republic as a hero of Meringue.

MG

[Chuck Nessa]

[Brownian Motion]

The David Grisman Quintet

Quintet '80

Tony Trischka--Bluegrass Light, Heartlands

Mark O'Connor--Markology,

Bill Keith--Something Auld, Something Newgrass, Something Borrowed, Something Bluegrass

Bela Fleck--Crossing the Tracks, Drive

[colinmce]

In chronological order, roughly spanning ages 10-23 (I actually came to jazz at that point feeling like rock, etc. had shown me everything it had to offer. I still feel this way):

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisted

The Byrds - Greatest Hits

The Modern Lovers - s/t

Television - Marquee Moon

The Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground

The Band - Music From Big Pink

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

Fugazi - End Hits

Grand Ulena - Gateway To Dignity

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

Loudin Wainwright III - Album II

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call

A very particular distinction being made here. I would say that these are the albums that opened my ears up to new avenues of or new limits to personal expression.

[JSngry]

Too soon to tell for sure, but I'm starting to feel that too-familiar, "uh-oh, you should have left this one alone, you don't have enough time left in this or any other life to deal with all this" about Morton Feldman's Crippled Symmetry by California EAR Unit on Bridge. Not my first Feldman, but the first one I've not been able to listen to a few times, say, ok, I got it, and then move on. This one, it's easy to hear what's there, except that it's easier to come back and hear it again and realize that, yes, that's all there, but so is THIS, and then, there you go.

No doubt true of so much Feldman (and of so much music in general), but this is the one that's getting its fangs increasingly buried.

[Jim R]

Plenty of rock and pop came before these, but here are some that stand out since I was in college (1975 onward)

[Jim R]

Edited November 13, 2014 by Jim R

[soulpope]

and the door to African Music was smashed wide open via

Edited November 13, 2014 by soulpope

[Scott Dolan]

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd

Appetite For Destruction - Guns N Roses

New Moonshine - James Taylor

[Shawn]

I would have to post several thousand albums to answer this question. At one point I ended up with a list of over 100 albums that were released in the year 1970 that I consider essential, can't imagine how long that list would be if I opened it up to all years.

[Homefromtheforest]

In chronological order, roughly spanning ages 10-23 (I actually came to jazz at that point feeling like rock, etc. had shown me everything it had to offer. I still feel this way):

Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisted

The Byrds - Greatest Hits

The Modern Lovers - s/t

Television - Marquee Moon

The Velvet Underground - Velvet Underground

The Band - Music From Big Pink

Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West

Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One

Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out

Fugazi - End Hits

Grand Ulena - Gateway To Dignity

Cocteau Twins - Heaven or Las Vegas

Loudin Wainwright III - Album II

Joni Mitchell - Blue

Nick Cave - The Boatman's Call

A very particular distinction being made here. I would say that these are the albums that opened my ears up to new avenues of or new limits to personal expression.

Some interesting choices. Fugazi was my first punk rock concert...it was the "repeater" tour and it was held in some basement with a back alley entrance...probably no more then 100-200 people and the cops tried to shut it down halfway through. Ian and Guy talked to the cops for a bit and the show went on...it was very punk rock haha. Also have fond memories of seeing Pavement on the "slanted" tour...their drummer Gary was outside the venue chatting with fans..he was a character for sure!

[Ligeti]

Blimey, it's easier to mention artists than specific albums.

Elvis Costello - I have most of what he's done (didn't like the last one, but it seems relatively popular).

Alice Cooper - Everything up to From the Inside.

Richard Thompson - Everything.

Television/Tom Verlaine - Everything.

Talking Heads/David Bryrne - Everything.

Graham Parker - I've lost touch with him for a bit, but I have everything up to Don't Tell Columbus.

Kate Bush - Everything up to Red Shoes.

Black Sabbath - The Ozzy era.

David Bowie - Everything.

Individual albums.... Ten off the top of my head:

Graham Parker - Mona Lisa's Sister

Elvis Costello - North

David Bowie - Low/Heroes.

Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (Nonesuch).

Charlemaine Palestine - Strumming Music.

Ultravox - Systems of Romance.

The Vibrators - Pure Mania.

Bill Nelson's Red Noise - Sound on Sound.

Bob Dylan - Infidels.

Jethro Tull - Songs from the Wood.