[Trawlerman]

The two albums that changed my life forever are:

SWEETHEARTS OF THE RODEO by the BYRDS. This album just floored me. I kept reading interviews with country artists and countr-tock artist who were citing this as the fountain of inspiration for the whole country rock movement.

I eventually bought it and it never ceases to amaze me how such an album could have come out the late 60s. It's such a great album I couldn't begin to explain.

Amazon.co.uk Review
After Chris Hillman dragged new friend Gram Parsons into the Byrds, they made an album as close to a country masterpiece as a rock act could ever make. In fact, the only tunes better than the definitive covers here of songs by Bob Dylan ("You Ain't Going Nowhere"), Guthrie ("Pretty Boy Floyd") and the Louvin Brothers ("The Christian Life") are Parsons's originals, especially the incomparable "Hickory Wind". Sweetheart wasn't the first country-rock album, but with its gorgeous three-way harmonies and sweet pedal steel, it remains the best. --David Cantwell
What the Critics Say...
Q Magazine (9/00, p.134) - Included in Q's "Best Alt.Country Albums Of All Time".
Rolling Stone (6/12/97, p.114) - "...Remixed and reshuffled, with Gram Parsons' vocals front and center, this sparkling reissue gives revisionist history a good name..."
Rolling Stone (9/14/68, p.20) - "...The material they've chosen to record, or rather, the way they perform the material, is simple, relaxed and folky. It's not pretentious, it's pretty. The musicianship is excellent..."
Musician (6/97, p.86) - "...there was a time before the Eagles, when the Byrds made the steel guitar acceptable to hippies...The 20-bit remastering seems to add overtones to everything without adding anything to the price, and the five extra cuts...offer an illuminating glimpse into how they worked..."
Q Magazine (4/97, p.140) - 3 Stars (out of 5) - "...their most influential album, a landmark at a crucial junction on pop's long, dusty road..."
Entertainment Weekly (4/4/97, pp.81-82) - "...sounds sharper [than the original pressing]...and outtakes featuring Gram Parsons add a rustic postscript. Anyone taken with the '90s alt-country of Wilco should visit this more authentic RODEO..." - Rating: A
Down Beat (8/97, p.61) 4 1/2 stars (out of 5) - "...the best of the pack....a full immersion into bluegrass, country and gospel..."




Miss this album at your peril

 

[Flasken]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch love is suicide.

bodies - by far the greatest song ever. (which happens to be on the greatest album ever)

 

[MusicJunkie]

Count Basie - The Basie Big Band

 

[john_jcb]

It is hard for me to pinpoint a specific album that changed my life. I really think it was a number of them listened to in the the mid sixties on FM radio. FM was so different then and each station had its own personality. One record that has stuck with me from the period is Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention Freak Out

 

[Odi_et_Amo]

It wasn't an album, but a concert that did it for me.

I heard Alban Berg's Violin Concerto and it open up my ears to modern/new/late 20th-century classical music. It introduced me to a whole new world of sound, which came attached to a price tag comensurate with the wealth of new experiences.

 

[dhwilkin]

Let's see... the first cd I ever really heard was Guns 'N Roses Appetite for Destruction, during a middle school class trip up to Washington, D.C. Before I heard that, I had very little interest in music.

That would have to be the main one.

The other biggie was after I finished watching Slayers Next anime, I liked the music enough to buy the Best of Slayers, TV and Radio set. That brought me into the world of j-pop and anime music, which now accounts for probably half, if not more, of my listening choices.

 

[skagen]

Michael Jackson "Thriller", completely spoiled me when it comes to pop music - when you listen to the details, its incredibly funky - it set a standard that I've not yet met in pop music.

Massive Attack - "Blue Lines", was the first record that ever just sucked me in from minute one - by its own rules too, not mine. Totally changed my tates in music.

 

[LobsterSan]

Bjork - Post

This album really shifted my musical opinions. All my tastes and preferences prior to this album had focused on what was popular and playing on the radio. My tastes and preferences after this album focus on what *I* like. As well, this album came out at a time when I started to lose my childlike state and start to become more of an individual (1995 = 15 yr. old lobster). Granted, songs like Army of Me and It's Oh So Quiet got me started on this album, and I didn't like it as much as Debut at first. But then I started listening to it in bed with my headphones (crappy v100's), and I noticed the subtleties of other songs, awakening my musical consciousness.

Bjork really introduced me to electronic music, and Post was the album that got me hooked.

 

[Masonjar]

Husker Du - NEW DAY RISING

kicked so much more ***** than any of the "metal" I was listening to at the time.. the SST bands (Black Flag, Minutemen, Meat Puppets, along with the Huskers) let me to stuff like R.E.M., the Violent Femmes and the Replacements. Then soon the British stuff followed (Joy Division, the Cure) and my Quiet Riot and Motley Crue albums were soon gathering dust.

-jar

 

[heeeraldo]

OK Computer.

got me listening to music, and not just the drivel on Top 40 radio.

 

[mecano]

when i was young...:
Wipers-Youth Of America
Joy Division-Closer
Sound-From The Lions Mouth
Wire-154
Radio Birdman-Radios Appear

and recent years:
The Gathering-How To Measure A Planet
Radiohead-OK Computer
Sleater Kinney-Dig Me Out

 

[elrod-tom]

Van Halen's first album - their best IMHO - was the one. I was a big music fan prior to that, but that album really kicked things off for me.

 

[NewSc2]

Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon"

 

[Doug W.]

Patti Smith's Horses. At the time it arrived, it was just so...
different.

It changed me forever.

 

[Pseudo]

Metallica’s Kill Em All. I was probably about 13 and I found that tape in the back of my sister’s car. When we got home I put it in and was blown away. All of my youthful anger/angst finally had a vent. The music had power to it. It was that album that I think started my love for music. (though now the album doesn’t do as much for me)

Mozart’s Requiem. (several years later) I think that was the first classical piece that I listened to that had the same power as the first album I mentioned. It made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. Very beautiful.

Miles Davis Live at the Fillmore East. About 3 years ago I borrowed this from a friend. I was awestruck, just the raw energy and grooves in this album. Hearing the opening bass notes for Bitches Brew followed by Miles Trumpet raping and pillaging through the rest of the track.