Albums That Blew You Away

[Spiceman50]

As mentioned above
I Robot - Alan Parsons Project and
Chuck E's In Love - Ricky Lee Jones.

I cant even be specific as to why back in the day Ricky Impressed me so much with that album, but to this day Its one of those albums I'll take with me if I audition something. I know every note and word on that album.

 

[noogies]

Sky Dive -- Freddie Hubbard

Aja -- Steely Dan

Live Dead -- Grateful Dead

Gold Coast -- John Coltrane

Tubular Bells -- Mike Oldfield

East-West -- Butterfield Blues Band (esp. Mike Bloomfield's work on the title track)

The Leprechaun -- Chick Corea

Live at Leeds -- The Who

Made in Japan -- Deep Purple

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue -- Andre Previn and LSO

Happy Trails -- Quicksilver Messenger Service

One Size Fits All -- Zappa/Mothers

Fillmore East -- Allman Bros.

Innervisions -- Stevie Wonder

Love Over Gold -- Dire Straits

Pirates -- R. L. Jones

Don Juan's Reckless Daughter -- Joni Mitchell

Umma Gumma -- Pink Floyd

Flex-able -- Steve Vai

Blow by Blow -- Jeff Beck

Abbey Road -- The Beatles

Monster -- Steppenwolf

Completely Well -- B. B. King

In Search of the Lost Chord -- Moody Blues



... and so on.

 

[55Redneck]

Skynyrd: Street Survivors
Rickie Lee Jones: ST
Beatles: Abbey Road
Clapton: Just One Night

 

[Jenkster]

The Police: Synchronicity

Traffic: Traffic, Mr. Fantasy

 

[crazy-in-az]

I'd like to add Ghost In The Machine by the Police. Actually, all of their albums are incredible...

 

[rastaX]

Rory Gallagher ~ Blueprint
Rolling Stones ~ Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Spirit ~ 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
10 Years After ~ A Space in Time

Plus many of those already mentioned.

 

[FONSguy]

ELO - New Worlds Record
J. Geils Band - Freeze Frame
Lincoln Mayorga and Distinguished Colleagues Vol. 2

 

[jimfet]

The first 3 Hendrix albums.

 

[BlindBoyGrnt]

Rory Gallagher ~ Blueprint
Rolling Stones ~ Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out
Spirit ~ 12 Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus
10 Years After ~ A Space in Time

Plus many of those already mentioned.

Welcome to AK, rastaX

 

[Mystic]

Started acquiring "my own" vinyl (LPs & 45s) and shellacs (ie, 78s) circa 1964. Lotta great material, from Fifties Doo-Wop/Soul/R&B through Sixties & Seventies Psych/Prog/Punk/Metal/Disco/Soul/etc.

Of everything collected @ that era, maybe about a half dozen titles "got me" (note: "blown away" isn't a term I use) hard:

- Skip James: "Devil Got My Woman" & "Illinois Blues" (all SJ sides are arresting, e.g. "22-20 Blues", etc.).
- Geechie Wiley: "Last Kind Words" (nb: name misspelled "Geeshie" on my 78's label).
- Bukka White: "Aberdeen" & "Shake 'Em On Down".
- Elmore James: The Sky Is Crying (1965).
- Black Sabbath: Black Sabbath (1970). What is this!? We had no idea what lay ahead...
- Black Sabbath: Paranoid (1970), Master Of Reality (1971), Volume IV (1972), and
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973). Loved each of these to death... or was it to doom? Several very good numbers on Sabotage (1975), but most better-suited @ "live" shows than on the LP.

While I'd say a big impression was made by Cream (esp. live), The Doors (S/T debut & WFTS), and Howlin' Wolf (Moanin' In The Moonlight), none of these nor anything else would "shape" my tastes and (espcially) geetar playin' habits like the four titles above. [note: actually, the influence exerted by the geetars -- Hubert & Wolf -- @ Wolf's Moanin' In The Moonlight album was darned substantial.]

P.S. Honourable mention:

- Pink Floyd: The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn (1967).
- Bobb Trimble: Iron Curtain Innocence (1980) and Harvest Of Dreams (1982). mesmerizing material, ICI album as a whole, but also numbers @ HOD, e.g., "Selling Me Short" & "Armour Of The Shroud".

 

[Mystic]

P.P.S. Honourable mention (ii):

- Richard Thompson: Richard Thompson Live! (More Or Less)(1976)
- Richard Thompson: The Life & Work Of Richard Thompson (Free Reed, 2006)
In particular Disc III - Shine In The Dark: Epic Live Workouts.

I'd of course long ago, starting circa '74, heard of and listened to Thompson, w/ Fairport, solo, and w/ Linda, and liked most of it, but these (rwo) compilations are, for me, particularly special.

And these albums, in no particular order:

- Metallica: ...And Justice For All (1988)
- Raven: Live At The Inferno (1984)
- Slayer: Decade Of Aggression (1991)
- The 13th Floor Elevators: Easter Everywhere (1967) note: while the debut LP was also effin' impressive and left an impression, impression left by EE is a bit deeper.
- Humble Pie: Performance Rockin' The Fillmore (1971)
- Spacemen 3: The Perfect Prescription (1987) While I adore everything S3 released from 1986 through 1991, TPP is the S3 album that has had the biggest impact @ me.

 

[dwaller131]

Cheap Trick "Heaven Tonight"
Queen "A Day At The Races"
Alphaville "Forever Young"

 

[gtv2000]

Brain Salad Surgery
Gentle Giant - S/T is the one I heard first

 

[Guest137]

COTC = Crime of The Century by Supertramp

Thank you! @Kim G

 

[eesparx]

Abbey Road - The Beatles
Abraxas - Santana
Days of Future Passed - The Moody Blues
E Pluribus Funk - Grand Funk Railroad
Made in Japan - Deep Purple
Pearl - Janis Joplin
Stampede - The Doobie Brothers
Steppenwolf 7- Steppenwolf
Turn of the Cards - Renaissance
Who's Next- The Who

 

[charles64]

I grew up in the 70's hearing lots of great music at my family home,The Beatles,Dionne Warwick,Beethoven,Cream,Jimi Hendrix,The Eagles,CSN&Y,etc.etc....
The album that made me one of the Cool Kids was "Pronounced Lynyrd Skynyrd"
40 years later when I became interested in Jazz it was "The Jazz Messengers Moanin'" that's what I was looking for...

 

[Zoot Allures]

A quick skim of my list has me picking the following for various reasons at various times of my life.

Jeff Beck - Wired
The Butterfield Blues Band - East--West
Captain Beyond - S/T
Colosseum - Valentine Suite
Dire Straits - Communique
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Kiss - Destroyer (Hey! I was 11 .Kiss were GOD!! )
Joni Mitchell - Court & Spark
Nektar - A Tab In The Ocean
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Porcupine Tree - Deadwing
Robin Trower - Twice Removed From Yesterday & Bridge of Sighs
Uriah Heep - Demons & Wizards
SRV - Couldn't Stand The Weather
Wishbone Ash - Argus
Neil Young - Harvest
Frank Zappa - Hot Rats, Roxy & Elsewhere & One Size Fits All

From the heavier side...
Agnostic Front - Cause For Alarm
Anvil - Metal On Metal
Black Sabbath - We Sold Our Souls For Rock & Roll
Celtic Frost - Morbid Tales
Destruction - Sentence of Death
DRI - Dealing With It
Exodus - Bonded By Blood
Iron Maiden - Power Slave
Kreator - Pleasure To Kill
Mercyful Fate - Don't Break The Oath
1st three Metallica records
Motorhead - Overkill
Ozzy - Blizzard of Ozz
Slayer - Reign In Blood
Trouble - S/T 1st release

Without too much effort, I could easily add to this list but we'll stick with this for now.

 

[onepixel]

About 50 years of getting my mind blown.

Steppenwolf - Live
Yes - Fragile
Santana - self-titled (2nd)
Uriah Heep - The Magician's Birthday
Phoebe Snow - self-titled
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Earth, Wind & Fire - Gratitude
Patti Smith - Radio Ethiopia
Alan Parson Project - iRobot
Stanley Clark - School Days
Pretenders - self-titled
Linda Ronstadt - What’s New
Laurie Anderson - Mister Heartbreak
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
Diana Krall - Steppin’ Out
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch
New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom
Flaming Lips - The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon
Suiyobi no Campanella - Triathlon

 

[dfunghi]

Three titles I bought on release and spun as soon as I got home. I remember distinctly listening and being blown away.
DSOTM
Houses Of The Holy
Brain Salad Surgery

All three while in HS.

Later in life I was blown away by RT Daring Adventures, which I bought thinking it would be like the stuff he did with Linda. It wasn’t anything like it and the guitar playing blew my mind. I likely have played that record 5000 times sine then.

 

[8xlaxx]

...was young & impressionable.

The Beatles 'sound' was just right for me during this period.