MUSIC that changed your life

[Reeducation]

Once again, bare with me because I can't write.

When I was about 11 years old, my dad "lost it" and he started listening The Doors all the fucking time.
Every day and every night 24/7 for months!
It had something to do with him divorcing my mother.
Anyways while he was tripping in his psychedelic landscapes (weed, whiskey and sometimes LSD I assume) and going through some pretty heavy shit and at the same time forgetting that he had three children living with him, I started to "get it".
It might sound stupid now but back then everything made sense. Still does actually.
I still remember those "epic" conversations with my dad about life and death while Break On Through was playing in the background. To this day The Doors is something "more" than just music for me. It's like the soundtrack of my childhood. 

When I was about 13 or something I heard for the very first time Sepultura's Roots Bloody Roots and that was the moment when I decided that when I would grow older, I too would be screaming like that. And hey, I'm screaming like that.

After those I think that Tori Amos has done something to my mind. That witch. This happened a few years ago when my daughter was about 1 year old.
I was just "recovering" from the "becoming a father"- year when I was watching some stupid Youtube videos and I had this mission to find something different.
Before that I had been listening only grindcore (Pig Destroyer, Rotten Sound and Nasum) for a year to keep me awake. It works by the way, just use headphones.
Well after going through all kinds of bands, from Britney Spears to TI-Ti-Nalle, I found myself listening to Tori Amos Cornflake Girl and then I remembered that it was a song I had heard back on 90's and I had always thought that it was quite catchy but could not figure out who the performer was.
Now I knew, hurray! Life-long search was finally over. 
I was about to close the internet after listening the song, but instead I clicked a link that said :
Tori Amos - Winter (From "Live At Montreux 91/92").
Next thing that happened was something that has never happened to me before that.
I was crying because the song brought up so many memories from the past.
I was crying happily because I was now a father.
I was sober by the way so it was not just some drunk letting out some tears in the dark.
I didn't sleep at all during that night. And yeah, that song changed my life.
And I don't even like Tori Amos that much.


I'll stop now, before you're bored to death.

[LMNO]

I was about 12 or so.  I thought I liked music.  I owned a few albums, some classic rock, some Yes, some Police.  Then my brother plays me this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJjuVzZQj0U

Followed by this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJAlIHsXcLY&feature=related

And I knew that everything had just changed.  A few months later, I heard this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bX275Crxxc

And it was all over.

[Kai]

Heard hymns growing up, during mass, sang in the choir.

Then when I was ten, heard my uncle playing Beatles - Norwegian Wood, on the acoustic guitar. I decided I wanted to play.

When I was sixteen, I heard Andrew York play with the International Guitar Night quartet. I fell hard for classical guitar. Learned from a beater I found in a dumpster. Taught myself.

I'm not sure if there are any other artists that changed my life on that scale.

[East Coast Hustle]

I'm gonna go in chronological order with mine (when I heard them, not necessarily when they were released), which are mostly albums rather than bands:

Paul Simon - Graceland (age 9ish - showed me how much I could like music to begin with)

Guns 'n' Roses - Appetite For Destruction (age 10 and probably the single most influential album in my life)

Metallica - ...And Justice For All (age 11)

Slayer - Seasons in the Abyss (age 14)

Obituary - Cause of Death (age 15)

Kyuss - Blues for the Red Sun (age 15)

Fugazi - 13 Songs
Bad Religion - Generator - (all age 16 and on the same day)
Misfits - Walk Among Us

Pantera - Far Beyond Driven (age 16)

Therapy? - Troublegum (age 16)

KMFDM - Nihil (age 17)

Ministry - In Case You Didn't Feel Like Showing Up (Live) (age 17)

OutKast - ATLiens (age 20)

after that there are tons of albums that I love, but I can't really think of anything since then that's had a fundamental effect on the way I think about music or life.

[Babes in Tongland]

I'll never forget first hearing Black Dog by Led Zeppelin or Baby's on Fire by Brian Eno (mostly Fripp's mindmelting guitar solo in the latter). My parents weren't into the Beatles at all, so I wasn't really introduced to them until I was a teenager and started playing non-folk songs on guitar. Most of my early exposure to music was the Everly Brothers, Chet Atkins, Buddy Holly, Simon & Funkmaster G, CCR, Johnny Cash...

Aztec Camera - High Land, Hard Rain

Bob Dylan - Planet Waves

The Velvet Underground - Loaded

[Adios]

Lena Horne - Stormy Weather

Janis Joplin - Bobby McGee

[Cramulus]

When I was a kid I only listened to the music my mom and grampa liked. Mainly the Beatles, the Dave Brubeck Quartet, & Paul Simon.

didn't really like my dad's rock - aerosmith, rolling stones, cream, etc

then one day I turned on the TV and Nirvana's Come As You Are was on. And I was hooked.

Later that year I bought my first album, In Utero. And started growing my hair and wearing flannel.
(thought I gotta admit the hair was from hanging out with my cousin who was a little bit older / cooler than me)



the only other song which sticks out in memory is the pixie's Where Is My Mind, which was the soundtrack to the very strange and emotional summer which followed senior year of high school. I think I listened to that song a million times that summer. It was the summer of my first love, bittersweet.

[Adios]

Those two stick out, but there have been a thousand moments of "wow" that have happened over the years.

Bridge over Troubled Waters by S & G was another of them.

Louis Armstrong, Pete Fontaine, etc have all touched me.

[AFK]

Music itself changed my life.  It's been my therapist, counselor, and best friend since the late 80s.  There are some very notable albums that are very important to me that came out at times in my life when they were especially poignant.  

Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche
Gutter Ballet by Savatage
Last Decade, Dead Century by Warrior Soul
Into the Depths of Sorrow by Solitude Aeturnus
The Real Thing and Angel Dust by Faith No More
yes, Nevermind by Nirvana - though I would come to like Incesticide much better.
Beg to Differ by Prong
Parallels by Fates Warning
Turn Loose the Swans by My Dying Bride
Serenades by Anathema

[Adios]

Almost forgot.

Groovin on a Sunday Afternoon gave me one of the best summers of my life. Driving in Florida, windows down, radio cranked, hot chick beside me.....

[Doktor Howl]

Johnny Cash
Hank Williams, Sr
The Rolling Stones
Elton John
Lady Gaga

[PixADoR]

I could have sworn I just saw a Lady Gaga reference in this topic. But no, that can't be right, I must be daydreaming about the apocalypse again. I can't see a more mainsteam version of Marilyn Manson whose target audience is 14 year old girls becoming influencial, not in long-term reality.

[Adios]

I could have sworn I just saw a Lady Gaga reference in this topic. But no, that can't be right, I must be daydreaming about the apocalypse again. I can't see a more mainsteam version of Marilyn Manson whose target audience is 14 year old girls becoming influencial, not in long-term reality.

Who are you?

[LMNO]

I could have sworn I just saw a Lady Gaga reference in this topic. But no, that can't be right, I must be daydreaming about the apocalypse again. I can't see a more mainsteam version of Marilyn Manson whose target audience is 14 year old girls becoming influencial, not in long-term reality.

I have proof that Gaga's "target audience" is waaaaaaaaaaay different than "14 year old girls" [sic].

[Cramulus]

I could have sworn I just saw a Lady Gaga reference in this topic. But no, that can't be right, I must be daydreaming about the apocalypse again. I can't see a more mainsteam version of Marilyn Manson whose target audience is 14 year old girls becoming influencial, not in long-term reality.

are you familiar with Klaus Nomi? Gaga is in the same tradition - absurdists who have pierced the mainstream. Most synthpop is doublecrap, but occasionally some genuine crazy makes it past the filters.