The 10 Records that shaped you as a musician

Flanging_Fred

Sky  - Sky II
ZZ Top - Afterburner
Iron Maiden - Live After Death
Scorpions - Blackout
MSG - Rock will never die
The Cardiacs - All that glitters is a mare's nest
Joe Satriani - Surfing with the Alien
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Davy Spillane Band - Atlantic Bridge
Radiohead - OK computer

eSully

HarrySeven said:

In no particular order:

1. Snivelling Shits: Terminal Stupid 7"
2. Discharge: Realities of War 7"
3. Ultravox: Ultravox!/Hahaha/Systems of Romance - yes, I know that's 3 LP's!
4. The Chameleons: Script of the Bridge/What Does Anything Mean? Basically/Strange Times - yes, another 3!
5. Motorhead: No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith LP (particularly Bomber)
6. The Smiths: Hatful of Hollow LP
7. Be Bop Deluxe: Axe Victim/Sunburst Finish LP's
8. Neil Young: Weld
9. Joy Division: Unknown Pleasures
10. Talk Talk: Spirit of Eden

There's easily 10 more, but that'll do for now...

I fully expected that to be a joke list until I got to Ultravox. Snivelling shits is quiet a band name  )

viz

Tchaikowsky - 6th Symphony 

Schubert - Quintet in C 

Bach - St John Passion 

Rachmaninov - 2nd piano concerto 

Rainbow - Down to Earth 

Nik Kershaw - The Riddle 

Duran Duran - 7 and the Ragged Tiger 

The Damned - Strawberries 

Van Halen - Van Halen 

Steve Vai - Passion and Warfare

grungebob

In no order
1 nirvana nevermind
2 wildhearts Earth v's
3 smashing pumpkins Siamese Dream
4 carter usm 30 something
5 therapy troublegum
6 nirvana incesticide
7 filter short bus
8 rage against the machine
9 tool aenima
10 sonic youth dirty

Kebabkid

1.Live & Dangerous - Thin Lizzy
2.Moonflower (Live LP) - Santana (He never sounded better and this is where his true playing shines)
3.Greatest Hits - Steely Dan (Carlton and the rest. The chords, solos, tones and songwriting)
4.VH1 - Van Halen (The lot - nuff said)
5.Toto 1st Album - Toto
6. Escape - Journey
7. C'est Chic - Chic
8. Talk to your Daughter - Robben Ford
9. Giant - Giant (Dann Huff)
10. Synchronicity/Regatta de Blanc - The Police (hard to pick which one)
 

richardhomer

Kebabkid;903333" said:

Moonflower (Live LP) - Santana

That was in my list too. Carlos was at the height of his powers around that period. Europa from the album remains one of my favourite pieces of guitar playing to this day.

Roland

Like @Phil_aka_Pip I think it's important to know why each was influential, so in no particular order:

In The Court of the Crimson King (discord and delicacy)

Focus III (breaking out of pentatonics and 12 bars)

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (the importance of emotive delivery over technical delivery)

JS Bach - Brandenburg Concertos (structure)

Capability Brown - From Scratch (vocal and guitar harmony)

Rolling Stones - Get Your Ya-Yas Out (archetypal rock and blues)

Stephane Grappellli - I Got Rhythm! (there are more than 12 notes)

Led Zep II (you don't need a lot of instruments playing at the same time)

Geoff Whitehorn - Geoff Who? (guitar tone)

Joni Mitchell - Hejira (Larry's ambient guitar)

Pete24v

horse;903231" said:

@Pete24v - not sure i can accept your list without a satriani album?

Realised I missed any Queen, Van Halen, King's X, U2, Pornograffiti, pink floyd, queensryche, black crowes, dan reed network, faith no more, stones etc, so don't think 10 is a fair number? Snuff said...as well

One funny one i thought of was the first Little Angels album which I listened to a lot as a youngster, and definitely encouraged my playing. Played it a couple of years ago and thought how each track was fairly heavily influenced by different other bands and guitarists, so almost a mini study in rock guitar.

Dam, you are right, how did I miss off Flying In A Blue Dream?!

Now edited :-)

Phil_aka_Pip

Flanging_Fred said:

Davy Spillane Band - Atlantic Bridge

Good Album, that

freakboy1610

The Beatles - Revolver
Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians - Gotta Let This Hen Out
The Clash - Give Them Enough Rope
The Smiths - The Queen is Dead
Dinosaur Jr - Where You Been
Rain Parade - Explosions in the Glass Palace
The Velvet Underground & Nico
Swervedriver - Mezcal Head
REM - Life's Rich Pageant
Don McLean - American Pie

ICBM

freakboy1610 said:

Don McLean - American Pie

Damn - forgot that. Although perhaps it shaped me more as a person than a musician. Oddly, although I love that album I've never liked anything else he did.

normula1

My wallet is starting to hate this thread... so many albums I'd forgotten about that I'm now going to have to buy.

Plus I completely forgot about the Jacques Lousier plays Bach series, Bat out of Hell, The Cream Of Clapton compilation, Thriller... 

eSully

Great albums on this thread and I'll be referring back to it for new(old) music suggestions, some artists I've never heard of. 

Bit surprised that Hendrix and Led Zeppelin are less represented than I expected. Led Zep IV hasn't gotten into anyones top ten so far unless I've missed it  :-O

Dopesick

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Nirvana - Bleach
Discharge - Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
Eyehategod - Take As Needed For Pain
Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun
Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power
Converge - Jane Doe
Goatsnake - Flower Of Disease
Entombed - Wolverine Blues

Not necessarily my favourite albums of all time (although they're close), but all albums have influenced my guitar playing no end. Er...which is I guess the point of this thread.

Phil_aka_Pip

ICBM said:

freakboy1610 said:

Don McLean - American Pie

Damn - forgot that. Although perhaps it shaped me more as a person than a musician. Oddly, although I love that album I've never liked anything else he did.

Tapestry was good, but AP is definitely a likeable album

Dodge

bigjon said:

High Havoc - Corduroy

@bigjon - You have fine taste sir.  This record is utter genius, and they could play it live too.  Brilliant musicians, I've lost count of how many times I saw them play in the 90's but it was easily into double figures.

Kebabkid

richardhomer said:

Kebabkid;903333" said:

Moonflower (Live LP) - Santana

That was in my list too. Carlos was at the height of his powers around that period. Europa from the album remains one of my favourite pieces of guitar playing to this day.

Absolutely Richard!

CHRISB50

Hendrix - Cornerstones Greatest Hits

Pearl Jam - Ten

Ocean Colour Scene - Moseley Shoals

Manics - Generation Terrorists

Manics - Gold Against the Soul

FM - The Best of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac

John Butler - Ocean

Antonine Dufour - Sound Pictures

Erik Mongrain - Forward

Milos - Milos

Nitefly

Given that it's over 50 years since I learnt how to play a C chord, I couldn't possibly narrow it down to 10 in my life.  However, the following were seminal records from being about 10 to being about 24, so probably most informed my guitar-;lpaying (such as it is!):

Ahmad Jamal - The Ahmad Jamal Trio (fabulous jazz pianist with bass and guitar - my Dad's record, bug I played it a lot when I was  a kid, as I liked the tunes and I learnt (subliminally) about rhythm and harmony)

The Beatles - With The Beatles (first album I bought, just when I started learning to play, so I had loads of fun learning all the chords)

Paul Simon - The Paul Simon Songbook (mostly for Kathy's Song - my first efforts at finger-picking)

John Williams and Julian Bream - Together (I can't play any of it, but it gave me an appreciation of "proper" classical guitar - especially how arrangements can work for two musicians)

Argent - Ring of Hands (first real exposure to what was referred to as "schooly" music, and again appreciation of arranging, this time between guitar and keyboard - saw them in Leicester 1970)

Caravan - Caravan (ditto Argent comment, saw them live in Norwich also 1970)

James Taylor - Sweet Baby James (good strong songs with deceptive finger-picking patterns. I spent hours with Happy Traum's transcriptions of them)

Santana - Abraxas (again, guitars and keys - just WOW!)

Steely Dan - Can't Buy A Thrill (had to get it after hearing "Reelin In The Years", and then spent some time working out chords for all the other songs)

Joni Mitchell - Blue (lots of piano, I know, but some fine guitar, including a good helping of Open E, and some dulcimer on "Case of You")

And then I grew up... 

camf

These aren't by any means these artist's best albums, they just happened to be the ones I owned, played a lot and affected me most.

1 The Clash - Lonon Calling
2 The Ramones - Rocket to Russia
3 Neil Young - Tonight's the Night
4 Rolling Stones - Made in the Shade
5 Bob Dylan - Desire
6 Dinosaur Jr - Bug
7 Husker Du - New Day Rising
8 Iggy Pop - The Passenger
9 R.E.M. - Document
10 Sonic Youth - Day Dream Nation