Most influential recording, and why.

[Al ears]

I call on the wisemen of the forum to help me out here.

My brother has set a Christmas Competition for his coming part.

The idea is you bring one CD / LP that you think is the most influential / best piece of work you have heard and explain why you think this way.

Recordings can be of any type of music.

I am at a loss here although I do have a few in mind. Can anyone help me draw up a shortlist and I'll see if I have it in my extensive collection.

Can you come up with one album and a reason?? :?

 

[The_Lhc]

I call on the wisemen of the forum to help me out here.

My brother has set a Christmas Competition for his coming part.

The idea is you bring one CD / LP that you think is the most influential / best piece of work you have heard and explain why you think this way.

Recordings can be of any type of music.

I am at a loss here although I do have a few in mind. Can anyone help me draw up a shortlist and I'll see if I have it in my extensive collection.

Can you come up with one album and a reason?? :?

Surely the point is that it's something that moves you personally? So asking us lot is kind of missing the point.

I understand your reticence though, if someone asked me to do something like this I'd have to tell them I really couldn't be bothered, I can't think of anything more tedious. Music is for listening to, analysis kills the magic.

Anyway, you'll just get 400 people suggesting Sergeant Pepper...

And this is a hi-fi forum, so perhaps you should take an iPod along and bore on about how this piece of work has revolutionised how people listen to music blah blah...

 

[plastic penguin]

I call on the wisemen of the forum to help me out here.

My brother has set a Christmas Competition for his coming part.

The idea is you bring one CD / LP that you think is the most influential / best piece of work you have heard and explain why you think this way.

Recordings can be of any type of music.

I am at a loss here although I do have a few in mind. Can anyone help me draw up a shortlist and I'll see if I have it in my extensive collection.

Can you come up with one album and a reason?? :?

Surely the point is that it's something that moves you personally? So asking us lot is kind of missing the point.

I understand your reticence though, if someone asked me to do something like this I'd have to tell them I really couldn't be bothered, I can't think of anything more tedious. Music is for listening to, analysis kills the magic.

Anyway, you'll just get 400 people suggesting Sergeant Pepper...

And this is a hi-fi forum, so perhaps you should take an iPod along and bore on about how this piece of work has revolutionised how people listen to music blah blah...

Totally concur. It's all very personal and not relevent to others (probably).

 

[chebby]

Not the most influential necessarily but influential nonetheless. (And one of my all-time favourites.)

Stevie Wonder "Songs In the Key of Life"...

Excellent documentary that explains the 'why' that you asked for...

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

(Change setting to 480p)

 

[Al ears]

I call on the wisemen of the forum to help me out here.

My brother has set a Christmas Competition for his coming part.

The idea is you bring one CD / LP that you think is the most influential / best piece of work you have heard and explain why you think this way.

Recordings can be of any type of music.

I am at a loss here although I do have a few in mind. Can anyone help me draw up a shortlist and I'll see if I have it in my extensive collection.

Can you come up with one album and a reason?? :?

Surely the point is that it's something that moves you personally? So asking us lot is kind of missing the point.

I understand your reticence though, if someone asked me to do something like this I'd have to tell them I really couldn't be bothered, I can't think of anything more tedious. Music is for listening to, analysis kills the magic.

Anyway, you'll just get 400 people suggesting Sergeant Pepper...

And this is a hi-fi forum, so perhaps you should take an iPod along and bore on about how this piece of work has revolutionised how people listen to music blah blah...

Totally concur. It's all very personal and not relevent to others (probably).

So sorry I asked. Thought it might be a bit of fun.

Not relevent to others might just equate to 98% of the postings on this 'hifi' forum...

 

[The_Lhc]

Not the most influential necessarily but influential nonetheless.

How do you define influential in a musical context as well? Does it mean a game-changing album, something that ushered in a completely new genre of music? There aren't many that fall into that category and it's often impossible to highlight exactly where any given genre began, I've mentioned one already (arguably), you could look at the early days of hip-hop (generally regarded as beginning with The Sugar Hill Gang), maybe electro-pop, take Kraftwerk's Autobahn perhaps (electronic music of course started MUCH earlier than that) but if you really want to upset people you could do worse than Slayer's seminal Reign in Blood, which is, almost unbelievably, 30 years old in 2014 (that is, frankly, scary!) but still sounds fresher and more menacing that anything being made in thrash/death metal today and as a bonus, it's barely half an hour long, so you could play the entire album without taking up too much of the evening, although you'll probably get asked to leave, which may not be a bad thing as it sounds like this party is going to be a proper bore-fest...

 

[The_Lhc]

Totally concur. It's all very personal and not relevent to others (probably).

So sorry I asked. Thought it might be a bit of fun.

Not relevent to others might just equate to 98% of the postings on this 'hifi' forum...

I think he means one person's opinion of influence may not be relevant to you, if it's an album you don't like. Anyway, despite my reticence I find myself drawn to the idea, so there's a couple of ideas in my other post to get you thinking. It IS a very personal thing though, my ideas are only intended to start your thought process going.

 

[namefail]

Getting in the mood of seasonal subjectivity and taking extra helpings I’ll go for Rapemans LP and Treasure from The Cocteau Twins.

 

[davedotco]

Being naturally awkward, I have two suggestions, both from the dawn of time.

Firstly I have a video recording of Bob Dylan playing live at The Newport Festival in 1965. Playing electric, with menbers of the Paul Butterfield Blues band as backing, these three songs virtually invented rock musuc as a something that grown ups could listen too.

Before this it was all 'Woolly Bully' and 'I want to hold your hand', after, anything could happen.

Secondly in 1969 I aquired a double album, 'Live Dead'. On vinyl of course, the band were already playing and faded in at the start of side one and continued, without pause for the whole of the first side, the second side and the whole of the third. I had never heard anything like it and I can still play it from begining to end nearly 45 years later, very unusual for me!

(Technically there is one edit halfway through the second side where the band slip from 'St Stephen' to 'The Eleven', so the whole piece is a combination of two nights. This was done due to a recording problem but reflects a typical performance very nicely).

 

[plastic penguin]

I call on the wisemen of the forum to help me out here.

My brother has set a Christmas Competition for his coming part.

The idea is you bring one CD / LP that you think is the most influential / best piece of work you have heard and explain why you think this way.

Recordings can be of any type of music.

I am at a loss here although I do have a few in mind. Can anyone help me draw up a shortlist and I'll see if I have it in my extensive collection.

Can you come up with one album and a reason?? :?

Surely the point is that it's something that moves you personally? So asking us lot is kind of missing the point.

I understand your reticence though, if someone asked me to do something like this I'd have to tell them I really couldn't be bothered, I can't think of anything more tedious. Music is for listening to, analysis kills the magic.

Anyway, you'll just get 400 people suggesting Sergeant Pepper...

And this is a hi-fi forum, so perhaps you should take an iPod along and bore on about how this piece of work has revolutionised how people listen to music blah blah...

Totally concur. It's all very personal and not relevent to others (probably).

So sorry I asked. Thought it might be a bit of fun.

Not relevent to others might just equate to 98% of the postings on this 'hifi' forum...

Without doubt the most influential album (one that changed my whole perspective on music and heavily influenced the way I dressed) was "Setting Sons" by The Jam. I found that something that was missing from my musical life.

*EDIT* Track such as this from the album described me to a tee (almost).

"Save up the money for a holiday, to Selsy Bill or Brackelsham Bay" or "Saturdays girls work in Tescos or Woolworth, and wear cheap perfume cause it's all they can afford...".

My first proper girlfriend actually worked on the sweet counter of Woolworth.

 

[Hi-FiOutlaw]

For me there are two albums that move me along, (no game change in music history, just in my personal live) , like others have said it's a personal choice and you should pull your self to this game, after all is the main thing in ower hobby!!!!

my personal albums are:

Joshua Tree - U2

Mainstream - Lloyd Cole and The commotions

:cheers:

 

[Clare Newsome]

“...it was like he came along and whispered some dream in everybody’s ear, and somehow we all dreamed it.”
-Bruce Springsteen

“When I first heard Elvis' voice, I just knew that I wasn’t going to work for anybody; and nobody was going to be my boss...Hearing him for the first time was like busting out of jail.”
-Bob Dylan

“He was a unique artist - an original in an area of imitators.”
-Mick Jagger

“Before Elvis, there was nothing.”
-John Lennon

“There’ll never be another like that soul brother."
-James Brown

Oh, and that album cover has had influence, too - most notably:

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

"Elvis, was a hero to most, but he never meant sh*t to me you see, straight up racist that sucker was, simple and plain, motherf*ck him and John Wayne" - Public Enemy

It seems not everyone cared for him Clare.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Indeed. But this isn't about caring, it's about influence

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

I'd have thought it was almost impossible, as you have different recordings that are are influential so many different genres.

I guess the easiest way is to write down some genres of music, then think about which recording was most influential within each genre.

I'll throw a couple at you:

The Stooges - The Stooges (Punk/Indie/Grunge/Post-Rock)

Kraftwerk - Autobahn (All electronic music to an extent)

 

[JoelSim]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

 

[The_Lhc]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

I would have thought that would imply that their influence has been rather shortlived then wouldn't it?

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

Ummm......NO!

They have had hardly any influence at all, unless you mean the Syd Barrett era; now that did influence a lot of bands.

 

[ID.]

Came in to post Autobahn by Kraftwerk, even though I don't enjoy it that much.

Personally, for electronic it's Selected Ambient Works 85–92 by Aphex Twin.

 

[BigH]

I may go for Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys, not the best but it influenced the Beatles before Sgt. Pepper and no doubt many others. Others would be Bob Dylan: Bringing It All Back Home. exploding boundaries and Jimi Hendrix: Are You Experienced?, who knows where rock music would be without Jimi's influence?

 

[JoelSim]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

Ummm......NO!

They have had hardly any influence at all, unless you mean the Syd Barrett era; now that did influence a lot of bands.

You're quite right. Floyd have had no influence on any music whatsoever.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

Ummm......NO!

They have had hardly any influence at all, unless you mean the Syd Barrett era; now that did influence a lot of bands.

You're quite right. Floyd have had no influence on any music whatsoever.

I didn't say none, but I personally think the Syd Barrett era was far more influential; Blur for starters, though the list is a long one.

Name me some big and highly regarded bands that were influenced by post-Barrett Floyd? (I'm not mocking, I genuinely would like to know if I'm wide of the mark)

 

[BigH]

Surely it has to be the Floyd albums. We will never see the likes of them again in the mainstream simply due to the way music is consumed these days.

Ummm......NO!

They have had hardly any influence at all, unless you mean the Syd Barrett era; now that did influence a lot of bands.

You're quite right. Floyd have had no influence on any music whatsoever.

I didn't say none, but I personally think the Syd Barrett era was far more influential; Blur for starters, though the list is a long one.

Name me some big and highly regarded bands that were influenced by post-Barrett Floyd? (I'm not mocking, I genuinely would like to know if I'm wide of the mark)

Well apparently all these bands cite PF as an influence: U2, Queen, Tool, Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Queensrÿche, Nine Inch Nails, the Orb, Porcupine Tree and the Smashing Pumpkins.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

So because a small section of one Kraftwerk track sounds vaguely like a small section of a Pink Floyd track, they were influenced by them?

Have you got any quotations from any of these bands saying they were inspired by post-Barrett Pink Floyd?

A bit of proof would be good.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

This is quite interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music