The 411 Music Top 5 05.13.08 Top 5 Life Changing Albums

Posted by Blake Lauderback on 05.13.2008

Join the 411 Music Zone as we break down the albums that have had the biggest impact on the shaping of our musical tastes. From 2112 to Back in Black, Raising Hell to Abbey Road, these albums have left their mark on us forever.



Welcome one and all to Week 4 of the new Music Zone Top 5, where we rank all things music in order to give your life and musical taste a little structure. A little structure is always good… unless you are a jam band or maybe The Sex Pistols. (If you are, in fact, the later, this is where you would rant on about Anarchy. Go ahead… we'll wait.)

Hopefully you took the time to join us last week as we opened our hearts and bared our souls to you while divulging those secret little albums in our collection that cause us shame. You all seemed to get a pretty good laugh at our expense, which was the point, but jump too far out of line and keep knocking us online and we may just have to go the "Jay and Silent Bob" route and show up on your doorstep. Just kidding. (Or am I?)

This week we'll be wrapping up our little get to know one another session. So far you have seen our personal list of our favorite bands, and you have also had a chance to see the list mentioned above. This week we are going to be listing the Top 5 Albums that had the largest influence on our musical tastes. Once again, this material is very near and dear to our hearts, so we hope that you enjoy it.

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Top 5 Life Changing Albums

We all have at least one. It is that amazing album that set you on the path of discovery for a genre. Or maybe it is that old record that we hold near and dear to our hearts because of some significant change it inspired. Or maybe it is just the group of tunes that started up that fiery passion for music.

Just as they say that you can tell where a person is headed by where they have been, you can also see the musical future of a person based on the knowledge of what it is that has inspired them, whether they were inspired to create music on their own, simply seek out others who share your taste, or in our case, inspire us to share our passion with the rest of the world and to anyone willing to read or listen.

We hope that perhaps you will find inspiration in what has already been a muse for us, and we also hope that you will take the time to think of which albums have created the largest impact on you and your life so that you may pass those on to others. There are very few gifts that you can give to another that compare to the gift of music.

Enjoy yourselves.

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Rob Samuels
[Resident slacker and The Classic Record Review]

5. Thin Lizzy – Wild One - I will admit that I'm not the biggest fan of ‘best of' collections, but they are often the best way to be introduced to a band and experience their whole career as a retrospective. It was this record that allowed me into the world of Thin Lizzy, who were one of the first bands I tried listening to when dabbling in the world of Classic Rock. Their stunning dual lead guitar work, and Phil Lynott's soulful voice really turned me onto what real Rock music could, and should be about. After Thin Lizzy how could I ever listen to any modern Kerrang ‘Rock' again?

4. The Beatles - Revolver -Being a big Stones fan I tended to (criminally) overlook The Beatles as nothing more than the watered down pop version of my favorite Invasion band. I was very wrong. Whilst perusing through some CD's in the library I noticed Revolver sitting there, and decided to give them a chance (plus it was free). From the funky stylings of ‘Taxman' to the psychedelic ‘Tomorrow Never Knows', Revolver shocked me from start to finish. The band's diverse influences and the fantastic production really sets them apart from anyone else at the time. Frankly, the fact that I had underestimated The Beatles for so long was embarrassing for a self-proclaimed musical prodigy like myself. I have since been known to play a bass line that is ‘similar' to Taxman in one of our songs. Don't tell anyone though.

3. The Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street - I had to love the Stones - I had no choice after my dad had dedicated 30 + years to being a fanatic. So I picked up a copy of Exile having heard of the albums immense reputation, but not the record itself. Well I loved it! Exile showed me the amazing versatility of the band, sealing my fate as a life long fan. As an added bonus this record turned me on to country and blues influenced rock ‘n' roll, and eventually to bands like The Byrds and Lynyrd Skynyrd (and any other band with a ‘y' in it really) which I wouldn't have experienced without this album.

2. The Jimi Hendrix Experience – The Last Experience - After getting bitten by the Hendrix bug I began slowly accumulating his records - enjoying each one as much as the last. I had decided that no Jimi Hendrix experience was complete before sampling his legendary live work, so I picked up this 3 CD Box set. My life was changed forever. This is what live music is about; the way the three musicians combine as one mind on stage, the jams slowly progressing into new and uncharted territory. Their improvisations are just mind-blowing. From this point on I was obsessed with this notion of playing live and eventually found myself in a psychedelic mod band improvising some "Funky Wah-Wah Jams". Look what you did to me Jimi!

1. Led Zeppelin – Early Days - Another ‘best of' album, but this one changed my life forever. I remember casually browsing through MVC one day after school, and I noticed this record on sale. Adopting the Dr. Pepper philosophy (What's the worst that can happen?) I bought it and rushed home to see what I just spent a fiver on. Well, I think I've said it before but when I heard ‘Babe I'm gonna leave you' for the first time I just couldn't believe something this good could possibly exist. I was still finding my way with music at the time, and frankly this was the absolute antithesis of the shit at the time (Blink I'm looking at you). The raw emotion that oozed from Plants vocals and the way Page caressed the guitar was something special, and I couldn't believe my luck that I had stumbled across this band. Never again would a wank CD grace my collection (well…). From this record onwards my obsession blossomed and now I just can't get enough of anything Zeppelin.

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Dan Marsicano
[What The Hell Happened To…, News, Reviewer]

HONORABLE MENTIONS: Led Zeppelin-IV, Guns N' Roses-Appetite For Destruction, Black Sabbath-Paranoid

I'm going to say before I start this that I know some of you won't like my choices and that's cool. All of these bands had an impact on me in some way or another, even if the album I mention is only a few years old or not the band's best album.

5. Opeth – Ghost Reveries - I am a frequent visitor on Dream Theater's drummer Mike Portnoy's website, which has a forum that is visited by hundreds of people a day. On that site, I heard Opeth for the first time. For those unaware, Opeth is a progressive death metal band. I heard "Ghost of Perdition" for the first time and was blown away. I was never a fan of death metal before this, or growled vocals. Opeth made me a fan of both almost instantly. 2005's Ghost Reveries is the first album I got from them and I worked my way backwards through their catalogue. I'm still getting into their older releases, but Ghost Reveries is an album that has constantly stuck with me throughout the years. Because of this album, I became a fan of death metal and my musical horizon was expanded even further than it already has.

4. Slayer– Reign In Blood - It was the cover. The human heads on the bottom of the cover, the river of blood, the goat king on his throne, the upside down bodies hanging lifelessly. All of it shocked me as a teenager and I knew I had to pick the album up. Even though I paid $16 for it, it was the best $16 I ever spent. I remember rushing home and putting it in my stereo on low (didn't want my mom to get mad) and just being blown away. I had to hide the cover, as I didn't know how my mom would react to the grisliness of it. To this day, the album is still played at least once a week and I haven't gotten tired of it. Like Opeth, Slayer helped me get into heavier music, especially death metal, and I'm appreciative that my parents were able to handle it when I cranked the album a bit too loud.

3. Dream Theater – Octavarium - This selection will cause some controversy among progressive metal fans and I realize that. Dream Theater fans will ask me "Why this album? Why not Images and Words or Scenes From A Memory?" The answer to this is simple. Octavarium was the first Dream Theater album I ever got. I still remember my first time seeing them at Gigantour 2005. I was there from Megadeth, but Dream Theater left an impression on me. It was the first time I had ever seen a progressive metal band before and everything, from the technical guitar solos to the crazy keyboard solos to Labrie's high vocals, just pushed my senses into overdrive. I knew I had to pick the album up and I did. I've never looked back and to this day, I credit Octavarium with opening my eyes to a whole different genre of music, one that I am still slowly learning about to this day.


2. Megadeth – Rust in Peace - All it took was the opening riff to Holy Wars and I was hooked. Everything about the album is outstanding. The guitar work, the drumming, even the bass driven "Dawn Patrol" is awesome. Dave Mustaine and Marty Friedman made a hell of a guitar duo, famously trading solos off each other on "Hanger 18" and never letting up for the rest of the album. No other Megadeth album hit me as hard or took my breath away as much as Rust in Peace did.

1. Metallica Master of Puppets - Yeah, I know, I picked the obvious one. Master of Puppets has been hailed by many as the greatest thrash album of all time. Well, add me into that group, because it's true. You may call Metallica "sellouts" today, but back in 1986, they didn't give a shit about anything except the music. Master of Puppets is the perfect album. No wasted song, no wasted riff and not a minute wasted. It is 55 minutes of some of the greatest thrash metal ever written. The album has influenced thousands of bands and it influenced me to become a metal fan. Without this album, I wouldn't be the person I am today and I'm serious about that. The band has made some clunkers, but the fact remains that without Master of Puppets, the musical landscape would be radically different than it is today.

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Brian Berry
[Radio Free Berry, News Reporter, Reviewer]

5. Metallica - Master of Puppets - Cliff Burton went to my high school (although he graduated eons ahead of me) so I was exposed to great albums like Master of Puppets and ...And Justice For All at a very young age. Metallica broke ground for my appreciation of loud rock and my disdain for sleazy, LA glam bands.

4. Run DMC - Raising Hell - Run DMC were not only the first rap group that I was exposed to as a youth, but they remain one of my favorites to this day. By using traditional rock 'n roll instruments, along with traditional hip-hop aesthetics like scratching, bass heavy beats, and clever wordplay, Run-DMC's appeal reached low-income hood kids and suburbanites alike. Raising Hell was my first hip-hop album and it opened the doors to hip-hop's classic acts for me, including Public Enemy, EPMD, and Slick Rick.

3. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground and Nico - When I picked up The Velvet Underground & Nico in the 7th grade, a new world of '60s music opened up for me, where before I had only known the more commercially successful "British Invasion", Motown era, and "Hippie Generation". The Velvet Underground's cathartic, nihilistic response, crude production values, bleak imagery, and Lou Reed's deadpan vocals were heard by few at the time but stand as one of the most influential musical documents in rock 'n roll history.

2. Pavement - Crooked Rain Crooked Rain - The godfathers of '90s indie rock were the band that got me through high school. When all the other kids were listening to nu-metal (e.g. Korn, Limp Bizkit, et al) and Snoop Dogg I was jamming to the clever lyricism of Stephen Malkmus and his post-punk band of misfits. If not for Crooked Rain Crooked Rain, I probably wouldn't be typing this out today.

1. Nirvana - Nevermind -I was a pop culture/music nerd before my time. Debbie Gibson and Samantha Fox posters lined my bedroom walls. I used to pick up issues of Billboard Magazine in elementary school as a fix for my dependency on lists. Back in the early '90s when Modern Rock radio was ruled by Brit-pop/rock, I assumed that when I saw "Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit" debuting at #28 on the chart that it was some sort of Big Audio Dynamite or New Order clone. I even made up a synth-pop song to accompany what I thought the song sounded like and then...I saw the video on MTV and my 12 year-old jaw hit the floor! It was raw, noisy, melodic, and literate. It was like nothing on radio at the time and seeing that music video was the most memorable, important moment of music in my life.

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Dan Haggerty
[Fact or Fiction, The Mosh Pit, News Dude, Megalomaniac]

5. AC/DC - Back In Black - Also appropriately titled "Soundtrack To My Youth" or even "Music To Drink To". That last one a bit ironic considering the reason it introduced a new lead singer to the world. But really, this was my introduction to hard rock, to party anthems, to music beyond the realm of what my parents played on the record player (and 8-track… Yikes!). Great party tunes, part anthem, part fun, part serious rip through darkened signature statements. But at the end of the day, it also stands as the ultimate proclamation for a generation having fun with that whole rock and roll thing. That's the dirty secret with AC/DC… Sometimes music just needs to be fun. Thus began my slide into harder music, ending onto today in some very extreme territory…

4. Rush - 2112 - I'm a bit embarrassed to admit that, despite being around since the groups conception I hadn't heard Rush until the late 80's. I thought their music for that period was fine; a popcorn rock that was smarter than standard fare, but rock that really wasted the guitarist on background duty and power chords; at least shined with their percussionist. But the future Mrs. Haggerty really loved the band, so when I bumped into some of their older material I decided to give it a chance. That was also her idea – She insisted it might be more my speed. It tells you how well spouses know each other; those albums became some of my favorite albums ever. No wonder I married her.

2112 blew me away. Was this even the same band? This was heavily guitar laden, complex driven, shrieks delivering smart stories and a mash of drum perfection. Lee was a madman, Alex destroyed the axe (scorching for 76!), and I still swear that Peart could pick-up Lars thrice damned trash cans and still own Hammersmith. This changed my entire perception of not only the band, but progressive music, the 70's, and even the proper use of a concept story or album. This launched me down progressive paths, concept paths, art rock moments, or just a drive to look harder into all those bands that made the 70's hard rock and proto-metal scene the eclectic but wonderful point in time it was.

3. Echo & The Bunnymen - Porcupine - I was like most people in that I listened to what I heard on the radio (and the fledgling video channels/shows). Despite my love of music, I still only had what I learned from other people or heard through those mainstream venues. Porcupine really changed that for me, as I was introduced to the possibilities of music outside of normal channels. Echo was a British band; part of the post-punk scene and only largely known on local college campuses here in the states, and this album introduced me to the world. This was more than underground alternative/punk with orchestration and a slight Arabian theme; this was a world of music of the radar. This was a land of groups building albums for the sake of building them, not just a billboard ratings chaser. This was the real edge of music, and once crossed I never looked back. Even to this day, I surprise other metalheads because of my drive to find bands no one has heard before. Why? Because Echo & The Bunnymen taught me that the dedicated searcher can unlock some great music hiding off the well traveled routes.

2. Metallica - Ride the Lightning - And here is the album that got me hardcore into my ultimate love: Heavy Metal. My young impressionable mind had already developed a love for music, and I was collecting stuff from the 70's and the early 80's. But until this album I thought heavy metal was really just Black Sabbath, AC/DC, and some Sun Set Strip acts I was already getting sick of hearing. I thought Ozzy was extreme! (Hey, at least he was biting the heads off of bats back then). Well this entered that impressionable brain and went off like a shrapnel grenade. It literally destroyed my conventions.

From here I started to really learn what heavy metal was, and the bands that made it possible and were now coming out in the new frontier (this was 85). From here it was a simple jump to tougher acts like Slayer or obscure acts like Diamond Head , and more importantly to go back and get to know metal's roots with the next album…

1. Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath - While this wasn't the band that got me into metal proper, this was the band, sound, muse, poetic grenade launcher that launched me into deep territory. Thrash and easier MTV meals were all said and good for my burgeoning love of metal, but like everything I needed to learn more, experience more, and do more. Starting from the beginning, I ended up with Sabbath. That was when I really understood what metal was. It was riffs. It was an honest look at reality. It was music as carnivore. It was a muse that challenged you. It was a full band contributing their parts to the max. Some of the dip-shit bands that were on MTV at the time had a drummer or bassist that looked like he was jumping around trying to make a very boring part look exciting (and failing). Not these guys, everyone was involved. No tricky moves for the camera for Ward or Geezer, they were to busy filling the rhythm section with 10 kinds of awesome.

"What is this that stands before me…" I'll tell you what, a whole new world of heavy music that takes the world on head first - Reality, in all of its splendid horror and terrifying glory. Sounds that crush, voices that wail with insanity, rhythms that do more by accident than what most bands do on purpose. Ground zero for the revolution baby! I loved the metal of the 80's, but that was an empathic sort of love. After Sabbath, I "Got it". I under stood why I loved metal. I knew why some music was good while others stunk. The riff structure. The dedication to playing the instruments. Band level participation. Lyrical content as extremes and metaphors, going places that people hated because it had the indignity of forcing a discussion on the subject…

Metallica introduced me to metal proper, but Sabbath made me a life long fan. I never would have gotten into it without the former, while the damned four made me understand it and become a metal elitist. Sure, I still enjoy other genres of music, but my buying ratio of metal to other material is easily 20:1. Several decades later and I still have never looked back.

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Blake Lauderback
[Ask 411 Music, Reviewer]

Before divulging my list, I'd like to share a little back story. I was a late bloomer in the world of rock and roll. I grew up in an extremely conservative household in the Bible Belt. I am not claiming that my parents were Nazis, just that they leaned a little more to The Carpenters than Sabbath and Zeppelin. So many of the great rock and roll moments, even those that I was old enough to appreciate at the time of their occurrence, passed me by. It wasn't until later on that I discovered the world that everyone else already seemed to know about. Perhaps that is why I am so passionate about rock music. I can remember what life is like without it… and I don't ever want to go back.

5. Metallica - Metallica (The Black Album) - Growing up under the aforementioned conditions, I was convinced that Metallica was the devil incarnate. Amidst my circle of friends it was taboo to listen to them because they were one of THOSE bands in our naïve little eyes. One day a good friend of mine opened my eyes to the light… or darkness… however you want to look at it. There I was, a stupid teenager in high school, riding around town with one of my best buds and his older brother and his brother's friend. They popped in a CD that changed my opinion of heavy metal forever. This was such a bombardment of my ears that I just sat there, amazed at what I was listening to. I then asked the obvious question, "Who is this?" Everyone in the car just looked at me in shock as though I was a freak for not knowing the band! They then further opened the door and my mind to heavy metal and Metallica, and I am eternally grateful.

4. Pearl Jam - Ten - To me, the grunge movement is something that happened to other people. My little bubble not only wasn't busted wide open by the explosion of grunge music onto the scene, but it wasn't even gently nudged a little. So, regrettably, I missed out on the hay day of Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and many others… at least until I uncovered this little gem. My dad had decided to join some Columbia House CD club, and I had the opportunity to pick out a bunch of Cds off of the list. I picked this one because, well, I had seen Pearl Jam's name on an awful lot of T-Shirts at school and I figured that that was a good sign. I was right! And just as grunge had broken down the doors in their day, laying waste to the rotting hair metal scene, it was doing the same to my little suburban mindset. Songs like "Jeremy" and "Alive" showed me a new side of myself. So despite being a few years removed from the Seattle explosion, I was still greatly impacted by grunge. (And without having to wear flannel for a few years too!)

3. Pink Floyd - A Collection of Great Dance Songs - When I first got into rock music I learned the name Pink Floyd. I knew that they were big and influential. I knew that they had made one of the greatest rock albums of all time in Dark Side of the Moon. Despite all of that, I could not have picked a Pink Floyd song out of a lineup had my life depended upon it. So as I was checking out the music section one evening I stumbled upon this little compilation album. It only had a few tracks, but the disc was on clearance, so I figured there was no harm in giving it a shot. I received an amazing return on my investment, as my measly seven bucks bought me a lifetime membership into the Pink Floyd fanclub. The disc, which consisted of the tracks "One of These Days," "Money," "Sheep," "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," "Wish You Were Here," and "Another Brick in the Wall (Part ll)," opened my eyes to the brilliant world of progressive rock and to a band whose work I still cherish today. These guys opened my mind to the idea of music as something more than a paint by number affair, into a world where anything can happen.

2. Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won - I had a similar predisposition to Zeppelin to the one I had in regards to Metallica. I believed, for no apparent reason, that Led Zeppelin was some evil monstrosity with no musical qualities, most likely because it was old, and to an ignorant kid, everything old is crap. I am not sure that I have ever been so mistaken in my life before or since.

As a teenager I spent time playing in a bunch of garage bands (and still do any time I can find the time) and a friend of mine was telling me about her connection to a local club. She managed to get me in so that I could talk to the owner about booking my rag tag trio of musicians for a show. The act on stage that evening was a Zeppelin cover band. At first, I laughed at these "old guys" on stage, dressed like they walked out of the 70's, pretending to be a band that they would never be. Then they started playing. I was captivated. The next morning I rushed out to grab a copy of any Zeppelin CD that I could find in hopes of it being even half as incredible as what I had heard the night before. The album I grabbed was How the West Was Won, a live CD compiled from a few concerts in the 70's.

My mind was blown as I devoured this album, track after track. From the blaring electric bravado of Jimmy Page to the ground shaking drumming of John Bonham, I was in love with a new band. While my Zeppelin collection has most certainly grown over the years to include their monster successes like Houses of the Holy and Led Zeppelin ll, I still hold that first record near and dear to my heart. After all, you always remember your first.

1. The Beatles - Abbey Road - A few weeks back I listed these guys as my all time favorite act in music, and in my write up I compared Beatles 1 to the rabbit hole in Alice and Wonderland. If that is true, than this piece of brilliance is the wonderland that the hole leads to. Abbey Road turned me on to the idea of an album being a piece of art unto itself instead of just a disc packed with songs. This album is, start to finish, one of the most solid albums ever recorded. From old school rock ("Oh Darling") to acoustic genius ("Here Comes the Sun"), and from classic singles ("Get Back") to strings of stunningly arranged pieces ("Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End") this album has everything that a listener could ever ask for. There are certainly more popular Beatles albums out there, and one could make a case that there are better Beatles albums out there as well, but in the end (any body catch that reference?), this disc has had a tremendous effect on the way I see and hear the musical world, as it showed me everything that music could be.

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And with that, we wrap up another week of the Music Zone Top 5. Thank you all for joining us here at the Music Zone as we reminisce over our first loves and life changes in music. Remember, we would love to hear your lists as well, so feel free to pass them along.

We hope to see you back here next week as we take a look at the Top 5 Most Controversial Moments in Music. See you all back here then,