What I thought when I first heard this album...

[GOS]

This might end up being a free for all, but I was just listening to Plastic Ono Band album (vinyl) and it made me think of the first time I heard it....what did I think? So, I'd like this thread to be about any album, any era. An album that might be considered classic. What did you think when you first heard it?

Honestly, I guess I'd like to focus on albums you heard for the first time that was a super positive or mind blowing experience. Not really negative. Maybe that will help keep this thread on topic. hahaha. Right.........

 

[GOS]

Kansas - Leftoverture

This album strikes me, because it was 1 of 3 vinyls I purchased with my money back when I first started buying vinyl. I truly didn't fully grasp the idea of a full length album, compared to the little 45 singles I spent my money on prior. But, something about this album. The art work, the incredible fidelity and the complexity of the music intrigued me. As a result, this album carries a lot of weight in my musical journey. I didn't even understand that there were different genres at that time. I called it rock music. I was so blown away, I took it to music class and asked our teacher to play it.

 

[Quad Linda]

Santana I

I first heard it playing in Korvettes record department in North Riverside, IL a few weeks after Woodstock.

Like nothing I had ever heard before!! Bought it immediately and have been a fan ever since. Bought all the Quads and DVD-A's the day they were released. Rebought them all on digital surround releases, too.

Have seen Santana live more than any artist except Chicago Symphony, where we were season subscribers for years.

A Stone Classic!!

 

[Clint Eastwood]

AJA-STEELY DAN

This album was released late in the 70's....after all the rock classics of the 60's and early 70's this album wasn't one I should have been attracted to...but on the very first play...I was hooked....at that time if an album had 2 great songs on it...it was a keeper...but there wasn't a "filler" on this whole album...every song was impressive IMO....and it is still this way today...a big plus was how mellow it was when you were stoned...you could just "zone out" without much effort....

 

[GOS]

This is exactly what I was hoping for! Keep it up, so interesting....

 

[JonUrban]

I was a freshman in college. One without a lot of money, so every album purchase was a large chunk of my spending money. I bought "No Dice", mostly because I loved the 45 "No Matter What", which came out a few days before the album. Naturally I played the crap out of it in the dorm. Guys would come in my room to check out what was playing. Starting with "I Can't Take It", the thing rocked. This was nothing like "Come and Get It", this was rockin' stuff. They actually had a song called "Love Me Do". I remember I expected to hear a cover of the Beatles tune but no, instead another high energy rocker. Then the ballad "Midnight Caller", just as good as many McCartney ditties. Then the masterpiece "No Matter What" with the gripping guitars, followed by "Without You".

Are you kidding? A classic. Most guys on the floor got their own copy. Side two had some great tunes as well, "We're For the Dark", "It Had to Be", but Side One! Oh My.

Wore that sucker out

 

[jimfisheye]

Leftoverture grabbed me too. I would have been 9. I remember staying at grandparents place for an evening and my uncle still lived there. He was playing side 2 at high volume (grandparents were out to dinner or something). All those trippy instrumental breaks throughout side two were blowing my mind! Had to get a copy for myself! That was one of those moments that helped make music like a religion for life.

 

[mrcond]

In 1980, when I was 12 years old, I was in music class at school and the music teacher announced it would be a free period. She asked if anyone wanted to hear a record. My friend, who had an older sister, saw Led Zep 4 in the stack and said play that one, it’s a good one. The teacher put it on, side one. From the opening of Black Dog, with that guitar riff, I was hooked. After Stairway to Heaven finished, they became my favorite band, and have been ever since.

(If I’m being honest, my 12-year old brain wasn’t crazy about Battle of Evermore, but I love it now!)

 

[mrcond]

Leftoverture grabbed me too. I would have been 9. I remember staying at grandparents place for an evening and my uncle still lived there. He was playing side 2 at high volume (grandparents were out to dinner or something). All those trippy instrumental breaks throughout side two were blowing my mind! Had to get a copy for myself! That was one of those moments that helped make music like a religion for life.

Magnum Opus has always been my favorite Kansas song. Epic.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Well...this is a little different than my previous post about Aja....in fact this has never happened to me since....well in the early 70's I went to a Elton John concert...I was with my best friend and his girl friend and my date...well we were rocking along and then Elton makes this announcement...he said that the song he was going to play was in a new album that would be released in a few days and to be patient...well the song was Funeral For a Friend...and I hated it...and I wasn't alone...people in the arena started to leave...as this was supposed to be his last song... the strange part was that other songs on that album were released as singles BEFORE the album release...of course the album was Yellow Brick Road...so then on Tuesday I went to my local record shop and picked up this "new album"...after playing it a few times I loved Funeral...and the album was awesome...but it was such a departure from the other songs he played that night....to this day whenever I talk to my friend about music...that night comes up...we both shake our heads that we could have reacted that way...especially after EJ warned everybody that it was new....

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

Great idea, Gene!

I have 2 older sisters. When we were kids still at home, they shared a bedroom at the end of the hallway, across from mine. For Christmas 1964, Santa brought them a little Motorola mono record player and a half-dozen 45s to play on it. I can still name all 6 of them - we played them to death!

Anyway - for many years, this was the only working record player in the house. And being the pain-in-the-ass little brother, I was NOT allowed in their bedroom. So I spent many hours sitting in the corner out in the hall, reading comic books and listening to their records through the door!

Eventually we grew up some; my older sister turned 18 and got a place of her own. Younger sis was less bothered by my presence, and so by age 12 or so, my hallway exile ended. This was around 1969.

I can still clearly remember the day she brought home that first Led Zeppelin LP when it came out, and hearing it for the first time. I was absolutely mesmerized. Even coming out of that little 6" speaker, that shit was so good it was frightening. So loud, so heavy, so completely different from anything we'd ever heard before. (Naturally, Mom hated it. )

Of course those were busy times for new music, and there was a whole string of jaw-dropping LPs I heard for the first time on that little record player - Blind Faith, Jimi Hendrix, Soft Machine, Cream, and many others. But "Dazed and Confused" left a mark, and that is a fact. Holy Jesus...

 

[cbmmm3]

Well ? It was 1977. My parents were away for a week. My older sisters were doing their own thing. I had the house. It was Saturday night. Whats a16 year old boy to do ? Yup - have a party. Hell yes !. So my friend Jeff tells me that my Panasonic stereo just wont cut it ( C'mon it had 8 track, a phono and FM ! ) He brings over a Marantz ! With mystical blue lighting no less. And some JBL speakers. Hooks it up - and I was blown away !! My entree into stereo heaven !

The party was talk of the school. There was alcohol.
And there was this album

(136) Hey Baby -- Ted Nugent - YouTube

Terrible Ted. It was played a lot that night.
And at the end of the night I was no longer sexually naive. Wink

Thanks Ted !!!!!!!!

What was I thinking when I first heard this album ? You can only imagine !!!!!!!!!

 

[madship]

AJA-STEELY DAN

This album was released late in the 70's....after all the rock classics of the 60's and early 70's this album wasn't one I should have been attracted to...but on the very first play...I was hooked....at that time if an album had 2 great songs on it...it was a keeper...but there wasn't a "filler" on this whole album...every song was impressive IMO....and it is still this way today...a big plus was how mellow it was when you were stoned...you could just "zone out" without much effort....

This is a great one. One of my first CD purchases as a sophomore in college. At the time I did not have any Steely Dan. I was looking for music on CD that was "great". I read about this album and found it in the college town's (Potsdam, NY) hi-fi and record store. I was hooked immediately, It took a bit of time and a lot of enjoyment to connect this group with Rikki Don't Lose that Number and all of their great hits from the 70s.

 

[Bill B]

First Boston album.

If you were doing the right stuff your mind got blown weekly by some album.
With that in mind anything by Hendrix.

 

[madship]

Queen - A Night at the Opera

This was one of two Queen Albums I had purchased as a kid. I really liked it, but don't really remember my first listing, I know it was used, when I bought it. I listened to it a bunch in my dorm and loved it. The diversity of songs on this album was amazing. From the sheer virtuosic talent of the musicians to the bizarre diversity of subject matter, I was astounded.

In the early 2000s I set up a 5.1 system in my home and read about music in 5.1. The first disc I purchased to try out surround was A Night at the Opera. There couldn't have been a better album to introduce a test subject to. This started a love for music in surround that has far exceeded my initial interest in 5.1 for movies.

 

[jimfisheye]

I remember Abbey Road as my first album. I would have been around 6. I had access to one of those Panasonic piano keys cassette players and my uncle gave me the pre-recorded cassette of the album. I don't remember exactly what my 6 year old self was thinking hearing this but the album was like this whole world or something. I remember listening to it over and over for hours all the time. I remember asking him why the song on side 1 was cut off and I kept asking where I could hear the end of it.

Fast forward to 18 and off to college. King Crimson reissues were just appearing on vinyl. I was into the Discipline band in high school. I wasn't familiar with the old catalog though. It wasn't played anywhere around me. No friends knew about anything about it even though a bunch of us were listening to their 3 new albums! Red appeared in a store one day. New to me old KC!! Holy shit! I wouldn't have imagined how I could have liked it even more than the newer band but I don't think side one of that album left the turntable for a week! That first track sounded so bad ass! Furiously trying to learn how to play some new chords I'd never considered or heard anyone play before!

 

[Marplot]

The Clash, London Calling. Music could be passionate and intelligent. It didn't just have to be about chasing girls.
King Crimson, Discipline. When I heard the opening stick work of Elephant Talk I was awestruck. I spent the rest of the day taking all my Kiss posters down.
Similar revelations and expansion of my musical boundaries:
Iron Maiden, Piece Of Mind.
Metallica, Kill Them All
New Model Army, The Ghost Of Cain
Stanley Clarke, If This Bass Could Only Talk

 

[privateuniverse]

At the high school I went to, all students were required to do a "work job". You didn't get paid, it was basically your community service. Freshman year I had the misfortune of washing dishes in the cafeteria, sophomore year I was sweeping floors, but junior year I scored a real coup; I had a job in the library. It was my responsibility to preview all the new LPs that the library received and catalog them. An alumnus of my school was working for Sony (I think it was CBS at the time) and put the school library on the mailing list. We got all the new CBS titles, sometimes weeks before they were released. The above album came in a couple of weeks before release day. I cataloged the LP and then was the first student to check it out and bring it home.

That must have been a Friday because I remember that I got home late that night and didn't put it on. I waited until the morning. (Not, until the night. See what I did there? LOL). So, when I woke up, I stayed in bed. (I did that a lot at that age). I put the LP on the turntable. Side 1: "Allentown", "Laura", "Pressure" and "Goodnight Saigon". Whoa! This was a radical left-turn from Glass Houses. This was epic. This was his Sgt. Pepper. I was so blown away by those four songs, I couldn't turn the LP over. I had to play side 1 again. And again. And again. I listened to the first side seven consecutive times lying in bed. After the seventh listen to the first side, I finally flipped the record over and listened to side 2. That's the only album for me where that ever happened. To this day, it's still my favorite Billy Joel album.

Incidentally, this is also the only Billy Joel album where he drops an f-bomb; in the song "Laura". My dad loved music. He was more of an old school guy, but he loved Billy. He thought this album was amazing too. Growing up I never heard my dad utter a curse wood. So it was amusing to hear him sing along with "Laura". "Here I am, feel like a f*&%ing fool." .

 

[Jim the Oldbie]

...I was so blown away by those four songs, I couldn't turn the LP over. I had to play side 1 again. And again. And again. I listened to the first side seven consecutive times lying in bed. After the seventh listen to the first side, I finally flipped the record over and listened to side 2. That's the only album for me where that ever happened...

Haha! That only ever happened to me once too, with Juliana Hatfield's Only Everything. I know it's not the best album ever, maybe not even her best, but damned if it didn't just hit the spot with me. It stayed in the CD player in the work truck for 2 straight weeks! I still like it a lot.

 

[jamoke]

It was late 1969, I walked into a local head-shop, incense in the air, black lights everywhere, neon posters of Jimi Hendrix and Peter Max jumped out from the walls.
The local Boston underground stereo FM station was cranked up playing from hidden speakers in the ceiling, and I was mesmerized by the swirling sounds of Led Zepplin II and Whole Lotta Love. They played the entire album and I did not leave until is was over. I had never heard anything like that before and was absolutely mesmerized.
Truly a never-forget moment.