First five songs indelibly imprinted on your soul . .

jimdgoulding · « **on:** 27 Oct 2009, 12:22 pm »

that made you the music lover you are today. Decades ago, whatever the genre, it's understood that your tastes have developed several universes since then:

Pledging My Love- Johnny Ace
I Got a Woman- Ray Charles
In The Still of the Night- Five Satins
Smokestack Lightin- Howlin Wolf
after high school, after basic training . . Senor Blues- Horace Silver

those suckers are profoundly moving to me even today. Damn, I just realized there is not a white performer amongst em. Well, Horace is half Portugese and Cry Me a River by Julie London is definitely skirtin the edges. What you got in there?

mcgsxr · « **Reply #1 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 01:04 pm »

The Raven - Rebecca Pidgeon - bought my first real hifi setup after hearing that.

When They Ring the Golden Bells - Natalie Merchant - may very well be played at my funeral, LOVE this song.

Massive Attack - Protection - first heard it when on a ski trip in Denver, it was on MTV. Bought that album the next day (1995 as I recall), and is a top 10 ever since.

Prodigy - Poison - cannot hear this song, and not relive younger days, all night parties, and no responsibilities. Has a beat that just demands attention.

Saxophone Collosus - Sonny Rollins - if there is better sax mojo, I ain't heard it! First heard it recently (last 4-5 years), and love it to this day.

chadh · « **Reply #2 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 02:59 pm »

Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms I still get teary hearing the guitar solo through this one. Brothers in Arms might have been the first album I owned. Listening to it in my bedroom on a crappy tape deck, I must have ruined about seven tapes.

Jimi Hendrix - Little Wing Probably the greatest song of all time; just truly beautiful. I'd still think of Hendrix as truly great if this were the only song he ever recorded.

Miles Davis - Hannibal I was watching the TV late night when I caught a broadcast of an old Miles performance at Montreaux. Kenny Garrett was playing sax, Foley on guitar, Marcus Miller on bass and Miles was just stalking around the stage threatening to play his trumpet, but not getting around to it much. Instead, Miles devoted most of his energy to holding up placards inciting the crowd to cheer for Kenny Garrett while he completely blew the house down with the most earth-shatteringly powerful solo I'd ever heard. This was really the first time I'd heard Miles, and it's still one of my favorite tunes of his.

John Coltrane - Ole An absolute masterpiece of sustained intensity. The whole band gets to solo before Coltrane plays at the end. Through each solo, I can't believe how the tension builds, and my expectations of something astonishingly special keep rising. But the really amazing thing is that Coltrane's solo never fails to exceed those expectations. I'm always exhausted after this track.

Tommy Emmanuel - Initiation Many years ago, I caught Tommy Emmanuel as a relative unknown in Australia, playing in a tiny local venue. He played his guitar on this tune like nothing I'd ever heard. That live introduction to him ruined all of his studio recordings for me for the rest of my life - nothing he does in the studio can come even close. The great thing, though, is that elements of that live version of this tune are fixed in my mind forever. I'll never forget it.

Chad

nathanm · « **Reply #3 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 03:33 pm »

Herbie Hancock "Rockit"
The earliest music I remember liking, and the first record I got for my birthday. I remember playing it on my grandmother's console\furntiure-style record player. It still sounds good today too.

Metallica "The Shortest Straw"
Freshman year of high school. Newly-made friends borrowed me cassettes from Sanctuary (Didn't like it then, love it now), The Exploited (not huge into punk, but I find these guys amusing) and Metallica "And Justice For All". "The Shortest Straw" made something click in my brain and I was a metalhead for life. The sound was so abstract to my ears, it didn't sound like anything I had heard before. It took me a few days to wrap my head around crunchy guitars, but once I got it I went forward into metal as if blasted from a canon.

Testament "Practice What You Preach"
Around the same time. Seeing that video on Headbanger's Ball struck a chord with me as well. It was one of the first cassettes I ever purchased, back when Kohl's department store used to sell music.

Napalm Death "World Keeps Turning"

Kreator "Betrayer"

pjchappy · « **Reply #4 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 03:51 pm »

Just going to do one, for now:

"Coming Back To Life" - Pink Floyd - The Division Bell (1994)

Well, yes, I'm a Pink Floyd Superfreak. Anyways, this song always gets me. Everything about it is fantastic. The mellow beginning, Gilmour's guitar, Gilmour's soothing voice. Then the song picks up a bit, when all the instruments come in.

The lyrics, while not super, super-deep, have always meant something to me from the first time I heard the song. However, this meaning has changed a little bit from time-to-time. Nevertheless, I always remember the different associations I've had with this song (and there haven't been many) and it brings even more emotion to it for me. That's one of the main reasons I love Pink Floyd is that just the music alone can bring out so many emotions and moods for me. The music in this song does the same, but the lyrics add another layer.

Did I mention Gilmour's voice?

Here's a YouTube link: Coming Back To Life

Here's a semi-acoustic version (which has very good sound, for YouTube): Coming Back To Life - acoustic

martyo · « **Reply #5 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 04:52 pm »

1. Flight of the Wild Goose; Frankie Laine
Found my parents 78's when I was a kid and played it often for years.
2. I Get Around; The Beach Boys
For my grammer school graduation my Grandma got me the coolest gift. A Channel Master "Swing-A-Long". It was a portable AM Radio and 45rpm record player.

"I Get Around" could be heard all over the neighborhood that summer of '64.
3. Five O'Clock World; the Vogues
Still one of my all time favorite pop tunes. Every band in high school played it.
4 Bus Stop; The Hollies
It was summer and there was this girl.........
5 Uncle John's Band; The Grateful Dead
It all headed in a different direction

arthurs · « **Reply #6 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 05:47 pm »

Focus - Hocus Pocus
10cc - Feel the Benefit
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Al DiMeola - Race With The Devil on a Spanish Highway
Frank Zappa - Camarillo Brillo

In no particular order and not necessarily the only 5....

droht · « **Reply #7 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 06:35 pm »

Chronologically:

My Generation - The Who Back in the 8th grade this was the start.

After the Goldrush - Neil Young Still as poignant as on that first listen.

Voodoo Chile - Jimi Hendrix Are you kidding with that sound??

Feels Like Rain - Buddy Guy First heard it live in a setting that kind of matched the lyrics.

No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley/me Always loved the song, but the indelible part is that I sang it to my daughter quite often when she was a baby. At 4 she is a big Marley fan, though we've moved on to 3 Little Birds as our favorite song to sing together.

Great topic, but awfully tough to pare the list down to 5.

SlushPuppy · « **Reply #8 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 06:40 pm »

Todd Rundgren - "Hello it's me"

Marvin Gaye - "What's going on?"

10CC - "I'm not in love"

Genesis - "Ripples"

Rush - "Freewill"

mcgsxr · « **Reply #9 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 07:01 pm »

Quote

No Woman No Cry - Bob Marley/me Always loved the song, but the indelible part is that I sang it to my daughter quite often when she was a baby. At 4 she is a big Marley fan, though we've moved on to 3 Little Birds as our favorite song to sing together.

Nice droht, for my little ones it is Bob Marley's Buffalo Soldier - right from 6m old, the younger one (turns 4 in Nov), and the older one (who was 29m at the time, turns 6 in Dec) were drawn to Buffalo Soldier. They would demand it be played on repeat on the basement OB system. They even twisted the lyrics into Buffalo Jo Jo (the name of our cat!)...

Now the younger one demands funky music (she means Chemical Brothers, or Prodigy), while the older one remains enamoured with Pink Floyd (The Wall).

Keep them listening!

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #10 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 07:02 pm »

First five songs indelibly imprinted on your soul . . .....

Hmmm....

First...from way back...

"How Much is that Doggie in the Window" - Patti Page ..the 50's
(Told you it was way back....

)

Then....

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" - The Beatles 1963

Then......

"(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" - The Rolling Stones 1965

Then.....

"Good Vibrations" - The Beach Boys 1966

Then....a tie....

"Purple Haze" - Jimi Hendrix 1967

"Light My Fire" - The Doors 1967

.............................

mgalusha · « **Reply #11 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 07:29 pm »

First ones, not quite as far back as Chris but pretty far back, at least they are what I remember

Rock around the Clock - Bill Haley and the Comets

Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody and his lost planet airmen (first record I ever bought as well)

Hang On Sloopy - The McCoys

I'm Your Venus - Hair Soundtrack

Probably also Little Honda and 409 from the Beach Boys

Those are the ones I remember anyway.

konut · « **Reply #12 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 07:55 pm »

My Dad had these 78s.
Beethovens Fifth- Toscanini & the NBC SO (I now have the CD)
Big Noise From Winnetka- A version very similar to the 1 I had here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4vlmYd9KYY
Moving up to 33 1/3
The Merry Minuet- The Kingston Trio- The exact version here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhaDtSBmIrI
The 45s
She Loves You
I Want To Hold Your Hand
I Saw Her Standing There- The Beatles

Wayner · « **Reply #13 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 07:59 pm »

This is fun.

#1 Tommy James and the Schondells, Crimson and Clover (the long version)
#2 The Doors, Light My Fire
#3 Procol Harum, ~~Paler Shade of Gray~~. Whiter Shade of Pale. Dammit.
#4 Yes, Roundabout
#5 Yes, And You and I

Wayner

Airborn · « **Reply #14 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:09 pm »

Hard to say if these were the first five, but the ones that spring immediately to mind are:

1. Pink Floyd, Comfortably Numb from The Wall (left quite an impression during the teenage wasteland years)
2. AC/DC - Hells Bells from Back In Black (those opening bells still echo in my head)
3. Doors, Riders on the Storm from LA Woman (scary!)
4. Rush, Red Barchetta from Moving Pictures (I especially remember listening to this in the car)
5. John Coltrane, Out of this World from Coltrane (the tune that got me into Jazz)

Wayner · « **Reply #15 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:13 pm »

I like 3 of your 5 picks a lot!

aa

ebag4 · « **Reply #16 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:16 pm »

These are songs that I heard in my preteen years that stayed with me and started my early appreciation of music, all on AM radio

Sunshine-Jonathan Edwards (my first 45 purchase)
Uneasy Rider- Charlie Daniels
The Streak- Ray Stevens
Hot Rod Lincoln - Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen
Popcorn- Hot Butter

I haven't thought about these songs in years, good topic.

mdfoy · « **Reply #17 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:20 pm »

The Way of the World - Earth, Wind and Fire
Atmospheric Strut - Cloud One
Is it a Crime - Sade
All Blues - Miles Davis
Mysterios - Wallace Roney

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #18 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:22 pm »

Wayner...

Quote

#3 Procol Harum, Paler Shade of Gray

A Whiter Shade of Pale.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbWULu5_nXI

pjchappy · « **Reply #19 on:** 27 Oct 2009, 08:23 pm »

Alright, time for my #2. . .and it just happens to be another Pink Floyd song. SHOCKER!

"One Of These Days" - Pink Floyd - Meddle (1971)

At some point during the summer of 1997, after my freshman year in college, I was crashing at my then future brother-in-law's house after a night of drinking and. . .errrr. . .fun. We had all been listening to music and just having a great time. As he and my sister were going to bed, he put on "One Of These Days" for me and said something along the lines of, "You will like this." I was feeling no pain at the time. I grabbed a pillow then strategically positioned myself on the floor to get a real good listen. It was being played through his roommate's system, which was a Bose mini-cube system with the "Acoustimass" bass unit.

So, the song starts with wind sound effects, then the bass line starts. Wow! What the hell was that? I just felt something! I'll never forget once the bass line got going and everything else came in, I could just really "feel" the music, literally and figuratively. When the kick drum came in, I was definitely aroused from my numbed state.

I was a "casual listener" before this point. However, I did always find myself listening to speakers (cheap, cheap combo systems) in the "sweet-spot" and adjusting them a little bit here and there. This was at the time when all I knew about "high-end" audio was that Bose WAS high-end audio.

Before this entire experience, I was a Pink Floyd fan, but really only heard the big ones: Wish You Were Here, The Darkside Of The Moon and The Wall. After that night, the seeds of Pink Floyd obsession were planted.

Here's a YouTube clip: One Of These Days
Alright, now back to work. . .