My cousin has served me up with a Proustian moment on Facebook and posted his top ten albums he liked as a teenager, in order of hearing them. It’s a lovely encapsulation of a youngster trying to find his musical feet, so I thought I’d do it here.
So basically, like all kind of alienated small town kids, I started with metal and worked my way out from there, so my list would look something like
1) The Number Of The Beast – Iron Maiden
2) Ride The Lightning – Metallica
3) Appetite For Destruction- Guns n Roses
4) The Real Thing – Faith No More
5) It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back – Public Enemy
6) Hatful Of Hollow – The Smiths
7) Substance 1987 – New Order
8) The Stone Roses – The Stone Roses
9) The White Album – The Beatles
10) Screamadelica – Primal Scream
I reckon that looks about right for me anyway…
Mousey says
Teenage top ten. Wow, I have to think carefully about dates here. I turned 20 in February 1974 so that means –
1. Sgt Pepper
2. ELP
3. ELP – Tarkus
4. ELP – Pictures at an Exhibition
5. ELP – Trilogy
6. Led Zep III
7. Led Zep IV
8. The Nice – Nice
9. James Taylor – Sweet Baby James
10. CSN
Harold Holt says
Going out on a limb here…some very dodgy memories of what I was doing in the mid to late 70s (75-81), and the absence of iTunes playing history, but something like :
Kiss – Alive
Police – Regatta Be Blanc
Thin Lizzy – Black Rose
Beatles – Sgt Pepper
Beatles – Blue comp
Beatles – Red comp (I didn’t actually hear any of the other original albums till I was in to my 50s…)
Wings – Band On The Run
Klark Kent
Dire Straits – Making Movies
Eddie & The Hotrods – Life On The Line
There was probably a lot of ELO, Quo, Damned and Beat in there as well. And a second-hand promo copy of Men At Work’s Business As Usual probably took me well into the 80s and my Australian fixation (and eventual migration).
Moose the Mooche says
Klark Kent?? Respect!
Harold Holt says
I bloody love that album (or EP). Played it to death. Have never seen it on CD unfortunately.
Arthur Cowslip says
Great idea!
(1) Queen – A Kind Of Magic
(2) Queen – A Night At The Opera
(3) The Beatles – Sgt Pepper
(4) Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
(5) The Beatles – Revolver
(6) The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
(7) Led Zeppelin IV
(8) Pink Floyd – Animals
(9) Yes – Close To The Edge
(10) David Bowie – Low
How much I’ve moved on… Em… Not really….
I suppose I’m quite loyal to the music I like. Once I love an album it’s part of my canon no matter what. About the only one out of those ten I would doubt today would be A Kind Of Magic.
This list also shows me how hopelessly anachronistic I was in my taste. I most emphatically did not have any school friends who I could listen to Tubular Bells with. This was the start of the nineties by the way. I only really got current with Screamadelica and Achtung Baby a little later – my tastes only really synced completely with the times with Beck and DJ Shadow a few years later still… following which I’ve been hopelessly behind the times again for about twenty years….
Junior Wells says
Top of head is the only way to approach this. In no particular order.
Lou Reed Rock n Roll Animal
Lou Reed – Berlin
Johnny Winter – And Live
Stones – High Tide and Green Grass
Spectrum – Part One
Eric Burdon and War – Declares War
Bob Dylan – Greatest Hits Vol 2
Beatles – Hey Jude compilation
Chain – Towards The Blues
Buddy Guy and Junior Wells – Play The Blues
special mention to LZ 3
Smudger says
Glad the opening post says albums liked as a teenager, as the first three of these were released before I reached my teenage years.
The Beatles – The Blue Album 1967 – 1970
Joy Division – Closer
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
The Cure – Seventeen Seconds
Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81, 82, 83, 84)
U2 – The Unforgettable Fire
The Smith – The Queen is Dead
Talk Talk – The Colour of Spring
New Order – Substance 1987
New Order – Technique
Interestingly (for me anyway), the Talk Talk album that followed The Colour of Spring and which was also released whilst I was a teenager (Spirit of Eden) completely escaped my radar for years (along with Laughing Stock) but would now be in my top ten of all time.
Tiggerlion says
In order of acquisition, if memory serves, for the ages 13-16 and limiting to one act per album:
1. T. Rex – Electric Warrior
2. Roxy Music
3. David Bowie – Aladdin Sane
4. Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy
5. The Rolling Stones – Goats Head Soup
6. Bob Marley & The Wailers – Catch A Fire
7. Little Feat – Dixie Chicken
8. Sly & The Family Stone – Fresh
9. Stevie Wonder- Innervisions
10. Dr. Feelgood – Down By The Jetty
After that, dub & punk happened and there were dozens to blow my mind until I was twenty. That period needs another list.
Junior Wells says
Fresh is an impressive outlier Tig.
Tiggerlion says
I bought it from a bargain bin in Mothercare long after it had been released. I liked A Family Affair and took a punt. I was gob-smacked when I got home.
The other two I loved but couldn’t shoe-in to the list are 10cc Sheet Music and Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom. 10cc were everywhere at the time but Rock Bottom sold nothing. I bought it cheap, on a whim, based on the pencil drawing on the cover, loose change from my birthday money. It really opened my ears.
Wasn’t there a thread on accidentally acquired masterpieces?
Vincent says
I would have been in love with you at a distance, Tigs; such cool taste in music, when I was never even passingly so.
Bartleby says
Indeed. Impeccable range and choices. Top marks for Goat’s Head Soup, and Fresh.
Tiggerlion says
Aw shucks, guys, you are embarrassing me.
John Walters says
1) Beatles – White Album
2) Beatles – Sgt. Pepper
3) Jeff Beck – Truth
4) Neil Young – Harvest
5) Cat Stevens – Teaser and the Firecat
6) Scott Walker – Scott 2
7) Moody Blues – On the Threshold of a Dream
8) ELP – Pictures at an Exhibition
9) The Nice – Ars Longa Vita Brevis
10) Bob Dylan – Greatest Hits vol. 2
Johnny Concheroo says
I’ve owned a million albums over the last 56 years (you still bloody do! – Johnny’s long-suffering wife’s voice), but here are the 10 LPs which have had the most impact on my life in the order I bought them. I could keep going and list a 100 more of course, but 10 takes us up to 1967 only, so we’ll leave it there.
1) Cliff Richard – Cliff Sings (1959)
2) The Shadows – The Shadows (1961)
3) The Beatles – With The Beatles (1963)
4) The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
5) Bert Jansch – Bert Jansch (1965)
6) John Mayall with Eric Clapton – Bluesbreakers (1966) (The Beano Album)
7) The Beatles – Sgt Pepper (1967)
8) Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced (1967)
9) Cream – Disraeli Gears (1967)
10) Incredible String Band – 5,000 Spirits, or the Layers of the Onion (1967)
Bubbling under:
11) Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention – We’re Only In It For The Money (1968)
12) Jeff Beck – Truth (1968)
13) Led Zeppelin – II (1969)
Johnny Concheroo says
After reading Mike’s excellent choices (below), I should point out that I didn’t become a teenager until 1963, so the first two LPs in my list were acquired when I was 9 and 11.
Dave Ross says
I’m sure a few of those are in Nan in Laws album box. I’ll check later but I’m sure there’s Cream, The Incredible String Band and maybe even Bert Jansch…..
Johnny Concheroo says
Respect to Nan-in-law!
minibreakfast says
When do we get the thread on Nan’s albums, Dave?
Dave Ross says
I’m thinking of doing some sort of review in a series of “Nights In”as I’ve never heard most of them. I got a basic record player for Christmas but it’s just finding the time. Sold the Blancmange single for £50 to a genuine fan which was nice. 🙂
Tiggerlion says
Well done on the sale. I’m looking forward to your reviews when they happen.
Dave Ross says
Currently listen to The Incredible String Band for the first time in my life and loving the sleeve notes. I’m currently reminded of watching those “Learn Guitar” programmes that came on in the dead zone of morning TV in the early 70’s. “Now you might think that, since they spend every day sitting astride their logs…..”
minibreakfast says
Great news (on both the planned reviews and the sale)!
mikethep says
My two favourite pre-Beatles teenage albums were Me and My Shadows and It’s Everly Time, neither of which I actually owned, both perfect in their way. I persuaded my extremely biddable mate Dave to buy them because he had a record player.
Johnny Concheroo says
That’s the thing. In an age where no music is rare and all of it is free it’s hard to believe there was a time when you’d travel halfway across town to hear the new Beatles LP at a friend’s house, because you couldn’t afford to buy it
John Walters says
Very true JC.
My pal bought Sgt. Pepper on release and I stalked him all the way back to his house so I could listen to it with him.
mikethep says
I turned 20 in August ’67, so 8 of my top 10 could be Beatles LPs. Leaving them aside, I’d say (in no particular order):
1. Blonde on Blonde
2. Bluesbreakers
3. Forever Changes
4. Disraeli Gears
5. Strange Days
6. Are You Experienced
7. Absolutely Free
8. Younger Than Yesterday
9. The Blues Vol.1
10. Sgt Pepper
Gatz says
Off the top of my head, and no order other than possibly vaguely chronological (in discovery, not release). I cut off about 16 on the assumption that your adult taste kicks in around then, and it’s highly possible that I’ve favoured albums for which I still have fondness while overlooking those I was obsessed with at the time but have since neglected.
Rainbow – Rainbow Rising
AC/DC – If You Want Blood
MSG – One Night at Budokan
Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell
Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell
Dire Straits – Alchemy
Marillion – Script for a Jesters Tear
Davis Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Lou Reed – Berlin
Native says
New Order – Technique
Electronic – Electronic
Pet Shop Boys – Introspective
Pet Shop Boys – Behaviour
Depeche Mode – Violator
Morrissey – Vauxhall & I
The Cure – Mixed Up
Banderas – Ripe
The KLF – The White Room
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Tiggerlion says
Lovely list. I was way beyond a teenager at the time but still tried to behave like one.
Paul Wad says
Never heard of Banderas, but judging from the rest of your impressive teens soundtrack it must be worth a listen.
Native says
You should defo dig out the Banderas album! It should have been a huge album; the lead single ‘This Is Your Life’ did ok in the charts. I think Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner were involved in some of the tracks on the album.
minibreakfast says
If we’re counting 12 up to 16 as teenage (which I am, because the memories are stronger and the period most formative), then the following:
1. TTD – Introducing The Hardline According To…
2. The Housemartins – London 0 Hull 4
3. Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet
4. Poison – Open Up And Say… Ahh!
5. INXS -Kick
6. G ‘n’ R – Appetite For Destruction
7. Faith No More – Live at the Brixton Academy
8. G ‘n’ R – Use Your Illusion I and II
9. Mindfunk – Mindfunk
10. REM – Out Of Time
Tiggerlion says
I’ve only heard of six of those and only listened to three!
minibreakfast says
Still waiting for your Nights In on AFD…
Tiggerlion says
Don’t hold your breath.
minibreakfast says
You’ll do it eventually, I know it. You’re just enjoying being a tease at the moment.
Johnny Concheroo says
I reviewed Use Your Illusion I & II on release in 1991. I can’t remember much of what I said, except releasing two separate albums simultaneously was a bit rich. Springsteen would shortly do the same with Human Touch and Lucky Town but then the trend seemed to fizzle out.
Moose the Mooche says
The NME did a feature on double albums at this time, mostly inspired by the release of Screamadelica. The intro to the article went something like:
“The double album represents the ultimate in the vaulting ambition and insanely overdeveloped self-belief that are at the heart of all great rock’n’roll. It’s only when you release two at once that you really are a conceited wanker”
Hawkfall says
I bought the TTD record on vinyl a few months back. Pretty good album. Sign Your Name is a great single. You would have bet a fortune on him being huge back in 1987.
minibreakfast says
A shame, as the follow up was actually great, as I discovered much later. http://carbootvinyldiaries.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/neither-fish-nor-flesh.html
Tiggerlion says
Symphony Or Damn is mighty as well and Vibrator has its moments.
Junior Wells says
Presumably when the batteries are charged Tigger
Tiggerlion says
Funnily enough, its full title is Vibrator (Batteries Included).
minibreakfast says
Marigolds require no batteries.
Although a pic of TDD is always helpful.
Moose the Mooche says
Dare one invoke the infamous Q cover?
He’ll catch his death of cold, poor lad.
PS. Totally agree about Fish… and Symphony.
ganglesprocket says
Mindfunk???????
*Proustian rush*
minibreakfast says
Hunks to a man, IIRC. Still got my cassette somewhere.
Friar says
That list could almost be mine except I got over the hair metal a little earlier than my teens I think.
minibreakfast says
The Poison and Bon Jovi were my thing at 12-13. I don’t count GnR as hair.
mikethep says
I don’t know if it’s just me, but 13-16 was all about singles. I don’t recall ever buying an elpee until I went on the buses between school and university and had a bit of money. My list is pretty much all from when I was 18-19.
Tiggerlion says
You are just showing your age.
mikethep says
As ever. I was signing up for the points at the local organic store this morning, and I was asked what my birthday was. August 10, I said. Year? she said. You don’t need to know that, do you? I said. I’ll just put it down as 1899 then, she said.
Tiggerlion says
For the period my selections came from, everyone in my family loved Soul, Northern, Tamla, Stax or otherwise. That was all singles. The odd compilation, maybe. The first LP I bought was Electric Warrior but the first singles I first paid for in a shop were Papa Was A Rollin’ Stone and Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly With His Song. None of my album selections feature a woman (apart from The Family Stone). I simply didn’t by albums by female artists until after I was 16, not even Aretha. I had loads of singles, though. Those were different times.
Sewer Robot says
I think – but for Grace Jones – I would have made it all the way to 18* without owning any albums by female or black** artists!
(**well, apart from the obligatory Wailers)
(* A 7 inch lover, I was 14 before I bought an LP)
minibreakfast says
Roberta’s cover of Just Like A Woman on the b-side of KMS is lovely.
minibreakfast says
Lots of my albums in those days were taped from LPs borrowed from the library, or cassettes nicked from a big sis.
Dave Ross says
13 in ’78 and 20 in ’85 so……
Setting Sons
All Mod Cons
Zenyata Mondatta
Pelican West
New Gold Dream
Sulk
Lexicon of Love
Porcupine
Crocodiles
Hatful Of Hollow
chiz says
That’s a familiar journey – my teens covered new wave to new romantic and then back to guitar bass drums. Yours could almost be my list, although I never went anywhere near Simple Minds and sort of admired The Police while thinking they were a bit wanky.
All Mod Cons
Armed Forces
Setting Sons
17 Seconds
Vienna
Visage
Dare
Tin Drum
The Blurred Crusade (The Church)
Hatful of Hollow
Dave Ross says
Yep, I guess it’s a familiar path for many born in the mid-sixties. The variety of choices from “78 to “85 was remarkable and the challenge was always mixing cool with pop in those crazy early 80’s.
Vincent says
It so happens I was 56 yesterday, so by the magic of relational memory I can vividly recall my faves from when I was 18:
The tubes live album
Zappa – overnite sensation
Amazing sounds astonishing music – Hawkwind
L – Steve Hillage
The last record album – little feat
First – Peter Gabriel
Hissing of the summer lawns – Joni Mitchell
Live and dangerous – thin lizzy
The scream – siouxie and the banshees
Station to station – david Bowie
Twang says
When I was 18 my list probably would have been…
Edgar Winter’s White Trash – “Roadwork”
Johnny Winter And – “Live”
Rick Derringer – “Derringer”
Nutz – “Nutz”
John Mayall – Bluesbreakers
Little Feat – Feats don’t fail me now/Dixie Chicken
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
Fleetwood Mac – the early albums and first best of
Led Zep 2/4
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon, UmmaGumma
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells
Django Reinhart – some best of double I got somewhere
Mentioned in dispatches – I had tired of glam rock by then but a few years earlier this would have included Ziggy Stardust and Electric Warrior plus the Tyrannosaurus Rex albums.
It occurs to me I still like and regularly listen to all of them.
TrypF says
Great thread. I went to a school where, like he said in Wayne’s World, you were practically ‘issued’ with albums at certain points.
1. Queen – Greatest Hits
2. Yes – Close to the Edge
3. The White Album*
4. Derek & the Dominos – Layla
5. The Police – Zeyatta Mondatta
6. Free – Fire and Water
7. Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced
then I left school, and went to London. Can you tell?
8. The Doors – The Doors
9. Lou Reed – New York
10. The Replacements – All Shook Down
* We all thought the White Album was a single LP, as the source for all our copies was a tape of the first two sides. I subsequently bought the LP in a Belgian flea market at 17. Imagine my delight!
Tiggerlion says
Even side four?
TrypF says
Even side four. It has a woozy, dreamlike vibe. Savoy Truffle lets it down, but I never skip Revolution 9.
Tiggerlion says
Oddly, I’m very fond of Savoy Truffle. I love it when bands play something obviously ridiculous with absolute commitment.
I felt let down by Revolution 1 (not a patch on the Hey Jude B side to my young ears) and Goodnight, which was just soft. A lullaby was never going to appeal to a boy no longer in infant school!
Moose the Mooche says
The electric piano and the proto-Wizzard saxes make ST sound like it’s from the 70s. Ringo’s enthusiasm is great, and it’s excellent tracking before the sinister Cry Baby Cry and Number 9.
For years I thought Good Night was heavy irony, a piss-take. It isn’t. I love it either way, of course. The Anthology version I find properly moving. God bless that Bongo.
nickduvet says
Alice Cooper – Killer
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Jimi Hendrix – Electric Ladyland
The Yes Album
Golden Earring – Moontan
Todd Rundgren – A Wizard A True Star
Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy
Bob Dylan – Blood On The Tracks
Little Feat – The Last Record Album
Boston – First album
Twang says
Impeccable.
Lodestone of Wrongness says
I think this is the correct order
Bobby Vee
The Shadows
Ray Charles (just loved his voice, had no idea what I was actually listening to)
Beatles
Bob Dylan
Donovan
Neil Young
Incredible String Band
Cream
Led Zeppelin
Deviant808 says
Off the top of the head, ten things my teenage self got a bit obsessive over at one time or another.
Shop Assistants – “Will Anything Happen”
Tack>>head – “Tack>>head Tape Time”
Public Enemy – “Yo! Bum Rush The Show”
Shriekback – “Jam Science”
Simple Minds – “New Gold Dream”
Cabaret Voltaire – “The Covenant The Sword and the Arm of the Lord”
New Order – “Low Life”
The Jesus and Mary Chain – “Psychocandy”
Throwing Muses – “Throwing Muses” (debut)
Pet Shop Boys – “Please”
pencilsqueezer says
I can’t recall the order I first fell in love with these. All I know is the following are the records that I remember playing the most from the age of fifteen to my early twenties. Having said that I just know I am bound to have temporarily forgotten a fair few. I can in all honesty say that I still listen to a fair few of these. Whilst others I probably haven’t heard again for decades. Here goes…
Who’s Next – The Who.
Bert & John – Bert Jansch & John Renbourn.
Hatfield & The North – Rotter’s Club.
Little Feat – Sailing Shoes.
David Bowie – Hunky Dory.
Led Zep – II.
The Steve Miller Band – The Joker.
Neil Young – After The Gold rush.
Yes – The Yes Album.
Capt. Beefheart – Clear Spot.
John Martyn – Solid Air.
Joni Mitchell – Blue
Joe Walsh – The Smoker You Drink The Player You Get.
Steely Dan – Countdown To Ecstasy.
Roy Harper – Lifemask.
Soft Machine – Third.
Tangerine Dream – Phadra.
Caravan – In The Land Of Grey And Pink.
Santana – Caravansari.
Jimi Hendrix – Everything up to and including The Cry Of Love.
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks.
Genesis – Foxtrot.
Focus – Moving Waves.
Mike Oldfield – Tubular Bells.
Pink Floyd – Ummagumma.
Jackson Browne – Late For The Sky.
Way more than ten. It’s Impossible to keep it down to ten!
Tiggerlion says
Bloody hippy!
How often did you wash your hair?
pencilsqueezer says
Not often tbh. I let my freak flag fly man.
Twang says
Bugger, I forgot “Fly like an eagle” by Steve Miller. Top list Pencil.
Junior Wells says
And I forgot Who live at Leeds that Who’s Next reminded me of.
retropath2 says
13? That’d be 1970 then. Forgive me if some came out a tad earlier, but my first few purchases were, a trickle until I went overboard, aged about 16, getting into the mess I am now.:
Pictures at an Exhibition: ELP
L.A. Woman: Doors
ELP: ELP
Ziggy Stardust: David Bowie
Graham Bell: Graham Bell (! It’s very very good actually, as reminded when Vulpes, I think, sent me a back-up copy in the earliest days of Wordblog.)
History of the Byrds
History of Fairport Convention
Close Up the Honky Tonks: Flying Burrito Brothers
Trilogy: ELP
Some old shite by Barclay James Harvest.
Bartleby says
Would depend on when as a teenager, but here are 10 that cross the great ‘before and after’ effect of modernity.
1. Led Zeppelin II, given to me by a cousin on cassette at 11 – taught me guitar, first rhythm, then lead
2. Whitesnake – Live in the Heart of the City – wonderful bluesy double guitar stuff
3. Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath – peak Sabs for me. Majestic and menacing.
4. Rush – Exit Stage Left – starting to get more sophisticated – and got me to finger pick
5. Jethro Tull – Aqualung – what was this weird left field thing? I wanted more
6. Yes – Yessongs – summarising the best 3 albums – an early prog highlight
7. David Bowie – Hunky Dory – I think I need to lie down. There’s barely any electric guitar here
8. The Smiths – Rank – the denim jacket had been replaced by pale and interesting self absorption
9. The Cure – Head on the Door – bought into them lock stock and barrel, including the hair
10. The Fall – Seminal Live – jarring, atonal, annoying yet somehow brilliant. Start of a life long love.
And these still form some of the key branches of my tastes today. As Johnny says above, many of these things were hard to get hold of and therefore often spoken of with huge reverence long before you actually got to hear them. Most were borrowed and taped off friends, acquired when someone’s Dad had an LP clearout or in some cases ‘liberated’ from the Boots cassette counter (the self same Boots record department that later gave me my first job). Thus the degree of reverence and the number of plays were often fairly epic.
salwarpe says
That Whitesnake album is a corker, as is the album quite a few of the songs come from – um, Lovehunter*)
_______
*album cover not pictured.
Bartleby says
Isn’t it just. Coverdale sings like a horny angel and few live rock albums sound better imv. The transition from the 1978 to 1980 band is (to these ears) fascinating. You just have to overlook some of the lyrics – and intros.
dai says
My tastes haven’t changed much but I liked The Who more. The actual fb challenge is 10 different artists I think, this would be me at 19
Revolver – Beatles
Who’s Next – The Who
Rolled Gold – Stones
Ziggy Stardust – Bowie
Blonde on Blonde – Bob Dylan
Kilimanjaro – Teardrop Explodes
Crocodiles – Echo and the Bunnymen
Closer – Joy Division
Live Rust – Neil Young
The Big Wheels of Motown – Vaous
joe robert says
1989-1996
Thriller
Kick – INXS
Pills’n’Thrills – Happy Mondays
Fear of a Black Planet – Public Enemy
Nevermind
30 Something – Carter USM
Suede
Vauxhall and I – Morrissey
Parklife
Harvest – Neil Young
A journey through baggy and Britpop until reading interviews with the likes of Weller and Noel Gallagher sent me in the direction of Neil Young, kick starting an obsession that would last my 20s.
Wilson Wilson says
Early 90s (and some very late 80s):
1. De La Soul – 3 Feet High and Rising
2. Stone Roses – Stone Roses
3. Ride – Nowhere
4. Nine Inch Nails – Pretty Hate Machine
5. Depeche Mode – Violator
6. Nirvana – Nevermind
7. Blur – Parklife
8. Radiohead – The Bends
9. Tricky – Maxinquaye
10. Orbital – In Sides
Moose the Mooche says
Boogah! Missed Nowhere off my list. Love love love it, especially its original 8-track configuration ending with the blissful Vapour Trail. La-la-la-laaaa la…
huskerdude says
The Torero Band – Lennon and McCartney Tijuana Style
Supertramp – Crime of the Century
Abba – Abba
Hot Hits 12 – MFP Various Artists (Non Original)
Pink Floyd – Meddle
Wings – At The Speed of Sound
The Velvet Undergound – Live 1969
Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass – The Beat of the Brass
Queen – A Night At The Opera
Can still listen to any of these now except for Hot Hits 12!
minibreakfast says
A big HURRAY for the first on your list, plus the Herb, of course. 🎺🎺
Moose the Mooche says
Velvet Underground – soooo uncool.
Bingo Little says
1. Nirvana – In Utero
2. Enter the 36 Chambers
3. Liquid Swords – GZA
4. Maxinquaye – Tricky
5. Timeless – Goldie
6. Dummy – Portishead
7. Logical Progression Vol 1 – LTJ Bukem
8. Siamese Dream – Smashing Pumpkins
9. Weezer – Weezer
10. Exit Planet Dust – Chemical Brothers
Tiggerlion says
Aah. Now I understand.
Bingo Little says
jazzjet says
To the best of my memory these are the key albums of my teenage years in chronological order:
The Shadows – The Shadows
Brian Poole & The Tremeloes – Twist and Shout
Alexis Korner Blues Inc. – R&B From The Marquee
The Rolling Stones – 1st Album
Manfred Mann – The Five Faces of
Muddy Waters – Live at Newport
Midnight Blue – Kenny Burrell
Beatles – Revolver
Jimi Hendrix – Are You Experienced
Incredible String Band – 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion
I started to get into jazz around 1965 but most of my listening was from the wonderful Southwark Public Library. ‘Midnight Blue’ was, I think, the first jazz LP I bought closely followed by Jimmy Smith’s ‘Back At The Chicken Shack’, Duke Ellington’s ‘Newport 1956’ and a bunch of those Charlie Parker Savoy reissues on CBS Realm.
mikethep says
Class!
jazzjet says
I knew I’d missed one : Pink Floyd – ‘Piper At The Gates of Dawn’. Quite a journey in just a few years, from the innocence of The Shads, Brian Poole etc to the sophistication of Midnight Blue and the weirdness of the ISB.
Gary says
’75-’81:
1. A Night At The Opera (Queen)
2. Rumours (Fleetwood Mac)
3. Rising/Live On Stage (Rainbow)
4. Dark Side of the Moon / Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
5. Tusk (Fleetwood Mac)
6. The Wall (Pink Floyd)
7. Sandinista (The Clash)
8. Broken English (Marianne Faithfull)
9. Catholic Boy (The Jim Carroll Band)
10. Tin Drum (Japan)
(Plus Changesonebowie)
Out of all of those, only the 13-year-old’s appreciation of A Night At The Opera has waned.
Gary says
I seem to have forgotten Damn The Torpedoes, Darkness On The Edge Of Town, The Up Escalator, Heartattack & Vine and Blue Valentine, Gabriel 3, Rickie Lee Jones, and Year Of The Cat.
fortuneight says
My memory isn’t up to much but it would have been something like
On Your Feet Or On Your Knees – Blue Oyster Cult
Moving Waves – Focus
Razamanaz – Nazareth
Robin Trower – Live / For Earth Below
Pat Travers – Making Magic
Kiss – Alive
Lynyrd Skynyrd – One More From The Road
Thin Lizzy – Live And Dangerous / Jailbreak
Deep Purple – Machine Head
Manfred Mann’s Earthband – Nightingales & Bombers
Which leaves me unable to include Derringer by Rick Derringer, Johnny Winter And Live and The Dictators first album
Twang says
Include it anyway. Happily this isn’t Facebook.
el hombre malo says
a couple of SNAPS! from me! (Thin Lizzy & Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Baron Harkonnen says
OK, here goes, in order of making me gob smacked;
1. Bob Dylan – Bob Dylan: I saved up for this from my paper round. When I first heard it, at a friend`s, his dad played it for us, I thought who`s that old geezer? Then when I went round more, I asked to listen again and then again. It grew on me, I actually listened, a prophet was born.
2. Beatles – Beatles For Sale: There was so much happening at the time, parents having to put up with more independent kids who started to rebel. Same in school some teachers were absolutely against any reform but luckily some embraced it. My hair grew long and I wouldn`t get it cut, that was probably more of a statement from the male yourhs of the time, the girls started to wear shorter skirts, that was their statement, we were 14. We had learned that adults were not fit to rule, we had the real fear of death in `62 (The Cuban Missile Crisis), JFK – gone, Racism in the USA, France & China can`t resist joining the Nuclear Club, Mandela arrested. Plenty of good things, fashion, music, Denis Law, Bobby & Georgie. Back to Beatles For Sale, I`d seen them live for the only time the year before in St, Helens, I laughed, danced and smiled with joy all the way through. This was the first Beatles album I bought, Lennon in doubt (I`m a Loser), is everything OK?
3. The Rolling Stones – The Rolling Stones: The Stones were already proving to be the greatest singles band ever; Not Fade Away, Little Red Rooster, It`s All Over Now and it`s only 1964! I now had five albums 3 Dylan and Nos 2 & 3 in this list.
4. Bob Dylan – Bringing It All Back Home &
5. Bob Dylan – Highway 61: Bob was no longer a prophet, he was the Coolest F%@ker on the planet! These two albums were released about 6 months apart and “Blonde On Blonde` was to come less than 12 months later. Nobody has ever released 3 albums of such quality and genius in the space of 12 months, nobody!
6. The Byrds – Mr Tambourine Man: That `Jingle Jangle` sound that I still love, Gene Clark proving to be the short lived main man, writer of the LP`s 2 best songs `I`ll Feel A Whole Lot Better` & `I Knew I`d Want You.
7. Love – Love: This LP had it all folk rock, blues, psychedelia and PUNK! Do one John Lydon.
8. The Beatles – Revolver: Their greatest album? The fifth greatest album?
9. The Doors – The Doors: The Lizard King has awakened or is it awoken, anyhow Jim M. is here, is this the end?
10. Love – Forever Changes: The GREATEST album of all time, `nough said.
Sorry for rambling.
Johnny Concheroo says
Bravo!
Locust says
Well, I can whittle it down to a top 20, but only ten? Can’t be done! In a rough chronological order of purchase, as I remember it, these are the most important albums of my teenage years (only one album per artist allowed):
Johnny Winter – Johnny Winter Story: ’69-’78
David Bowie – Best of
Bob Marley – Live!
XTC – Black Sea
The Police – Outlandos d’Amour
Siouxsie & the Banshees – Once Upon a Time
AC/DC – High Voltage
The Clash – Sandinista!
Simple Minds – Sons and Fascination
Bob Dylan – Freewheelin’
Kate Bush – The Dreaming
Grace Jones – Nightclubbing
Kid Creole & the Coconuts – Tropical Gangsters
Orange Juice – Texas Fever
Prefab Sprout – Swoon
Prince – Purple Rain
The Cure – The Head on the Door
Soft Cell – This Last Night in Sodom
The Pretenders – Learning to Crawl
The Tubes – What Do You Want From Live
Declan says
Let’s take 1971, I was 16:
1 Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland
2 Traffic – John Barleycorn
3 King Crimson – Lizard
4 Frank Zappa – Hot Rats
5 Beatles – Sgt Pepper
6 Led Zeppelin III
7 Van der Graaf Generator – The Least We Can Do..
8 Miles Davis – Bitches Brew
9 Jethro Tull – Stand Up
10 Thin Lizzy – Thin Lizzy
Alias says
Top Ten in approximate chronological order of hearing them.
Slade – Slayed
David Bowie – Aladin Sane
Roxy Music – Stranded
Led Zeppelin 2
Ramones – Ramones
Television – Marquee Moon
Wire – Pink Flag
Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
Buzzcocks – Another Music In A Different Kitchen
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
Alias says
And an honorary mention to Sparks – Kimono My House
Tiggerlion says
Oh shit! Me too.
Rigid Digit says
Moments of aural development (from age 12 (1982)).
Are compilations allowed? (they are now)
1. Iron Maiden – Number Of The Beast
2. The Jam – Snap
3. Big Country – The Crossing
4. Pink Floyd – The Wall
5. Marillion – Misplaced Childhood
6. Burning Ambitions – A History Of Punk (compilation)
7. Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
8. The Who – Quadrophenia
9. Stiff Little Fingers – All The Best
10. Carter USM – 30 Something
(Sort of organised in a “one per year” order)
count jim moriarty says
Don’t know about order I heard them, so I’ll give the albums I listened to most.
Sgt. Pepper
Slayed
Stationtostation
10cc – How Dare You/The Original Soundtrack
Queen – A Night At The Opera/Queen II
Be Bop Deluxe – Modern Music/Drastic Plastic
Stranglers- Rattus Norvegicus
Still listen to all of them on occasion. Pepper and Slayed first because they were the first two albums I ever bought.
Mike_H says
1) The Beatles – Beatles For Sale. Before this I’m not sure I knew that LPs existed.
2) The Who – A Quick One
3) The Beatles – Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
4) Various – British Motown Chartbusters
5) Various – The Stax-Volt Tour In London 1 or 2 (can’t remember which one)
6) Arthur Brown – The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown
7) Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band – Gorilla
8) The Nice – The Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack
9) Love – Forever Changes (my friend Norman was an Elektra collector)
10) King Crimson – In The Court Of The Crimson King
(The Nice – Flower King Of Flies)
I was still a schoolboy until July 1967, so had almost no money to spend.
My memory is a bit hazy (it was the sixties, maaan), so the exact order of 6-9 is guesswork.
Music In a Dolls House by Family probably ought to be in there somewhere…
(Mellowing Grey)
bricameron says
In no particular order.
Ultravox – systems of romance.
The Beatles – live at the Hollywood bowl.
The Cure– Seventeen seconds.
Billy Joel – 52nd St.
The police – regatta de blanc.
Japan – gentlemen take Polaroids
Roxy music – stranded.
George Benson – give me the night
The stranglers – the Raven
Human league – travelogue
salwarpe says
That’s a good list – recognizable artists, but slightly leftfield.
Moose the Mooche says
John Foxx’s Ultravox – or rather Ultravox! , very underrated.
el hombre malo says
My ten –
1. The Saints – (I’m Stranded)
2. The Ramones – Rocket To Russia
3. Dr Feelgood – Stupidity
4. SAHB – Next
5. Miles Davis – Sketches of Spain
6. Otis Redding/Jimi Hendrix – Live at Monterey
7. Lynyrd Skynyrd – One More From The Road
8. Thin Lizzy – Live & Dangerous
9. John Coltrane – Giant Steps
10. Jerry Lee Lewis – Shakin’ Jerry Lee’s 20 Greatest Hits
Alias says
You had good taste as a teenager. I’d be happy to listen to most of that list today.
el hombre malo says
gracias!
Blue Boy says
When the 19 year old me left home to Uni, I think he might have listed these
Rory Gallagher Live in Europe
Bob Dylan Blood on the tracks
Creedence Clearwater Revival Cosmos Factory
The Who Quadrophenia
Bruce Springsteen The Wild the Innocent and the E Street Shuffle
Van Morrison Tupelo Honey
Horslips The Tain
Richard and Linda Thompson Pour Down Like Silver
Eric Clapton 461 Ocean Boulevard
Beatles Blue and Red albums
Many of these are still amongst my favourite records. I like to think that’s a sign of immaculate taste from an early age. Mrs BB thinks it’s more like a case of arrested development.
Carolina says
Following Minibreakfast’s 12-16 rule and in roughly chronological order:
Barry Manilow Live – Barry Manilow
Saturday Night Fever
Breakfast in America – Supertramp
52nd St – Billy Joel
Regatta de Blanc -The Police
Boy – U2
Live at Central Park – Simon and Garfunkel
More Specials – The Specials
Never Mind the Boll*cks – Sex Pistols
Joy Division – Closer
Otis Blue – Otis Redding
A pretty mixed bag.
In the years after that it was Suzanne Vega, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, more Paul Simon and whatever I liked the look of on Britannia Music Club at the time!
Junior Wells says
Mixed bag indeed @Carolina
sex pistols and Barry manilow
Carolina says
Yes, it is a good timeline of the innocence of Manilow fandom tweenage to when the teenage rebellious hormones kicked in, and then adolescent moroseness with Joy Division.
fitterstoke says
My “baker’s dozen”, roughly from age 12 to about 16 or 17 (chronology be damned):
Roxy Music – Country Life
Led Zeppelin – II
Nazareth – Razamanaz
Status Quo – On the Level
Bachman Turner Overdrive – Not Fragile
Thin Lizzy – Fighting
Uriah Heep – The Magician’s Birthday
Bowie – Diamond Dogs
Jethro Tull – Minstrel in the Gallery
Wishbone Ash – There’s the Rub
Yes – Close to the Edge
King Crimson – The Young Person’s Guide to King Crimson
John Martyn – One World
Then it’s Van der Graaf Generator – Still Life….and we’re down the wormhole, more or less to today….
Jackthebiscuit says
My teenage years started at the end of the Beatles & the beginning of Glam & I think my list will reflect.
INPO.
Ziggy Stardust
Hunky Dory
Aladinsane
TMWSTW
Pin ups
Slade Alive
Slade in Flame
Electric Warrior
A night at the opera
Abbey Road
There are others (many others), but I think these would be a true reflection of my teenage years.
This concludes the voting from Birkenhead.
ip33 says
These were my favs the year I left School (1981)
1. XTC – White Music
2. XTC – Go 2
3. XTC – Drums and Wires
4. XTC – Black Sea (I really liked XTC)
5. Andy Partridge – Take Away/The Lure of Salvage (Ì really really liked XTC)
6. Fischer Z – Red Skies over Paradise
7. Teardrop Explodes – Kilimanjaro
8. Echo and the Bunnymen – Heaven Up Here
9. Brian Eno & David Byrne – My Life In The Bush of Ghosts
10. Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – Architecture & Morality
Freddy Steady says
@ip33
Hats off to you. I loved that Fischer Z album (Marliesse!) and even had that solo Andy Partridge lp but really couldn’t get on with it. Go 2 on the other hand ..great album great artwork.
Carl says
I’ve been thinking about this since I read it earlier today. This is pretty much my list, but I’ll probably have a memory flash later and think “How could I have forgotten…?”
It probably isn’t quite the right order, but these were all significant to the teenage me. I’ve gone for a dozen as well, expanding the 10.
1 – Beatles – Abbey Road.
2 – Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
3 – Family – Anyway
4 – Jethro Tull – Aqualung
5 – Neil Young – After The Goldrush
6 – Free – Fire and Water
7 – Rory Gallagher- Blueprint
8 – Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
9 – James Taylor – Mudslide Slim and The Blue Horizon
10 – Roy Harper – Lifemask
11 – Eric Clapton – 461 Ocean Boulevard
12 – Santana – Caravanserai
Carl says
I’ve just remembered Carole King and Tapestry.
Moose the Mooche says
Kudos for Anyway. That live take of Strange Band is colossal, almost Led Zeppian levels of heaviosity.
Carl says
Indeed the violin is played at a speed that would make Paganini blanch – while the riff shakes the foundations.
Izzy says
Baker’s dozen plus one. Good times… Roughly 1976 – 1986 with Desperado a little earlier, I loved Desperado, though.
1. Alice Cooper – Goes to hell
2. David Bowie – Station to station
3. Horslips -Book of invasions
4. The Clash – London calling
5. Eagles – Desperado
6. Richard Thompson – Hand of kindness
7. The Beat Farmers – Persuit of happiness
8. Camper van Beethoven – Telephone free landslide victory
9. Elton John – Rock of the Westies
10. Neil Young – Live Rust
11. Peter Gabriel – 1st (car)
12. Hanoi Rocks -Two steps from the move
13. The Residents – Commercial album
RubyBlue says
This looks deliberately constructed but it’s the truth, honest.
1. U2: October
2. The Jam: ‘All Mod Cons’/’Setting Sons’ (all of them, really)
3. Blondie: ‘Parallel Lines’
4. The Smiths: ‘The Smiths’
5. Big Country: ‘The Crossing’
6. Husker Du: ‘Warehouse: Songs and Stories’
7. Cocteau Twins: ‘Blue Bell Knoll’
8. Pixies: ‘Surfer Rosa’
9. Joni Mitchell: ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’
10. Public Enemy: ‘It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back’
Blue Boy says
Oh blimey, I forgot Joni and Court and Spark which was the one for me
Junior Wells says
Great selection Ruby
RubyBlue says
Yeah I put ‘Hissing’ as ‘Edith and the Kingpin’ was the first track I ever heard age 15, which led to the album, which led to….
Thanks; it’s a genuine selection although (of course) I could have added loads more: ‘Technique’, ‘The Cactus Album’, ‘Rio’…..
Junglejim says
I had hardly any LPs as a teen (cue violins) so they got played until they almost wore out
The Clash -The Clash
Never Mind The Bollocks – Sex Pistols
Rastaman Vibration – Bob Marley & The Wailers
Greatest Hits ( the white Capitol one) – The Beach Boys
Best Of – Stan Getz
Time Out – Dave Brubeck Quartet
Live & Dangerous – Thin Lizzy
Talking Book – Stevie Wonder
Golden Hour Of – The Kinks (uber cheapo series with micro grooves)
Babylon By Bus – Bob Marley & The Wailers
A right hotch potch of my own stuff, big sisters cast offs & stuff around the house.
Black Celebration says
Replicas – Tubeway Army
The Pleasure Principle – Gary Numan
Remain in Light – Talking Heads
Non Stop Erotic Cabaret -Soft Cell
Dazzle Ships – OMD
Dare – Human League
The Scream – Siouxsie and the Banshees
Black Celebration – Depeche Mode
Torment and Torreros – Marc Almond
Upstairs at Eric’s – Yazoo
A very hard list to compile. I have kept it to one artist because my actual list based on teenage obsessiveness would have been at least 5 Depeche Mode ones.
andielou says
Every U2 album up to & including Achtung Baby
Hup- The Wonder Stuff
Welcome To The Beautiful South
The Stone Roses
Gold Mother- James
Nevermind- Nirvana
Out Of Time- REM
All of The Smiths albums
Viva Hate- Morrissey
The Kick Inside- Kate Bush
I have to include Pixies as well…
salwarpe says
A few of you had done this on FB, where I then posted my list- here goes (*ctrl-c, ctrl-v*):
It is quite an exercise in revitalising the old memory cells – digging that far back into the past. I’ve cheated a bit, because there were considerably more than 10 I could have selected. Here’s the impressive ones:
* Bauhaus – In The Flat Field
(Goth at its artiest but still punk – the people I saw who were into Bauhaus were SO cool – and this album, unlike the follow-ups, really livd up to that challenging promise)
* Big Audio Dynamite – This Is Big Audio Dynamite
(After the Clash, Mick Jones showed how versatile, dynamic and in touch with politics and sample culture he was – how I see London, still)
* Billy Bragg – Back To Basics
(endlessly quotable, and so musical with not much more than a guitar)
* Cabaret Voltaire – 2×45
(shockingly avant-garde to me at the time, but infinitely rewarding on repeat play)
* The Clash – London Calling
(so much further into confidently showing off their versatility after the 2nd album – such a rich, deep and rewarding album)
* Cocteau Twins – Victorialand
(glorious rich, soothing – like a long soak in a hot bath on a balcony overlooking a rainforest)
* The Communards – The Communards
(tremendously liberating approach to gender and identity)
* New Order – Power, Corruption & Lies
(Between their Joy Division roots and their dance pinnacle – moody but ecstatic grooves)
* The Pretenders – Learning To Crawl
(I love a strong woman, and Chrissy gives it her all on this!)
* The Sisters Of Mercy – First and Last and Always
(Moody and murky, the last point when they showed their cool influences on their sleeves, without giving in to bombast).
_________
And then there are 10 albums that were significant or a very rewarding soundtrack when I was a teenager, but not quite in the same league:
__________
* Alison Moyet – Alf
* The Cult – Love
* Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures
* Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark – Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark
* Prefab Sprout – Steve McQueen
* Prince & The Revolution – Around The World In A Day
* Propaganda – A Secret Wish
* Sade – Diamond Life
* Bruce Springsteen – The River
* U2 – War
Bartleby says
Blimey Sal – all very ‘brave new world’ isn’t it – amazed you like the Whitesnake with that list 😊
salwarpe says
@Bartleby – I know. I had a bit of a Cultural Revolution, when my rural Worcestershire love of the HM colour bands – Deep
Purple, Whitesnake, Black Sabbath, Rainbow and, er, Quo was educated and shamed out of me at secondary school. It took a long time before I relistened to albums from that time. Whitesnake, who probably are the definition of a guilty pleasure – mired in immature caveman sexism and histrionic guitar acrobatics – did still impress me with the rhythm in their blues – more action and fun than other more celebrated blues musicians.
Bartleby says
Quite agree. My list shows the start of the same revisionism. Before long, those AC/DC, Snake and, er, Kiss albums would be gathering dust. Yet adulthood has allowed these once fallen sinners back into the fold (not so much Kiss it must be said).
Paul Wad says
I turned 13 in 1982, when chart music was rubbish (as evidenced by the TOTP repeats from 82 and 83 on BBC4). As I was a bit young to know about the decent non-chart music that was being made, from the age of 12 to the age of 15 I started looking backwards for good music, becoming a Beatles and Dylan freak, whilst hoovering up everything I could get my hands on from the 50s and 60s. I particularly developed a love for the girl group sound, Ricky Nelson, Buddy Holly, the Bonzos, the Kinks, the Byrds, that kind of thing. Only Frankie really piqued my interest until a couple of albums in 1985 brought me back to the 80s.
So, to pick 10(ish)…
The Beatles Red Album – plus every other Beatles album!
Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits/Bringing It All Back Home – got both for my 13th birthday
The Shirelles Greatest Hits – thus begins a lifetime love of girl groups, although I could have picked from a number of 50s or 60s acts here
FGTH – Welcome To The Pleasure Dome – so exciting
The Dream Academy – The Dream Academy – 1st album to bring me back to the 80s
Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – The Ups And Downs – and the 2nd
Pet Shop Boys – Please – into PSB big time from the moment I heard West End Girls
The Cure – The Head On The Door or Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me
New Order – Substance
Pink Floyd – The Wall – borrowed from Barnsley library and quickly followed by everything they did.
I ended my teens the way I started them, going back in time to seek out what I had missed the first time – Tim Buckley, Van Morrison, the Doors, Hendrix, etc
I really envy my kids who have all the great music to hear for the first time. Actually, I don’t think my 11 year old daughter will be that bothered, but my Little Richard and Elvis loving 6 year old lad has already made a start!
attackdog says
1. Honky Chateau EJ
2. Made In Japan Purps
3. Led Zep IV
4. Rhinos Winos and Lunatics Man
5. Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night Caravan
6. 461 Ocean Blvd EC
7. Bless The Weather JM
8. Hejira Joni
9. Live Marley
10. Aja The Mighty Dan
Most of which continue to reside on my ‘most played’ shelf. And why not?
duco01 says
I was 13 in 1975 and 20 in 1982.
These albums were at least part of the soundtrack to those years:
Elton John – Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy (and many other early EJ albums)
Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band – Night Moves
Genesis – The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (all the Gabriel years-Genesis, really)
John Martyn – One World (and a few other JM albums from that period)
Van Morrison – Astral Weeks
Elvis Costello & the Atrractions – This Year’s Model (and all early EC, really)
The Jam – All Mod Cons (and the two albums that followed it)
Various Artists – Rebel Music: An Anthology of Reggae Music (Trojan) (this was the album that ignited my love of Jamaican music, which endures to this day)
Holger Czukay – Movies (Incredible record. I’d never heard anything like it. It would inform much of what I bought and listened to over the ensuing 20 years)
Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures (and Closer, of course)
Tiggerlion says
Love Rebel Music. I’ve been searching for a faithfully replicated CD version ever since, without success.
Bargepole says
Probably
ELP – Brain Salad Surgery
Genesis – Seconds Out
Led Zep – 4
Floyd – Dark Side
Bowie – Aladdin Sane
SAHB – Next
Purple – Made in Japan
Queen – A Night at the Opera
Elton – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Stones – Sticky Fingers
Moose the Mooche says
Late 80s… pretty standard stuff:
The two Housemartins albums
The first three Public Enemy albums
The first two Beastie Boys albums
The The – Infected and Soul Mining
The Smiths & Mozzer passim…
Late 80s hip-hop passim..
and, er, What’s Going On (which came out when I was minus 2)
The Muswell Hillbilly says
A 90s teenager’s list, in no particular order, other than the order in which they occurred to me as I compiled it…
Nirvana: Incesticide
Ride: Going Blank Again
Orbital: Snivilisation
Supergrass: I Should Coco
Us3: Hand on The Torch
LTJ Bukem: Logical Progression I
Pulp: His n Hers
Lee Scratch Perry: Arkology
Nick Drake: Way to Blue (compilation)
Jeff Buckley: Grace
Looking at that list I realise that, to a certain extent, my musical tastes all emanate from that selection of records. All of which I know almost by heart, even to the extent that the two comps (Perry and Drake) still suggest the track listing that I expect to hear, despite having owned the original records for years.
Moose the Mooche says
I Should Coco is still tremendous fun. For me its the only one of the big Britpop records that still holds up.
The Muswell Hillbilly says
They are one of the great underrated British bands. That album is so much more accomplished than almost all of the rest of the Britpop output. I wish they weren’t associated with that genre really, as history doesn’t reflect kindly upon mid 90s guitar bands. But they were a cut above. I love them.
Moose the Mooche says
And they never stopped being that good, up to and including the last album.
andielou says
In It For The Money- total class.
The Muswell Hillbilly says
They absolutely nailed the farewell gig format. I saw the final UK show (and penultimate show ever) at Brixton. 4 or 5 tracks from each album in reverse chronological order. Which meant it started with the Diamond Hoo Hah stuff which was fairly current and built towards the early stuff which the room full of 30 and 40somethings would entirely lose their shit to like it was 1995. Made for a truly great night,
Phil Pirrip says
Nothing unusual
Pink Floyd – Wish you were here
Pink Floyd – Animals
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Pink Floyd – DSOTM
Genesis – A trick of the tail
Genesis – Seconds out
Yes – Yessongs
Yes – Relayer
Slade – Slade in Flame
ELP – Trilogy
I did pull a box of old cassettes from that period of the shelf that reminded me of a few others:
Twelfth Night – Live at the Target
National Health – Of queues and cures
Rainbow – Long live rock and roll
Tiggerlion says
Is Slade In Flame prog?
Phil Pirrip says
No. Slade were faves before a friend lowered a stylus on to Shine on you crazy diamond and I slipped into the prog side.
Tiggerlion says
Actually, most of my school mates would have a similar list. Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd and ELP. There were a few who liked Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones and Soul was big in St. Helens. There were tribes in those days.
Did you go to a grammar school?
Phil Pirrip says
Grammar school? Alas not, this was a mid-Essex, middle ranking, mid-70s comp.
It’s true what you say about tribalism. There were clearly defined groups at the time. In our case it was the chin stroking proggists and the rock/blues followers who generally got on ok together, but then there were the disco soul boys who came with added attitude and who usually got the girls. Hey-ho.
Tiggerlion says
I think I had more in common with the latter tribe. Except for the girls.
corganiser says
Ok, I think sticking to one album per artist is probably the easiest way to go.
Atomic Rooster – In Hearing Of…………
Yes – The Yes Album (if I wasn’t limiting then Yessongs would be included)
Hawkwind – Space Ritual
Jethro Tull – Aqualung
Led Zep – II
Lynyrd Skynyrd – Nuthin’ Fancy
Matching Mole – Little Red Record
Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Groundhogs – Solid
Faces – A nod’s as good as a wink
Can’t believe I didn’t have room for Budgie, Nektar, Free, Bad Company, Deke Leonard, Ten Years After, Focus, Gentle Giant, Jo Jo Gunne, John Martyn, Lindisfarne, Pretty Things, Roxy Music, Neu!, Peter Gabriel, Wishbone Ash, T Rex & Wally. Jeeeez!
Mike Hull says
In vaguely chronological order…
T.Rex – Electric Warrior
Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
Eagles – Hotel California
Genesis- Seconds Out
Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the Moon
The Jam – Sound Affects
Roy Harper – Bullinamingvase (and every other Harper album)
Neil Young – Rust Never Sleeps
Joni Mitchell – Ladies of the Canyon
John Martyn- Solid Air
Carl says
Some splendid stuff there, especially the final five.
I love every one of them (and GYBR).
LesterTheNightfly says
Got my first proper lp in 1981 when I was 12 so here goes;
Specials – Specials
Black Sabbath – We Sold Our Soul For Rock And Roll
Adam And The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier
AC/DC – If You Want Blood
AC/DC – For Those About To Rock
Rush – Exit….Stage Left
Gillan – Double Trouble
Gillan – Future Shock
Pink Floyd – Dark Side Of The Moon
Gillan – Magic
These are the first major albums I can remember owning and I still like ’em all!!
badartdog says
Sparks – Kimono Myhouse
Bowie – Aladdin Sane
The Jam – The Modern World
The Clash – Give ’em Enough Rope
Sex Pistols – Never Mind the Bollocks
Wire – Chairs Missing
Buzzcocks – Another Music …
Siouxsie and the Banshees – the Scream
Best of Ultravox
TheSkids – Days in Europa
Tiggerlion says
Especially like Another Music and The Scream. Great albums to be obsessed with.
davidks says
12 to 19 (1987 to 1994)
No particular order.
I adored the first 4 albums back then, and still do.
Pixies – Surfer Rosa
Pixies – Doolittle
Pixies – Bossanova
Pixies – Trompe Le Monde
Portishead – Dummy
Massive Attack – Blue Lines
Depeche Mode – Violator
Carter USM – 30 Something
Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
Happy Mondays – Pills ‘n’ Thrills & Bellyaches
Leicester Bangs says
In the order that they hit home.
Dead Kennedys – Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks
Alien Sex Fiend – Maximum Security
Pink Floyd – The Wall
Public Enemy – Yo! Bum Rush The Show
Lloyd Cole – Rattlesnakes
Wedding Present – George Best
The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead
Foetus Interruptus – Thaw
Happy Mondays – Bummed
Patti Smith – Horses
Moose the Mooche says
At last! At last! Somebody else who likes Yo! Bum Rush The Show, an album so universally ignored in the years since that I sometimes wonder if I dreamt it’s existence.
Leicester Bangs says
Yes! And Yes! It’s possible that from an objective and empirical point of view It Takes A Nation Of Millions… and Fear Of A Black Planet are better albums, but they didn’t have the impact of Yo! Bum Rush The Show for the simple reason that Yo! Bum Rush The Show already existed.
The inkies didn’t know it yet, but this was the album they were talking about when they described rap music in the years up to its release. All that fury and creativity, maverick spirit and punk-DIY approach. You’d bought Licensed To Ill and Raising Hell thinking they were the future as advertised and they were good, but Rick Rubin’s rock licks sounded tame to ears schooled in punk and metal, and neither of those records were the sonic Year Zero we’d been promised.
Yo! Bum Rush The Show *was* the sonic Year Zero. It dispensed with all the touchstones of the past, it rewrote the rulebook, and it was the sound of the rap music in your head. Yes, it may have preceded two better records, but the reason neither of those albums came as a surprise was because Yo! Bum Rush The Show had already paved the way.
Oh, and also, lest we forget, it was properly gangsta. Sorry, NWA, but we’d already witnessed the strength of street knowledge.
Moose the Mooche says
You’re righter than anyone has ever been right about anything.
I started listening properly to hip hop that year and when I first heard that album it seemed it had magically appeared at precisely the moment when I was ready for it. As I’ve said elsewhere, it immediately made everything else sound weedy and dated. No synthesized basslines, no singing, just noise and crunching beats and those two mercilessly haranguing voices.
I think you had to “be there” before Bring the Noise and the rest of Nation of Millions (which to me having heard so much of it on the radio almost seemed like a Greatest Hits album by the time it finally came out in the UK)
NWA? Pah. If Public Enemy were Metallica, NWA would have been – at best- Europe.
Leicester Bangs says
You try telling that to the kids of today…
Moose the Mooche says
Aye, ‘appen.
Showbizwhines says
Heaven Up Here – Bunnymen
Grotesque – Fall
Power, Corruption and Lies – New Order
Closer – Joy Division
Sound Affects – Jam
Play Pop – Wire
Bad Seed – Birthday Party
Liege and Lief – Fairport Convention
Gold Mine Trash – Felt
Hatful of Hollow -Smiths
Singles Going Steady – Buzzcocks
VU – Velvet Underground
Heaven In A Wild Flower- Nick Drake
I was a teen from 1981 to 1987. I bought a lot of compilations. I realise that my musical taste has hardly advanced since then.
nickduvet says
That Nick Drake compilation is so good they deleted it, probably because they realised it’s all the Nick Drake you really ever need. Really well programmed (can’t help thinking that if Fruit Tree had been the lead-off track on Five Leaves Left it would have sold better). Anyway, it’s much better than the more recent compos like Way To Blue
Tinydemon says
Ok. In order from the first two lps I ever had (and played to death). All before 18. One from each (ok I cheated with TR/ Utopia but he was very important). NO rewriting history and putting in the cool stuff. One space left blank for all the albums I have forgotten until I press post.
1 Great War movie themes – The Geoff Love Orchestra
2 Monster Mash – Bobby boris Pickett
3 Focus III – Focus
4 Trilogy – ELP
5 Wish you were here – Pink Floyd
6 Ra – Utopia
7 Something Anything – Todd Rundgren
8 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
9 Romantic Warrior – Return to Forever
Sniffity says
Most of my teenage income went on comics, and I didn’t have a record player. A couple of these I paid for, the rest were presents or hand-me-down-castoffs.
Wizzard Brew – Wizzard
Catch Bull At Four – Cat Stevens
Six Wives Of Henry VIII – Rick Wakeman
Sunny Afternoon – The Kinks
Jesus Christ Superstar (single disc knock-off)
Kimono My House – Sparks
Monty Python’s Previous Record
Another Monty Python Record
Artery says
I got sent to stay with my Auntie Barbara in Lytham St Annes for the school summer hols in 1969. Never knew why at the time. I was 13. My Dad told me many years later that my Mum had a breakdown. Anyway, she seemed fine when I returned home with a Lancashire accent six weeks later. Goodness was I bored that summer. I read my few comics over and over and wore out my cousin Mike’s meagre record collection. It consisted of:
1) Greatest Hits – Donovan
2) Canned Heat Boogie
3) Electric Ladyland
That Autumn my sister bought:
4) Abbey Road
She also like Tom Jones. I didn’t. The only other record of hers I could stand was:
5) Greatest Hits – The Beach Boys
My parents took me to some of their friends who lived in a posh house. I was bored and got sent upstairs “to play with the boys”. They were older than me. I could hear the music from a distance and knocked on the door. Smoke billowed out as they opened the door. I was ushered into a dark room and sat on a bean bag. The music was fantastic and I went home feeling rather wobbly. I later found out the music was:
6) Ummagumma – Pink Floyd
Now I’m turning to my notebook from 1970 or so (never wrote dates in it). By this point I listened tp John Peel, Bob Harris, Pete Drummond and Mike Harding on the radio. I made lists of LPs I liked songs from, and crossed them off when I bought them (or those few I could afford). The first four I crossed off were:
7) Songs Of Love And Hate – Leonard Cohen
8) The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other – VDGG
9) Every Good Boy Deserves Favour – The Moody Blues
10) Best Of Procul Harum (Fly label)
That’s it then. I was 14 or so and had yet to discover Bob Dylan! It didn’t take much longer. The first Dylan album I bought was Planet Waves.
craig42blue says
My database has its uses……
PINK FLOYD The Dark Side Of The Moon 1973
PINK FLOYD Wish You Were Here 1975
SUPERTRAMP Crisis ? What Crisis ? 1975
Steve HARLEY and COCKNEY REBEL Love’s A Prima Donna 1976
SUPERTRAMP Even In The Quietest Moments 1977
PINK FLOYD Animals 1977
David GILMOUR David Gilmour 1978
Judie TZUKE Welcome To The Cruise 1979
Jeff BECK There And Back 1980
John MARTYN Grace And Danger 1980