What album, song, performance of other musical endevor affected you the most?

Let me start with saying I was born in 1970, the year the Beatles broke up.

My mom was a typical Cop's wife, and listened to AM radio. At the time, much of the playlist was Chicago, Stevie Wonder and many others from the day. Lots of Motown, if I remember. When I heard Motown music, I always pictured a huge symphony playing in the background of the recording studio.

I grew up on the Beatles and the Beach Boys, even though my father and mother's real love was Classical. I also remember lots of Beethoven, Bach and Brahms. The Moldau by Smetana was regularly played. But the stuff I noticed was The Beatles and the Beach Boys because that music is much more accessible to a 4-5 year old. Sure I remember the sweeping melodies of Beethoven and the rhythmic brilliance of Bach, but you had to wade through a lot of filler to get to those parts.

So somewhere in my record collection I found a beat up 45 titled "Oh Happy Day." I put it on and the song, quite literally, changed my life. As a five year old, this song took me to a place where no Classical had ever taken me before. The choir on that song seemed to be an avatar of Metatron, the voice of God. It's hard to say exactly what that song did, but I remember getting goosebumps for the first time in my life from music.

I knew I needed more.

My Grandparents lived in Park Hills, Berkeley, and I would go to their house for a week every summer. I remember the boring Dutch Reformed churches I was taken to, because Grandpa was a Dutch Reformed Minister and Chaplain in the military. Some point after that, I asked my grandparents "Can we go to a church with good music? You know, ones who would sing like 'Oh Happy Day?'"

Strangely enough, my conservative grandparents saw the opportunity to go down to Oakland to a Baptist Church that a friend of theirs was a pastor. The church was smaller, not as clean and smelled differently than any church I had been to. I remember getting strange looks from the crowd until my Grandpa greeted the pastor of the church. At that point it was like: 'He's cool, he's with us.'

And the music? I don't remember anything of the service except the music - beautiful gospel music. That entire worship service gave me constant goosebumps, and both of my grandparents could see I was alight. It is the gospel music I miss the most, being an Atheist.

Later - when I was a young wanna be rock-star, I would always incorporate harmonies in anything I wrote. To me, unless there was vocal harmonies, it was an unfinished song.

And I still feel that way.

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

It is live and the instruments are great - one looks like a bong Tommy Chong might have.

(I'm listening to it right now)

Speed up, and serve me fast
I need a big caloric blast, just
Pile it on that ice cream cone
Lookin’ for fat, so feed it to me!

(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)
(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)

Hello soft drink, whatcha knowin‘?
I feel my tooth enamel goin’
Give me one more calorie
Doo it ‘n doo doo, feed it to me

(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)
(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)

Hey, McDonald’s, how’s it goin’?
I came to keep your profits growin’
Just look at the size of me
X X X L, so feed it to me!

(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)
(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)

I CRAVE double fries, plus BIG Macs ‘n’ cheese
I LIKE buttered popcorn, I DO not like peas
I’m under four hundred, don’t CALL me obese
Sprite, I love you—feed it to me!

(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)
(Ba da da DA da DA da, feed it to me)

:rofl:

Thanks for sharing it!

Do you mind if I send that around by e-mail?

Of course, if it really does cause people to pass iced tea through their nose, you might want to include a disclaimer.....

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm also guilty of doing the lyrics to the following:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m01KdXEp2D0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_Zg_Z6P0GE&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlp-D_Y1UNo&feature=related

and, of course, this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3LNxvG1qQM

It was a beautiful performance. I wish it would be on Youtube.

but Harry Chapin's "What Made America Famous?" always leaves me feeling a little more hopeful about this world.

My brother gave me this for Christmas in 1971.

I put in on and must have listened to it about 20 times the first day. I was totally mesmerized.

It inspired me not only to learn how to fingerpick, but to get a 12 string guitar, and, when I
could afford it, seek out Leo Kottke's (then) guitar builder, Božo Pudunavac, who became a lifelong
friend, even after Leo took Taylor's money to play their guitars in public. I keep Božo guitars on
each continent now so I never have to go long without having one to play.

One song that just floored me (must have been in a down mood at the time) was Stephen Bishop's "On And On."

Sasha Zelkin's version of "Разговор" ("Razgavor," or "The Conversation") is pretty mesmerizing, too.

I might have been about 12 at the time. We were driving to my grandparents house and for some reason my dad had the radio tuned to CKLW AM. The song came on and I couldn't believe my ears. The raw energy of the song just blew me away.

I first heard Simon & Garfunkel's "I Am A Rock" when I was about ten and it was the first song I ever heard that expressed exactly what I felt inside. It was like a light going on in my head and I realized someone else must think about the world the same way I did. I remember it as if it were yesterday. Years later, The Moody Blues' "Watching and Waiting" had the same effect on me. Decades later, after my Asperger's DX, I understood why those songs spoke so deeply to me.

Virgil Fox playing J.S. Bach's Passacaglia and Double Fugue in C minor. A majestic piece of music in any incarnation, only Fox made it seem like witnessing the birth and unfolding of the universe in real time. Awe-inspiring in every sense and I've never heard any performance that comes close to Fox's, especially the turbocharged live version on Heavy Organ - Virgil Fox Live at the Fillmore East (yes, you read that right), glitches, overdriven sound and all.

The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show back in 1964. I was only 7, but after seeing JPG&R I understood even then that they would make the world a VERY different place. To this day, hearing "She Loves You" sends an electric charge up my spine.

Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis" introduced me to the vast contemplative depths music - and only music among the arts - is capable of expressing. IMO, nearly everything RVW wrote is a tonic for the soul and spirit.

And I am probably forgetting some things, but those are transformative moments.

I hope nobody minds :P

In all my 35 years as a musician, recording engineer and wannabe record producer, the most profound experience I've had to date was last week. I took a week of vacation from work and holed up in the 24 track project studio owned by myself and my "brother from another mother" Matt.

The goal was to record some original music and the rhythm section consisted of 3 players that left me bedazzled by the end of 3 1/2 days of recording. We had:

On Drums, Chuck Blackwell. Chuck is one of the "founding grandfathers" of The Tulsa Sound and appears on such albums as Leon Russell and The Shelter People, Leon Russel "Carney", Joe Cocker's "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" Taj Mahal's "Natcl'l Blues" ,Freddie King's "Texas Cannonball" ...and the list goes on. At 70 years old, Chuck still pops as good a beat on the skins as he ever did, and he's a truly great guy to be around, cracked me up several times.

On Bass, we had Ted Russel Kamp. Ted is best known for his work as the bassist for Shooter Jennings band, but he's also a hell of a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and recording engineer and producer. He proved invaluable in many ways and jumped right in helping with engineering and producing tasks...hell of a nice guy to boot

On Keyboards we had Danny Timms. Danny has a long discography and touring history with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, The Highwaymen, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Rita Cooledge...and the list goes on and on. Danny is a super great human being and easily the best all around musician I can recall being in the presence of. Music flows out of him like water out of a tap.

And here I am, a week after the last session still sitting in wonder at what I was priveleged to participate in. It was quite an endeavor, and Matt and I are still grinning ear to ear from it. :D

Brag away!

one hell of a session, one hell of a great time!

I spent months preparing for it I thought it would be the hardest and most demanding studio engineering job I ever did. As it turns out, in many ways it was the easiest. These guys are so good and have spent so many hours in recording studios that they just came in and knocked it out of the park every time I hit the red light :)

I think there might be a way to put sound bits here?
Anyway..that must have been amazing.

Tikki

It's going to be a while before anything from the sessions is ready for release, we have the basic tracks down to multitrack but we still have to overdub the real vocal takes, some keyboard and guitar tracks and mix it all down. I'll be sure to post some when it's ready

In the meantime, I have a snippet of video, the guys did a live performance together on the Friday night preceding the start of recording on Sunday, I caught a couple minutes on my camera's video function. It was pretty dark in there but you can hear the band :hi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8HS4vJRMqI

More please...when ready....


Tikki

Xmas 1977, my older sister gave me that album as a gift. Didn't think much of it cover-wise, was a KISS Alice Cooper kid, not really knowing much, or caring much, about other sounds.

I put the album on my plastic orange turntable, turned it on and put the needle down.

BOOM-BOOM-CLAP! BOOM-BOOM-CLAP! BOOM-BOOM-CLAP! BOOM-BOOM-CLAP!

Every now and then when I hear that, I can feel my eyes bug out like they did that time. It opened a new world of music to me.

Get Down Make Love was the sheeeeeit to my 11 year old ears.
My cousin Mark was 5 years older and was beginning to put together a colossal record collection. And he had kickass headphones.
Between the headphones and the vinyl, my ears sent me flying. I'd never used my ears like that before.
Fortunately, Mark shared BTO, The Who and The Buzzcocks with me.
When he visited me at 13, in 1979, he rounded out his collection by picking up Physical Graffiti at the best vinyl store in Detroit, Peaches.
I think I'll call Mark and remind him what he did for me.
Good post Taverner.
Long live the Queen!

I'd always had guitar heroes.

But when I heard this I knew he had tapped what I would want to, and as it is, never achieve.

Which is cool.

or so he says.
He relates the time he heard the news of Hendrix's death in the locker room at gym class
and he decided he had to try to make up for the loss.
Joe taught Stevie Vai before Vai acted as Frank Zappa's transcriptionist.
Great album BTW. Best track? Day At The Beach. No, wait: Back To Shalla-Bal.

It changed everything.

It felt like anger and redemption in equal, blazing proportions...two cornerstones of most of my life. It sounded like my life, and I'd never heard my life come out of a stack of amps before.

I've heard every note he's released commercially and have also seen him perform live three times.

That one song...the "Bongo Fury" version...that's the one.

:toast:

Hearing "Born to be Wild" on the car radio on the way to a church youth group meeting.

Arlo Guthrie, playing in a horse pasture in Unity, NH - an electric "Which side are you on" and singing "Blowin' in the wind" with Mary Travers.

Thin Lizzy, opening for Queen, and Blue Oyster Cult, at the pinnacle of their careers.

Watching Richie Evans hit the frontstrech wall, throwing sparks, at least 3 times to whip Geoff Bodine at MadDog (Monadnock Speedway)

Going 94 mph on the Mt. Washington Auto Road.

Music was one of the things that literally kept me alive when I was a kid. From about age nine I had the radio on as much as I could, mostly listening to WTIX out of New Orleans, a mix of pop and R&B and New Orleans-centric music. Like most little girls I'd been in love with The Beatles from the beginning but I was a teenager when Abbey Road came out and I discovered that popular music could be dark and complex and interesting, and that it was okay to change even when people were initially kind of bewildered by the difference.

I mean...Abbey Road!! Wow.

Second...and I hate to admit this...Thriller. Again, the remarkable nature of the transformation was just wondrous, though I can't claim that Michael Jackson was particularly influential in my life. I was a Deadhead, Little Feat, retro-Buddy Holly, Mississippi Blues fiend by then.

But...Thriller! Damn.

Pet Sounds, Surf's Up, Wild Honey

with a nod to
The Doors
Janis Joplin-Pearl
Beatles-Revolver, Rubber Soul, Abby Road, Let It Be

I was just a kid when all these came out, but what wonderful music to cut my teeth on :)

I heard "It's Too Late" for the first time when my radio alarm woke me up & I was mesmerized. The radio stations introduced that one & "You've Got a Friend" (which I really loved, at the same point in time. Bought the album & played over & over. It's still a favorite album of mine.

And if someone tries to tell you it is too late, just realize that is a temporal concept that does not apply to the spiritual.