Game-changers

[famous beagle]

What are some game-changer songs for y'all --- songs with which you can clearly draw a "you before" and "you after" line?

I'll start off with a few:

"Here Comes the Sun" - Beatles
Not my favorite Beatles song by any means (though it's great, of course), but it's top on the list because I simply happened to hear it first I guess. I went through junior high and high school with the hair metal stuff, so the Beatles were pretty far from my world at the time. I'd heard songs here and there, but didn't know anything about them. My first year of college (1990), I put on my roommate's (vinyl) copy of Abbey Road one time when he had gone home for the weekend. When I heard "Here Comes the Sun," I said, "Oh ... now I get it!" I was never the same.

"I Dream a Highway" - Gillian Welch
Just absolutely hauntingly beautiful imagery and such a heartfelt performance. I first heard it in the car on the highway (go figure), and by the time it was over, I realized I had missed my exit about 7 miles ago (the song is 15 minutes long).

"Tambourine Man" - Bob Dylan
This was my gateway song into Dylan the way "Here Comes the Sun" was for the Beatles.

"New Slang" - The Shins
This is such a sad, but glorious song. It just tapped into a part of me that nothing else had before.

Anyone else?

 

[rayc]

Not so much songs as artists/albums:
There're a few local/Australian artists I won't list that were very important to me but on an international level...
1970 - Black Sabbath & led Zeppelin - debut albums in both instances - I was a little slow on the uptake.
1971 - Buddy Holly - Portrait
1972 - Slade Alive
1973 - Budgie debut album again & Queen I&II - a BIG year for my head
1974 - Leonard Cohen (Songs of Love & Hate) & Lou Reed (Berlin)
1975 - The Residents Bowie's Diamond Dogs
1976 - Stiff Fourplay Flexisingle Elvis Costello. Ian Dury & the Damned
1977 - Schoenberg - Pierrot Lunaire. The Ramones - It's Alive
1978 - The Boys Next Door/The Birthday Party/The Bad Seeds/Nick Cave. Television Marquee Moon
1989 - Brian Wilson - I Wasn't Made For These Times (I wouldn't listen to the BBoys until I was lane changed by that album)
1990's Matthew Sweet - any album with RobertQuine playing lead.
Each of these turned my head & made me listen to music in a different way.
I didn't "move on" from any of them though.
I listen to their stuff regularly.
I stopped buying Queen after DATRaces;
Budgie after Impeckable,;
I keep a look out for Buddy Holly stuff but I think I've about scarpped the barrel with bootlegs & official releases - I keep looking though;
Slade after Nobody's Fool;
Sabbath after Ozzie was sacked;
Led Zep after Presence;
The Residents left my basket when they moved to synths in the mid 80's as things were easier for them & the "found" element was gone;
Elvis Costello I was rabid about until the mojo left after his third marriage;
Schoenberg when I had all of his atonal stuff;
& slowed down on M Sweet after Lloyd moved on & Quine died;
Television broke up, reformed etc but I still look for archival stuff of theirs &
Cave I still buy new releases from without blinking.
Each of the above did change the way I hear, buy & appreciate music as well as altering the way I went about making it. the emboldened ones had a more obvious influence on my recordings.
Whoops - I can't believe it but I left out Joy Divison's 1st album- I even wrote a song in tribute/immitation. It took me 20 years to get around to recording it & it doesn't sound like them except for the Hook style bass in the chorus but my they made me do a 280 degree.

 

[gecko zzed]

It's more albums for me too.

Albums or works that have been fundamental influences were:

Superblues (Muddy Waters & Bo Diddley)
Beatles 4 Sale (Beatles)
Bringing it all back home (Bob Dylan)
Emerson Lake & Palmer (ELP)
Ziggy Stardust . . . (David Bowie)
Pictures at an Exhibition (Mussorgsky, Ravel arrnagement)
L'apres midi d'un faune (Debussy)
Transparent Music (BJ Cole)
Forget about it (Alison Krause)

 

[grimtraveller]

It's albums for me too.
I was just your average 10 year old in London having moved there from Birmingham with Nigerian parents and listening to the pop charts of the day in a kind of disposable way {as soon as a single left the charts and therefore TV and radio airplay, you forgot about it and moved onto the next load that everyone was singing} when in late '72, my cousin gave my sister an album by the Jackson 5 called "Maybe tomorrow". We tried to listen to it but we just couldn't get into it. I quite liked Michael Jackson's "Rockin' Robin" at the time and the cartoon show that they used to do but the album hit ground zero.
Until easter day '73. {Would you believe, Greg L was born this day !}.
I got up early that day and was getting ready to scoff my easter eggs when for some reason that has never been clear, I decided to put that record on and listen to it.
It utterly blew me away. I kept on playing that first side, over and over for hours. Then I watched the football and proceeded to play the second side for hours and hours. That was the day I first really concentrated on songs and became an albums person. Later that year my Dad took me on holiday to Nigeria where I hung for a few days with my Mum's nephew who was a cool 18 year old. He had time for me and he also had the J5's "Greatest hits" LP which we played incessantly. My Mum later bought me the LP and I existed on those two albums until......
May 13th 1976. I had been banned from my mate Robin's house {he was from Iran or Iraq but had grown up in Australia and was new to our school} but I had a really bad stomach ache so I had to use the loo at his house. While there, I spotted this cassette with the Beatles on it. That year, EMI had released all the Beatles' singles and I remember recording "Yesterday" and "Hey Jude" off the radio but I wasn't particularly interested in them. To be honest, I think the only reason I asked Robin if I could borrow the tape was because I had a cassette recorder. All these years later, I don't know why I would've asked for it, especially as it was his Dad's, who had probable cause to hate me ! I took it home and while doing my physics homework {we were doing 'leverage'} listened to it. It was called "67-70".
*%^$££"^ heck !
I had never heard a song like "Strawberry fields forever" before. It was so weird to my pop and soul mind but I loved it. I recognized a few of the songs on the album and I was surprized that they were by the Beatles. I was totally amazed by "All you need is love", "I am the walrus" and "A day in the life". I spent the night listening to that album. And because I was sick, I was off school the next day and spent the whole day listening to it. In fact, that was all I listened to for months. Washing up and housework were no longer a chore but a joy with music. I played that tape until it broke. I remember that the cover said "Double play tape". That was the album that blew open the door to another level for me and I became interested in everything Beatle. And by extension, the Stones.

 

[grimtraveller]

At the start of '79, my uncle's girlfriend said to me that I couldn't spend the rest of my life just listening to the Beatles and that I needed to broaden my tastes and tried to turn me onto 60s soul. Right around the same time, an ex friend told me the Beatles were passé and that punk, the Jam and Kate Bush were where it was at. And a girl I was sweet on was waxing lyrical about the Police. Ironically, I still love and listen to the Beatles. And 60s soul, some punk, Kate Bush, some Jam and the Police ! But none of them were {Beatles excepted} game changers for me. I didn't really get into them until many years later. The real game changer for me were Pink Floyd.
I was at a friend's house one day, looking through his record collection and I came across a double album called "A nice pair". It was the artwork that really drew me to it. I was already into record covers and I liked the Stones' "Through the past, darkly" cover. But this was something else. It was so weird, all four sides. That intrigued me and I asked if I could borrow the tape. It all belonged to my mate's older brother who had eyes for my older sister {funnilly enough, my mate ended up going out with my younger sister} and he used to record all his albums onto tape.
So that's where I got it from ?
When I listened to the albums, I discovered "A nice pair" was a repackaging of Floyd's first two albums, "The piper at the gates of dawn" and "A saucerful of secrets".
Not only had I not heard this kind of music before, not only were they game changers, they, more than anything I've heard before or since, totally changed my musical headspace. I've heard better albums, many that I may prefer, but if there was ever a point that divides "Me then" from "Me now", it was hearing those two albums. It was hard to know where one song ended and another began. Welcome to the world of multi part songs. I regarded the Floyd as 'heavy' music and was encouraged to explore the heavier side of life which led to Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Kiss, Blue Oyster cult, Status Quo, Styx, Grand Funk railroad, ZZ Top, Cheap trick, Kansas, Free, Ted Nugent, Black Sabbath, Aerosmith, Boston, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Hendrix, Cream and a whole host of others.
The Floyd were a portal to another dimension. Because of them, I really became open to so many important strands within music and so when a friend played me some jazz fusion, I was more than absorbent. The "Stanley Clarke" album was so crucial in that regard because all the flash and technical virtuosity were more than secondary to good songs and good songwriting. It all came together on that album and I've been disappointed with everything he subsequently did although his Return to forever stuff is groovy.
Gil Scott Heron, Brian Jackson and the Midnight band's "First minute of a brand new day" also pointed me in that direction with some great funky jazzy excursions that combined great songs, improvisation and playing. Again these two albums were game changers for me because they broadened my palette and opened up my head to the 'improvised world as normal'. I explored that world and found it to be crammed with gems.

 

[grimtraveller]

Although it doesn't form a vital part of the mainstream, yet still the whole christian rock pantheon is a fascinating chapter {and a largely untold and virtually unknown one} in the overall history of rock.
I won't bore with the details, but when I first became a christian, it was at a time when were these long debates about whether rock music and the pursuit of the spirit led life were at all compatible and the overwhelming bias was a resounding no. I didn't listen to any music for over a year and I did alot of thinking about this before I decided I would start listening again. I also wanted to see if there was any christian stuff that wasn't some of the awful country or gospel crap that a friend had tried to turn me onto. I remember getting some records from the library {these were the 80s !} among which {there was Stanley Clarke and Jean Luc Ponty in there which I still have } was one by this guy called Andrae Crouch and the disciples. I thought that was such a lame name but the title "Soulfully" was kind of intriguing and I thought it was funny, him sitting on train tracks on the cover. That cover is so lame. But the songs were superb, soul~pop~rock circa 1972, just up my street ! On my next visit to the library, I picked up two albums, one by ex Fleur de Lys guitarist, Bryn Haworth called "The gap" and one by ex Glass Harp guitarist Phil Keaggy called "Phl'ip side". Both were important turning points for me because they were good rock albums with good songs and fantastic guitar playing. I remember thinking "Phew !". It was a real relief to know there was some decent stuff out there. Once I heard Larry Norman's "Upon this rock", I realized that christian artists could have something to say in ways that meant you concentrated on the great songs and not the lyrics. His album from 1969 was wacky, weird and off the wall but I 'got it' immediately, especially when I heard the Cecil Taylor~esque mad piano on "The last supper". I used to share that album with anyone that would listen, something I'd never done before or since. It was an eye opener of the highest magnitude to discover this kind of music could be, well, psychedelic. Some of his subsequent albums are among the greatest pieces of music I know. I liked his view that "music should be art, not propaganda".
The last game changer I came across was Bruce Cockburn's "Circles in the stream". Cockburn was one of those social conscience christians that you'd never have guessed was a christian and in many ways, his songwriting and brilliant songs opened up a whole stream {no pun intended} for me. Listening to his 11 albums {more than any other artist I have stuff by} gave me the initial impetus to just write whatever was within and worry about meanings later. But I remember hearing "Circles" for the first time. The songs were great and using a percussionist and double bassist rather than bass guitar and drums helped release me from traditional instrumental line ups and stretched the imagination to somewhat different areas.

What are some game-changer songs for y'all --- songs with which you can clearly draw a "you before" and "you after" line?

You did ask !

 

[grimtraveller]

Anyone else?

I should point out that game changers aren't always the best or even favourites. There are often tons of artists within a genre or that you checked out because of the game changer that knock out songs and albums that are more loved than that of the changer. For me, game changers will by necessity be few and far between and they play the important role of opening the door to somewhere else. But in that "somewhere else" may well be lots of influences that often will be greater influences.

 

[gecko zzed]

I should point out that game changers aren't always the best or even favourites.

Yep . . . true. The albums I picked weren't necessarily my favourites. What they did, though, was open new pathways for ideas.

 

[rayc]

As you can see the 70's were formative & crucial for me. From beginning high school, listening to other people's tastes, starting to play bass, leaving home, getting a job and then the beginnings of twice a week or more pub rock with the best & worst of local, national & international bands playing within an hour of home (and as close as 5 minutes away when Iggy Pop played at a local suburban pub) influences and concepts just stacked on top of each other.
As mentioned - I still play stuff by these people at least weekly though last night it was LPC, Pygmy Beat and Litmus after listening to Heroes, a quad recording of Joe Walsh's So What and Lennie's SOL&hate in the arvo.
I'm still waiting for the chance to play my Graham Parker & The Rumour Live DVD really LOUDLY. They didn't trun my head but they certainly had my feet moving the three or so times I saw them.

 

[SEDstar]

I wasnt really "into" music and buying cassettes as a 12-year old starting 7th grade, like all the other teenagers were... i was a kid that was into being a bookworm, and reading a lot, even for pleasure.

SO... the first album (cassette) that just "made" me save up a few bux and go out and BUY it?

ELO - the "TIME" album... and unlike most albums you get, just to get hit or two on the charts? I liked about every song on the thing... it made me start buying their albums, and searching out the old stuff of theirs. I think i liked EVERYthing they ever made, with the exception of "go now" which was really "odd" to me, about the only one i didnt like.

the 2nd one? I didnt get hooked on "Laura Branigan" from the song "gloria" like everyone else did... I first noticed the song "Solitaire", and had recorded it off of the radio Top 40 show on the radio station... I didnt know WHO she was, I just knew the hairs on the back of my NECK stood up and it gave me shivers near the end of the song when she did this weird "shift" in pitch of the vocals near the end... SOMEone gave me the mistaken impression she was "some black chick that could sing", and it was some time before I got her first album and saw what the heck she looked like, LMAO

I had never thought i would LIKE big female vocals like that, but, she just had this B-I-G amazing voice. Again, started buying all the albums, ended up liking practically every song.

When I was young, we went on a field trip to a big college in the city, and we were in "Heinz Chapel" which had this locally famous giant pipe organ in a big church that was supposed to have good acoustics. The tour guy asked if any of the high school students could PLAY the organ, and we all looked around. ONE junior said "yes", adn walked up and talked to the guy, and they selected some drawbars or whatever... talked about which keyboards to use...

... and the guy started playing, it was LOUD, it was a POWERFUL song and sound... and, the hairs on the back of my NECK stood up. (It was Tocatta and Fugue in D minor). Blew me away... I also found out i liked a few others... Beethovens 5th, and Hall of the Mountain king...

Alan Parsons Project really did something for me, too... iit wasnt until several years agoo (I'm 44...) I had always heard the term "Prog Rock" and "Prog musicians"... I thought it meant "Programmed" for some odd reason... someone finally told me I liked a bunch of "progressive" stuff when i listed various things i liked...

they explained "progressive" meant the artists were not just hummin and strummin, that they were SERIOUS musicians, they were usually classically trained, or, good enough it was the same thing...

Phantom of the Opera, go ahead and laugh... I know its a musical technically, but... the lead singers were so GOOD, it firmly cemented classical singing and music as something i liked too.

Queensryche was one of my favorite metal bands...

=======================================================================

it kinda SUCKS liking stuff like that, progressive music, and people with those incredible voices, LMAO... when you start trying to learn to make your OWN music? Well, I naturally would like to make stuff like I LIKE to listen to...

... and I cant just hum along and learn to strum a few chords to make what i like to hear... I would never find a singer to SING like Geoff tate or Laura Branigan, or Phantom voices ANYways... *shrugs*

I suppose thats why I am "drawn" to learning to make classical-type stuff on my computer, by myself... even the modern stuff i like, has elements of classical in it.

music isnt really a "big deal" to me, when the 17 year old kid down the street can learn to cover it passably well in a weekend, LMAO... I like the "high end stuff".

(lmao... dont even ask me why I like "slayer-south of heaven" and stuff like that, i cant explain it. LMAO. Just something about some "raw power" in it, I guess)

 

[grimtraveller]

I've been thinking recently about some of the game changers for me in terms of instruments I like. Some I can pinpoint while others I have no idea. They were so gradual that I can't think of anything specific.

The first time I can remember really noticing the acoustic guitar was on David Bowie's "Space oddity". Right after the "Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do....." bit. I was 12 at the time. I just love that bit of strumming after. I had noticed the beautiful acoustic guitar at the start of the Jackson 5ive's "Blue skies" but it was decades before it twigged that it was actually acoustic guitar.

Although I used to sing in the choir as a 10/11 year old and I used to watch the organ player and it was on numerous records I'd heard, it wasn't until I heard Rick Wright on Pink Floyd's first two albums and Jon Lord on "Shades of Deep Purple" and "Fireball" that the organ really entered my consciousness. Their performances took the organ to a new and vibrant place for me.

The title track "Fireball" was a game changer for me in regards to, believe it or not, the tambourine. The playing of Ian Gillan at the end is the most wondrous I've ever heard. I don't know why more heavy rockers didn't utilize the instrument. That one piece of playing has informed everything I've ever done on the tambourine !

Being a Beatle admirer, there were no particular instrument or vocal game changers.......except the sitar. Indian music was something of a joke to kids of my generation but hearing “Within you, without you” and “Love you to” when I was 13 demonstrated that this was an instrument with a special voice and application and later on, hearing the John Mayer and Joe Harriott double quintet albums “Indo –jazz fusions 1 & 2” really opened up Indian music for me and led me to check out Indian classical music and contributed to my long running love of the sitar.

Drums were just one of those instruments that were always there. Most rock and pop that I listened to up to the age of 16 had drums. I never really noticed them although I’d notice if they weren’t there. I really liked Ringo’s drums on “Helter skelter” but I never really noticed drumming until I heard the Rolling Stones’ “Through the past, darkly” with Charlie Watts’ performances on “Let’s spend the night together”, “We love you” and “Dandelion”. These were then supplemented by Ian Paice’s drumming on the “Shades of Deep purple” and “Fireball” albums. Both albums are packed with great drumming. The first one that really stood out was his drumming at the end of “I’m so glad”. 30+ years on, I still love it.

Going back to “Dandelion” and “We love you” by the Stones, these two songs were also {along with “Sympathy for the devil”} real game changers for me in terms of backing vocals. Looking back on it, it’s quite interesting that I never really picked up on the Jackson 5ive or the Beatles or the tons of pop and soul artists that I listened to in this regard. I guess it was partly age, also partly because I was so knocked out by the Beatles overall and they were so strong that no specific instrument or element stood out continually. It wasn’t until decades later that I really began to listen with both ears to all that was going on within their music and for that matter, the Jackson 5ive. So the Stones, not being renowned for good backing vocals, got in there first ! I adore the “Woo-woo”s of “Sympathy”, the wild, almost off key “Dandelion” and the screechy accompaniment in “We love you” {ironically, with help from Lennon and McCartney}. As backing vocals, I really noticed those rather than the pristine ones of superior athletes like the Beatles, the Seekers and various soulsters. When I listened to those early Floyd albums and Deep Purples’ debut, the few backing vocals that are on those 3 albums really stood out to me and between them and the Stones, introduced backing vocals to my radar as an important part of song arrangement. Probably around half the songs I’ve ever recorded have backing or harmony vocals. It was Robert Plant’s lead and harmony vocal on Led Zeppelin’s “In the light” on the “Physical graffiti” album that really made me take notice of the power of harmony vocals. And Plant’s powerhouse solo on “Nobody’s fault but mine” {from 'Presence'} woke me up to the sheer power of the harmonica.

Roger Waters on Floyd’s first two albums and the bass playing on Stones songs like “Street fighting man” {I later learnt it was Keith Richards, not Bill Wyman} and Bill Wyman on “Mother’s little helper” and “We love you” were the episodes that thrust the bass guitar into my stratosphere. I was also aware of Deep Purple’s Nick Simper on stuff like “Mandrake root”. These kinds of performances were instrumental in pushing me to pick up the bass and learn to play it.

I would say that “Sympathy for the devil” and “Bohemian rhapsody” qualify as the two tunes that first got me noticing the electric guitar. Obviously I’d heard electric guitar for years but it was the solos in those two songs that really spoke to me. Syd Barrett’s guitar in “Lucifer Sam” took the process further on and caught my attention in terms of riffs as did “Interstellar overdrive”. I think Dave Gilmour did likewise in “Let there be more light” and whichever of the two played the riff on Floyd’s “Corporal Clegg”.

Robbie Steinhardt of Kansas on “Point of know return”, “Masque” and “Monolith” played a huge part in turning me onto the violin as did Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Jerry Goodman on “Birds of fire”, perhaps even more so. That’s pretty significant for me because my younger sister nearly killed off any regard I might have had for the violin when she was learning to play it. A description of a cat screeching for mercy does not do her initial sounds justice ! She did improve though, thankfully. By the way, I can’t tell the difference on record between the violin and viola.

There are other instruments I love like various saxophones, mellotrons, synthesizers, flutes, pianos, double basses, cellos, too many to go into, where I have no remembrance of any particular album or song or player that provided that “a-ha !” moment. These tend to be the ones that seeped into my brain ever so gradually. For example, the mellotron had a variety of sounds so it really is only since the start of the 21st century that I’ve really focused on it’s depth and versatility. I’d been aware of it for two and a half decades but it came in many different guises, for example as the flute on “Strawberry fields forever” or the weird hurdy gurdy horror film noise on “Space oddity”. It never really had an identity of it’s own in my mind. Now it has.

Speaking of flute, it was Kyle and Stewart’s “Fisherman” that really turned me on to it, sometime in ‘87/’88. It’s a gentle acoustic song with this lovely flute solo. I’d been aware of it before, especially in jazz, but that was a game changer for me. And it was actually a kid that used to come onto the adventure playground I worked on that turned me onto the clarinet. One day, these two girls, one 9, the other 10 asked me if I’d keep their instruments somewhere safe while they played out on the swings and platforms. I asked them what instruments they had and they said clarinet and flute so we got talking and we began a music workshop which was fantastic and lasted two years. 20 years on, we’re still friends and the one that played flute has played on numerous of my pieces. Eddie, the clarinetist, doesn’t play anymore but we did some recordings together. I grew to appreciate the sound of the clarinet greatly through her playing. Tallie, the flautist, later took up the clarinet and did some great stuff for me, both written and improvised.

Things like the double bass, saxophones, trumpets and instruments in that vein crept into my awareness more as I got into the jazzier side of music. But I was trying to get to grips with and understand some of the stuff so there wasn’t any particular moment that any of those instruments went ‘Bang !’

 

[grimtraveller]

There're a few local/Australian artists I won't list that were very important to me

Do tell !

My first year of college (1990), I put on my roommate's (vinyl) copy of Abbey Road one time when he had gone home for the weekend. When I heard "Here Comes the Sun," I said, "Oh ... now I get it!" I was never the same.

I first heard it in the car on the highway (go figure), and by the time it was over, I realized I had missed my exit about 7 miles ago (the song is 15 minutes long).

they play the important role of opening the door to somewhere else.

Something else occurred to me as I thought about game changers ¬> they don't necessarilly hit at once. It may not at all be apparent that your musical headspace is about to change. Sometimes, something hasn't hit until after repeated doses.

 

[Illsidgus]

Wow, that is a tough question to answer. Music has been a part of my life as far back as I can remember. My roots are in classical and folk music which I have heard I suppose since birth. I don't know if there were any real game changers for me, but The Beatles "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", had a huge impact on me. That is when I first realized that there was something really magical about music. I had listened to Peter, Paul and Marry for years and still love them and play their music on my guitar, but when I heard Arlo Guthrie sing "Alice's Restaurant" it opened a whole new aspect of folk music to me. That whole album was great and I still "don't want a pickle." I would say that the next great awaking for me was "The Last Nail" by Dan Fogelberg. The first time I heard that I became a life long fan and still study his use of harmony and the way he constructed his songs.

I had a similar experience to grimtraveller as regards to christian music. The general consensus of my christian peers was that rock/secular music was of the devil. It didn't take me to long to realize what a bunch of crap that was. But many of the musicians that grimtraveller mentioned as influential for him were for me also. The most influential where The Second Chapter of Acts, Phil Keaggy, 'absolutely' Larry Norman, Petra and IMO the greatest christian rock band of all, Love Song.

Of course all the greats left their mark on me, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and on and on and on. The net effect all these people and bands had, still have on me, is that I wish I could play it all. But alas I am only one moderately talented musician but I can still dream big.

 

[Greg_L]

Just one for me....

Not their best album by far, but it was my first tatste of them. My mom bought it for me for my 11th birthday thinking she was getting a "Romantics" album. Remember those cheeseballs? "That's what I like about you", and all that horrible 80's pop shit? Anyway, this album blew me away. I recognized and appreciated their stripped down sound before I knew that's what they were all about. I recognized their 60's bubble gum influences from being force fed "oldies" by my mom and dad my whole life up to that point. I recognized how blatantly American they were. In an era in which everyone was wearing Japanese rising sun headbands or Union Jack flag t-shirts, these guys just sounded very American to me. All the elements, and lack of elements, struck a nerve and it opened the door to a whole new musical world of punk rock that I didn't know about before. My Van Halen and KISS records immediately became cheesey, corny, shitty, and obsolete and I've never turned back.

 

[Illsidgus]

Just one for me....
I recognized and appreciated their stripped down sound before I knew that's what they were all about. I recognized their 60's bubble gum influences from being force fed "oldies" by my mom and dad my whole life up to that point....All the elements, and lack of elements, struck a nerve and it opened the door to a whole new musical world of punk rock that I didn't know about before.

Greg, I have never really, at least as far as I can remember, listened to the Ramones. I read your post and went strait away to YouTube and listened to a couple of their songs. I didn't know which ones to listen to so I picked "Rockaway Beach" and "Pet Sematary." I feel like I have missed out on something all these years. I guess what they did was called punk, but it really wasn't any different than what garage bands were doing in the sixties. Of course the Ramones where playing original material but the approach or concept was the same. We, garage bands, played stripped down basic versions of what was popular on the radio. We played the basic chord patterns, basic drum beats, basic bass lines, and the basic vocals, everything stripped down to its rawest form. I miss that.

I will start listening to more Ramones tunes from now on.

 

[Greg_L]

Greg, I have never really, at least as far as I can remember, listened to the Ramones. I read your post and went strait away to YouTube and listened to a couple of their songs. I didn't know which ones to listen to so I picked "Rockaway Beach" and "Pet Sematary." I feel like I have missed out on something all these years. I guess what they did was called punk, but it really wasn't any different than what garage bands were doing in the sixties. Of course the Ramones where playing original material but the approach or concept was the same. We, garage bands, played stripped down basic versions of what was popular on the radio. We played the basic chord patterns, basic drum beats, basic bass lines, and the basic vocals, everything stripped down to its rawest form. I miss that.

I will start listening to more Ramones tunes from now on.

Haha, awesome. A new convert.

For general conversation, you could classify them as a "punk" band and they are credited with starting the whole thing, but they just considered themselves a rock and roll band, and that's really all they ever were.

Check out their first 3 albums - Ramones, Leave Home, and Rocket To Russia. Those are the real Ramones classics in all their glory. "Leave Home" and "Rocket To Russia" are widely considered to the be the ultimate classic Ramones albums and sound. I don't disagree. To me, "Leave Home" is their best. Just awesome from beginning to end.

 

[kcearl]

 

[fat_fleet]

Man if I come in here this thread will soon be 20 pages of me talking to myself.

 

[fat_fleet]

...though maybe grim will stick around.

 

[fat_fleet]

But since y'all asked.....