I was 16

[Jazz Club]

When this album blew me away.

[ezbass]

I think I heard Dreamboat Annie for the first time in ‘76, to be more specific the track Magic Man. It was on the radio in Spain and both my dad and went, “Wow! Who is that?”  The first Boston album would be up there too.

[EdwardMarlowe]

I was just six months off sixteen when I first acquired Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex PIstols, which definitely was a life-changer, even though I already had a copy of No Future UK (Castle Records; a compilation of outttakes, rarities, b-sides and some of the Spedding demos that preceeded Bollocks). Another game-changer at fifteen was 'discovering' Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode being the record in question, which made me want to play guitar. Bob Dylan - The Times they are a Changin'  when I was not long seventeen.
Around the sx months eeither sie of me turning sixteen, I was turned ontyo a lot of great music by singles (re)released off the back of the Levis ads. Most notably, after Should I Stay Or Should I Go reached number 1 that way, the 1989 The Story of the Clash Volume 1 compilation was rereleased in 1991, and I remember that soundtracking my GCSEs. To this day, when I hear some of the tracks on that album I expect to hear next the song that followed it on the same disc.

[Dad3353]

The Yardbirds, 'Roger The Engineer'

Astrud Gilberto, 'The Astrud Gilberto Album'

Jefferson Airplane, 'Surrealistic Pillow'

Heady Days. 

 

[leftybassman392]

I'd have been 14 or 15, when I first heard this being played on the crappy old Dansette at school. It was 1968:

 

Edited August 10, 2020 by leftybassman392

[EdwardMarlowe]

Here's a secondary thought to the original question: for how many of us did these life-changing record experiences happen when the recod was just out, and how many folks had an experience more like mine, where the record in question was one that had been around for some years already? I think the luick of the draw had something to do with it for me - by the time I had turned sixteen, I'd already soured on mainstream pop and the metal genre, which I'd seen through as not only hopelessly misogynist, but contrary to all its claims also wildly conformist. I think prior to Nirvana andthe grunge revolution, around 98% of what I listened to was by atists who were either dead or otherwise defunct by that point (hanged later on, and I got to see a lot of reunion gigs by bands I loves like the Stiff Little Fingers and many more - even the Pistols themselves. THe Clash, alas, no - but I did get to see Joe with the Mescaleroes in 99, 00, and 01; in 01, last tiem I saw himj before hissad death, Strummer closed the set at Brixton Academy with a roof-raising cover of Blitzkrieg Bop, in tribute to Joey Ramone who had died only six or seven months prior. I thought I was going. Few acts could ever math that emotion. (The Pogues were one.... let's just say Christmas has lost a lot of its appeal sine 2011).

[Kiwi]

I'm not cool enough to participate in this thread.  I was a teenager in the eighties. 

[EdwardMarlowe]

9 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I'm not cool enough to participate in this thread.  I was a teenager in the eighties. 

Oh, I dunno.... you had the Pixies, The Vaselines, the Dead Kennedys, lots of cool stuff. 

Unless...

You're not going to admit to liking the Smiths, are you?

[ezbass]

10 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I'm not cool enough to participate in this thread.  I was a teenager in the eighties. 

Now I think that would’ve been great as it’s my favourite musical era. I clearly remember seeing Duran Duran on TOTP with Planet Earth and thinking that we’re going to be huge. Then there was hearing Simple Minds for the first time (I know the first 2 albums were ‘79, but it wasn’t until ‘84 that I discovered them) and early U2.

[Kiwi]

15 hours ago, EdwardMarlowe said:

Oh, I dunno.... you had the Pixies, The Vaselines, the Dead Kennedys, lots of cool stuff. 

Unless...

You're not going to admit to liking the Smiths, are you?

I am!  I spent 1990 in fine art school where I was subject to alt rock constantly by my thoughtful classmates.  Over many months I gradually learned to develop a total loathing of it and, funnily enough, of fine art school also.  Detachable Penis by King Missile was tolerable only because it was slightly interesting.

15 hours ago, ezbass said:

Now I think that would’ve been great as it’s my favourite musical era. I clearly remember seeing Duran Duran on TOTP with Planet Earth and thinking that we’re going to be huge. Then there was hearing Simple Minds for the first time (I know the first 2 albums were ‘79, but it wasn’t until ‘84 that I discovered them) and early U2.

I like Simple Minds, are they cool?  I wasn't into the new wave thing although I'll reluctantly confess to having owned a pirate shirt at one point...without lacey frills [ahem].  But those days were all bass, I didn't really get serious about guitar until about maybe 7 years ago.

In 1987 (I turned 17 then) had a term of paid bass lessons in September and my first lesson was a couple of days after Jaco died.  My bass teacher showed me the newspaper clipping, and I didn't know who he was.  So we did a lesson looking at Portrait of Tracy and he showed me how to play a few lines of Donna Lee before Mark King took over my interest for the next few years.  Before then the first song I'd ever learned was New Years Day by U2 but that wasn't on guitar.

So, on reflection, at 16 I was only just getting serious about bass and letting go of drums.  And I discovered L42 which I suppose was life changing in the sense I obsessed about them for the next 7 years or so.  But it wasn't guitar related.

[EdwardMarlowe]

I can't imagine Simple Minds will ever be forgiven where I hail from for daring to be "outsiders" with a view on "our problem"! 

That and Belfast Child was ,in the end, just a bloody awful song, bless them.