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What was your 'keystone' album?

musicman56

50 years hifi & vinyl junkie
When the Beatles burst into my life, aged 8, in 1964 I vowed to follow the singles chart avidly thereafter. And I did, throughout the sixties and right up to 1971 when I heard ‘Back Street Luv’ by Curved Air and was sufficiently enthused by its ethereal beauty to spend my paper-round earnings on their LP ‘Second Album’ with its die cut fold out sleeve – only my second LP purchase ever. (see avatar)

It blew me away with its longer-than-3-minute pieces, weird violin and VCS3 synth melodies and haunting female vocals. It kicked down the door to ‘album’ bands and in the golden age of prog, I never looked at a single again.

Second Album remains my keystone album opening my eyes to a world beyond the singles chart and I have just secured an immaculate first pressing to replace my old copy worn away by a miss-tracking autochanger all those years ago.

What was yours?
 
So many keystones in the vaults of my music history. Sgt Peppers, The Monkeys – Headquarters, Caravan – In The Land Of Grey And Pink, Led Zeppelin 1 & 2, Fairport Convention – first album, Velvet Underground – White Heat/White Light, Terry Riley – A Rainbow In Curved Air, Steve Miller Band – Sailor, Joni Mitchell – Song To A Seagull ……..
 
Growing up in a classical only household it wasn’t until I was about 9 or 10 that I really got exposure to pop music via school friends. T. Rex was the start of it, they were the first records I bought (Metal Guru, The Slider, then back-catalogued to Electric Warrior). I also had some Slade and, much to my adult smugness, the 7” of Street Life by Roxy Music. My next big shift was discovering prog via the medium of a friend’s older sister’s record collection. That brought me Pink Floyd, Yes, Genesis etc and showed me things could be far longer than 3 minutes. From there I discovered Hawkwind, Man, Groundhogs, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk etc. Next punk happened, and did so exactly at the point I was discovering this long-form prog, stoner-rock and electronica, so my record collection was a real mismatch at that time having Floyd, Yes, Hawkwind, Devo, Sex Pistols, TRB etc. At 14 in ‘77 I was way too young to go to gigs, though had gone to see T. Rex a year earlier closely supervised by a friends parents.

This is getting long and rambling, but I think the real ‘keystone’ point for me was either the first OMD album (local band a couple of years older than me) or Joy Division’s Unknown Pleasures. I’d have been 16-17 and it was this period that the penny dropped that I might be able to do something myself and music shifted from being a passive spectator sport to something more active. It was a very good time to get involved, the earliest stirrings of the amazing democratisation of music we are seeing today.
 
My parents bought a hi fi (Leak, Wharfdale, Connoisseur) and a friend lent me Moving Waves, by Focus, Thick as a Brick, Jethro tull and Led Zep 3, as I didn't own any music.

Liked Focus the best, then Tull, found Zeppelin a bit screamy.

Moved me to buy Focus 3, which had just come out, and then Steeleye Span's Parcel of Rogues.

The playing music pivot was staying at Glen Cottage independant hostel in Torridon, which was run by Dave Goulder, best known as writer of the song January Man. Much music every evening, and I thought I want a bit of this. Started playing tin whistle, I'd be 12 or 13, then guitar, which I made at school as an art project, when I was 15.
 
I think I heard Paranoid and Black Night on the radio aged 13/14 and thought ‘this is different...’ so my first album reflecting life beyond the charts would have been ‘In Rock’, a Christmas 1970 present IIRC. Things then moved quickly after comparing notes with like-minded school friends. Within six months I was a prog-head, and had seen ELP, King Crimson, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator...
 
My parents bought a hi fi (Leak, Wharfdale, Connoisseur) and a friend lent me Moving Waves, by Focus, Thick as a Brick, Jethro tull and Led Zep 3, as I didn't own any music.

Liked Focus the best, then Tull, found Zeppelin a bit screamy.

Moved me to buy Focus 3, which had just come out, and then Steeleye Span's Parcel of Rogues.

The playing music pivot was staying at Glen Cottage independant hostel in Torridon, which was run by Dave Goulder, best known as writer of the song January Man. Much music every evening, and I thought I want a bit of this. Started playing tin whistle, I'd be 12 or 13, then guitar, which I made at school as an art project, when I was 15.
Yes, Focus! Not much talked about today but the best instrumental band ever. I too own Moving Waves and Focus 3 which led me to fellow Dutch band, Alquin whose 'Mountain Queen' is another instrumental tour de force.
 
So many keystones in the vaults of my music history. Sgt Peppers, The Monkeys – Headquarters, Caravan – In The Land Of Grey And Pink, Led Zeppelin 1 & 2, Fairport Convention – first album, Velvet Underground – White Heat/White Light, Terry Riley – A Rainbow In Curved Air, Steve Miller Band – Sailor, Joni Mitchell – Song To A Seagull ……..
Funnily enough, Caravan passed right over my head at the time and it was only a few years ago that I first listened to ITLOGAP. Brilliant - my younger self would've loved it but all good things comes to those who wait...
 
Yes, Focus! Not much talked about today but the best instrumental band ever. I too own Moving Waves and Focus 3 which led me to fellow Dutch band, Alquin whose 'Mountain Queen' is another instrumental tour de force.
I saw Focus last year in New Brighton - despite not having Akkerman or Ruiter they were just blastingly good. I'll check out Alquin.
Anyone on here who hasn't heard Moving Waves would be doing themselves a disservice if they didn't check it out. Nice recording too.
 
First albums I owned when I was about 10/11/12 included Aladdin Sane, Hunky Dory, Slayed and Quadrophenia. Love them all still.
 
I didn’t listen to much rock music as a teenager - which given that the period covered the late 60s / early 70s was probably a bit of a mistake on my part. One album that did make a big impression was Stand Up by Jethro Tull (and later Passion Play) - lent to me by a friend who went on to play bass in a very well known punk/new wave band for a while. Other albums I remember listening to around the same time were the first Black Sabbath album, Deep Purple In Rock and Split by Groundhogs.

Earlier than that a friend’s elder brother bought a copy of Are You Experienced when it was released. I couldn’t make head nor tail of that and though it was rubbish. I got that one wrong.
 
I am taking 'keystone' album to mean which album I purchased early on, that my musical tastes have been built upon.

The Human League - ' Travelogue' 1980. - I was 15 yrs.old.


it could also easily be The Specials eponymous album from 1979.


My tastes are so broad though I don't think you could look at these albums and see obvious lines to what I listen to nowadays.

(I still have those two albums, and still play them often.)
 
It was an ELP album. Not sure if I bought Trilogy or Pictures at an Exhibition first. Closely followed by Renaissance with Turn of the Cards. All still firm favourites to this day.

From those albums it was a short journey through the 1970s prog and rock classics that are still so well known.
 
Led Zeppelin II.
Bought the vinyl 5 times as it worn out because of repeat/abusive listening and the CD 2 times, 1 for home and 1 for the car.
To me, Heartbreaker has the best guitar solo ever.
Do you know, I've never owned a copy of this myself - always borrowed from those around me. Must get around to it but trouble is the price of a early (and best) copy these days! Why Oh why didn't I buy it at the time?
 
I didn’t listen to much rock music as a teenager - which given that the period covered the late 60s / early 70s was probably a bit of a mistake on my part. One album that did make a big impression was Stand Up by Jethro Tull (and later Passion Play) - lent to me by a friend who went on to play bass in a very well known punk/new wave band for a while. Other albums I remember listening to around the same time were the first Black Sabbath album, Deep Purple In Rock and Split by Groundhogs.

Earlier than that a friend’s elder brother bought a copy of Are You Experienced when it was released. I couldn’t make head nor tail of that and though it was rubbish. I got that one wrong.
I have all the albums you list here. I was about 11 when Jimi Hendrix arrived on the scene. I hated him then - probably the only time in my life when I agreed with my father about music. Enlightenment followed in my teens!
 
I was about 11 when Jimi Hendrix arrived on the scene. I hated him then - probably the only time in my life when I agreed with my father about music. Enlightenment followed in my teens!
I must be of a similar age (56 could be a big clue here), and Hendrix is one of those musicians I admire and respect, but don’t actually enjoy very much.
 
I have all the albums you list here. I was about 11 when Jimi Hendrix arrived on the scene. I hated him then - probably the only time in my life when I agreed with my father about music. Enlightenment followed in my teens!

I’d have been more or less the same age. My father didn’t think Sgt Pepper was very good. For some reason what seemed the most cool thing about it to me was the red back with the lyrics on it.
 


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