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What was your 'keystone' album?

Not a studio album, but when I was 12 I realised I liked stuff that wasn't just chart music or TOTP, the fact it was old didn't bother me at all at a time when listening to "old crap" was about as untrendy as you could be at school.

I bought a copy of a T. Rex compilation that came out in about '91 I would say, not a run of the mill greatest hits job as it had some rather more obscure tracks on it, rather than 10 most popular etc. this had about 22 tracks on it. From then on I just went my own way with music, I also remember buying a John Lee Hooker compilation on tape from upstairs at WHSmiths, probably same sort of time, again, not what my friends were listening to.
 
I have never bought a single, I have bought a very small number of EPs - maybe 5-10. There are something around 1100 LPs here now, and 400 CDs, the CDs very seldom getting played.

Keystone? Radio Caroline. Bad Co, Eagles, Genesis, et. al.

THE one that sticks in my memory from then, the original version of this (and Silver, Blue and Gold) -

 
I heard my keystone record when I was in my late teens. Before then I'd collected quite a lot of records, initially following stuff from the Island Samplers like Nice Enough to Eat which I think I bought when i was still at primary school. After that my guide text was a readers Top 50 in Zig Zag which I was working my way through - it got me records by Love, Quicksilver, The Grateful Dead, Gram Parsons, Van Morrison, The Byrds, Michael Nesmith, Jackson Browne and a whole whole lot of hippie American stuff. By the age of 15 I had a very different record collection to most of my mates. Then new wave (more than punk) led to Television, Patti Smith, Costello, Joy Division, Talking Heads and so on. I have to say still go back to the earlier stuff more than the New Wave records.

But then, in 1978 while I was working in a record store, someone asked us to play John Coltrane's Coltranology Vol 1 and that leads to the stuff I've bought and played most since. It was a live set from Sweden with Eric Dolphy and a 20 minute version of My Favourite Things which became my gateway drug to jazz, some avant garde stuff and non liner rock like Sonic Youth. It's definitely the record that changed the course of what I listen to from that moment onwards.
 
Strangely for me it has never been studio albums that sent me down a certain path, as a kid it was always about compilations as you got more for your money and I didn't have much and music was expensive. Ironically I haven't owned a compilation album for god knows how long.

Another one was a Beefheart compilation, Zig Zag Wanderer I think, that opened all sorts of other doors.
 
Hearing a few seconds of Miles Davis - So What perked my interest in Jazz around 1997. Didn’t know the name of the album (Kind of Blue, obviously!) or the artist name but eventually bought a CD which I thought looked like the album cover I saw on TV. Turned out to be the right one. Found some of it hard to listen to at first on my Sony mini-system at the time, but have persisted with Jazz to this day.
 
Thinking about this a little more, I’ve now remembered that when I was about 12 I went to stay with my aunt and uncle for a few days. My cousin (four years older) wasn’t there, but his Dansette-style record player was, and one record (why only one I have no idea) - but it was Freak Out, and I fell in love with it whilst understanding very little. I do remember asking my schoolmates the following week if they knew this song called Who Are the Brain Police? and telling them how it went. So maybe that is the record that wormed its way into my brain and made me the well-balanced pillar of society I am today.
 
Although I had always bought Beatles, Stones & other 45's, the first couple of albums that I bought were the Island samplers "You Can All Join In" and "Nice Enough to Eat" in '69.

My introductions to so many bands such as KC, Tull, Fairport etc and a lifetime of collecting
 
A mate lent me Nursery Cryme by Genesis - I thought it was absolutely awful but for some reason gave it another listen a few days later.
The rest, as they say, is history.
 
I guess (Beatles albums aside) for me it would be 'Looking Back'; a John Mayall compilation album, which led me to explore Cream, Fleetwood Mac and other groups involving Mayall alumni. But until I left school and started work, LP purchases were few and far between, basically birthday and Christmas presents.

There's a photo, which is at my brother's house now, which shows our combined album collections in about 1970. From memory, there's around ten in the picture, three of which are Beatles' titles (Rubber Soul, Sgt Pepper, The White Album). There would also be Cosmo's Factory by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Just A Collection Of Antiques & Curios by The Strawbs (both my brother's), Led Zep II, a Lovin' Spoonful compilation, Looking Back, Nice Enough To Eat, and Home by Procul Harum. Of my albums in that lot, two have disappeared (presumably lent and never returned), and The White Album is at my sister's house.
 
wylton said:
Yes, definitely! Not having much money at the time, those sampler albums were my lifeblood! Another few that I bought, that got absolutely hammered on the Dansette was Fill your Head with Rock (CBS), Blues package 69 (Mercury) and Son of Gutbucket (Liberty).
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I’ve never owned Nice Enough To Eat, the two Island samplers that I bought (and still have) are You Can All Join In and El Pea. I too have Fill Your Head With Rock. Apparently the photo on the back cover of the girl sucking on a stick of rock was intended for the front cover but CBS executives were nervous about it being too suggestive.
 
RBrinsdon said:
Although I had always bought Beatles, Stones & other 45's, the first couple of albums that I bought were the Island samplers "You Can All Join In" and "Nice Enough to Eat" in '69.

My introductions to so many bands such as KC, Tull, Fairport etc and a lifetime of collecting
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Yes, although I never bought them I can remember these being quite influential back in the day when there were few channels in which to discover un-radio-friendly bands.
 
Stunsworth said:
I’ve never owned Nice Enough To Eat, the two Island samplers that I bought (and still have) are You Can All Join In and El Pea. I too have Fill Your Head With Rock. Apparently the photo on the back cover of the girl sucking on a stick of rock was intended for the front cover but CBS executives were nervous about it being too suggestive.
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At least she didn't have a painted-on bikini like the first Soft Machine LP!
 
Joe Hutch said:
I borrowed someone's copy of Blind Faith's album when it was first released. I had to keep the cover away from my parents' censorious eyes.
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I bought the Juicy Lucy album; my folks were ok with the cover, but my mates parents confiscated his copy!
 
Keystone for albums would be the first one which I still have "Don't Shoot Me I'm Only The Piano Player" by Elton John. Never bought any singles from then on (Ok a couple of EPs and 12")
 
My first piece of vinyl was a gift: 7" single by Hot Chocolate xmas 78. I'd been brought up on a brew of Johnny Cash, Lee Hazelwood and C&W trash that my dad loved.
The first music I actually bought was Tubular Bells and a 7" single on White vinyl lifted from Tulls Busting out Live. Then followed many Tangerine dream albums and the rest is history.
Tubular Bells was my kick off though.
 
zygote23 said:
My first piece of vinyl was a gift: 7" single by Hot Chocolate xmas 78. I'd been brought up on a brew of Johnny Cash, Lee Hazelwood and C&W trash that my dad loved.
The first music I actually bought was Tubular Bells and a 7" single on White vinyl lifted from Tulls Busting out Live. Then followed many Tangerine dream albums and the rest is history.
Tubular Bells was my kick off though.
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Blimey! That's 2 for Tubular Bells. Who would've thought? It's one of those albums that I wish I'd bought sooner as I missed the original B/W twins virgin label and ended up with the coloured version. Damn!
 
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