# Did an album or song ever blow your mind? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 7, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793 "2009-02-07T06:49:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![MeDrewNotYou](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/838e76/32.png) [@MeDrewNotYou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeDrewNotYou)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/61 "2009-02-08T18:31:06Z")
> [@Between\_the\_Bars](#): > > Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You were Here (cliche I know, but so true). Heartily seconded. I’d add The Wall as well. I remember back in high school hanging out at a friend’s house. His dad came home and, being Friday, he’d have a couple of beers and listen to his old records. He grabbed The Wall and started it right as The Trial begins. My jaw dropped and I was a true believer. Of course The Beatles belong on the list too. Abbey Road was great, but the stand out song to me has alway been Something. Best love song ever! Finally, for the jazz lovers, JJ and Kai +8 doing The Peanut Vendor or Rise and Shine. The former in particular changed everything about the way I looked at playing trombone. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/62 "2009-02-08T20:38:21Z")
AC/DC- Back in Black- Hells Bells is the song that opened my eyes to Music in general and Hard Rock at the forefront. Bat out of Hell -Just… epic love songs. Nirvana’s Unplugged Album. Just… mind blowing period. NaS- Stillmatic- this is the album that caused me to get into Rap music, as it just blew me away. Limp Bizkit- Significant Other- this is the music of my “generation” the MTV TRL years of Britney spears, boy bands and all that. I still remember the summer that this album dropped and being glued to the TV watching the performances and all- and loving Limp Bizkit’s nu-metal as a rebellion to all the boy band pop shyte. Gun and Roses: Appetite for Destruction - this album was incidentally the first time I’d ever heard the word “fuck”- and the first hard rock album that featured “Adult content” if you will. Just kinda destroyed my naivety. Abbey Road- I was a fan of the Beatles White Album but this album just blew me away when I first gave it a listen. I didn’t expect anything to top my White Album love. NERD- In Search Of… - I still recall where I was watching my uncles and cousins playing madden as I popped this into my CD player to listen and i never took the controller to play- this album had me entranced the WHOLE time. Daft Punk- Alive 2007. I hate techno and electronic. This album however… however showed me what it has the potential to be. Just… good stuff. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/63 "2009-02-08T20:49:50Z")
Loads and loads of them. The first one I can recall was the cassette single of _Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever_ when I was about 7. I loved the imagery, the tone, their accents. I still count Penny Lane as one of my favourite songs. I listened to that tape 100 times or more. When I heard Luke Kelly singing \*On Raglan Road \*I was blown away and it introduced me to Irish traditional balladry or more to the point showed me it wasn’t all shit. It’s the first song I learned to sing in its entirety. The most recent one was \*Glenn Tipton \*by Sun Kil Moon. The beauty and pathos of the song moved me to tears and I’ve listened to it so many times but it never loses its lustre. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/64 "2009-02-08T22:31:15Z")
“So In Love” by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. When I first heard it, back in high school, it was like a glimpse of heaven, like a window into transcendence, like I’d just met a gorgeous redhead who liked me. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/65 "2009-02-08T22:47:22Z")
_sigh_ I’ll list a few of them, along with my impressions upon my first few listens. The impressions are, of course, snapshots of who I was at the time as much as comments on the music itself. **Sonic Youth** , _Daydream Nation_ “OMG!!! Someone has distilled the essence of what it feels like to be _really_, really high - the transcendent ecstasy, the iron-fisted panic, the bottomless depression and the bemused confusion - and condensed it onto a tape. And the tape case smells like patchouli!” **Ramones** , _Ramones_ “OMG!!! This is some of the most powerful music I’ve ever heard, and the louder you turn it up, the more layers of harmony you can hear in your head…and best of all, I can play it _right now_ on the guitar, at my current rudimentary skill level!” **The Smiths** , _The Queen is Dead_ “OMG,” he sniffled into the damp, silent recesses of his pillow, “someone _understands_ me.” ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/66 "2009-02-08T22:57:46Z")
The Who: Won’t get fooled again. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/67 "2009-02-08T23:09:02Z")
For me, it was _The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway_ by **Genesis**. On edit: I meant the entire double-album–not the song by the same title. ---
**Author:** ![Roonwit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/54ee81/32.png) [@Roonwit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roonwit)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/68 "2009-02-08T23:09:19Z")
The first time I ever heard James Taylor’s _You Can Close Your Eyes_ was two weeks after my younger brother drowned. My mind very nearly came completely unhinged. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/69 "2009-02-08T23:11:45Z")
Beach Boys, _Pet Sounds_ (duh!) Ars Nova Ensemble, _Portuguese Polyphony_ Beatles, _Revolver_ Alexander Borodin, \*Piano Quintet \*(perf. by New Budapest Quartet) Cafe Tacuba, _Re_ ---
**Author:** ![Convict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ad7895/32.png) [@Convict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Convict)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/70 "2009-02-09T04:12:51Z")
King’s X–_Gretchen Goes to Nebraska_. An incredible mix of metal, funk, soul and blues. Metallica–_Kill 'Em All_. An experience that survives to this day. Simply the most perfect metal album ever. It don’t know what it was like when Zeppelin or Sabbath released their first albums, but I imagine it must have been similar to my experience with Metallica. An album that changed the genre forever. Very closely followed by _Ride the Lightning_ and _Master of Puppets_. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/71 "2009-02-09T05:20:07Z")
Pink Floyd’s \*The Wall \*was an album I saved my allowance for for weeks when I was nine years old. The imagery and cynicism haunt me still. Shaped me in some ways, too. Most post 1965 Beatles stuff is pretty amazing, and Jimi Hendrix too. I rate stuff on the amount of arm-hairs it raises as I listen and/or sing along. It’s interesting to note how few full CD’s one can listen to all the way through without skipping “hated” songs. \*Blood Sugar Sex Magik \*was like that, too. Great CD. But there are so many. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/72 "2009-02-09T05:45:09Z")
**R.E.M. - [Chronic Town](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_Town)** EP -The dark, portentous Mitch Easter production, combined with Pete Buck’s jangly guitar and Michael Stipe’s weirdly obscure lyrics just blew me away. I first heard it walking past a dorm room, and was drawn inside by the strange, spellbinding sound. It was unlike any other music being made at the time. **R.E.M. - [Murmur](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murmur_(album))** - Unbelievably, it was even better than the EP. The first time I listened to it I turned off the lights and just immersed myself in the sound. Then I made my plans to head for Athens. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/73 "2009-02-09T06:36:36Z")
Zero 7 - _Simple Things_ Shpongle - _Are You Shpongled?_ Moby - _Play_ Peter Gabriel - _Passion: Music For The Last Temptation Of Christ_ Aphex Twin - _Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2_ The Orb - _The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld_ Niyaz - _Niyaz_ Armin van Buuren - _Boundaries of Imagination_ ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/74 "2009-02-09T07:58:25Z")
Pixies - _Surfer Rosa_ It was just so different to anything I’d heard before, and I was the right age when it came out (15). ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/75 "2009-02-09T09:16:37Z")
Midnight Oil, _Diesel and Dust_ I’d heard a couple of their albums before, but that was the first one where I had access to complete lyrics in the liner notes & could read the words I couldn’t understand through Garrett’s accent. > [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Geinoh Yamashirogumi: Akira OST Oooh, I love that. The Requiem is amazing. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/76 "2009-02-09T14:08:18Z")
Gotta go with Bach on this one. I was in Music Appreciation 101, kinda dozing, when the Professor put on E. Power Biggs playing Bach’s [“Little” Fugue in G-Minor](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Fugue_in_G_minor,_BWV_578), BWV 578 on the Flentrop organ at the Busch-Reisenger museum at Harvard. I can literally date the hundreds of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, etc CD’s that I’ve owned since, from the moment I lifted my head off the desk. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/77 "2009-02-09T14:24:01Z")
I chart my life based on what albums and songs have blown my mind over the years. Waaay too many to mention - I bet practically every meaningful moment in my life has a song listed in my soundtrack. So out of 100 such songs, probably 3 - 5 not only are the sound track for a given moment, but the music is so good that it stands out, too - it’s not just a cheesy 70’s hit I would just as soon forget, its a great song worthy of a place in my mental jukebox… ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/78 "2009-02-09T15:19:22Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > The first time I ever heard Live’s _Throwing Copper_ album I felt like I was touching the face of God. I was quite religious at the time and found it to be the most honest, genuine, beautiful thing I’d ever heard. It’s hard to explain but… the album comes from a place of complete intimacy with suffering and hardship, but manages to transcend all of that, to be an opus to compassion and love in spite of it all. It’s idealistic without being naive and sheltered, idealistic in spite of witnessing some bleak reality, which is exactly how I might describe myself. The band in general has this effect on me, and I’m still very deeply spiritually and emotionally moved by their music, but nothing ever hit me quite as hard as the first playthrough of that particular album. Yep. I think some people in this thread have a different definition of ‘blowing your mind’. It’s good music is all. Nothing has ever ‘blown my mind’ but the Throwing Copper album really took me to a different place. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/79 "2009-02-09T16:05:04Z")
> [@KGS](#): > > Listening to Motorhead’s _Ace of Spades_ for the first time was greater than discovering Jesus Christ. It would have to be Killed By Death for me. ---
**Author:** ![SaharaTea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SaharaTea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SaharaTea)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793/80 "2009-02-09T16:52:07Z")
In college an ex-boyfriend made me a mix tape with the song “Big Sky Country” by **Chris Whitley**. I bought the album _Living With the Law_ and have never been the same. It’s as close to perfection as it gets, and is my desert island album. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-an-album-or-song-ever-blow-your-mind/484793.md?page=5)