Music That Blew Me Away

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: dwditty
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:32 PM

I first heard Oscar Brown, Jr. in 1960-61...his SIn & Soul Album. I learned that entire album by heart, but it was the first time I heard him sing his lyrics to the Mongo Santamaria song, Afro Blue, that completely floored me. I am still listening to it regularly to this day.

Another instant musical connection was AMos Garrett's guitar solo in Maria Muldaur's Midnight at the Oasis.

It happened with It's a Beautiful Day, too, but it might have been that particular batch of illegal chemical substance.

Then there was Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Philharmonic conducting Vivaldi's Concerto for Two Violins and Ochestra in Gm with Isaac Stern and David Oistrakh.

I am sure I will think of others. Good thread topic, Jerry.

dw

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: robomatic
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:11 PM

I was raised on Mozart and Perry Como. So imagine what went through my tiny mind when I heard "Rite of Spring" for the first time.

I understand that its first public performance sparked a near riot within the concert hall.

As for songs, most recently it was "Marilyn" by Dan Bern. His frankness with the language, ability to sustain a somewhat novel idea through a lot of words with a catchy refrain. I went to see him in downtown Anchorage about four years ago and he had this room absolutely packed. I went with a woman my age and a woman ten years younger who missed all the references and went home in disgust halfway through the performance. I enjoyed it all the more.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: CarolC
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:10 PM

J.S. Bach.

Also, when Paul Oorts showed up at O'Hurley's jam session with his continental chromatic accordion and played something that sounded very "continental". That was what inspired me to learn to play the accordion.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: SINSULL
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:09 PM

I have told this story before. I attended a Joan Baez concert in the early sixties. She brought out an unknown named Bob Dylan who first sang "The Lonesome Death Of Hattie Caroll" to an audience dumbfounded at his voice. He followed with "Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" and the audience went crazy. Bought his first LP the next day. Definitely blew me away.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Little Robyn
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 02:02 PM

Back in 1958, a song that was being played on the NZ hit parade, by a group called Elias and his Zig-Zag Jive Flutes, called 'Tom Hark'. I found out much later they were a South African street band. We'd never heard a sound like it.
And I still have the 45!
Robyn

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:19 AM

I remember lying in bed, listening to the radio under the covers..which leads me to believe it was very late and I was about 11 yrs old. There was a track playing as I tuned in, the station was either Radio Caroline or the pirate Radio London ( I think there was one called that?).

Having been brought up on a diet of The Men Behind the Wire and Paddy McGinty's Goat, this was an under the covers epihany, to hear 'real' guitars and percussion to die for......waited for track to end and found out it was 'Cosmik Debris' by Zappa. My ears had never been so happy.

Pink Floyd's Wish you Were Here left me similarly gob smacked. I heard it in it's entirety in a dark, smokey room for the first time,with about 6 other people, and it was one of those moments that everyone chooses not to speak for ages, and when you realise you are all consciously not speaking, you can really feel the music. Thats explained real badly, but it was a perfect warm moment in time.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Stu
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:19 AM

Folk: Forst and Fire by the Watersons. A true epiphany for me. Until then, I only really loved the Irish stuff, playing in sessions, and largely ignored my own indigenous musical heritage, but this record changed all that, especially with regard to songs.

For tunes, the third track on a NaConnery's CD I was given. The last in the set of reels is Man of the House, one of the others may be Ship in Full Sail but I'm not sure. Anyway, that set blew me away and still does every time I hear it. For my money, the best set of Irish tunes (or perhaps, any tunes) anywhere on record. It is perfect and utterly flawless.

Other stuff: Tom Waits singing "Innocent When You Dream" at the end of the film "Smoke".

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: muppitz
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:16 AM

Crowded House - Fingers of Love

A most amazing and haunting song.
The first time I heard it live, Neil Finn's son was touring with him and he played the lead guitar, it was amazing, I just closed my eyes and wished myself to another plain of existence.

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Sttaw Legend
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:09 AM

Ray Harvey sang the blues last night in The Bedroom and nearly blew everyone away

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: beetle cat
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 11:02 AM

I'll never forget the first time I heard a recording of the Watersons. It was like nothing I'd ever heard before, and yet it represented everything I'd ever valued.   

.. There are a few songs in particular that I associate with that first impression of them, and of folk music in general. The Greenland Whale Fishery. T for Thomas.

Somehow it was traditional for me, even though it wasn't really. Like invisible roots.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:56 AM

Early 50's, John. I am really old... 69. But then, I was even older, ten years ago..

Jerry

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Pete Jennings
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:52 AM

I remember learning to play the guitar when I was a kid and I'd learn Donovan and Dylan songs - just strumming along as best I could. I was really proud when I could change chords without stopping or looking. Then one day my sister's boyfriend, Chas Kirinich, turned up with an album called Another Monday by some bloke called John Renbourn. I just couldn't believe my ears and songs like I Know My Babe and Lost Lover Blues I play to this day. And then of course there was Bert Jansch.

That was back then. Two years ago I got into Steve Earle after seeing him at the Cambridge Folk Fetsival. This year he released The Revolution Starts Now with songs like Rich Man's War, Home to Houston, The Gringo's Tale and the title song itself. Inspirational.

Went to see him and The Dukes in Birmingham (UK) Monday night - supported by Alison Moorer - a truly great show. Next week I'm going to debut my version of Rich Man's War - should make from Christmas Carols all right.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:51 AM

In the early 70's?
you must be really old!

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:48 AM

One musical memory I will never forget was the in the early 1970's, when a friend of mine walked up to me holding a portable cassette recorder, which I had never seen before. He simply said 'listen to this' pressed the play button, and out came Voodoo Chile by Jimi Hendrix! It was also the first time I had heard Jimi, fabulous!

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Rt Revd Sir jOhn from Hull
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:41 AM

Anything by Cara.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: muppett
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:41 AM

First time I heard Dire Straits Album, LOVE OVER GOLD, Particularly Telegraph road, WOW, still gives me goose bumps.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:37 AM

I don't think, apart from "The Beatles" that I was ever blown away by any particular person or groups music but there have been songs that have blown me away at the time.
"Nights in White Satin"...The Moody Blues is probably the most memorable.
Clifford T Wards "Where did we go wrong"
Glen Campbell..."Wichita Lineman"
Steeleye Span.."All around my hat"
Many more...too many to mention
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Flash Company
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:30 AM

I walked into a local record store in Northwich in the 1950's and a record was playing which was so rhythmic and different to any of the current pop music that was about at the time. The girl on the counter swiped it off and said 'You must hear this!' and put on her latest record to plug, Bill Haley's Rock around the Clock.
When it had finished I said 'Yes, but what was that one you were playing when I came in?' 'Oh, something called Fish Seller by a guy called Sidney Bechet, rubbish isn't it!'
I said 'Put it on again', and that friends is why I never really took to Rock & Roll.

FC

Subject: Music That Blew Me Away
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 16 Dec 04 - 10:17 AM

I'm not talking music we like, in this thread. Not even just music we love. I'm talking music that blew us away the first time that we heard it. There's a lot of music I love, but there are a few recordings that completely floored me when I first heard them. I love to see that excitement in other people. Never mind whether it was opera, folk, rock and roll, jazz or even disco (although I'd have a lot of trouble, myself, with disco.)

Here's one from me to start it off.

Back in the early 50's when I was a teenager, pop music was Patti Page, Doris Day, Perry Como and the lot, I used to listen to WFOX out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I'd lie on my bed late at night with my Motorola using my arms as antennae as the reception would fade in and out. Without any advanced preparation, this song came out of the speakers and it created an appetite that I've never completely satisifed. It was by a group named The Crows. What kind of a name was that? A group named for a kind of bird? Next thing you know, they'll come up with groups named after Orioles and Cardinals and BlueJays. The song was Gee, recorded with just an electric guitar, piano and drums. It didn't sound like anything I ever heard before.
When I went down to the local music store, they had never heard of the song, and couldn't even find it to order it. No wonder. WFOX was a radio station that played "race" music. Early rhythm and blues.
I had a friend who was going to Marquette University in Milwaukee, so I went to visit him one weekend. The program of WFOX was sponsored by a record store, and that was my real reason for going. I ended up walking a couple of miles to get to the store. I had pictured it as a gigantic store, filled with exotic rhythm and blues records. It was about 8 feet wide. But, when I walked in, I said, full of confidence.. "Do you have Gee, by the Crows?" And the guy behing the counter turned around, reached behind him and pulled as copy off a stack of 45ps a shelf.

I still have that 45. It's gray from being played, and almost smooth, but when I hear that song, it still gets me.

I can give folk samples, and jazz and gospel... and rock and roll, too. Not just songs I liked.

Songs that totally blew me away the first time I heard them. Songs I would gladly travel to another city and walk several miles, just to get a copy.

Tell me one of yours.. and if you can take the time, tell me a little more than just the title of the song. I'd like you to recall the excitement you felt the first time you heard it.

Jerry