The one song that changed everything...

[Stringer]

Same.

[jimmyjazz]

Smells Like Teen Spirit woke me up.

Yeah, that one shook me out of a rambling funk that had been going on for years. It's not that there wasn't good music out there, but there was something about that song which raised the bar so much higher, it just clarified everything.

I'm loving the Van Halen references -- to this day, I will never forget being dropped off with several other 15-year-old goofballs by one of our parents to see the VH 2 tour in St. Louis (1978). The parking lot of that arena was seemingly nothing but Camaros, every one of them broadcasting KSHE-FM loud as hell, and they happened to be playing "Eruption" as we rolled into the lot. My life changed at that moment. Can't believe our parents drove us 100 miles (and back) to see that show.

[clear lake horn]

As a kid I pretty much just listened to Top Forty radio. On a field trip to Austin I caught KLBJ on my portable radio and these two songs immediately switched me over to Rock and Roll.

Two of my all-time favorites.

[goofyboy]

I can't choose one song that changed everything. For me there are three:



Then:



(Already Posted)

[YoLaDu]

Smells Like Teen Spirit woke me up.

This is going to sound like i am slagging the song or Nirvana, but i am not, Teen Spirit and NeverMind are definitely good records.

But at the time, when i heard Smells Like Teen Spirit, i kind of went ok, it's good, catchy, i like it, nothing groundbreaking.

In the early 90s, there had already been two recently released similarly catchy, cruchy, grungy, anti-Poison, seminal type "indie rock" songs which i thought were even better. Hell, the lyrical content was even similarly themed.

Superchunk - "Slack $#@!" & Dinosaur Jr - "Freak Scene"






Nirvana benefited from having an overall better album, (not to mention the money and backing of a major label) which propelled them into superstardom, but I always thought these two tunes did it first and better than Smells Like Teen Spirit.

[skipperj]

This changed the way I looked at music and many ways life. It's still my number one song, and when I need to reset myself, I put this on.

[retread]

More Than a Feeling - Boston. I'm sure I had heard it before, but one day we were at the pool and it came on. I was thinking WTF! Who is this? Went out and got Boston and Don't Look Back that week. I couldn't tell you how many times I've listened to their first and second albums.

Demo version:

[clear lake horn]

This changed the way I looked at music and many ways life. It's still my number one song, and when I need to reset myself, I put this on.

Great song and album. One of my favorites to this day. Sugar Magnolia, Truckin', Operator, Friend of the Devil.

[Rip76]

There are two moments for me.....

1981, 8 or 9 years of age (I always loved music as a kid, but this changed it all. This version)



Senior Year 1991

[Patrick Swayze]

Well, when I was 10 I had my dad take me to the record store to get Metallica "Master of Puppets" which I had heard at a friend's house. We would listen to them and megadeth while skating a quarter pipe in his driveway so I wasn't a stranger to heavier music. But two other things stick out in my mind as the game changers. Not the greatest songs or bands, but opened my eyes to another world of stuff going on. First was Helmet "Unsung." Saw the video when it first came out and was confused. It was heavy and angry, melodic at times but it wasn't metal and the band didn't have long hair. I went out and bought the cd. Still love it. Especially the title track and FBLA II and Role Model.

The other moment was in 1993 when my family and I went to visit my older brother at UT. They were having a house party in West Campus and some of the guys my brother roomed with were, well, the polo shirt kind of fellas. The music being played on the stereo was nothing remotely heavy. One of my brother's friends from way back was there and he puts the just released debut from Rage Against The Machine on. When Bombtrack kicked in at a very loud volume the looks on the faces of the people was $#@!ing classic. My brother's friend was moshing by himself and I thought, well that looks a lot more fun than the bull$#@! those other $#@!s seem to like.

\csb

[jimmyjazz]

Swayze, do you remember Johnboy? They were sort of Austin's punkier version of Helmet. Great live band, lots of fun (even if the hard stuff isn't my usual cup of tea).

Helmet's drummer was insanely good. Traditionally trained, too.

[Pokoloco]

Saw REM perform So Central Rain (was actually unnamed at the time) on Letterman in 1983.

[bizzle]

good calls on 'once'. that definitely nudged me further down the road away from klty.

[Bogeywon]

winner

[the_ruby_man]

[the_ruby_man]

I was about 12 years old and was hooked on rap since.

The next game changer for me was in high school with:

[Patrick Swayze]

Swayze, do you remember Johnboy? They were sort of Austin's punkier version of Helmet. Great live band, lots of fun (even if the hard stuff isn't my usual cup of tea).

Helmet's drummer was insanely good. Traditionally trained, too.

No, I don't think I remember them. What years were they active? I moved to Austin in 95 although I was up there a lot in the early 90s visiting my brother. I agree John Stanier is an amazing drummer. Very underrated.

[AnotherUTFan]

I've been reluctant to reply because I'm really into so many styles of music that I couldn't name one single song that changed everything, I can think of about 10.

That said, I'm a Rocker at the core and have been as long as I can remember. This song was released when I was 7 or 8 and actually got radio airplay at the time. I know because 7 or 8 year old AUTF used to sit by the radio waiting for it to come on. I can think of other rock songs I dug before this one, but I think this was the first time I remember feeling it in my balls.



Cat Scratch Fever

And if you get a chance to see Ted, political BS aside, go. He still puts on a great show and is one of the most amazing rock guitar players you'll ever see. I've seen him about a dozen times, the last being front row last summer and will be seeing him again in April. I ran into him once at the MSP airport and he was actually a very cool and personable human being as well.

[Bookman]

I was going to post this one.

[TaxMaster]

Pancho and Lefty by Townes Van Zandt
If I had to chose one album to listen to without a doubt it would be TVZ's Live at the Old Quarter.

[goofyboy]

This changed rap for me:

[hullabelew]

In 1978, I read a David Fricke review in Rolling Stone about a new band from Boston named The Cars. He talked specifically about the guitar solo in "Just What I Needed" and described the guitarist as 'burning rubber, doing a u-turn". As a junior in high school, I got in my car and drove 30 miles to the closest town with a 'record store' and bought the 8-track. Never heard a note of the album until the way home. I had never heard any music like that.

Then in college in 83 or 84, I found a sample cassette from I.R.S. with a bunch of 'new bands' on it. Stan Ridgeway doing "The Big Heat" and R.E.M. doing "Pretty Persuasion". Murmur had been released but I never paid much attention to it, and "Reckoning" wasn't out yet but "Pretty Persuasion" burned in to my musical mind and opened me up to this new college radio sound.

I asked my brother, (3 years younger than me) this question last night and he said that R.E.M.'s "Rockville" was his song. At the time, we really weren't talking that much about music but to have two songs from the same album impact us like that is amazing to me. (Harborcoat is a close second for me but I might have never heard it were it not for that I.R.S. sampler).

[Chico_SA]

[YoLaDu]

How many different releases/versions/mixes of Blue Monday are there? It must be close to 100!

I love New Order and i understand the impact of this song, but i always liked their more poppy stuff than their discoy stuff.

[machete]

1994...7th or 8th grade, I wasn't really into music at the time. My dad of all people comes home with this new album and told me to give it a listen. I became obsessed with the genre from that moment:

[Chico_SA]

How many different releases/versions/mixes of Blue Monday are there? It must be close to 100!

I love New Order and i understand the impact of this song, but i always liked their more poppy stuff than their discoy stuff.

Lots!! I think for me the impact was on more of a willingness to listen to "new" things. I think this was among the vinyl recordings(including Smiths, Depeche Mode, etc..) my brother brought home from college, and it stood out.

[YoLaDu]

cool. lots of stories of big brothers turning their younger brothers on to new/different music.

[MirrOlure]

From the Mid 70's, in the backseat of a Buick, being played on the 8-Track through last week, playing on my iPod hooked up to my Audi A6.......and at many points in between:

[Homercles]

I think I was about 8 years old, accompanying my mother on a road trip...she threw in a Dark Side tape and ffwd over to Time, thinking I'd like the song for the unique percussion. At the time I approved of this "Pink Floyd" business but went back to doing my own thing.

FFWD to 13 years old, I've got Dark Side in my Walkman and I'm laying on my stomach in the back of a USAF KC-135 flying over the German countryside (hitching a ride from Incirlik to Rhein-Main) looking down through the refuellers window. Suddenly it made sense, and I eventually burned that tape up until there was no treble left on it. Couldn't give you details but it was a new world of music.

FFW to 19, and we're listening to the CD for the 8th time in a smokey room. It dawns on me the layers involved in Floyd, and I marvel at the engineering needed to pull it off in an analog world and the forethought required to plan it all out. David's genius multi tracking of his guitar, epic drum intro by Nick, the walking bass line and universal lyrics from Roger, and the sweeping organ from Rick...all the pieces were there to be admired individually, or taken as a whole. This spurred my love of electronic music later, that ease with which you can reassemble to your liking.

FFW to 20, headphones on in a darkened room, the substance involved a bit stronger. Beyond deconstructing the tracks of Dark Side, I'm playing with them and talking to them...they become mine and drive emotional connections vs just cool music. The rarely-mentioned Any Colour You Like is a playground.

Anyways yeah Time opened up the door to a whole new way of listening music, that served me well even as I changed. The marvel of the entire album is that the lyrics still hold true, even as their surface meaning changed depending on what part of my life I was going through at the time.

/CSB, Rambling, I'll STFU, etc. Good topic though.

[machete]

From the Mid 70's, in the backseat of a Buick, being played on the 8-Track through last week, playing on my iPod hooked up to my Audi A6.......and at many points in between:

Fond memories of this song being played in my Dad's pickup when I was growing up. Quality.

[Rip76]

cool. lots of stories of big brothers turning their younger brothers on to new/different music.

Yeah, I like reading this stuff....

My dad played trumpet in the Longhorn Band from '53 - '55.
He was very very into jazz...
So I got the love of jazz from him.

My mom turned me on to all the great Motown/Stax stuff...

My sister (graduated in '75) turned me on to:
Chicago, Faces, Fleetwood Mac, Rod Stewart, ZZTop, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, early Elton and a lot of great '60's bands.
(I've never met anyone that knows more about music than her).

My brother (Graduated in '80), turned me on to:
Rush, Van Halen, Queen, Pat Travers, The Nuge, Boston, Aerosmith, The Cars, etc...

Me, graduated in '91 (Yes, I wasn't planned)
Favorite band Rush.

[GDLover]

Raised on Willie, Jerry Jeff and the boys (no girls). But that was my Parent's scene. Love it still today. By middle school I was consuming a diet of music my peers liked, and only later realized I could barely stand some of that $#@!. On the bus in 7th grade I rocked this $#@! and everything changed.

[GDLover]

Made my decision to go to Texas simple. Loved this band in the early 90's.

[Patrick Swayze]

Raised on Willie, Jerry Jeff and the boys (no girls). But that was my Parent's scene. Love it still today. By middle school I was consuming a diet of music my peers liked, and only later realized I could barely stand some of that $#@!. On the bus in 7th grade I rocked this $#@! and everything changed.

$#@! yes. Favorite concert...1995, Liberty Lunch. unfuckingreal energy.

[GDLover]

^^^^ Go to the Discord records site. They are releasing remastered live shows to download for free. They have Houston from 1993 and that show at the lunch. I had forgotten the level of smug $#@!ishness that is Ian, but he often has a point too.

[retread]

Wolfgang's Vault is a great site for listening to live concerts. They have a lot of older shows, but they may have some newer stuff too.

[Monty86]

cool. lots of stories of big brothers turning their younger brothers on to new/different music.

Truth. After my awakening by Van Halen, I joined the Columbia 8-track club and my older bro helped me pick out my 12 tapes for $0.01; don't remember all of them but for sure it included VH1, Frampton Comes Alive, Aqualung, Toys in the Attic, Boston, Dark Side of the Moon, Rumors, Sgt. Peppers, Revolver, Who's Next.

[Rip76]

Oh $#@!...
12 for .01

[mileslong]

my older brother turned me onto rock, this was the first album i ever listened to...



first songs i bought for myself were:

1) "and you and i" from the closer to the edge album by yes
2) "stairway to heaven" led zep
3) "rocket man" by elton
4) "heart of gold" by neil young
5) "american pie" by don mclean

[Lonestarman]

What a great thread. It's somewhat unbelievable, really. I believe I like every song in this thread. Including the original tune. I am kind of a music whore in that way. I am all overthedamnplace.

For me, what changed me was discovering Eric Clapton. I couldn't decide which tune to pick.

Once I found him, I ate up everything I could find. He is still probably my favorite artist.

So I picked a song I remember hearing for the first time and thinking, wow. Holy$#@!.

I still learn a new appreciation for him sometimes when I dial up one of his many, many tunes. That doesn't happen with some of the other greats I tune into on a regular basis.

[Patrick Swayze]

^^^^ Go to the Discord records site. They are releasing remastered live shows to download for free. They have Houston from 1993 and that show at the lunch. I had forgotten the level of smug $#@!ishness that is Ian, but he often has a point too.

They have the two shows listed, but the audio is not available. Nor is the show 3 years later i caught at liberty lunch. I saw them one more time when I was living in DC in the basement of a church. I don't see that show listed though. Man, what a band! I wish I could see them one more time.

[Longhorn Al]

I wasn't that into music before 7th grade, and even then I listened to crap. One birthday my mom bought me Led Zeppelin II. From that point on, I was hooked on classic rock and LZ.

[Jive Turkey]

i'd say this song. i loved top 40 radio growing up. hell, i remember listening to my "Rhinestone Cowboy" album day and night in 1975. but i guess i didn't realize the power of music until i heard "Under Pressure." the raw emotion had such an impact on me. that's the first time i remember being caught up in the lyrics and understanding what music can do to your soul. to this day it's one of my 10 favorite songs ever recorded.

[the idoit]

Took me a few days to narrow it to one. My tastes were very eclectic from an early age. So many candidates from so many genres.

Heard it sitting on the beach in Port A on C-101 (... "101, by the sea") in the Spring of 1979. The minimalist simplicity was refreshing and almost astonishing, especially in retrospect considering the complexity of the chord structure and meter. It really changed the way I listened to music.

[gtown04]

[Lonestarman]

i'd say this song. i loved top 40 radio growing up. hell, i remember listening to my "Rhinestone Cowboy" album day and night in 1975. but i guess i didn't realize the power of music until i heard "Under Pressure." the raw emotion had such an impact on me. that's the first time i remember being caught up in the lyrics and understanding what music can do to your soul. to this day it's one of my 10 favorite songs ever recorded.

God damn that is a fantastic $#@!ing song. No matter who you are. No matter what you do for a living. Hell, if you don't have a job. Or maybe you are just trying to maintain your scholarship at Texas. Or maybe something else.

No matter, whatever. That tune dials it on in. Pressure, exactly. It tests and it outs. It is an ugly thing. But it is so damn important to let us know who is who.

Sucks. But. What the $#@! can you do.

Great words.

[STFU Donny]

The greatest high hat in music history.

[IAhawk15]

In high school, I listened to a lot of the stuff mentioned above: Green Day, Pearl Jam, Oasis, Nirvana, STP; but only learned of it through mainstream radio. I got to college, and quickly became dissatisfied with the radio choice of either metal w/classic rock mixed in, or dance/pop. So I dove into the oldies, working through all the Beatles albums, "discovering" The Guess Who, Kinks, Yardbirds, etc.

After college, a work buddy lent me a copy of Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. After listening to the first track, "I am Trying to Break Your Heart," I decided to never listen to mainstream radio again.

http://youtu.be/zlxH9-TYseY

[mileslong]

i was learning some new guitar tunes this weekend and came across the gem of an old album of mine, i ripped it to mp3. if there was ever an album or song that impacted me more than this one i don't know what that is. started crying listening to it for the first time in forever, remembering old friends come and gone. we would sit around with guitars and sing this whole album after our football games in high school.../csb

if anyone wants this album i will be happy to upload it for them, its impossible to find...nothing represents texas music more than bw stevenson, also met him at the longhorn ballroom in dallas one time, he was a super nice guy too...

[MagnusTheGreat]

It was game over after this.