What album made a huge impression on you when it came out?

[Rick N Boogie]

Beatles: Meet the Beatles. I was 5, and it set the course for my entire life, thusfar.

[coralreefer]

Boston - 1st Album


+1....This....is still the perfect album!!!

DrMerle

[tapeworm]

Eric Clapton unplugged. It was the album that really made me want to start playing guitar. Loved that acoustic blues sound. Then Mana' unplugged sealed the deal. From there I knew had to learn to play guitar.

[GrungeMan]

Beatles: Meet the Beatles. I was 5, and it set the course for my entire life, thusfar.

No kidding!

It was a year later when the Beatles hit North America and visited Ed Sullivan that I built my first guitar(6 years old), it was made of cardboard and had fishing line for strings!

I would stand on a cardboard box and sing, "she loves you ya ya ya, she loves you ya ya ya, she loves you ya ya ya ya yaaaaaaa!"

Moments that define our lives, man I wish I had pics of that! :D

[Steve Mavronis]

Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force (1984)

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I first heard this (Yngwie was unknown to me at the time) from a work friend who lent me 'Rising Force' on a cassette tape in 1985. I went right out and bought my own copy to play in my car and on vinyl too for home! This was way before the CD days we are used to now. The guitar sound and playing was so different than any of the mainstream hard rock/heavy metal on the local radio at the time. I really fell in love with the neoclassical sound ever since. This album is the bible of the neoclassic rock style.

[Julia343]

Pink Floyd - DSOTM
LZ II
Heart - Dreamboat Annie
ACDC - Back In Black
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Melissa Ethridge - Yes I Am
Sisters of Mercy - Slight Case of Overbombing
Rammstein - Mutter
Audioslave - Out of Exile
Lady Gaga - Born This Way
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Gangstagrass - Lightning on the Strings, Thunder on the Mic

[Radardog]

Burn- Deep Purple

That opening riff just hits you right in the face

Jim K

[TD_Madden]

Chris Whitley

[NorCal_Val]

IOU-Holdsworth
Rising Force-Yngwie
Polytown-Torn/Bozzio/Karn
Tones & Ah Via Musicom-EJ
Second Heat-Racer X
City-Strapping Young Lad
Temporary Analogues of Paradise-Lane/Hellborg/Sipe
Octave of the Holy Innocents-Hellborg/Buckethead/Shrieve

[vrdyer]

Hendrix - Band of Gypsy's

[Project Hayes]

Whitesnake (1987)

[VaughnC]

"Meet the Beatles"...and all that followed would likely never have happened had it not come about.

[tsar nicholas]

Massive Attack - "Mezzanine"

I was 19, changed my life for the weirder


To this day, my favorite LP of all time

[IGuitUpIGuitDown]

I was born too late to hear it when it first came out. For the life of me I couldn't get into it right away cause it was way over my head (like listening to Trane's Interstellar Space). I'd play it over and over until I could recognize bits and pieces of things that were familiar from other music(s). I haven't been the same since...

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I was listening to this along with Close To The Edge, Meddle, Thick As A Brick, and Bowie's Low, as a kid. No wonder I still play guitar to this day!

Eno's Another Green World was another major step for me. And Red, by Crimson. I realized at a very early age that a great song didn't have to be complex, but some incredibly great songs definitely WERE complex. And I've continued to write songs the same way, ever since. Never the same length, but always intriguing no matter what the song.

[GFR4LYF]

For me it was Grand Funk Railroad, "Live" album, I was thirteen at the time and I was hooked from side1 to the end of side 2. And I've been a fan of their's ever since! I had all of their albums, 8-tracks and now CD's.

[JohnnyGtar]

:bow"Vivid" by :bowLiving Colour. It STILL kicks my ass.
For my money, it's one of the 10 greatest rock albums of all time.

[willc68]

Sonic Youth "Bad Moon Rising"
Big Black " Songs about ****ing"

Bought these both about the same time and they really got me thinking about what music could be.

[buddyrama]

David Lindley- El Rayo X
King Crimson- Discipline
Bill Frisell- Good Dog Happy Man

[sears]

waterboys - this is the sea

[Patrick Ginnaty]

Disraeli Gears

[CharlyG]

Starting in HS, these are the ones that hit me thru the years as they were released.

Green River
The White Album, and Let it Be
Tommy
America's first
Tres Hombres
Born To Run, and the only one of his I bought!

[pdouds]

Band of Gypsys, Breezin', Blow by blow, Machine Head, Crusaders Chain Reaction.

[frank62]

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? snapped my head around (what the hell was that sound!!!)
Yes, exactly, what was THAT!!! I thought he must be from outer space at the time. It was so different from anything I ever heard. It still sounds fresh today.

[lawrencedesigns]

Duane Eddy.."$1,000,000 Worth of Twang"
and I told my parents I wanted a guitar...

Super Session
and I realized why I had picked up the guitar...

[urizen]

Pere Ubu----The Modern Dance (Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica had the same effect years earlier when IT came out).

[thedroid]

Double Nickels on the Dime - the Minutemen

[gigs]

TIE: Tres Hombres and Electric Ladyland

I was just learning to play guitar at the time. Wore those albums out.

[Sidmore]

ZZ Top - Eliminator
AC/DC - Back in Black
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
GnR - Appetite for Destruction

1980 - 1989 would be about 5th -12th grade for me and these are just a few of the albums that really made an impression on me and

[brentrocks]

Frehleys Comet
Velvet Revolver....Contraband
Tesla.................Great Radio Contoversary
Metallica............And justice for all
Great White........Once Bitten
WASP................The Crimson Idol
GnR...................Appetite for Destruction

[Tuberoast]

Led Zeppelin II
Genesis Selling England By The Pound
XTC Drums and Wires

[Dr. Tweedbucket]

Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Pronounced' was a great album. They showed up at a time when disco was raging and bands like Boston, Foreigner, and Kansas were on the airwaves .... things were getting weird :huh Skynyrd seemed to be a breath of fresh air (to me anyway). And yes, everyone thought that Freebird was such a KILLER tune (and it was).

Heart's debut album was something very cool too! Seeing Ann and Nancy belt it out in concert was an amazing thing. I've never heard any female sing with that kind of power!

Van Halen - Van Halen - geeze, rock seemed all but dead and then THESE guys showed up!! :eeks

[Twangdaddy]

Joan Baez (1960)

http://i967.photobucket.com/albums/ae157/yasker/220px-JoanBaezAlbum.jpg

Began listening to it about 1963, when I was 9 years old. The clarity and complexity of her fingerpicking really spoke to me. Had never heard a guitar played like that.

[dmb70]

KISS Alive II & The Donnas Spend The Night

[oxtone]

Hendrix - Monterey Pop & Band of Gypsy's
Eric Johnson - A Via Musicom
Hellecasters - The Return of

[dancehall]

Radiohead - OK Computer

The moment I heard the opening notes I knew it was going to be a classic.

Yeah, this. A monumental record. It made clear that there was a new king; Radiohead was the greatest band in the world.

[deeohgee]

The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead
Aphex Twin - I Care Because You Do
Ginger Baker Trio - Going Back Home

[A-Bone]

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[Captain Midnite]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/617wgd-Nb1L._SS500_.jpg

[nlopez]

No order
Van halen
Blizzard of Oz
Hemispheres / PW, MP

[shredtrash]

The Cult "Electric". Raw rock and roll at its finest!

[Goldburst]

Like many here, I would also put VH1 and Kiss Alive, but here's something different...

Consider in the late 70's/early 80's guitar playing was dominated by the usual album-rock stuff... and I liked that stuff too.... but I also had a soft spot for "50's rock" like Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, (early) Elvis. Not many did.

And then in 1982 comes this band which played all that stuff AND took that style of guitar to a whole new level....

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/3d/Built_For_Speed_cover.jpg