music that changed my life

As you may or may not have gathered, music has had a large impact on my life, in a very positive way for the most part. I have found it to be a common thread that unites many people around the world. Perhaps when other things don't.There have been some moments that have been more important than others though. There are a handful of bands that have actually lead me down a different path than the one I was on the day before. I would like to share the who and why if that's alright.


The first of these has to be the mighty (all of the bands in this post are 'mighty' so i will stop using it) Guns n Roses. As I said in my post on them it was really the Appetite for Destruction album that did it for me. As with most of these things much of it is down to timing. At that moment there were a lot of hair bands around and as I was about 14 or 15 it was extremely difficult to relate to them. I liked a lot of the music (I am old and secure enough to admit that out loud now) but the whole style was somewhat confusing. I mean honestly, look at this from Poison.

That is not a very good song , but look at them. I have no real issue with it per se, but it was not something that I aspired to look like as a man. I just didn't get that aspect of it at all. The music itself was incredibly flippant and all about partying. Fine, but then this came into my life

Now that was the business. I agree that they still had a little bit of the effeminate style going, but it is somehow far more menacing. The impact this had on me was huge. The sophistication of the songs and the much more macho ideals appealed to a 15 year old as you can imagine. I started to get into much heavier music from the day I heard this album. This led me to Metallica , Slayer and Maiden. Before this moment I was aware of punk and guitar music. This album brought me to the metal party and left me there unsupervised. . . which was fun. As I said in my post on them, this was it, this was the real deal and suddenly everything else I had been listening to was blown away.


Around the same time, literally, as I clearly remember taking out the Gunners tape and replacing it with a tape of recordings by this band, this exact song came on

Wow, even hearing that song today still has an impact. You can imagine what a time this was for me. First gunners and then Dead Kennedy's. I was on a school trip overnight on a bus, and I borrowed a tape off a guy whose nickname was ET. I forget his real name. I didn't actually ever give the tape back I don't think. Sorry about that ET. I literally played Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables , the album that song is off, until the damn tape broke. When it broke I came pretty close to crying as well. The anger, the political statements , the amazing bass running through it all. The songs are short, and sharper than a page of Oscar Wilde witticisms rolled up dipped into lemon juice and poked into your eye. Really sharp.

Again the impact it made on me was huge. Here was someone with something to say. It was more about the lyrics and the meaning than it was about telling the world how cool he was. or how much he drank, smoked or did drugs. This lead me into the world of Punk as well as teaching me to listen to the lyrics much more. This was the exact point in my life I realised that I wasn't going to be like everyone else in my music tastes. I was going to be different and it was going to mean a lot more to me than it seemed to when I looked at some other people.

With these two bands under my belt I started to explore the alternative universe that up to now I had only sort of realised existed. Honestly, it was like being in a room for a long time, only to suddenly realise that there was a door, I went through the door and found a much more interesting and diverse room. The music I found changed my world view. For the better.

In this spirit I came across Jane's Addiction.

That is live and is fairly trippy. That whole concert is on You Tube. I loved Jane's Addiction and I still do. The music has that kind of hippy trippy feel to it at times, and at other times it has this type of feel

I have also written that I think Three Days of their Ritual De La Habitual album is one of the best songs of all time . This whole world of more experimental, less structured music opened up to me. The amazing vocals of Perry, the equally amazing guitar of Dave Navarro and just the overall qualities of this music led me into the world of prog a lot more. Which sounds a little odd given the much more industrial sound that Janes had, but there is much more improvisation to their music, in the same way there is in prog. I was increasingly open to anything with a guitar and this filled that gap that was left by metal and punk. It is a bit of both, but neither really. I recommend listening to their albums, Nothings Shocking and Ritual de la Habitual as they are incredibly varied and interesting. I see that they are going to be putting out some more music very soon and as you can imagine I am a little excited about that.

This could go on for a very long time and I could expound on a huge number of bands and musicians, because in their own way they all had an impact on me. But I will write about just one more.

The Mercurial Aphex twin.

Ignore the first part, as it is a parody of gangsta rap videos. What a messed up video (that is just as a little aside). Enough to start questioning your eyes. Anyway, the music, that amazing sound. This was the first electronic song I really got into. This is where my love of electronic music began. From here I cascaded down into the sound scapes of Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, Biosphere, Sigur Rios etc. Trying to find that perfect sound scape. I found it in the end just around the corner from where I started as it happens

Not that I regret a minute of the journey, mind you. That piece of music touches something inside and calms it down. I think if you close your eyes and listen to that piece it is impossible to remain angry at anything. I will write a post about electronic music soon. I have not really concentrated on it at all yet.

So there you have it, four times my musical doors were opened and I was let into a world that I didn't know existed before. How cool is that? It is funny though, each time it happens I get the feeling like I cannot believe I didn't know anything. Seriously, how could I not have heard this before? This is amazing, do I know nothing?

Long may it last, long may it last.