first song you heard that blew your mind, changed your life, or made you kick ass

[walrus]

So much music has effected my life. Pretty every Beatle song, the blues Motown and so much more. Even a couple rap songs got to me but I think I would have to say the first song that blew me away was Roundabout by Yes. They were the first band I saw live and I was in awe. Jon Anderson is a bit of a nut but o my goodness what a great live band. Roundabout still sticks out but every song they did introduced me to How good a live band could be.

So much good live music I've seen, the dead, the who, the stones McCartney, Grisham, Dylan, Phish, bluegrass and many many many many more.

As far as top shows go, I think I have to say Bob Dylan, a true American poet.

[greynotsoold]

Two.
I used to listen to my older cousin's records, but the Beatles didn't do much for me, and still don't. Creedence, nothing. Then I heard this...

It was like finding God. Then I was born again a decade later...

That first lick was everything I had been waiting to hear my whole life. Which was 17 years at that point, but still.

[walrus]

Understood grey, I can't imagine someone not liking the Beatles but then again I can't imagine someone liking motley crew. I think that's part of the beauty of music, so much out there to touch everyone.

[Kirkland Laing]

Debbie Harry, my first girlfriend, in a red and white striped outfit. I was a very early developing Sunderland-supporting nine year old. Hard to overstate the effect this had on me. Started a lifelong addiction to dirty blondes.

[Kirkland Laing]

And then next Thursday she was live in the Top Of The Pops studio.

[Gandalf]

I listened to The Beatles from about the age of 12 and that was me growing up a little bit beyond Humpty Dumpty, but the first album that really made my jaw drop open was the Ziggy Stardust album. I was just hooked. It was so different. Then from that you discover artists like Lou Reed and The Stooges and I remember the impact Transformer had on me. I felt like Indiana Jones discovering this stuff. It was very exciting.

Also at the time British music was going through a resurgence and bands like Pulp, Suede, and Manic Street Preachers were suddenly in vogue and for a young outsider like me it was as though the revolution was happening. Then you discover older albums these bands had made like The Holy Bible and Dog Man Star and it was life changing.

I miss being so emotionally affected by music and that buzz is what I am continuously searching for. It is what I imagine a religious experience must be like.

[brocktonblockbust]

One hot humid late August evening in 1979 I was sitting on the curb with my friend Jeff and our friend Roger was standing in front of us with a boombox and he said first let's smoke this joint of Hawaiian reefer and then I will play you a song. So we sat in silence on a curb in a nice quiet tree-lined residential suburban neighborhood in quiet in the hot humid summer night about 9 p.m. Roger lit the joint which was rather fat and long. I was about 16 years old gf was 15 and Roger was 17. As we smoke the joint and had a very strange sweet flavor to it and he kept saying Hawaiian Hawaiian Hawaiian and we started to get more and more high. By the time we made it three quarters through that joint we were so stoned that I don't remember if I had my eyes open or not. Jeff had the final bit of joint between his fingers and he forgot to take a hit and we all forgot to continue smoking that's how stoned we were. So we sat in silence for about 5 minutes unable to speak or move. The neighborhood was quiet as hell you could hear a pin drop from 200 feet away. There was not even the sound of crickets only the occasional flashing of fireflies or what we call in New Jersey lightning bugs. Suddenly 100 million miles in the distance I heard the faint sound of violins slowly slowly approaching a long single drawn out note quite similar two violins in unison the fade in of the sound seem to take an eternity and it went from barely audible over the course of one or two minutes to slightly detectable and it grabbed our ears like some kind of a religious epiphany although it was a single note of a violin or violence slowly coming from 100 million miles away little by little little by little slowly fading in a little bit louder a little bit louder and then after 15 or 20 seconds a little bit louder. What me and Jeff didn't realize was that Roger had hit the play button on his boombox and the very long extended fade in of shine on you crazy diamond had begun playing. It was absolutely mind-blowing I will never forget it it seems the violin introduction last in two or three or four minutes and our mouths were hanging open in stone Hawaiian amazement as the fading of the song got louder and louder in a crescendo and then when the first for guitar notes came in we felt we were before the altar of God and we were worshipping at the altar of God in complete stoned out Hawaiian bliss out of our minds. That song blew our minds through the universe and back.

[walrus]

One hot humid late August evening in 1979 I was sitting on the curb with my friend Jeff and our friend Roger was standing in front of us with a boombox and he said first let's smoke this joint of Hawaiian reefer and then I will play you a song. So we sat in silence on a curb in a nice quiet tree-lined residential suburban neighborhood in quiet in the hot humid summer night about 9 p.m. Roger lit the joint which was rather fat and long. I was about 16 years old gf was 15 and Roger was 17. As we smoke the joint and had a very strange sweet flavor to it and he kept saying Hawaiian Hawaiian Hawaiian and we started to get more and more high. By the time we made it three quarters through that joint we were so stoned that I don't remember if I had my eyes open or not. Jeff had the final bit of joint between his fingers and he forgot to take a hit and we all forgot to continue smoking that's how stoned we were. So we sat in silence for about 5 minutes unable to speak or move. The neighborhood was quiet as hell you could hear a pin drop from 200 feet away. There was not even the sound of crickets only the occasional flashing of fireflies or what we call in New Jersey lightning bugs. Suddenly 100 million miles in the distance I heard the faint sound of violins slowly slowly approaching a long single drawn out note quite similar two violins in unison the fade in of the sound seem to take an eternity and it went from barely audible over the course of one or two minutes to slightly detectable and it grabbed our ears like some kind of a religious epiphany although it was a single note of a violin or violence slowly coming from 100 million miles away little by little little by little slowly fading in a little bit louder a little bit louder and then after 15 or 20 seconds a little bit louder. What me and Jeff didn't realize was that Roger had hit the play button on his boombox and the very long extended fade in of shine on you crazy diamond had begun playing. It was absolutely mind-blowing I will never forget it it seems the violin introduction last in two or three or four minutes and our mouths were hanging open in stone Hawaiian amazement as the fading of the song got louder and louder in a crescendo and then when the first for guitar notes came in we felt we were before the altar of God and we were worshipping at the altar of God in complete stoned out Hawaiian bliss out of our minds. That song blew our minds through the universe and back.

Holy cow dude, I don't like much to bring up my past follies but I had a very similar experience with Floyd's comfortably numb.

[El Kabong]

The first song ever that blew my mind Shiiiiit I'll have to think this over for a while because there are quite a few.

The very first Beatles song I got hooked on was this....

Just the nice guitar work, the feedback buzz to start it off, the harmonizing...I celebrate The Beatles entire catalog of music, but 'I Feel Fine' really got the hooks in me.


The Doors - Riders on the Storm

This song (along with the middle portion of The Beatles - 'A Day In The Life' ) had this eerie vibe to it, Jim Morrison was great at using a mishmash of nonsensical words to paint a picture in your mind and when you're a youngster that kind of thing really gets to you. Those songs were almost scary to a point, like if there was a "horror music" genre those two would feature. Thank God it took me a while to hear "The End" by The Doors because that is creepy as well....and for a couple of reasons.


And in my own era, growing up in the 1980's

Everything about the music, the video, the clothes Michael Jackson was wearing, everything about 'Billie Jean' was fucking amazing

and when I got to the 1990's

Still love some Weezer, great band....bunch of geeks but great band. I wore that CD to shreds, the entire blue album is worth a listen.

[El Kabong]

I still find music that blows my mind...some of it is actually SEEING the performances which is why Elvis and James Brown and Prince and Michael Jackson all really get celebrated but check this out....





....that made Eric Clapton go "Holy shit, they didn't say he was THAT good"


To play like that and to look so relaxed, to be in the moment and having a good time while just killing it on the guitar is just....it is Heavenly

[Spicoli]

To go absolutely simple, all of the old shit I still listen to. In different styles and first time as a kid. Hendrix are you experienced blew my mind. Beastie boys Paul Revere. Black Sabbath Planet Caravan. Exploited Alternative, SOD United Forces, Marley Marl The Symphony, Madness One step beyond, Son House grinning in your face, Skynyrd Simple Man, this could go on a while. Music is in the moment. Today it was Ozzy over the mountain that left a trail of arses kicked

[SlimTrae]

I had to really think about this. Growing up hearing only R & B & Funk- I was blown away literally when I heard a song called Fly Like an Eagle- and it wasn't a black band. The music, lyrics, man.



As a kid- I was a total funkateer- George Clinton, Parliament. Then a protégée of their bass player Bootsy brought out a band called Zapp featuring Roger Troutman. The bass line was like nothing we'd ever heard. The voice box- that only Peter Frampton had used- and sparingly. More Bounce to the Ounce -if U ask any person who loves funk: was the pinnacle of Funk, bass and groove.

The first guitar solo I'd ever heard- after this- I KNEW I wanted a guitar. Slide by Slave.

solo about 2 minutes in.

[brocktonblockbust]

I am and I have always been a Jimi Hendrix fanatic Jimi Hendrix blows my mind every time whether I was high or not

[IamInuit]

I'll never forget this song and its odd that I noticed this thread around the same time I learned Cory Wells just died. 11 years old and first kiss at Camp Tawasi in Qu'Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan. Red shoe-string licorice and a girl with one end in each of our mouths. First kiss.





This one also right in and around the same time perhaps a year later. Both entire Albums really

[El Kabong]

The Three Dog Night version of Chest Fever?!?!?! YOU'RE MAD! MAD!!!!

LEVON! My man!

But I will tell you this, as far as music giving you chills on how good it is, how it can hit a nerve, how it can make you feel great emotion this song never fails to get to me Richard Manuel was such a talent, and if you knew how he chose to meet his end it hits you even harder.


also this one

Shows the depth of Jimi, he could wail on guitar but he could play soft and draw you in and get you to listen.


But that's sad stuff, and I like to be happy, and this song makes me really happy


As does this one




But one that REALLY blew my mind

Steve Winwood is CRIMINALLY underrated