The Most Influential Song or Album

[redbaron]

Do you have an album or a song that you think really influenced you as a guitarist, back when you started playing?

Writing my entry over at the "song game" thread, I came to think that Gary Moore´s 1983 album, Victims of the Future, quite possibly did the most for me as a guitarist. I bought it 2 years later when I had just started to play electric guitar, and Gary´s style on that album simply defined for me the way I wanted to sound one day. Since it is more or less Gary´s only "classic heavy rock" album, sometimes a bit rough (Murder in the skies, Shapes of things), sometimes very melodic with keyboards (Hold on to love, Empty rooms), and sometimes just straight Rock´n´Roll (Teenage idol), I think it was this album that kept me from becoming a punk or funk player.

And some things from back then are still there when I try to come up with songs, solos, riffs, sounds. I´m infatuated with runs, with repetitive licks, with very melodic parts suddenly coming out of rhythmic or fast playing. That´s Gary´s DNA...

[GuitarSlinger]

Pink Floyd The Wall. Though there are so many others and different styles, but I've never really obsessed over learning every song from any other album. There are certain "Floydisms" that come out in my music no matter what style I'm doing.

[bluesydude]

For me it was Santana - Abraxas. From the first moment I heard it, it changed the way I listened to music. There was so much more to the music than just drum, bass, guitar and vocal. It is full of flavor with the piano and organ and all that percussion.

It changed the way I played guitar. But when I heard Carlos go from blistering hot to sultry smooth in a short passage, I fell in love with guitar. This album opened my eyes to the world of passionate playing; music played from the soul.

This influence is evident in my song Breeze.

[mickeymix]

For me it was Keith hitting an open G chord back around 67-68 that hooked me! Rythym 1st then the leads came later.....but if it weren't for ole Keith .....well then it would have been George Harrison and the Beatles..... More came later but those were FIRST!

[scott]

Mine was KISS Alive II. That inside cover of the stage set - Paul and Ace on their hydraulic platform, Gene on his and that huge drum riser for Peter. Wow!! Then you put the record on and get blown away by the atmosphere and the music.
The album changed everything for me.

[Charvelguy]

Kiss Alive
I'm a little older ...I still have my 45's.

[Sandman]

Wow. Good thread! Can't pin it on one. OYE COMO VA/Let the Children Play.

For me, in roughly this order, missing many but here's a few.

Chuck Berry > Thick as a brick > Les Paul & Chet Atkins "Chester & Lester" > The live version of "I want you to want me" > Houses of the Holy > MoonFlower > David Lindley > The Lead in Peter Tosh's version of Johnny B Good > Ry Cooder > George Benson > Stevie Ray/Buddy Guy/Albert Collins > Elvin Bishop > Django Reinhardt > Danny Gatton.

Pretty convoluted, but real just the same. There so many greats.

[yahsteck1]

For me in the begining it was Lynyard Skynyard and almost nothing but for 4 or 5 years until i heard Satriani in the late 80's and was and still a Satch head!. But, for overall guitar playing, composition, singing and just plain caracter since around 1990 , it's been EJ , and Cliffs Of Dover still is my fave all time tune since i first heard it. i remember going up Rt 81 N going to the 1,000 Islands and flicking through all the overplayed and geting boring and tasteless music of the late 80's( Dont get me wrong, there was excelent stuff just not fresh nor inspiering for me) when all of a suden it was like a light came into the void as i hear this pure melodic,expresive clean and dirty sound all in one that i have never heard befor! After that i searced the air for that song and heard it a couple more times but i misstook the name and searched the stores for Eric Dover! LOL!!! Sorry about the tangent but that one song has had an influence on me in more ways than one!!!!!!!!!
But now there are so many that i am influenced by it's just a melting pot and i goe through phases! Oh and one more thing (or 2)For the way i've composed (the composition of the body) alot of the Riffcast songs there is a huge influnce of Steve Morse! and for that raw expressive vibes i'ts Jeff Beck! .. man i could keep going,lol! Hey ther is a game ... we have to figure what each others influences are by listing to there songs.........dont wory, i still have others ... can you guess..??????

[JohnN]

It was Machinehead by Deep Purple which influenced me to take up guitar. I definitely don't play like Blackmore (I can't play fast due to arthritis, and my mind works way toooooo slow) tho' I can dial up his tone and touch.

I mostly do *not* try to emulate the players I listen too (or is it that I cannot <grin>). I am a big Steve Morse and John Petrucci fan and I prefer to just listen to them.

When I started playing, I think the biggest influences on my playing style were Tommy Bolin (non-traditional runs), Carlos Santana (awesome beats, awesome scales, breathstopping 'feel'), and Mark Knopfler (beautiful crispness, magic harmony). I threw away my pick for about 15 years after listening to the first Dire Straits album when it came out.

As a bass player, which I do much more of than guitar, it's definitely Roger Glover (Deep Purple) on "Made in Japan" who influenced me to play bass - but I don't emulate him - I don't really emulate anybody on bass. I am not a virtuoso bassist, but my drummer says that I keep the band together and stop it getting boring - he calls me "The Glue". My current fave bassists are John Myung (Dream Theater), Dave LaRue, Stu Hamm, and anybody who plays Latin music. Heck, I'll even listen to Shakira for the beat!

Right now, with RW, I am trying to cross genres. Hank Marvin-like trem sounds to an african beat, or clean reverbed, echoed picked chords to a reggae bass beat, etc. It keeps me amused.

Love the topic, love reading the responses.
J

[bluesydude]

I have to admit that Jimi Hendrix also had a HUGE impact on me. I never could play his stuff because he was left-handed.

[Charvelguy]

My introduction into Gary Moore was Thin Lizzy, but through Victims, I got drawn into his solo stuff as a band I was in used to cover his version of Shapes after hearing it on the air.
I must say, Victims I played to death in the 80's. Killer tone and playing.
I liked Corridors too, but not as much...productions and songs?

Love his Blues stuff too. I probably like that even more.

[JohnN]

I'm old so when I say that my first introduction to Gary Moore was "Electric Savage" by Colloseum II, I'm showing my age. I loved that vinyl and played it to death.

I ran into Don Airey who played keys on that album, backstage at a Deep Purple concert in Toronto around 2005, and he was quite amused and flattered that I wanted to talk about those days rather than DP. He said that he and Gary Moore were talking about doing something but I never kept track.

J

[pooterpatty]

It all happened for me when I bought Van Halen's "Fair Warning". As soon as I heard Ed, I was hooked. From then on I tortured my family continually with bad guitar playing and ill-advised whammy bar acrobatics, just like every kid my age back in the 80s

[Wedgebill]

When I was young my main guitar playing influence was my mum and dads' next door neighbour, every time I played something she used to bang on the wall and say shut the f**k up :rolleyes:

[cwight]

Giving my age away here, but for me it was Fleetwood Mac and the Green Manalishi, pure menace, but great composition.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYBQdXv0BhM

Then it was Free Live, which I learned to play note for note, then Hendrix, All along the Watchtower. And finally Hendrix 'Little Wing', which was when I realised, that maybe I should probably get a day job....