Albums that made you say WTF when you first heard them

My main WTF moment was the Norman Greenbaum's Spirit in the Sky. The title track completely bowled me over (still does). Definitely had to have the album . Expecting an album much like the title track (or better yet an unedited 20 min opus Spirit) with the glorious fuzz and beeps, I was totally bewildered from what I was hearing. The title track came out of left field as to say. Years later I revisited Spirit and there appears a cohesion albeit slight among the tracks. there was a distinct charm to the album, but damn, a whole album that pumped like the title track would've been absolutely incredible. BTW, the wikipedia link reveals how the beeping sound was created ( I always wondered how that effect was made) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_in_the_Sky

 

Metallica-Master Of Puppets-My sister saw them open for Ozzy in `86 then she bought the cassette tape and played it too me along with Wham and Erythymics among her other wide range of music.I thought Metallica was some kind of joke like a detergent commercial or something.But.... I was hooked on the music soon enough....

 

Who's Next, played in it's entirety on 1971 Chicago FM radio.

Second Helping, coming from a buddy's 8 track in his Honda, 1974.

 

Kid A. Right then and there I thought things had changed...

D.D.

 

SMiLE, especially the 1980s bootlegs.

 

Every single Public Image Limited album I've ever heard.

 

Metal Machine Music, Lou Reed.

 

Sugarcubes - Life's Too Good

Love it now, but back in 1988 it was hard to take.

 

In one listening session when I was 15 years old I heard Frank Zappa / Over-Nite Sensation, B.O.C. / Agents Of Fortune and Queen / A Night At The Opera and experienced a total WTF moment. I quickly sold my comic book collection, took the proceeds and bought a component stereo system. My life was forever changed not only from a hobby standpoint but a professional one as well.

 

Never Mind the Bollocks when I was a kid in 1979.

 

To me a WTF moment in music is hearing something weird and foreign and not quite understanding what's up, and being intrigued by it. My biggest WTF musical experience was in college when I first heard You Are What You Is.

 

Took me 16 years to fully adore and appreciate King Crimson's Lizard.

 

For me some WTF moments (meaning: shaking my head, laughing and wondering how these could ever be released and also wondering how anyone in their right mind could appreciate this so called "music"!):
Ned Lagin & Friends: "Seastones"
Skip Spence: "Oar"
Captain Beefheart: "Trout Mask Replica"
Tim Buckley: "Starsailor"
John & Yoko: "Two Virgins" & "Life With The Lions"
George Harrison: "Electronic Sound"

Far too may amazing (mind blowing) WTF moments over the past 45 years but Brian's "Smile" would be right up there.

 

Freak Out.

 

Kraftwerk ~ Autobahn - under the bedcovers on holiday in Wales.
Crass ~ Feeding the 5,000 - hearing it performed live changed everything.

 

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Electric Ladyland
Miles Davis - On The Corner
Dorothy Ashby - Afro Harping
Captain Beefheart: Trout Mask Replica
Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Master's Request
David Bowie - Young Americans
David Bowie - Station To Station
David Bowie - Low
Tin Machine
John Fahey - The Transfiguration Of Blind Joe Death (the first album I heard by him)

 

Rolling Stones - "Out Of Our Heads", the first record of theirs that I heard.

Van Halen - "Van Halen" - on it's release, in 1978.

 

This.

I never even bothered with those Lennon and Harrison "oddity" albums.

My first encounter with Frank Zappa's work was peppered with multiple WTF moments. It was incredibly funny but disorienting at first.
I'd also add Tago Mago by Can (Peking O, anyone?), Pink Floyd's Piper at the Gates of Dawn and many, many others.
Van Morrison's Astral Weeks was kinda the same way too but in a negative way. I mean, WTF, is that it???

 

Never Mind The Bollocks

 

Frank Zappa -We Did It For The Money.

 

Ummagumma

 

On the Corner - Miles Davis

 

Abbey Road.

 

Scott Walker: Tilt