"God Part 2" on "Rattle and Hum" gave a pretty good preview of the "Achtung" sound to come 3 years later. Without that song, U2's stylistic shift in 1991 would've been more startling...
Well, I've said it before on the forum, and I'll say it again, in 1963 I had never heard a recording like "Sally Go Round The Roses?", and I've never heard anything like it since...
Arguably, "I Can See For Miles" sounds a bit like "Eight Miles High." "Blitzkrieg Bop" is essentially Richie Valens' "Come On Let's Go," only played at a much faster tempo.
I suppose the random sound thing...although that wasn't an entirely new concept. But those songs sound pretty different from each other, and seem overall pretty different from each other or anything that came before...as far as I know.
I would say so. Spoken word story-songs weren't exactly unheard of at the time ("Big Bad John," "Old Rivers" etc).
When people think of the innovative British Invasion records that didn't sound like anything else that came out in 1964, the first three that come to mind are usually "You Really Got Me," "House Of The Rising Sun" and "She's Not There." "Tobacco Road" often gets overlooked. The original by John Loudermilk was a cool jazzy number very much in the same vein as Peggy Lee's version of "Fever." The Nashville Teens turned it into a thunderous pounding thing that influenced numerous recordings that came after it like Paul Revere & The Raiders' "Steppin' Out" and The Rascals "You Better Run."
Same riff, pretty clear, but it doesn't have that stun-gun guitar-and-drums combo that makes the Blues Magoos classic unique. Actually I hear the riff from Johnny Rivers' Memphis in there too ...
Primus was the first to come to mind. Thinking back to earlier days, the first time hearing ITCOTCK was a game changer.
I was thinking of this one. This song changed soul/R&B. It made everyone at Motown, Stax, Chess, Fame, Scepter, and the rising soul outfits in Philadelphia, New Orleans and L.A. all stop and say "Whoa, what is this?" The raw, stripped-down attack was a game changer -- indeed, a brand new bag.
Maybe I missed it, but how'd we get this far and no one mentioned the Fugs? I can't of anything before them quite like Coca Cola Douche, I Feel Like Homemade Sh**, I Couldn't Get High, Kill for Peace, etc. They actually made the album charts (!) with their first two albums. In 1965/66 (!!). It's like Lenny Bruce set to music.