One that stands out was Hendrix and Third Stone From The Sun. I was transported to another world at the age of 13. The year 1967. A year of magic.
I was very young at the time. I’d mostly listened to basic 70s rock and the Beatles’ mop-top stuff. So it was pretty shocking to hear something like this.
Summer of 1980 - ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’ - The Beatles. That was the first time a voice flattened me.
I remember being in an Op Shop with my mum when I was about 11. On the radio there was a song that stopped me in my tracks. It was St. Peter by Flash and the Pan. It played non stop in my head for days. I was glued to the radio in case they played it (no such thing as YouTube back in 1978). As a young adult I was on the phone and put on hold. The music I was hearing grabbed my attention immediately. It had to be Fats but why hadn't I ever heard this song before? It was great. You Always Hurt the One You Love.
It would be the first time a pop song grabbed me. Happy Together (the chorus, especially). Balcony of our Miramar, San Juan PR condo, portable radio, sunny, beautiful day, with family. Probably ‘72-‘73. I was 7 or 8.
1987. I'm flipping through the bins at a record store and I hear a crazy version of Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues. I stopped flipping and just listened. Went home w/ The Uplift Mofo Party Plan by The Red Hot Chili Peppers. 1982-ish. I would record our local morning show on cassette when I had to leave for school so I could listen when I got home. Show ends and they go into music. This song starts that I've never heard before. It's clearly David Gilmore but it didn't sound like the Pink Floyd I knew as a 13 yr old. I still remember standing in the living room staring at the tape recorder on the kitchen table. CLICK! Tape runs out. It would be years before I found out it was "Wot's.. Uh the Deal."
Actually an instrumental. Playing one-on-one basketball in my friend's driveway. He had put his stereo speakers in his bedroom window about twenty feet away and was playing a stack of albums. I'm dribbling around and here comes the the first song on the first album by a group I'd never heard of- the Allman Brothers Band self-titled debut with "Don't Want You No More". I picked up my dribble and just stood there listening. My friend thought I was about to launch a thirty footer. I couldn't concentrate on playing basketball until I had heard the entire album. Made me a believer in just those first few seconds. Been well over fifty years now.
Can't buy Me Love. I was 9 when this came out. I was floored. Wow. Thus started the unsuccessful search for a copy with the picture sleeve...
first time ever hearing Dylan’s In My Time of Dyin’ ……. sat down where I was at and listened at least another 3 or 4 times. Smile just thinking back on it, thank you for starting this thread!
I clearly remember the first time I heard the Sex Pistols and I was blown away. I was walking down the hall of my college dorm and someone was playing Never Mind the Bollocks. I had to stop and ask him what it was and I was immediately hooked on punk.
Gordon Lightfoot - Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald I was in early elementary school - maybe kindergarten or grade 1 or 2 - and a teacher played it during class one day while the lights were dimmed. I found it so eerie and haunting .
Prince - Let's Go Crazy On the school yard ... the graduates had a party at the end of the school year. I was 13 and flashed and immediately a fan boy.
Somehow in my very early record collection (45 rpms), I acquired a copy of the Who's "Pinball Wizard" on the original (American) Decca label. So one day I flipped it over and played the B-side, since I liked dogs and all. My little 10-year-old brain nearly exploded. THAT DRUMMER -- The Who - Dogs Part Two (1969)
Back in '87, I was in a record store and Billy Bragg's "Greetings to the New Brunette" came on. It stopped me in my tracks. I immediately bought the CD. It was the first CD I ever bought and I still listen to it regularly.
This has happened to me several times in my life. Most recently was probably from a song posted on one of @markwhistanley 's Australian threads. Somebody had upped a video for Matt Finish Short Note, and I swear every time I hear this song to this day, I have to stop what I'm doing. Oddly enough, my wife had the same reaction to it. She normally just passively listens to whatever I put on in the car. But on one particular day as we drove home from shopping, she was talking about various and sundry things going on in life when this song came on. She immediately stopped and asked what it was. It was silence for the next few minutes.
I think it was a version of "In the Air Tonight," at night in a nearly-empty office building, when I probably was 7 or 8. Was slightly scared.
