What should be 'required listening' for teenagers?

I notice quite a few younger people on this site.

So here's a thought. From the old, wise (yeah us farts) -- what music do you think 14-18 year olds NEED to hear, as part of their musical awareness or whatever. What's essential for their appreciation of art in music.

Obviously, I don't think anyone should be forced to do something they don't want to do. This is only for whoever may be open to it. Don't post a huge intimidating list, think it over and go for 1-2 at a time.

And I think it'd be cool if someone who's 17 started the same kind of thread the other way, too.

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Guess I'll start then: The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (Columbia, 1962)
Why? Because it marked a watershed moment in our civilization. Yeah, yeah there are plenty of idiots who idolize Dylan you say. Well, for background, chew on this: here was a twenty-one year old guy with his 2nd record, here you have almost all original compositions, and he sounded like a man who'd lived ten lifetimes. The songs on Freewheelin' are full of authority - and I mean in the good sense of that word. They're full of angst, brimstone, lovesickness, and good humour. Some became anthems of the civil rights movement. Most were covered by major artists in the years that followed. Listen and just think about Dylan landing in New York two years earlier, a kid from Minnesota who knew nobody and had ten bucks and a guitar, who was becoming obsessed with folk music, who had never written a song, and who foremost wanted to meet Woody Guthrie- badly. A year later and John Hammond signed him to record for Columbia Records. Less than another year and Dylan is on the lips of everyone in the city. He completely broke the mold. He was the first punk. He was possibly the first rapper. He was really the first singer-songwriter of the era. He received 'the torch' from Woody, literally (I believe). Freewheelin' landed like an H-bomb, but his first 7 records really shaped the course of the 1960's - musically for sure, but they impacted on people socially as well. (ok, only one factor, but a big one) I'll dare to say that from 1962-65 Dylan made five records that would earn anyone a place in the hall of fame-- before The Beatles ever wrote one meaningful song..!

Besides and if that weren't enough, Freewheelin' hit me like lightning the first time I heard it. And still has that effect, when I'm really listening.
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ok, rant over!

 

I was 17 a few days ago.

And the Buzz I got off of George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album when I first heard it is still with me. Heavy ideas, fantastic music, amazing jams at the end. Opened me up.


(Here's where I had a big list, before I read the directions...sorry...lol)

The next most important album for me is probably either "Obscured By Clouds" or "The Wall" by Pink Floyd

and then Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks"

~Layla

 

Been listening to BOTT a lot lately. Pain, pain, pain. Tremendous album.


But it's Dylan at 33 splitting with his wife. Meanwhile I edited my post above to give some rationale behing the Freewheelin' reco.


Btw, I'm 40 now (argh), but many of the most poignant experiences swirling in my head are from when I was 15...18, 19. And now that I have kids it comes back again, hard. So I don't think I'm too far out in left field trying to relate. I still feel like the same kid in many ways....except I'm less impatient now, less insecure, more resigned to the row I hoe, a bit less self-centered, and don't think I'm 'special' anymore. Robbie Williams said it well, "I just wanna feel real love".


"Hope I die before I get old"

 

Pink Floyd 'The Final Cut'

certainly not one of my favorite Floyd albums, but I can think of no other example that wraps the stress of the world and the stress of the individual into art better than that album. obviously many kids wouldn't relate to it that well, but for the time the album came out - it certainly strikes a nerve with that generation

 

All of the Led Zeppelin albums.....they will change their ways of thinking after that. At least I did.

 

hahah i like that display pic...

 

In my opinion:

Amon Duul II - Tanz Der Lemminge
Nurse With Wound - The Swinging Reflective
Sun Ra - Angels & Demons at Play / The Nubians of Plutonia

These albums are not a must, of course, but they are worth listening at least because they are somewhat unusual in comparison with the top classic rock/pop artists and could give you an idea how weird and unleashed, and beautiful at the same time, music can be.

 

Deja vu-CSN&Y
Best album of all time, It was good enough that all the superfical fans liked it since it was catchy but still it was brilliant enough in the music and lyrics to get the fans who would nomaly avoid the pop music.

On the beach- neil young
his greatest album, dark and moody but still ahs some of the most solid song of his carrer on it

 

most of these are much older songs...i highly recommend Pink Floyd 'The Wall'.

but more recent...i have to encourage Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead & Nirvana. (most would have heard of them all, but make sure you do)

 

Jazz and blues most definately. They are responsible for what western-world music sounds like right up to this day!

 

it breaks my heart and makes me want to scream when i hear kids say things like, "The Doors? Who are they?" "Cat Stevens? Did he graduate from her last year or the year before?" "I've never heard of the Grateful Dead." "Oh, you mean Pink Floyd is a band? i thought it was just a cool tee shirt." etc, etc. i went to a high school that was just like that, and unfortunately, i've encountered way too many people my own age who still ask things like that.