What Defined Me

I just can't resist this one. Tim Abbott poses the question, "What were the 10 most influential albums of my formative teenaged years?" He goes on to clarify that he means the ones that defined him rather than those that defined the era. He had an interesting list and it got me thinking about which 10 albums I would say defined me in my teen years. Here's what I came up with (in no particular order).

Simon & Garfunkel - "Bridge over Troubled Water" (1970)

Boz Scaggs - "Moments" (1971)

The Beatles - "Let It Be" (1970)

Emerson Lake & Palmer - "Trilogy" (1972)

David Bowie - "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars" (1972)

Elton John - "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (1973)

Chicago - "The Chicago Transit Authority" (1969)

Rod Stewart - "Every Picture Tells A Story" (1971)

J. Geils Band - "Live, Full House" (1972) / "Bloodshot" (1973)

John Lennon - "Imagine" (1971)

And moving on to those all important college years...

Bob Seger - "Night Moves" (1976)

Bob Seger - "Stranger in Town" (1978)

Bruce Springstein - "Born to Run" (1975)

Billy Joel - "The Stranger" (1977)

Allman Brothers - "Brothers and Sisters" (1973) While the album came out in 1973 I didn't get into it until 1975.

Eagles - "Hotel California" (1976)

The Doors - "The Doors" (1967) Again, this album came out before I was in college but that's when I got into it.

Janis Ian - "Between the Lines" (1975)

Boston - "Boston" (1976)

Chuck Mangione - "Feels So Good" (1977) Although I still listened to 7os rock, this album began my move away from listening to mostly rock and roll to mostly jazz (late 1970s-mid 1980s) and then to mostly country (late 1980s-mid 199os). Now I'm mostly into "oldies" of 70s rock, jazz, and country ;-)

These are the albums I think were the most influential to me in my teenage and college years. What about you? What albums influenced your formative years?