Musical Influences

Due to a mate posting the 15 albums which he reckons changed his life, here are what I would pick - in rough chronological order of when I first heard them. Note these are influential, not necessarily my favourites, even by the bands mentioned:
1) Meatloaf - Bat Out Of Hell
2) Blondie - Parallel Lines
Both these date from primary school days - summer holidays stuck at my grannies, but with access to an uncle's record collection (he's about 10 years older than me), and these would be the first real guitar albums I ever heard. There wasn't much I really enjoyed apart form this - although I have to admit to still having a soft spot for Abba from this time -  and I was at just the right age to be very non-musically influenced by the sight of Debbie Harry. It actually took me about 25 years to get around to buying a copy of Bat, never had a vinyl copy.
3) Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear
Most of my early teens were spent listening to generic pop music, but in 1984 I found myself being parochial and picking up on "hot" local hopefuls Pallas - this could easily be the Sentinel listed here. I went through a bit of a new wave of prog phase; during the summer of 84 all I really listened to were the first two albums from Pallas and Mariilion. Marillion were probably the more influential as I have pretty much gone through regular phases of overindulging in Fish from then on. This eventually went both back to listening to the original prog acts and then to the later ones like Porcupine Tree and Opeth, although that came more from an act mentioned later on this list.
4) Rainbow - Rising
My best friend at school was also a Marillion fan, but his main man was Ronnie James Dio, and the first album of his I bought, and still my favourite, was Rising. I've loved this album for over 25 years, and many of my current favourite acts are directly basing most of their songs on "Stargazer".
5) Iron Maiden - Powerslave
The first Maiden album I bought, and the first real Heavy Metal as opposed to hard rock album I bought, basically the direction of most of my future listening habits are defined by this. Still my favourite Maiden album along with the first one.
6) Deep Purple - Made In Japan
I will always be a huge fan of  rock music inspired by classical music as opposed to strictly blues, and this was  the first Purple album I bought. I loved the interaction between Blackmore and Lord, if they're not involved as far as I'm concerned it's not Purple. I just love the extended jam versions, and I've been a bit of a sucker for picking up Mk 2/3 live stuff ever since. I could probably also list this as being a direct reason why I also listen to a reasonable amount of classical music - although that is mainly the "heavy" stuff like Wagner and Beethoven, not too many piano concertos in there!
7) UFO - Strangers In The Night
Simply a great rock band playing at their peak
8) Accept - Restless and Wild
My first dalliance with European power metal, and Accept's best album. Still a great live band to this day.
9) Metallica - Ride The Lightning
I hadn't really had much exposure to thrash, but I was heading to Donington in 85 for the first time and Metallica were on the bill, so copies of the first two albums were duly purchased. Instant fan, loved them live as well.
10) Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Not a really big fan of glammy stuff, but Alice is a huge personal favourite, one of those acts you just go and see who never disappoints. I went boths ways from this album, both forward onto the acts he directly influenced -  the WASPs and Marilyn Mansons of this world - and also back to the likes of Scream Jay Hawkins and Little Richard who obviously influenced him.
11) Aerosmith - Toys In The Attic
OK, thinking about it, maybe I do like this stuff just a little bit! One of the earliest Aerosmith albums I got, and one of the best. I do quite like some of the 80's hairspray bands, and Kiss will always also be up there, but this lot are my guys. Another one where I went back the way as well and ended up being a fan of late 60s/early 70s Stones.
12) Starz - Violation
Back in the mid eighties I picked up the wonderful music for nations compilation album "Striktly For Konnisseurs", which introduced me to a whole host of obscure acts (at least in Britain). I loved a a lot of the bands this album introduced me to - Legs Diamond, Angel, Max Webster, etc. For me though, the cream of the crop was Starz, both musically excellent and lyrically brilliant. There's a reason this album keeps coming high in polls.
13) Ministry - Psalm 69
Not exactly a big fan of industrial, but this was basically the album where it mixed gloriously with metal. Moved on from this to NIN, KMFDM, Die Krupps and various weird and wonderful darkwave style acts. Variety in all things.
14) Dream Theater - Images and Words
Anybody who knows my musical tastes will know how long I've banged on about this lot - from getting sent an original Majesty demo right up to the present I've loved this lot, I think they are simply the best set of musicians in the world and travel far and wide to see them. This is actually a bit surprising as I wasn't much of a fan of the 80's guitar widdlers and associated musos. This was the album where it all came together to confirm their status in my favourite acts. I also got back into some more of the more recent prog acts because of this lot, like Opeth and Spock's Beard.
15) B.B. King - Live At The Regal
Proving that not everything I love has to have 800 notes a second or be able to strip paint from walls, this is quite possibly my favourite live album ever. The recording is amazing for something from the mid sixties, and the audience are an extra instrument on their own. B.B. King himself is close to being the most charismatic individual I've seen - just coming on stage and playing one note can completely electrify a concert.

Well that seems a decent enough bash at this, although it does miss out a lot of bands I love, but they just weren't as influential in what I now listen to as the bands listed above - although if I re-wrote this tomorrow a few would undoubtedly change.