I don't like starting new threads, but just diverting from the guitar talk.. How we start listening to records & what forms tastes, passions etc.? How you first heard music, how you discovered & fell in love with your favourite stuff & how that led to more precious things? As a middle aged council estate kid, I started like most? Radio & rummaging through parents collection playing on an old Dansette in the front room. All sorts, too many to mention. Precious as you later realise, these are the songs your folks enjoyed together, when they were young.. Not true for everyone, I know.. I never did, & still don't understand the science? Vinyl, tape, cd & internet. Where on earth are those crafted tones? I would look through the grill of Mam's record player as a little boy, looking for the Beatles or the Monkees? Who I'd seen on tv, but all I could see were glowing valves.. (Beatles & Monkees are the same band by the way, or they were back then..) I ran around the house at 5 years old, shouting 'TELEGRAM SAM!!' Mam bought the record to shut me up. Oh, I don't know. I think Blondie for me, was the first band I truly loved & that's stayed with me. I never fancied Debbie (big sister for me), but my old man did. But I did lose a bit of sleep over Clare Grogan & that lass from Dollar.. We cross a lot of decades on this board as Reds fans, 3 generations? Get stuck in lads & lasses, there's some great stories to tell, am sure,? Up the Owls.. !!
Was brought up on the Eagles, and naturally moved onto Bryan Adams and Bon Jovi in my early teens and then into GnR and Greenday/pop punk. Spent much of my late teens early 20s flirting with numetal, but now like everything from acousti lax pop to thrash.
Fell in love with Karen Carpenters voice of an angel. But the first single I bought and band I saw was by/ were wizzard..(Barnsley civic circa1972). My mam n dad weren't really into music. But i have seen many bands of different genres. I suppose pop. Soft and heavy rock would be my music of choice. I allus say if you don't like summat it's invariably not crap just cos you don't like it or the artiste. Just a matter of personal taste. Live aid first showed me not to dismiss anyone. The talent on that day was outstanding. Some beforehand I wouldn't have thought I'd have watched if they were at the bottom of my garden. My pet hate . Brian Ferry. His voice does my head In.
Karen Carpenter was also one of my first crushes along with Lyn Paul of The New Seekers, then I moved onto soft rock eg ELO, and now listen to anything from quiet acoustic stuff through prog, 80s, upto heavy(ish) rock.
Aw mate, have been swapping Carpenters tunes with my Mrs, last 2 days. She is 3,333 miles away. Not for long, i hope.. Superstar is our favourite.. Here's the Sonics version, you may not of heard. Karen was an Angel, they should have left her singing from behind her drums.
As long as I remember, music has been there. I was named after Marc Bolan, and some of my earliest memories were 6/7/8 ish, listening to my parents’ records. Jimi, Janis, Beatles, Doors, Stones, Kinks, Zeppelin etc. I remember listening to Prince in the 80s and getting taunted mercilessly at school. There were some highlights as well. I was kinda single handedly responsible for introducing Mondays, roses & inspiral carpets to all the cool kids in my year, because I got mail order T-shirts from Eastern Bloc in Manchester, and wore the ‘Cool as fk’ Inspirals cow T-shirt to the school disco. That phase was very short lived with them though, and I quickly went back to being the weirdo, for listening to Public Enemy instead of Erasure I remember hours in EGS and Casa, even though I didn’t have a record player at the time. The first single I bought, was actually 2 at the same time. Axel F by Harold Faltermeyer and Word Up by Cameo. Axel F was because of the breakdancing thing and Beverley Hills Cop. No idea why Cameo! I only really started collecting music as such when CDs came along, then got back into records a bit later. Now as I approach 50, I’m as excited about new music as I ever have been. Try to get to as many gigs as I can, and at least 1 festival a year, 2 if we can squeeze it in. My boy is now the new breed, and trying to get him into it too
Great post. When I was small my dad was doing his PhD while mum went out to work. Most of the time I guess he was writing with one hand while entertaining me with the other, but there must have been some moments where he needed to concentrate, child free. So, he would sometimes leave me with a record player and a pile of 7" singles. Pretty brave stuff to entrust a very clumsy 3 year old with his precious vinyl, but in the pre smartphone days it was a good way of keeping me occupied, as I never got bored. Interestingly, I still love many of those tracks today and have them on my Spotify playlists. Jethro Tull - Witch's Promise Free - Wishing Well Dexys - Geno, Breaking Down the Walls of Heartache, Burn It Down, Jackie Wilson Said (I loved Dexys, especially their dungarees) Marvyn Gaye - I Heard It Through The Grapevine The Animals - House of the Rising Sun Martha and the Muffins - Echo Beach Sham 69 - Angels With Dirty Faces I'm sure that early exposure to a pile of vinyl must have had some sort of subconscious influence on me later becoming a DJ.
As we were growing up, 60's 70's we used to listen to em but r dunt think i've heard a record play for 40 odd yrs,
My brother is 9 years older than me and he had "Rubber Soul", I loved that album. Then my sister borrowed some albums from her boyfriend including Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits and Wishbone Ash's first album. But my real awakening was when our English teacher got us to bring our favourite albums in to listen to in class, one lad brought "In the Court of the Crimson King". An earth-shattering experience for a 14-year old...
Enjoyed that Certain artistes make your hair stand on end with their voice. Please listen to this mate. I was fortunate to see the Fantastic Black abbots comedy show group many times. Talented musicians the lot of em ( of Russ Abbot fame who was the drummer ). I genuinely would have paid the gig money just to hear Clive Jones (sadly no longer with us) sing this. in my view the greatest ever version. He went on to sing as a solo artiste with an orchestra.
As a kid in the 50s I was brought up to the sound of me Auntie Dot's Jim Reeves collection, which she seemed to play endlessly. Into the early sixties it was the original Seekers (Judith Durham mmm..) and then Beatles and the Liverpool bands. Then late one night in 1968, when I should have been studying for my O levels, I heard Whispering Bob Harris mutter summat about a new band. I looked up and saw a scruffy twohat blowing a flute and singing about a Love Story. I was instantly hooked, and thus started a lifelong love of Jethro Tull. I still love a blast of Tull to this day, mainly the early stuff, but mostly these days I listen to Beethoven, Mozart and Sibelius.
My first CD was What's the Story Morning Glory by Oasis. That got my interested in Britpop. However, as a small child my early years were spent listening to my Dad's Beatles LP's. Please Please Me right through to Let It Be. I liked the catchy beats in the first three albums but I grew out of that and started really enjoying Help and Rubber Soul. As I got older I mellowed and started appreciating the White Album and Abbey Road became my favourite. I was then introduced to other groups in the sixties from about 65/66 in 69/70 and got stuck on the psychedelic era. I don't think musically I've ever come back out. I'd recommend any of the documentaries on youtube with Syd Barratt and early Pink Floyd and even some of the early Gilmour stuff before they ditched psychedelia in the early seventies and changed direction.
My first LP was Mothermania because I’d read about this “genius” by the name of Frank Zappa. Been a big fan ever since and started buying every album afterwards, but eventually gave up when he started churning them out ! I also was influenced by another genius, John Peel, who played Tyrannosaurus Rex, Beefheart and Wild Man Fisher etc. Joy Division and their unique sound and image became my second ( to Zappa ) love. So many other bands and albums have been important to me over the years but perhaps my two most listened to records are Hot Rats and Closer by Zappa and Joy Division
