who's your favorite band???
that was a question i started asking in junior high. we all had our favorite bands, we'd write their names on our paper-bag covered text books. and as an adult, i still love music and am interested in finding out what music people are listening to.
recently i asked a girl at work what kind of music she liked and she answered, "oh, whatever's on the radio!" i was stunned. i asked, "well, if you had to pick a band or an album, what would be your favorite?" she looked me right in the eye and said, "i'm not that into music. i don't pay attention. i guess U2 or coldplay. aren't they what's popular?"
i knew then that there was something very wrong with this girl (but i'll save that for another time.) her disturbing answer got me to thinking about how i came to like the music i listen to now. what influenced me? what did i like early on?
my earliest memories of music are from when i was about 5 years old (1975) riding around in my parents van. i remember not liking the modern country music they played (good old WGAR in cleveland.) but i loved the 8 track they had of hank williams (senior, not junior!) i'd beg them to play "jumbalaya" over and over. i can remember loving his strange, high lonesome voice. around this time we moved to kentucky and i remember driving through the hills and asking my dad to play the jim croce 8-track again and again.
in 1978 we were back in cleveland and in a new house (in willowick). i got my own alarm clock with a radio too. i can remember being blown away at the idea that i could turn the dial and hear all kinds of music, people talking, and on clear nights a spanish station! i became obsessed with the local rock station and even called in to win a fleetwood mac album (i don't think they knew i was only 8!) i remember my mom and dad driving us into inner city cleveland to try and find the radio station. we gave up and i went home without my "rumors" LP, devastated.
i got my first stereo around this time. i went to "peaches" record store with my dad and bought my first album, olivia newton john's "have you ever been mellow". i remember having the soundtrack to "grease" and every wacky k-tell album of songs like "monster mash" and "my ding-a-ling". my mom tried to slip in a few leif garrett and andy gibb albums (she claims that's what other little girls were listening to) but i wasn't interested.
there were 2 songs that really got me, that blew me away and had me obsessed. blondie's "heart of glass" and billie joel's "honesty". i am guessing this is around 1980 (10 years old...) these were the songs that made me save my paper route money and start spending it all at the record store. the blondie album and the birth of MTV got me interested in "new wave" bands like thompson twins and berliin. billy joel just possessed me. i eventually taught myself to play piano and my parents gave in and bought me a piano.
i loved billy joel's music and collected every album, dragged my mom to shows and evetually learned to play his music on piano. this lasted from the late 70's well into the early 80's. his marriage to christie brinkey and subsequent sell-out, bullshit song "uptown girl" broke my heart. i put billy joel aside, but a few albums since then have yielded some decent songs. some day i shall blog my "super excellant billy joel song list", another time.
continuing in my "new wave" interested, i got interested in duran duran, INXS and REM. the "pretty in pink" soundtrack came out and introduced me to the smiths, which lead to the cure, cocteau twins, and siousxie and the banshees. by junion year of high school i was considered "the weird punk girl" because of my affinity for black clothes, leggings, and cure t-shirts.
around this time i stumbled up tom waits, on an old episode of "night flight". i saw the video for "in the neighborhood" and couldn't believe what i was hearing. that strange raspy voice, and a song that sounded like a weird old german oompa- marching tune.
from here i went off to college, with my tom waits cassettes, morrissey posters, and a cassette tape my friend mark had made me; one side was nanci griffith and the other lyle lovett. these 2 were part of a folk-country-rock revival out of texas. maybe it was my early days of hank williams and jim croce that made me love this music so much. it was country music, but more folky and alternative. i came to love nanci and lyle, and discovered musicians like john prine, lucinda williams, and john hiatt. this music still remains a part of my life, along with "newcomers" like ryan adams and hem.
bands like the cure and the smiths broke up, and i found new bands like his name is alive, radiohead and moloko. and in the last year, groundcat and i were able to see tom waits and lyle lovett in concert!!! it's funny to think i've listened to their music for 15-20 years now....
so that's my musical journey...... i'd like to see what everyone else comes up with for their own. get to blogging!!!!! and you're welcome for all the damn links!
that was a question i started asking in junior high. we all had our favorite bands, we'd write their names on our paper-bag covered text books. and as an adult, i still love music and am interested in finding out what music people are listening to.
recently i asked a girl at work what kind of music she liked and she answered, "oh, whatever's on the radio!" i was stunned. i asked, "well, if you had to pick a band or an album, what would be your favorite?" she looked me right in the eye and said, "i'm not that into music. i don't pay attention. i guess U2 or coldplay. aren't they what's popular?"
i knew then that there was something very wrong with this girl (but i'll save that for another time.) her disturbing answer got me to thinking about how i came to like the music i listen to now. what influenced me? what did i like early on?
my earliest memories of music are from when i was about 5 years old (1975) riding around in my parents van. i remember not liking the modern country music they played (good old WGAR in cleveland.) but i loved the 8 track they had of hank williams (senior, not junior!) i'd beg them to play "jumbalaya" over and over. i can remember loving his strange, high lonesome voice. around this time we moved to kentucky and i remember driving through the hills and asking my dad to play the jim croce 8-track again and again.
in 1978 we were back in cleveland and in a new house (in willowick). i got my own alarm clock with a radio too. i can remember being blown away at the idea that i could turn the dial and hear all kinds of music, people talking, and on clear nights a spanish station! i became obsessed with the local rock station and even called in to win a fleetwood mac album (i don't think they knew i was only 8!) i remember my mom and dad driving us into inner city cleveland to try and find the radio station. we gave up and i went home without my "rumors" LP, devastated.
i got my first stereo around this time. i went to "peaches" record store with my dad and bought my first album, olivia newton john's "have you ever been mellow". i remember having the soundtrack to "grease" and every wacky k-tell album of songs like "monster mash" and "my ding-a-ling". my mom tried to slip in a few leif garrett and andy gibb albums (she claims that's what other little girls were listening to) but i wasn't interested.
there were 2 songs that really got me, that blew me away and had me obsessed. blondie's "heart of glass" and billie joel's "honesty". i am guessing this is around 1980 (10 years old...) these were the songs that made me save my paper route money and start spending it all at the record store. the blondie album and the birth of MTV got me interested in "new wave" bands like thompson twins and berliin. billy joel just possessed me. i eventually taught myself to play piano and my parents gave in and bought me a piano.
i loved billy joel's music and collected every album, dragged my mom to shows and evetually learned to play his music on piano. this lasted from the late 70's well into the early 80's. his marriage to christie brinkey and subsequent sell-out, bullshit song "uptown girl" broke my heart. i put billy joel aside, but a few albums since then have yielded some decent songs. some day i shall blog my "super excellant billy joel song list", another time.
continuing in my "new wave" interested, i got interested in duran duran, INXS and REM. the "pretty in pink" soundtrack came out and introduced me to the smiths, which lead to the cure, cocteau twins, and siousxie and the banshees. by junion year of high school i was considered "the weird punk girl" because of my affinity for black clothes, leggings, and cure t-shirts.
around this time i stumbled up tom waits, on an old episode of "night flight". i saw the video for "in the neighborhood" and couldn't believe what i was hearing. that strange raspy voice, and a song that sounded like a weird old german oompa- marching tune.
from here i went off to college, with my tom waits cassettes, morrissey posters, and a cassette tape my friend mark had made me; one side was nanci griffith and the other lyle lovett. these 2 were part of a folk-country-rock revival out of texas. maybe it was my early days of hank williams and jim croce that made me love this music so much. it was country music, but more folky and alternative. i came to love nanci and lyle, and discovered musicians like john prine, lucinda williams, and john hiatt. this music still remains a part of my life, along with "newcomers" like ryan adams and hem.
bands like the cure and the smiths broke up, and i found new bands like his name is alive, radiohead and moloko. and in the last year, groundcat and i were able to see tom waits and lyle lovett in concert!!! it's funny to think i've listened to their music for 15-20 years now....
so that's my musical journey...... i'd like to see what everyone else comes up with for their own. get to blogging!!!!! and you're welcome for all the damn links!
19 comments:
WREO FM 97. Easy Listening. Late 1970's gave me my 'soft side'. Bread, Jim Croce, The Carpenters, etc. My step brother (Big Dan) is 16 years older. He gave me Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd on both vinyl and 8 track. I never liked the whole 8 track thing; especially with long tracks. It would get cut off and then have to continue where it left off. Broke the whole vibe.
My life changed in 1981 when I walked into a local record store (literally, just across the railroad tracks) and I gazed upon the cover of AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”. I was fascinated by the blacked-out eyes on the record cover. I was convinced that I could actually see their eyes underneath that black bar! The owner, now a DJ at a radio station also named “Dan”, must of thought I was nuts! I guess I was. Ten years old, staring at that cover on a daily basis for weeks!
It wasn’t until the next year that I purchased my first record. “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes and “Twilight Zone” by Golden Earring were the first 45 RPM’s that I called my own.
I heard on the radio just the other day that by the time you’re 24 years old, you have pretty much determined what music you will listen to for the rest of your life! I’m glad that it hasn’t held true for me.
For those about to rock, we salute you!
i forgot to mention my first 45 single. it was rupert holmes "pina colada song". how embaraasing!!! but rachel still loves that song...
My first instinct every time I hear that song is to shut off all the lights and sit in a rocking chair. I love that song! If it weren't for Jennifer's musical influence on me and opening my world up to the more alternative scene... I would also be that girl who response is "whatever is on the radio". Sinead O'Connor was it for me in my late teens/early twenties. The Lion and the Cobra was the first album I ever memorized all the songs.
That was an excellent album, Rachel. You could put on that and Michelle Shocked's "Short, Sharp, Shocked" on alternate and smoke clove cigarettes. That would be boss.
I'm actually not being sarcastic. Except I can't smoke. I would totaly have an asthma attack and pee my pants like an old lady.
I really enjoyed this entry. There is a sentimental,elegiac quality to it that I haven't noticed in previous entries. Nice work... The first 45 I can remember buying was The Tide Is High- Blondie. There was a time though in the early 80's when our local public library let you check out 45's. I remember checking out The Logical Song by Supertramp- What an unfortunate name!
I was raised on a daily diet of The Rolling Stones. My older brother is THE BIGGEST STONES FAN EVER. If I had to pick a favorite record of ALL TIME,I'd go with King of America-Elvis Costello. My favorite band? R.E.M.-I still buy the records the day they come out! I've been doing that for over 20yrs now!
wow, thanks for the compliment markus! i worked hard on this one and it was fun. it's also been a blast reading everyone's responses.
there seems to be a running theme of the "magicalness" of music. like rachel talked about sitting in the dark in her rocking chair, listening. how i discovered FM radio and dan was mesmerized by that ACDC album cover.
and even know as a "grown up", i've had those magical moments. like the first time dan played hem's "rabbit songs" album for me. i couldn't believe such beautiful music existed and i hadn't know about it.
i love that i am still able to find my new music through family and friends. my sister hipped me to rilo kiley and brother in law mike lent me jolie holland CDs. david was the one to get me to give moloko a try (even though i hate dance music). mark bought me the first neko case CD (released years ago). all stuff i love now.
oh, and will oldham. i don't know how dan discovered this musician. i think oldham did a song with bjork (and dan's a bjork fan.) will oldham has got to me one of the best musicians working today. and no one knows how he is!
go look him up on wikipedia, or just buy an album. they're all good!
oh, and stacy, i remember playing that michelle shocked album in our dorm room at OSU over and over. i don't think our sorority girl roomate liked it one bit. hehehehe...
ok, i want more people to tell me the music they have loved! mom, lisa ann, copax, vern, mag's, jennette & mike..... giddy up!!!
I'm not into any bands...but I do love the old country musicians...I love George Jones even though he has a really bad hair do...I also love the blues...I was also into Elvis when Elvis was "King"..but that was a very long time ago, before he became Vegas Elvis..I also love the mixed CD's Glittergirl has made for me...None for a while though...So I just listen to the old ones..Oh Well...
Oh I just thought of someone....Leone Redbone..I loved his gravely voice...he reminds me of Tom Waits...
glittermom... we all know that you love the sucka free countdown. Your gansta at heart! :o)
mark.... when was the last time you listened to Bobby Brown?
"don't be cruel"
Um...I have no idea who Bobby Brown is. Though I have a suggestion for a possible future entry. Our musical guilty pleasures! Prefab Sprout anyone?
My guilty pleasure is Beck. His new CD comes with two huge sheets of stickers. STICKERS! And I forlornly realized I have nowhere to put these stickers without looking twelve years old, as I have no paper bag book covers. I fit a small one on my pink cell phone, which is my other guilty pleasure. And I felt rather dumb indeed.
prefab sprout, my gosh, i loved that album..... beck too...i think i am guilty about liking beck just because he's a scientologist though.
I see you've disregarded Prince. I bet he wouldn't die 4 u after such abandonment....
My fondest memories of high school include driving around the Metro Parks and listening to the Smiths and the Cure in Jennifers little orange car. I can still feel the breeze coming in from the windows . . . I'm not sure if it was the first 45 I bought, but I know I had Juice Newton's Angel of the Morning. Favorite bands of all time probably have to be U2 and the Dixie Chicks. By the way, hello and when are you coming to visit???
Sladj,
I can't believe you didn't mention Duran Duran! :o)
I just e-mailed Jennfier to boss her into picking a day to come and see you. It's been way too long.
ooooh, you're right!! I did love my Simon le Bon. I haven't listened to them in a long time- maybe I'll have to pull those CDs out of the box! Come visit . . .please!!
I will not comment my musical voyage but I have updated my blog...man you're bossy. There was a lot to write and I am sure that I left out important details.
Keep up the good work.
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