Your earliest musical memories?

walrus

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Let me give Quantum Strummer credit for giving me this thread idea. Here's his quote from another thread:

"You Never Can Tell and No Particular Place To Go are among the songs I remember hearing on the radio as a pre-schooler. Along with lotsa Motown & Beatles, of course! My mom had the radio on (CKLW, out of Windsor, Ontario) all the time as she went about her work…she ran her own dress-making business out of our basement. I think my love of language comes in part from hearing Chuck Berry lyrics at the same time I was figuring out what language was. :)"

When I read that it made me think back to my own "pre-school" days. My Mom (who stayed home) played artists like Harry Belafonte, Peter, Paul and Mary, and she loved Tom Jones. To this day, I can remember the words to "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "500 Miles" - they are imbedded in my brain! I give her credit for my interest in music, and she never questioned (nor did my Dad) my immediate spending of any money I had on records as I grew older - I had a decent record collection by age 12.

Anyway, that one post by QS brought back some great memories - particularly of my mother. So if anyone else wants to drive down memory lane, join the fun!

walrus
 

killdeer43

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My paternal grandfather lived with us until he died (when I was 12) and I'll always treasure the time I had to spend with him. He was 89 and was relatively active right up to the time he passed away.
It seems we always had music in our house, but my first and most special memories of music came from the cowboy songs that he taught me before I even started school. After I learned them, the routine we had was that I'd sing him to sleep every night with old standards like Red River Valley, Cool Water, Streets of Laredo, etc.
:mellow:

Joe
 

Rich Cohen

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Well, I seem to be a little older than the above responders. My parents weren't into popular music when I was growing up. But, my sister was, and she's five years older than me. She was 15 when Elvis hit the big time, along with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, etc. She introduced me to rock and roll. I started playing the guitar around '62 when Dylan started bringing out LPs. The first song I performed in front of a large audience (high school talent show) was Woody Guthrie's "Roll on Columbia."
 

rampside

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Hank Williams' songs, specifically, "Honky Tonk Blues","Your Cheatin' Heart" along with a couple others, have been embedded in my head, for as long as I can remember.

MY dad was in the Navy and stationed in Norfolk, where we were living. Amazingly, as young as I was, I rember my parents being so excited that Hank was coming there for a show. He never showed up. The rest is history.
 

Alan_M

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Cool thread!
My parents also were not ""popular" music consumers. We did however, have a very eclectic record collection and a big "console" on which to listen to it. We had everything form "Song of the Congo" to "Vienna Boys Choir Live". My very first memory however is hearing (and seeing) "Yellow Submarine" when it aired on TV for the first time. I was 3-4 years old. The Blue Meanies frightened me. My first "record" I really got into though was a bluegrass album, the title of which I've forgotten, but I remember the song that grabbed me: "Orange Blossom Special". I wore that record out! I also has a real affinity for the song "Kaiser Bill's Batman", from another album I cannot recall. Then came the Beach Boys, then the Monkees, and things just continued to spread in every direction from there.
 

fronobulax

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Earliest musical memory is sitting in an auditorium waiting for an orchestra concert to begin. I was about 4 and my dad was playing French horn. Somewhat later I saw "My Fair Lady" and I can still sing much of it. Moving to pop culture The Doors first album was a watershed experience for me, I'm sure in part because it was something I discovered and purchased and played on my own rather than sharing with my family.
 

matsickma

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Sunday at our house was always Walt Disney and Ed Sullivan. On this particular Sunday night Ed Sullivan had one of the recurring acts that was a puppet known as Topo Giggio. At the end of the show Ed made his final comments and said next week we The Beatles will be in the show. My suster and cousin, who were 2 years older than me, started screaming and carrying on. I thought "wow those Beatle puppets must really be great"! Lol.

A week goes by and we are all sitting around the TV and on comes the Beatles. I was overwhelmed, mesmerized and blown away. I wanted to play guitar! It took a few years to get a guitar.

The 2nd and equally or more significant musical event was Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experianced"
Album and seeing the video of Hendrix at Monterey.

M
 

GAD

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My dad queuing up the turntable for me to listen to The Pirates of Penzance.

My mom blasting Elvis when he wasn't home.
 

The Guilds of Grot

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My Dad had a nice stereo and played a lot of Dixieland music. At Christmas we would "Sing Along with Mitch".

My parents decided it would be good if all three of us children were to learn a musical instrument. My older Brother choose Drums, My middle Sister went with Dad's instrument the Clarinet, And for what ever reason I selected Guitar.

Those that have been to "The Guilds of Grot" have seen this photo but here is our family "group".

002x_zpsqyfrhtnv.jpg


We are just posed for the photo, we never actually played anything together.

The first album I ever bought was Elvis' "Separate Ways" I found in the discount rack.

Separate_Ways.jpg


Since my Brother and I shared a bedroom and it was his stereo, I listened to what he listened to. His two favorite bands were the Doors and the Grateful Dead. So they are two of mine. Although now I prefer to listen to instrumental jazz.
 

Westerly Wood

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Barry Manilow and then Boton's Boston.
glad it was in that order too. Cannot imagine if I had gone the other way :)
Prior to that memory, it was the Carpenters and a Buick convertible.
Early Beatles songs were in there too.

Jim Croce.

that is really all i can remember before the Who.
 

guitarslinger

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1) Square Dance Music every Friday night with my parents, 78rpm Glow Worm (Gaylord Carter), The Ballad of Davy Crockett on TV
2) 45rpms Heartaches by the Number (Guy Mitchell) and Tall Oak Tree (Dorsey Burnette) played over and over and over by my mom
3) My first guitar lesson summer of '59 (7 strum, strum tablature)
4) Return to Sender (Elvis '62) First very own 45 record)

I know that's more than a "first", but, these are all inextricably entwined in my earliest musical memories.
 

Brad Little

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I don't know exactly what song, but it was a lot of big band era material. I had a little 78 rpm record player in my room, goes back as far as I can remember, probably when I was 2 or 3 at most. Also had my Mom's collection of 30s-40s records, lots of Goodman, Shaw, Miller, Andrews Sisters. My room was the back entry area and one wall was an old upright piano that I began to bang on as soon as I could reach the keys, so that's when I started to make my own music.
Brad
 

Antney

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I remember being 4 years old and my 15 yr old brother with whom I shared a bedroom came in at 11 pm, woke me up and said "you have to hear this...everything has changed". He put the record onto the turntable and we listened to "meet the Beatles" well into the early morning.
 

Westerly Wood

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I remember being 4 years old and my 15 yr old brother with whom I shared a bedroom came in at 11 pm, woke me up and said "you have to hear this...everything has changed". He put the record onto the turntable and we listened to "meet the Beatles" well into the early morning.

that is a great great memory, thanks for sharing that. I love your brother's quote and urgency.
 

CA-35

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My earliest memory is from 1971, I was 11 years old and my sister who was 16 was in love with Carole King and she played the album "Tapestry" over and over again. To this day she is still one of my favorite female artists.

821797141413.jpg
 

davismanLV

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My parents didn't listen to music much. Very little influence there. My sister is 10 years older than I, and she listened to Johnny Mathis, Debbie Reynolds (Tammy & French Heels) and also the Roger's & Hammerstein musicals like Oklahoma! and Carousel. Then my brother who's 7 years older than I listened to Surf Rock stuff. Beach Boys, Duane Eddy (Because They're Young, etc) and mostly rock stuff. So those were what I grew up hearing. Once I was old enough to buy my own records, 90% of everything I owned was on the Motown label. Supremes, Temptations, The Four Tops, etc. I remember one Christmas getting Cass Elliot's Dream a Little Dream of Me, as an LP.

It's fun thinking back on all this old music and the different eras that were in the house as I grew up. The transistor radio was tuned to 93 KHJ out of Los Angeles!! I also remember before that when the car radios took forever to "warm up". LOL!!
 
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gjmalcyon

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1). Listening to mom's Glenn Miller records - she saw most of the Big Bands when she was in college in the '40's, and to this day I dearly love big band jazz (currently deep into the Quincy Jones Big Band from the late '50's early '60's).

2). Seeing The Beach Boys on Shindig and insisting - at the age of 7 - that my parents allow me to go to their upcoming concert in Sacramento.

3). Settling for a copy of Beach Boys Today! when my parents would not let #2 happen.
 

sailingshoes72

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A common theme in this thread, is the influence of older brothers and sisters. The same was true for me. My brother was 4 years older than me (I was born in 1955), and he had the only record player in the house, other than my parents' stereo in the living room (off limits!!!).

The first record that I remember my brother sitting me down to listen to was "Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel (45 rpm)... "the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls". The Beach Boys and the Beatles were also in solid rotation!

As far as my own guitar playing, I was influenced by my brother's folk records... Tom Rush mostly, but also Kingston Trio and Peter Paul & Mary. Great topic! Thanks Walrus and QS. :encouragement:

Bill
 
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