Redartz: Hello once again! Last week we posed a few questions about comics. We got some great responses, so we're going to go one more round. This time, the subject is music. Otherwise, it's the same concept as last week; just a brief friendly survey to wrap your head around...
1. What was the first record you ever bought?
2. What is the most recent example of music you've purchased or downloaded?
3. Which musical artist, and which recording, would you say has affected /influenced/inspired you the most?
4. How did your particular musical tastes evolve; i.e. music class in school, a musical friend or relation, or perhaps just personal exploration?
5. We're all going on a road trip. We have to choose one Sirius XM pop music channel. Your pick is: 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or Contemporary?
And since you're no doubt awaiting my responses, here they are:
1. First record I ever bought was the 45 rpm disc of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"; spring of 1973. Maybe the first time I spent my allowance on something besides comics or trading cards...
2. Most recent musical addition is the lp of Carly Simon's 1976 album "Another Passenger", which I converted and loaded onto my trusty tablet.
3. Most influential artist is a group; the Beatles. No question about it. As for recording, that's a tough call. But one song which always moves me, and speaks deeply to me, is Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come".
4. My family was always playing music, so the influences were everywhere; especially in terms of classical music and Broadway tunes. And my grandmother gave me a bit of advice which has always held true: she said she could always tell a good piece of music because it would send chills down her spine. The best music does just that.
5. For a road trip- probably the 80's channel. Great music and great variety.
Now then, you've all 'paid your quarter', so now 'make your selections'!
15 comments:
1) First record I ever got was probably one of those K-Tel compilations back in the late 70s; the oldest one I remember had My Sharona and Dream Police on it ... I think I still have it somewhere.
2) Most recent is probably some kind of Greatest Hits album ... maybe Tom Petty or ZZ Top.
3) I'm with you on Sam Cooke; I don't think he ever had a bad song. But my tastes are too varied for anything to really stand out.
4) I was probably influenced he most by friends; my best friend as a kid was a couple years older than me (and he had an older brother who influenced him), so he got me into a lot of stuff at the time (Styx, Nazareth, Rick Springfield).
5) I usually listen to Classic Rock stations, so I'd go for either the 70s or 80s channel I guess. (Though I'm not much into pop/easy listening.)
1. I'd say the first album I 'bought' was one I picked out when our dad bought a new stereo system for the family in a Montgomery Ward and told my sister, brother and me to each pick up a few of LPs that we wanted. My two older siblings came back with their hands full of about 5-6 albums each, and I came back with the Bay City Rollers' eponymous 1975 album (hey, I was about 7 years old at the time).
The first album I bought with my own money is hard to pin down, as I inherited a bunch of records and cassettes (and a few 8-tracks!) from my older siblings when they went off to college and I can't really remember now which of those earlier albums were ones I picked up myself. It may have been Paradise Theatre by Styx. Yeah, my musical taste was a work in progress...
2. Most recently? Can't rightly remember, as it's been a while. Maybe a used CD of the To Live & Die in LA soundtrack by Wang Chung. And that was years ago.
3. My musical tastes have changed and evolved so much over the years that I really can't say there's any one artist/band or specific album/recording to stands out above any others in my mind.
4. Initially, by listening to what my older sister and brother listened to. Then listening to local AOR radio stations. That was a start, and a lot of the rest was just personal exploration.
5. If I have to pick up just one era, I'd go for the 70s. There were so much going on then in music: hard rock, acid, glam, prog, funk, punk, and everything in between. Heck there's even some disco I like. I would want this hypothetical station to taks all of those musical genres into consideration in its play-list.
1: First record i bought with my own money — boy, that’s a tough one. Although $3.99 (the standard retail price for a new album when I was in my early teens) seems like a pittance in 2020 AD, it was a pretty big chunk of change when your only source of income was a weekly allowance and lunch money (and most of that was spent on comics). Fortunately, Top 40 and AOR stations were flat-out spectacular back then, so I was happy just listening to the radio most of the time. Plus, I had two older brothers, so I had their albums to listen to — ELP, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Bad Co., Robin Trower, etc. I think the first album I bought myself may have been the PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE Soundtrack.
2: Most recent purchase — the first two Cars albums. I already had them on CD but couldn’t find them, so had to buy ‘em again on Amazon.
3 : Most inspiring / influential artist and album — Alice Cooper, BILLION DOLLAR BABIES. It was loud, aggressive, morbid and theatrical. It rocked hard but also was wonderfully melodic and crisp. I listen to it at least four or five times a year, to this day.
4: My taste in music evolved pretty organically from listening to the radio, my brothers’ albums and even some of my parents’ albums. I never much got into Swing or the Big Band sound (Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey etc) but I liked Chet Atkins, Roger Miller, Roger Williams, Nat King Cole, Herb Alpert, Johnny Mathis. Later, my friends and I would share our latest finds — either stuff we’d first heard on the radio, or sometimes bands that we’d read about in CREEM or CIRCUS that seemed like a good gamble.
5: 70s all the way, baby! As we’ve discussed here before, Top 40 radio in the 1970s was just incredibly diverse — everything from Edgar Winter to The Carpenters, Charlie Rich to Roberta Flack, Led Zeppelin to The Spinners.
- b.t.
"What was the first record you ever bought?"
Long Haired Lover From Liverpool - Little Jimmy Osmond.
"Which musical artist, and which recording, would you say has affected/influenced/inspired you the most?"
Artist: The Beatles. Recording: Sgt Pepper.
"How did your particular musical tastes evolve?"
Mostly listening to BBC Radio One in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
"We're all going on a road trip. We have to choose one Sirius XM pop music channel. Your pick is: 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or Contemporary?"
'90s.
1) Took some mental math gymnastics, but I thiiiiink my first album purchase would have been (for some reason) HURRICANE SMITH'S GREATEST HITS and BEST OF THE BEE GEES (the first, yellow album--- released well before their evolution to disco). Purchased at the same time from our local grocery store in, I think, the late summer of '72. Right before 6th grade started. HOWEVER--- it's possible that I might have bought the 45 of Zaeger&Evans' IN THE YEAR 2525 prior to that--- it's just hard to remember for sure. . .
2) Man, between Sirius/XM, Pandora, and now Spotify. . . it has been a long, loooooong time since I've made any music purchase at all. Possibly a Firehouse Five Plus Two CD for my son? Or maybe a sci-fi movie/television themes compilation?
3) Like Red, it's The Beatles for me (for artist)-- to an absurd level, really. Like, almost problematically. To wit: the ONLY reason I didn't finally drop my Sirius/XM subscription is because they FINALLY started a Beatles Channel. I had already made up my mind to cancel, and then the next day I heard the annct. In the realm of influences, inspires, or let's say-- MOVES me-- the most. Christopher Tin's BABA YETU-- which is the extraordinary orchestral theme from 2005's "Civilization IV" game. Even calling it to mind in my mind's-ear right now has me tearing-up, I'm not kidding. . . (I do get affected by music very deeply that way---)
4) I thiiiink i ultimately sorta created my own? I'm not terribly adventurous, I'm afraid-- and am a sucker for straight pop like nobody's business. Influenced by my parents' early unsophisticated tastes (it's like they were born in the 20's, not the mid/late 30's); local radio (WLS); my much more music-savy school pals; movie music; being in band/marching band/jazz band (trombone); and ultimately being a solid musical theater guy (baritone). My more-versed wife has since expanded my tastes in several directions. She's a life-saver---!
5) I am familiar with those exact stations from the 40's through the 80's (and a bit of the 90's). I would probably hang with the 70's Channel 'cause you really get a VERY broad range of genres and styles. . . IF THEY MAKE AN EFFORT IN THE PROGRAMMING. But I tell ya, I'll be driving the car through the guardrail and into the ravine when they inevitably turn it into the Eagles/Steve Miller Channel (like they do) with barely a smattering of anyone else. The moment we hear "Life In The Fast Lane" more than once in a 75 minute span, we will be creating our own Thelma & Louise tribute. . .
HB
"What was the first record you ever bought?"
Hey Rainy Jane, the 45, by (apparently) Davy Jones from 1971! I thought a lady sung it!
"Which musical artist, and which recording, would you say has affected/influenced/inspired you the most?"
Artist: The Beatles. Recording: Revolver I find the most appealing
"How did your particular musical tastes evolve?"
AM Radio: WLS! (HB!) FM Radio, my father who'd bring records from the libarary like the USSR's Red Army Chorus and Motown's Greatest Hits for us. Also my Hungarian heritage.
"We're all going on a road trip... I'd go for the 1960s. The radio station MeFM (88.7 USA wide) plays a ton of 1960s, most of which I never heard or was too young to recall (b: 1961). Much of it has a jazzy feel (like Spidey's cartoon, Herb Albert, Juan Gilbert, Sergio Mendez) or just cool 60s tunes like Spanky and Our Gang "Like to Get to Know You." I really get jazzed when they play a early 60s Beatles tune from Help or Beatles 65!
Mike W.- those K-Tel lp's were fun, both the discs and the commercials. They crammed a lot of music on their discs, although they cheated a bit by editing some tracks down.
Edo- Oh yeah, Montgomery Wards! We frequented their store at our local mall, and always looked forward to their Christmas catalog. Pretty cool of your Dad to let you all grab some lp's too. Was that one of the old "console" stereos, or a component system? My Dad had a console, and it was perfect to sit on the floor and rest against the speaker while listening.
b.t.- congrats on that Cars purchase! I was actually looking at a cd set on Amazon yesterday which collected the first 5 Cars albums, only 20 dollars. Might yet pull the trigger on that one. And the 70's were truly an amazingly diverse era musically. You really could never guess what you might hear next on the AM radio.
Steve DC- Regarding BBC Radio One; how did it operate? Was it like a typical US station, with a specific format, or did it carry programming diverse enough to appeal to all types of UK listeners?
HB- Would that have been "Hurricane Smith's Greatest Hit"? (sorry). By the way, I'm with you on that 'straight pop'. Just pure pleasing pop. Cant' beat that. Oh, and you had quite the musical background growing up. My son was active in band; he's now my source for new musical discoveries. Wonder if being in Band leads you to greater musical openness...
Charlie- gotta agree with you, Revolver is tops. And you've convinced me; must see if I can pick up that MeFM down here on the River. Surely it must be available in a city the size of Louisville ...
Red, the stereo was component style, but it was sold as a set with its own stand to hold the tuner/8-track player, turntable and speakers.
1. What was the first record you ever bought?
I don't remember for sure. Probably Thriller.
2. What is the most recent example of music you've purchased or downloaded?
Sadly, it's been a while since I've bought anything. I'm not 100% sure, but possibly Utopia by Bjork is the most recent music I've bought.
3. Which musical artist, and which recording, would you say has affected /influenced/inspired you the most?
Musical Artist, either New Order or Depeche Mode, though the Beatles are up there, too. Recording? Hmm. It depends on what day you ask me and what kind of mood I'm in. I don't even think I can give one answer for this.
4. How did your particular musical tastes evolve; i.e. music class in school, a musical friend or relation, or perhaps just personal exploration?
I didn't listen to a lot of music until college, but when I was young, I did like disco. In high school, most of my friends were into stuff like Rush, Journey, Air Supply, and the like, which is only so-so with me. Even then, aside from Michael and Janet Jackson, I loved New Wave, though about the only way I could listen to it back then was on MTV (remember when they used to actually play music?). New Wave is still my favorite genre, along with synthpop, but I had phases in my 20's when I was into classical music and also golden oldies (meaning music from the 50's and 60's).
5. We're all going on a road trip. We have to choose one Sirius XM pop music channel. Your pick is: 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or Contemporary?
80's station, hands down.
Red, Radio One is a station aimed at people under 30. Back then, it played pretty much any kind of music that might be of interest to that age group.
The weekday daytime schedule was mostly current chart music and oldies. The early evening shows played more New Wave stuff, with the later evening slot being more Punk and Underground.
The evening weekend slots would be more niche, with shows dedicated to things like Disco, the Blues and Heavy Metal. It would also broadcast live sets and music documentaries.
1. What was the first record you ever bought?
Michael Jackson - Got To Be There.....I was really into the Jackson 5. My uncle used to give us his albums/eight tracks/etc...that he no longer listened to and one of them was ABC by the J5, so first time I had a few dollars, I bought that one on cassette. Unfortunately, it was defective and wouldn't play. We sent it back and got a new one and it was defective, too.
2. What is the most recent example of music you've purchased or downloaded?
I actually bought several CDs at a used record store for a good price. John Prine's Greatest Hits, Brothers and Sisters by the Allman Brothers Band, Songlines by the Derek Trucks Band and several other.
3. Which musical artist, and which recording, would you say has affected /influenced/inspired you the most?
Wow.....there's so many and it changes from day to day. The Beatles were one of the first for sure, probably Rubber Soul. Then there's A Man and The Blues by Buddy Guy, Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, The Eagles Greatest Hits 71 - 75, The Allman Brothers At Fillmore East, Derek & the Dominos Layla, Bad Influence by Robert Cray......
4. How did your particular musical tastes evolve; i.e. music class in school, a musical friend or relation, or perhaps just personal exploration?
My mom and dad both listened to music of all kinds, but I was really drawn to the Beatles, then moved on to pop and rock in the early 70's, then R&B in the mid 70's.....there was an old DJ who was on one of the area's black radio stations in the beginnings and he had a late night show on the local pop station on Saturday nights and he played ALL sorts of music that really opened my ears up to new sounds.....blues, soul, jazz, R&B, rock, funk. In the 80's, I got into jazz, Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, then 60's soul, and finally the blues. Now, I probably have the widest ranging iPod playlist you can imagine.
5. We're all going on a road trip. We have to choose one Sirius XM pop music channel. Your pick is: 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's or Contemporary?
70's.....those were my teen years, so that's MY music, I guess, but might sneak a few 50's and 60's in there, too.
Another Passenger is one of my favorite Carly Simon records. "If all our flights are grounded..." and The Night That the Lights went out in Georgia was one of the first singles I and my little brother owned. I don't recall what our exact first 45 was, but a few I recall are Time in a Bottle, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Brand New Key, and last but not least, my favorite, Age of Aquarius by the 5th Dimension. It was an oldie by the time I got it around 1973.
I remember Hurricane Smith and had his record "Babe What Would You say?"
Huge musical influences: Radiohead,The Smiths, The Cure, Labelle, Stevie Wonder, Broken Social Scene, Muse, Grandaddy,Pink Floyd, Bruce, and so many others. I'm a huge music geek
Dbutler16- Thriller was a fantastic choice to start out with. Perfect from start to finish. And I share your love for New Wave and Synth. Incidentally, have you heard any of the recent trend called Synthwave? Weeknd ' "Bright Lights " is an example. Huge hit, and very cool. Very 80's in sound.
Steve DC- thanks for the Radio One info. I'd have loved their weekend programming.
Graham- cassettes were convenient, but vulnerable. Remember keeping a pencil around the stereo to hand wind the tape? And man, they would get tangled in the player.
Oh, your playlist sounds fabulous. Whatta lineup...
BobC- you started out musically with some fine choices! 5th. Dimension was magnificent. Marilyn McCoo had a voice that would cut crystal.
From one music geek to another, salutations!
Hi Redartz--the 5th Dimension were five terrific singers. When they hit those final notes of the Aquarius chorus--the hair on the back of my neck still goes up! I miss real singers. Nobody needed auto tune or sweeteners.
Redartz, yes, I have heard some synthwave and I do like it. Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check out "Bright Lights".
I also like darkwave, for that matter.
Post a Comment