A Trip Down Memory Lane

[annabella]

As the years go by, I'm often reminded of how and when I first started listening to music back in the day. I thought it might be fun to hear how others got started on their musical journeys. Long before you became a musician, just appreciating music as a child, I'm sure we can all relate to topics such as:
Who were the artists that you wanted to listen to at your earliest recollections?
What artist or band inspired you as a young person?
What "primitive" devices did you use to listen to music?....and so on.

I'd love to hear all your experiences and I'll share some of my own also.

[ben_brown]

I remember when I was 5-6 I had an old cigar box with a plastic rifle as a neck and strung rubber bands along it's length for strings.....
I've been hooked ever since!

[admin]

I used a turntable with a penny on the arm. Honest.

I played along to the records with my first guitar which had a hula dancer painted on the plywood top.

[ben_brown]

...Then I graduated to the "Tiger Guitar"

....I used that same penny Peter....

[winston]

What a great topic Diane.

Steve your post cracked me up. How do you follow that! It was brilliant.

[kiramdear]

What started me was the Beatles' first appearance on Ed Sullivan. I remember my brother had some Elvis, Beach Boys, Chubby Checker, and Bob Dylan records that I enjoyed, but it was the fabs that really turned on the lights. On the day it was released, "The Beatles' Second Album" was the first LP I ever bought with my own money, all three or four dollars of it. I played their records on the standard equipment of the day: a little mono phonograph in a suitcase. You had to use an adapter to play 45's. My folks wouldn't let me play rock on the new stereo console, so it was the boxy phonograph or AM transistor radio that served up those magical sounds. The transistor even had an earphone! Was I cool!
I drew hundreds of pictures of them and their instruments. I wanted to play drums because Ringo was my favorite Beatle, so I fashioned a set from empty Quaker Oats boxes and bashed away (within the limits of their paper heads). Got a real snare, metal flake blue, took some lessons but I gave up the drums a few years later and started pestering my folks to buy me a guitar, a no-name acoustic from the Blue Chip Stamp store. Went to work on "The Beatles Complete" songbook, starting with "Eleanor Rigby", my first song on guitar. That was about a year after they broke up. A year later I got a Kay solidbody. Soon after that I picked up a cheap bass of some make and joined my first band, covering Rolling Stones, Hot Tuna/Jefferson Airplane, Traffic, Creedence, Santana and, of course, my enduring favorite band of all time.
The rest is infamy.

[winston]

Diane,

I had a musical history unlike anyone I know. None of my family were very musical. They loved music mind you and I often woke to the strains of Mario Lanza as a very young child on a Sunday morning.

My musical history started with humming, whistling, singing tunes to myself and finally my nan bought me a Penny Whistle. Obviously there's a lot more to this story but I don't want to write a book.

[rickenbrother]

That great posts Steve!!

Anyone remember those flat, portable phonographs with the speaker and radio in them? I can recall being about 5 years old and having of them for some 45's that I would play. I had 45's by The Cyrkle, Peter & Gordon, Chubby Checker, The Tokens The Beatles and a few other groups. I couldn't work the big console stereo either!! I remember having to put the penny on the arm too!!
My older brother had his own stereo. I wanted my phonograph to make that thick boomy sound too!!
How many transistors your transistor radio had in it was big deal too when I was kid. Bragging rights," Your radio only has 6 transistors, mine has 8!!"
I'd say more, but I'd like hear from others first before I add any more.

[mrs_brown]

I think mine was the close n' play phonograph... dates me a bit and I think my very first record came off the back of a cereal box... sugar crisps I do believe.. Sugar sugar...

[ozover50]

Crikey!!!

My parents were heavily into the swing era so I was brought up with the likes of Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Bob Crosby, Duke Ellington and Tommy Dorsey. A little later on I was bombarded with Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, Count Basie and of course Sinatra. I had no problem with it....... in fact I loved (and still do) all that stuff!!

I was also regularly served large doses of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Puccini and Bizet..... as well as Dixieland and Trad jazz.

The bottom line is that I developed a very healthy appreciation of all genres and it lasts to this day.

Thanks, Mum and Dad!!!

[annabella]

This really brings back a lot of memories. I remember my parents listening to the big bands and such, but the first band I really latched onto was the Beatles. I guess it was about 1964. My brother was very into them. Kira, I remember when they were on the Ed Sullivan Show also, but my parents wouldn't let me stay up that late. However, my Dad bought me a little red transistor radio around 1966 or so, and I listened to it every day ( with that ridiculous one piece earphone). I remember hearing songs like "Strawberry Fields", "Penny Lane", and others. Later on, my cousin got his own stereo, and gave me his portable stereo phonograph. The lid was actually a detachable speaker. I never knew about the penny trick, but it sure would have helped at the time.

[kiramdear]

[captsandwich]

My parents had one of those big console stereo systems from the sixties, so when I blew my first amp (it had a piece of tinfoil for a fuse ) I plugged the guitar into the stereo and played along with my records. Unfortunately this lead to me killing the stereo in short order.

My dad was into Irish folk musicians like Tommy Makem & the Clancy Brothers. That's the music I remember as a small child. He also had an album of Elvis singing hymns & inspirational songs (Amazing Grace and the like) that he listened to a lot.

My first album (given to me by my older sister) was The Beatles Live at the Hollywood Bowl. The first album I bought myself was Damn the Torpedoes. But the first album that really made me stop in my tracks was the Specials debut album, which my sister brought home from the record store she worked at when I was in junior high. That was when my journey away from the mainstream started, as most of my friends were into the disco that was on the radio at the time. One of kid actually threatened to fight me because I told him that Macho Man was a lousy song, and he was a pretty close friend at the time. From there I found the Clash, Stiff Little Fingers, Sex Pistols, the Jam, the Ramones, and eventually 80's hardcore and Oi.

[annabella]

Nice pic Kira. Was that your phonograph? I wish I still had mine (just for the memories). I think my Mom probably put it in a garage sale. Mine also had an adapter to play 45's. Remember the old 8 track tapes? I hated those things. If a song was too long, it would stop and continue on another track

I loved the music in the sixties, and I was a "wanna-be-hippie", but just a few years too young. I loved The Beatles, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, The Moody Blues, Jefferson Airplane, The Doors, The Who, and many more. My brother was a huge Bob Dylan fan. Although I'm not a big fan of his voice, I think he's brilliant, and when I hear his songs, they bring me back to that time in my life. I remember seeing clips of Woodstock on the news in 1969. My parents were disgusted, but I just wanted to be there. Oh well, my time would come later.

[kiramdear]

Thanks Diane. It's not a picture of my own first phonograph but it reminds me a lot of it; mine had fewer switches. I used a nickel. I drove my folks crazy with rock and roll. They tried to keep me on the straight and narrow... at 15 I was allowed to go to my first concert ever, at Winterland. The show was Yes (fragile tour), Black Sabbath & Wild Turkey. I stood where I could almost touch the players when they left the stage.