What's that song/band that got you into playing your instrument of choice?

pikingrin

pikingrin

what is this?
Or was there a particular song? I've been blaring my early '90s jams all evening trying to knock out homework - everything from Smashing Pumpkins to Marilyn Manson to NWA and the like. Got me thinking about the subjectivity of youth. :drunk::facepalm::D

Is there any particular moment in your life that you can remember being sucked into the folds of being a musician (or attempting it the best you can)? My dad had custody of me as a child and used to put an old vinyl on when he'd put me to bed - hendrix, sabbath, trower, you name it. All the "good old stuff" to me. I spent my summers in Colorado and my Uncle had acoustic guitars sitting out since I can remember. I'd always stay up later than everyone else and snag one and plink around on it once my hands were big enough to actually make anything happen. The album that got me started on the path that I am now is "Siamese Dream" by the Smashing Pumpkins. To me, the guitar tone on that album is my goal. I appreciate all the "good old stuff," too, but that's the album that prompted me to go and buy a guitar 19 years ago... Creamy, yet defined. What's yours? In the blood or were there some influences?
 
For my era it should have been Cream, Hendrix, Mountain, the Who, Zep, etc.
But no.
It was the Chicago Transit Authority, later to be known just as Chicago.

The song was 25 or 6 to 4. I could fake out the rhythm guitar on my E String.

It gave me a success, I could actually do something that resembled music.
:D
Later we moved onto Joe Walsh in the James Gang.
 
For me it was seeing Kiss on the Paul Lynde Halloween Special in 1976. It looks really cheesy now, but it was super cool for a 6th grader seeing something like that for the first time.

That is a pretty common story for people my age. The generation before me usually point to the Beatles on Ed Sullivan being their moment.
 
I got a classical guitar at a young age (8 or 9 ?) took lessons for a while - was able to play House of the Rising Sun to a friend in the piss smelling bus shelter on my way home one day. Whoo hoo. Dropped guitar completely when I joined Sea Cadets when I was 11.

I picked up bass in grade 12 and joined a neighborhood band playing guitar - oriented rock, as the leader was a young hot shot with an SG and a parent's basement to jam in.

My inspiration for guitar came a year later when we played a HS talent show (I had already graduated). We opened the show playing Rock and Roll All Night followed by Highway Star. It went ok (lots of jaws dropped) but later in the show a throw together group played Pinball Wizard (Elton John version). The guitar player played the solo on his older brother's vintage LP Standard goldtop.

That was when I thought "I wanna play like that". I bought the guy's Ibanez goldtop for 90 bucks thinking it would give me some mojo. (He bought his brother's guitar). I dumped the Ibanez for a real Gibson goldtop Deluxe a year later which really helped my playing and sound take off. I also moved into backup guitar position in the SG guy's band.

I never did bother to learn that solo....
 
None. Really. None. I can't think of one song or band that clicked it all off for me. My music is a finely tuned precision honed blast of punk rock and roll perfection now, no doubt, but getting started involved a hodge podge of influences from punk, NOLA, Stax, Motown, surf rock, rockabilly, garage rock, proto punk, regular oldies, brit oldies, silly oldies, and even some lame ass bullshit radio rock. All of that taught me how to play and how to be the best Greg there is. Being a multi-instrument kind of guy, I can't point to one song or band that made it all happen. If I had to blurt out a simplistic answer, I'd just say Ramones.
 
It wasn't a song or band, it was a white paint spattered GE clock radio that sat on top of the refrigerator and was seemingly on all the time. We also had a TV with a built in record player and my mom would crank records up loud all the time.
 
I have no definitive song, band or moment when the light went on. We always had two pianos in the house. Got a cardboard acoustic guitar when I was 8 and tinked on that for a couple of years. Signed up for band in elementary school playing the clarinet. Music and playing was always around me. I started taking guitar lessons in earnest when I was a sophomore in high school and then on and off through my 20's.
 
Big ole upright piano in living room. Mom could play that thing! Dad and his pals getting A&W Root Beer gallon jugs filled with draft beer at the local beer joint, then sitting around eating pickled pigs feet, drinking beer, and playing / singing a bunch of WW2 songs, Appalachian old-timey, and country standards of the day.

My cousin abandoned her clarinet and it was cheap so that's what they made me play in third grade...no regrets. Beatles on Sullivan when I was 8, two older sisters jamming the AM radio day in, day out. Neighbor kid hero of mine, Sonny Mason (couple years older than me) playing all kinds of cool rock in garage bands, and since he dated my buddies' sister, we got to sit and watch. I do particularly remember "Pushin too Hard" by the Seads as a stand out!! Picked out "Little Black Egg" and "Secret Agent Man" on my dad's Sears "Old Craftsman" f-hole, archtop (one inch action at 12th fret). Yeah, and "House of the Risin' Sun" was in there too.

I knew drummers would always be in demand so begged and begged for a kit for 2-3 years, then, instead got a Winston electric and Kalamazoo amp for Christmas finally at 12 YO. Never really got to pick my "instrument of choice" so just went with the flow.

No one particular song, performer, or group, just organically grew up with the desire to play music and have fun like the grown-ups. Wish I could better remember the simple changes and lyrics to some of those old tunes my dad and his buddied laid down. All music has merit to me. Rap and Hipity Hoppity excluded. My opinion.
 
My first instrument was sax for the school band when I was around 10. I think my folks paid $20/mo to rent the instrument. When I lost interest they sure didn't try to talk me out of quitting.
 
Farview said:
The generation before me usually point to the Beatles on Ed Sullivan being their moment.
Click to expand...

That would be me. I was 6 at the time. I saw all the screaming girls and said 'That's what I'm gonna do!' Yep, 6. Instead of being a sick old man, I was a sick young boy then. Got an acoustic and started lessons at 8. Ended lessons 6 months later. Wrong teacher for me, that's for sure.



In reality though, I guess it really started with Elvis. I remember wanting a guitar like Elvis. Not that exact one, just an acoustic guitar. The first guitar I remember really wanting that particular one was John Lennon's 325 (or maybe it was a 350). I made on out of cardboard to go with my John Beatles Halloween costume.

But I guess the one who really got me wanting to play electric for real was Hendrix.
 
RFR said:
For my era it should have been Cream, Hendrix, Mountain, the Who, Zep, etc.
But no.
It was the Chicago Transit Authority, later to be known just as Chicago.

The song was 25 or 6 to 4. I could fake out the rhythm guitar on my E String.

It gave me a success, I could actually do something that resembled music.
:D
Later we moved onto Joe Walsh in the James Gang.
Click to expand...

That was one of the first solos I remember 'learning'.

I was also a Chicago fan because I played trombone in band.

And I was a huge James Gang fan.

You had good taste.
 
When I was a teenager first getting serious about writing songs and playing electric guitar, the band that fired my imagination more than any other was Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon, Animals (I discovered Wish You Were Here a bit later). In my senior year in high school, The Wall came out. That was it. Young Robus's mind was officially blown!
 


When I first heard Touch My Bum, a whole new world opened up to me. Wasn't long before I was completely taken in. ;)
 
Last edited:
I think what really lit my fire was that I was smack dab in the middle of the target demographic of MTV, GFTPM, Guitar World, Parade magazine, Hastings record shops, the local guitar shop in the mall, and countless radio stations. They were all extremely powerful forces of pop culture influence at the time, and my friends and I were roped right in.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top