Did you listen to your parent' music ?

[grimtraveller]

We hear alot about the differences between the music of one generation to the next, yet, so many artists of every era say that they picked up on the music that was in their household as they were growing up ~ stuff their parents listened to.
Did you pick up on any of your parents' or older relatives' music ? Looking back, would you say that their musical choices in any way influenced you ?

 

[mixsit]

Yes. I heard and got into music from them well before finding R&Roll'. (Still like most anything..

..hell we still do some Marty Robins gun fighter' songs in my ac' band

 

[dainbramage]

It took me 25 years to finally start listening to a few of the artists they like. Most of it, commercial "modern" honky tonk country, still makes me feel sick and probably always will. There are a few though, such as Johnny Cash, that I definately share. Speaking of generation gaps, most of my favourite music is from the 60's and 70's. Jimi Hendrix is god.

 

[Dogbreath]

nope.

Although I'd say my mom did get me going on metal tho. She tried to get me to learn Conway Twitty and Merle Hagard n shit and that made me like Iron Maiden even more.

 

[Lt. Bob]

my parents are dead and I don't care for silence so ....... no.

 

[Xdrummer]

I would not be a musician if not for my parents music - and/or my father's influence.

My dad was a big band drummer - although by the time I was born he was mostly playing in small combos playing jazz standards. When I was between 5-10 years old our city had a well known venue where all the big bands played (it the mid 50's into the early 60's - so it was the very tail end of big bands touring) -however, since my dad knew many of the players, he would get us back stage where I got to meet all the drummers, got autographs and drum sticks - so natutally, it had a large influence.

When rock & poll became popular in the late 50's - my dad had to teach me a basic "rock & roll" drum groove - since I was trying to play a swing beat to the radio. He got me back stage for a Dave Clark Five show, and Dave gave me a pair of sticks - and that was it, I was a rock & roll devotee.

Naturally I soon turned my back on all the jazz and listened to and played nothing but rock - but by the 70's I again re-visited jazz (in particular when drummers in bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears were introducing jazz chops into "rock" songs).

These days I play mostly jazz gigs and have a large collection of jazz recordings - many featuring some of those players I met over 50 years ago. However, I have none of the drum sticks - I ended up using them when I could not afford to buy sticks and they all ended up in pieces in long forgotten clubs. After over 40 years of gigging and about 4,000 gigs - I can safely say I would not have been a musician if my dad's musical influence had not shaped me.

 

[Lt. Bob]

I would not be a musician if not for my parents music - and/or my father's influence.

My dad was a big band drummer - although by the time I was born he was mostly playing in small combos playing jazz standards. When I was between 5-10 years old our city had a well known venue where all the big bands played (it the mid 50's into the early 60's - so it was the very tail end of big bands touring) -however, since my dad knew many of the players, he would get us back stage where I got to meet all the drummers, got autographs and drum sticks - so natutally, it had a large influence.

When rock & poll became popular in the late 50's - my dad had to teach me a basic "rock & roll" drum groove - since I was trying to play a swing beat to the radio. He got me back stage for a Dave Clark Five show, and Dave gave me a pair of sticks - and that was it, I was a rock & roll devotee.

Naturally I soon turned my back on all the jazz and listened to and played nothing but rock - but by the 70's I again re-visited jazz (in particular when drummers in bands like Chicago and Blood, Sweat & Tears were introducing jazz chops into "rock" songs).

These days I play mostly jazz gigs and have a large collection of jazz recordings - many featuring some of those players I met over 50 years ago. However, I have none of the drum sticks - I ended up using them when I could not afford to buy sticks and they all ended up in pieces in long forgotten clubs. After over 40 years of gigging and about 4,000 gigs - I can safely say I would not have been a musician if my dad's musical influence had not shaped me.

ya' know ..... since it's turned into that sorta discussion, I too am a full timer .... 45 years and maybe around 15,000 gigs (whew!) and I suppose I do owe that to mom and dad because they saw the music in me and put me in school band and supported me playing in my earliest bands ..... hell, a record at 12 that was financed by parents of course.

So I do owe them my music in that they helped me doi it ...... but absolutely no one in my family or our history as far back as I know played any music nor even had a lot of interest in it except me.
Is that odd? I don't even know if it is or not but I so often hear people talk about dad playing a guitar or whatever and there was none of that in my childhood. Not even family sing alongs or anything. I was the lone ranger.

 

[miroslav]

I don't necessarily listen to "my parent's music"...I just like pretty much anything, with few exceptions.
I guess for my parents, it would have been music of the '40s, '50s and early '60s...but I like all that stuff too, and music from before that...and the funny thing is that my parents use to come listen to our bands, when we were playing '70s and '80s stuff, plus they always supported whatever music I was doing...so the lines were blurred.

Probably the only direct "influence" from my parents would have been classical music...which I was somewhat forced to play and listen to as a kid taking music lessons...but these days I do enjoy classical, and will on occasion specifically put on some when I'm in the mood.
There was never only one kind of music for me....I find interest in a very wide variety, everything from classical to rock and all kinds of world and ethnic music. If you saw my CD collection, you would understand what I mean by that!

It's even come full circle...I've turned my old mother on to some cool ethnic African music that she heard me listening to.

 

[grimtraveller]

Is that odd ? I don't even know if it is or not but I so often hear people talk about dad playing a guitar or whatever and there was none of that in my childhood. Not even family sing alongs or anything. I was the lone ranger.

I don't think it's odd. I think there's a definite split between those whose parents or some family member was an influence and those who had none of that.
In our household, my Dad listened to loads of classical, a bit of brass band or Acker Bilk type jazz and the odd Igbo recording that was made by people in his village. He also did alot of recording on a reel to reel, stuff off the radio. He recorded thousands of classical pieces. My Mum liked Jim Reeves, Edith Piaf {she used to call her "PF"}, Nat King Cole, ska, bits of 60s Stax type soul like Arthur Conley and easy listening pop like the Seekers. My Mum tells me I used to cry when she sang. It was not because I liked her voice ! I always hated the way she wailed ! "Eee♫♫ssaaa♫♪♪♫yyyaa♫♪♫aaa♫♪♪♫.......!"
I've picked up on pretty much all they liked, at different times in my life, some more than others. So they were an influence by osmosis. Same with my two sisters and the pop they were into. I loved it and 40 years on still listen to and enjoy it while they outgrew it by the end of the 70s.
I don't know many people of my age that liked any of their parents' music.

 

[ConorC]

My fathr was a folk singer and had eclectic taste in music so he had an enormous record collection. I think I was the only teenager in 1980s southern ireland who listened to the likes of Woodie Guthrie, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ledbelly and loads more.

My son on the other hand thought everything I listened to was old, and for old people who had no idea about anything. I was the oldest person who ever lived and the most embarrassing person who ever lived. This all changed when he was about 15 and he brought home a CD and told me that maybe I should listen to it. I might like it. He handed me Nirvana's nevermind. So I laughed, and from my shelf of CDs took out all of Nirvanas other albums and handed them to him suggesting that he listen to those too. That as 4 years ago and I am no longer as old and embarrassing as I used to be apparently. He even plays guitar in my rock band, even though he's the youngest person in the band by about 18 years.

 

[moresound]

Well back when I was a yearling we had no choice. You listened to what ever was on the stereo(mono) - record or the radio. Same with going to the grandparents.
Funny when I hear old classics now I still remember all of the words.

It's not like today with children's ears stuffed with ear buds connected to an ipod.

And now with my children ... I think that it's cool when they find an artist from the 60's-ish and they think that they are cool. I then turn them on to their whole collection.

And to go one step further ... when I hear them playing new stuff I'll ask who they are and say that they sound just like The Kinks, or who ever.

 

[Mr Clean]

When I was growing up in the early 80's the TV was never on and my mum and dad always had music playing. Everything from Buddy Holly to Status Quo to Skeeter Davis. I was fortunate that my parents had such a wide variety of taste and vinyl. I spent years going through their records. Buddy Holly was always and still is my God. Just listening to him alone mad me want to play music.

I never listened to the radio, I paid no attention to the charts. Discovering old records by The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Kinks, The Hollies, The Who, The Small Faces, Creedence, Skynyrd, CSN&Y. I could list bands all day! I loved it all and still do. My brother went mad on Bob Dylan and Donovan in the late 80's, I naturally followed him. He was also listening to Reggae a lot and I'm quite partial to that too. Madness was another band that was played an awful lot by my brother along with loads of SKa, new and old.. I just loved everything I ever heard musically. I don't have a particular taste in music. I just like music. I can go from The Band to Guns N Roses to Dolly Parton in a day.

Music is all!

 

[grimtraveller]

My son on the other hand thought everything I listened to was old, and for old people who had no idea about anything. I was the oldest person who ever lived and the most embarrassing person who ever lived.

It's been the opposite with my kids although they're 11 and 8 and that could change within the next couple of years ! My 11 year old is really into lots of my stuff and has been from a little kid. But he's also starting to discover his own stuff, which is good.

I never listened to the radio, I paid no attention to the charts.

I was a real radio kid ~ but only once I'd been given my own radio. Mind you, that paled into insignificance once I'd gotten a cassette recorder.
The charts were a big part of my childhood. I laugh now when I think how important they were back in the 70s. Fights and arguments could ensue if your band knocked your friend's band off the no.1 slot !

 

[moresound]

The charts were a big part of my childhood. I laugh now when I think how important they were back in the 70s. Fights and arguments could ensue if your band knocked your friend's band off the no.1 slot !

I remember those times.
The young whippersnappers of today have no idea of the great chart wars of the 60's and 70's.

Remembering shows like Dick Clark and the big criteria was how well one could dance to a song.


Curse you online song sharing!

 

[Xdrummer]

ya' know ..... since it's turned into that sorta discussion, I too am a full timer .... 45 years and maybe around 15,000 gigs (whew!) and I suppose I do owe that to mom and dad because they saw the music in me and put me in school band and supported me playing in my earliest bands ..... hell, a record at 12 that was financed by parents of course.

So I do owe them my music in that they helped me doi it ...... but absolutely no one in my family or our history as far back as I know played any music nor even had a lot of interest in it except me.
Is that odd? I don't even know if it is or not but I so often hear people talk about dad playing a guitar or whatever and there was none of that in my childhood. Not even family sing alongs or anything. I was the lone ranger.

Lt. Bob - from your posts I could tell you were an old "road warrior" - but 15,000 gigs - that's some serious due paying!!!!! I thought I had been through the wars with 4,000 gigs - and I know for a fact I've seen/lived just about every bizarre road horror story imaginable (and some that are not even believable) - and I've indulged in much debauchery -some of which I'm less proud than others (and I'm sure there is a decade or so that I don't even recall - but 15,000 gigs - I don't know if I could have physically survived that much physical, mental, emotional and spiritial abuse .............

 

[Lt. Bob]

Lt. Bob - from your posts I could tell you were an old "road warrior" - but 15,000 gigs - that's some serious due paying!!!!! I thought I had been through the wars with 4,000 gigs - and I know for a fact I've seen/lived just about every bizarre road horror story imaginable (and some that are not even believable) - and I've indulged in much debauchery -some of which I'm less proud than others (and I'm sure there is a decade or so that I don't even recall - but 15,000 gigs - I don't know if I could have physically survived that much physical, mental, emotional and spiritial abuse .............

yeah ..... that's a lot. But as far as I can see that's about right. From 1969 thru the next 40 years I averaged 350 a year. That's 14,000 right there and that only takes me thru 2009 and I still gig .... this last summer I did 7 or 8 a week from June 1 thru Sept.15. Right now in Fl. it's slow but I still do 3 or 4 a week.
And some years i did more .... in 1984 when the world's fair was in New Orleans I did 2 a day in N.O. and then came back to baton Rouge for my night gig.

It's so many that it sounds like I'm making it up but I've done the numbers quite a few times and as best I can calculate 15k is about right!


Odd as it may sound I still love to gig and pretty much get excited about any gig I do.
Most of them now are single act stuff unfortunately since Florida has a fairly crappy music scene but even those are fun.

Ah, the debauchery .... lol ..... back in the 70's everything was flowing freely and you and I should start a road stories thread. It was a fun time and there was no AIDs yet although I did have a few friends succumb to drugs. I was always fairly careful .... I did them but I was never one to take 3 Quaaludes and drink a case of beer. So that contributed to my not being dead I guess.

I don't really have many regrets though ..... well, maybe that one chick in Clarksville!

 

[grimtraveller]

well, maybe that one chick in Clarksville!

Did you take the last train there ?









OK,OK, so it was lame......

 

[Lt. Bob]

Did you take the last train there ?









OK,OK, so it was lame......

actually ...... I wuz drunk ...... picked up a chick named 'Misty'. at the bar we were playing which was the Palms I think. Jimi Hendrix used to play there when he was at Clarksville army base. I'm not sure about the name but I think it was the Palms.
Anyway ...... we did our thing and she said, "why don't you ask the other guys if they want some".

So I stepped into the living room where they were all watching TV and I said, "She wants to know if any of ya'll want some."
They all looked up ..... and then waved me off ... "nah"

 

[Mr Clean]

They all looked up ..... and then waved me off ... "nah"

hahahaha!

 

[fat_fleet]

I know more about my parents' music than they ever did.
Not that I'm competing with them or anything.