My first tape: Please Hammer Dont Hurt 'Em

My first CD: Nevermind

Album that changed my life forever: Double Nickles on the Dime

sparky wrote:I got rock when I was seven and saw Pete Townshend windmilling his guitar.

This is just how it happened for me too, except I was twelve rather than seven. At seven I was a Barry Manilow fan.

I got into the Beatles when I was six years old. That's now 20 years ago. 20 years is about half the age of rock 'n roll. Shit... I am getting to the point where I am older then most musicians I like... Shit... Teenage angst has paid off well... Shit... Gimme naive... It used to be much better.... Slash!

I remember when I was quite young my mom listened to Beatles records all the time, especially the 67-71 comp., which I really enjoyed. Other than that I thought rock music sucked ass - due to my Dad's collection of America, Eagles, Steppenwolf, Eddie Rabbit, etc....

My first record purchase was "Great Performers Play Chopin" on the Serephim label. It was a collection of old recordings of Horowitz, Rubenstein, etc... playing the "best of" set. I also had "The Sting" soundtrack and a collection of Tchaikovsky suites. I loved these records.

My first infatuation with rock was when I was about 11 years old I heard a Talking Heads record, it might have been "Stop Making Sense". That, coupled with my "artist" cousin Jim loaning me dozens of punk, "new wave", and indie records in the mid 80's got me moving forward pretty quick.

Now I've come full circle and pretty much listen to only "classical" stuff now. And, yeah, I feel a bit naive about it, as there is so much - so many composers, so many works, so much that I will never have the historical perspective and time to grasp everything from the last 300+ years...even in the canon of major works and major composers.

matthewbarnhart wrote:When I was 5, I bought Quiet Riot's Metal Health and loved the Oak Ridge Boys and the Statler Brothers.

When I was 10, I loved Chuck Berry, Del Shannon, and Sam & Dave.

When I was 11, I loved the Monkees.

When I was 12, I heard Double Nickels on the Dime. Every subsequent listen is just as magical as the first.

mb

matthew, i don't believe you.

Well, there was a period where I didn't rock at all.

Serious.

Then when I was around 13, I got into... funk? Yeah. Parliament saved me. Curtis Mayfield was a god. Got Bob Dylan, too, and Jimi Hendrix, and Beatles.

9th gradeish, my dad threw me Elvis Costello, and bam! It's all over.

There was a little while where I had trouble FINDING the good stuff - took me a while to get truly underground, since my high school had no good punks and no indie kids that I remember... but I was still rather discriminating.

What really did me in, I think, was in 10th grade the director of a play I was in made a soundtrack for us. This was 2002, so Gang of Four wasn't getting tossed around in the press quite yet, but there they were! Natural's Not In It, Paralysed, What We All Want. That, alongside the VU, stuff from Bowie's album Low, Joy Division, Quadrophenia... but it was the Gang of Four stuff that really drove me batshit insane.

And now my college chums call me the Music Facist.

i was uninterested in exploring the universe of music until 3 years ago. about 3 years ago is when i started listening to all kinds of bands and developing some taste.

morrissey is pretty much directly responsible (oh, and my dad but that came later -- after i got over thinking parents were losers) for me not attending harvard and earning an accounting degree.

I have a two-and-a-half year old neece and she likes the Beatles. Although, as a little dutchee, she doesn't speak English, she can sing along to "Yellow Submarine" and "I am the Walrus". It's the coolest thing...This is a band that kids can really get into.
She also likes Aphex Twin, though she does find it scary at times...

SacredAndProfane wrote:Two words...SPIN...DOCTORS.

Two words......HENRY ROLLINS
I cried when the facade crumbled and the wool lifted from my eyes.