Was chatting with my friend TP today … he sent me a video of an artist covering Video Killed the Radio Star by The Buggles. I mentioned that the guys from the Buggles joined Yes shortly after they put out that record — sent him a video of Tempis Fugit which is a great song IMHO. It started a discussion about our musical histories and inspired this post.
I started listening to my mom’s old records when I was a young child. My grandmother would babysit me and there wasn’t much to do, so I would find anything I could to entertain myself. This included raiding the record collection. Along with the tradional Czech, Polish records, there was my mom’s old records from the early to mid-1960s. Two records from that collection that I still own are Meet the Beatles, and The Best of the Animals. There was also some Dave Clark Five, but that just didn’t interest me from some reason.
I stuck with Beatles for years, and the first album I ever chose to purchase (mom actually bought it, but I was allowed to pick whatever I wanted) was Help! I still love that album, but I eventually sold it to buy other albums. I should buy a replacement … it was a great album.
In my neighborhood, Queen was pretty popular, and I remember being haunted by the bloody cover of “News of the World” and could not bring myself to buy when my mom offered to pay for my next record. Instead I bought The Game because the band was dressed like Fonzie from Happy Days.
My musical education truly began when my dad started letting me pick the records we would listen to from his collection. While my dad was more of a fan of Three Dog Night and Blood, Sweat and Tears, I preferred to put on his copies of Led Zeppelin II and Fragile by Yes. This led me to spend most of the eighties listening to music from the late sixties and seventies.
Cream, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Yes, Black Sabbath and Rush were all major players during my teenage years. My friends and I would make copies of official LPs or cassettes. None of us had much money, so piracy was the only way to expand the music library.
In highschool, it was Joy Division. Jane’s Addiction, Ministry. Industrial. Wax Trax Records. Grunge.
In college, The Black Crowes. Buffalo Tom. Helmet, Jeff Buckley. Throwing Muses, Pink Floyd, Tool.
Towards the end of college, Phish. Ween, Grateful Dead. Frank Zappa.Talking Heads. Jam Bands, Jazz. King Crimson. Math Rock. St. Vincent.
Splitlip Rayfield. Drakkar Sauna. KC Bear Fighters. Goodtime Charlie. Mandolin Orange/Watchhouse. Charlie Parr. Bluegrass. Americana. Mandolins. Local musicians.