Three things in life I cannot live without. First and foremost is my faith in God. Second is my family. And the third thing is music. As far back as I can remember my house was filled with music, often from several different rooms at once. When headphones became the rage in the 70's I believe our family kept KOSS in business. From my mother I learned to love Johnny Mathis, Lou Rawls and many jazz artists. My sister Gloria introduced my to Neil Diamond's music, ABBA, and later Phil Keaggy (still my hero), John Michael Talbot and the world of Christian music. My sister Sharon is where I learned to enjoy the Carpenters. Brother John introduced me to the world of opea, and a lot of musical theatre (didn't admit I liked it at the time). Brother Dave was into Simon & Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and Peter Paul & Mary. Later Dave was also responsible for introducing me to the British Punk movement of the late 70's and Early 80's which I'm sure is what eventually lead me to be a U2 fan. Dad used to listen to country in the morning before work...I liked a few songs, but mostly resisted it.
As for me personally I started, as most kids do with Disney music. The Mary Poppins soundtrack was a favorite as I remember. I remember very well my very first "grown up" album. Olivia Newton-John's Have You Never Been Mellow. I was soon a huge Oliiva fan, and I believe I had all her albums up to Physical. Another grown up star I got into at a young age was thanks to Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari. The theme song for their show Busom Buddies was Billy Joel's My Life, and begged my mother to buy me the 52nd Street album. I have been a huge fan of Billy's music ever since, and now also enjoy his daughter Alexa Ray's music.
But I think the moment my musical taste was blown wide open was in 6th grade (?) music class when our music teacher asked students to bring in one of their favorite songs and present it to the class. Jenn Treisenberg (sp) brought in the movie soundtrack to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and played Aerosmith's cover of Come Together. My first exposure to the music of the Beatles. Two years later when our class had an 8th grade graduation party Jenn brought in the actual Sgt. Pepper album by the Beatles, and I was officially obsessed...still am, just picked up the Magical Mystery Tour CD when they re-issued last week.
Through high school my favorite bands besides The Beatles were Kansas and Styx. But this is also when I was getting into punk and NewWave like Ian Dury, Nick Lowe, the Clash, The Pretenders, etc. I always said, "I like all kinds of music, except classical, country and really heavy metal"
When I was in college I discovered U2, and have loved them ever since (although their mid to late 90's was not my favorite era). I also was exposed to a huge variety of Christian rock. Favorites during this time were Petra, RezBand and 77's. Also I discovered the musical genius of Charlie Peacock, and the Christian New Age sounds of Jeff Johnson (Can you use Christian and new age in the same sentance? Just did). And thanks to a music appreciation class I hated, I grew to love classical music, especially Mozart and Beethoven. So my credo became, "I like all music except, Country, Heavy Metal and Rap"
As I grew beyond the college years I have kept many of the same favorites, but in my late twenties I did add country to my list of music I like, although I'm still picky about what country music I listen to, And even as I've matured and added more styles, I still don't enjoy much Heavy Metal and Rap.
No I must admit, when I was dating Bekkee (my wife) I tried to enjoy rap and hip hop because she enjoyed that kind of music. It never quite caught on with me, although I don't mind some of the mellower R&B music she introduced me too. Nowadays my wife enjoys country, which is much better for me. My wife however only enjoys current music, while I still love stuff from all period, both the stuff I grew up on, and even music from before I was born. She likes to make fun of my music, especially my 80's stuff, but I can't help it, I like it. We change, we grow, but forever music will be part of my life.
1 comment:
I can relate to your stories about music and not being able to live without it. Music is amazing and living and evolving; I have the bands I loved as a kid - Steve Taylor, U2, Petra, the Choir, 77s, the Prayer Chain, Undercover, Adam Again, a bit of old Black Sabbath and Ozzy, Deliverance, Daniel Amos, Jacob's Trouble... the list goes on and on - and the bands I love today which unfortunately includes a lot of really heavy metal acts, the tamest of which is Megadeth...(Dave Mustaine is a believer... his music now expresses his faith and his opinion of end times).
Do you ever get into a place where you'll listen to little-else but music from a specific era - like a portion of your collection from 1984 to 1987? I sometimes will do that with some Darn Floor, Big Bite; 10 Songs by Adam Again; 3-28-87; 77s (with Do It For Love), etc.). Or I'll pick a band and listen to a portion of their catalog, sometimes in order of release date from a band like U2 or Steve Taylor).
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