Listen To The Music
Note: I've moved my blog to my own web site - the new address is:
www.nonaverage.net/insomanywords/
Comments can only be left at the new location.
*********************************************************
I did not have a lot of choice in the music I listened to as a kid growing up in the 60s. By fifth grade my friends were listening to the latest rock and roll songs on their AM radios, but my dad wouldn’t let me or my brother listen to that “crap”… we couldn’t listen to the radio when he was around, and we certainly couldn’t have any rock record albums, so all that was left was to listen to what my parents were listening to. Dad had his own record collection, which consisted of albums by musicians like Percy Faith, Herb Albert and The Tijuana Brass, Johnny Mathis (great voice), Hugo Montenegro and Petula Clark (which, at the time, was the most modern record my dad owned). For lack of anything else to listen to, I would sometimes play my dad’s records when he wasn’t home, picking out the songs I liked and playing those songs over and over. My mom liked country music, but my dad hated it, so my mom would only listen to her country records when my dad wasn’t home. Some of Mom’s favorites were Hank Williams, Charlie Pride and Loretta Lynn as well as Jim Reeves and Marty Robbins, who were also my favorites. Mom would also listen to the country radio station while driving in her station wagon, singing along with Charlie or Loretta. This was always a problem when my dad needed to use her car, like when our family was taking our bi-monthly trip to San Pedro to visit relatives. He would get in her car and start it, and suddenly the radio would blare out an earful of country music… to say he was annoyed would be putting it mildly.
Of course, the older I got the harder it was for my dad to control the music I was listening to, and eventually I discovered rock and roll. And I soaked it up - 60s rock, Motown, British Invasion - so much really good music to take in. And I discovered that most of the songs I had picked out as my favorites from listening to my dad’s albums were actually songs that had been originally written and recorded by people like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Smokie Robinson, Neil Diamond, and the team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland… it seems that out of the highly orchestrated cover songs of my dad’s record collection I had instinctively gravitated to the music of my generation. I also discovered the beginnings of my musical ability, which revealed itself in the way I heard music, the way music affected me. For me listening to music was like the enjoyment I got from reading… or even better. And the music that affected me the most, that I enjoyed the most, the music I listened to the most and studied the most, was the music of The Beatles.
www.nonaverage.net/insomanywords/
Comments can only be left at the new location.
*********************************************************
I did not have a lot of choice in the music I listened to as a kid growing up in the 60s. By fifth grade my friends were listening to the latest rock and roll songs on their AM radios, but my dad wouldn’t let me or my brother listen to that “crap”… we couldn’t listen to the radio when he was around, and we certainly couldn’t have any rock record albums, so all that was left was to listen to what my parents were listening to. Dad had his own record collection, which consisted of albums by musicians like Percy Faith, Herb Albert and The Tijuana Brass, Johnny Mathis (great voice), Hugo Montenegro and Petula Clark (which, at the time, was the most modern record my dad owned). For lack of anything else to listen to, I would sometimes play my dad’s records when he wasn’t home, picking out the songs I liked and playing those songs over and over. My mom liked country music, but my dad hated it, so my mom would only listen to her country records when my dad wasn’t home. Some of Mom’s favorites were Hank Williams, Charlie Pride and Loretta Lynn as well as Jim Reeves and Marty Robbins, who were also my favorites. Mom would also listen to the country radio station while driving in her station wagon, singing along with Charlie or Loretta. This was always a problem when my dad needed to use her car, like when our family was taking our bi-monthly trip to San Pedro to visit relatives. He would get in her car and start it, and suddenly the radio would blare out an earful of country music… to say he was annoyed would be putting it mildly.
Of course, the older I got the harder it was for my dad to control the music I was listening to, and eventually I discovered rock and roll. And I soaked it up - 60s rock, Motown, British Invasion - so much really good music to take in. And I discovered that most of the songs I had picked out as my favorites from listening to my dad’s albums were actually songs that had been originally written and recorded by people like Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Smokie Robinson, Neil Diamond, and the team of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland… it seems that out of the highly orchestrated cover songs of my dad’s record collection I had instinctively gravitated to the music of my generation. I also discovered the beginnings of my musical ability, which revealed itself in the way I heard music, the way music affected me. For me listening to music was like the enjoyment I got from reading… or even better. And the music that affected me the most, that I enjoyed the most, the music I listened to the most and studied the most, was the music of The Beatles.
Labels: music, pop, Rock and Roll, The Beatles
posted by Ruben at
2:49 PM
<< Home