What are your childhood music memories.

Great topic idea, Peatle!

We had one of those cabinet-style Hi-Fi record players in the living room, and I can remember Mom playing things like The Tijuana Brass, Miles Davis, Petula Clarke, etc. She mostly liked light jazz. Dad had a little Gretsch "Jim Dandy" flattop, and he'd strum chords and sing songs like "Four String Winds", and lots of Gordon Lightfoot. That was the guitar I began strumming at about 8 yrs old. I remember he was very good with a mouth organ, and could really kick it up when he got going.

The first 3 albums I bought were in 1970. I had my first part-time job, so now I could buy what I wanted:
   - Alice Cooper's "Pretties for You"
   - Jethro Tull's "Stand Up"
   - Led Zeppelin's "Led Zeppelin II"
I just about drove Mom nuts with "Whole Lotta Love", and the poor Hi-Fi didn't stand up well to the volume levels I pushed it to. I remember laying on the floor in front of the H-Fi, and being fascinated by Jimmy Page's pick slides that went back and forth between the stereo speakers. Dad kept trying to convert me to country music, but I wanted something different (like most young teens) and never went in that direction.

My father knew how to play Organ. He had a big Estey with the Leslie speaker. A cousin of mine ( Tony Zano ) was extremely well known  pianist in the hard core jazz circuit.  I could never get into his style of jazz.  His first 2 albums The Gathering Place and Everything Swings were in the house. I tried listening. Couldn`t sit through it. I tried Violin and Saxophone in school. That was a disaster. Finally I went out and bought a guitar. Everyone thought it would be like the other instruments. I proved them wrong.

Post-WWII Germany; The early 1950's, I was a young lad barely able to speak English, but my American soldier dad brought me a German-English dictionary one day and told me, "One day soon, you, your Mom and me will be taking a long trip to America. You need to learn the language, so here ya go, Champ.", and he handed me the book.

That's how I learned English. It was also how I learned to understand music by listening to The Grand Ole Opry over American Forces Radio. Listening, and not knowing any better, one day Hank Williams sang one of his hits over the radio, and I, not knowing about recordings, I marvelled at the way Hank and all the other stars of the show could sing their hits precisely the same way every time!!!

Of course the stars also spoke with  the host of the show, so I followed along and practiced my English by the words they were saying. It was tough going for a while (such as the words "live" spelled the same, but pronounced differently sometimes).

So I guess you could say Hank Williams taught me how to speak English!

Bill

PS: My compliments on the topic as well, Pete!

As I started to notice what I liked and didn't,  it starts with My Father and his vast Classical collection, of which I didn't really appreciate, However I did like watching  the BOSTON POPs which was an event in our house for dad.  I remember that it was the fun of watching Author Fiedler and the back stage  interviews with him,, what a crotchety SOB but he was humorous in the same package.  Mom never  showed much to us till later and it was her love of FRANK, The chairman of the board.    He was cool and all but still, not kicking it.  then Happy Days came along, and Dad pulls out his one rock record.  BILL HALEY AND THE COMMITS......Rock Rock Rock,,, then i moved on. Yet, I also learned about Broadway and how great that is.
I have two older brother, so on one side I had a brother who was into the disco and soul music,  then my other brother started bringing home Zeppelin, Kansas,  Boston, andStyx.  and then Somewhere I found KISS and then The Who and so on.  The rest  is metalizer music and that chunk chunk of the 80s till I die.

Thanks for an interesting topic!!

I can't remember when my Dad bought the stereo, which replaced our (family) reel to reel deck, but I do remember it had a record player - we had a modest record collection, a lot of classical selections, some Rick Wakeman, some Sky, the pan flutes of George Zamfir, amongst others - then Dad left and took all those with him, meanwhile my sister got a cassette recorder and started collecting more contemporary artists (ABBA, Hits of (insert year)) which I started listening to ... it wasn't until we moved house that I inherited the record player (and some of the records) and started my paper round that I started listening to other (Rock!) music. Then I discovered all these secret albums I'd never heard before (Deep Purple, Led Zepplin, etc) at some dingy place long ago.

My parents didn't play music at home much - my Dad has a couple of mandolins, but only knows one or two tunes (owns them more for their aesthetic value), Mum took up the Omnichord later in life, and was in a couple of choirs for her local church. I bought myself an electric guitar at 19 but didn't really take it up for another couple of years after that ... then met some people and started to play, and haven't really stopped since then ...

I would just like to tell you how much I respect you for putting yourself through all of that training, CG.

I have been listening to a lot JS Bach guitar lately, my friend and within what must have been a competition, one of the famous  guitarists who must have had to p,lay this "Simple Melody" was featured on the program., and although the music was  easily played by other instruments one could hear within the chord changes how demonically difficult it must have been!

Perhaps, you know of the piece and could link us to it?

Thanks also for the story! We  have that in common, I think.

Bill

Interesting stories, most I haven't heard, some I've heard tidbits of here and there.    Good topic!

I'm pretty sure I've told most of this before somewhere on these boards, but I'll bite again.    My Dad took guitar lessons when he was young, and I grew up with him being "the guy" at campfires playing and singing tunes.  He was a train Engineer on the railroad so was gone a lot, but when he was laid off and home for periods of time, we'd sit together and he'd practice guitar and teach me how to sing, to hold out a note, add a little vibrato, to properly end a word that ended with a consonant (he had lots of choir practice in his youth).  I got rudimentary lessons in reading music, or at least watching for the chord changes and words to know when to turn the pages for him in his music books.  I sang along.  He played a lot of the songs from the 60's and 70's, and some folk tunes, but always put his own spin on them.  I grew up knowing Dad's version of songs, not the radio versions, and it's only been the past few years that I've ever even bothered to listen to the originals to really begin to understand my Dad's taste in music (and why some people don't know "these great songs" - lots were really dull recordings, but not the way Dad played and sang 'em).

He tried to talk me into learning guitar as a kid, I just wanted to sing though.  I was required to learn an instrument in grade school and picked up the B-flat clarinet.  That's where I learned to read the treble clef.  Then I quit playing after a few years and just sang and sang, took voice lessons for a bit (learning Italian Arias, really odd musical numbers, and old Latin religious songs as well as participating in vocal competitions), made it to All County as well as All State choir.  My parents said I wouldn't make money in music and encouraged me NOT to follow my dreams and go to a music college - Willie said so, I needed to be a doctor or lawyer or something.  Long story short, I didn't end up going to any college but finally picked up the guitar a few years ago.

My Grandma was a big fat lady, she was always playing her 8-tracks - Elvis, Dolly, Willie.  My other Grandma played the organ (typical church music and songs from the 20's-40's) and gave it to me at one point, but I never learned to do more than plunk out notes.  She taught me where they were by writing on the keys in pencil. 

I wish I'd have taken music theory in high school, but there just wasn't time with Girls Choir, Jazz Choir, regular Choir, voice lessons, and boys.    Maybe someday I'll bother to learn more, but for now I'm just happy strumming a few chords to sing with.

Mekidsmom  growing up  mainly  in New Zealand  I was  taught railway songs most of them American folk classics such as ‘I’ve been working on the railroad’, ‘This train (is bound for glory)’ or ‘The Wabash cannonball’. The one New Zealand railway folk songs  I remember as a kid is ‘Taumarunui On The Main Trunk Line, a tale of unrequited love between ‘an ordinary joker’ and a ‘sheila’ who works behind the counter at the town’s famous railway refreshment room:  I'm an ordinary joker, growin' old before me time,'Cause me heart's in Taumarunui on the Main Trunk Line.

Neo here in NZ as a kid one of the Ozzy songs we had to learn was Waltzing Matilda.
Classical Guitar my first real encounter with classical guitar was most probably my Dads collection of flaminco recordings and wondering how it was possible to play like that.
Watching and listening to Manitas de Plata   on Television had me transfixed.
Most of the music on the radio here when I was young was from overseas. Though the odd Kiwi song would slip in such as Down The Hall On Saturday Night with true Kiwi lyrics  such as.
I got a new pair of grey strides, I got a real Kiwi haircut,A bit off the top, an' short back and sides.
Soon as I've tied up me guri, Soon as I've swept out the yard, Soon as I've hosed down me gumboots, I'll be living it high and hitting it hard.

Phill and DE the songs I remember singing with my Dad as a kid  were mostly skiffle songs such as My Old Mans A Dustman.

Oh, my old man's a dustman
He wears a dustman's hat,
He wears cor blimey trousers
And he lives in a council flat

Most of the songs I sang with my Mum were in Fijian so I wont leave any lyrics.

With my fathers parents I learnt old British Musi hall songs  with lyrics such as these

Come, come, come and make eyes at me
down at the old bull and bush
Come, come, drink some
port wine with me
down at the
old bull and bush

Another  lyric I remember my Grandparents taught me

Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag, and Smile, Smile, Smile

Good one Phill  here is a question for you.
Oh me, oh my, oh you
Whatever shall I do?
Hallelujah
The question is peculiar
I'd give a lot of dough
If only I could know
The answer to my question
Is it yes or is it no
Does your chewing gum lose its flavour
On the bedpost overnight?
If your mother says, don't chew it
Do you swallow it in spite?
Can you catch it on your tonsils?
Can you heave it left and right?
Does your chewing gum lose its flavour
On the bedpost overnight?

Bring back Lonnie Song again.