What opened your eyes..?

[fdesalvo]

Really, what opened your ears to music?  At what age did you become aware of it?

When I was about 7, it was just another weekend at home and my parents were cleaning house. Mom always listened to old Def Leppard, U2, The Police...dad always had Meatloaf  (lol), Roy Orbirson, Journey, and others on.  I have no idea why, but on this one occasion, Meatloaf was on and I noticed something that caught my attention.  There it was...behind the Loaf's operatic shrieking..this ocean of velvety sound - it was a distorted rhythm guitar and I loved it.  I found his album and went through it, finding "Mesa/Boogie" listed under the endorsements. 

Man, those album cover days are gone, aren't they?  There were always shoutouts to some dudes with hilarious nicknames waiting to be found.  Anyway, from that moment on, I found my ears always searching for that particular tone in music.  This was so long before I even dreamt of picking up the instrument.  The excitement of discovering a random band and then searching for their back catalog at the music store..those days are gone, too.  I can't help but reminisce about how awesome that age of discovery was.  Iron Maiden, Journey, Def Leppard...all the music I never realized would one day shape the music I would write.

 

[Death by Uberschall]

The first record I ever got attached to was "Foghat Live". Played it and played it and played it over and over again. Such great songs and playing.  :headbang:

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Then came Rush and Van Halen, I was done for,.......  :headbang1:

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCJux_7W2i8

My brother had this cassette, and as soon as I heard it, I mimic'd all that I heard on this lil student sized classical, borrowed my dad's .59 Danelectro & lil Supro amp with a 6x9" Jensen speaker, cranked it to fuzz heaven & started pursuing sonic warfare at its highest level.

Magical times indeed!!

 

[mrpinter]

I first started listening actively to music as a boy of maybe ten years old where I grew up in Conway, Arkansas. My younger brother and i shared a sleeping space in the unfinished upstairs of our house which we had pretty much to ourselves. We had one of those old depression era type cathedral shape radios and would listen to a clear channel AM station well into the wee hours. My favorites included Ricky Nelson and the Four Seasons, and a few Motown bands I don't remember now. But what really "opened my ears" to music was taking piano lessons a couple years earlier than that, and being able to create my own music. It was a revelation and a life changer, and I was hooked on making music for life. I loved to play simple Gilbert and Sullivan scores for my own enjoyment. I didn't continue the piano lessons, and my reading skills sort of disappeared, but that was what first got me involved with music. I feel lucky in that regard.

 

[DocNrock]

I grew up in a family who listened to Country & Western.  While Johnny Cash and Charlie Pride were OK, they didn't really do it for me.  When I was 12, I went miniature golfing for my cousin's birthday.  Music was playing throughout the course.  Styx "Queen of Spades" came on.  I was a rocker, ever since.

And to DBU, Foghat Slowride was next up!

 

[jmcecil]

I'm also 54 growing up in primarily country western houshold.  Dad and uncles played guitar but hohum.  I had no interest until a radio was left on when I was around 10 late 71.  Can't remember why I was up late, but the station switched to a college run show and they played the yes album all the way through.  I was godsmacked. 

 

[zebra]

I was always interested...

My first sentence was a line from a Christmas song I sung while accompanying myself on a plastic red toy acoustic guitar.

I broke the headstock on my "Dukes of Hazard" toy electric guitar because I was trying to tune it to what seemed to me proper pitch (closer to concert pitch that the plastic headstock could manage).

Billy Joel's "Innocent Man" album was a revelation to my 4 year old mind, as well as the singles from Thriller. 

I pretty much hated the 70s classic rock and metal that was popular in Buffalo, NY while I was growing up.

Then my older brother started listening to CFNY, the pre-"alternative" station in Toronto.  In 1989 and 1990 the following albums were released: New Order's "Technique," Midnight Oil's "Blue Sky Mining," Erasure's "Wild!" and The Cure's "Disintegration." He also exposed me to The Clash, and perhaps most importantly, this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMLOYmGcF30

Draize Train, in particular, is the gem of the album, but "Bigmouth Strikes Again" runs a close second.

To this day, Johnny Marr is still one of my favorites:  Taste, chops, composition, attitude...Brian Jones haircuts, turtlenecks and semi-hollowbody guitars..what's not to love about that!  Not very interested in Morrissey's solo career, but I did see him a couple weeks ago in San Jose (my girlfriend got the tickets, because she knows I'm a Smiths fan).  What can I say - he did put on a good show!

 

[fdesalvo]

Love this!

 

[mayfly]

lots of stuff, but what really made me want to play guitar was this:

 

[stratamania]

I honestly cannot remember music not being around. Both my parents were musical
( that's how they met)  My mother sang opera and my father was a gifted pianist and organist.  Music was always around.

Being born in 1960, Rock and Roll could still be heard on the radio and I can remember as a youngster the Stones and The Beatles emerging. Along with this I was hearing classical records, my folks rehearsing and so on.

It was just a gradual thing.

 

[MikeW]

My Dad was into bluegrass and folk during the late 60's. He had a nice nylon string acoustic that he would pick up and play every now and then, so guitar (and banjo) were always around when I was growing up.

At 11 or 12 I started playing around with his acoustic, until one day he took it out of my hands and tuned it. A friend of mine had a cheap Danelectro from a Christmas a year or two before and I liked to mess around with it when I was at his house. I was over at his place one day and he turned on Van Halen I. When I heard Eruption, it was like the heavens opened up.

After that, in quick succession, was Moving Pictures, Back In Black, The Number of the Beast, Screaming for Vengeance, and I was sure that was what I wanted to do.

Mom and Dad always encouraged me as well and I got my first Strat as a Christmas present the year I was a freshman. Been going ever since.

 

[Cagey]

Whut? My story? Ok...

Then, one day when I was about 5 or 6 years old, I got into my little brother's LSD stash and used it to season my Cheerios, as we were out of roach dust. After I came out of the coma, I could play a guitar just like ringin' a bell.

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

 

[bagman67]

I thought it was your short term memory that was effed up, Cagey.

 

[Cagey]

It's true. But, my imagination is intact, and it's quite clear. That's how it happened.

 

[stratamania]

This song always reminded me of learning guitar, joining bands and so forth.

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