What is your first memory of music that made a lasting impression? What musical memories do you closely associate with certain family members? What place did music have in your home or neighborhood? Much of the research I've been exposed to says lasting musical memories begin building when we're between 12-15 years old. Based on my own life, this rings true. How about for you?
I was fortunate to have two parents who enjoyed music. My father played the ukulele and my mother had a nice singing voice and good ear for harmony. When Dad would play something from the 1930's (when he and Mom were in that 12-15 year old range) and my Mother would sing, the songs would be unfamiliar to me. But songs like "Embraceable You" or "I Get a Kick Out of You", and others written years before I was born, occupied as much of my early musical landscape as "Where Did Our Love Go" or "Surfin USA", songs popular when I was 12-15 years old.
Now? A good deal of my 2011 guitar repertoire includes songs Dad played on the uke while Mom sang all those years ago. When Mom died in 1977 I was still singing rock n' roll in the bars. Dad lived almost another 20 years and by then I had switched to playing some of those early standards in a jazz style so he got to appreciate this turn in my music. And though both of them always loved and supported my rock n' roll ambitions, there's something comforting about my current life taking me back to music from my parents impressionable years. To those of you who still have your parents: Why not ask them to share with you the music that made an early impression on them? Then go on I-tunes, spend $15-$20 and make a CD for them; what a gift.
About Me
- Pat Barton
- My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".
I really relate to this topic. I remember the songs I heard as a child, the ones that truly captivated me. "Fever" by Peggy Lee because her voice seemed so earthy, the accompaniment was brutally stripped down and the lyrics were simple and memorable. I was about 9 yrs old. "Rock Around the Clock", Bill Haley and the Comets. A cliche, sure, but the first time I heard it was from a radio playing inside the neighbor's garage while a couple of teenage boys tinkered with their street rod. Also at about 9 yrs. old. Then years of more pop and rock. Finally one night at a CYO dance (Catholic Youth Organization)as I walked into the gym at 13 yrs. old, the DJ cueued up "Sherry" by the Four Seasons. "Something" in the heavy bass beat just filled me joy. The air in the gym shimmered. I felt as though I was being enveloped by a force over which I had no control. As crazy as it sounds, I hear that same "something" most often in the blues of artists like Muddy Waters, Buddy Guy, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Jeff Beck and Johnny Winter. Go figure.
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