My plan here is to let you know what my musical preferences and taste are and were my influences crept in. As I started my “Blog” I told you how much I love music. That should tell you something. I am going to probably write a significant number of my “Blogs” about music. So I should start out with where my biggest influences came from.
I can remember as early as second grade, music in the house. I never learned to play a musical instrument and there is not one person in my family that ever did. But there were always records. I can remember on a Saturday being downtown at Polk Brothers looking through the records, not knowing what I was looking for, I wasn’t there for myself. Parents have the habit of dragging their children into stores they have no desire being in. Now that there are no record stores to walk into like there was 15 years ago, I miss those days of spending hours flipping thru album after album just hunting for whatever peaked my interest at the time. That old building isn’t even there anymore, now a baseball field is in its place. There was always new music in the house. Bill Black Combo to Pete Fountain, Dean Martin to Eddie Arnold, Nat King Cole to Herb Alphert and the Tijuana Brass. We’re talking mid-sixties time wise. The household was also filled with the sounds of country music. Not today’s Country music
This was Loretta Lynn. Buck Owens, Roy Clark Lynn Anderson, Brenda Lee, Chet Atkins Johnny Cash, these were all stars and the foundation of country music. We had some Jazz and Big Band with Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong. My musical beginnings were with some very popular artist’s. Speaking of popular, the house was never filled with the happening music of the day. Mid to late sixties had some very big and ground breaking acts, that if I was a little older I would have changed my selective tastes much earlier. Groups like The Beach Boys, the Beatles Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. They were all showcasing their music, though it was not considered music in my house. I can remember listening to the radio and the first song I ever liked was called, Ringo by Loren Greene, (yes that Loren Greene of Bonanza fame).Then I had a babysitter that adored the Beatles, and I can remember reading the words to the songs on Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, not having a clue to what I was reading, or that I was looking at one of the most popular albums in music At the age of ten I found AM radio and I loved it.
Sitting here and re-reading and self-editing, that night comes to mind. (Not the specific date) but I can remember leaning on the kitchen counter and just dialing through the radio that my parents would listen to Wally Phillips on in the morning and their country favorites in the evening. Back then there were two country stations on AM-WJJD and WMAQ. After listening to the radio I would try to find the station it was on before I changed the dial. The first popular song I found was one that I heard in music class at school. It was an R&B song entitled Me and Mrs. Jones. I remember listening for the radio call letters so that I could find it again on my small transistor radio. (I did) It was WLS. After finding out I could buy the music I liked, I bought my first 45 of Paul Revere and the Raiders,” Indian Reservation”. Since that first purchase my library and taste have grown and changed and in some cases have come full circle. Music for me was (in my younger days) an escape. I dealt with, frustration, and learned to live with love lost and love won. Had many victories and dealt with many depressions with music. Music they say is universal and very therapeutic. Since the age of ten music has always played an important role in my life. From a “Book of Dreams” to “A Night at the Opera” From “Hysteria” to a “Psycho Circus” and from being “Paranoid” to experiencing “Brain Salad Surgery” Music has kept me “In the Mood” “Dressed to Kill” and proud to be “Born in the USA”
So look for the story to continue because this could lead up to some very exciting reading and you may learn as I have that “Life is A Highway,” that others will offer “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap,” some may invite and say “Welcome to My Nightmare,” but in the end you come to the conclusion, as I did, that “It’s Only Rock and Roll”
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