Musical Origins
It is an informal tradition for me: Every 4th of July I listen to “Classic Rock” for the day. This past 4th I had a couple of insights I’d like to share…
- What I listen to today is radically different from what I listened to back then. Despite the differences in styles/genres/eras, there are clearly some themes/techniques/approaches that I appear to have always liked.
- I know much more about music and music production now compared to back then. That new found knowledge helps me to hear new things in some of the old stuff. This only increases my respect for what bands and engineers achieved 30+ years ago without plug-ins, DAWs or anything else I take for granted. (Conversely, it makes me look a bit more askance at my output given the power at my disposal.) Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd still holds up in a big way…
The rest of this post is long and sort of traces my own personal music “family tree”. It’s not exhaustive. There are explorations of some other genres like jazz and classical that I do not go discuss. Then again, those excursions have not been as extensive or sustained as the stuff I describe here.
I must admit, I wrote this as much, if not more, for myself because I wanted to get it down. If you’d like to share same, please feel free….
——-The backstory——-
My earliest memories of music (apart from kiddie albums and sing-a-longs) are of my older sibling’s 45 RPM singles and 33 1/3 RPM LPs from Motown, the Rolling Stones, the Beatles. I remember my mom used to listen to the radio a lot as we drove around in the car. Songs like Don McLean’s American Pie, Carly Simon’s Your So Vain, Helen Reddy’s I am Woman, and Jesus Christ Superstar come to mind.
It wasn’t until 1975 that I bought my very own first album: Young Americans by David Bowie. (Fame was a big hit that summer and I really liked it.) That was quickly followed by (in loose order) Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy, Alan Parson’s I Robot, and Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon (which was itself quickly followed by the purchase of?Wish You Were Here and later Animals and The Wall).
What came next gets a bit fuzzier. By 1976/77 I had some sort of income from household chores or minor summer jobs and I could buy more music. I was definitely a “rock and roll” kid. Everything from the huge bands of the late 70s — KISS and Bob Seger (hey I’m from Detroit), Boston, Styx, Kansas, Yes, ELO, ELP, Aerosmith and, of course, Led Zeppelin — to less obvious bands. (Anyone remember Ambrosia and Manfred Mann’s Earth Band?)
