Bob-Dubery
So what was the soundtrack to your youth? What did your parents play at home? What else did you get exposed to?
My dad played a lot of Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet. Also Rogers and Hammerstein - I particularly recall Carousel. He got us (my siblings and I) a pretty good compendium of classical music from Reader's Digest because he felt we should know that stuff. I'm surprised at how much of that sunk in - often I hear classical music and I recognise it. Don't necessarily know what it is and who wrote it, but I know it. I recall years (decades!) later going to see Immortal Beloved which was a Beethoven biopic and I knew nearly all the music. So that stuff really stuck. When I saw Quartet earlier this week I was again surprised to recognise much of the music.
We used to listen to the Goon Show. So I got to like good harmonica playing because of Max Geldray's musical interludes. Sometimes they would have a big band behind Ray Ellington, and I confess to liking that sound - which you hear a lot on Sinatra records.
I was a kid in the UK in the 60s. So there was, of course, the Fab Four. Since then other acts have sold more, but I find it hard to believe that any other band will be as all pervasive as the Beatles were then. And the thing about the Beatles was that you liked them, your parents liked them, your big sister liked them, your granny liked them.... they had such broad appeal because, I think, they had such good melodies.
And Motown. Motown was massive in the UK then, especially the Supremes. My parents had a really good Motown sampler that they were given for a present and didn't want to get rid of because it was a present. They didn't listen to it much. It was hell of good.
Just about everything I listen to now I picked up from sources outside the home, but somehow that stuff is still there in the background. I don't seek it out, but when I encounter it something in me responds. Big band.... I watched some movie the other night about some bunch of old windgats that go up into space. Over the credits they played Frank Sinatra singing "Fly Me to the Moon" with the Count Basie Orchestra behind him. Marvellous.
vic
That's for sure...the in-home music you listened to will always stick and in my case I grew to love and appreciate it even more as I grew older. Big bands...oh yes ! The good stuff. I love it.
My mom played light and light classic music (pianist) and I remember I would ask her on those lazy Sunday afternoons to play Largo and Piano concerto, also The way you look tonight, etc.....that one still fills me with emotion :? I also remember her playing Smoke gets in your eyes....oh my, what a beautiful piece of music.
I had my own collection of records of course which included most of the late 50's and 60's pop....including the Fab Four of course ?
Manfred-Klose
CCR , Neil diamond, Abba, lots of Boney M(i die a little every time i hear it) , Strauss , Ge korsten , Laurika Rauch , oh and there was this one Van halen tape
Chocklit_Thunda
For me it was a lot of RnB at home. Old motown music, disco, soul typa stuff. Thats the stuff my parents played... Most of my music experience came from my uncle though!
Every weekend I was at his house and I was always exposed to great music! In fact it was him playing Uriah Heep's 'Gypsy" and hearing those raw guitars that got me hooked on the guitar.
He's always enjoyed rock and more so, live rock. Always had a new concert to show us. From Led Zep to Queen to Hendrix to Dire Straits and anything in between. Basically he filled myself and my cousins (his two daughters) in on the entire 60's 70's and 80's of good music in about a decade.
studmissile
Elvis, Neil Diamond, Roger Whittaker, Gilbert and Sullivan, Andrew Loyd Webber and the Bee Gees. Oh he also digged Led Zeppelin but only "Whole Lotta Love".
AlanRatcliffe
My mother was a music fan with a broad taste, so quite a bit. I was real lucky in that regard.
All the rock 'n' roll, with an emphasis on Elvis and the Brit Breakthrough and Mersey Beat stuff (she knew quite a few of the Mersey musos). Sadly there was absolutely no Beatles (for reasons I've mentioned before). Smatterings of Motown, but mostly only the ones that were a hit in the UK. Elvis didn't stick, but the rest did.
A lot of classical, heavy on Bach and Tchaikovsky's ballets. Classical guitar: John Williams, Segovia and Julian Bream. We used to holiday in and around Spain every year (and off the main tourist routes - avoiding the typical , loud Brits on holiday, drinking beer and eating fish and chips), so I was also exposed to a lot of Flamenco - there is a photo somewhere of me at four or five years old in full Flamenco dancer outfit - hat, shoes, frilly shirt, tight trousers with flares.
Django Reinhardt, lots of Chet Atkins. Some of the better country stuff - in fact, some of it stuck - notably Lee Hazelwood (Jackson, Boots are Made for Walkin', Sand, etc.. - in fact, I know his entire catalogue well.
My father brought the Stones (he went to school with Mick), Roger Whittaker, Burl Ives, but unfortunately also Mantovani and Sousa Marches (seven years in the Army'll do that to you). Very little stuck. Oh yeah... and the Goons - I know all the Goons and Sellers songs and probably half the shows off by heart too (he used to skip the music, so I didn't get into any of that). Other novelty/comedy stuff too - The Wurzels, Barron Knights, Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, etc..
We stayed with my grandparents a lot (and later them with us), so some of that rubbed off too - Tennessee Ernie Ford, etc. - a lot of the popular music of the '30s through '50s.
---mario---
Dad: Roy Orbison, Jim Reeves
Mom: Neil Diamond, Queen, Pink Floyd
Brother and Sister: Metallica, Nirvana, Silverchair, ACDC, GnR, Live, Offspring, Greenday
It goes on forever really but those are some of the ones that stuck with me, some more than others.
TomCat
From my parents it was Perry Como and Dean Martin.......I was a laat lammetjie.....
From my older boet (11 years my senior) it was CCR, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Jimmy Hendrix, The whole of Woodstock, Beatles and Rolling Stones....Anything 60's / early 70's in fact.
StefStoep
Neil Diamond, CCR, Kris Kristofferson, Don Williams, Johann Strauss.
But the one that really pushed me to the edge of suicide was BZN!!!
But the one that takes me back to going on holiday with the family in my parents 2.5 VW Caravelle is Cat Stevens.
My dad also always had Anton Goosen close by!
Renesongs
My dad was an avid east coast jazz fan. He had hundreds of vinyls and reel to reel tapes of Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Johnny Hodges, Pete Fountain, Lionel Hampton, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Count Basie, Wes Montgomery, Jimmy Smith, Louis Armstrong, Cat Anderson, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Herb Ellis, Kenny Burrell, Django Reinhardt, Clark Terry, Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, Art Tatum, Nat King Cole, King Curtis, to name but a few, which he played 24/7 until our homes were struck by the great social and cultural plague of the mid 70's... the TV set.
Shibbibilybob
Hhhhm, my dad was a huge music fan, my mom is, I think, but not as passionate and differentiating as my dad was.
Stand out artists I remember listening to growing up:
Jackson Browne, Dire Straits, Shaun Phillips, Pink Floyd, Queen, Janis Joplin, Joan Baez, The Bee Gees, The Small Faces, Wishbone ash, Jefferson airplane, Budgie, Slayed, and an assortment of Andrew Lloyd Webber (I think that was my mom ?).
Kush
Don Williams, Jim Reeves, BeeGees, Cat Stevens, Stevie Wonder, Thin Lizzy, Gary Moore, Eric Clapton, Abba, Donna Summer, Barbra Streisand, Carol King a whole mix of stuff across different genres but the stuff that stands out most is Bob Marley, Eric Donaldson, Peter Tosh, Joseph Hill's Culture, loads of Reggae, some of it so obscure I don't even remember the artists anymore.
Then my uncle was a "cool dude" back in the 80's so he got me into 80's pop and RnB, Atlantic Starr, Cool and the gang, Earth Wind and Fire, Anita Baker.
And then there was Zimbabwean Pop and Jazz, that stuff was a staple in home's record collection and I still love it even to this day, gets me all nostalgic. Talking Drum, Thomas Mapfumo, Oliver Mtukudzi, John Chibadura, James Chimombe, Leonard Dembo, Louis Mhlanga, iLanga etc. That distinct African style guitar still colours my guitar playing even now.
IceCreamMan
dutch swing college band, goerge Zamfir pan pipes thingy, lots of pan pipes music from south America as I recall. Beatles.
briang-telkomsa-net
Junior School at home - Also Dutch Swing College Band, Springbok Radio Hits LP's!!, Peter and the Wolf, Max Bygraves -"GillyGillyOsenfeffKatzenEllenBogenByThe sea" and others.
High School as a boarder - van Halen, Jethro Tull, Queen, Rock Horror and from my guitar playing mate who introduced me to the likes of Jimi Hendrix, The Yellow Jackets, Trower, John McLaughlin et al. - he was pretty nifty on the fretboard too and I learned a lot from him.
flatfourfan
My mum used to do keep fit in the UK in the 70's and so we were exposed to a lot of new stuff pretty quickly.
Pretty much everything that's been listed below except the South African stuff...........my folks listened to everything and anything.
When my mum came back to South Africa a while back, she was fighting with me with regards to my vinyl collection as she thought it was all hers.......very very similar taste.
domhatch
oh yeah, the goons. loved 'em, have the 'scripts', and quite a few episodes on both tape and cd. as for music:
abba, simon and garfunkel (there was actually a party at my folks' place one night with the express purpose of gathering to watch the concert in central park on betamax), dire straits, lots of folk, quite a few folks who've already been mentioned such as roger whittaker (we used to watch the rw show quite often), a bit of country (glen campbell!!!, dolly, etc), laura brannigan was a particular favourite of my dad, lots of sa acts (coz there were a few back then - johhny clegg was big in our house f'r instance), tessa ziegler, classical featured big, my dad's mom was a piano teacher, but sometimes people would just come around and jam.
that was kinda cool.
dh|
guidothepimmp
I didn't grow up in a musical environment. No music at all
My education came thanks to my cousin and my uncle
Heck they had me listening to maiden and priest when i was 8 yrs young ?
Rest of the kids my age were pimping to .mc hammer and roxette
domhatch
hey. what's wrong with roxette? compared to mr curtains-for-trousers, they're positively brilliant!
Crafty
My old man listened to lots of folk, and rock.
The fureys for instance. Rolling stones, uriah heap, and even some laura branigan etc... This taught me to appreciate what the 60 & 70's did for music. Thank heavens i went with my old man's taste, and not my mom's otherwise i would have posted in this thread all about carika keusenkamp, anellie van rooien, uri els, and that may have lead to me being a bieber fan of some sorts...
Crafty
domhatch wrote
hey. what's wrong with roxette? compared to mr curtains-for-trousers, they're positively brilliant!
Nothing wrong with roxette. I listened to them well into highschool years
