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Post by jack1982 on Mar 17, 2015 4:41:09 GMT -6
Well it's been awful dead around here so I thought I'd post something When I was a little kid my folks had a bunch of records and 8-track tapes, and the first stuff I really liked was a Diana Ross and the Supremes 8-track. Stuff like Baby Love, Where Did Our Love Go, Stop! In The Name Of Love and many others. I think that original Motown stuff got me into the melodies and rhythms that I would be drawn to for the rest of my life. They also had a Nancy Sinatra 8-track with stuff like These Boots are Made for Walkin' . My folks were really into The Carpenters at the time, but even as a little kid that stuff was a bit dull for me lol. Then I got my own stereo system, must have been back in about '79, and got into all that awesome rock from that time period. I remember Cheap Trick's song Gonna Raise Hell was in max rotation at the time. And I loved all that great Disco stuff too I remember they even had little dance lessons they'd play with the commercials during TV shows, showing you the latest move. Then in the early '80s I really loved the New Wave stuff, and also got heavily into Pink Floyd's The Wall. I remember the remnants of Disco still lingering as well. One night at the video arcade some guy had a boombox and was playing Black Sabbath's Iron Man - a life changing event for me. That heaviness infected the very fiber of my being I listened to the hair metal stuff too but didn't get into it all that much at the time. Nowadays I really like that stuff though, a lot of those guitarists were pretty close to virtuoso level. With my interest in metal and rock I eventually took up guitar playing, due to Led Zeppelin's movie The Song Remains The Same. It didn't take long for me to discover that stuff all had its roots in the blues, so I developed a bit of a side interest in that, which eventually became my main interest. So how 'bout you guys?
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Post by joachim on Mar 17, 2015 5:17:11 GMT -6
I think I mainly listened to cheap second hand blues and rock records on my record player when I was a boy, Chuck Berry, Johnny Winter, Muddy Waters and the likes, which you could pick up really cheap in a second hand record store. Later in my childhood I got into Dire Straits and Rolling Stones, and I realized my parents actually had cool music taste (lots of CCR records) even though they did their finest to disguise it. As a teenager I listened to AC/DC and diverted into heavy metal as well, but now I seem to have completed the circle and mainly listen to blues and early rock again - I still have a sweet spot for AC/DC, though, but what aspiring guitarist doesn't?
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Post by bluesbruce on Mar 17, 2015 6:08:55 GMT -6
Good thread, Jack. It has been dead around here. I thought maybe the forum had disbanded while I was on vacation last week...
I guess I came of age musically in the early 70's, which probably explains why I've always had the sort of acoustic guitar/folksy sort of leanings. Loved Dylan, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Eagles, stuff like that. Never was that much into the metal stuff. On the rock side, more into the Beatles and CCR. Always loved the Motown stuff, who didn't? My brother played trumpet and that kind of got me to listening to jazz back then.
I never really delved into blues until Clapton's "Unplugged". The acoustic blues kind of lead me to the electric blues. I've always kind of found it funny that all this great blues music was going on even back in the 60's and 70's, and it was totally off my radar screen. I remember hearing of SRV because he played on David Bowie's "Let's Dance", and I didn't appreciate the sheer genius of his own recordings until well later (even though I'd heard his stuff). Well, we live and learn, don't we.
Bruce
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Post by jack1982 on Mar 17, 2015 7:11:45 GMT -6
Joachim, yeah my folks had some kind of cool tastes back in the day too, I remember they had Morrison Hotel by The Doors and a whole pile of Les Paul albums. Nowadays my dad listens to some easy listening channel on TV - it's like funeral home music. Way too banal even to be played on elevators. Oh well, his favorite song is Africa by Toto and my mom loves Patience by Guns 'n' Roses, so I guess there is a glimmer of hope there Bruce, I remember SRV being on that Bowie song, and Bowie was playing the guitar in the video lol. I also love The Eagles. When I get an acoustic guitar this summer I'll have to try and learn Hotel California, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. That should take until the summer of 2016 lol, quite a fingerpicking exercise.
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Post by joachim on Mar 17, 2015 7:44:11 GMT -6
Joachim, yeah my folks had some kind of cool tastes back in the day too, I remember they had Morrison Hotel by The Doors and a whole pile of Les Paul albums. Nowadays my dad listens to some easy listening channel on TV - it's like funeral home music. Way too banal even to be played on elevators. Oh well, his favorite song is Africa by Toto and my mom loves Patience by Guns 'n' Roses, so I guess there is a glimmer of hope there Bruce, I remember SRV being on that Bowie song, and Bowie was playing the guitar in the video lol. I also love The Eagles. When I get an acoustic guitar this summer I'll have to try and learn Hotel California, which is one of my favorite songs of all time. That should take until the summer of 2016 lol, quite a fingerpicking exercise. Jack, I remember last winter I drove with my father to our skiing lodge in Norway, which is a long drive. My father had a compilation of MP3's installed on his car stereo - I wonder how how he actually managed that. But is sounds like our dads with age have acquired the same taste for elevator music, and in the end I had to put my foot down and refuse to drive any further with that easy-listening crap in background... I much prefered just listening to my kids fighting in the back seat.
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Post by wannaplayblues on Mar 17, 2015 10:34:41 GMT -6
Personally, I'd say I only just started getting into music... seriously, I'm a late bloomer. Playing guitar has made me appreciate the talent I now listen to.
Robert Cray - a clean tone and yet *so* powerful! Buddy Guy - "Rhythm & Blues" is on constant repeat Gary More - Still Got The Blues
Also keeping an eye out for local live blues performances.
I'm just hoping that listening to this stuff will impact me and I can pick-up some of the blues language. At the moment I'm like a babbling baby who's drooling all over the place.
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Post by Phil on Mar 17, 2015 17:08:38 GMT -6
I had a sister 5 years older, and a brother and uncle who lived with us who were 10 years older, so I was exposed to all the Rock n' Roll of the '50s as a little kid. They listened to Rock n' Roll on radio all the time. I also remember albums laying around the house by Bill Haley and the Comets, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Fats Domino, the Everly Brothers and, of course, lots of Elvis. However, I never saw a Pat Boone record in our house. Apparently his insipid covers of Little Richard and Fats Domino weren't popular with my siblings and uncle, so I got to hear the real thing. My dad played a bit. He was a strummer and could also sing. In the days before 1,000 TV channels and the Internet, he provided the entertainment in our house and would pull out the guitar at parties. He loved country music. The old stuff - Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Ray Price, etc. So I was also exposed to country music quite a bit, but I never liked it. The Beatles appeared on the Ed Sullivan show when I was 11 or 12. That was a big deal back then. It was the most popular show in the country on Sundays nights. Soon after the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and others from the British invasion appeared and I was hooked. Although I liked the Beatles, I was really drawn to the more raw, bluesy sounds of the Stones and the Animals. At the time I had no idea of what the Blues was. After being exposed to all this I wanted to play the guitar. My dad showed me the basic chords. The very first songs I learned on my own were "Mr. Tamborine Man" by the Byrds and "The Last Time" by the Stones. I learned them from the records and slowing down the 45's to 33 1/3. I guess that was good ear training. My 1st real guitar hero had to have been Jeff Beck when he was with the Yardbirds. When I heard "Heart Full of Soul" and "The Shape of Things" I couldn't believe that he was getting those sounds from a guitar. I also went through a period of liking Soul music. That became the cool music with the crowd I was running with at the time. This was when Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson, etc., were in their heyday. After that I got back into Rock - Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath, The Who, Jethro Tull, Ten Years After, Johnny Winter and on and on. The people I hung around with had very eclectic tastes in music. In fact, the concerts were eclectic. I saw Yes open for Black Sabbath, Deep Purple open for Rod Stewart and the Faces, Bad Finger for Jethro Tull. I don't think it's like that today. I think I got interested in the real Blues after hearing a live album of the Yardbirds that was recorded in '63 when Clapton was still with them. I didn't hear it until the late '60s. It had a great version of "Smokestack Lightening" on it. I also saw groups like early Fleetwood Mack and the Savoy Brown Blues Band in concert in the early '70s which lead me to look more into the actual roots of Blues. That then lead me to Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Lightenin' Hopkins, Furry Lewis, Son House, and others. It's kind of ironic that I grew up in Chicago and was introduced to the Blues by the Brits. Jack, you opened up this can of worms and got me talking, so don't blame me for this overly long stroll down memory lane.
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Post by jack1982 on Mar 18, 2015 5:35:17 GMT -6
That was a fascinating trip down memory lane Phil, you listened to tons of awesome stuff! No wonder your playing is so tasteful That's one thing I really lack - any real background in the blues. That's why all my "blues" stuff sounds more like mellow rock lol.
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Post by blackcountrymick on Mar 18, 2015 18:17:14 GMT -6
I was definitely interested in guitar based music from a very early age starting really with the Shadows and Elvis back in about '62 moved on to the Rolling Stones (Little Red Rooster got me hooked), Steppenwolf, CCR, T Rex, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac etc. Then along came the first Black Sabbath album, Deep Purple in Rock, Taste, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, ELP, YES, Gary Moore, Clapton, Led Zeppelin...did not really do the soul thing but I loved the Blues brothers type of stuff.
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