OP
Your Early Musical Influences:
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jtcnj
Ambassador of the Crossroad
flatrockmobile
Well-Known Member
Wow Robert! Amazing find. I guess it would've been May of 73. Looks like they covered a lot of ground that year.
OP
I might have some more images from that file...
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
I'll interpret the original question to mean which bands/artists had the most impact in those formative years when your taste in music gels and you are old enough to start searching out new music. Viewed through that lens, and keeping in mind that I will be 53 this year, the earliest and most important for me was of course Kiss. They sparked my interest in hard rock and were the divining rod that made me seek out radio stations that played that kind of music (I'm sure you all remember the awesome AOR radio stations of the 1970's). The ones that hit me hardest as a kid were Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush. So, pretty typical for the time. By the late '70's I was really getting into Judas Priest and Scorpions. I also started listening to UFO and a lot of Bad Company. Along the way picking up a lot of different things, but for the most part all hard rock. My sister was older and was really into the Beatles and Rolling Stones but I never had any interest in their music until a bit later, like well into high school. Growing up the hard rock seemed so new and exciting and the Beatles seemed old and tired...obviously I was wrong and once I started really listening to their music it too had a huge impact. Another band that really impacted me early that wasn't hard rock was Yes. There was something so engrossing and compelling about them that it resulted in a 10/11 year old sitting around listening to 18-20 minute long songs.
By the early '80's I started to branch out quite a lot. I grew up in the Washington DC area and some of you will recall that it was ground zero for the East Coast hardcore punk scene in the early-mid '80's. I wasn't deep into that scene but I had a lot of friends in the hardcore bands and so there was definitely some cross-pollination in my taste and I began listening to a fair amount of punk, but not a ton of hardcore...mostly bands like the Stranglers, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Stooges etc. and that led the way to a lot of "college radio" bands like Ultravox and the Smiths. Never stopped listening to hard rock though and in the mid 80's discovered Hanoi Rocks, and they had a huge impact on me: just the mix of stylistic ideas all thrown together made it impossible to really pigeonhole them as any one thing.
As far as my playing, no single guitar player has had a bigger impact on me than Alex Lifeson. He's probably the only player (okay, maybe Michael Schenker) that I have ever seriously tried to emulate in any tangible way.
By the early '80's I started to branch out quite a lot. I grew up in the Washington DC area and some of you will recall that it was ground zero for the East Coast hardcore punk scene in the early-mid '80's. I wasn't deep into that scene but I had a lot of friends in the hardcore bands and so there was definitely some cross-pollination in my taste and I began listening to a fair amount of punk, but not a ton of hardcore...mostly bands like the Stranglers, Buzzcocks, The Jam, The Stooges etc. and that led the way to a lot of "college radio" bands like Ultravox and the Smiths. Never stopped listening to hard rock though and in the mid 80's discovered Hanoi Rocks, and they had a huge impact on me: just the mix of stylistic ideas all thrown together made it impossible to really pigeonhole them as any one thing.
As far as my playing, no single guitar player has had a bigger impact on me than Alex Lifeson. He's probably the only player (okay, maybe Michael Schenker) that I have ever seriously tried to emulate in any tangible way.
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jtcnj
Ambassador of the Crossroad
Earliest pop radio influences started an interest in music as listening enjoyment.
I think I recall digging the Jackson 5 and Jim Croce Bad, Bad Leroy Brown around the 4th grade, age 10 or so.
There was somebody kept telling Billy not to be a hero ...... and The Green Berets song.
The first song I ever seriously attentively listened to as much of the instrument parts and lyrics as I could was Doobie Brothers Black Water.
First band I really got into was The Beatles, and then KISS - which I had mostly forgotten about how much I listened to them until the thread here recently.
Then it was really based on what records or 8-track tapes my friends had, and FM rock radio.
Listened to a ton of Bowie, ELO, Frampton comes alive, RUSH 2112, BOSTON was a big one.
For my own listening I was mostly in a Beatles-Led Zep-Who-Stones, and the first 4 Aerosmith records kind of thing but also more and more AC/DC, Free /Bad Co., Skynyrd.
Heard and liked other Southern Rock songs but didnt have any albums.
That goes for a ton of other bands I heard and liked on FM radio.
I can still hear the distinctive sound of the voice of Scott Muni on WNEW NYC radio in my head.
I think I recall digging the Jackson 5 and Jim Croce Bad, Bad Leroy Brown around the 4th grade, age 10 or so.
There was somebody kept telling Billy not to be a hero ...... and The Green Berets song.
The first song I ever seriously attentively listened to as much of the instrument parts and lyrics as I could was Doobie Brothers Black Water.
First band I really got into was The Beatles, and then KISS - which I had mostly forgotten about how much I listened to them until the thread here recently.
Then it was really based on what records or 8-track tapes my friends had, and FM rock radio.
Listened to a ton of Bowie, ELO, Frampton comes alive, RUSH 2112, BOSTON was a big one.
For my own listening I was mostly in a Beatles-Led Zep-Who-Stones, and the first 4 Aerosmith records kind of thing but also more and more AC/DC, Free /Bad Co., Skynyrd.
Heard and liked other Southern Rock songs but didnt have any albums.
That goes for a ton of other bands I heard and liked on FM radio.
I can still hear the distinctive sound of the voice of Scott Muni on WNEW NYC radio in my head.
Metal89
Ambassador of Orchestral Brewtality
For reference im 29.
very early, as far as I can remember. my dad always loved bluegrass, classic rock, 70's and 80's rock with some glam metal. So I grew up listening to lynyrd skynyrd, AC/DC was a big one, ZZ Top, Areosmith. He never was into Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, all of that. He was raised catholic, turned Christian and so it was kinda buried into him that heavy metal was largely satanic although he didn't think heavily distorted guitars where evil but largely the lyrical content. However, ironically, he did teach me how to interpret lyrics. Well when I was around in 5th grade around 2000-2001 (i can't quite remember and i rather not sit here and do the math) linkin park was the next big thing, system of a down as well. one of my best friends at the time was heavily into it.
Also around that time I expressed interest in wanting to learn the drums. My mom immediately went "....i don't think i'd be able to handle the headache, why don't you learn something that you can actually create music on?" I gave it some thought but thats where it ended, kinda bummed out because that's what i wanted to learn how to play. Well my friend had came over, his mom's schedule and his guitar lessons clashed so my parent's where ok with him spending the night to take him to his classes the next morning. So he brought his yamaha strat copy (i honestly cant remember if it was an HSS or SSS type) and his peavy 30 watt. I asked him to let me see it and he agreed and I remember being kinda enamored with the feel of having it in my hands. I guess he took notice of this, broke out the strap and set it all up, plugged it in and showed me how to play the very begining of "in the end" by Linken Park. and "Paper Cut" where off the bat he taught me how to alternate pick to play the E and B string in tempo.
I was in love with it, it was a "HOLY CRAP" moment. So I bugged my parents and they finally got me a 100$ acoustic...which had terrible action, you had to really work to play a clear note. but I quickly started to try and learn. my dad got me a beginner book and i immediately set to work with it. Then got bored... I didn't want to learn how to play extemely simple songs, i wanted to RAWK! so I abandoned that book and found tabs for Johhny B good and spent an entire day learning how to play that. I started to really get into scorpions, cinderella, at the time i really liked bon jovi because i thought the guitar parts where really cool. somewhere in all that though I ran into Metallica on youtube. My dad, and even the parents of some of my friends (it was a Christian private school) always said how satanic they where when ever they got brought up as one was guitar player, he admitted they can really play but didn't care to listen to them.
Well the song in question was Unforgiven II. Curiosity got the better of me and so i plugged in my headphones and started listening. I remember thinking how strange it was that it really didn't sound satanic at all. even in that song the chorus riff was harder than what I previously had remember hearing but lyrical content had nothing to do with religion in any way. I ran across another metallica song "nothing else matters" same thing, well I had ended up teaching myself those two songs, which lead to me listening to even more metallica all the way up to my dad catching me because i didn't hear him coming into my room. It was a lot like being caught with my pants down from my standpoint. Well he wasn't mad but he did ask if I understood what I listened to. So i pulled up the lyrics and explained from what i saw and my understanding what the song was about (I remember really not being far off) and that was the last time he had ever questioned me on what I was listening to. He was actually impressed.
So then I went and listened to Megadeth, Black sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden Ozzy Osbourne. eventually finding Black Label Society. about a year of having that acoustic and not slowing down, my parents decided to get me an electric, which was a squier bullet, and I played the crap out of that joined the christian band for a short time but, I got bummed out on that because all they did was covers and one time i was really early, I was on the stage and was the only one in the band there. I slammed on my distortion and started playing a heavy riff that i made up. well someone there questioned it, saying something to the effect of "is that what God would want you to play?" I felt insulted and as i remember reading into their question and what they where really saying is that it sounds "satanic." I snapped back with "well I created it so if you think that's evil, what are you saying about me?" They had no reply and pretty soon after my song's that I created was constantly shot down in favor for more clean sounding stuff I just stopped showing up for band practice and started to really get into making my own songs.
very early, as far as I can remember. my dad always loved bluegrass, classic rock, 70's and 80's rock with some glam metal. So I grew up listening to lynyrd skynyrd, AC/DC was a big one, ZZ Top, Areosmith. He never was into Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, all of that. He was raised catholic, turned Christian and so it was kinda buried into him that heavy metal was largely satanic although he didn't think heavily distorted guitars where evil but largely the lyrical content. However, ironically, he did teach me how to interpret lyrics. Well when I was around in 5th grade around 2000-2001 (i can't quite remember and i rather not sit here and do the math) linkin park was the next big thing, system of a down as well. one of my best friends at the time was heavily into it.
Also around that time I expressed interest in wanting to learn the drums. My mom immediately went "....i don't think i'd be able to handle the headache, why don't you learn something that you can actually create music on?" I gave it some thought but thats where it ended, kinda bummed out because that's what i wanted to learn how to play. Well my friend had came over, his mom's schedule and his guitar lessons clashed so my parent's where ok with him spending the night to take him to his classes the next morning. So he brought his yamaha strat copy (i honestly cant remember if it was an HSS or SSS type) and his peavy 30 watt. I asked him to let me see it and he agreed and I remember being kinda enamored with the feel of having it in my hands. I guess he took notice of this, broke out the strap and set it all up, plugged it in and showed me how to play the very begining of "in the end" by Linken Park. and "Paper Cut" where off the bat he taught me how to alternate pick to play the E and B string in tempo.
I was in love with it, it was a "HOLY CRAP" moment. So I bugged my parents and they finally got me a 100$ acoustic...which had terrible action, you had to really work to play a clear note. but I quickly started to try and learn. my dad got me a beginner book and i immediately set to work with it. Then got bored... I didn't want to learn how to play extemely simple songs, i wanted to RAWK! so I abandoned that book and found tabs for Johhny B good and spent an entire day learning how to play that. I started to really get into scorpions, cinderella, at the time i really liked bon jovi because i thought the guitar parts where really cool. somewhere in all that though I ran into Metallica on youtube. My dad, and even the parents of some of my friends (it was a Christian private school) always said how satanic they where when ever they got brought up as one was guitar player, he admitted they can really play but didn't care to listen to them.
Well the song in question was Unforgiven II. Curiosity got the better of me and so i plugged in my headphones and started listening. I remember thinking how strange it was that it really didn't sound satanic at all. even in that song the chorus riff was harder than what I previously had remember hearing but lyrical content had nothing to do with religion in any way. I ran across another metallica song "nothing else matters" same thing, well I had ended up teaching myself those two songs, which lead to me listening to even more metallica all the way up to my dad catching me because i didn't hear him coming into my room. It was a lot like being caught with my pants down from my standpoint. Well he wasn't mad but he did ask if I understood what I listened to. So i pulled up the lyrics and explained from what i saw and my understanding what the song was about (I remember really not being far off) and that was the last time he had ever questioned me on what I was listening to. He was actually impressed.
So then I went and listened to Megadeth, Black sabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden Ozzy Osbourne. eventually finding Black Label Society. about a year of having that acoustic and not slowing down, my parents decided to get me an electric, which was a squier bullet, and I played the crap out of that joined the christian band for a short time but, I got bummed out on that because all they did was covers and one time i was really early, I was on the stage and was the only one in the band there. I slammed on my distortion and started playing a heavy riff that i made up. well someone there questioned it, saying something to the effect of "is that what God would want you to play?" I felt insulted and as i remember reading into their question and what they where really saying is that it sounds "satanic." I snapped back with "well I created it so if you think that's evil, what are you saying about me?" They had no reply and pretty soon after my song's that I created was constantly shot down in favor for more clean sounding stuff I just stopped showing up for band practice and started to really get into making my own songs.
OP
Awesome!
SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
My earliest influences were Jerry Reed, Glen Campbell, and Roy Clark. I loved the Glen Campbell Show, and wanted to play guitar after seeing how fun Jerry Reed made it look.
A few years later, on my usual summer trips to see family in Germany I discovered Rockpalast. About '73 or '74 I fell in love with Uriah Heep, The Sweet, and Rory Gallagher.
In between that time, I had discovered various tv compilations and became a fan of the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, and many other late '60s bands. Then when I started going to concerts, Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, and Rush became my new fix.
I still go back down those roads
A few years later, on my usual summer trips to see family in Germany I discovered Rockpalast. About '73 or '74 I fell in love with Uriah Heep, The Sweet, and Rory Gallagher.
In between that time, I had discovered various tv compilations and became a fan of the Allman Brothers, Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, and many other late '60s bands. Then when I started going to concerts, Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, and Rush became my new fix.
I still go back down those roads
Kerry Brown
Ambassador of the Great Northern Bar Jams
My earliest influences were in the 60’s then the 70’s. My father enjoyed music and had a great record collection. I heard a lot of Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, and Louis Prima but his favourite was Johnny Cash. He had every Johnny Cash album. He was also a big fan of folk music, Peter, Paul, and Mary, Woody Guthrie, and the Kingston Trio. The first 45 single I ever bought was Ain’t She Sweet by the Beatles. That song turned on a light in my head. I immersed myself in rock and then through rock the blues. I had a huge collection of blues records, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Mississippi Fred McDowell, the three Kings, etc. At the same time I listened to a lot of prog rock, ELP, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Jethro Tull. Now I play and listen to almost any genre. I believe every genre has some really good stuff and a lot of crap. I seek out the good.
OP
Dude! We are the same age!
SG John
Ambassador of Cool Guitars and Amps.
We're also about the same age and have the same late seventies and early eighties influences. Along with the Stranglers, Stooges, Jam and other bands from that time, I was heavily influenced by bands in Boston such as The Real Kids, Nervous Eaters, Willie Alexander, The Joneses, November Group, The Bags, Seka, Jonathan Richman, Mission of Burma, and the list goes on. It was great to be in such a fertile city at that time. I wish my own projects grew the legs that some of these other bands did. Today, I can still walk into a club, and for $10.00 see a band that will absolutely floor me. As gentrified as Boston is becoming, there is still great rock and roll here, and as we keep getting screwed the music starts getting nastier again.
jjudas
Ambassador of Laissez Les Bon Temps Rouler
I'm 53. Listening to the album, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was like a religious experience to me. I felt a strong connection to the music of Black Sabbath, early Rainbow and Judas Priest. My uncle was a drummer in a local rock band and he influenced me at age 10 with his extensive record collection. Deep Purple, The Doors, Pink Floyd, Yes, Rush, Hendrix and The Rolling Stones were just a few i listened to.
RVA
Ambassador
I hope Bob is OK, Chas.
Gahr
Ambassador of Blues & Brews
I don't remember exactly when I became aware of music. My dad used to listen to Louis Armstrong and Django Reinhardt, but they never really had an impact on me until a lot later. I was born in 1973 and I have three sisters, 8, 11 and 12 years older than me, respectively. They listened to the pop music of the day in the '70s, I remember hearing, ABBA, Brotherhood of Man, the "Grease" soundtrack and towards the end of the decade also the odd Dire Straits song.
But it was my best friend and his older brother who really got me interested in music. His brother was into prog rock. Pink Floyd, Rush, Focus and Mannfred Mann's Earth Band in particular. Me and my friend soon became Pink Floyd Fans. And then there was Kiss, of course, but in the beginning that was a lot more about the personas, the stories and the looks than the music.
The first music I owned myself was Pink Floyd's "The Wall" my friend got it for me in 1979. He already had all the Pink Floyd albums. His brother wouldn't let us borrow his records when he was not around, so my friend got save all the money he got and bought his own copies of all the albums. I distinctly remember listening to "Ummagumma" for the first time. I don't exactly remember how old I was, but I'm guessing I was around seven. Holy Moses! We were completely mesmerized by all the strange things going on on that record. The screeching noises on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (just remembering the title is a bloody feat!) left us completely stunned. What the hell was all this? You would think that stuff like that would turn a kid off of the music completely, but for some reason we weren't turned off, we were fascinated. I have a feeling some of this stems from my parents' dragging me around to art exhibitions and plays when I was fairly young. I was used to seeing and hearing things that I didn't necessarily understand, but I understood that these things could actually carry a meaning (or several meanings) even though it was not apparent on the surface. My mother was also an art teacher in primary school, and my parents had several artist friends, so I guess that helped too.
Anyway, what first interested me was the drums, but I were never really interested in playing an instrument myself in the beginning. Then, when I was eight, my parents decided I should take piano lessons. I was not a very good student, but at least it gave me a rudimentary understanding of music. I quit when I was 12. By that time I was more interested i sports (I was a handball goalkeeper of some talent), and I had started learning guitar basics in school. And then I heard Van Halen.
I discovered Van Halen in 1984. I was immediately blown away. Van Halen was everything I was not. They were cool, confident, brash and bold. The sheer exhuberance of their music got tom me instantly. The first record I bought for my own money was "Fair Warining", and I still consider it the best record ever made by any band or artist. Van Halen's music has meant more to me than any other music ever. Van Halen was the reason I bought my first electric guitar when I was 14. I would have bought one earlier, but I could never afford it, and my parents buying one for me was out of the question.
Van Halen is also the reason why I became a fan and student of the blues. Eddie's idol was Clapton. So I started listening closer to EC, especially his early stuff. I had a friend who was a Clapton fan when we were quite young (mainly because his mum was a fan), so I had heard some of his music already, but I had never got into it. But hearing the Beano album by John Mayall was a game changer for me. THIS was the music I wanted to play. That in turn lead me to listening to guys like Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, B. B. King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter and so on. At 14 I also joined a band, and we were listening a lot to Southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band, largely trying to model our sound on those two bands in particular (we were three guitar players and had a Hammond player as well). I also discovered the J. Geils Band. J. Geils was very important for me as a player. He made me see that it is not what you play but how you play it that is important. He was not a very technical player, but he was cool. Everything he played mattered. I am not very technically advanced either, but J. Geils taught me to focus on my own style instead.
If I look back at my "progression" as a guitar player, I see my most important influences as being Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton, J. Geils, B. B. King, Peter Green and Duane Allman. I don't conciously try to sound like any of them (and as much as I would have loved to, I could NEVER play like Eddie anyway...), but it is all there, in the back of my mind when I play.
But it was my best friend and his older brother who really got me interested in music. His brother was into prog rock. Pink Floyd, Rush, Focus and Mannfred Mann's Earth Band in particular. Me and my friend soon became Pink Floyd Fans. And then there was Kiss, of course, but in the beginning that was a lot more about the personas, the stories and the looks than the music.
The first music I owned myself was Pink Floyd's "The Wall" my friend got it for me in 1979. He already had all the Pink Floyd albums. His brother wouldn't let us borrow his records when he was not around, so my friend got save all the money he got and bought his own copies of all the albums. I distinctly remember listening to "Ummagumma" for the first time. I don't exactly remember how old I was, but I'm guessing I was around seven. Holy Moses! We were completely mesmerized by all the strange things going on on that record. The screeching noises on "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" (just remembering the title is a bloody feat!) left us completely stunned. What the hell was all this? You would think that stuff like that would turn a kid off of the music completely, but for some reason we weren't turned off, we were fascinated. I have a feeling some of this stems from my parents' dragging me around to art exhibitions and plays when I was fairly young. I was used to seeing and hearing things that I didn't necessarily understand, but I understood that these things could actually carry a meaning (or several meanings) even though it was not apparent on the surface. My mother was also an art teacher in primary school, and my parents had several artist friends, so I guess that helped too.
Anyway, what first interested me was the drums, but I were never really interested in playing an instrument myself in the beginning. Then, when I was eight, my parents decided I should take piano lessons. I was not a very good student, but at least it gave me a rudimentary understanding of music. I quit when I was 12. By that time I was more interested i sports (I was a handball goalkeeper of some talent), and I had started learning guitar basics in school. And then I heard Van Halen.
I discovered Van Halen in 1984. I was immediately blown away. Van Halen was everything I was not. They were cool, confident, brash and bold. The sheer exhuberance of their music got tom me instantly. The first record I bought for my own money was "Fair Warining", and I still consider it the best record ever made by any band or artist. Van Halen's music has meant more to me than any other music ever. Van Halen was the reason I bought my first electric guitar when I was 14. I would have bought one earlier, but I could never afford it, and my parents buying one for me was out of the question.
Van Halen is also the reason why I became a fan and student of the blues. Eddie's idol was Clapton. So I started listening closer to EC, especially his early stuff. I had a friend who was a Clapton fan when we were quite young (mainly because his mum was a fan), so I had heard some of his music already, but I had never got into it. But hearing the Beano album by John Mayall was a game changer for me. THIS was the music I wanted to play. That in turn lead me to listening to guys like Peter Green, Mick Taylor, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, B. B. King, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, John Lee Hooker, Elmore James, Taj Mahal, Johnny Winter and so on. At 14 I also joined a band, and we were listening a lot to Southern rock bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers Band, largely trying to model our sound on those two bands in particular (we were three guitar players and had a Hammond player as well). I also discovered the J. Geils Band. J. Geils was very important for me as a player. He made me see that it is not what you play but how you play it that is important. He was not a very technical player, but he was cool. Everything he played mattered. I am not very technically advanced either, but J. Geils taught me to focus on my own style instead.
If I look back at my "progression" as a guitar player, I see my most important influences as being Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton, J. Geils, B. B. King, Peter Green and Duane Allman. I don't conciously try to sound like any of them (and as much as I would have loved to, I could NEVER play like Eddie anyway...), but it is all there, in the back of my mind when I play.
OP
That's an incredible story, Gahr!!!! Very well written and engaging.This is the kind of thing I like to read at 4am while having my first coffee....
ChasFred
Ambassador of Smooth Operations
OH Bob is just fine. Its just that he's in Pa. and I am in AZ so I dont know if I will ever make it to see him again after this summer.
I have tried to get him to travel out here and that has not worked. He has never been the type of person to travel very far.
Thank you for your concern though.
ChasFred
Ambassador of Smooth Operations
From what you have posted on the TTR for us to listen to, who have learned your lessons well. You do not need to sound like any of your influences. You ARE an influence.