I've been reading recent posts about the impact that Kiss had on so many posters in our forum. I was really surprised by this, based only on my own personal, largely geographical and social experiences. To that end, I thought it would be cool to share some of our early musical experiences that may not be quite so mainstream.
To start with, ages, geographics and time periods should be identified so we can get a picture of where and why things were shunned or appealed by a given demographic.
I'm 53 and I was thinking back to my youth and trying to compare my experiences to many of those in the Kiss post.
In general...where I grew up was rural California farmlands. The tough guy image was the big deal then. Kiss wasn't hugely popular. In fact, I didn't know who they were until at least around 1979. I think it was the face paint that kept them from really catching on in our area. I remember they were not really taken seriously.
Black Sabbath was really huge in our world at the time. I'm talking around 1975 when I was 10 years old. The dark, tough image was something everyone tried to emulate. All the trucks had Black Sabbath bumper stickers and everyone I knew had regular and black light posters.
The three most iconic bands I can remember from my childhood was AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. In fact, I wouldn't discover many other bands until years later because I was so musically focused
I remember kids at school trying to dress up and act like Tony Iommi and Arthur Fonzerelli. That's my earliest memory of schoolmates dressing up and emulating a musician or actor in my school anyways.
I was always kind of an outcast, socially speaking. I would take a guitar to school at 10 years old and sit alone at recess and try and learn songs on my battery powered cassette player.
While I was digging Mountain, Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, I was hugely blown away by The Eagles....specifically, their arrangements and sound.
I recall seeing one of their concerts on TV around 1976 and listening to 'Witchy Woman" and just thinking "how is he getting that sound?"
In my Christian country home, where rock music and rock posters were forbidden, we seemed to be able to agree on The Eagles.
The Eagle's 1977 concert at Capitol Center made the TV and I watched it.
It was March 22, 1977.
I was blown away by Don Felder. I just couldn't believe how good they sounded live. My earliest personal musical memories are trying to refine my sound into something very precise like Felder.
I also couldn't believe that Don Felder wore regular clothes like me. Suddenly, there's this cool dude wearing Jean's, a flannel shirt and suspenders.
I mean, i routinely saw kids dressed like Tony Iommi or Ritchie Blackmore, but for me, a leather trench coat or pants wasn't in the cards. Those were things I could only dream about....but Felder was imitable.
I dressed like Felder (from the 1977 Capitol Center gig) for Halloween 1977, and like most of us, wore my costume to school complete with charcoal beard. Everyone recognized the Felder outfit and it really resonated with school staff. I probably looked silly, but to me, it was a really cool experience.
Along about 1980 - when I turned 15 - that bands like Motorhead, Def Leppard and AC/DC would change my musical direction.
At the time, i was playing in a couple of garage bands and learning harder rock music as the polarity in music started to shift. By the time Ace Of Spades was released, i was able to afford the leather outfit from the album cover.
Motorhead was largely unknown in my demographic at the time, so this was also an opportunity to be different.
1980 was also when AC/DC really grabbed me with Back In Black. Although I had heard their earlier hits - and had a hidden cassette of Highway To Hell - it was the tone of the intro to Back In Black that just shook me. I wanted to make that sound on my guitar, and aot of early tone chasing started with that riff.
The decade of the 1980's would find me in numerous bands and earning money as both session guitarist and a member of several bar house bands, before I was even old enough to drink.
My income from music at that time was between $100.00 to $130.00/week...sometimes a little more and too often a little less.
I was given a beat up Marshall JTM-30 combo around 1982 and i would nurse this along until buying my first Marshall Full Stack (a 2203) from a guy in Wayne Charvel's paint shop in 1988.
So, for me, the period from 1975 until 1985, had the single greatest influence upon me from a musical standpoint. Although later bands would appeal to me, well into the 1990's and beyond - nothing had quite the impact of these early musical experiences.
Those are my early recollections...what's yours???
To start with, ages, geographics and time periods should be identified so we can get a picture of where and why things were shunned or appealed by a given demographic.
I'm 53 and I was thinking back to my youth and trying to compare my experiences to many of those in the Kiss post.
In general...where I grew up was rural California farmlands. The tough guy image was the big deal then. Kiss wasn't hugely popular. In fact, I didn't know who they were until at least around 1979. I think it was the face paint that kept them from really catching on in our area. I remember they were not really taken seriously.
Black Sabbath was really huge in our world at the time. I'm talking around 1975 when I was 10 years old. The dark, tough image was something everyone tried to emulate. All the trucks had Black Sabbath bumper stickers and everyone I knew had regular and black light posters.
The three most iconic bands I can remember from my childhood was AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. In fact, I wouldn't discover many other bands until years later because I was so musically focused
I remember kids at school trying to dress up and act like Tony Iommi and Arthur Fonzerelli. That's my earliest memory of schoolmates dressing up and emulating a musician or actor in my school anyways.
I was always kind of an outcast, socially speaking. I would take a guitar to school at 10 years old and sit alone at recess and try and learn songs on my battery powered cassette player.
While I was digging Mountain, Sabbath and Led Zeppelin, I was hugely blown away by The Eagles....specifically, their arrangements and sound.
I recall seeing one of their concerts on TV around 1976 and listening to 'Witchy Woman" and just thinking "how is he getting that sound?"
In my Christian country home, where rock music and rock posters were forbidden, we seemed to be able to agree on The Eagles.
The Eagle's 1977 concert at Capitol Center made the TV and I watched it.
It was March 22, 1977.
I was blown away by Don Felder. I just couldn't believe how good they sounded live. My earliest personal musical memories are trying to refine my sound into something very precise like Felder.
I also couldn't believe that Don Felder wore regular clothes like me. Suddenly, there's this cool dude wearing Jean's, a flannel shirt and suspenders.
I mean, i routinely saw kids dressed like Tony Iommi or Ritchie Blackmore, but for me, a leather trench coat or pants wasn't in the cards. Those were things I could only dream about....but Felder was imitable.
I dressed like Felder (from the 1977 Capitol Center gig) for Halloween 1977, and like most of us, wore my costume to school complete with charcoal beard. Everyone recognized the Felder outfit and it really resonated with school staff. I probably looked silly, but to me, it was a really cool experience.
Along about 1980 - when I turned 15 - that bands like Motorhead, Def Leppard and AC/DC would change my musical direction.
At the time, i was playing in a couple of garage bands and learning harder rock music as the polarity in music started to shift. By the time Ace Of Spades was released, i was able to afford the leather outfit from the album cover.
Motorhead was largely unknown in my demographic at the time, so this was also an opportunity to be different.
1980 was also when AC/DC really grabbed me with Back In Black. Although I had heard their earlier hits - and had a hidden cassette of Highway To Hell - it was the tone of the intro to Back In Black that just shook me. I wanted to make that sound on my guitar, and aot of early tone chasing started with that riff.
The decade of the 1980's would find me in numerous bands and earning money as both session guitarist and a member of several bar house bands, before I was even old enough to drink.
My income from music at that time was between $100.00 to $130.00/week...sometimes a little more and too often a little less.
I was given a beat up Marshall JTM-30 combo around 1982 and i would nurse this along until buying my first Marshall Full Stack (a 2203) from a guy in Wayne Charvel's paint shop in 1988.
So, for me, the period from 1975 until 1985, had the single greatest influence upon me from a musical standpoint. Although later bands would appeal to me, well into the 1990's and beyond - nothing had quite the impact of these early musical experiences.
Those are my early recollections...what's yours???
I didn't stick with it until the last four or five years and then I really took ahold of it...
