Thanks for sticking with me through my blogging drought; I just haven't felt like writing much lately, hence the lazy personality test posts and the extended absence this week. However, in the absence of posting I have been spending a lot of time thinking. It all started with trying to compile a list of the top five shows I'd been to. I like making these sort of mental lists: my top five albums of all time, top five songs of all time, favorite albums of the current year, etc. So as I thought of my top five shows, I began to take a trip down memory lane. I have a pretty good ticket collection from the shows I've been to, so I pulled them out to help me reminisce. All this led me to thinking about how it'd all begun--my earliest music memories. I was surprised at how well I remembered these mundane moments of my past, their common thread being music. So I thought I'd share a few of them with you...
Some of my earliest music memories are of riding in the car on Sunday mornings listening to Casey Kasem's Weekly Top 40 on the way to and from church. I believe this began around the tender age of seven, on through about ten or eleven (about the time we stopped going to church!). I don't think I've listened to the show since then, but I can still remember that intro: The weeeeekly top fortyyyyyyy. I also knew at that early age the long distance dedications were cheesy as hell- just play the music!! We'd catch the top of the countdown on the way to church and we'd be out just in time for the good stuff on the way home. I'd usually catch the end of the countdown in my bedroom on my shiny silver boombox, and can remember dashing around the house to find a blank tape in order to record one of my favorite songs of the time- Van Halen's Jump when it hit number one. I recall sitting there wondering, will it be number one, please oh please I hope so!! (A little googling just revealed it was a top 40 #1 in 1984, which would've put me at 8!) I also remember that after I successfully recorded Jump, I listened to it over and over again. To make the rewinding easier, I put a little ink mark on my tape on the exact spot the recording started. (OH MY GOSH, you won't believe it: I pulled out my tape collection in order to take the picture for this post, and what's on top but the aforementioned Jump tape. I kid you not. Check it out here. I can't believe I kept that tape all these years...)
My giant silver boombox...I believe I got this one year for Christmas (around the same time as Casey Kasem's Top 40) and I thought I was the absolute shit with it. I was awesome. I rocked out. No one could touch me. I remember making my younger brother and sister and some of our friends choose songs from amongst my tape collection (Michael Jackson Thriller, Lionel Richie Can't Slow Down, Huey Lewis & the News Sports, Cyndi Lauper She's So Unusual, Prince Purple Rain, Madonna Madonna are among some of the ones I can remember) that they (or I) liked, and then memorizing them, while I choreographed a dance performance for them to go along with the song. I'd extend the antennae from the boombox to use as a microphone, and we'd perform the songs. I have some spotty memories of being very bossy when it came to these performances, but I'm sure it was all in the name of accuracy!
Around the same time I was also obsessed with all things Michael Jackson. I had Thriller and remember how thrilled I was to see the video on MTV for the first time. I vaguely recall being a little scared of the zombies, but also just being so enraptured with the story set to a song I loved. I, of course, also had a pair of black parachute pants I got for Christmas one year, and a white t-shirt with black short sleeves and red glitter on it that somehow went with the parachute pants and completed the Michael Jackson ensem. I was smokin' hot, let me assure you, and there are pictures to prove it (and if I have anything to do with it, none of you will ever EVER see these pictures!!).
It was also around this time that McDonald's (yes the fast food chain) came out with a series of oldie's tapes. I begged and begged my parent's to buy them, and once they did we'd listen to them in the car on roadtrips. As I recall, they were great 50's and 60's tunes; two songs I distinctly remember are Dell Shannon's Runaway and the Chordettes Lollipop. What kid wouldn't love to sing along to those songs?!?
It wasn't till 1986 that I was first exposed to 'cool' music, that I'd still consider fairly cool today- The Beastie Boys. I was fourth grade, and remember the boy that sat next me, Chris Martin (no, not that one), singing Brass Monkey.
Brass monkey, that funky monkey,
brass monkey junkie, that funky monkey
I can only figure he had a cooler older brother because I don't think any fourth grader would have come across the Beastie's on their own, but I thought it was cool (probably because I thought Chris Martin was cool!). He made me a copy of the tape, I listened to it all the time, and then we'd sing the songs during class. Luckily I was an ace student, so I never got in trouble for these little singing sessions.
Well this pretty much takes you through my elementary years, and is probably enough for one night. I have lots more to share, so stay tuned. In the meantime, I'd love to hear some of your earliest music memories, no matter how embarrassing. I think I've shared enough embarrassing music information for years and years of comic fodder.
to do#183: take a stroll down music memory lane
5 comments:
I was the same! My first real musical memories are based around sitting in front of my Dad's hifi with a blank cassette, taping the UK Top 40. I must have taped all kinds of stuff, but for some reason the ones that are sticking in my head are the terrible 'song' versions of the theme tunes to "Eastenders" ('anyone can fall in love....') and to "Howard's Way" ('always there. our love is always there!'). Drivel. Honestly.
I went to a boarding school, and it was something of a ritual to try and make sure that we were ready for bed and in front of the TV in matron's room on a Thursday night to watch Top of the Pops. I have a very clear memory of watching Billy Joel performing "Uptown Girl". I later discovered that this was the very same episode where The Smiths made their TV debut and played "What Difference Does It Make"??
ok. In terms of music that I have bought, the first album I bought (on cassette) was "Kings of the Wild Frontier" by Adam & the Ants.... some distance before the next batch, which included "The Riddle" and "Human Racing" by Nik Kershaw, "Scoundrel Days" by A-Ha and (ahem) "Silk & Steel" by Five Star.
I would say that I seriously started buying and listening to music around 1987, when I got into Iron Maiden and all sorts of ropey heavy metal, and as a result, most of my early gig-going is to see bands like metallica, the cult, faith no more, little angels, thunder and the monsters of rock festival.... it wasn't until I was about 17 or 18 that my taste started to shift into the whey-faced indie pap that I listen to now.....
One day maybe I'll tell you about the time I accidentally bought a Bob Marley album because I had got him muddled up with Bob Dylan. Now how many people can say they've done that?
I look forward to more revelations!
ST
ST-
Ha, thanks for sharing! Those are some great music memories! I love that you saw Top of the Pops with Billy Joel & The Smiths and you remember Billy Joel!
I literally winced last night as I looked up some of the albums I'd owned and was easily able to recall the songs just by title when I hadn't heard them in twenty years. I'd really like to replace that space in my brain with more relevant information!
Bob Marley vs. Bob Dylan. Wow, that's hilarious. I think that can be chalked up to the ignorance of youth.
My mum and dad bought me a Toshiba cassette/radio thing for Christmas in 1985 and with it the first pre-recorded cassette I owned; bizarrely Billy Joel's Greatest Hits volumes 1/2. Still to this day one of my favourites.
and you had to try and tape songs off the Top 40 and stop the tape before the DJ's voice came on. I have lots of tapes containing odd curtailed Bruno Brookes words...
Duran Duran were the first thing that really got me going. I had been bought a tape recorder for my 11th birthday & I sat in front of the telly with it when top of the pops was on that night. It was DD's first appearance with their first single, "Planet earth". I pressed the record button halfway through the first verse & never, ever looked back. Though I was disappointed in later years to find that "Planet earth" didn't actually have a bloody budgie chirping all the way through it after all.
I'm still partial to a bit of duran, even now!
Wow, I love that all of us future music lovers sat through music programs recording our favorite tracks. Until now I've never known anyone that did this except me.
And Flash, I had the same experience with a Violent Femmes track I recorded. The specific track is eluding me now, but in the background you could hear my brother yelling "Mom!". After years of listening to that version, the album version still sounds weird, I always anticipate the "Mom!".
Post a Comment