Dear Old Mom
I suppose I was first exposed to music the way most people were- sitting in the backseat of Mom's poop-brown station wagon, listening to late 70's-early 80's radio while she drove around town running her errands with her fabulous baby boy. "My Baby Takes the Morning Train," "Thank God I'm a Country Boy," all manner of Motown hits... I'd listen to my mom sing along to the radio and I can still hear her voice and the squeaky-ness of the vinyl-covered seats, which had withstood quite a bit of abuse over the years from my two older brothers' pens and the sharp ends of graphing compasses. But these were the days when it was just me and mom. Mark and Todd disappeared during the days, going to some strange thing called "school," and my mom had me all to herself.So, anyway, those are the first musical memories for me. And mom's eclectic musical tastes were passed onto me as much as the twisted strands of DNA containing her sense of humor.
So, even now, I can't hear The Carpenters "On Top of the World" or Simon and Garfunkel's "Mrs. Robinson," or Carol King's "Too Late Baby" or Billy Joel's "She's Always a Woman To Me," or the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go?" or Chicago's "Saturday in the Park" without hearing mom's voice in my head and getting a little wistful for my youngest days, when life was simple--me and mom cruising the town in the middle of a bright, hot, Savannah day.
All of that to say that I think our parents are our first signpost in developing a musical aesthetic language- a baseline, if you will. At least mine were.
So, what about you? Early musical memories?
posted by Mike @ 4:00 PM
5 Comments:
i don't believe my parents were at all inspirational in my music love...i don't remember once them even listening to music...somewhat sad to think about now...i do remember riding to church with my grandparents listening to glow worm by the mills brothers though...now that is some exciting music...glow little glow worm glimmer, glimmer.... : )
Barry Manilow and The Carpenters remind me of driving to Oklahoma City from Texas. It's twilight and there is nothing out on Route 66 but night sky and radio towers.
"Reminiscing" by The Little River Band makes me think of us getting ready to go out to the Dairy Queen or the Pizza Hut (those two are big places in a small town in the middle of nowhere, believe me).
Ah, "Reminiscing." There's one I haven't heard or thought about in a long time!
I thought for sure I was going to hear some tales of Gospel music or Carman.
Favorite Carpenters song?
(Mine's "We've Only Just Begun," primarily for the key change at "Sharing horizons that are new to us..")
My family traveled a lot in the car when I was growing up. I think my parents had 4 tapes. I have all of those albums on my i-Tunes and listen to them frequently because of the memories they that stir up within me. The four tapes we listened to were, "The Carpenter's Singles 1969-1973" (Brown Cover), "The Best of the Statler Brothers", a "best of" version from "The Judds" and a "best of" version of the Beach Boys. We would just rotate those tapes over and over in order on our long trips in the car. Right now I've got my favorite Carpenter's song, "Superstar" playing in honor of this comment.
Great topic! My earliest memories are of my mom playing her guitar. She would do lots of songs by the Carpenters, Simon and Garfunkel (particularly Bridge Over Troubled Water) and Joan Baez. So, naturally, I fell early and hard for James Taylor.
Oh, and the best Carpenters song is "Sing." Duh. :)
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