Early childhood music memories

[Grooovepig]

"Running with the Devil" was just playing on the shop floor at work and it reminded me of a very powerful memory from childhood. It was on summer break. I was about 10 years old; a friend and I were walking through the very large playground of our elementary school in central New Jersey.

We came across a couple of kids playing basketball on the courts. They were older, very tough looking, and wore lots of denim. We were intimidated but felt comfortable enough to hang out with them. On the ground they had a boom box playing Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin, and other heavy artists of the day. At some point a song comes on that stops me in my tracks.

"Eruption" by Van Halen...

I remember thinking, "What the hell is this devil's sorcery?" I hadn't heard anything like it up to that point. When the two-handed tapping part came in, it was so dark and heavy; it actually frightened me. It sounded evil to me but in a way that excited my senses.

Soon after I scraped up some cash. Went to Camelot Records or Listening Booth in the Ocean County Mall and picked up Van Halen I.
It's still a favorite after all these years.....

I have many others but what are your strongest, early music-related memories?

 

[squidart]

My dad foolishly brought home a copy of Meet The Beatles. Mom taped two round oatmeal boxes together. The rest, as they say, is history!

 

[Drumstickdude]

Sorry, I've just got to post this.!! Did you guys have this back in the day?

 

[Grooovepig]

Sorry, I've just got to post this.!! Did you guys have this back in the day?

That must've been a little before my time. The theme song is groovy though!

 

[BennyK]

" Sing from your breadbasket " .... you can imagine what image forms in a five year old's mind .

Anyway, I guess Miss Scissons knew her job because we won the Ottawa junior choir championship that year . Every one got a prize . Me , handle bar streamers . I didn't own a bike yet .

Today my breadbasket is somewhat more impressive and after 48 years of smoking and general health abuse my voice isn't what it was in 1960 , but I'll always remember the lessons .

The song ? Michael Row the Boat Ashore .


Hallelujah .

 

[Drumstickdude]

My choice of words exactly - groovy! These Gerry Anderson programmes were made in the late 60s but they were also on in the 70s - my early years. Captain Scarlett is good too.

 

[Tama CW]

4 Seasons 45 record with Big Girls Don't Cry and Connie O' on the flip side.
Del Shannon 45 records with Little Town Flirt and Runaway.
And of course the Safari's 45 with Wipeout and Surfer Joe on the flip side.

1962/1963?....the fabulous drum work on Little Town Flirt still kills me. Wonder what session drummer performed it? Hal? Earl? Bernard? Can't find it.

When riding the school bus in grades 2 and 3, the driver must have loved that early RnR tunes. Then again, it's probably all the was on the AM Radio back then. That's all I remember on those rides - 4 Seasons, Del Shannon, Elvis, Ventures, Beach Boys, Paul Anka, Lou Christie, Leslie Gore, etc. One hour every day of the school year. What great music. And they all ring in my head to this day.

 

[JDA]

"It's Now or Never" on the radio Elvis Presley 1960.
I was around 4

 

[Joe61]

I enjoyed this as a kid.

Supercar - S1E25 - The White Line - Bing video

 

[Drm1979]

I was an 80s kid, however my father was a fan of classic and southern rock so my first exposure to what I consider to be real music was ccr and John mellencamp and skynyrd. But it was when I found a copy of aerosmith's greatest hits tape the one released in 1980 in my dad's collection. that cemented me as an overall rock and roll fan. The 3 songs that did it were dream on, walk this way and sweet emotions. After that I started looking for other bands such as van Halen, ozzy was huge at the time too. I've never looked back and aerosmith still remains my favorite band to this day. Of course being allowed to listen to pump and permanent vacation as a young 11 year old probably wasn't the best parenting decision my folks made what with all the innuendos in those records but I was just addicted to joey kramer's groove.

 

[Obiwandrumobe]

 

[Grooovepig]

I was an 80s kid, however my father was a fan of classic and southern rock so my first exposure to what I consider to be real music was ccr and John mellencamp and skynyrd. But it was when I found a copy of aerosmith's greatest hits tape the one released in 1980 in my dad's collection. that cemented me as an overall rock and roll fan. The 3 songs that did it were dream on, walk this way and sweet emotions. After that I started looking for other bands such as van Halen, ozzy was huge at the time too. I've never looked back and aerosmith still remains my favorite band to this day. Of course being allowed to listen to pump and permanent vacation as a young 11 year old probably wasn't the best parenting decision my folks made what with all the innuendos in those records but I was just addicted to joey kramer's groove.

Oh yeah. Those innuendos went over my head. I remember hearing Trick of the Light off Who Are You at age 10. I kinda put it together that the song was about sex, but I was lost to the fact that he was with a prostitute.

Another record that made a huge impression on my little kid brain.

 

[MrDrums2112]

I saw Buddy Rich in 1977, at my sister’s high school. I was in 2nd or 3rd grade. That’s what made me want to be a drummer. In 1979 I was in 5th grade. I would listen to the radio every night while falling asleep. The radio station started playing a brand new song every night around 9:00. It was “Another Brick In The Wall, Pt. 2”. I was amazed, stunned, terrified - I had never heard anything like it before. Such a vivid memory.

 

[polycrescendo]

My two brothers introduced me to Metallica, Guns N' Roses and the double stroke roll at the ripe age of 7 years old. We had a homemade practice pad and some sticks lying around always.
I stood no chance.

 

[EvEnStEvEn]

Link Wray "Rumble"

Hollywood Argyles "Alley Oop"

Sam Cooke "Twistin' the night away"

Elvis "Hound Dog"

The Trashmen "Surfin' Bird"

Beach Boys "My 409"

Chuck Berry "School Days"

Beatles Cartoons on TV

 

[bellbrass]

My earliest memories are literally of me playing on my mom's pots and pans in the kitchen. I don't think I was playing to music; maybe so....but there was no stereo or radio in the kitchen; only a small TV. I also remember my brother playing Danny Seraphine's drum solo from I'm a Man on the family stereo, and Don Brewer's solo from T.N.U.C. by Grand Funk Railroad. Those records, and seeing that kid play the drums on The Partridge Family, made me want to play drums.

 

[swarfrat]

My dad was a lay preacher and we were in church 3x/wk. He couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. Really awful. But his voice was almost magical at putting kids to sleep. A couple years ago on guitar I was trying to switch over completely to P4 tuning,so I spent a lot of time playing two note chord melody, and those hymns make up the very deepest primal grooves in my brain. I'm a huge 38 Special fan but don't bother with Hold on Loosely when I'm in a coma, try some FJC waltzes instead if you want to know if I can still wiggle a toe. When my son was a baby, and my wife went through some truly frightening PPD, I sang that boy to sleep almost every night the first three years of his life. It's really sort of post-baroque folk classical music. There isn't much else in western music that spans more than two generations except marching band standards.

 

[DrummerJustLikeDad]

Since before I was born, my father always played drums for a local concert band, as well as for the regional VFW. That's why in 1968 he bought himself a new practice drum to work on rudiments and pieces at home. A year later I came along, and today that keystone badge acrolite sits front and center at my kit. But at the age of two, my mother snapped a picture of me reaching up over my head to play it as it stood at concert height. She always pointed out to people I was actually playing, because my sticks were a blur.

My father's real instrument, though, was the piano, and along with playing hymns for church and teaching piano, he played constantly at home. I guess I'm saying MY FATHER WAS MY MUSIC. I've had Scott Joplin rags embedded in me from the beginning, along with works by his other favorites - Chopin, Liszt, Sinding, Debussy and on and on.

My mother, meanwhile, refused to call herself musical and would never let herself be heard singing, yet her foot was never NOT tapping. Just like her grandmother, she claimed always to have endless music playing in her head. And no music could move her more, or make her happier than dixieland. From both of my parents, I inherit their joint love which comes straight from Preservation Hall in New Orleans. I still have the autographed record from their trip over 50 years ago.

Now from my sisters, born over 10 years before me, it didn't take long before their little brother unlocked a whole other world and his eyes were opened wide, the day he discovered the 45s with the green apples on 'em.

Billie & DeDe, anyone? Uncle Albert? (With its own music video, what?!) Or maybe Rustle of Spring? These are the kind of sounds you'll find ringing in my mind from furthest back, and they still count as some of the very best I've ever heard.

 

[Roch]

1970..I was on a local television show called Uncle Willy and Floyd..we won the audition in our home town..Called ourselves The Smashing Q's..we did Green Green Grass Of Home for the audition and when we got to Ottawa to tape the show, they told us somebody had already sung that one on a previous Saturday..we didn't know any more complete songs so I sang This Little Light of Mine.. just the chorus, over and over about 5 times...wish I had that tape..

 

[m_anderson]

We had one of these RCA 45 RPM players, identical, and this is the record I remember listening to over and over...