Who in your family influenced your love of music?

[GOS]

Most of us probably had some influences within our families in terms of music. For me, clearly was my dad. My mom didn't give 2 hoots about music, but my dad bought a LOT of vinyl back in the 50's-70's.

As a youngster not living in a city with access to music stores, etc, it was my dad's vinyl collection that I started listening to. At a real young age, my dad didn't listen to any radio stations and for that reason, I don't think I even knew they existed.

He had a Zenith console stereo that obviously had a turntable built in, speakers on each side. As a result, I would spend hours on end playing his records, trying to figure out what they were saying (those that were vocal). I fell in love with music this way around the age of 10 I guess. None of my siblings (all older) seemed to care about music like me. Certainly, they never were found in the stereo room like I was. Until I found sports, I'd say my dad's vinyl were my life back then.

Johnny Mathis, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Ventures, Glen Campbell, Fifth Dimension, Dionne Warwick, Cole Porter, Frank Sinatra on and on. These records influenced me greatly.

 

[jhw59]

My father as my mother was tone deaf so we never really had music in the house. I finally got my dad to put our mono set up in my room so I could listen to music but somehow it disappeared (in a move I guess) and when I bought a new system in college (much to my dear mother's disbelief) he bought a new system and then we had music but I wasn't at home that much at that point.

That said, my mother took me to classical music concerts and encouraged my attempt to play piano.

 

[Marplot]

Both of my parents played instruments so music was always around.
My first two shows required a parent due to my age. He took me so see Kiss and she to Stevie Wonder.
Then of course my older bro got into music, many bands which I also got into due to his collection.

 

[somethingcleveridunno]

My parents' listening habits had me hooked on Jethro Tull, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Yes, the Eagles, Allman Brothers, Neil Young, etc by age 6. Always had WMMS or WNCX on in the car, and dad's vinyls on weekend mornings, plus we had HBO when I was really young and got to see some concert films that way. I very clearly remember dad syncing the cassette deck and VCR for the Atlantic Records celebration where Zeppelin reunited, as it was being simulcast on the radio in stereo but only mono on the TV. I genuinely detested the new music of the '80s (I've come to appreciate a lot of it since then, but also still think New Wave is overrated as hell by music critics). My cousins (about a decade older than me) introduced me to Metallica, REM and Nirvana a bit later, and then I was able to start connecting with music outside classic rock like early '90s socially conscious hip-hop that's stuck with me.

My school peers were into stuff like MC Hammer. I think the only band I really missed on that my young peers listened to was Van Halen, who I definitely started appreciating once I grew pubes, but Hagar was fronting the band by that point and I was listening to the earlier albums. High school was a fucking musical wasteland. Kids these days rehabilitating nu metal didn't have to live through that, bubblegum pop, and early bling-era rap being the ONLY things on ANY radio.

Didn't get jazz until I started growing my own weed decades later. Plants aren't people but I'm counting it.

 

[marpow]

Timothy Leary and LSD.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

my ‘9 volt heart’

 

[inspclouseau]

The entire family. And MANY friends too

 

[Fourplay]

My Dad loves classical but I never caught the bug. My older brother had many good records. He got me interested in George Carlin and the Grateful Dead. I took both of those interests way furthur than he ever did.

 

[ar surround]

Italian parents: You WILL take accordion lessons!

 

[mandrix]

My Dad didn't seem all that much interested.
My Mother had LP's which I played when my parents were at work, in one of those stylish but boxy old Turntable/Amp all built into one package. Mono only though.
I still had it until a few years ago and finally threw it out. I held onto the "Glenn Miller Story" LP's but finally relinquished them as well as the rest.

 

[mandrix]

Italian parents: You WILL take accordion lessons!

LOL. I started playing Trumpet in 5th grade, but my parents bought me a used Coronet so I stuck with it for years.
I was in the band class, along with about 15 other kids. By the time 6th grade rolled around it was just me and a girl that played clarinet. The band teacher, who also taught at the high school, would give us some long passages to play and by the end would wear my lips out. lol.

 

[cbmmm3]

my 2 older sisters. they had music going constantly oh and my parents whom had the radio going wherever we went. I still recall how my dad would mimic the bass guitar with his voice

 

[mandrix]

This thread made me recall going on trips with my parents.
We had a Pontiac Catalina, and my parents would let me listen to the radio from the backseat by only operating the rear speaker.
Somehow I still remember a trip to northern Alabama when we got an early start from a motel on up in Georgia somewhere just as the sun was coming up. On the radio was The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball, which had a line something like "the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball".
Incidentally the song was co-written by Paul Simon.

 

[GOS]

We had a Pontiac Catalina,

My parents also had a Pontiac Catalina. Pretty big car, ours was.

 

[cbmmm3]

This thread made me recall going on trips with my parents.
We had a Pontiac Catalina, and my parents would let me listen to the radio from the backseat by only operating the rear speaker.
Somehow I still remember a trip to northern Alabama when we got an early start from a motel on up in Georgia somewhere just as the sun was coming up. On the radio was The Cyrkle - Red Rubber Ball, which had a line something like "the morning sun is shining like a red rubber ball".
Incidentally the song was co-written by Paul Simon.

3 kids and 2 parents in a 2 door MonteCarlo on a trip to Florida from Michigan. I recall Stevie Wonder Living In The City being played on all the radio stations....along with Captain and Tennile's Muskrat Love. Funny some of the weird shit I still remember

 

[DuncanS]

Before my school friends (I'm the eldest of my family, so no older siblings) it has to be my Dad. There was always music in the house, on the radio, or him playing LPs or the piano. I remember getting his vinyl (inc. 78s) and playing the DJ on his radiogram at about 8 years old. I think I got a tiny portable radio for Christmas at 8 or 9 years old (so circa 1965-66), and discovered the pirate radio stations or Radio Luxembourg 208 medium wave if I recall correctly!

His parents really didn't approve of his or his older brothers love of Jazz, and he said to me you listen to what you want, but he taught me and my siblings to appreciate all music and to realise when something was good even if we didn't like it. I have inherited his love of people like Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Stefan Grappelli and of a lot of Classical music.

Dad loved Frank Sinatra Mum really didn't! and she couldn't stand anything with a harpsicord in it. As a kid Mum always had the radio on, she wasn't as mad on music as the rest of us, but she could only play the piano from music, Dad only by ear, but then he did have perfect pitch!

 

[GOS]

Before my school friends (I'm the eldest of my family, so no older siblings) it has to be my Dad. There was always music in the house, on the radio, or him playing LPs or the piano. I remember getting his vinyl (inc. 78s) and playing the DJ on his radiogram at about 8 years old. I think I got a tiny portable radio for Christmas at 8 or 9 years old (so circa 1965-66), and discovered the pirate radio stations or Radio Luxembourg 208 medium wave if I recall correctly!

His parents really didn't approve of his or his older brothers love of Jazz, and he said to me you listen to what you want, but he taught me and my siblings to appreciate all music and to realise when something was good even if we didn't like it. I have inherited his love of people like Duke Ellington, Oscar Peterson, Stefan Grappelli and of a lot of Classical music.

Dad loved Frank Sinatra Mum really didn't! and she couldn't stand anything with a harpsicord in it. As a kid Mum always had the radio on, she wasn't as mad on music as the rest of us, but she could only play the piano from music, Dad only by ear, but then he did have perfect pitch!

Great story! I should also say, I grew up going to church and my dad sang a lot of solos during events. Also, my grandmother Moore was church organist and was really talented. So, music certainly was in the family.

 

[MrBurns]

My Mum & Dad both certainly influenced my taste in music, but my deep down love of it comes from a Christmas Party at my uncles house when I was 4 years old. He had a piano and sat down and played it and I was totally mesmerized. When we went home I asked my mum if I could learn and she said, "If you still want to learn when you're 8 then I'll send you for lessons".

I got up on my 8th birthday, went downstairs and the first thing I said to her was "I'm eight now, you said you'd send me for piano lessons if I still wanted to learn. Well I do!"

So, off I went for lessons. Don't get much chance to play now though sadly but there are still things in my muscle memory from when I was a teenager that I can still sit down and play. Not as many as I'd like though!

 

[Rhinojack]

With me, it was my eldest brother. As kids, he would have me go to his bedroom where he had bottles of colored water he would have me shine a flashlight through the water for a light show where he would pantomime singing the songs he had on albums. This would be during the mid 60s to very early 70s so the music was the Blue Cheer, Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane and others I can’t remember right now. He and I were very similar in mannerisms where my other brother was more by himself with other interests. Freak out!

 

[barfle]

My dad (an electronic engineer) built me a record player when I was very young, maybe second or third grade. I had a handful of 78s (not sure where they came from) that had some ballet music with the story being narrated. I also had a few Mel Blanc Tweety and Sylvester 78s, a few Hawaiian records (I remember the label being “49th State” which turned out to be optimistic) and Fess Parker singing “The Ballad of Davey Crockett.” All 78rpm. Somewhere in there, we had Bing Crosby’s Christmas Album, too. Those old albums (and that’s how they were packaged) were tough on the edges of the records, and a lot were damaged just by turning the “page.”

I had a radio - a crystal set, but that didn’t pick up any music stations. It was for listening to basebal games.

I don’t know if I was in love with music or just recorded sounds. While there was music on all of my records, I don’t recall that I had a favorite, unless maybe it was Davy Crockett.

We had my grandmother’s piano, and I took lessons for a couple of years, but practice was boring and most of the songs were, too, so I gave that up.

There were no concerts - never knew that happened. My folks watched Arthur Murray, Mitch Miller, and Lawrence Welk on TV, though.

I think it got crazy for me when my dad built a “hi-fi” (mono). It had an AM/FM tuner and a Garrard record changer that could play 33 and 45. By then, my records and player had disappeared in a move, but the sound out of that 12” coaxial speaker was phenomenal. And I had a radio in my room that played music, not just baseball.

My first record purchase was Ron Holden’s “Love You So.” This was a year or so after Buddy Holly’s plane crash, and I missed that part of rock and roll (caught up later). My first LP was the Beach Boys in concert (it’s somewhere in my avatar), and my first concert was the Beach Boys.

So we had music in the house when I was growing up, but certainly not to the extent I have it now. My parents’ tastes influenced me, but certainly didn’t define me.