We Are Family

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

A thread from yesterday that should have its own post:

How much has your family influenced your listening habits? Are you an older/younger/middle sibling, or an only child? Are your musical tastes anything like your parents'?

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Mum = classical, early Cliff, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel
Dad = Shadows, rock'n'roll.

And Boney M "Nightflight to Venus", Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Variations" (rock geetar and squelchy synths, oh yes).

These were the main things I picked out of my parents' record collection when I was 9, couldn't buy records and didn't have a radio or media device of my own. (Eventually my Grandad died and I got his record player/tape/radio device. A music centre if you will).

So I ended up being into the Shadows. Which gave me a good founding in various standard tunes I guess. Plus my "I never listen to the words, what's the melody like?"-ness.

A couple of years later I went to boarding school and was exposed to the new wave of heavy metal and the old wave of hard rock by my contemporaries, and new wave/romantic pop/two tone on the radio ('twas late 1980 onwards). So I still contend that a) all AC/DC albums after Back In Black are bobbins, b) Queen's Greatest Hits (I) contains all you need to know about Queen and c) 12 Gold Bards contains all you need to know about the Quo. Oh and that Iron Maiden sold out to pop with the Number of the Beast album and were bobbins forever after.

Oh and reading exotic American guitar magazines who would give interviews with people with big hair and shiny guitars. But then they did Stevie Ray Vaughan on the back of his dalliance with David Bowie on the Let's Dance album (1983), and I got the blues. Or something.

Trying to remember when I got into Eric Clapton - had a big phase. I had a guitar book that had a section on important guitarists you should hear, which included Frank Zappa, although it was a while before I heard anything much of his beyond a flexidisc of Sharleena (reggae/doowop with heavy metal guitar solos) given away with US Guitar Magazine in 1984.

Did I mention the Police? Another guitarist from that book. My love for jazz might have stemmed from a stint playing drums in the swing band in 6th form.

And so on.

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am oldest child, with younger sister who went to same boarding school as me.

She likes classical stuff lots more than me, also religious music, she's sung more in choirs. Also poppy stuff - she "recommended" Ricky Martin to me at least a year before he was big in the UK. However she does tend to go to things like Avril Lavigne concerts.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

My sister bought Variations. It is GREBT. I (re)acquired a vinyl copy for myself only last year.