Lets Share Our First Memories of Music

[Ernest Buckley]

I`ll start...

 

One of my earliest memories is sitting on the kneeler in Church, looking up into the Choir Loft watching as this man swings his feet and hits the organ pedals. He is swinging his arms and sweaty. He looks like he's working hard but he also looks like he is completely ecstatic about this noise he is making. I too am very excited. I mimic him by moving my hands across the seat observing him. My mother looks down and smiles. This makes me very happy. Years later, this man in the loft becomes one of my closest friends. He plays for my wedding. He is still my friend. He was once a teacher of mine and still is but these days I teach him things too. Its a strange ride.

 

I was around 4 or 5 then, sitting in Church. Now I`m the man in the loft who kids look up to. Sometimes I look down and see myself from 35 years ago. I wave to the kid, they often wave back and smile. When I was a kid, this is all I wanted to do. I wanted to sing and I wanted to play the organ. There was something magical about the reverb of the Church. Something magical about the music I heard there. Something distant but something that resonated very deeply within me reminding me that this is what I was called to do.

 

When I was 16, the Protestant Church where my great grandmother and great grandfather attended held a special ceremony. I had no clue who they were because I never met them but I learned that day that my great grandmother was the Church organist and my great grandfather was the Choir Director. For some reason, their musical genes skipped two generations and I ended up with both of them. Today, I sing baritone with the choir while I direct it and play the organ. People ask me how I do all that? I don`t know. I truly believe we are born with certain talents and it is our responsibility to make the best of them.

 

My earliest memories of music were magical. Many times I lose sight of that because music is also my profession and sometimes I forget... deadlines need to be met, rehearsals need to be organized and people need to master their parts. There are times though when I go to work and I laugh. I laugh because this is not work. Yeah, I work hard and the work gets done but at the end of the day, this is not work, its what I was born to do.

[Lee Knight]

I'm 4 maybe. My Grandma from Edinburgh says...

 

"We stood in the valley, Lee. And in the distance we heard the drums first coming from the north over the hill. Then the pipes. Amazing Grace. Beautiful. Beautiful. (she sings a few lines) First we see their heads, then bodies and pipes and... wait from the south too? Lord yes, Lee. From the south. A whole 'nother drum and pipe band marching our way from over that hill behinds us. Then the east, then the west. Four different groups, Lee. Four. All playing Amazing Grace. God bless Scotland. Like the angels playing just for us, Lee. Jesus, Mary and Joseph."

 

At which point she walks behind her bar. Behind the bottles of Rye and Gin and one of those old fashioned seltzer bottles with a trigger. She reaches down to her custom installed hifi in the bar and gently lowers the needle. Amazing Grace. Pipes and drums. She comes back out from the bar, looks down at me (was she crying). Then looks up. Closes her eyes... and starts to dance.

[UstadKhanAli]

Mostly listening to stuff on the car stereo while growing up, but nothing specific.

 

I remember first getting a piano - before I had begun piano lessons - and being able to play a song that I heard in my Dad's car on the piano. My parents were suitably impressed, and was the piano teacher when I showed her on the first day.

 

Those are probably my earliest memories.

[Lee Knight]

I'm 4 maybe. My Grandma from Edinburgh says... "We stood in the valley, Lee. And in the distance we heard the drums first coming from the north over the hill. Then the pipes. Amazing Grace. Beautiful. Beautiful. (she sings a few lines) First we see their heads, then bodies and pipes and... wait from the south too? Lord yes, Lee. From the south. A whole 'nother drum and pipe band marching our way from over that hill behinds us. Then the east, then the west. Four different groups, Lee. Four. All playing Amazing Grace. God bless Scotland. Like the angels playing just for us, Lee. Jesus, Mary and Joseph." At which point she walks behind her bar. Behind the bottles of Rye and Gin and one of those old fashioned seltzer bottles with a trigger. She reaches down to her custom installed hifi in the bar and gently lowers the needle. Amazing Grace. Pipes and drums. She comes back out from the bar, looks down at me (was she crying). Then looks up. Closes her eyes... and starts to dance.

 

BTW... the reason I have such incredible recall from the age of 4 () is because this exact same scenario played out many, many, many times over the years. As the years went on I got the relationship between those bottles of Rye, the dancing, the memory and her tears. Jesus Mary and Joseph.

[philbo]

I remember the first time I picked up a guitar. I was 2 or 3, and my family was moving off the farm to town. They stuck me in the front seat of the car to keep me out of the way, and my dad's guitar was sitting there. It had a picture of a cowboy on the front riding off into a sky full of clouds. Probably a Sears or Woolworth guitar... Anyway I picked it up and played and sang for probably an hour before they came to get me out. This would have been around '56 or '57, near Mount Horeb Wisconsin.

[UstadKhanAli]

Lucky you. The first time I ever touched a guitar - probably kindergarten - a teacher yelled, "Don't touch that!" They probably just saw a little kid touching it and thought, "Oh no!!!!!!!" But it kinda startled me because I was just going to just gently pluck the strings.

[CTStump]

My first memories involve my Mother (may she rest in everlasting peace). We were a big family three of us were close in age I was 3, My brother 4 and my sister was 2. we used wait in a line to get rocked in the rocking chair by my mother. She loved to turn the HiFi on to about 10 and rock each of us in turn. I really loved that and cherish that until it's my turn to pass on out of here. I guess that why I have a special affinity for Bass cause I really felt it then, rocking away in mommas arms.

[Surrealistic]

At home we had a radio, which I remember being on pretty much all the time, but my grandmother had a "radiogram" (a peice of furniture much bigger than I was at the time) and a large collection of 78rpm records. As a kid of about 4 or so, I remember listening to the rich sound of that thing playing Tennessee Ernie Ford, Flanagan & Allen, Jim Reeves, Bing Crosby and various pieces of marching band music (Men of Harlech stands out as a favourite at the time). I can't remember a time when I didn't love music. I tried composing pretty much as soon as I'd picked up the nomenclature - at around 6 or 7 I think. Those early "masterpieces" are lost to the world - which is probably for the best.

 

Edited to add: I just remembered something else. In a house across the back alley was a family who'd recently moved to England from Jamaica and most summer weekends I could open my bedroom window and hear this strange bass-heavy music eminating from their place. It was only later I learned what ska, reggae and calypso were. All I knew at the time was they sounded great on a warm summer's day.

[nat whilk II]

My folks also had 78rpm records - the really heavy discs. They almost never played them, but I begged for the Lone Ranger one (William Tell overture) and the dance one (Bizet's Carmen). Both of which inspired much running around the room of course.

 

There were TV shows from which I was banned that played such seductive, astonishing themes - Peter Gunn, Perry Mason. My exit music - off to bed...

 

Christmas carols were a really big deal. They had (and to me still have) the magic big time. The old, traditional ones - not stuff like chestnuts roasting on an open fire - but the old ones like the Coventry Carol or Silent Night that glowed like stained glass.

 

My mother would play only one classical piece - Chopin's Eb maj Nocturne. My weakness for tempo dynamics started with that. We would get quiet whenever she played it. THAT's why she played only that piece - I finally figured that out!!

 

Earliest radio memories - Big John by Pat Boone - Paper of Pins by The Four Lads - Ballad of Davy Crockett - Willow Weep For Me - Tutti Fruiti by Little Richard (didn't care for Elvis) - I Walk The Line by Johnny Cash -

 

My female cousin Connie lived with us a short time - Midland TX in the late 50s - she was a bona fide late 50s/early 60s bobby sox high school girl and had 45s - Eddie Cramer's "I'm Gonna Knock on Your Door" and b-side "Ain't a Gonna Wash For a Week" I still know by heart.

 

One song that totally floored me was Lloyd Price's Stagger Lee. Couldn't get enough of that one.

 

The more I ponder, the more I keep drawing up out of the depths....think I'll stop here.

 

nat whilk ii

[sailorman]

The first music that I distinctly remember is 'Tubby the Tuba'. I was 4 or less, as I remember it from when we lived at my grandparents; we moved before I turned 5. The little record player had a multi-faceted mirror that fit on the spindle; looked like a Merry-Go-Round. On the record label were pictures that would reflect in the the mirror and produce a moving figure. One record had a bunny running, another a horse. I remember playing Tubby the Tuba over and over. Strange to conjure up that 55+ year old memory.

 

The music I remember most growing up is Doo Wop and 50's R&B. My brother is 9 years older than me and always had it playing on his record player or with Jerry Blavat on the radio. My brother has 1000s of 45s in his collection, most of it obscure bands not the top 40 radio stuff. I still love Doo Wop and have all 8 CD's from the 2 box sets released by Rhino. The Beatles and Hendrix changed me forever, but I still enjoy those great groups of the 50's.

[Lee Knight]

We had a translucent red 45 of a song called Porky the Piggy Bank. If anyone knows who did it, etc, please let me know. I can't seem to find it. Anyway... that little record was something I played probably everyday for a year. I must've been 5.

 

Porky the piggyback, saving lots of money

When you get the hang of it, it's quite a snap

Porky the piggy band, you're part of the family

Porky the piggy bank, you're quite a chap

 

Saving money, is lots of fun

In all your thrifty ways

Your cheerful smile

Makes life worthwhile

And proves that saving pays.(plink, plink)

 

Porky the piggy band you're part of the family-eeeeeeee

Porky the piggy bank...

 

...you're quite a chap

 

At that same time my older sister had the 45 Sick Manny's Gym. (Al Kooper's 1st) by Leo deLyon and the Musclemen. I loved this and played it as often as my sister wasn't around!!!!

 

[video=youtube;AFkKChWhoEU]

[Jimbroni]

Dude you have an incredible memory!! I barely remember being 5 much less any details. But I will say I have fond recollections of my dad when he was in the hotel cover band scene. Watching those guys practice as a kid, well I've been hooked ever since.

[D Charles]

Does Popeye sing 'Sick Manny's Gym?'

 

Well my folks had no music ability whatsoever but I was adopted so guess I got it from somewhere else. I have no memory, but my grandma used to hold me and sing to me when I was a baby and one day her eyes got all big (story from my late mom) and said; 'Why this little monkey is humming right in tune with me!' So apparently I could carry a tune before I could talk in complete sentences.

 

Only music I can remember from being small was Johnny Cash and Harry Belafonte. Once I sorted transistor radios I was hooked on pop music. I was always in choir in nasty church.

 

The lady up the street gave piano lessons and gave me a free first lesson. I loved piano but my folks wouldn't get one because we had an apartment house and they were too loud. Somehow I talked them into an electric guitar which is almost silent when not plugged in and got guitar lessons at age 11. After around three or four months, my cool guitar teacher moved to go to college and the replacement teacher was a wanker. I quit and started just playing along with records to learn. Learned by ear from then on.

 

There's more to my story but I'm tired, may continue, that's all for now.

[Raymar]

Definitely the car radio. Two major tunes that stand out are Al Hirt's "Java", and another tune that had the chorus "walk right in, sit right down, daddy let your mind roll on", and at the drive in at intermission they played a tune called "Sugar Shack". I think that was just about the only place it was ever played at least regularly. That had to be either the late 50s and/or the early 60s. I also remember being taken over to Knotts Berry Farm when the admission was free over to a little outdoor theater that had covered wagons on its perimeter you could sit in to watch the entertainment on the stage. One band in particular was a sort of folk country group and everybody had wine colored instruments and clothing. All music that I heard was rally nice and polite being the post early rock 'n' roll era until the Beatles arrived. Then it got a bit racier. Tunes like "Muddy Water" and "Gloria" started appearing. Somehow that stuff mutated into Rap and Death Metal.

[veracohr]

I don't really have a particular first memory. I don't have the greatest memory of childhood, and music wasn't very important to me until later, like 12 or so. The first music I remember were my mom's Bruce Springsteen and Huey Lewis & The News albums. I think Huey Lewis was the first music I really paid attention to and enjoyed, at least as far as I can remember.

 

Actually, now that I think about it, I seem to remember an Oakridge Boys Christmas album that stuck out for some reason.

[beatpoet]

For me it was watching U2's Outside It's America docu and their Unforgettable Fire video. I was only four when my mum taped the docu off the telly, the year after The Joshua Tree came out. That same year we went to California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada and I remember just absolutely loving it, so it tied in well with The Joshua Tree. We even went to Joshua Tree Park. Not a bad awakening to music at that age

[stomias]

From Dad...."The Sermon" Jimmy Smith

Ellington at Newport

 

Mom......The Egmont Overture

Oklahoma!