Evolution of your musical taste

[marnold***]

Ahh yes. Back when I was growing up my Mom listened to a lot of well, crap, not to put too fine a point on it. A lot of Anne Murray, the Lettermen, and Barry Manilow. Occasionally, she's put on some 50s stuff. My Dad was into Big Band stuff. There was also Lutheran church music which got me interested particularly in Baroque-era music. I didn't have my own radio or cassette player until the end of my grade school years.

Then I became interested (through my uncle) in Queen. Influenced by my uncle's acoustic playing of 60s/70s stuff, I attempted to learn to play acoustic. I had a terrible one that made playing a nightmare. Plus my instructor wanted me to play "Mary Had a Little Lamb" (and no, not the SRV version) and stuff like that that sucked what little fun I was having right out of it.

When I was a freshman in high school, a classmate of mine with a sweet stereo played Dokken's "Tooth and Nail" and Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" for me. It was one of those epiphanies. From that point on I became a full-blown metalhead, much to the chagrin of some of my friends. To the chagrin of my metalhead friends, I also liked The Police and 80s New Wave stuff. My senior year I discovered the bass and taught myself to play. About that time I also discovered Yngwie whose fusion of Baroque and metal was right up my street.

When I got to college, I first heard about Stevie Ray Vaughan. That was my first foray into the blues. While in college I tried to get a metal band together. Failing that, I played bass in a bluegrass band (of all things) for a couple of years. After the Sem, I sold my bass--a move I've regretted ever since. About eight years ago, I got into electric guitar. I remembered a friend of mine in college becoming a pretty good guitarist from the Metal Method course. I picked it up and have been teaching myself ever since. The first full song I taught myself was Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." The first "real" songs I taught myself were "Walk, Don't Run" by the Ventures and "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" by Van Halen.

[duhvoodooman***]

I was a couple of weeks shy of 13 years old when the Beatles made their US debut on the Ed Sullivan Show in Feb. '64. They were my (and the rest of America's) favorite rock act for a couple of years, until I first heard Fresh Cream and the guitar wizardry of Eric Clapton. "Wow, what the heck is that?", I remember thinking. I'd never heard the guitar played like that before! I also acquired the Bluesbreakers Beano album to hear more of EC, and that was my first real exposure to blues. Shortly after, I picked up a guitar for the first time. I quickly developed an interest in the work of the other "guitar gods" of the late 60's, notably Hendrix, Jeff Beck (Truth) and Jimmy Page, with the first LZ album, all of whom had heavy blues influences. The Stones, Santana and the Who were also favorites, and the first Allman Bros. album made a huge impression on me. I really liked the early Marshall Tucker stuff, too; Toy Caldwell was a very gifted and original sounding guitarist. And I've been a big Springsteen fan since hearing The Wild, the Innocent and the E-Street Shuffle in fall of '73. The Eagles and Steely Dan were mid-70's favorites.

Late in the 70's and into the early 80's, I was heavily into Mark Knofpler/Dire Straits, Steve Morse/Dixie Dregs, and (of course!!) SRV when he broke big in '83. As you can see, I'm definitely a classic rock/blues type of guy. Which is probably why I liked the Black Crowes so much when they hit the scene in the early 90's. Lately, I've developed an interest in vintage Van Halen, which I had pretty much ignored the first time around. I listen to a pretty wide variety of stuff these days, both old and newer, but still concentrated in those genres.