How it all began!
Jun. 11th, 2007 10:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scottopicSo from 5th through 7th grade, I was well on my way to being really into hair metal. I largely would have been a normal kid, but my musical tastes (despite this being the period I was also involved in the Atlanta Boys Choir) would have ranged from Motley Crue to Ratt.
Through a small chain of seemingly unrelated events, I became good friends with a kid named Richard. His older sister was somewhat of a punk legend in our high school, and dated (and eventually married) the guy who was the punk icon of good ol' Henderson. A small mythology surrounded them in a very suburban way.
The thing about our high school was that it was neither very large nor very diverse in groups - there were only the standard stereotypes in large, overlapping swaths - jocks, geeks/nerds, stoners, do-gooders and...the alterna-crowd. This was before the "Alternative Music" designation came into common use, but the tag kinda fit - everyone who identified with punk, goth, semi-skinhead, skater and so on all just hung together. Anyway, Richard overlapped the nerd-alternative groups because he (like me) was a bigole nerd in many ways, but he inherited some of the punk prestige from his sister. I never attained the alterna-image, but the music did grab me. I somewhat became a proto-goth (I wore lots of grey).
It just struck me recently that the first song I remember, and that I attribute much to do with my aesthetics (musical and otherwise) was "All in My Mind" by Love and Rockets. It changed my view on music all around, and the video blew me away. I wanted a bass guitar like David J's. I was a bit squeamish (growing up Guy in the South for the win!) at Daniel Ash's very slight gender flaunting, but it all keyed into something for me.
This made me do some nostalgia touring on YouTube last night through lots of early Adam Ant, Siouxsie, The Cure, bauhaus and so on. For a change, it didn't make me sad, just appreciative - so wherever you are out there, Richard Johnston, thanks for saving me from wearing leopard skin leotards with a denim jacket!
(Also, your sister was hot.)
I can't say it was necessarily the first song of these "other" sorts I'd heard, or even with certain hindsight that it really was what changed it all, but it's what I associate with it.
And how lolgoth of me, I suppose.
Through a small chain of seemingly unrelated events, I became good friends with a kid named Richard. His older sister was somewhat of a punk legend in our high school, and dated (and eventually married) the guy who was the punk icon of good ol' Henderson. A small mythology surrounded them in a very suburban way.
The thing about our high school was that it was neither very large nor very diverse in groups - there were only the standard stereotypes in large, overlapping swaths - jocks, geeks/nerds, stoners, do-gooders and...the alterna-crowd. This was before the "Alternative Music" designation came into common use, but the tag kinda fit - everyone who identified with punk, goth, semi-skinhead, skater and so on all just hung together. Anyway, Richard overlapped the nerd-alternative groups because he (like me) was a bigole nerd in many ways, but he inherited some of the punk prestige from his sister. I never attained the alterna-image, but the music did grab me. I somewhat became a proto-goth (I wore lots of grey).
It just struck me recently that the first song I remember, and that I attribute much to do with my aesthetics (musical and otherwise) was "All in My Mind" by Love and Rockets. It changed my view on music all around, and the video blew me away. I wanted a bass guitar like David J's. I was a bit squeamish (growing up Guy in the South for the win!) at Daniel Ash's very slight gender flaunting, but it all keyed into something for me.
This made me do some nostalgia touring on YouTube last night through lots of early Adam Ant, Siouxsie, The Cure, bauhaus and so on. For a change, it didn't make me sad, just appreciative - so wherever you are out there, Richard Johnston, thanks for saving me from wearing leopard skin leotards with a denim jacket!
(Also, your sister was hot.)
I can't say it was necessarily the first song of these "other" sorts I'd heard, or even with certain hindsight that it really was what changed it all, but it's what I associate with it.
And how lolgoth of me, I suppose.
So now, happy-ass livejournal reader:
Are there any songs like that for you? - made or shaped what your tastes are today, even if there wasn't Just One, but it symbolizes or essentializes the idea for you.
(pst, yes, that's your cue. subtle hint!)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 02:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 03:15 pm (UTC)please excuse me, my ass is happy
Date: 2007-06-11 03:18 pm (UTC)2. Stigmata (Ministry) opened up an entire new world for me in 1990. This happened to be when my LSD use was also ramping up :)
3. Blue Bell Knoll (Cocteau Twins) - for a long time this was my "theme song"... I don't think anyone ever understood why, but if you listen to it, the roots of who I am today are in there somehow. It was the first song that really captured the "eagle mother" energy for me.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 03:29 pm (UTC)There are a few for me, but I think one of the most defining was when I moved out of the house and quit Tech to go to art school. Living in the city meant I could pick up Album88 in my car, and the kids in the art school listened to way better music than the classic rock (and occasional mainstream new wave) I had gotten at home, or the weird Cinderella/Ratt vs Paula Abdul/MCHammer crap they played in the bars I worked in.
Anyway, it was 1989, and the music was a tape of Jane's Addiction's 'Nothing's Shocking', played overandover in the red light of the darkroom.
That may seem silly now, but back then, in this redneck town, that was the first time I'd really heard something different.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 03:34 pm (UTC)I was a Weird Al fan. Through 7th grade, his were the only cassettes that I owned. I wasn't opposed to stuff like the Offspring and Nirvana. I did get a good deal of 80s music from the radio when I was even younger (I remember particular amusement from Bela Lugosi's Dead, but that didn't come back until later), but I never cared enough to buy anything. Then I heard Live. They were good. Bush came out with their second album, and I liked that as well. Metallica released LOAD and I was fond of King Nothing.
Then a friend played a relatively new album, Ænema. When I heard H, I knew that this was the music I'd been waiting for. It was like a thunderstorm with instruments. I haven't really stopped listening to it since, and from there my musical obsession blossomed.
OMFGLOL...
Date: 2007-06-11 03:34 pm (UTC)When I was in the 5th grade, I was Gene Simmons for Halloween - both at Halloween and at this Halloween party my cousins invited me to at a southern baptist church (the party wasn't on Halloween proper- no way would I have gone if it cut into my trick or treating time. And I went with a keen sense of irony of going to a church as Gene Simmons and with amused contempt that no one there had any idea who Gene Simmons was.)
Also in the 5th grade, I got mad as hell at my mom for not letting me go to the Great White/Whitesnake concert. I loved Kiss, but Great White was my favorite band back then and my "gateway drug" to Led Zeppelin, which was my gateway drug into blues. Btw, go look at my pics in my myspace...... ;)
And speaking of musical gateway drugs- my love for Al Di Meola, Astor Piazzolla, Robert Johnson, and Django Reinhardt all can be traced back to heavy metal. When reading those old heavy metal magazines, I noticed who guitarists named as influences- and then I went tracking that music down. It became a fun musical archaelogical quest for me to dig up around in the roots of the music I liked. Everyone scoffs at the metal, but it imprinted on me at a young age and had a lot to do with the beginnings and evolution of my tastes (if it can be said that I have any..lol) and interests in music.
Re: OMFGLOL...
From:Love & Rockets
Date: 2007-06-11 03:41 pm (UTC)OOoo, fun!
Date: 2007-06-11 03:42 pm (UTC)So what do I listen to now? Folk rock, mostly. I love me some Fleetwood Mac. And Cat Stevens. And a bunch of other late 1960s-1970s folk rockers. The only metal that I listen to anymore is... Guns 'N Roses and the other stuff that was too light to be considered when I was a teen. Funny how that worked out.
The song that changed it all for me? "Silent All These Years" by Tori Amos. Came out my junior year of high school and changed my world. And my hair color. :)
Re: OOoo, fun!
From:no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 04:13 pm (UTC)Granted, as I started trying to go back to 'where it all started for me', I realized that in 1979 I asked my parents for Blondie's Parallel Lines. How in the hell I got into Blondie when I was 9, I couldn't tell you. But, I knew that I thought Deborah Harry was cool. I wanted to be like her.
But, then, that reminded me that I agitated my mother earlier in grade school when I wanted to take a picture of Alice Cooper in for 'show and tell'.
Apparently, I was precocious in displaying my freak tendencies ...
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 04:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 04:31 pm (UTC)Queen:Innuendo, The show must go on, and I'm Going Slightly Mad (i actually don't really like a lot of their other stuff)
Enigma - Sadness
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 04:44 pm (UTC)I wasn't a metal head, my half sister was. For me it was all about disco woo HOOO... Bee Gees, Abba and cie.
The big brother of one of our friend, showed us something very new which was THIS (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/41R8B02B85L._AA240_.jpg). I was the only one finding the guys very cute and most of all... loving their music.
The big change happened one year after... I was 15, my half sister brought by mistake THIS_ALBUM (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/417C2T6QDKL._AA240_.jpg) which I darely hate at first for drowning what was left of disco with this New Yave... for shortly surfing on it A LOT... my hair got shaved, my wardrobe got weird =^)
Then followed my sixteen along with my illegal club going to meet with Split Enz, Gary Newman, Easy Cure, The Cure, Joy Division, Siouxsie, Sex Pistols, Bauhaus etc, and the wave became old, cold and Dark ah!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:05 pm (UTC)Mind you, this was years after it came out - I was starting out in high school and my friend's older brother turned me onto it when he made a cassette of an 120 Minutes comp for me.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:08 pm (UTC)The entire "Disintegration" album.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:20 pm (UTC)(ooooo bragger's rights!)
we were living in L.A. and my dad was taking me to go out and meet some of his models. i am between 2 and 4 at this time. things weren't all that swell at home, that is why dad was taking turns taking the kids out to do different things at the time.
anyways, so we're out and with the models and when bends over and says "oh how you're! do you like barbies?"
and i put my hands on my hips, stick my chin out and proudly declare "I'M INTO BOWIE!"
:D
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 05:23 pm (UTC)Anyway, I was totally and completely taken in and smitten with the aesthetics of both the video and music. I've never thought about it in this way, but I can agree that perhaps it was this Just One Song (and video for me, hah) that helped shaped my path. It wasn't until much later that my intense love of all things turn-of-the-century and steampunk came into play, but it was definitely pretty much the entire album, the b-sides, and some of their other work that has influenced me.
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 07:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 07:44 pm (UTC)This cool kid Brady (who later was my prom date) had grown up living next to my grandma's house. When I was in 8th grade, he was a senior in high school, and we got roped into some psuedo family Stone Mtn. excursion involving my cousins/grandparents, and his parents/siblings. We were appropriately horrified, and stuck together. At one point, we ended up in his parents' station wagon, and he dropped the seats down, and we just lay there and drowned out "God Bless the USA" with New Order's Technique album.
I've never convinced anyone in my family we weren't DOING anything subversive. Now, I'm not so sure we weren't.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 07:47 pm (UTC)A: We are Devo!
Devo opened up my eyes to a wider musical world and I strayed from the comfort of Journey and the Little River band forever!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-11 08:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 01:05 am (UTC)I'd have to say I stumbled upon depeche mode, then i was silly for rock lobster, then that met me some people that took me to neo's, where i then discovered doctorin the tardis, gary numan, siouxise, etc...then i met some of the regulars who took me even deeper to front 242 and skinny puppy where i really fell in love...
But it started with depeche mode...The black celebration album still gets me hot...hehe
~b
Hmm...
Date: 2007-06-12 04:03 am (UTC)Jackson 5 "Rockin Robin"
George Clinton "Atomic Dog"
All things BeeGee
Thomas Dolby "She Blinded me with Science"
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 04:15 am (UTC)All hail Tim Curry.
Date: 2007-06-12 07:19 am (UTC)I knew all the words to the songs and the AP lines to the Rocky Horror Picture Show by the time I was 6. Form there was a deep seeded love for Tim Curry which lead me to the movie Times Square. It has a really amazing double-album soundtrack. (http://www.soundtrackcollector.com/catalog/soundtrackdetail.php?movieid=62885) This was the probably the beginning of the little proto-punk with gothic undertones that grew into the Kitten that you all know and love today.
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 07:30 am (UTC)Albums That Helped Me See The True Light
Date: 2007-06-12 03:49 pm (UTC)Cassette of assorted Dead Kennedys
Pink Floyd - The Wall & Wish You Were Here
Metallica - Ride The Lightning (I hated Kill 'Em All first time I heard it)
Anthrax - Among The Living
Stormtroopers of Death - Speak English or Die
Tangerine Dream - Rubycon & Tangram
Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
The Doors - The Doors
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Skinny Puppy - Bites & Cleanse, Fold & Manipulate
Ministry - Land of Rape & Honey (Moreso with Mind is a Terrible...)
Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin II
I remember being in 5th grade and listening to Floyd, Doors & Hendrix LOUD AS HELL on a kids portable 8track player at Track & Field Day. That started it. Then came Sabbath, BOC, Cheap Trick & more down in friend's older brother's rooms in the basement. (Wow, a bong!) In the early 80's, I paddled out and caught The New Wave. The Cars, Blondie, The Police. In '83, I overheard some punk and it just CLICKED. Loved it. The faster, the harder, the better. That led to Thrash Metal & winding up with an 18" neck. Had a Goth phase in '85 - Siouxsie, Bauhaus, etc. Graudated High School in '86 and caught some of this weird Industrial crap. Godflesh, Ministry, Prong, Pup, Einsturzende, Swamp Terrorists, Circle of Dust, Throbbing Gristle.
I'm 38 and I still listen to it all. Classic Rock, Opera, Metal, Punk, New Wave, Classical. You name it. I love my music - LOUDLY!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-12 06:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: