What was your earliest musical memory?

[A. Vivaldi]

<font color='#000000'>My earliest memory was watching the yellow ATCO label spin on a Vanilla Fudge Lp (anybody here remember those guys?) and listening to the opening drum roll on their cover of &quot;You keep me hanging on.&quot; I must've been around three years old! Another memory I have is a babysitter I had listening to Fleetwood Macs Rumors Lp. I remember looking at the back of the cover at the very late seventyish looking FM, with Lindsey Buckinghams huge afro and stuff. It was around the time it was new so I was about 5 years old. I also remember my uncle giving me a beat up copy of Led Zepplins first Lp, and walking home with it under my arm. The very first sounds I was to hear of the still together Led Zepplin was the opening organ notes on &quot;Your time is gonna come&quot; (a great underrated Zep tune), and I remember being in my moms Volkswagen beetle and hearing the DJ say he was going to play a song off the &quot;new&quot; Led Zepplin Lp (In Through The Out Door). The song was Hot Dog (a Zep tune better left not rated at all). It had to be 1980. I was seven or eight years old then, and Led Zepplin as a band was probably only weeks away from being silenced forever. During that same bad year I can remember walking up to K-Mart with my little brother and buying John Lennons Double Fantasy album when it was new on 8-Track! It was probably one of the last 8-tracks ever made as I don't remember seeing anymore of them after that. I can remember his murder vividly as well. It freaked me out. I got a book on The Beatles for Christmas in 1980 featuring &quot;The tragic death of John Lennon.&quot; I wish I would've kept it. It'd probably be worth something now. I've never seen another copy of that book I got. When I hear these works by these musicians today it sends psychological shivers down my spine. I love it! Isn't it strange how music seemed to sound better back then, even on low-fi equipment?

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[Audioholics]

<font color='#000080'>Barry Manilow on 8-track when I was 4 years old. I used to skip around tracks and find my favorite songs.</font>

 

[BroonsBane]

<font color='#000000'>My earliest memory is of my older sister cranking her Beatles albums on our old Electrohome console stereo. I was probably 4 at the time. She was a massive Beatles fan and was lucky enough to have seen them in Toronto in 1964. &nbsp;My musical tastes were directly influenced by her to some extent. My tastes got harder as I grew up ie. Led Zepp, Rush, Aerosmith etc. but i have always listened to, and loved The Beatles. As I got old enough, I would play her records when she wasn't home (she would have killed me if she knew). &nbsp;Thinking about this now brings me right back to my childhood home and I can picture myself as a young lad, sitting on the livingroom floor with all those albums scattered around me, thinking how totally cool The Beatles were and how I wanted to be John Lennon.
I also remember &nbsp;my father, cranking Johnny Cash, Live at Folsum Prison on 8 track. &nbsp;Other memories include him dancing around the livingroom to Freddy Fender. That music influenced me too. I hated it then and hate it now!
The first album I ever bought with my own money was Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies. I was 9. I still have that record (minus the billion dollar bill which i gave years ago to a girlfriend) which I understand is somewhat of a collectors item to vinyl enthusiasts.
Great topic AV. I haven't thought of any of these things for years!</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>My earliest memory is listening to disney records with my little sister on one of those fold up mono record players. Oh I almost forgot, just a little bit of pixie dust, Oh my, I can fly, she can fly, I can fly. &nbsp;

&nbsp;

hahahah!</font>

 

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>I remember my older sister playing &quot;I wanna hold your hand&quot; over &amp; over &amp; over. Think I was about 5. I believe it was the Beatles album that was black &amp; only had their faces on it. We had an old Magnavox console TV/stereo combo. I also remember them playing &quot; Snoopy vs. the Red Baron&quot; a lot. And ,yeah, the old man with his Johnny Cash &amp; Roger Miller albums. I always wondered why I never got into country music.</font>

 

[jeffsg4mac]

<font color='#000000'>Zip, remember this one. LOL &nbsp;

Your going to have nightmares now.

Well here I sit-a high, gettin' ideas
Ain't nothing but a fool would live like this
Out all night and runnin' wild
Woman sittin' home with a month old child

Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me

Just settin' around drinkin' with the rest of the guys
Six rounds we bought, and I bought five
Spent the groceries and half the rent
I lack fourteen dollars havin' twenty seven cents

Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me

They say roses are red and violets are purple
Sugar's sweet and so's maple surple
And I'm the seventh out of seven sons
My pappy was a pistol
I'm a son of a gun.

Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me</font>

 

[zipper]

<font color='#000000'>Dude,your killin' me!!</font>

 

[Guest]

<font color='#000000'>Surfaris Wipeout I was three and it was my brother's 45. it's been all downhill ever since</font>

 

[Rip Van Woofer]

<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Dang me, dang me
They oughta take a rope and hang me
High from the highest tree
Woman would you weep for me
</td></tr></table>

You and me both, Zip! Actually, I think Roger Miller belongs on the great lyrics thread. He could be quite clever and hilarious! God, haven't thought of that one since...geez!

And Disney records!! I had a pixie dust jones too! Hey, remember the LPs that came in colors, some of them transluscent?

Oh, but what I was going to say was that I think my lifelong love for classical music came from hearing it quite by chance on the radio when I was maybe 4 or 5 (about the time my avatar picture was taken). It might have been on Karl Haas' old &quot;Adventures in Great Music&quot; program. Anyway, it was a symphony orchestra playing something with walloping fortissimos and I was hooked. My mom picked up on that and got me a set of classical &quot;greatest hits&quot; that I wore out on my little kid record player. The die was cast and my fate as a dorky adolescent misfit was sealed.

(Note: a &quot;record player&quot; was a crude electromechanical playback device combining a rudimentary turntable, low power integrated amplifier and a more or less &quot;full range&quot; speaker in one semi-portable cabinet. Just a note for you young'uns! It did, however, run on electricity and not by a wound-up spring or steam power.)</font>

 

[zumbo]

<font color='#000000'>My parents listened to country. I remember some Waylon Jennings &amp; Jessie Colter. Can't think of the songs at the moment. I think it went, &quot;Put another log on the fire, cook me up some bacon &amp; some beans&quot;. It was not until I was riding, in the AMC Gremlin(pos), with my dad listening to the radio when Led Zeppelin came on. I did not know who it was at the time, or what it was. It was not until later that I put the pieces together &amp; discovered Led Zeppelin! I had just come out of that elementary music stage. Can't remember those songs either!LOL! I was in junior high, the seventh grade, &amp; was at a new friends house &amp; heard Led Zeppelin II. I got my first job at the local Dairy Queen. With my first paycheck in hand, went to the local music store &amp; bought all Led Zeppelin cassettes. I still have a few of them. But, the real deal is the box set I got in my 20's. Funny thing, it is still my favorite tunes out of my current cd collection!  

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[Kenwatch]

<font color='#000000'>I see you guys are all very precociuous... I remember that I started to be attentive to what I listen much later. Probably I was 11 years old when a group called Slade caught my attention with their song Gud Buy T'Jane. And since then, I can't stop listen to the music

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[A. Vivaldi]

<font color='#000000'><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Oh, but what I was going to say was that I think my lifelong love for classical music came from hearing it quite by chance on the radio when I was maybe 4 or 5 (about the time my avatar picture was taken). It might have been on Karl Haas' old &quot;Adventures in Great Music&quot; program. Anyway, it was a symphony orchestra playing something with walloping fortissimos and I was hooked. My mom picked up on that and got me a set of classical &quot;greatest hits&quot; that I wore out on my little kid record player. The die was cast and my fate as a dorky adolescent misfit was sealed.
</td></tr></table> My love for classical didn't come till later, mabye when I was 14 or so, but I started out at the top! I remember my mom had a record of E. Power Biggs playing Bach's organ music. That was great. When I was 15 I picked up my first classical recording, a cheapo budget cassette of Bach's &quot;greatest hits.&quot; The rest is history.</font>

 

[Rob Babcock]

<font color='#8D38C9'>My earliest musical recollections are of the Beatles (the older, poppy years- Yellow Submarine, Help, Yesterday, I wanna hold your hand, etc) &amp; John Denver. &nbsp;My folks liked country, but my dad also played in a rock band in California while he was in the navy.</font>