The Early Days

I've been mulling over whether or not I should attempt to make this blog chronologically correct and I have decided that is probably not possible just because I don't have the time to be that precise. So I will post things as I can remember them in whatever order that comes.

My earliest memories of music date back to when I was around 4 years old or so. This was back when most of it was broadcast in mono on AM radio. At this point I had no desire or even any thought about playing a musical instrument. Neither of my parents had ever played an instrument and the only member of either side of the family that I ever saw play was my grandfather. He played old-time fiddle, but only just a little. I do have some foggy memories of sitting around the pot-bellied stove at my grandparents house while grandpa played the fiddle but nothing that really sticks out.

Then in 1962 my parents bought a house in a small town and we moved from our small rented farmhouse into a big two-story home. I'm not sure how it happened but soon after that my parents got a big upright piano and I started taking piano lessons at the age of 6. I really enjoyed it and I was pretty diligent about practicing. Looking back I find it amazing now that since neither of my parents ever demonstrated any musical ability that they had the foresight to expose me and my sister and brothers to music. It would forever affect the rest of my life. Sadly, after a couple of years of piano I decided to quit after being called a sissy by other kids. That was a bad move on my part but hey I was only 8 years old.

I remember listening (again on AM radio with a mono ear-phone) to many of those early pre-Beatles 60's songs. A specific memory that I have is when our family would travel to the Twin Cities area to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins. There was a rock and roll station called WDGY that we listened to and each time we went there we drove right past the station. I was always wide-eyed about seeing the actual location where the music was coming from. The DJ's had a sort of rhythmic delivery that I'll never forget. It was VERY cool.

I can also remember singing along with absolutely everything that I heard. There was a lot of emotion in so many of those songs and boy did I ever get into them! Of course being only 8 or 9 years old I had no concept of falling in love or heartbreak or anything else of that nature. But man I sang those songs as if I knew all about it! It's kind of funny to me now. I can imagine the laugh my parents must have gotten when I was singing something like Maybe Baby by Buddy Holly.ut

The first time I can remember ever wanting to play guitar or be a musician was when Beatlemania hit. I don't remember the specifics of when I became aware of the Beatles but I can tell you it was prior to their first appearance on Ed Sullivan because I was already aware of their hits by that time. I do remember watching them that first time on February 9th, 1964. The thing I remember most is that you couldn't really here them at all due to all the girls screaming. When I see replays of that broadcast now I think "wow that's not the way I remember it when it was live". You can hear them on the reproduced copies but I all I could hear was the girls singing.

Time for me to go for now but I will post more about the Beatles next time. They were the first major influence on me and really were the inspiration for me to want to learn how to play guitar. ROCK ON!