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| From | "Seaman, Dave" <seamand@upmc.edu> |
| Subject | epiphany moments |
| Date | Fri, 27 Jun 2003 13:41:06 -0400 |
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For me, the key times/events in my life that brought me to my current state
of music tastes and degree of fan/geekdom were:
- my earliest years, ie ages 0-12, listening to my dad's pop, jazz and
musical standards from the thirties to sixties - this gave me my
foundation, albeit through osmosis, nothing really conscious
- reading my first issue of Circus magazine at age 13 1/2, and becoming
immediately intrigued by pictures and story about Mott the Hoople - I then
bought their Live and All The Young Dudes lps, without having heard a note
of their music. Although I always had music around me, I didn't start
actively listening and buying music until about the time I turned 13. For
the 6 or so months prior to the point of the Circus mag, I had only listened
to the music on AM station 13Q, an assortment 45's of top 40 hits found on
13Q, and the 15 or so mainstream albums I had aquired (which were great
albums, and really set the stage for my love of pop from that age to now -
the Beatles red and blue double sets, a few lps by Three Dog Night, the
Beach Boys' Endless Summer, Queen's Sheer Heart Attack, the Eagles debut,
Elton John's Goodbye Yellowbrick Road, Wings' Band on the Run, and assorted
others in the pop rock vein). But Mott was the first band I got into that
no one else I knew had a clue about. From that point on, I bought whatever
interested me, without the slightest thought or care about what anyone else
thought of it. Mott also started a lifelong interest in glam rock.
- shortly thereafter, still a young teen (maybe i was about 14?), I picked
up a few KTel collections -- and discovered the Sweet, the Raspberries,
Badfinger (I think I found them thru K-Tel...?), and a slew of others.
This led to buying Raspberries Fresh (one of my top 20 albums to this day)
and other records in the power pop vein. And before you know it I was
buying any pop/powerpop music I could find, regardless of how popular or not
it was. At the time, I didn't know it as power pop. It was melodic,
Beatlish rock to me. I never revelled in the fact that much of it was
obscure -- in fact, I couldn't understand WHY it was obscure, since it was
based on 60's music that was BOTH insanely great pop and insanely popular.
To be honest, I really wished that power pop WAS more popular, so I could
have a better chance of seeing these bands in concert or on TV, and also so
those of my friends who were more easily influenced by peers could buy into
them. Well, bottom line, I loved this music to death, wore out the album
grooves, and of course remain in love with it to this day -- or else why
would I be here on this list?
- At about 19 yrs of age, I was turned on to new wave and punk by Alex
Marshall, the skinny 6'5" tall bassist from Virginia Beach who joined my
college band. Before that, me and my band friends were off on a detour in
the land of hard and prog rock. When Alex joined the band, he complained of
how uncool the corporate AOR was that we were doing. I didn't pay his
gripes any mind until he turned me on to the first album by Elvis Costello,
as well as stuff by Graham Parker, Blondie, the Pretenders, the Jam, Talking
Heads, etc. I quickly dumped the hard and prog stuff and dived headlong
into these new wave stalwarts, as well as more obscure stuff as diverse as
Television, Brams Tchaikovsky and stiff bands like Dirty Looks and Any
Trouble. This transition took about all of two months!
- Around 1981 I saw Springsteen in concert and became a huge convert to all
things Broooooce.
- The early 80s were fruitful music years for me, but the late 80's and
early 90's were nothing special. In fact, I had kind of stepped away from
buying, listening to, writing and performing music - not entirely, but I was
no longer a rabid fan. Then, some day in 1996, (I think it was '98?) -- Doug
Tybor, one of my long-time band buddies, forwarded me a copy of Goldmine,
with a feature on power pop. I devoured the issue, and noticed a reference
to Audities. And lo in behold, I ended up here, discovered that there are
many more pop geeks like me, and also discovered that there are lots of
bands still playing the music I loved! And all at once, music was relevant
for me in the here and now, it was no longer a nostalgia thing. I jumped
back in to the pop thing big time, bought more cds in the next 3 years than
i did in the past 12, started writing and playing again, and never looked
back.
Whew! That was therapeutic! Thanks for indulging me...
Dave
now in the changer:
- FOW new one - great! Time will tell if I love it as much as Utopia
Parkway, but it's certainly in the same ballpark.
- Fleetwood Mac new one and bonus EP - just starting to get into this one...
Isn't the chorus melody of Peacemaker reminiscent of Paul Simon's
Kodachrome?
- This Perfect Day C-60 - when I got this I put it aside after a listen or
two. Now, I can't get it out of the changer! great cd, reminds me a
little of Tsar, Merrymakers, Bowie, and that band whose debut years back
included songs such as Parachute, something about Kim Novak and Hitchcock,
etc. - can't think of their name!
- Michael Penn - cd w Free Time - pretty good stuff, especially the first
half
- Queen's Greatest Hits - this band was truly amazing. Its almost inhuman,
they operated one a totally different plane than everyone else. amazing.
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