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What was the band or song that did it for you?


DrCowbell

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Okay, don't laugh, but I think it was TV that turned me on to music. Usually we listened to kid stuff, so watching the musical guests on the Muppet Show every week made me aware of what was out there beyond the Musketeers. I also watched the Partridge Family and the Monkees.

Then, as I got elementary school age, I followed Andy Gibb, Abba, Bee Gees, etc. Then, it was "Solid Gold" in the '80's

Stop laughing, I said!!!!!

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"I Love Rock n Roll" by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts. Mom had the 45 and I listened over and over and over and...twirling my little brother around the living room. We must have been about 2 and 5. :)

Much later, in my early teens, the Beatles (specifically "I Saw Her Standing There"), Janis's Pearl, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumours struck virtually simultaneous chord in my young brain. Not that I'd never heard any of them before, just the right songs at the right time I suppose.

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i've just remembered another of my first musical obsessions - i used to listen to a cassette of 'the wonder years' soundtrack over and over again when cleaning my room when i was really small, about eight or nine (cleaning my room at that time consisted of putting everything into one cupboard until one day my mum opened it and everything fell out on top of her!). i also had a major crush on fred savage and stuck a poster of him from my mandy & judy comic up on the wall. whoa flashback!!

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I think it was the Hell Freezes Over album from the Eagles. I was about 15 and was listening to mostly pop music and country. My dad couldn't believe that I would want to listen to the music that he liked. I think he ended up borrowing that cd from me and has never given it back. But I think that cd introduced me to classic rock music and I realized that there was more music out there than just pop and country.

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i've just remembered another of my first musical obsessions - i used to listen to a cassette of 'the wonder years' soundtrack over and over again when cleaning my room when i was really small, about eight or nine (cleaning my room at that time consisted of putting everything into one cupboard until one day my mum opened it and everything fell out on top of her!). i also had a major crush on fred savage and stuck a poster of him from my mandy & judy comic up on the wall. whoa flashback!!

Gisela, you've reminded me of two things:

(1) My insane Fred Savage crush :P

(2) My possibly more insane infatuation with the Eddie and the Cruisers soundtrack. I was probably 8 or 9 as well and played it constantly. Until my baby sister found the tape left out and gutted it. }:(

Toddlers are vicious music critics...

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Like many of you, as a nipper I began by experimenting with stufffrom the family record collection. Two records I remember becoming very attached to (obsessed with?) were "Patches" by Chairman Of The Board (I think???) and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown's "Fire!" (This may explain alot about "what happened later on"...)

As a youth my first "favourite band" was Darts. Some of you may remember this band: they had quite a string of hits in the late 70s, retreading the late 50s/early 60s "rock'n'doowop" sound. I mostly just listened to the Top 40 Chart show and watched Top Of The Pops, like everyone else of my age.

I then got into ska / Two-Tone in a big way: The Specials, The Selecter, Madness, etc., and styled myself as a "Rude Boy" (if that means anything to anybody...) I think it was The Specials' "Gangsters" and "Message To You Rudy" and Madness' "One Step Beyond" and "My Girl" that influenced me most in that direction.

But here, you're looking for one pivotal moment (song/band) that defined the course of my musical development, (or life even), right?

I have no difficulty in selecting one that fits the bill: Adam And The Ants - "Dog Eat Dog"

When The Ants performed Dog Eat Dog on Top Of The Pops, it was the most exciting thing I had ever seen...I had to have that record, and quickly!

I played the A-side relentlessly; it was unfeasibly magnificent. Then I flipped it over and played the B side. (No sniggering at the back!) "You're So Physical" was unlike anything I'd ever heard before....a rumbling, repetitive bass riff topped by fantastic distorted guitars and controlled feedback (courtesy of Marco Pirroni: a master thereof)....a slow, sultry, sleazy grind. If Elvis had ever fronted the Stooges....anyway, I digress (wildly)

(I later discovered Adam's secret history as purveyor of songs about fetishistic sex: many of these early tracks featured, re-recorded as B sides of his catalogue of pop-chart hits. But I digress...again)

Thing is: Adam And The Ants played a gig in "the nearby town" just a couple of weeks later, which I had to attend. They hadn't yet "got massive", still retained their punk / cult following (the teeny-boppers hadn't quite caught on yet) The place was full of really wild-looking/spectacular punks...For a "hick from the sticks" it was one hell of an eye-opener, quite scary in some ways, but also quite an education.

I read people jackets / badges, took mental notes. I bought a Dead Kennedys badge (having heard them on the radio a week or two before).

The gig was incredible. I borrowed the Ants earlier LP "Dirk Wears White Sox" from Doncaster Record Library. This was again like nothing I had ever heard: WOW! Not really "punk", (as I had understood it), sort of arty post-punk funk (gave me a taste for Gang Of Four, Talking Heads, etc...) with fascinating obtuse and (apparently) quite intellectual lyrics

Within weeks of the gig I was getting really into The Dead Kennedys, Killing Joke and Crass (UK radical/anarchist band), learning about heavy duty political stuff, participating in non-violent direct action, etc.

I was into "punk" (and "post-punk") in a big way, for quite a few years. It remains, to me, a significant part of my identity.

And all thanks to Adam Ant and "Dog Eat Dog"

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That was Clarence Carter. For what it's worth.

Do you ever find yourself (like me) overcome by a feverish need to scour your entire record collection to find something you're convinced is in there somewhere? Time I put my singles collection in order, as I've just gone through the whole damn lot to find my "Patches" single (oh yes I saved it, through several house moves, loss of parents, etc). It was in the last place I looked, right in between Dave & Ansil Collins "Double Barrel" and The Birthday Party "Release The Bats" (right where you'd expect to find it }:( )

The version that enchanted me so much as a child was indeed by The Chairmen Of The Board, it's the B side to "You've Got Me Dangling On A String" on the Invictus label. A quick check of my Guinness Book of Hit Singles confirms that Clarence Carter reached No.2 in the UK charts with "Patches", at roughly the same time as The CotB charted with the single I've got.(Oct / Nov 1970)

So that was a good call, Das. In a just world, you would have been "spot-on"...

Another track that always absorbed me greatly (to the point of OCD, if the condition had been recognised at that time) was "Last Night In Soho" by Dave Dee, Dozy ,Beaky, Mick & Titch, (to which I recently posted the lyric, quite randomly)

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I do that as well, and my collection is a complete mess. I typically have records, tapes, CD's, mp3 discs, etc., scattered all about.

I had no idea the Chairmen did that song - I just assumed you meant the CC version. Of course, I am vehemently opposed to "beach music" as I live in the "Shag" capital of the world. The dance, I mean.

Anyway, glad you solved your own mystery. :D

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"Shagging" is some goofy dance people do when they listen to beach music. It's like country line dancing, only with less soul. It's actually the "State Dance" of South Carolina.

I realize it means something completely different to you.

Apologies to any (American style) shaggers here. I really know nothing about it, other than it's associated with beach music. So I assume that it's goofy and soulless.

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