Who's the "Civilian" most associated with influencing your musical taste & knowledge?

docbennett

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Talking about "non-pros" and "non-bands" here. What "real person" do you most associate with your curent musical tastes and knowledge, and why? Who knows...it might even be a fellow forum member.

For me it was easy....my "Summer of '74"....first time I ever worked as a counselor at the "New Jersey "Y" Camp in Milford PA (go figure). My first "sleepaway" experience...either as a camper or counselor.

During that eventful summer (I even brought my Epiphone Acoustic up with me, confident that the girls would love a guitar player. Suffice to say I was still a virgin when I returned home from camp that summer. Oh well).

Well...sex eventually was experienced shortly thereafter. but....in retrospect...Almost as important (well, not quite...sex trumps everything :laugh:) was what I learned that Summer from Lloyd Katz of Queen's Village NY (thanks Lloyd...where are you....what happened to you? You were a double for Mannfred Mann).

Lloyd introduced me to 1) Blue Oyster Cult (we can stop there...Winner for life)...and 2) Pink Floyd (after camp was over, I drove to Queens from my apartment in Brooklyn and we went to see the brand new Pink Floyd movie "Pink Floyd live at Pompei".....wow.."Echoes"!!!!....And...to top it off...he told me all about this relatively new band that incorporated classical style into rock...a band called "Electric Light Orchestra" (I had never heard of "The Move" so this was brand new to me).

In one summer....BOC, PF and ELO...I will say that of all my friends....of all the critics I've read....of all my experiencing "opening acts at concerts" Lloyd has to be the one who impacted upon me the most. Introduced to 3 bands I was only vaguely familiar with....bands that today I can say were the primary musical influences on my taste and musical directions taken.

If I had to say which "non-civilian" impacted me the most...it would have to be the DJ crew that comprised the golden era of NY's "WNEW FM". Scott Muni...Alison Steele...Dave Herman.....Pete Fornatelle....Meg Griffin....Richard and Dan Neer.....VIN SCELSA!!...these people knew music...controlled the WNEW "wall of albums" and formed much of my musical knowledge from about 1969 until 1984. That era was for me....the greatest era for "A.O.R." when you had an independant station that wasn't bound by automatic play lists. for that matter.....WLIR, with John Debella and Larry Klein...were also major influences from the late '70's into the mid '80's.

So....what's your stories???? (Leave out the Sex and Drugs...)this is pure Rock and Roll! :laugh:
 
I had an older cousin growing up that turned me onto punk/hardcore bands of the time, like Minor Threat, The Dead Kennedys, etc. I saw him a few years later and wanted to talk music, but he said he'd moved on from that stuff and was more into Journey now. I was mildly devastated.

When I was in college, another guy would send me CD-R's of really great bands he had recorded with some portable mics and a DAT. late 90's psych stuff like Bardo Pond, Six Organs of Admittance, Acid Mothers Temple and all that stuff. Anytime I'd run into him at a show, he'd have a zip loc baggie full of cd's he was just giving out to people. People like that are awesome.
 
She's a pro in her own right now but, growing up my across the street neighbor sat me down before I entered high school and told me the importance of not being "trendy" just to get girls. We were all new waver's already, but she pushed me to be more "punk". Thanks Shayla.
 
I'm not sure... Possibly my cousin.

He doesn't play guitar any more as far as i'm aware and i've not spoken to him in a long while.

He showed me my first chords and also that guitar playing wasn't a dark art but a case of 'putting the time in'.
 
After giving up on the guitar at like 5 or so fast forward to my friend Kevin playing the first Van Halen album for me, on an eight track player, when I was like 17 or so..........I was so done after that....
 
My mother was my biggest musical influence.

Thankfully, she told me in 1956 that rock and roll was music for hoodlums. Since at 6 I did not consider myself a hoodlum, I quickly became disinterested in Elvis and other early rockers, and instead preferred Standards, classical music, Cha-chas, Tangos and mambos, and learned to play the accordion.

When I inquired about country music, I was told that it was strictly for hillbillies and farmers. I was pretty sure that we were not hillbillies, and that we didn't live on a farm. So I was saved from all that unsophisticated distraction!

This allowed me to spend my early years Singing Along With Mitch, and my craziest musical escapade may have been learning to play Telstar on the accordion when it became a hit.

It was my dream to bring my accordion to school when I was 12, and play some of my repertoire for my contemporaries, but somehow I never got the opportunity. Fortunately, I was persuaded to wear my boy scout uniform to school on meeting days, and that was every bit as rewarding as showing off my accordion skills, since I had a great number of merit badges, including one for tying knots of various kinds. I know that my peers enjoyed this uniform because every time I wore it into the classroom the girls giggled. I'm fairly certain they were admiring the olive green shirt and pants with matching belt, and not laughing at my semi-military savoir faire.

Thanks, Mom. ;)
 
My Dad. He was an "audiophile" way back then and kept his stereo equipment and albums locked up. My brothers and I used to "jimmy" the lock and get the door open when he was at work or out of town. I remember watching the tubes glow in the amps while listening to After the Gold Rush. I also remember listening to our Mom and Him discussing what our punishment should be one of the times he caught us. "Well," she said, "You can't be too mad because at least they have good taste in music."
 
I had a couple friends from college who often got me to listen to other metal bands, since we all liked metal and got each other to listen to various metal bands.
 
I should have mentioned my friend Neil.

He re-introduced me to Pink Floyd and showed me they did other songs than 'Another Brick Part II'. When I finally heard the rest of The Wall and in particular Comfortably Numb, it set in motion the desire to play guitar. Life changing? I'd say so!
 
My bandmates. The bass player introduced me to Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation couple years ago and together with our drummer, we keep pushing our limits ever since (still a long way ahead of us ;) )
 
As ar as influential people (early on) I would have to say there were three that jump started my love for music...Dayton Alfred, Mark Leuse (sp???), and Stu Horner...all older than I, who were employed at my family's restaurant in Westminster, MD. I was probably 12/13...Dayton played drums locally, Stu played bass (BEAUTIFUL white Ric 4001or 4003) and Mark (who's family ran a bakery on Main street) who talked me into buying Rush "All the World's a Stage"....the rest...is history...
Of course, Mom and dad signed for me to make payments on a Hagstrom HBII to Signal finance...first guitar...
 
Doc, I'm with you on the WNEW crew. That was the heyday of radio, as far as I'm concerned. Luckily, we have XM/Sirius now and some of these folks, Like Scelsa, Griffen, the Neers, etc. are still employed and giving us the music we love. Also, they too are the ones that turned me on to music. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY in an Italian family (both my parents were born there) so my first musical experience was playing accordion at the urging/force of my parents....it was all good though because it gave me the foundation to understand and appreciate music.
 
Doc, I'm with you on the WNEW crew. That was the heyday of radio, as far as I'm concerned. Luckily, we have XM/Sirius now and some of these folks, Like Scelsa, Griffen, the Neers, etc. are still employed and giving us the music we love. Also, they too are the ones that turned me on to music. I grew up in Brooklyn, NY in an Italian family (both my parents were born there) so my first musical experience was playing accordion at the urging/force of my parents....it was all good though because it gave me the foundation to understand and appreciate music.

Great memories there....I'm also from Brooklyn and I can remember vividly the first time I ever heard "Echoes" when Alison Steele played it at about 1 AM (she was "The Night Bird" of course...remember her line when she came on at night....."come fly with me....."). I remember the first time I heard "Aqualung" before it was officially released, during Scott Muni's Friday afternoon "Things from England" show. Remember the calender...with all the DeeJays on it???....and Vin Scelsa emulating the Patti Smith Album cover as he peeled off his shirt? He is great...He was doing a show called "Idiot's delight" from his home in Bayonne.....I don't know if he's still doing it. And, Richard Neer is now employed part time (has been, for many years actually) on WFAN and he does a sports talk show...usually he has weekends at 10 AM....slow time on the 24/7 sports talk radio here in NY.
Man...that was the hey day of radio.....They talked almost as much as they played...they each had a distinct personality.....and I learned so much from them all. The WNEW crew made the listening audience feel as though they were part of the family. Like the night that DJ Pam Merly came in during a blizzard, and the overnight DJ (not Alison...I forget who) made the audience the "5th Wall" as he spoke about "Merly being early" and sharing their dialogue with us.

Yup..great memories.
 
My dad is the number one reason I am into rock/guitars he never played but from when I was born I was always hearing pink floyd/led zeppelin/queen and other 60's/70's rock and I was hooked. I wanted something more than the pop music that was on radio and tv. It was amazing travelling around the UK in his truck at work listening to it full blast at night time. Something I'll never forget is the way I "felt" the music.

My mums best friend also showed me some chords, how to play "my girl" and "wish you were here" and some blues songs. I loved it straight away, I found out I could play and make music on guitar
 
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