Doesn't necessarily have to do with songs you like now, though in my case I generally do. And I think they can inform an understanding of why people are the way they are. For example:

1) "Alabama Song," by the Doors, the first part of which includes "Oh show me the way to the next whiskey bar." This is the first song I learned to sing any of -- before "Twinkle, Twinkle" or the alphabet song or any of that.

2) "The Merry Minuet" by the Kingston Trio, which is about how everybody hates each other and, if we're lucky, we'll all die in a nuclear holocaust.

I knew both of these songs by heart by the time I was seven or eight, because my dad is crazy/awesome.

Anybody else have examples that illuminate their personalities?

9/3/2009 1:28:56 AM

sorry, I wasn't raised on a song

9/3/2009 1:29:48 AM

You also weren't raised by humans, but rather mentally-deficient orangutans as part of an experiment on retardation.

9/3/2009 1:31:29 AM

Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton

9/3/2009 1:32:36 AM

Quote :

"someone's grumpy"

9/3/2009 1:32:41 AM

^^Good one, also featured into my slightly-less-early childhood.

9/3/2009 1:34:36 AM

Also:

Henry The 8th - Herman's Hermits

9/3/2009 1:36:21 AM

maybe Vivaldi's The Four Seasons

but that's not a song

9/3/2009 1:36:25 AM

My father has been in the radio business for 35 years. When I was young, and until I wasn't, he ran Oldies stations. "Yakkety Yak", "The Great Pretender", "Flying Purple People Eater", "Proud Mary", "Midnight Rider", "Good Times Bad Times", "Splish Splash", et cetera, they dominate my childhood memories. 50s, 60s, and 70s music were my element as a kid, it's all my parents listened to. Surprise surprise, I happen to be a bit of a 60s and 70s expert, and it's my preferred musical era (and genre, being very much into Progressive and Psychedelic--deep cuts, though not quite as elitist as some of my peers).

9/3/2009 1:54:30 AM

Damn, son, that's about as influential answer as could be expected. And you name a number of good songs there, too.

I should add 3) "Taking Care of Business," BTO. Whereas the first two explain my alcoholism and cynicism, respectively, this one explains my laziness.

---

Incidentally, my dad introduced my brother and I to alternative rock. We all hated it for a couple of years because we felt like he'd betrayed the classics. I still listen to Nirvana, Offspring, and Green Day because dad made us.

9/3/2009 2:13:51 AM

born in the usa lol

9/3/2009 2:14:23 AM

1) "Carry on my Wayward Son" - Kansas. I thought the son was about me, hence my big ego was formed.

2) "Let the Good Times Roll" - The Cars. If something isn't a good time I bail.

9/3/2009 2:17:12 AM

sultans of swing

9/3/2009 2:25:11 AM

If it was sung by Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead, Tom Petty, The Cars, Bob Marley, or Pink Floyd, it was a part of my early childhood.

Yes my parents are hippies.

9/3/2009 2:37:35 AM

peter paul and mary

anyone? puff the magic dragon?

and the carpenters. my parents were big on some carpenters

oh also liked the kingston trio. that subway song. it scared me.

[Edited on September 3, 2009 at 2:39 AM. Reason : .]

9/3/2009 2:38:01 AM

Are your parents Japanese?

9/3/2009 2:39:23 AM

mine???

no.

9/3/2009 2:44:35 AM

Quote :

"1) "Carry on my Wayward Son" - Kansas"

2) "Bohemian Rhapsody" - Queen

3) My dad tried to raise me on disco but failed.... though my current tastes do have a very (very) mild disco influence.

9/3/2009 2:45:04 AM

Really? The only people I've met that are huge into the Carpenters are Japanese

9/3/2009 2:45:17 AM

no way the carpenters have some great christmas songs
haha

9/3/2009 2:51:42 AM

"house at pooh corner" by loggins and messina

9/3/2009 3:11:14 AM

Quote :

"1) "Alabama Song," by the Doors"

Being raised on a cover explains a lot.

9/3/2009 4:03:12 AM

i have no idea how you get raised on a song, but the first song i remember from my youth is sledgehammer by peter gabriel, lol

9/3/2009 5:41:04 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpWB_ZiFy-Q&feature=related

"UGLY BABY"

9/3/2009 6:40:14 AM

i only listened to the oldies station until i was about 14...to this day, i know the lyrics of the vast majority of popular oldies song

then i got to high school with our T1, started using napster and burning CDs, and expanded my horizons

9/3/2009 7:31:57 AM

i definitely thank my parents and grand parents for the music i grew up on. It's one reason I love music so much and can listen to almost any genre and be satisfied.

My mom gave me a heavy dose of country and lite rock hits (Elton, Billy Joel, Fleetwood Mac, etc etc.)

My dad and I would jam out to beach music in the summer time and classic rock any other time.


My grandparents from both sides introduced me to classic country and bluegrass.

with that base i pretty much branched out on my own with some influence from my friends

Quote :

""house at pooh corner" by loggins and messina"

what a song!

[Edited on September 3, 2009 at 8:30 AM. Reason : add]

9/3/2009 8:27:53 AM

From my mom I got an absurd love of broadway musicals, queen, billy joel, elton john and anything pop or country

My dad got me started on the beatles, beach boys, the smiths, the pixies, punk rock and WKNC.

California Dreaming has a special place in my heart, and will probably be played at my dad's funeral because I know he'd love it.

9/3/2009 8:34:17 AM

my dad used to keep yard sticks in the car so when mom wasnt there, he'd crank the radio and me and my siblings would rock some killer yard stick air guitar on rides to places

the normal songs were "slow ride" - foghat and the like

9/3/2009 8:46:25 AM

^seriously? That's probably the coolest thing ever

9/3/2009 8:51:40 AM

yeah, looking back on it, it was pretty cool.

9/3/2009 8:56:46 AM

there's 2 songs that I remember the most growing up.

Grateful Dead--Touch of Grey: I was 4 years old. I remember the music video, and really loving the part when the skeletons turned in to the band. The music video also had a dog in it, and as a dog lover I really ate that up. My dad's a huge Grateful Dead fan, so really all of their music is very much part of my childhood...good and bad memories. He has all of their albums on vinyl, and so many live recordings or released live recordings it's pretty crazy. The day Jerry died was a sad, sad, day in our house.

The Bangles--Walk Like an Egyptian: I was 3 years old, and I remember sitting in my booster seat in the car singing EVERY word to this song. If it came on the radio and we had just gotten home, I wanted to stay in the car until it was over

9/3/2009 9:20:40 AM

"Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On" by Mel McDaniel
"Baby Blue" by George Strait

My mom's best friend's husband used to get out his guitar and sing those songs to me all the time.

♥ Makes me smile everytime I hear them.

9/3/2009 9:23:27 AM

I was raised on those Gremlins records that accompanied a little book that you got at Hardees for $.99

9/3/2009 9:24:04 AM

the alabama christmas album

the oakridge boys

jimmy buffett

the dirty dancing soundtrack (thx mom)

9/3/2009 9:27:09 AM

every michael jackson(5) song
ever.

9/3/2009 9:50:33 AM

horse with no name - america
anything eagles or jimmy buffett

9/3/2009 10:15:45 AM

Pink Floyd
CCR
Led Zepplin
Allman Brothers
Doobie Brothers
The Boss
Willie Nelson
Walynn Jennings
The Moody Blues
Queen
The Cars
Kansas

There will be more to but these band's records were played all the time. Certain ones were played when my dad was high.

9/3/2009 10:34:50 AM

LOVE LIFT US UP WHERE WE BELOOOOONG


I'm AstralAdvent and i approved this message.

9/3/2009 10:37:11 AM

Franz Schubert

my family was not generally musically inclined, my dad liked and still does, classical, and my mom like whatever was on the radio but wasn't into anything particularly strongly.

thus i grew up in a mostly musical void, when i was in middle school i liked industrial (sans vocals)

9/3/2009 10:39:53 AM

these are the songs i remember most from riding around in my mom's burgundy taurus when i was a kid:

achy breaky heart
touch me, turn me on, burn me down
i like it, i love it


seems like when one of those 3 came on the radio me and my sister would make my mom turn it up and we'd all sing along

9/3/2009 10:46:48 AM

my mom used to sing me to sleep with Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi"

and she wonders how I "turned out so liberal"...

9/3/2009 10:47:23 AM

my parents shortchanged me by not exposing me to music. They do not listen to any music. At most my dad will enjoy a church hymn.


So i had to discover music on my own. I mean, the advantage to that was that I could decide what I like and not have a natural bias based on what I was exposed to as a young child, but it also meant that I had to play some serious catchup. I probably could have been a much better guitar player than I am now had I developed an appreciation for music before i was 12, which is the first tape I can remember owning (skid row's self-titled).

I definitely try to expose my daughter to as much music as I can. At this stage she tends to gravitate to hip-hop, but also loves it when i'm playing guitar.

9/3/2009 10:57:05 AM

my older brother and i shared a bedroom for a while when i was in elementary school and he was in late elementary and middle school. we typically listened to the classic rock station at night on the clock radio. but after a couple years we had tired of the same songs over and over, so we switched over to the guilford college radio station. so in 4th grade i was versed in nirvana before smells like teen spirit hit (as well as some stranger acts like weslie willis). the actual songs themselves weren't that notable to be honest i'm having trouble actually remembering what they all are now (though i do remember a night when they played an entire weslie willis album) but it more skewed me away from mainstream music at an early age.

as far as really early memories go though: i remember really liking U2 at a very young age as well as the rod stewart song "forever young"

[Edited on September 3, 2009 at 11:00 AM. Reason : .]

9/3/2009 10:58:32 AM

My dad was like SUPER OLD SCHOOL, even for his peers. ... played all the 50's and 60's music at home, all the time, when i was a kid. He had this old reel-to-reel (!) deck, that he got before i was born, apparently top of the line at the time. Believe it or not, he still has it, and still uses it. His collection included:

Bill Haley
Fats Domino
The Coasters (Yakkity Yak, Charlie Brown, etc.)
Buddy Holly
Chuck Berry
Big Bopper
Beatles.
Bob Dylan.
Peter Paul and Mary.
Simon and Garfunkel.
Beach Boys.

but in the car, it was always country music. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson ... and this was all on 8-track, even in the late-80's ... old fucking school.


as a teen, I quickly turned to heavy metal / speed metal (Metallica, Megadeth, etc), to escape.






[Edited on September 3, 2009 at 11:54 AM. Reason : ]

9/3/2009 11:49:08 AM

dude!! a reel to reel!

my dad still has one and it still works!!!

but yea we listened to music on that, too

9/3/2009 11:57:11 AM

jim croce, CSN, CSNY, elvis, three dog night. the beatles, (my mom was a big fan and used to tell me about how she had to talk her dad into letting her watch them on ed sullivan), she also had a john lennon imagine album on vinyl i always enjoyed.

9/3/2009 12:00:11 PM

HOUSE ON POOH CORNER!1

yes!

My mom and dad's song has always been "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers.

My dad is a HUGE James Taylor fan so I was raised on all his songs

9/3/2009 12:02:01 PM

when i was about 11 or 12, my dad gave me his copy of Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced" and the Beatles "Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band".

both original vinyls

my mom was concerned, and i remember her saying "But I thought we agreed that was drug music..." And my dad said something to the effect that it was "just good music" that i should appreciate.

i don't think my dad was ever cooler than at that moment.

I'm sorry to say that in my multiple moves as a 20-something, i lost track of where they went.

9/3/2009 12:04:48 PM