Who do you credit for your love of mucic?


For me, it was my Mom. When I was a kid @ 6-7 years old, she had a nice, small 78rpm player in the living room and a stack of records. I used to get up early in the morning and quietly play Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Perry Como, Jo Stafford and the big bands. My Mom made it a point to take me to every musical movie she could. Man, I reveled in Dan Daily, Fred Astaire, Doris Day, Carmen Miranda and Xavier Cugart. Then there was The Wizard of Oz, Snow White, and all of the cartoons that featured really good music at the time.

At one point in my childhood (circa 1941-1943), my Mom worked at a concession down at the beach in Ocean Park (right next to Santa Monica). There was a dance hall across the boardwalk that featured the big bands of the time. I'd walk over there and sit at the door listening to the greats like the Dorsey Brothers. Yes, it was during WWII ... and I was just a tyke, but even then I was in love with music. The shame of I all? I have absolutely NO musical talent other than being an accomplished listener.
128x128oregonpapa
I really didn't have much of a choice. I was born into a musical family and handed a violin (fiddle) at the age of five. Every weekend we were off playing somewhere and then would tour some through the summer. Country/Gospel/ Bluegrass was pretty much 24/7. Use to rig up our record player and play it through the Fender tube amps that we brought with us when doing concerts. Bought my first stereo just out of high school and then discovered the Absolute Sound magazine which pretty much sealed the deal for high end audio for life.
My mother had an artistic nature and took to my music pretty quickly. She willingly went to Elton John concerts and even a Springsteen concert as early as the 1970s. She thoroughly enjoyed them. My mom also took on other favorites like the Beatles, Cat Stevens, Eric Clapton and Van Morrison pretty early on. For my other friends and their parents--my friends and I were just listening to "noise".
I remember the time in 1971 when I was playing Teaser and the Firecat relentlessly in my room. One day my brothers , sister and father were out of the house. My mom asked me to put Teaser and the Firecat on the Fisher in the living room with the remote speaker in the kitchen while she and I prepared (mostly she) and ate (mostly I) dinner. She knew most of the songs from my room. I thought--wow-- she listens and she actually gets this. Think her distinctive ability to cross the musical divide became less apparent in the 1980s when the generation gap narrowed and others of her generation started to understand. Yep, I got it from her. Yep, I miss her.