Music Memories #2

My father is part of the last leg of the baby boomers. He was born in 1959 into a military family. As a result, he was exposed to a lot of different genres of music. They moved from base to base, spending one or two years there each. My father started his education in Germany in a kindergarten on the base. His brother was born on a base in Japan. But he has always had a love for American music. His interests started off with more of the country folks, like Bob Dylan. It grew as the British Invasion spread, but he still stuck to his more folksy roots in music. By the time he was in high school, it was the mid-1970s and his tastes had spread into rock ‘n’ roll. He started listening to popular country rock bands of the age, like the Eagles, and Lynyrd Skynard. He began to develop an interest in the heavier rock as the ‘70s continued, and started listening to AC/DC quite heavily.

His first concert was in 1978 and was either Jethro Tull or The Cars. One of my parents favorite stories to tell about the beginnings of their relationship is all about music. My mother is a huge fan Eddie Money, and my father took her to one of his concerts in 1979. Another of their favorite stories to tell is the time that my mother bought my father tickets to The Cars in 1978 and hinted that he should take her, but he took his best friends instead. She still won’t let him forget it.

Overall, he thinks his musical tastes haven’t changed much. He still listens to pretty much the same music he did when he was younger. He either re-listens to his old CDs or some of his favorite bands newer music. He doesn’t really like to listen to modern alternative rock or hip-hop, except to make fun of my brother and I for listening to them on occasion.

He deeply influenced my musical tastes when I was growing up. Whoever was driving had control over the radio and my dad would always be driving. We would constantly listen to 98.5 KFOX and the like, and almost every other song, my dad would tell my brother and I that this was good music. That in order for us to appreciate music we had to listen to the classics.

I have to say that our tastes are pretty parallel. He started off listening to more folksy and country rock, which he started me off with. In his teenage years he branched out and tested the waters with new rock and progressive rock, but he stuck to his roots. I have to say that it’s the same with me. I have branched out quite a bit, but the classics give me a feeling of nostalgia that is impossible to deny.