My musical tastes are actually relatively eclectic, for someone who is
blowing out her ears wireheading Nirvana for the past year and a half. (I
came to it way late, obviously, but it's amazing stuff, even despite Kurt's
death. He was brilliant, not perfect, but brilliant. That's the way I like
it.) I started out with folk, but about the same year was exposed to rock,
specifically, The Monkees. I kid you not. My earliest musical influences
were Phil Ochs and The Monkees. No, I won't say which songs. This
admission alone should be telling enough.
I then went on to The Beatles, The Doors, The Stones, The Who, Zeppelin was in the air for a long time in my life, but I never really got the bug, James Taylor, Tom Paxton, etc. Santana, whoa. Good stuff. Maybe I'll learn to play some of it sometime. I'll have to learn to lots of stuff I only listen to, actually. So, my earliest roots were folk-protest music, and rock and roll with a sense of humor, and political and social protest rock, along with pop (lots of Beatles). Herb Alpert and Henry Mancini, among others, got me interested in playing trumpet, before I knew cornet even existed, but alas, I have yet to take cornet lessons. I'm seriously thinking about taking guitar lessons in the near future, the last lesson I had was in '69 and it seems I'm seriously overdue. When I was small, my parents would drop me off with some teenybopper babysitters getting themselves off to school, and these being black kids at the time who didn't have as many musical heroes as the white kids, they were heavy into Motown. I heard more Diana Ross and the Supremes on "77, WABC (DING!!!)" ("I need love, love to ease my mind...") than I ever wanted to hear, although at the time it was ok because it was what was being pushed at the time. ("Baby-love, my baby love.....") Then I later got into St. Eeleye Span (Steeleye Span), some Fairport Covention (Sandy Denny and Maddy Prior had *amazing* voices), and some of the Cheiftains (mostly because I listened to a radio station where some of the staff played these a lot (WBAI, 99.5FM in New York City. "Listener Spotted Non-Commercial Radio", as Steve Post would say in those days. He's the author of Playing in the FM Band, btw.). (I love the Child Ballads!). Anyone else know this stuff?
The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem did a 50th Aniversary album for the Easter Rebellion in Dublin which is the only one of theirs I own. These bands are why I like The Cranberries so much I expect. I wanted to marry Deloris O'Riordan until I found out she had just got married the week before. What the hell, I still want to marry her, just to hear her singing around the house. (All around my hat). She's supposedly on the new Cheiftains album, "Long Black Veil" (which I've only heard about and seen a clip of her singing on, but I've since had occasion to see the album back and it's Sinead O'Connor listed. Dunno.) doing a rendition of a traditional song that the Clancys and Makem covered on that album, "Foggy Dew", it's among my favorite melodies. Can't wait to get the album.
Other influences are:
Peter Gabriel, Miles, Genesis, Phil Collins, Scott Joplin, Pearl Jam (trendy,
ain't I?), Live, Jimi, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Eubie Blake, The Go-Gos,
Indigo Girls, Hole. Those and other influences and I find myself
still wireheading Nirvana. Oh well whatever nevermind.
Ok, quick quiz: name four albums or songs by Phil Ochs. Give me year
for each, if you can. Who was the "Child" in "Child Ballads" above? What
are the Child Ballads? Answer me in email. Pedantic? Moi??