Your personal music timeline

[Fossie 32]

High school peak period

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Solid #1

 

[Gough]

High school peak period

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I can remember the 5th of November 1994 like it was yesterday. It was my old man's birthday, I got home for it after nearly a year backpacking and found out my folks had split and not told me while I was overseas. Now I know what was number 1 that day too.

 

[Fossie 32]

There was a thread about the series My Name's McGooley [1966-68] on FB today. Used to love watching that with my Gran. It had a sweet little theme by The Telemen aka The Allusions who were Beatles influenced at times

 

[Dixie Flatline]

I was born in the late 70s, so most of my early musical memories are from the 80s. My dad only ever listened to classical music, which did not catch my ear when I was young. I do remember my mum's record collection featuring a lot of Elvis Presley (Suspicious Minds is still one of my favourite tracks to this day thanks to the times I listened to it when my mum would play music) and a lot of Air Supply. However, my mum's favourite musician would have been Neil Diamond. The first concert I went to would have been a Neil Diamond concert in the early 90s, I reckon. Surprisingly, my mother did not have an opinion on The Beatles. I'm sure I would have listened to their music at some stage in the 80s, but I don't really remember it.

As we entered the 90s, I started listening to music that would be charting at the time, using the usual mixtapes of songs recorded off the radio and swapped around at school. Having said that, it didn't really make much of an impression on me. My wife (who is a year younger than me) is still amused about my view on some her favourite artists (i.e., I don't have one). I do have a vague recollection of listening to Nirvana on a school camp in the early 90s.

Family friends of my mum were heavily into Melissa Etheridge, Metallica and Pink Floyd. I could take Melissa Etheridge and Metallica or leave them, but Pink Floyd became my favourite band for a while. I bought all their albums from The Wall onwards (including The Division Bell, the 1994 album that was recorded after Roger Waters had left the band in the mid-80s and had a massive falling-out with the rest of his former bandmates).

My mum passed away in the mid-90s from cancer, and I started Year 12 a few months later. When I finished school and entered university, that probably contributed to the biggest outgrowth in terms of my musical education. To this date, one of my favourite ever tracks is In the Meantime by Spacehog (a candidate for one hit wonder if there ever was one). When I started university, I became friends with a bloke who was really into his music. From him, I gained an appreciation for Jeff Buckley. I then branched out to Smashing Pumpkins and, thanks to the influence of another friend at the time, to Tool. I listened to a lot of 90s grunge music around that time of my life.

I met my now-wife at uni in the late 90s, and she introduced me to the likes of Nina Simone, The Fugees and Barry White, as well as to Michael Jackson, De La Soul, etc (though they're still not really my cup of tea). We had our first dance to Barry White's "Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Baby" and we entered the reception to The Proclaimers' "500 Miles".

It's also interesting to reflect on the influence my children have had on me in terms of musical taste. My oldest child is in their 20s and has a pretty refined sense of music, having played two musical instruments for the last six or seven years (since COVID). I don't like everything that my children like (there is such a thing as a generation gap) but I do listen to some of their music.

This is a pretty abridged version that doesn't cover all my musical interests, in the interest of time.

 

[Fossie 32]

I think the second record Mum bought for me was Everybody Loves A Clown by Gary Lewis [1965]
1966
The first record I bought was Let's Hang On by the Four Seasons [Feb 66] - the first of many from Suttons Electrics in Hampshire Road, Sunshine, where I later got to work a couple of times in school holidays - my dream job!

 

[Fossie 32]

1966
I loved watching Hit Parade on ABC TV hosted by Dick Williams with the top charting songs of the week. I recall on one show there was I’m A Man by the Yardbirds, My Generation by The Who and Gloria by Them.

 

[Fossie 32]

Someday One Day by The Seekers was one of Mum and Dad’s records which I liked.
Some other great songs from 66 were Keep Running [Spencer Davis], Like A Baby [Len Barry], If She Finds Out [Twilights], Shapes of Things and Over Under Sideways Down [Yardbirds], Tomorrow [Sandie Shaw], Substitute [The Who], Under My Thumb [Stones], Sad Dark Eyes and The Loved one [The Loved Ones], Good Vibrations [Beach Boys masterpiece], Friday On My Mind [Easybeats] and I’ve Been A Bad Bad Boy by Paul Jones which I learnt to play on guitar in recent years.

 

[Gough]

The mystery of Keep On Running is how 18 year old Stevie Winwood managed to sound like someone who'd smoked 40 and a drank a bottle of whiskey a day for 30 years.

 

[CliffMcTainshaw]

The mystery of Keep On Running is how 18 year old Stevie Winwood managed to sound like someone who'd smoked 40 and a drank a bottle of whiskey a day for 30 years.

He was actually 17 but had been performing with his dad and brother, Muff since he was 8. I remember an interview with Muff who said they regularly played in pubs and they had to turn the piano round to hide the 8 year old so people wouldn't see that he was so obviously underage.

 

[raskolnikov]

1970s - Glam Rock: T Rex, Slade, Bowie
1980s - New Wave: Eurythmics, Roxy Music, Duran Duran
1990s - Brit Pop: Oasis, Pulp. Manic Street Preachers
2000s on - Largely stopped following contemporary music and started listening to retro music: Beatles, Stones, Kate Bush, Van Morrison. ELO

 

[Davidoff]

1990s - Brit Pop: Oasis, Pulp. Manic Street Preachers

No Blur? Seems a lot of Oasis fans never liked Blur despite them being the two biggest Brit Pop acts of the time.

 

[raskolnikov]

No Blur? Seems a lot of Oasis fans never liked Blur despite them being the two biggest Brit Pop acts of the time.

I didn't mind Blur but wasn't a huge fan.