I got into rock because I couldn't get any girl to take me seriously and give me any *quality time blasting Rubber Ducky from my ride.

Awarding JAPR with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by blankfist.

In the 80s when I first heard Queen's Radio Ga Ga, grunge in the 90s as everyone else and their dog at the time. But more Soundgarden then Nirvana. Then in the late 90s to 00s I was really into metal and death metal, stuff like Opeth, Lamb of God and Olds Man Child.

Now mostly I listen to Porcupine Tree on occasion. Most of the new stuff sounds too hipster for me, though some tracks from TV on the Radio and Bloc Party are really nice.

My cousin bought me my first record ever, Nazareth's Greatest Hits.

I vividly remember listening to "On the Run" by Pink Floyd, in my friends, older brothers bedroom. While listening I imagined I had robbed a bank and was fleeing the scene on a motorcycle. The motorcycle had a wobbly front tire and the police were flying over in helicopters. I eventually crash the motorcycle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBcY9HGqehE

Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes and Kansas were the bands I listened to in my earliest years, and to this day consider it the best music I was ever exposed to.

I think my music tastes are just thoroughly engrained via my parents. Both my mommom and daddad were into rock plenty - not to mention just about anything else. Of the ones that really stuck with me were such folks as Janis Joplin, Tracy Chapman from one side, Pink Floyd, David Bowie on the other with the Beatles, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and others shared between.

Now I'll listen to anything that sounds good to me, really, shunning following groups and simply cherry picking pieces of music I like.

take me down to the paradise city where the grass is green and the girls are pretty oooohhh wont you please take me hoooooome

Dirty Laundry by Don Henley. I was brought up totally sans rock music, and this was the first one I taped off the radio and got really hooked on, listening to it repeatedly on the sly.

Great post, JAPR!

My first rock'n'roll memories are of The Beatles, as they were the only rock group my parents would listen to. When I was about 8 years old I heard Metallica and G'n'R for the first time and from there on out: Rock & Roll, baby

My grandmother was a big Moody Blues / Pink Floyd fan. That coupled with fond memories of rocking out to The Cars, Billy Idol and Pat Benatar with my mom when I was a youngin' has shaped much of my appreciation for rock and/or roll. It wasn't until my mom met my step dad a little later on that I was introduced to new wave and 2nd wave ska. When I got to high school, there was a big 3rd wave ska revival. Meanwhile I was rockin' the 1st wave and 2nd wave stuff, claiming to be too cool for that newer sh*t. That eventually lead to an interest in reggae music. Sublime was a very big influence on my life...

...I don't know why I like hip hop or house music. That's just random I guess.

I'd have to say the Beatles were my biggest rock influence as well.

As a kid, anytime I was over my cousin's house in Vermont, my Uncle would put Abbey Road or Let It Be (sometimes one of Lennon's solo albums) into the tape deck, dump the huge bucket of Legos we had onto the floor, and we'd go to town building gigantic, moving cities on wheels with docking ramps/landing pads for all sorts of transport/attack vehicles and any other amenity you might expect a futuristic moving city to have. We'd sit there quietly (except for the occasional squabble over a choice Lego piece, usually some transparent cockpit covering or neon booster)for hours on end. Then we'd tear it the fuck down and start all over the next time.

>> ^AnimalsForCrackers:
I'd have to say the Beatles were my biggest rock influence as well.
As a kid, anytime I was over my cousin's house in Vermont, my Uncle would put Abbey Road or Let It Be (sometimes one of Lennon's solo albums) into the tape deck, dump the huge bucket of Legos we had onto the floor, and we'd go to town building gigantic, moving cities on wheels with docking ramps/landing pads for all sorts of transport/attack vehicles and any other amenity you might expect a futuristic moving city to have. We'd sit there quietly (except for the occasional squabble over a choice Lego piece, usually some transparent cockpit covering or neon booster)for hours on end. Then we'd tear it the fuck down and start all over the next time.

...we were 17 at the time.

Growing up in a radio Station, (my mom has worked in the same station my entire life), I have just always been around rock and roll. I remember meeting everyone that came through town, even Wolfman Jack on several occasions. There were so many, and I was young, I don’t even remember names…. You just don’t care at that age when you are around it all the time.

I used to get all the demo records to bring home. I remember at one of my birthday parties (10th?) I gave out 45s as party favors. (Five to each guest.)

My mom had a collection of 5-600 albums and several hundred original 45s with songs like “Robert Mitchum-
Ballad OF Thunder Road (1958), Janie Grant-Greasy Kids Stuff (1962) 45’s by Jan & Dean, Beach Boys, Buddy Holly, Big Bopper, Little Richard, Richie Vallens, Elvis and that era. I remember putting on CCR albums as young as 6 or 7 years old.

My personal first 45s were Kiss-Beth, Jerry Doucette-Mama Let him play, Eagles-Liyin’ Eyes. My first Albums were Kiss, Rock and Roll Over and Bay City Rollers.

Into grade eight, my favorites became stuff like, Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, ACDC, the Ramones, The Cramps, The Moody Blues, Meatloaf, Styx and so much more. At one point I amassed over 1000 albums…

I thinned my selection down after getting married thinning down to around 50-100 albums and cassettes and have regretted it ever since. Music has been such a large part of my and there is a story to go with every song I ever remembered.

My first Rock Concert was Red Rider, opening for them was (Don’t laugh) Honeymoon Suite !!!

Long live the Music!

Remember (rock'n) rolling on the carpet when I was little, listening to Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino etc. / mixed with The Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Yes..

Didn't hear a whole lot of rock 'n roll in my house when I was a kid. My mom was mostly into country and easy listening (yikes), and my father was old so he liked stuff from Bing Crosby or the Andrews Sisters. I shit you not. However my mom did like Elvis Presley (and still does), but that's not what got me into rock. I pretty much found it on my own, like the rest of my brothers and sisters. I do remember feeling the secret thrill of listening to Nazareth's "Hair Of The Dog" (via my cousin. Maybe Crushbug and I are related).



Hearing "SON OF A BITCH!" in a song is pretty cool when you're 8 years old. In 1975. And lets not underestimate the power of the cow bell.

My first record was Billy Joel's 'Glass Houses', and then after that I bought AC/DC's 'Back In Black', Cheap Trick's 'Dream Police', Styx's 'Paradise Theater', Pink Floyd's 'The Wall', Rush's 'Moving Pictures', Van Halen's first album (aka 'Van Halen I'), sort of in that order, and then a lot more stuff after that, including teh AWESOME 'Dawn Patrol'.

^ My parents were more into country as well...I got into stuff like Garth Brooks before discovering rock. Shortly after, when I moved up to live with my dad and stepmom, I got pushed away from rock by the stiflingly Mormon household, but rediscovered it in junior high school, and thank God I did.

Listening to The Motels, Hall & Oates and The Go-Go's on The Mighty 690 AM all the way up in Pasadena. It's 91X on FM now, and still broadcasting from across the boarder.

Beatles. They used to have a cartoon about them on Saturday mornings, right before or after Johnny Quest and King Kong.

In the late 70's, "arena band rock" finally got to the point where I couldn't stand it any more, and I remember hearing Talking Heads and a few others that were pushing the envelope.

Then I went to college in the 80's and U2, English Beat, New Order, Flock of Seagulls, etc. just stole my heart. Yazzoo, too.

I really can't listen to 70's rock any more for some weird reason.

>> ^kronosposeidon:
Hearing "SON OF A BITCH!" in a song is pretty cool when you're 8 years old. In 1975.


I think your keyboard is broken, because it appears to be typing sevens when it should be typing fours.

My father listened to CCR religously in the car and on boating/hunting trips. He would bring a walkman and little portable battery-powered speakers, and I would experience the haunting beauty of listening to CCR on the arctic tundra with nary another soul within 100 kilometers.

my first rock'n'roll memory: I'm 5 years old and I live on a farm with my granny and grandpa. our closest neighbors have a son, he's some 12 years older than me. he's like an older brother to me. it's sunday afternoon and I go over to his house to persuade him to take me trout fishing. instead, I find myself in a darkened room with half a dozen weird looking boys staring at the square of bright light on the far wall, slowly sipping from their beer bottles in anticipation. some of them have extremely long hair, which I find odd. some of them are also smoking, which I can't stand. I want to leave but then I see the projector. I've never been to the movies before. then my neighbor comes in with a reel of 16mm tape. he does something magical to the machine and suddenly, as the sound floods the place, I notice huge speakers nested on either side of white linen sheet that acts as a screen. the picture is bad, dark and grainy, but it's the most fascinating thing I've ever seen. I hear names whispered in the dark as the faces on the screen come and go off stage. strange, foreign names like "Jimi", "Janis" and "Joe" ...

guessed it yet? yes, it was the Woodstock tapes, and I'm addicted ever since

I'd have to say it was my parents, who listened to Linda Rondstadt, the Eagles, and the Beatles. Except that they also listened to Tom Jones, Englebert Humperdinck, and Conway Twitty, so maybe I'm just so awesome I figured out the whole rock and roll thing on my own. That and I have been in love with the idea of the musician alone on stage with his/her guitar. There's something really romantic in the image that I've always liked. A few of my family members play guitar and some of my favorite childhood memories are of them playing guitar while various others took turns singing.

After getting over my horrendous Debbie Gibson/Tiffany phase, I picked up Queen, Guns and Roses, REO Speedwagon, The Motels and Joe Cocker from an uncle who had them lying around. Talking Heads and then, later, 90s grunge was the first rock I got into that felt like it was not inherited from someone else, and now I'm inclined to pretty much give a listen to anything at least once, because who knows what might be out there...

Current favorites at the moment: Death Cab for Cutie, System of a Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs (though most of the new CD is kind of a drag), Weezer, Silverchair, etc.