First band/musician that made take notice of music

Reading Fat Freddy's posting on the AC/DC thread and currently reading Gene Simmons book made me think of the first band or artist that first sparked my love of music.

For me it was two of them, I was born in 1970 and my parents are Latino so rock n roll of any sort was not heard in my house with the exception of my older brother but I never bothered to pay attention to what he was doing.

In 1977 when I was 7 the first rock musician I had ever heard was Elvis Presley when the news flashed that he died. I had no idea who he was but they showed his movie 'Loving You" and I thought this was the greatest music in the world, I think I reacted more to the screaming girls then the actual music.

Fastforward a few years and I used to get sent to church on Sundays which used to piss me off because this was at the same time The Three Stooges would air on our local channel. In town one day was the Rev Billy Mayo. It was a anti rock ralley which seemed to be the thing to do in churches back in the early 80's, he would go from town to town preaching about evils of rock music, spin albums backwards (which was bizzare to say the least) and then he played AC/DC 's Highway to Hell. That did it right there, I never heard music that sounded like this or a voice like Bon Scott's. I had no idea who the singer was at the time or anything else about the band but that Sunday I went to Kmart and bought my first rock album (If You Want Blood) and it would start my life long obsession with music.

I am so glad and happy the Rev Billy Mayo spun this song and maybe I should write him a thank you letter for this great service he provided this young lad.

What are your stories, first band, first album owned etc.

Both of my parents were big music fans and had a pretty massive record collection between the two of 'em, so growing up I heard everything from Elvis and the Beatles to the "Grease" soundtrack, ABBA, Dean Martin, John Denver, Jim Croce, etc., etc. around the house. At that time of course it was basically background noise, I didn't know or care much about it.

I remember when Elvis died though, I was 7 years old at the time. We were on vacation in the Adirondack Mountains in NY state and didn't have a TV or radio in the cabin we were staying in, but my dad went into town that morning to buy a newspaper and of course it was front page news. Dad was a HUGE Elvis fan so that pretty much ruined the rest of his vacation, haha.

Likewise, when John Lennon was killed in 1980 I was ten years old. I had very little idea of who he was but my Mom had been a huge Beatles fan in her youth so it hit her very hard, she pulled out all of her Beatles records and listened to them constantly for several days.

But the first so-called "rock band" that I remember really being interested in was KISS, when I was in first grade our teacher had a regular thing called "Music Time" where kids could bring in records from home and she'd play one cut from each record for the class. One kid kept bringing his older brother's KISS records to school with him so that was the first time I heard stuff "Detroit Rock City" and "Strutter." I didn't start buying my own KISS records till much later but they were the first band to really make an impression on me like "OK, this is what *I* like."

It was Kiss and Aerosmith back in the 70's that really got me into heavy rock and roll. I had a neighbor who was a teenager when I was just a grade school kid. He would crank his music so that the whole street could hear it during the summers.

My first record was actually a Hall & Oats 45 of "Rich Girl" I believe. I soon started collecting vinyl. This started in grade school. First it was Aerosmith and Kiss. Toys in the Attic and Rock and Roll Over were the first I owned on vinyl. Soon after it was Ted Nugent, Thin Lizzy, UFO, AC/DC, Deep Purple, Molly Hatchet, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Jimi Hendrix. etc. I also discovered bands like Be Bop Deluxe, Nektar, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, etc. I was the resident "rocker" in our mid-high. My school books were covered with paper bag covers that I scrolled band logos all over. Blue Oyster Cult's question mark/cross logo was a fun one to draw, as was the trippy Yes and Aerosmith logos. Got a day of detention for bringing in "Double Live Gonzo" for my music appreciate class. Apparently "blowing the balls of a charging rhino..." was not appropriate for school. LOL!

I also had several other school friend with older siblings that got them into music. One friend of mine was a The Who fanatic. Another friend named Steven was a Kiss freak along with me in grade school. Most of the kids in grade school that were into music at the time were into the Bay City Rollers, The Jackson 5 and other crap I didn't give a rip about.

Once I hit high school in the early 80's, it was Judas Priest's "Stained Class" that got me searching out heavier stuff. Then it was Anvil, Motorhead, Saxon, Def Leppard, Raven, Venom and the whole NWOBHM scene. Locally, I was into bands like Twisted Sister, Heathens Rage and Anthrax. Of course two of those bands became huge. I had also picked up a record by a new band called Metallica in high school. "Whiplash" simply blew us all away. Their sound was not unlike all the other NWOBHM bands, only with a bit more speed and intensity than some. Soon after that I picked up "Show No Mercy" and the song Anti-Christ blew us away, not unlike "Whiplash. They seemed to take the speed up a notch and they looked cool as hell with their leather and thick black make-up.

I remember when John Lennon died also, and I was 10 and again I did understand what so important about some long haired guy, at 10 I was more into Superman then the Beatles.

ULT you got into music at a way younger age then I did, I remember my brother had Ted Nugent's State of Shock and it did not make an impression on me til I was older, if anything his very presence used to annoy me, so his music interest meant next to nothing to me when I was a pre teen.

I should also mention that as a very young kid in the late 70s I had an older cousin who was way into the punk rock scene, that's how my brother and I first heard of bands like The Ramones. When we were 7 or 8 years old Cousin Sharon was in high school, she had a weird haircut and wore an Army jacket covered with pins and other junk, and we looked up to her because she was "soooo cool," haha. It seemed like every time we went to visit my aunt & uncle, she was on her way out the door because she was going to a Ramones concert that night. I don't remember her ever actually playing any of her music for us (my Aunt probably told her not to, for fear that it would warp our young minds, haha) but I do remember looking thru the pile of records in her room and seeing stuff by the Ramones, the Cramps, the Sex Pistols, The Clash, the Damned, etc. ... of course, with us being so young at the time, most of those album covers were weird and scary, but we still thought Sharon's records were way cooler than her older sister's (our other cousin, Lori), who was into Fleetwood Mac, the Doobie Brothers, Elton John, Meat Loaf, etc.

Anyway, my Aunt passed away in 2001, and my brother and I saw Cousin Sharon at the wake/funeral for the first time in probably 20 years. After awhile we started chatting about the "old days" and she was flattered to hear that we both considered her to be the main inspiration for us looking beyond the mainstream and getting into "weird underground music" when we were in our teens. She was like, "I had no idea that I was such an influence on you guys."

Another child of 1970 here and I was already a music lover by the time I was 3 years old. I started with a stack of 45s that were leftover at my Grandmother's house once my Uncle went away to college. I remember a few of them that had the biggest impact.

The Beatles - Hey Jude/Revolution - easily the 2 most important songs to making me a music fan. I played that 45 until I figured my Grandmother wanted to choke me.
The Doors - Hello I Love You (I don't remember the b-side)
Steppenwolf - Jupiter's Child (no idea what the other side of the single was)
The Rolling Stones - Satisfaction
Deep Purple - Hush

Then I was moving onto LPs in 1974, some of the ones I can remember are:

The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
Seals & Crofts - Diamond Girl
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On
Don McLean - American Pie
American Graffiti Soundtrack (VERY important album, turned me onto 50's rock early)

Then in 1976 I discovered Heart, Queen, Ted Nugent & Kiss. (thanks to the radio for the first 3 and Paul Lynde's Halloween special for KISS)

In 1977 I saw my first concert, The Doobie Brothers with UFO opening up.

By 1979 I had moved away from Kiss-style hard rock and my favorite band was Pink Floyd. There was a Pink Floyd marathon on the radio one night, right around the release of The Wall, the DJ played the entire Dark Side Of The Moon album and I was hooked for life. I got Dark Side, A Collection Of Great Dance Songs & The Wall by the years end.

By the time 1981 rolled around I had discovered Rush, AC/DC, Foreigner, Jethro Tull, Jimi Hendrix, Van Halen, etc.

Then at some point during 1982, I saw the videos for "You Got Another Thing Comin'" and "The Number Of The Beast" on HBO's Video Jukebox...thus began the "metal years".

Most importantly in that year...I also got Ozzy's Speak Of The Devil, my Mother didn't like the versions of those songs on that album...so to set me straight she bought me Paranoid & the Sabbath debut album on vinyl...I've been a fanatic ever since.

Thanks to Mom for being hip as hell! She always nurtured my music appreciation.

Being a young kid in the 70's with an older sister,my first taste of music was Kiss and AC/DC.My parents had lots of vinyl but I didnt pay much attention to them because it was mostly country.Although Dad was a big Johnny Cash fan so my love for his music was a result of that.
Anyway,My Sister was playing AC/DC and Kiss,and I knew then I had found the love of my life.Fastforward a few years and I was diggin the early stuff from Motley Crue,Van Halen,and such.Its been all downhill from there.

Thanks to Billy Mayo's anti rock sermon, he also gave it cassettes of the bands he felt where the most evil and it was wonderful because it also came with a 'buyer's guide' so I discovered Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, I would take his pamplet to the local flea market and ask the dude selling the used vinyl to help pick the best album out of each of the band's respective discography.

My parents where nowhere near as hip as detuned's mom, they were horrified I liked this type of music and asked where I had learned of Alice, Ozzy and KISS, I told them at church and they wondered what type of church had I been attending.

I'll post more later.

The earliest thing I can remember identifying as something which positively ruled, in terms of heavy rock, is probably Styx. My dad had all these CD's laying around his apartment and having nothing else to do at about 8-9 years old I would go through them all. I really liked the Billy Joel stuff I found, that preceded Styx by a little, there was the 2 CD best of set there, that was pretty fascinating early on and introduced me to a lot of great songwriting, and then Styx was just something else entirely. I remember hearing the guitar tone and the leads on 'Blue Collar Man'...'Miss America'..etc and being blown away at whatever that distorted metallic sound thing was. Additionally, Dennis DeYoung, I would later come to realize, is very close to a perfect vocalist. I also got Def Leppard - 'Hysteria' at a garage sale with a dollar I had because the cover art was cool. I found the guitar tone to be bizarrely fascinating. I would sort of stab in the dark for heavy stuff after that, I got BIG into W.A.S.P.
because 'Wild Child' was on this Harley sampler I found in a box somewhere, got into Maiden because this house an old babysitter broke into had this Maiden England poster on the wall and I grabbed it because it was awesome even though I had no idea what it was (later I would get a 'Best of the Beast' cassette from K-Mart, which had black tape, not brown, and I was obsessed and wore it out). I also got some Metallica and Priest tapes around that time ('Justice..' and 'Metal Works') and so those 5 or so bands got me into everything. This is still about the 9-10 year old timeframe..a LOT happened from 8-11 years old in terms of finding music and figuring out what it was all about and stuff. And I was completely outcast in school despite elementary school being the best and most fun era of school by FAR..my mom was an alcoholic and insane, and my dad was sort of there but not quite and I was more or less always in my own little world, learning how to do everything myself around that age, and always with the tape player attached to my head. Mostly it was about the guitar at first, just the TONE of stuff was something I would obsess over, I would hear The Cult - Sweet Soul Sister on the radio and that Billy Duffy riff at the beginning with nothing behind it sounded like the coolest thing in the universe to me, or Dave Murray's soloing tone, or Chris Holmes and that eerie sound he got on 'The Last Command'. I wanted a guitar just so I could make this distorted sound thing. Later on when the first major wave of depression hit (about 11-12..middle school, the stupid people that go there, step-parents, abuse, girls, and all the rest), I was listening to some of the same stuff a lot, but the darker stuff. Dickinson's 'Chemical Wedding' had came out, and so had 'KFD' by W.A.S.P. and I would sit there by myself and absorb stuff like that which was absolutely heady and dark for a kid and scribble lyrics and stuff... soon after I also got HUGE into Pink Floyd, and Queensrÿche, from the 'Momentary Lapse of Reason' and 'Empire' albums. I didn't leave the room except to go to school, and then in like a year there was no more school either but that's a different story. Part of that though involves a computer arriving to the house and me discovering the Internet, and therefore a bunch of new big bang bands such as Gamma Ray..Darkseed... all kinds of stuff that flipped me out that the Internet brought....

when I was a little kid (4-7) I heard The Beatles and The Stones everywhere I went. When I was 8 (1975)my sisters would collect LP's of early to mid 70's rock and basically whatever they had did it for me. Kiss, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Eagles, Montrose, AC/DC, Nazareth, Rush, Thin Lizzy, Deep Purple, Heart, Pink Floyd, etc.....I played their records so much, I skipped alot of them and they beat me senseless for it. But I was hooked.
Then I discovered Van Halen in 1978, Priest and Maiden and Scorpions and Triumph in 1980 (and a bunch more), and Metallica and Slayer in 1983. The rest is history.

In short, I was born in 1967 and had an older brother whose high school years were '74 to '78 and who loved hard rock. So I would listen to his records (Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Bad Company, Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Judas Priest, etc etc). I loved all of that too but I also loved KISS at that time. My brother hated them (thought they were just a 'schtick band') and would buy me records by Kansas, REO Speedwagon, etc---which I also came to love.
But I would have gotten into music anyway. As I think some of us just have that 'personality' where music just hits us in a different way and has more meaning than other people understand. For example, I don't get how some people live without owning a cd or just listen to the radio, to 'whatever is on'.
My brother in law doesn't understand why I still buy 'whole cds' and doesn't get my opinon that most cds still are best when played in their entirety.

allthingsmetal, I get that alot, "Why do you still buy CD's?" " You still listen to metal ( or throw in the name of any veteran metal act)' and it makes me feel like I am part of some strange sub culture, but I feel in love with the music and it was not just backround noise to me.

Also like you allthingsmetal, I do not get people who listen to only the radio and are satisfied with whatever crap they are playing.

I didn't have the benefit of older siblings to direct me musically, but I did inherit my dad's collection of 45's when I was a kid. It spanned the early years of rock n roll, Chuck Berry, lotsa doo-wop, Elvis, Motown, Beatles, Beach Boys then into the later 60's with stuff like the Stones, Cream and Hendrix. I think this had a HUGE effect on my musical choices even to this day. Good melodies, harmonies and vocals still factor in heavily to the music I listen to.

I knew of bands like KISS, but at the time, I was more interested in their comic book/superhero personas more than any music they were making. By the 80's, Huey Lewis & the News was probably one of the first real bands I latched onto. Bought all the albums on vinyl, saw them in concert. I was starting to become "aware" of bands like Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin and Ozzy Osbourne, but only the very little I heard on the radio.

It wasn't until high school that I heard really hard rock and heavy metal. Guns n' Roses Appetite for Destruction was my gateway drug and I haven't looked back since.

When KISS had the whole reunion thing going on in the mid 90s, I saw them on TV (on CNN or something, can't remember), and I was instantly blown away by them. The next day I begged my mom to take me to the record store, and there she bought me the original Alive! on tape. Been a fan ever since. A couple of years later, around 1998, we got cable internet, and I started searching for more heavy rock bands. I found out about Priest and Maiden that way, and I started saving my allowance and doing chores to buy some more tapes. About a month later I bought used copies of Sad Wings of Destiny and Number of the Beast.

for me i guess it was a vocal/jazz group called The Manhattan Transfer. i remember as a toddler i would try to sing along with Birdland, which was constantly being played. i still have a few of their records from when my mother died.

my venture into metal was when my sisters boyfriend gave me his Hell Awaits record, so i would quit pestering them. i remember playing it for my father, who then broke out his record collection to show me what "real" rock music was supposed to sound like. that's where i learned about Purple, Sabbath, Zeppelin, Priest, Scorpions, Aerosmith, etc. etc.

among the first records i purchased on my own (actually they were cassette tapes) were Shout At The Devil, Join The Army, Burning The Witches, Seven Churches, & Another Perfect Day. much to both my mother & fathers' disappointment. i based my purchases mostly on cover art, album title, or cool band name. you could actually do that back in the day & still come out a winner for the most part.

I did not get into heavier music til I was 15 or 16, which in my mind was years after I started listening to the popular metal bands but in reality it was maybe two or three years later.

Some of the first bands that were on heavier side I listened to and albums where Motorhead "No Sleep Til Hammersmith", Venom 'Wecolme to Hell' Metallica "Kill 'em All" and Possessed "Seven Churches' who I discovered before Slayer, which I know is ass backwards. I checked these bands out because I used to read Creem Metal Magazine (which was an off shot of Creem) and they used to talk about "real" heavy metal.

KISS - Destroyer was the first album I ever got, as a new release back in 76!!!!! I am still a HUGE KISS fan to this day!!!!!!

Prior to that, my Dad had a Hendrix album and I loved "Foxy Lady", so I knew I wanted loud guitars early on!!!!

Johnny Cash is my first remembrance of really wanting to hear more. My folks had a record by him and I loved it. I think it was, The Baron. I started listening to the radio and heard Styx doing Renegade in fifth grade and then in 6th grade heard Kiss and Maiden. It's hard to remember what order I bought stuff, Pat Benatar was one of the first albums I ever bought lumped in with those others.

The first album I ever got was the soundtrack to Star Wars (I was 5). My parents were not big music fans so most of the stuff i listened to was Top40 stuff. My first metal album I listened to was Maiden's Killers.

My mom was a big music fan and would often play Elvis and Beatles records along with the radio. She told me that I would make a microphone out of tinkertoys (for those of you old enough to remember those) and sing along to the records. My first record was a 45 of Glenn Campbell's Rhinestone Cowboy.

My journey into hard rock and metal came because my best friend growing up had an older brother who played KISS, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Ted Nugent and Van Halen records. I was immediately hooked on these records. I always wanted to hear them when I went over to their house. I was in 2nd grade when I saved my money and bought my first KISS album.

My sister (the oldest) used to listen to all that 70s soft rock (the Carpentersand the like) so I was very familiar with all that. KISS was my introduction to the harder music. There was an older kid across the alley from me who was into KISS big time and played their stuff constantly. I grew to know those albums (up to Double Platinum) intimately. My 10th birthday rolled around and I asked for a KISS album.
I ended up getting the Ace solo album and was hooked.Music became a part of my life from there on out. My older brothers are into classic rock so I got the ususal doses of the Doors,Steve Miller,etc. (although I've grown a huge disdain for that stuff,for whatever reason).As I got older and was finaaly able to see concerts,that was it. I discovered the more metal music and haven't looked back.I now listen to music almost constantly (drives to and from work,at work,cutting grass,you name it).

The first type of music I took an interest in was surfer music (Beach Boys, Jan & Dean, etc.) and the Monkees. This when I was about 6 or 7.

I had some friends in my neighborhood that were huge Beach Boys fans and that's how my interest in them started. For one Christmas from "Santa", I ended up getting a some type of Beach Boys compilation cassette along with another comp of surfer music. I loved those tapes.

As for the Monkees, fell in love with them through Nickelodeon airing their show and also my dad has a number of their albums on vinyl so after being hooked on the show I would listen to those records. I've actually been meaning to pick up a Monkees greatest hits CD.

Kinda sad, as of now, I don't own a single Monkees or Beach Boys album! As I grew up, I really didn't listen to music much any more until I was about 15 or so when a friend of mine got me hooked on GNR, Poison and Bon Jovi. I haven't looked back since.

I find it interesting that some of the guys who responded, it was their older sister who got them into metal, the cliche back then (with the expection of the soon to explode pop metal ) that girls where not into heavy metal turns out that was nothing more than a stereo type.

Quote :

I've actually been meaning to pick up a Monkees greatest hits CD.

I was (and still am) a Monkees fan. I had a bunch of their albums on vinyl as a kid and have their 2-disc anthology.

I should also add that I was exposed to allot of country/bluegrass music as a wee lad when I spent time with my grandparents. I can't take much of it these days, but Johnny Cash still hits the mark.