I remember when I was little my dad was mostly about Sinatra and Kenny Rogers 8 track tapes, but he was never a real go-out-and-cop-this-heat type. He likes classical music a lot, and puts on these big ass ancient headphones with big individual volume knobs on the sides of each earcup when he wants to relax to some orchestration.
Right now my father listens to Jazz,Classical, and old r&b. I'm so fortunate to inherit his vinyl collection. Mad 45s and albums. My Dad held parties in NYC back in the early 70's, so he had alot of soul dance 45s.As a teenager he was a doo-wop singer,just like all the kids now are hip hop. He pumped alot of that stuff when I was a child. Then as a kid he let me browse through his record collection. I was baptisized by Mandrill,M.Gaye,Eddie Hendricks, alot of Pre-pop-disco era shit. My Mom is from Chicago, and she came with some soul,jazz,and pop on vinyl.For years she wouldnt let me scratch on her lps, but I got all of them now. My Mom now likes Barbara Streisand,R.Kelly,Nelly,Patti Labelle--various pop shit.
My dad is all about jazz and reggae, so much that I don't really listen to either genre. He has a pretty decent record collection and isn't coming off of shit. BTW no kid wants to go to a fucking Sun Ra concert. I hated that shit
Moms is into whatever they are playing on BET. She got a system with 10's in her car that beats harder than my car! Only thing I've done that she really likes is the Gift of Gab record.
Your parents have better taste than almost all of Soulstrut! But your mom is into "The Whisper Song"???!?!!??!
Damn I'll have to ask her about that! A lot of times she'll like a song that gets played on BET or something, buys the cd expecting the same version and comes away shocked. She actually bought one of the Jay Z albums for that stupid ass song he had with Ja Rule and Amil and ended up giving it to me because she didn't want the explicit version. Moms also got a noise pollution ticket for her playing her system too loud a couple years ago.
I forgot my stepdad, he used to work at a record store in the 70's so he hooked me up with 4 crates when I first started. He had some good fusion, blue note and soul records.
my parents listened to a lot of different stuff. Except for the radio, I cant remember my mom ever playing a record, but my first musical memory ( and one of my first memories ever)is with her. I was 3 or so and I remember my mom dancing with me to that tune "The Entertainer", we put our one hand on our hips and we danced around while wiggling the index finger of our other hand back and forth. I have a lot of her records from when she was younger...Duke Ellington, Ahmad Jamal, Nancy Wilson...so I suppose at one time she liked to listen to records.
My dad really loved music...when I was a kid ridin around in his pickup I vividly remember a selection of 8-tracks that were always on rotation...Elvis, the Grass Roots, Chet Atkins, a doo wop comp with stuff like Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, the Chords...also when I was 4 or 5, whenever there was a big thunderstorm , I remember him taking me into our den, which had a big window, and sitting and watching the lightning and stuff while he played classical records.
At the end of his life my dad would sit around and listen to CCR, a lot. It got to be a joke between us after a while. Before he passed away, he was really into that "O Brother where art thou?" OST. He would always take me music shopping when I wanted to buy a recod when I was a kid. He would always tell me my music was lousy, hahaha, and I would tell him the same...and we would argue our points on why our music didnt suck...that was always fun. I miss them and I even miss hearing "fortunate son" 23 times a day when I would go visit them...
Mom - STONES, Beatles, CSN&Y, Janis, Joe Cocker, Moody Blues, Bee Gees, Derek and the Dominos, Ella Fitzgerald, Cesaria Evora more.
Dad - Hank Williams, Leadbelly, Merle Haggard, Lightnin Hopkins, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Mexican ranchera music, Bob Wills, more.
Mom and Dad together - DYLAN, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, Randy Newman, Bob Seger, more.
A funny story: Two years ago my folks sold the house I grew up in in Atlanta to Dre from Outkast. Dre came by the house at least 10-15 times to look at it before and after he'd bought it. Sometimes he brought his mom, other times his architect (he's going to expand the house) and sometimes his friends. One time he came over and my mom was playing some Hawaiian music from the 40's (her latest like) and Dre liked it so much he wrote down the title of the CD. So my mom says that if Outkast uses any Hawaiian samples on their next LP she should get the credit.
My Old Man: He used to listen to a lot of jazz, but he was one those guys who stopped once it went electronic. Clifford Brown is the epitome of his jazz tastes. He also got into a lot of blues and old country and folk, like Hank Williams JR and Woody Guthrie. These days he listens to Flamenco guitar, Hawaiin slackey and a lot of roots/ealry bluegrass music. He also used to run that show on KCRW (PBS) that used to Broadcast live music, I forget the name. So he worked with everyone from a sixteen year old Shuggie Otis to Eddie Harris. Oh, he also is crazy about Ray Charles. I should mention the guy who directed Ray (Taylor Hackford) and my dad are close friends from that show they worked on, and they had been talking about (Hackford) making that movie for 30 years.
My mom: Anything that was popular in the sixites in Berkely. Now she listens to Elton John, Bonnie Rait, the guy that Juia Roberts married and GrandMasterFlash exclusively.
My Mom loved the blues and R&B. She was big on Bobby Blue Bland and BB King. Her favorites were Millie Jackson(she used to play this after we went to sleep) Marvin Gaye Al Green Gladys Knight Aretha Franklin. When she moved South a few years ago I got her record collection. It was a fine base.
My Dad is a very MOR guy. He listens to Stevie Wonder, but stays mostly to Joe Sample, Sarah Vaughn and that type of stuff. His best friend worked at WEA for 30 years, so his record collection is very impressive.I have to tell him all the time thatthere's a whole world of music outside of CD 101
A coworker told me about these guys this week, incidentally. I haven't heard them yet, but I guess they have badass versions of "Hotel California" and "My Way"
A coworker told me about these guys this week, incidentally. I haven't heard them yet, but I guess they have badass versions of "Hotel California" and "My Way"
If you've seen the Big Lebowski, you know the Gypsy Kings "Hotel California" from this scene:
I love my parents. Im blessed to still have both of them. My mom has something like 3000 classical piano cds. Shes a piano teacher. My dad was a bass player, he works for hewlett packard now. He liked a lot of fusion shit, thats where I first got alot of my funky jazz records. He has a fairly open mind, but neither of them understand rap or anything recent at all.
Thats okay though, they are the best people in the world to me. They had my in theory classes at age 4 and drilled music into me since I was in the womb. Today they are still my primary inspiration in life. God bless em.
My mother, step father, and father all listen to classical and opera a lot. Beyond that, it kind of changes; my step-father is heavy into jazz. He's actually the guy that really got me into jazz back when I was 12, 13 years old. I cop him stuff like Money Jungle and Black Christ of the Andes. My dad really only listens to classical and opera exclusively, but is known to break out some leonard cohen. He likes/gets hip-hop, but never would listen to it on his own. My mom is down to listen to whatever's put in front of her... she likes some jazz, loves ella fitzgerald, was my source for Beatles records, also was into Baez and female folkies at one point, and did her honest best to try and get into hip-hop haha... I give her stuff like JoAnn Garrett and Alice Clark and she digs it. Powerful women.
A coworker told me about these guys this week, incidentally. I haven't heard them yet, but I guess they have badass versions of "Hotel California" and "My Way"
If you've seen the Big Lebowski, you know the Gypsy Kings "Hotel California" from this scene:
I just signed up for NetFlix and that is one of my movies I need to and am going to see in full. I only saw parts of it, like where The Dude and Walter go to that kid's house and interrogate him about the homework found in the car without any progress. Walter proceeds to bash the shit out of what he thinks is the kids car, which turns out to be owned by the neighbor, who retaliates by damaging Dude's ride.
I remember Kansas "Dust in the Wind", Bad Jim Croce, and Everly abrother laced 8 tracks pumpimg out the American Motors Matador (Chrysler before it was Chrysler). Luckily for me, my school friends' fathers/mothers listened to music I'm still involved with to this day.
My Dad is forever asking fro more Gwen McCrae soubding ish these days, though.
K.
...although my parents were very close friends with these bands, so I ca'an complain
My dad should be posting here more than I should. I love that dude. An ex disco, reggae and whatever was hot dj in the mid 70's.
I really should spend more time with him getting up on some of his Ska game becuase he's so so serious with that shit. I guess in his older age he's reverting back to the music of his youth, so it's Ska 24/7 everytime I see him. Best thing about him rocking out to it, is that he goes into these long ass monologues about when he first heard the song or was at a dance where the band or singer was performing. Breaks down the dances that were popular at the time and all that. Pawpaw appreciation fo fo real.
My mom's on some alt.christian.cheeserock shit right now. The only thing she will tolerate outside that is some really familiar jazz like Miles "birth of cool" or Coltrane's "my favorite things". eh.
What's up with Houston's Caribbean connection. Obviously geographical...but there always seems to be stuff leaking out of there.
my pops favorite radio station during the 80's in LA was KKGO (ill jazz station). These days he sets up his radio in his garage in east LA on saturday mornings to catch a fuzzed out reception of "alma del barrio" on 88.9 kxlu. sometimes he gets pissed cuz the reception is so weak. he's also been getting into his new ipod. he told me the other day "i'm gonna fill this motherfucker up with 10,000 salsa songs".
moms is down w/ salsa, art laboe, "romanticas" shit, some pop shit, some bachatazos, merengue and of course reggaeton. she's been into that shit since El general droppped.
My Mom bumps Sting, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, "best of" 60s motown compilation type shit, also bad synthetic 80s smooth jazz (grover, joe sample, earl klugh). She buys into a lot of that new jazz type shit as well (I recently got a very excited phone call from her on some I>I ate cucumber dip with the drummer from bad plus/I>...?). She's the type of woman who will be like "i read an interesting review of a jazz cd in newsweek, so i went to pick it up..." She also asks me to pick her up good jazz and soul cd's for birthdays and christmas so her collection is littered with really obvious classics like I>Curtis/I>, I>Love Supreme/I>, etc. but i only think she listens to those to keep me content and impress her customers.
My dad basically only listens to the Delfonics, Hall & Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Gloria Estefan & Paul McCartney. And only I>the hits/I> by those artists.
great thread, interesting to see what people have been exposed to and their music connections to their parents
One of my earliest music memories is listening to Bob Marley in whip with Moms. She was also into early Beatles, CSNY, and Simon and Garfunkel, and motown comps. Those tapes were always in the car along with Abba and Shena Easton. Lately, she's has been all about Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dean Martin. My pops was always into latin, salsa and merengue. Loved Josie Esteban y la Patrulla 15 for merengue, and Cortijo y su Combo are his favourite salseros. This weekend we were listening to Cortijo's "El Negro Bembon" and "Dejalo que Suba" and he knew all the words, even though he hadn't heard the songs in about 20 years. He also likes Doo-woop and Chuck Berry type rock'n'roll. Pops is also down with the radio hits. This weekend I caught him singing the chorus to "Drop it like its hot" and "Gasolina." He's also constantly making fun of reggaton people.
My mom listened the Beatles, dad the Stones. Luckly they worked it out. Growing up it was lots of Van Morrison, Love, Beach Boys, Sade, Jackson Browne, Rickie Lee Jones, Luther Vandross, and Little Feet. I discovered Captian Beefheart and Gil-Scott Heron in my dad's records when I was in Jr. high and it sort of melted my face.
My dad likes classical, easy-listening/light rock, the Beatles, traditional Middle Eastern music/anything with a sitar and a guy holding a note for an extended period of time. In the past couple of years, he has started to listen to a lot of reggae. My brother asked him what he liked about it and my dad absolutely floored us when he answered ???It???s like life.???
My mom likes Top 40 stuff and club dance music like Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, annoying Euro club house music.
Great music and parents memories: Being 7 yrs old, going to a party at Sanjeev???s house (my Dad???s university buddy) and dancing with my dad to disco and what I can only now guess were Bollywood soundtracks.
Listening to ???What Jenifa Taught Me??? in the car, having my dad turn it off, making me explain what they were talking about in the song, why I would want to listen to "that junk??? and then have him turn it back on once I explained myself.
Watching my Mom dance all night at a wedding last winter and then telling me and *a*** to go home with out her, she???ll find her own ride because she was not ready to leave yet and then not say good-bye to us in her haste to make it back to the dancefloor (please note she was not drunk).
My folks passed when I was a kid, but their taste in music ,especially my Dad's, has stuck with me for life. Growing up, I had no idea he had been in a Wisconsin surf/rock and roll showband. He always had his guitar around, but he just played around and would sing little calypso songs here and there, and Johnny Cash. I found the pictures of his old band, the Tempests, after he passed. There was even a poster for bookings that had a letter written on the back to his folks(my grandparents) telling them that he had broken it off with his girlfriend, but had met a new gal, Jeanne, my mother-to-be, lifeguarding at the lake in Oconto Falls WI. Luckily I was able to get that poster framed.
Some of my dad's favorites:
The Smothers Brothers Johnny Cash (saw him and June live in 1975 in Stevens Point Wisconsin) The Statler Brothers CCR The Lettermen Bob Dylan Buck Owens Hank Williams
Mom's picks:
Elvis (I remember how upset she was the day Elvis died, it freaked me out) The Beatles Lawrence Welk(rarely missed an episode, she dug the dancing) Statler Bros AM radio in general, early 70s-I remember riding in our VW van listening to "Little Willie" by the Sweet...I have been hooked on that shit ever since.
Comments
My mom used to bump a lot of disco in the car.
My Mom now likes Barbara Streisand,R.Kelly,Nelly,Patti Labelle--various pop shit.
Damn I'll have to ask her about that! A lot of times she'll like a song that gets played on BET or something, buys the cd expecting the same version and comes away shocked. She actually bought one of the Jay Z albums for that stupid ass song he had with Ja Rule and Amil and ended up giving it to me because she didn't want the explicit version. Moms also got a noise pollution ticket for her playing her system too loud a couple years ago.
I forgot my stepdad, he used to work at a record store in the 70's so he hooked me up with 4 crates when I first started. He had some good fusion, blue note and soul records.
Dam, so is Moma Wizzle "wood grain grippin' as well"?
My dad really loved music...when I was a kid ridin around in his pickup I vividly remember a selection of 8-tracks that were always on rotation...Elvis, the Grass Roots, Chet Atkins, a doo wop comp with stuff like Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, the Chords...also when I was 4 or 5, whenever there was a big thunderstorm , I remember him taking me into our den, which had a big window, and sitting and watching the lightning and stuff while he played classical records.
At the end of his life my dad would sit around and listen to CCR, a lot. It got to be a joke between us after a while. Before he passed away, he was really into that "O Brother where art thou?" OST. He would always take me music shopping when I wanted to buy a recod when I was a kid. He would always tell me my music was lousy, hahaha, and I would tell him the same...and we would argue our points on why our music didnt suck...that was always fun. I miss them and I even miss hearing "fortunate son" 23 times a day when I would go visit them...
Dad - Hank Williams, Leadbelly, Merle Haggard, Lightnin Hopkins, George Jones, Willie Nelson, Jimmy Buffett, Mexican ranchera music, Bob Wills, more.
Mom and Dad together - DYLAN, Bonnie Raitt, John Prine, Randy Newman, Bob Seger, more.
A funny story:
Two years ago my folks sold the house I grew up in in Atlanta to Dre from Outkast. Dre came by the house at least 10-15 times to look at it before and after he'd bought it. Sometimes he brought his mom, other times his architect (he's going to expand the house) and sometimes his friends. One time he came over and my mom was playing some Hawaiian music from the 40's (her latest like) and Dre liked it so much he wrote down the title of the CD. So my mom says that if Outkast uses any Hawaiian samples on their next LP she should get the credit.
He used to listen to a lot of jazz, but he was one those guys who stopped once it went electronic. Clifford Brown is the epitome of his jazz tastes. He also got into a lot of blues and old country and folk, like Hank Williams JR and Woody Guthrie. These days he listens to Flamenco guitar, Hawaiin slackey and a lot of roots/ealry bluegrass music. He also used to run that show on KCRW (PBS) that used to Broadcast live music, I forget the name. So he worked with everyone from a sixteen year old Shuggie Otis to Eddie Harris. Oh, he also is crazy about Ray Charles. I should mention the guy who directed Ray (Taylor Hackford) and my dad are close friends from that show they worked on, and they had been talking about (Hackford) making that movie for 30 years.
My mom:
Anything that was popular in the sixites in Berkely. Now she listens to Elton John, Bonnie Rait, the guy that Juia Roberts married and GrandMasterFlash exclusively.
Her favorites were
Millie Jackson(she used to play this after we went to sleep)
Marvin Gaye
Al Green
Gladys Knight
Aretha Franklin. When she moved South a few years ago I got her record collection. It was a fine base.
My Dad is a very MOR guy. He listens to Stevie Wonder, but stays mostly to Joe Sample, Sarah Vaughn and that type of stuff. His best friend worked at WEA for 30
years, so his record collection is very impressive.I have to tell him all the time thatthere's a whole world of music outside of CD 101
A coworker told me about these guys this week, incidentally. I haven't heard them yet, but I guess they have badass versions of "Hotel California" and "My Way"
If you've seen the Big Lebowski, you know the Gypsy Kings "Hotel California" from this scene:
that's awesome dude.
I just signed up for NetFlix and that is one of my movies I need to and am going to see in full. I only saw parts of it, like where The Dude and Walter go to that kid's house and interrogate him about the homework found in the car without any progress. Walter proceeds to bash the shit out of what he thinks is the kids car, which turns out to be owned by the neighbor, who retaliates by damaging Dude's ride.
Mom:Real Shitty Christian Music; Judy Collins; Joan Baez (Though I have recently got her into Sam Cooke, Nat King Cole and some Reggae)
...although my parents were very close friends with these bands, so I ca'an complain
K>
What's up with Houston's Caribbean connection. Obviously geographical...but there always seems to be stuff leaking out of there.
K.
These days he sets up his radio in his garage in east LA on saturday mornings to catch a fuzzed out reception of "alma del barrio" on 88.9 kxlu. sometimes he gets pissed cuz the reception is so weak.
he's also been getting into his new ipod. he told me the other day "i'm gonna fill this motherfucker up with 10,000 salsa songs".
moms is down w/ salsa, art laboe, "romanticas" shit, some pop shit, some bachatazos, merengue and of course reggaeton. she's been into that shit since El general droppped.
fuck yeah, I've only heard the show a few times but goddam! Is this streamed on the 'net?
My dad basically only listens to the Delfonics, Hall & Oates, The Doobie Brothers, Gloria Estefan & Paul McCartney. And only I>the hits/I> by those artists.
One of my earliest music memories is listening to Bob Marley in whip with Moms. She was also into early Beatles, CSNY, and Simon and Garfunkel, and motown comps. Those tapes were always in the car along with Abba and Shena Easton. Lately, she's has been all about Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dean Martin.
My pops was always into latin, salsa and merengue. Loved Josie Esteban y la Patrulla 15 for merengue, and Cortijo y su Combo are his favourite salseros. This weekend we were listening to Cortijo's "El Negro Bembon" and "Dejalo que Suba" and he knew all the words, even though he hadn't heard the songs in about 20 years. He also likes Doo-woop and Chuck Berry type rock'n'roll. Pops is also down with the radio hits. This weekend I caught him singing the chorus to "Drop it like its hot" and "Gasolina." He's also constantly making fun of reggaton people.
My Mom listens to whatever she likes, some mainstream pop, easy listening, show tunes etc.
My dad likes classical, easy-listening/light rock, the Beatles, traditional Middle Eastern music/anything with a sitar and a guy holding a note for an extended period of time. In the past couple of years, he has started to listen to a lot of reggae. My brother asked him what he liked about it and my dad absolutely floored us when he answered ???It???s like life.???
My mom likes Top 40 stuff and club dance music like Daft Punk, Chemical Brothers, annoying Euro club house music.
Great music and parents memories: Being 7 yrs old, going to a party at Sanjeev???s house (my Dad???s university buddy) and dancing with my dad to disco and what I can only now guess were Bollywood soundtracks.
Listening to ???What Jenifa Taught Me??? in the car, having my dad turn it off, making me explain what they were talking about in the song, why I would want to listen to "that junk??? and then have him turn it back on once I explained myself.
Watching my Mom dance all night at a wedding last winter and then telling me and *a*** to go home with out her, she???ll find her own ride because she was not ready to leave yet and then not say good-bye to us in her haste to make it back to the dancefloor (please note she was not drunk).
Some of my dad's favorites:
The Smothers Brothers
Johnny Cash (saw him and June live in 1975 in Stevens Point Wisconsin)
The Statler Brothers
CCR
The Lettermen
Bob Dylan
Buck Owens
Hank Williams
Mom's picks:
Elvis (I remember how upset she was the day Elvis died, it freaked me out)
The Beatles
Lawrence Welk(rarely missed an episode, she dug the dancing)
Statler Bros
AM radio in general, early 70s-I remember riding in our VW van listening to "Little Willie" by the Sweet...I have been hooked on that shit ever since.