How did you get into rock music?

[Hepcat]

How did you get into rock music? Here's my story:

It was August of 1967 and I was fifteen years old. I had my first summer job - on a tobacco farm near Delhi in southern Ontario. This meant of course that for the first time in my life I'd have a real wad of disposable income - and my plan was to get some of those records to which I had been grooving on the radio. Some of the tunes that stood out in my mind from 1966-67 were:

It was August of 1967 and I was fifteen years old. I had my first summer job - on a tobacco farm near Delhi in southern Ontario. This meant of course that for the first time in my life I'd have a real wad of disposable income - and my plan was to get some of those records to which I had been grooving on the radio. Some of the tunes that stood out in my mind from 1966-67 were:

Paperback Writer - Beatles
Eleanor Rigby - Beatles
Strawberry Fields Forever - Beatles
Penny Lane - Beatles
Paint It Black - Rolling Stones
Mother's Little Helper - Rolling Stones
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadow? - Rolling Stones
A Well Respected Man - Kinks
Sunny Afternoon - Kinks
Wild Thing - Troggs
I Can't Control Myself - Troggs
California Dreamin' - Mamas and the Papas
Monday, Monday - Mamas and Papas
Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel
Hazy Shade of Winter - Simon and Garfunkel
It's My Life - Animals
I Fought the Law - Bobby Fuller Four
Red Rubber Ball - Cyrkle
Over and Over - Dave Clark Five
I Had Too Much to Dream Last Night - Electric Prunes
Come on Down to My Boat Baby - Every Mother's Son
Let's Live for Today - Grassroots
Lies - Knickerbockers
Time Won't Let Me - Outsiders
96 Tears - ? & the Mysterians
Pied Piper - Crispian St. Peters
These Boots Are Made for Walking - Nancy Sinatra
Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers
Hanky Panky - Tommy James & the Shondells
Happy Jack - Who

I was also quite familiar with the music from earlier in the decade since the radio station to which I had been listening was CHLO in St. Thomas which devoted weekends to a Souvenir Safari wherein every second selection was an oldie.

Having fulfilled our quota relatively early one Saturday afternoon, some of the older fellows (very cool twenty year olds from Montreal!) were given permission to take the farmer's car into the big town, that being Simcoe, and the even bigger metropolis of Brantford! At the 100 plus mile per hour speed at which they drove the car (no, no seat belts), it didn't take us very long to get to those places.

Of course we stopped at a record shop. The new exotic Beatles' album, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", was on prominent display and I decided to make it my first purchase when I got back home in September.



The other album that I remember catching my eye was "Flowers". The cover picture featured a more decadent and vaguely threatening looking group of young fellows. "Are these the Rolling Stones?" I wondered. I hadn't yet seen the Stones on TV but my guess was of course correct.



The new psychedelic sounding Rolling Stones single "We Love You" was just hitting the airwaves when I returned home just before Labour Day. I listened raptly and marveled at the sound I was hearing.

I went through with my plans and made "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" my first record purchase. I quickly followed up this purchase by acquiring the Beatles' first three Canadian albums in order, "Beatlemania", "Twist and Shout" and "Long Tall Sally".

I then stepped outside the box in October and bought "Big Hits - High Tide and Green Grass" by the Rolling Stones. I was floored! I found the Stones' record far edgier than the comparatively tame Beatles' albums. Then of course there was the innovative for the time booklet of their pictures included within the double sleeve.



I wasn't entirely sure which Stone was which at the time but the brooding, mysterious Stones appealed to me in a way the Beatles did not. I went out and added "Flowers" to my swiftly growing record collection within a couple of weeks. Here are the Stones performing a track from "Flowers" on the Ed Sullivan Show:

Lady Jane - Rolling Stones

I think the "Best of the Animals" may have been the first non-Beatle or Stone album I bought. "We Gotta Get out of This Place" had been a popular chant at the boarding school I had attended in Kennebunkport, Maine for grade nine although my favourite Animals' tune at the time was "It's My Life". The "Kinks' Greatest Hits" may have been the next.

I took to reading the record/music review sections of "Time" magazine to which we had a subscription and "Stereo Review" which I could find at the library to get an idea for new, cutting edge bands that weren't necessarily being played on top forty radio.

My musical horizons had already been expanded earlier in 1967 when the Doors released their signature hit, "Light My Fire". When I heard the dark melodic strains on the kitchen radio for the first time I was fascinated. I loved it! It was like nothing I'd heard on the radio to that time. I knew that the boundaries encompassing rock had just been dramatically expanded and that rock had left its period of youthful innocence behind.

But it wasn't until I saw their performance of "Light My Fire" on the Ed Sullivan Show on September 17th that the Doors actually became one of my very favourite bands. Jim Miorrison appeared wearing tight leather pants which must have caused appalled parents' jaws to drop across every single living room in North America. I certainly expected expressions of horrified disgust in as many as two languages from my very old school father. He must have been too shocked though, or maybe he too was hypnotized by the seductive organ riff behind Jim's throaty vocals. Much to my surprise he just sat there in silence. All I know is that I watched the performance intently in almost rapt disbelief. These fellows made the Beatles look like innocent schoolboys! They were a step above and beyond whatever else was happening in rock at the time. Here's the video:

Light My Fire - Doors

Interesting too is that Ed Sullivan had demanded that the Doors change the words of the song from "Girl we coudn't get much higher" to "Girl we coudn't get much better" as a condition of performing. You see it was actually illegal to use the word "higher" as a drug reference on American TV at the time. The Doors had agreed but when it came time to sing the line, Jim clearly enunciated the word "higher". Ed Sullivan was understandably furious and banned the Doors from any further appearances on his show. When told that the rest of the band's five scheduled appearances on the show had been cancelled, Jim reportedly said "Hey man, so what? We just did the Ed Sullivan Show!"

I just love that type of insolence. Stick it to the straights I still say! I may be a stockbroker and a "respectable" member of society these days, but I still take delight in offending those more straightlaced than myself. And woe to any bureaucrat or corporate suit who annoys me and finds himself in my company!

I bought their debut album a couple of months later - and let me tell you I was well and truly hooked on the Doors within a couple of plays. The music just drew me in.



When I played it for one of my buddies, he stayed uncharacteristically silent - but bought his own copy a few weeks later. He later confessed to me that the Doors sounded so moody and Satanic to him the first time I played the record that he never thought he'd be able to like them! He's remained every bit as much of a Doors fan as I am to this very day.

By January of 1969 I had progressed to buying albums by the Who, Yardbirds, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin. All these I played on the Seabreeze suitcase stereo with detachable speakers that I bought in 1969 to replace the family record player. My father condemned my purchase as shamelessly profligate since the existing mono record player that we'd purchased used in 1962 still functioned!

Now of course I have hundreds of record albums and 45s as well as a steadily growing collection of CDs which I play on a very nice stereo sound system indeed. (My father would be aghast I suppose.) My musical tastes are many and varied - but, nevertheless, after all these years I'm still very much a Stones and Doors fan.

[Unknown Primate]

Great recollections, Hep!  I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND by The Beatles started it for me, when my older sisters brought home the "Meet The Beatles" album in '64 - I was 8 years old!  The British Invasion capped it off.  Then on to Steppenwolf & the rest of the gang!

[Paul L]

The Beatles, She Loves You specifically. One of my teenaged baby sitters used to bring their LP's to the house back in '66 (I was 5yrs old). The surf guitar-ed 'Batman' & 'The Munsters' themes used to rock my world at the same time. There was also The Beatles' cartoon & The Banana Splits on Sat. mornings.

After The Beatles, Jesus Christ Superstar was the next popular music to really stir my soul. I began music lessons myself at this time, & that opened the floodgates.

[charp13]

Wow! I loved your story- Hep! You have a beautiful way of bringing people into your stories. I wish I had a rock music moment, but I sat around like a stuffed animal for 12 years listening to classical music and the occasional Gene Pitney. My grandma managed a Goodwill, so she gave me most of my records. But I had my own money from babysitting and I remember buying Philadelphia Freedom by Elton John (that's kind of rock music-ish).  Although I can't imagine listening to E.J., now!

[Prof. Hemispheres]

Born in '63, my older sisters became Beatles/Rolling Stones freaks in '64 an onward. I was exposed to all the late 1960's/early 1970's rock music. I soaked it all in....played drums for many, many years. The first song I really remember being gaga over was "Get Off of My Cloud" by the Stones. And I also feel lucky being exposed to the Beatles when they were actually still putting albums out. The Beatles and the Stones got me into rock and roll.

[MrZero]

My parents had a record called "The Bearcuts Swing in Beatlemania" which featured a bunch of early Beatles songs recorded by another band called The Bearcuts.  I used to listen to it over and over when I was very young.  The strange thing about it is, neither of my parents liked The Beatles (my mother thought they were hooligans), so I'm not sure why the record was in the house in the first place.  Aside from that record, I didn't really listen to any music other than what was on the radio until I was older.

The Christmas that I got my first cassette player, both my father and my sister-in-law gave me the cassette "Synchronicity" by The Police and I was totally hooked.  I used to listen to side two of that tape over and over.  From there, I think seeing the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High on cable TV was probably my biggest musical influence.  I thought all of the people in that movie were so hip that I wanted to listen to the music that they were listening to, so I went out looking for the bands that were mentioned in that movie.  Blue Oyster Cult and Led Zeppelin were two of the main ones...Blue Oyster Cult in particular because they were also on the soundtrack for the animated movie Heavy Metal (which I has also seen on cable).  When I started playing bass at 15, other musicians would recommend bands and that's how I found Rush and The Ramones.

[Count_Zirock]

I was born in Newark, NJ, in 1962, and had an older sister who was 18 and an older brother that was 16. How could I not get into rock 'n' roll?

[Street Worm]

Born in '57 & I remember always (as soon as I could work one) having a radio next to my bed that I'd always have on
(one of the two, AM) rocks stations we had outta Hartford, Ct.

One of the first songs that really grabbed me was the Beatles "Twist & Shout"  that I heard in a bowling ally (with a giant
Fred & Barney on top of it). There was something so raw about those vocals that I really dug.

My dad also brought me home a 7", 33 rpm compilation album (that I'd love to find again)-
only band on it I can remember was the Electric Prunes.

[Scary Terry]

Born in '58.  Saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan when I was a mere lad -- and have been shakin' my moptop ever since.

[Zachareed]

I stole tapes from my dad's truck.

[Unknown Primate]

HA!   

[Rich]

Rock is cool but I'm more of a metal guy. When I was about eight years old, I saw the Metallica music video "The Unforgiven" on tv and instantly turned me into a metal fan. I like rock too though. One can argue that the 90s Metallica was hard rock as opposed to metal, which I'm cool with unlike a lot of people.

[BaronLatos35]

My older cousin gave Sabbath's first album on tape and said check this out.

I haven't stopped since.

[general gruesome]

As a young kid, I began listening to alot of KISS stuff and was always a KISS fan every since I was little. I had everything, including studio albums, compilation, live, EPs, dvds, vhs tapes, action figures, posters, statues, comics, etc. I was one of the lucky ones who attended the 2000-2001 Farewell Tour and actually got to see the last concerts of the original lineup. KISS was what really got me started on the path to classic rock/heavy metal. I am still a fan of KISS, but it isn't the same as to when I was a kid and would sport KISS t-shirts and listen to the cds and the first experience of listening to them for the first time

[Monster Bob]

I had access to my aunt's 1950s records as a child, which we listened to religiously, but it was AMERICAN GRAFFITI that made me snap, turning me into the 50s/rockabilly rebel I am to this day. In high school, for homecoming 1976 I think it was, they had a fifties dress up day, and I went decked out as 1956 Elvis Presley, guitar, duck tail and all. The rest is rock history.