These were the first songs that I remember hearing when I was a toddler in 1971. We lived in Elkhart, Indiana where my sister was born. I heard the on the radio at my neighbors house who was babysitting me. Mrs. Marks. A very nice older lady. Turns out years later I would end up working with her granddaughter at NCMC in Petoskey, happened to find out by accident who she was. The world is small after all!
Before I get off track as I usually do, today I want to talk about where my musical influences came from. I can listen to pretty much anything, as I was exposed to a WIDE range of things. The biggest contributors were my two aunts. My Aunt Sally, and my Aunt Linda. My Grandma and Grandpa Haney helped quite a bit as well, but not as much as my aunts.
Evey summer I would spend two weeks in Big Rapids with my grandparents. My Aunt Sally lived just down the road from them, so I would see her and my uncle and cousins whenever I visited. Merle Haggard, Johhny Paycheck and Conway Twitty were the staples at my grandparents house, while a blend of rock was something I listened to at my Aunt Sally's. The Doors, George Harrison and the rest of The Beatles. I could go on....
I remember one record my Grandpa had, it was a song called "Death Highway". It was about how dangerous US131 was and was recorded by a local group I think. I have tried in vain to find any record of this song over the years, with no luck. The line, "The Devil's on 131 and it's death highway" still sticks with me after all of these years. I remember hearing Ides Of March's "Vehicle" being blasted by my Aunt Sally. I still love that song.
My Aunt Linda was kind of the other spectrum. My brother and I would spend weekends at my Aunt Linda's house. She listened to Elvis, Neil Diamond and Abba. It was also the first time I remember seeing cable TV with the push button control box. I loved watching Godzilla movies every Saturday.
We lived in the Grand Rapids area from 1974 until 1978 and during that time, WGRD was always the station I heard. Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Bad Company and Queen ruled the airways. I remember swimming in my friends pool while Paul McCartney and Wings "Let 'Em In" was on the radio. I look back at these times as the BEST time in my life. I loved seeing my Grandparents, and I loved to spend time with my two Aunts.
Ad time rolled on, I got into the usual 80's music, eventually settling for Alternative as my favorite genre. But I still look back at where my roots came from. Whenever I hear Mungo Jerry, I think about my Aunts and I smile. I love them both very VERY much, and I hate that I don't see them as much as I should. My Grandparents passed away in the late 80's. I still have all of the 45rpm records that they had. Some real classics in there. I miss driving to the store with my Grandma, and riding the tractor with my Grandpa. I never really got over missing them. I hope somewhere in heaven, they look down at me and smile whenever I listen to Roger Miller's "King Of The Road."
Now if you excuse me, I'm going to go listen to Johnny Horton sing The Battle Of New Orleans and follow that up with Soundgarden. Yeah, it blends well. :)
When I think of your Grandpa and his music, I think of Johnny Cash. When I think of Grandma and her music I think of elevator music. At the time of my teens, that was not a favorite genre of mine! I couldn't understand how she could listen to that! Now, the music I listen to, I sometimes think it could be considered "elevator music" and I cringe. My, how life circles around....
ReplyDelete