When fellow blogger Jonder from jonderblog suggested doing this series, I was kinda skeptical
about the whole things. I first really got into music in 1965. That's 56+ years ago. For the last half of that time I've delved deeply into all aspects of music, first doing a music 'zine EAT POOP & promoting local (San Jose, CA) shows & then doing this blog. I've used the ever-evolving Internet to gather information, learning about the in-depth realities of genres, artists, & bands. So thinking back on my first forays into music, I realized that while nowadays I can listen to whatever music I want, with my entire being, back in those early learning days I actually had to live the music.
The first half of my time with music was back in the prehistoric past before there was Internet. I had to learn music on my own. As I related in the United States post ending the Music Around the World series, my earliest source of music was my transistor radio. I listened to music from places are far-flung as Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, New York, & Boston.
The first album that I ever purchased was The Fugs – The Fugs. I had heard the 11+ minute song "Virgin Forest" on the Radio Unnameable late night show out of New York on WBAI hosted by Bob Fass. On the strength of that song, I sent away through the mail & bought the album. I had no idea that "Virgin Forest" was not the typical Fugs tune. My ears & mind were opened to a whole new world as I repeatedly listened to that disc.
The first live show I ever attended had the same effect on me as that first record, but in an even more visceral way. It was in the summer of 1965. I was enjoying my summer vacation from my sophomore year of high school. I heard about a show relatively close to my podunk village in north-western Pennsylvania when I was listening to WABX Detroit. The Four Tops (whom I was familiar with from their abundance of radio airplay at that time) were playing at nearby St. Bonaventure University in Alleghany, New York. I drove up to the show, finagled my way in (underage non-collegiate) & stepped into a new world. The music was like I had heard on the radio raised to the tenth power. The way I could feel the rhythm section in my gut & in my nads, the superiority of the sound soothing my ears beyond anything my radio was able to deliver.
I was hooked & now all these years later I still can't kick the beast that is musical addiction. So I've decided to try my hand at this daunting task. In no way are the songs I'm sharing throughout this journey the only things I listened to. I listened to much fantastic music, I listened to much shit that I'd never want to hear again, let alone make you listen to, & I've forgotten much...well, forgotten music. The songs I've chosen for these compilations are songs that mean something to me, that represent events that happened to me that helped shape my life. Some of these songs or artists I never listen to now, but some of them I play regularly to this day. What I'm trying to do is give you an idea of a time many of you might not know, of a life none of you can know.
I've broken it up into chronological chunks that somehow coincide with events in my life in the world around me at those times. I hope you all enjoy at least some of it & I hope certain songs will hit one or another of you in some special personal way, like, "Hey, remember that song?". So to get on with the music, Vol. 1 is my high school years, my beginning of my journey through music. Of course I'm gonna start with The Four Tops...
Vol. 1 - High School 1965-1967
1965 -
The Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
The Pretty Things - Don't Bring Me Down
The Zombies - She's Not There
Wilson Pickett - In the Midnight Hour
1966 -
? & the Mysterions - 96 Tears
Love - My Little Red Book
Count Five - Psychotic Reaction
The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard
The Troggs - With a Girl like You
The Standells - Dirty Water
The Jefferson Airplane - It's No Secret
13th Floor Elevator - You're Gonna Miss Me
The Fugs - Group Grope
The Mothers of Invention - Who are the Brain Police
1967 -
Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band - Abba Zaba
The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today
Ten Years After - I Can't Keep from Crying, Sometimes
Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made of Sand
The Velvet Underground & Nico - European Son
Next up... Vol. 2 – San Francisco, with flowers in my hair 1968-1969
Enjoy,
NØ
Many thanks and a thousand blessings to both you and jonder (who's blog led me to yours) been reading for about a year so thought it best time to comment !
ReplyDeleteWith love from scotland
Now I owe jonder another favor. Glad you found this pit of perversity. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
Delete(My other best blog-friend Ib Sibling lives in Glasgow so greetings to Scotland)
Hope you stay around for more of these tales & tunes.
Oh, that wily rascal, Jonder!!! What a great human. Like you, transistor radio was my gateway drug. After a little taste of the Stones and Beatles on Ed Sullivan. I remember the night they first played Day Tripper and We Can Work It Out on the radio which I had tucked under my pillow and the one earpiece tucked away so my folks didn't find out. In 65 I was 9 years old and loved rock music. 66 broke down the doors with the Blues Magoos, The Doors, Love, ad infinitum. I have these songs and many of them are favorites and the others I wouldn't kick off a turntable no how. I think this is a great idea and kudos to you. I know it is a fair amount of work, even if, like me, you are retired. I applaud the series and am grateful to Jonder for giving you the impetus to do it. I'm also grateful to you for doing it. I saw the announcement and heads up the other day and must say I'm highly impressed!
ReplyDeleteI was over at your blog, commenting on your Yoko Ono post. I came back here to check comments & found this from you. Thank you so much for you're take on those times & music. Jonder has been time & again inspiration to my blogging directions.
Delete(Of note, if you haven't read the United States post that I linked above, check it out...tales of hiding under the covers in my bed listening to my transistor radio & how I made "stereo" earpieces.)
Meanwhile I was ingesting False Memory Foam, wondering if Five Guns West really did bury the bone with that bony phony, Ann Coulter. I hopped back over here in search of something more wholesome.
DeleteTo be honest, when I suggested a Naterocksampler, I imagined a single "disc" like Julian Cope's legendary Krautrocksampler and Japrocksampler. Nathan expanded an offhand suggestion into a multi-volume soundtrack spanning decades of musical mayhem and mind-altering misadventures.
Almost 15 years ago I was trawling the blogosphere in search of the Fugs album "It Crawled Into My Hand, Honest" and first encountered this fantastical site. It was cool to find out that Nathan's first vinyl purchase was the Fugs' debut elpee.
Nathan, you are a generous soul and a loyal friend. It's a pleasure to learn more about the experiences and the sounds that shaped you.
You were at IoF reading about FGW boning Coulter, he was here going back to high school, & I was over at his place defending Yoko Ono. We oughta stay home once in awhile, such gadabouts.
ReplyDeleteThank you for planting this seed. I guess the manure that is my mind makes good fertilizer. Grew into a monster, I think.
15 years...man.
Geeze, get a room guys! But seriously, this is great little community of music fiends gathered here in the "backwaters" of the blogosphere (aka "The Fractal Fringe of the Fun Zone") and I'm proud to be in the company of such fine (and apparently well-endowed in FGW's case) gentlemen as yourselves.
ReplyDeleteThis is a grand undertaking Nate and I'm pleased to be taking this trip with you; now pass the mescaline please.
No innkeeper I think would rent us a room so we just have to do it here in the back alley. Wanna join the group grope? (Fugs reference)
ReplyDeleteOne time I had just flown into Denver & was invited by my business associates to a party in Boulder. I took a big pile of pure mescaline sulfate & mixed it with Nestlé's Quik & took it to said soiree. I had it in a large bowl & sat by the door offering everyone a finger-dip of chocolate mesc. Everyone would kinda laugh & take a dip. Some folks dipped every time they walked by. After some time had passed, several wide-eyed trippers came slithering up. "What was in that bowl?" "Chocolate mescaline."
They thought I had been joking. What kinda joke would that be if it was real? Go figure.
That's as close as I can get to passing you some. Sorry, just a tale but no taste.
Good enough; I'll just have to settle for my cactus powder then
DeleteLink says that the file is no longer available :(
ReplyDelete