Apr 292008
Okay, here’s a topic. Can you think of band or artist that was a specific gateway to your current overall thinking of what rock is? I don’t mean the first band you fell in love with. I’m thinking more about the moment you realized that there was more to rock than you initially perceived. What band first hipped you to that. By way of example, I’ll tell you my answer. I think my early exposure to Talking Heads videos, such as the one above, laid the groundwork for an adult life of cherishing off-kilter lyrical perspectives and nerdy, unconventional frontmen.
I think I started with my Gateway band: The Who. I didn’t even really like music all that much as a kid, then suddely I heard Who’s Next at the age 15 and I was completely hooked. The next big jump for me came when I heard London Calling, but that was probably just confirmation that rock music was important. Springsteen probably figures in there too, but I’ve since jumped off that wagon. My other musical “Eureka!” moments happened with country (Hank Williams) and jazz (Miles Davis).
Sorry, I realize that I just answered the question you told us not to answer. Please don’t yell at me. The problem is that I never went to “the next level” with rock. I think that happened the other aforementioned genres.
There have been a few for me. Townsman Massimo playing me the Jam’s “All Mod Cons” for the first time was a definite Archimedes in the bathtub moment. Suddenly I learned that short, effective bursts of songcraft were not just enjoyable; they were also *cool*. I don’t know how to explain this; it’s like I came out of the pop music closet or something, and *that* was the album that did it to me. Townsman Massimo, as always, I salute you!
HVB
When I was a kid I really liked bands like Yes and Flash and Steely Dan. Then I turned fifteen and I got Never Mind the Bollocks and that changed everything. I started thinking that you didn’t need Rick Wakeman in your band to be fun, and that a player of that caliber could often be a liability in the fun factor. Eventually I got into The Stones, and there was so much there to dig into that I kind of skipped a lot of the 80’s.
The next band that changed things for me was The Replacements. I jumped on that wagon, and then it crashed and burned. After that, looking for a band like The Replacements, I found out about Uncle Tupelo.
Nowadays, most of what I listen to I can see a line to one of those four bands. Not exclusively, but most of it.
Vu’s 1969, Eno’s Warm Jets, Zappa’s Uncle Meat, and Cap’n B’s Doc@the Radar Station all opened things up for me as I went along. Also, re:friends’ music. My friend Glenn down the hall in college traded me his Roxy “For Your Pleasure” album for my Judas Priest album (I forget which) and I was sure I made a total deal. I still am, actually.
Good question, Oats. I’m going to skip ahead of all early childhood influences (The Beatles, The Band, Motown, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Traffic); my 5th grade fascination with the soundtrack to American Graffiti; and my high school rebirth with Costello, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, et al. In college I was first exposed to some…experiments and experimental music. Hearing Brian Eno’s Here Come the Warm Jets for the first time was revelatory. It contained traces of the sugar-charged AM radio of my childhood as well as the disorienting vibes that were part of my fabric from my hectic family/emotional life as a boy. Taking Tiger Mountain, the Pere Ubu albums, Terry Riley’s In C, The Residents’ albums, and the like confirmed the emotional power in the sound of recordings, apart from things like SONGWRITING, CRAFTMANSHIP, and other traditional characteristics I continue to value highly in music. As a boy, I was lucky: The Beatles had it all – the airtight songs and the harder-to-pin-down sonic vibrations – but these artists I got into in college were probably the first artists I could love without all the Tin Pan Alley elements coming into play. I could love Pere Ubu’s “Jehovah’s Kingdom Come”, for instance, without feeling the need to consider the lyrics, the chord structure, the melodies, and so forth. I’m still more than willing to call bullshit on a number of artists who do not hit on enough traditional songwriting devices AND whose “vibe” doesn’t do it for me, but the albums I’ve described that I first got exposed to in college were the gateway to my even accepting that an album could be judged solely on its emotional content.
The original Nuggets collection, The first Roxy Music album, seeing Rat At Rat R are some moments that I can pinpoint that changed my perspective and opened a huge new door of rock music awareness.
I”m sure I probably mentioned this at least once in Mom’s Basement, but seeing the video for “Each and Every One” by Everything But the Girl one time on MTV in December 1984 single-handedly led me directly to most of my musical obsessions for the rest of the decade.
So many gateways….so very very many. But I suppose that *seeing* Devo’s video for their cover of “Satisfaction” AFTER hearing that Mick Jagger thought it was the best cover of that song that he had ever heard had a GIGANTIC impact on me.
Seeing the Talking Heads on SNL was similar.
it’s not that I became a new-waver, or joined whatever reductive / limiting category with which you’d care to collar those bands.
That experience reminded me that I should try listening to everything at least once, and knowing that that you just never know what you’ll like is pretty exciting.
It also reminded me that rock regenerates itself.
i was 14 when i first heard the album Mask by Bauhaus. i borrowed it from a friend who told me it was not punk, but Gothic Punk.
Hearing the first few bars of Hair of the Dog, while looking at the band photos in the gatefold cover was all it took. i was hooked, and no other band or album since (1988), has sparked my imagination or haunted me quite as much.
For me, there wasn’t one specific gateways but a series of them over the years. When I was 14, Led Zeppelin led me away from Top 40 and hair metal and into the world of classic rock, hard rock/heavy metal and what not. When I was 15, hearing The Cure’s Disintegration led me into the world of alternative/modern rock and when I was 16, hearing Black Flag, Minor Threat, etc. led me into the world of punk and hardcore for the rest of my teenage years. Eventually I got bored with that and getting into Elvis Costello, Joe Jackson, etc. when I was 20 led me to a period where I listened to a lot of late ’70s/early ’80s punk/new wave and also post-punk, a genre I’d get much more into later on. Later on, in my early 20s I got into Radiohead, Spiritualized, Belle and Sebastian and other UK indie type stuff, which definitely influenced my tastes as well. Since then, I’ve gotten heavily into bands as diverse as The Fall, The Beach Boys and The Go-Betweens. Like what Mr. Mod wrote about his college experience, I’ve also become much more open to more experimental sounds as well, but I think that’s a gradual development and part of my interest in underground music in general as opposed to one band or artist opening that up for me. With that said, getting into Captain Beefheart and The Fall probably helped in that regard. 🙂
As others have suggested, the life of a music nerd is a series of gateways. It’s hard to pick just one.
I might single out Paul Simon’s Graceland. I already had some interest in African music, but by the late 80s recordings from Africa were starting be available in the US. So Graceland (and later Rhythm of the Saints), combined with late period Talking Heads and especially David Byrne’s Rei Momo album and the Beleza Tropical compilation, set me on the path of following the ‘music of the African diaspora,’ as a radio program I used to listen to described it.
Townspeeps, on behalf of Oats, I expected more sharing from you. No one else has a significant gateway to recount? Move us. I’ve got a box of tissues sitting next to my computer monitor.
Mod sez:
I’ve got a box of tissues sitting next to my computer monitor.
I say:
ENOUGH about that Cyrus girl already!
THAT is a disgraceful accusation, HVB!
I think you mean “OUTRAGEOUS,” don’t you?
Yes, that’s precisely what I meant. Thanks for the correction.
Sorry I’m late to the party –
My first gateway was as toddler listening to WFIL AM Radio with my older sisters. As Mr Mod mentioned, another gateway was in 5th grade with American Grafitti. Moddie and I also had a 5th grade teacher who became a musical mentor of sorts, and someone who gave us early support for our first musical ventures.