Wednesday, October 03, 2007

heart

It is amazing to me how magical music is. How one note can take you to a whole new place, a whole other time.

Our home is a haven for us through music. We listen to music all the time here, and with quite a bit of diversity.

You won't find a lot of country music here, but I love Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and a few others... I'm sure my mom could fill in my country loving blanks. They are classics though, men who've been in music a long time (oh and The Dixie Chicks).

Which leads me to tell you my most embarrassing musical confession. The first concert I ever went to was a Kenny Rogers show. At a fair. I was a child and I don't recall going willingly, but I don't recall putting up much of a struggle. I know that my aunt was really excited, she LOVED Kenny Rogers and there were many a joke made about tossing her panties on stage... I had no idea what that meant at the time. I didn't have the knowledge I required to be truly horrified... I am not a Kenny Rogers fan now, if I were to hear him I would cringe and shut off whatever was making that awful noise... but back then I think I liked him, I sang along and had a good time.

It wasn't my doing. It wasn't my choice I tell you.


Then there is Rap, we don't listen to much of that at all. Except the Beastie Boys, because, well I love the Beastie Boys, I can't help it.

We DO NOT listen to Opera if we can help it but K has taken to singing in an operatic voice so we may have to invest in a few good operas for her to listen to if that is something she wants to get into.

But I am getting ahead of myself. I want to talk about my first musical discoveries that I considered my very own. Choices I made that were for me and that probably drove people crazy.

The first band I ever truly liked, loved, knew all the words to several songs.

Are you ready? You really probably don't want to know....


I remember being a kid in Bakersfield in the summer of 86. I was across the street at our neighbors' house swimming with their grandkids who were visiting for the summer. One of them had his boom box out by the pool and he popped in a new tape, one none of us had heard... and what came out of that box of sound?


Bon Jovi's Slippery When Wet album. I remember the immense power behind Living on a Prayer.

I was 9 and had NO idea what they were talking about but it made my mind crazy with power. I had to have it. I needed it. I got it somehow, I'm sure my dad got it for me, and I listened to the album over an over again. I loved You Give Love A Bad Name, Social Disease, Let It Rock and more than any other, Wanted Dead Or Alive.

It was my thing. I was a 9 year old rocker chick all of a sudden. Thinking to capitalize on my newfound musical obsession or more likely to get me to play ANY OTHER ALBUM OH PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, my dad brought me home a Heart tape one day...

Oh Heart, how had I gone so long with out you?


And Heart, it's what made me think of all this today. Julie has this cool little radio doodad on her blog and yesterday it played a Heart song... I was thrown instantly back into my late 80s rock glory. Which to be fair, pretty much consisted of only Bon Jovi, Heart and later Guns N' Roses. Sad isn't it. But still, I can't stop rockin out...

Until I think of what I started listening to next... it was a quick jump from there to the Beastie Boys, Primus, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, Talking Heads and then... oh then I found them, The Ramones.

The entire time I was listening to those bands though I was also hearing Nat King Cole, The Doors, Jim Croce, Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Jimmy Hendrix, and so many others I can't begin to name them let alone finish

When I got out on my own a little more I found other music to love. Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, The Cure, Leonard Cohen, Blondie, The Bangles, Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee, Dizzy, REM (their early stuff was really important to me in my early teens), Mazzy Star, Ella Fitzgerald, BB King etc etc... The list goes on and on and on and again I can't even start let alone stop.

Then I moved to Portland and while I didn't start to discover any new music I found so much that was new to me, Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nina Simone, Albert King, Son House, Etta James, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes and even Captain Bogg and Salty.

There is not a musical bone in my body. I've gotten tanked and sang Karaoke badly a couple of times, and I can't say I wouldn't do that again (especially if you came home Martin).

Mr. Kaos once forced me to record a rendition of Fever with him, swearing if I would just try I could sing in tune, and then he forced me to record the lyrics to a couple of tunes he had written. He gave up eventually, thankfully, I think he accepted that my love of music and enthusiasm with the mic couldn't make up for a sad lack of skill and training.

In our home now we predominantly listen to Jazz (a lot of bebop) Blues and Tom Waits.

Tom Waits doesn't go in a category... he gets his own.

That music that is always on the air in our home though, it comes down to love. It is a part of the way the Kaos family loves life and each other. And it's a beautiful thing, sometimes melodic, snappy, discordant, harmonious or just plain crazy...

But it's pretty clear to me no matter where I wound up in my musical tastes my love all goes back to something like this:




Or maybe this






(But I must say, I thought it then, and I think it now the poodle hair boys looked fucking ridiculous, no matter how much ass it got them)

(sorry babe)

What's your first musical love?

17 comments:

mielikki said...

Believe it or not, somehow, someway, and I don't even remember how,
but Springsteen was my first musical love. His OLDER stuff, before Born in the USA. I still love Bruce, and some of the new, "old" folk he has been doing lately has made me happy.
I do *heart* heart, though. Always will.

sybil law said...

My very first memory of loving a song was The Beatles, or more specifically Sgt. Pepper's. Quickly I moved to Queen (what kid doesn't love "We Will Rock You"?), then AC/DC, Black Sabbath (older brother), Pink Floyd, the Doors, Talking Heads, pretty much your entire list, and like you; an entire shitload of more and more and more, with a lot of classical thrown in (I played violin and took ballet). Your question is so hard. First concert: B.B King.

Unknown said...

It wasn't my first musical love, but I vividly remember by David Lee Roth doppelganger guitar teacher teaching me "Wanted Dead or Alive" as my first song. It was his idea, not mine. I must have skronked through that opening bit a bajillion times.

Lindy said...

weird we have very similar taste in music only you forgot to add They Might be Giants and The Violent Femmes. I'm a huge Femmes fan. I also like Morissey which is why everytime I ride through the Rusholme section of Manchester I get a little thrill butterfly quiver in my tummy! As for my first musical love hmmm that's a tough one- I think the first music I remember is Petula Clark- some song about clowns but my first love well that was Def Leppard (only the first two albums)- I hand my head in shame- I was young I didn't know any better!! I then became a hard core alternative (that's what they called in back in my day) fan. The House Martins, the dead kennedy's...

Corey~living and loving said...

Wow Cami! Great post! I love all your early love of music. the two videos you posted are so great. Love that music.
you know...I can't really decide what my first love would be. LOL

dare I say....Micheal Jackson Thriller album....eeeekkkkk I just loved it. sorry.
oh and Madonna Like a virgin. eeekkkk

I too, have a wild taste in music. I love that you are exposing K to so many types of music. I have XM in my truck and I like to play different types of music for us when we ride each day. sometimes, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's...and of course the 80's and 90's. Sometimes latin music, sometimes african. It is all fun to listen to.

great post....you gotta fight...for your right....to PARTY! you go girl!

CamiKaos said...

Lindy: My lord, how on earth did I leave out The Violent Femmes and They Might Be Giants. I listen to them both frequently to this day! And K has become a huge TMBG fan in her own right. And How could I leave out DK? I left out SOOO much it is embarassing...

Oh, and I enjoyed the Def Leppard too, it happens, you are still a good person.

Holmes: Yes, that opening part, classic! It doesn't surprise me you were made to learn it.

Sybil: I think I hate you. I have to walk around this world with Kenny Rogers as my first concert and want to vomit and you get to say BB Kind. I think I am going to lie from now on and when someone asks me I will say BB King, because you say it.

M: I know too much Bruce for my own good.

tarable said...

Cami, I always knew that there was another reason that I enjoyed reading your blog...you were a kid in Bakersfield? Geez. I started 7th grade in Bakersfield, graduated from Bakersfield High School and have not gone back since then. Good to know that two such stellar individuals as ourselves can make it out of Baketown with our musical tastes somewhat intact.

david mcmahon said...

As a student, I used to do my work while listening to music.

Even now, I still have music playing on my PC while I write my novels ....

For the Love... said...

Ok, my first love was (God this is so bad!) Duran Duran.

BTW I was all busy singing "Build a little bird house in your soul..." when I got to your blog!

Anonymous said...

Well, there's childhood music:
-Threepenny Opera. I used to march around the house singing "The Army Song." So if you want something a little less Opera than opera, you might try Brecht-Weils stuff out on K.
-Burl Ives, Beatles, Judy Collins, Holly Near

The first non-kid's album I ever owned on my was, yup, Thriller. First concert was Eurythmics.

Jo Beaufoix said...

I was an indie kid. I loved Senseless Things, The Wonderstuff, Stone Roses, Kingmaker, Lemonheads, but I also fell for a lot of retro stuff such as Ramones, Buzzcocks, Iggy Pop, The Clash, Blondie that kind of thing.
And I quite liked Red Hot Chilli Peppers and some of that kind of stuff.

I basically love bouncy guitar pop.

When I first went to Rock City in Notts on Alternative Night it felt like coming home.

Love this post Cami.

flutter said...

Ella Fitzgerald, without a doubt

landismom said...

Well, the first album I remember begging for was the Grease soundtrack (omg, I'm soooo old!). I also had an (in retrospect) embarrassing moment with a Simon and Garfunkel album in the third grade, but that's a story for another day...

AngelConradie said...

growing up with rockers of old, i listened to everything from the stones to the who as a child, and i loved "jesus christ superstar" which was banned back in the day but my mommy darling had an lp a friend had brought back from the usa for her... my first real love was nina hagen, and then i discovered pink floyd and very soon after i found metal... i'm still a headbanger- always will be, heh heh!
my taste now is definitely still rock, and my favourites are a LOT like your list... i listen to music on my laptop at work- can't do without it- and there's everything from korn to eros ramazotti on my selection!

Anonymous said...

Olivia Newton John in the "Xanadu" movie and the "Lets Get Physical" video. Oh my, oh my, what more could a pubescent boy want!

Gunfighter said...

One of the first albumes I ever bought with my own money was The Electric Light Orchestra. I loved all of their stuff, as well as The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run album (hey, it came out in my senior year of HS and I'm from New JErsey), Parliament, and Black Sabbath (before Ozzy left the group).

Kathy's Surprise Party said...

Caos...I love you.