@Alyssa, @Pandora
This is a good question, and one I don't think I can give a direct answer to. I grew up in the '70's. AM radio had a deluge of fresh music coming out from a lot of artists, who to this day, have a lot of staying power. My earliest memories of just sitting and listening to music came in the summers at my grandparent's cabin, my family's time capsule of my mom's family from her childhood, and still growing with the stories of my household, cousins, all our longest friends, and anyone and everyone who was too drunk to drive back to wherever after closing down a bar and spending a few hours of afterparty hosted by my grandparents.
We couldn't get much for radio at that time in the far northern reaches of Wisconsin. What that home had for us all summer before having to head back to school life was a wide education from industrial looking, victrola-spun vinyl from the early 1900's into the 40's, and then a treasure trove of emerging rock, pop, soul, and R&B selected at the record shops by Mom and her brother & sister.
These were from the 40's, 50's, and '60s. They included music by The Zombies, Sam the Sham & the Pharos, The Coasters, Big Mamma Thornton, Richie Valli, Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, The Everly Brothers, Little Richard, James Brown, The Beach Boys, Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke, Chubby Checker, Bobby Vee, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, Bill Haley and the Comets, Johny Rivers, Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Herman's Hermits, Dion, The Temptations, The Four Seasons, Buddy Hollie, and so many more.
We took great care of the stacks and disc envelopes of 45's. Most of our days were spent outdoors, but countless hours a week I'd spend time just listening to all this songs while alone or with friends or siblings. We knew many of the songs by heart. Part of the excitement of the 12-hour drive north to the cabin was that I would be reunited with the sounds that raised my family.
I also enjoyed my grandmother's music she'd put on from the 20's & '30's while doing house cleaning. She had a ton of big band music for all those parties they used to throw. There was still one more musical joy up there, when I could play DJ for hours for anyone visiting **ahem** Pietsch. His log cabin had a bear rug, and this beautifully sounding victrola and some of the funnest music from the early 1900's.
The first 2 records I bought with my own money were an Elvis Presley album and an Everly Brothers album, but which album or artist do I first remember connecting with??? All of them, and their ever folding, moulding, down-home, rocking & rolling, as well as rolling with their music parents of an even earlier generation. The two saddest stints of my life were the two different times I was robbed of my massive music collection, especially that first time which included all those old 45's. I lost a part of me that day, but I still visit in my mind all the ancient caves where I dove through waves of music for hours.
Chan McQueen
