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Rock 'n Roll Epinphanies?

Frayed Knot Oct 14 2007 08:12 PM

I was listening to this syndicated show on public radio this afternoon the theme of which involved the two hosts talking about R&R epiphanies, both their own and those of listeners. What they meant were those moments where hearing an artist, or an album, or even just a song for the first time changed everything for you; not neccesarily the direction of your life, but at least of your musical outlook and/or awareness. I personally don't have a great story here, only that my early days of radio listening were in the dying days of AM music radio. AM had been king for decades but was being phased out and was strictly middle of the road anyway and would play cut-down versions of the few cool songs they did play. FM stations existed, but it was still new and small-time then, plus I was too young and too unhip to be into them. But then I somehow heard the full version of 'Light My Fire' including the whole guitar solo in the middle which was always cut out of the "single" version I had been hearing and clued me into the fact that I was missing out on some good stuff and needed to expand my horizons.

smg58 Oct 14 2007 08:39 PM

I grew up with rock and roll, so most of my epiphanies have occurred either outside the genre entirely, or in a crossover context. For example, I heard tin whistles on a CD by an 80s band called The Adventures and uillean pipes on an album by Kate Bush, and soon I was getting into Irish traditional music, which eventually led me off into all sorts of weird tangents...

Edgy DC Oct 14 2007 09:07 PM

Epiphanies come when I realize that a band I thought sucked actually doesn't. Beasties? Thought that they sucked at punk and then sucked at rap. I was wrong. I saw Black 47 one day at Paddy Reilly's --- just Kirwan and the piper --- and hated them in exactly the way they sang about being hated in "Rockin' the Bronx." I was pretty wrong there also. They could be assholes but they didn't suck. I alternate hating/surrendering to my back catalog of Jane Siberry.

TheOldMole Oct 15 2007 05:06 PM

Mine all come from the Stone Age, but the night that George "The Hound" Lorenz first played "Get a Job" by the Silhouettes, and my friends and I were driving, listening to WKBW clear channel from Buffalo, and we knew that a song as great as that one, The Hound would keep playing it all night, and all we had to do was keep driving, looking for spot where the AM reception was best, and I remember it as one of those moments when I felt as fully as I ever did what it meant to be young.

MFS62 Oct 15 2007 06:58 PM

When I was young, I was a "child prodigy" cellist. My teacher was Martin Ormandy, lead cellist of the New York Philharmonic and brother of maestro Eugene Ormandy. On eday, one of my friends told me to listen to this "popular group". In one of their songs, they used a cello. I listened, and I was turned to the "dark side" of popular music. The group, of course, was the Beatles. Later

OlerudOwned Oct 16 2007 01:48 PM

I kept wondering why Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea so was highly regarded. It kind of bored me. Then, I dunno, I guess one day I just really sat down and listened, as opposed to just hearing it. And it was really great.