A Musical Education

Coupla threads here have got me thinking about the music I was hearing when I was growing up - the stuff that penetrated my tiny mind, the stuff that made me who I am today, it more or less all came from my older sister. But where did you get your musical education from? Did you imbibe it with your mother's milk? At your Grandaddy's knee - or even on it? From the funny looking red-haired kid at school with masking tape on his glasses? Were you an autodidact? An only lonely child with just a transistor radio for company? Or maybe, like Lou Reed, you simply turned on that New York station one day and did not believe what you heard at all (leading, in its turn, to a compulsion to start dancing to that fine fine music).

As I say, my musical education came almost entirely from my big sister and I've been tryna retrace her steps...

First, she was into classical music - Tchaikovsy but also, rather oddly for a young girl, Stravinsky! She appears to have been a committed Russophile at an absurdly early age (in contrast to my father, a Francophile to his boots). My mum told me recently that, at first, my sister was embarrassed to tell anyone about liking classical music and, even when she had overcome that embarrassment, my mum still had to go into the record shop and ask for "The Rite of Spring", quite sweet that I think. This was her Romatic Period.

A different kind of romance came into play when Marc Bolan arrived on the scene/screen. T. Rex appears to have been the first pop music my sister actually liked, but poor Marc didn't last too long before being komprehensively kiboshed by David Bowie. Then followed Roxy Music and Alice Cooper and Mott the Hoople and Sparks and also, via Bowie (all roads lead to Bowie), Lou Reed and (eventually) the Velvet Underground (and Nico) (and Iggy). Let's name it, Glam Rock is what it was.

Then followed period of great confusion - Bolan was fat, Bowie was coked up, Bryan Ferry thought it was 1940 - she still clung to Roxy Music but was more into disco and Northern Soul/Motown and Top 40 music and only bought singles basically. This period was more about dancing than sitting in your bedroom and listening to records.

Then came Punk Rock. For my sister, it only lasted about a year but it was a very big thing. It started around Autumn 1976 and she'd sworn off calling herself a punk before the end of 1977. Four singles on "Never Mind the Bollocks"? Wot a bleedin' rip off!

Seamlessly we move into what we now call Post Punk, but which didn't have a name at the time. This was the continuing career of the Buzzcocks and the early periods of both Adam & the Ants and the Psychedelic Furs and very definitely PiL and other even gloomier stuff. Lots of good singles from this period.

Then she was into the Ska and Mod thing (Specials/Dexys but NOT Jam-inspired stuff). It was a bit more fun than Post Punk.

Thereafter, another confused period. The New Romantics were a fad too far, so it was the Birthday Party and Nick Cave and other vaguely Gothy stuff instead. Soft Cell and Marc Almond featured heavily too.

Along the way, she dabbled a bit in heavy rock (but only Led Zep and Sabbath) and there was a smattering of "Krautrock" (Faust and Neu! were represented). She was into The Doors for a while (breaking her usual "no looking back" outlook) and there was even a dalliance with Leonard Cohen - quite out of character that one. Later, in the punk period, a lot of reggae/dub was involved.

Later on I remember her liking the Pet Shop Boys a lot and Nick Cave (still) but she wasn't really interested in music as much anymore. I've no idea what she listens to now but she was always so violently against nostalgia it's unlikely she listens to any of the music I've described so far.

Educationally speaking, just as important as the music that was there, is the music that wasn't. Being a girl, she obviously had no interest whatsoever in Prog Rock: no Zappa, no Floyd, no Yes, no Genesis and no Jazz Rock or fusion or, in fact, any Boring Serious Music For Boring Serious Boys (I'm so glad I didn't have a big brother!) She did have a couple of singles by Focus, but that was as far as the progginess went. Also no interest in country rock or folk rock or West Coast AOR or any soppy singer-songwriter shit. And no 60s music at all (Velvets /Doors pace) because, being completely a child of the 70s, SHE HAD NO INTEREST AT ALL IN OLD PEOPLE'S MUSIC! No Beatles! No Stones! No Dylan! No Hendrix! Year Zero conditions prevailed in our household at all times!!!!!!!

And...

... I confess I'm pretty much still under her spell to this day! I love Bowie, I worship Lou Reed and I'd rather shoot John Lennon than listen to a Beatles album. Dylan makes me yawn, Van Morrison makes me squirm and Joni Mitchell makes me puke. I, somewhat illogically I admit, live and breathe "Krautrock" while the very phrase "Prog Rock" makes my gorge AND my hackles rise.

Zep YES! Sabs YES!! Deep Purple NO!!!

Never really warmed to Stravinsky however...