Growing up with music in the house....

what's with Dads and Santana? they can't get enough of that dude.

My brother's youngest daughter insisted that Santana was a new performer.

my father adores the man.

At the used record store where I used to work years ago, we devised what we called the Santana Rule. If you had made what seemed like, oh, a coupla dozen albums and we had at least six unsold copies of each one of them, you were no longer endorsed to make new records until you had sold-through those loafing units. Dan Fogelberg and Adam Ant, of all people, were fellow offenders, I recall. Of course, that was long before "Smooth," but I betcha most of those Santana records are still sitting on a shelf somewhere sporting a price tag.

Back on topic, I owe my job, my primary hobby, a good number of my friends and acquaintances, indeed my very presence in this forum to the fact that my dad played great music around the house when I was a kid--Howlin' Wolf, Bob Dylan, Johnny Winter (the early rock 'n' roll stuff, not the cod blues he does now), Bo Diddley, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Steely Dan, and much more. He gave me my first records (his old 45s from when he was a kid--Coasters, Chuck Berry, the Fireballs) and my first record player. And when I first started monkeying around with his rather elaborate stereo, he didn't get mad-- he taught me how to use it properly. I thank my lucky stars all the time.

My father is the greatest rockist of all time. (this does mean he loves music, though I find the two often contradict.)

Ahh God bless him, unable to erase the following lines Walk tall, walk proud and look the world right in the eye.. I fell in to a burning ring of fire, it went down down down but those flames just got higher... Dont take your guns to town son, leave your guns at home..

My parents were very much into music and my sister and I had their record and cd collection at our disposal throughout our childhood. They've also been to tons of concerts including a Police show while I was in the womb.
Anyway, here's who they were into for the most part: Talking Heads, the Police, David Bowie, the Beatles, the Ramones, the Clash, Devo, the B-52's, Velvet Underground and Lou Reed, Prince, the Doors, and some Pink Floyd.
Of course, my dad also had those early Salt n Pepa, Janet Jackson, and yes, even Stacey Q records!

my mom played little else besides Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata"....

I have the Beach Boys to thank for my enduring love of pop music. My dad was a huge fan, and made tapes of all of their records for me when i was about 6, so I listened to them all the time until I was old enough to start listening to my own music. I still kind of get a shock when I hear one of their songs from an album that I don't currently have, and realize that I know every note. It's weird.

One thing we never had in our house was classical music, which I wish now was different. I only just started really listening to it a few years ago when my roommate started taking me along to our city's symphony. If I ever have kids, I doubt I'd force them to listen to Bach, but I would put some on sometimes when they're little.

Anyway, this is my first post- hello!