...in other words, your formative years.

On this thread, I thought it'd be interesting if we related those key defining moments in our lives, those awakenings that not only first made us music fans, but shaped our musical tastes. I'm betting a lot of 'em will be the same.

I'm told that when I was 2 years old, I never missed an episode of Sing Along With Mitch. (Before you laugh, I note that Mitch Miller was in charge of A&R at Columbia Records when they signed Pete Seeger & Bob Dylan.)

I distinctly remember seeing the Beatles' US debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 when I was 6, & being knocked out. It made me a rock-n-roll fan forever. In 1970, I saw Arlo sing "The Motorcycle Song" on The Johnny Cash Show, & I became a fan of story-telling & folk singing as well. I remember these things like they were yesterday.

About the same time I first saw Arlo, Glen Campbell had his own TV show & I thought it was cool that he played 12-string guitar. Suddenly, I wanted to play the guitar, very badly.

When I was 16, I had been taking guitar lessons for 4 years & quit when I realized that I had achieved my goal; I could indeed play the guitar---very badly! One tell-tale sign was the fact that the only song I could play without sheet music in front of me was "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road."

I was never much for radio. I realized early on that if I liked a certain musician, I'd also like whoever they liked. Thus, I'd look at a Beatles record & see songs written by Chuck Berry or Charles Hardin, & I'd wonder, who are they? & I'd buy their records. Similarly when I saw that the Stones were singing stuff written by McKinley Morganfield, or that Derek & the Dominoes were singing stuff by William Broonzy, or that Arlo did a song by Ernest Tubb, & so on.

And when I read that Arlo had a folk singing father who influenced Dylan, it was natural that I'd become a fan of Woody, scouring the used record stores for his albums long before it became fashionable.

But enough about me. If you've stayed with this so far, thanks, now it's your turn:

I remember that bouncing ball...
I also remember people climbing poles and doing tricks on them that night on Ed Sullivan...
I just don't understand why I can't quote this message...

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Goofus:

I just don't understand why I can't quote this message...<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

If I remember right, on the Topical boards you can't quote the 1st post to any thread, coz that states the topic you're supposed to be discussing anyways?

Now back to our regularly scheduled thread..