Music and me
When I was a kid my parents often played music around the house. My mother played piano and we often sat around and listened. My dad bought a record player and we listened to Petula Clark, Marlene Dietrich, Françoise Hardy and lots of classical music.
I played recorder and sang at school assembly. I also had the chance to have piano lessons but my piano teacher persuaded me to take up singing rather than piano so I sang a lot in music lessons and in school and local productions.
My musical education was therefore essentially classic although at school we studied The Beatles Sergeant Peppers and other mainstream pop music.
It wasn’t until I left home to work in Edinburgh that I broadened my musical tastes a lot under the influence of the aftermath of the summer of ‘68 and the hippy culture. My friends and girlfriends were also instrumental to me discovering much of what I still listen to today. It felt as if I had changed from Beethoven to the Grateful Dead in the space of a few weeks and I’m happy changing from Barefoot Jerry, Jefferson Airplane and Jethro Tull to Mozart, Richard Strauss or Bach from one pice to the next. It just depends on my mood.
This is the first post in a series devoted to my musical interests.
Tags: archiving, classical, Music, pop
