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Looper's Delight
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Okay, you asked for it. :) Born 1956 in New Orleans. We moved to Kansas City, MO shortly thereafter (1957) and my first memories of specifically Listening to the radio involve Big Band, Swing, and Jazz, which was mostly what was on KCMO back then. At some time later I was listening to James Brown, and doing imitations of his screams on the corner in front of our house (still can, too!), so I know I was exposed to that, Motown, all that, before the Beatles hit. I remember seeing them (you couldn't really hear them that well for the screaming) on Ed Sullivan. In '64 we moved to Northern NJ, here I continued my diet of Motown and Beatles, and the music inbetween (the staple of WMCA and WAB(eatle)C in NYC, via a transistor radio of one kind or another underneath my pillow. Even when I went to summer camp I smuggled a transistor radio with me. Went through a lot of batteries, of course! But by 1966, I'd pretty much consumed popular music at that stage, though the "Beatles/Jesus" controversy pretty much put a moratorium on open listening to the Beatles)and by '68, armed with that youthful disaster known as An Allowance, I began buying singles. Really pop stuff. Jackson 5, Edwin Starr, Mamas and Papas, Temptations, Beatles, Peter & Gordon, Supremes... About that time I was (probably purposefully) introduced to Beethoven via my parents and Time-Life, which produced a marvelous D.Grammophon set of all his works. My brother can be credited with saving my musical life officially though, getting me "Best of Cream" and CCR's "Bayou Country" for Christmas/Birthday. From then on it was Rock for me, thanks. Though I showed an appetite for soundtrack albums even then... "2001", "Grand Prix," and so forth, with a real preference for the incidental music from films, stuff you never hear on the radio. It's that point - 1968 -that I target when I think about ambient/situational music as a part of my musical construct. I was especially attracted to the Ligeti pieces on the "2001" soundtrack, and still like them a lot (even when MST3K does their version of "Monolith Music". Kubrick, one must say, must have introduced a lot of people to classical music in this manner. On the heels of hearing bits of it on the radio, I got the "Clockwork Orange" soundtrack, and, armed with my love of Beethoven, proceeded to teach myself how to play the old "Ode to Joy" variations put forth by (then) Walter Carlos. I didn't however buy the "Switched-On Bach" album - as funds were limited on a paper route's pay, and everyone played the hell out of it anyway - but instead continued to explore Other-Than-Normal music. Besides my rock tastes, which were pretty standard I guess (could anyone not include the Stones?). It was an eye-opener to find the single of "Whole Lotta Love" including the drum solo, which I bought right before my first school dance. The drum solo didn't help me envision dancing though. I went on to the Moody Blues (from "To Our Children's Children's Children"), Alice Cooper, King Crimson, Pink Floyd (starting with "A Nice Pair"), Black Sabbath, John McLaughlin/Mahavishnu Orchestra, which could represent the Art Rock contingent, I suppose. I felt confident enough in a semi-repressive household at that point to buy "Are You Experienced?", which had no small effect on me, either! When I took control of an unused acoustic guitar left by my father from old lessons, figured out a tuning I could understand (EAEAEG, in that proportion), and found I could learn to play a lot of modern (ie "cool") music, I was heretofore attached to the guitar, and vice-versa. I didn't play in front of people, however, until 1978, and this was such a disaster that it not only merits its own story, but caused a moratorium on performance that lasted until 1990. That on its own is a journey of strange repute, but it didn't subvert my interest in other-than-guitar-based music. I don't ever recall focusing in on any particular guitarist at that time, besides Jimi, insofar as personality data is concerned, (though I remember a lot of people deifying Clapton) up until 1976 when I caught "The Midnight Special," then hosted by the late Wolfman Jack, with special guest B. B. King.- wherein he passed on two things, [1] the Real Story of Lucille, and [2] how he does his vibrato. I hadn't stretched strings with other than a whammy bar by that point (on a $49.95 electric Sakova from Sam Goody's that my parents bought me for Christmas), and that on its own I count a major step forward in technique. The first time I tried it on acoustic (B.B. said it makes you work harder) was on Bowie's "Fame". I still can't play like B.B., but then who can? He put forth, though, the element that I needed at that time, to go off on my own path, instead of imitating others. But then I am nothing if not a fierce individualist, and so this appealed a great deal to someone just approaching 20. College exposed me to yet more interesting sources of music, especially Frank Zappa, Genesis, Yes, and a string of obvious Southern Rock items like The Allman Bros., Marshall-Tucker, and so forth (I WAS at college in NC). 1977 found me in Syracuse, attempting to continue an already spotty academic career (the first attempt cut short by Mono), throughout which people attempted to introduce me to both Brian Eno's and Robert Fripp's work, to no avail. I was obstinate then. It wasn't until 1980 when I found myself home again, taking courses at night, that I began getting their work, and really listening to it. Fripp's in particular - in combination with his monologues - lent me a sense of structure in my playing, and my thinking, which I admit I was desperately in need of, both then and beforehand. This is becoming a monologue on its own, and will be continued later after some chicken soup and a nap. Stephen Goodman - It's... The Loop Of The Week! EarthLight Studios - http://www.earthlight.net/Studios