Earliest Music Influences
After hooking up a new (vintage) rack stereo system (I’ll share more on that in the future), I found myself once again going through my vinyl collection and reflecting on some of my earliest musical memories. Of course, as a child of the 70’s, most of what shaped my earliest memories came from the “AM Gold” songs that permeated the airwaves, such as the Beatles, Chic, BeeGees, Chicago, ELO, Doobie Brothers, KC and the Sunshine Band, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, etc. While I feel nostalgic for most of this music, I don’t have any of this (except for the Beatles) in my CD and vinyl collection. Where I found my eventual musical “fit” was in the post-punk, new romantic, and new wave sub-genres. I’ve shared lists previously with some of the albums that shaped me, and later artists/songs that are still in rotation in my car and home stereo even today.
The songs listed below are 5 of my earliest favorites and were among my first purchases for what is now an extensive collection. It’s always difficult to compile lists like this — there are many artists who shaped my musical tastes, but these 5 stand out in my memories. As cassette players entered the scene, I started off by recording directly from the radio — and was always irritated by the overdub of DJ voices talking over the start and completion of each song.
There are no underground oddities here. You probably recognize all of them. Enjoy.
