the first time you heard your favourite artists music..?

[froggie]

we all have our favourite musicians... so, when was the first time you ever heard your favourite atrist's music?

[mountain bed]

Hmm...let's see. I think I first heard the Dead's "American Beauty" when I was about 14 or 15. Their reputation preceeded this, of course - I already had heard of them being THE acid rock band, and I already was into Floyd and things like that, so when I heard them for the first time I really didn't understand. This was, gasp, country rock! (not that there's anything wrong with that )

 

About 3 years later a friend dragged me to one of their concerts and it immediately became clear. This was exactly the sound I'd been searching for. I've never looked back.

[bjorn_skurj]

I imagine I have been hearing the Beatles since before I was born.

[pillowy star]

First time I heard/saw Wilco was at the REM gig in Munich in July 1999 where they were supporting.

 

I thought they were dreadful

[tugmoose]

E. Costello on SNL Dec. 77 - I was pissed because I wanted to see the Sex Pistols. Who was this guy with the goofy feet? This ain't bad. What's he doing stopping the song? Radio Radio . . . cool!

[froggie]

Led Zep: i kept on hearing about some Stairway song. Then i heard this cool song on the radio back in 1993. It was Stairway - i was hooked from then on. And P&P got back together the following year that made me check out the rest of their catalogue.

 

 

Wilco: Mermaid Avenue. it was "billy bragg's new album of woody guthrie lyrics, put to music". what was the song on radio? - California stars. Thanks Jeff!. You opened up a new avenue for me

 

 

Bob Dylan: apparently he was cool. I heard Rolling stone and thought it was OK. Then i heard 4th street and my musical tastes changed. this was back in 1995

 

 

Ed Kuepper: One of out rock stations played a song called "i'm with you". I loved it and had to check out. I havent looked back since

 

 

CCR: When i was 5 years old, my dad used to used to listen to them. I loved all songs except for Fortunate son cause i was scared of the sound of it. i didnt speak any english back then, but i loved the melodies. 7 years later in 1991, Fogerty made me pick up a guitar for the first time. Thanks John!

 

 

Johnny Cash: I was at a 2nd hand record store and I walk the line started playing. This was in 2000. I had to check this guy out - now i have the nickname of "the man in black"

 

 

Pink Floyd: After hearing some of their stuff on the radio in 1996, I had to explore more cause I loved it. Satred with Dark side, and after hearing more, i fell in love with them

 

 

Warren Zevon: There had to be more than Warewolves of London - and yep, there is!. an underrated legend

 

 

Mississippi John Hurt: My favourite 'blues' man. Its my relaxing evening music. I never met him, obiviously, but he sounds like he's nice old man that can do some excellent finger-picking, with catchy melodies. You dont have to be gay to love this wrinkled old man. His 1928 recordings get played at least twice a week at home

 

 

Don Henley. Screw the Eagles. I first heard Boys of Summer and loved it for 6 years. After my grandfather died, I found one of his 2nd hand album (I cant stand still) and fell in love with it. It brings back memories that i'll never forget - him and someone else.

 

 

Gordon Lightfoot: during the summer of 1997/8, i couldnt sleep on a real hot night. I put on the radio to a music AM station. I heard Sundown and liked it. The following night was also really warm, so i did the same. I heard If you could read my mind. Loved it too. Then, i found his Summertime Dream album on vinyl, 2nd hand for only 50cents. Bought it and fell in love with it. I had to buy all his CDs after that.

 

 

1927: they might sound like a "cheesy aussie rock band of the late 80s". I remember lying in bed on a cold winter morning and hearing their first big hit (Compulsory Hero) back in 1988. It takes me back to aussie rock of the late 80s - ive'd loved the band ever since to this day

[PopTodd]

I imagine I have been hearing the Beatles since before I was born.

 

Pretty much.

 

But I do remember the first time I ever sat down and listened to The Beatles. I was probably 8 or 9 and my dad came home with 2 records -- one for me and one for my sister: Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour. We put the former on my cheap little all-in-one stereo turntable, and sat on my bed to have a listen. I don't think that I moved until the final chord of "A Day In the Life" had faded away. Except, of course, to flip the record over to side 2.

[remphish1]

REM first hear Stand on the radio back in 89...dug it. Then saw Losing My Religions premeir on MTV when I was 10. I used to sneak downstairs and watch MTV after mindnight when I was young. All the best bands were on late at night on MTV back then.

 

Wilco read about Being There's album review in Rolling Stone Mag and it sounded interesting. Bought it..rest is history.

 

Radiohead obviously heard Creep when it was out thought of it as a one ht onder. Then heard Just when that came out and was floored. Bought the album and didn't look back.

[cryptique]

Beatles before I was born, like Bjorn.

 

Led Zeppelin -- don't remember, but it was probably "Heartbreaker / Living Loving Maid," because that record was kicking around the house back in the day and I'm pretty sure that side 2 was the favored side ... and I know I had heard a fair amount of LZ before I ever heard "Stairway to Heaven."

 

Wilco -- I was already an Uncle Tupelo fan, and I'm pretty sure I'd read somewhere that Tweedy had a new band called Wilco. Then I saw the video for "Box Full of Letters," and ran right out to buy the CD.

 

Billy Bragg -- in the fall of 1987, my college roommate and I smuggled Back to Basics out of the radio station's collection so we could tape it (yes, we put it back), based on a recommendation from a friend. Instantly hooked.

 

Neil Young and Jackson Browne -- both were played around the house quite a bit when I was very young, and their early albums take me back to my childhood in a way very few things can.

 

Neko Case -- I went to see Joe Pernice and Peyton Pinkerton play as her opening act at the tiny Blind Pig here in Ann Arbor. I had heard she was good, so we stuck around for her set. She started with "Favorite," and I was a convert before she'd completed the first line of the lyrics.

 

Pixies and Camper Van Beethoven -- a friend of mine sent me a cassette during the summer between our sophomore and junior years of college. It had these two bands, plus some great Robyn Hitchcock, Butthole Surfers, and a bunch of other fun stuff. He and a friend of his had gotten high one afternoon and decided to make tapes for people ... I think they made mine and maybe one other before they lost interest, but that tape changed my life.

 

I could go on, but the stories aren't all that interesting. I should credit my older brother, though, with introducing me to a lot of my favorites, including R.E.M., the Kinks, the Clash, the Replacements, etc. He developed great taste late in high school, which meant I had great taste from about my freshman year on.

[Gobias Industries]

The Beatles: probably before I was born, but in cases I can remember my dad liked to hum Yesterday a lot.

 

Bob Dylan: Sophomore year, I heard All Along the Watchtower for the first time.

 

Wilco: Sophomore year, I was in a band and we were going to cover IATTBYH. I heard the track and I was iffy about it, but then I warmed up to it a little. I then received Being There for a birthday gift from a friend and have been hooked ever since.

[Guest Moses]

wilco - sometime in '99, a think just a week or two after the release of Summerteeth. in my friend's older brother's car - listening to Can't Stand It. i thoroughly enjoyed and bought Summerteeth and shortly after Being There. and they quickly became my favorite band ever.

 

phish - i listened to my brother's copy of Junta late one night my freshman year of high school - enjoyed Fee but turned it off about 20 seconds into YEM - thought it was garbage. I enjoyed a bit of Farmhouse a couple years later but it wasn't until i got to college that i really got into them. Gave The Divided Sky a shot after a friend mentioned how amazing it was and i was pretty much hooked.

 

dylan - i can't pinpoint when i first heard dylan, but i'd imagine it was probably somewhere around 9 or 10 - my brother was in high school and started to become obsessed. it took me a few years, but i quickly followed.

 

uncle tupelo - pretty much only got into them within the last couple of years after having been a huge wilco fan. i actually just bought they're entire catalog at once and sat down and became a fan quickly.

[Three dollars and 63 cents]

The first time I remember hearing U2 was in my dad's old pickup truck. It was I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, so I'm guessing it was 1987. The first time I remember really listening to them, though, was years later when I bought my cassette copy of Achtung Baby. My dad had these giant headphones that eventually became mine, and I came home from school one day and plugged them in to my stereo and listened to Achtung Baby. I can't remember if I played the whole album, but I can still remember how that first blaze of guitar in Zoo Station sounded through the headphones. It was the spring I was 13, and that moment changed the way I listen to music forever.

 

With Wilco, I remember hearing Can't Stand It on WXPN one summer. I was maybe 18 or 19, and I wrote the band's name and Summerteeth on a little piece of paper that some years later I found behind the dresser in my old bedroom at my parents' house. It took me a few more years to get around to really checking them out. I really fell in love with Wilco at the same time I was falling in love with a guy who loved them. Our relationship didn't last, and I remember being so worried that I was going to lose Wilco because they'd be too difficult for me to hear. But it was our shared love of Wilco that helped us to stay friends. A few years later, Wilco is my favorite band and he's my best friend.

 

It's easier for me to remember the first time I heard the Nels Cline Singers, since it was just last summer. I'd just seen Wilco again and went online to learn more about Nels and his other work. I heard Square King and He Still Carries A Torch For Her on his Myspace page and loved both of them so much that I bought them from iTunes. I probably sat and listened to those two songs on repeat for an hour or more. They had the same effect on me that Zoo Station had had on me when I was 13. It's been a year, and I find that sometimes I still have a hard time putting into words what I love about their music. That's pretty frustrating, considering I'm a writer!

[uncool2pillow]

In spring 1989, I read a review of Bob Mould's first post-Husker Du album, Workbook in Rolling Stone. I'd heard of them, but never listened. I bought Workbook and listened to it at a friend's house. His folks had a top-notch stereo system, which probably added to my appreciation of it. That was 19 years ago, but I remember it like it was yesterday. It was the most powerful musical revelation I've ever had.

 

Every once in a while I go to RS's Web Site to re-read the review that led to the most important musical discovery in my life.

[mountain bed]

Hey Mende - just curious - what language were you speaking before you learned the english?

 

In regards to Zep: my older, hip cousin had the first LP when it came out. He let me borrow it, and I had to have my folks buy that one (and LZ II) for me. I was 7-8 years old, listening to this stuff. I was a really weird kid (note: was )

[John Smith]

Most of my first listens have come as a result of me hearing or reading aboutbands and going out to pick up their latest release. (REM, Replacements, Husker Du, Radiohead among others)

 

I heard Son Volt's Trace playing in a best buy and liked it enough to grab it.

 

Wilco I heard for the first time when I saw them.

 

Some I simply saw an album cover that made me want to hear what was inside (London Calling being the most obvious to come to mind)

 

Others (beatles, stones, Dylan Pink FLoyd etc...) have just always been a part of my musical palette. I have no recolection of hearing them for the first time, nor do I have any recolection of not having heard of them.

 

regardless I have little specific memories and lots of fragments and pieces of memories.

[renic]

i was wondering the same thing about mende.

 

for me, it was 1989 & i was sitting in mr. white's english class, when anna (the new kid at that) gave me a dubbed copy of pretty hate machine. since then, i have never looked back!

 

i heard box full of letters on the radio when it first came out & dug it, but it wasn't until summerteeth came out that i went into full blown obsession.

 

i'm sure i have more favorites, but its nine inch nails & wilco that have seemed to stand the test of time. zeppelin as well, but i grew up hearing them on the radio so i don't really remember when i first heard them.

[Littlebear]

Great thread.

 

My first passion in music was Jacques Brel (I'm French). I was 13 years old when I was caught and fascinated by his songs.

 

Still today, I think he's the best performer that ever lived.

 

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkZ_ihsn404

 

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=HEHxAREUVdg

 

He was a real poet, and many songs of him still make me cry.

[GtrPlyr]

I have a lot of favourite artists so I will stick with a few:

 

The Replacements - A friend bought Let It Be at a record store after a store clerk recommended it. I think my friend was impressed more by song titles such as Gary's Got a Boner than any musical attributes the record may have. We listened to it and I recall liking it. We listened to a lot of stuff in those days though, so the band sort of slipped from my view for a while. A few years went by when I spotted CD copies of Let It Be and Tim at a record store in Buffalo. Well I got those home and something clicked, I was going to be a fan for life.

 

Wilco - I was a member of Columbia House CD club at the time and ordered Wilco's AM record after reading about the band somewhere. That record didn't really connect with me in a big way but I still thought there was something there. When Being There came out I Knew my feelings were right about this band.

 

Warren Zevon - Like a lot of people I heard Werewolves on the radio. For years I thought that was the only song he had of note. Years later I got around to listening to "Warren Zevon" and "Excitable Boy" and was blown away by this phenomenal songwriter. Why hadn't I heard these songs before, especially as there were so many that were better than Werewolves.

 

Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Beatles, The Who, Neil Young - All of these came through the radio. I would tape their songs on my crappy Lloyds stereo system and play the crap out of those tapes. Eventually I got around to buying the records when I could afford it.

[virtualreason]

Radiohead: In my bedroom as a kid, the TV picked up the MTV2 signal; sometimes it came in great (usually in the summer), other times it looked like scrambled porn. When I was 13, I saw the video for Just and was blown away. I went out and got every album and quickly became obsessed. The clincher was when I saw them on SNL and got Kid A a couple days later.

 

Wilco: During my massive downloading of Radoihead b-sides and live songs that same summer, I downloaded Box Full of Letters and the song was tagged as Radiohead and Wilco. Didn't think much of it at the time, but I read a review for YHF a couple months later and it was called "Kid A on mudpies." Bought it, loved it, got Summerteeth, kept loving it, and I was hooked.

 

Arcade Fire: I believe I heard about these guys from a certain Minneapolian on this board who may or may not be named Kyle. It was right after Funeral came out and I remember the guy at Atomic Records in Milwaukee looking at me weird when I asked for the album by name. Sadly, THE WEEK BEFORE they played 2 or 3 shows in Milwaukee for $5 a pop; that would have been truly transcendent.

 

Muse, Sigur Ros: Offshoots of my Radiohead obsession. I had to hear anything that got compared to them.

 

The White Stripes: Gondry's lego-tastic video.

[cryptique]

Warren Zevon - Like a lot of people I heard Werewolves on the radio. For years I thought that was the only song he had of note. Years later I got around to listening to "Warren Zevon" and "Excitable Boy" and was blown away by this phenomenal songwriter. Why hadn't I heard these songs before, especially as there were so many that were better than Werewolves.

I think everything on those two albums, with the exception of "Nighttime in the Switching Yard," is better than "Werewolves." I love that song too, but it's a weak link among all that other awesomeness.

[uncool2pillow]

The Replacements - A friend bought Let It Be at a record store after a store clerk recommended it. I think my friend was impressed more by song titles such as Gary's Got a Boner than any musical attributes the record may have. We listened to it and I recall liking it. We listened to a lot of stuff in those days though, so the band sort of slipped from my view for a while. A few years went by when I spotted CD copies of Let It Be and Tim at a record store in Buffalo. Well I got those home and something clicked, I was going to be a fan for life.

My introduction to the Replacements was - like most of the music I like - through my older brother (though, I'm proud to say, I turned him on to Wilco). Around 1986, he bought me Hootenanny because he'd heard a few good things about him, then browsing the record store, saw that Hootenanny had a song called "Buck Hill". That's a ski hill in the Twin Cities where we learned to ski. The Replacements song is a surf-rock instrumental. I always imagined it as a theme song for a show about a spy/porn star.

[dagwave]

wow, many memories...

 

first- probably about 9 years old...- bringing home David Bowie's Heroes, Sg.t Pepper, Beach Boys Endless Summer, and some Cosby comedy records home from the local library, sitting in front of my parents "hi-fi" and ......whoa...................

 

later, getting London Calling at 13 years old cause I thought the cover was cool (didn't know it was an Elvis Presley send-up) and Born to Run....those albums changed my life. Too many others to mention, but off I went....

 

Great thread- Bringing back the memories makes me feel Real Good. Thank You!

[hardwood floor]

interesting thread, i'm enjoying reading the responses

 

guided by voices -- friend plopped vampire on titus in the car on a road trip and that was it, it was over. everything i'd always looked for in pop music. weird, mystifying, goofy and explosively melodic

 

yes -- we were 15, bored with music on the radio, at my friend's house, and then roundabout came on. we just blasted it. whoa -- they were actual musical with guitar, keys and bass all winding around each other but making sense, all in a tight pop package. very cool. still dig 'em

 

replacements -- i'd been avoiding them because all my hip friends dug 'em. that's the way it worked back then. i figured they had to suck since everybody i knew was freaking out about the replacements. one night i secretly plopped on tim. on the bus? holy shit. life-changing

 

uncle tupelo -- same friend as gbv above but this time at his house. hey, check out this record still feel gone. gun. holy fucking christ. i couldn't believe how great it was. my friend is like, just wait, the other guy's songs are even better. looking for a way out comes on. good lord.

[rsjbraz]

Was in late 89 and was reading the now defunct Sounds music paper and having bought Galaxie 500's wonderful On Fire based on their review I went back to re read the review and saw below it a small review for a band called American Music Club where the reviewer said that if you liked the G500 album then you'll love this.

The review for for AMC's 'United Kingdom" was suitably fascinating for me to go buy it but on first listen it was rather bleak and didn't really get it but I dubbed it onto a blank cassette as was the style of the time & returned it to get something else.

I must have tried listening again a few weeks later because soon I was totally spellbound by the unique mood & lyrics of the album, it was certainly unlike anything I had heard as a 15 year old.

Naturally when I tried to rebuy it I couldn't find it anywhere, like most of AMC's pre major label releases they suffered from woeful distribution (all are still out of print) and so It took me a while to eventually find it again. By then it had been reissued with their previous album "California" on the same disc and that proved to be as good if not better.

I caught them live pretty soon after and they were incredible and those three albums Engine,United Kingdom & California still are still the best run of three albums in a row that I've come across!

[stooka]

Back in '06, a buddy picked up on M Ward through Bright Eyes (Correct me if I'm wrong, Kirt). He gave me Post War and I gave it a few listens, then he gave me EOA and TOV with the offer that I could meet them in Denton, Texas for a show at weeks end. (300 miles away) The show ultimately reinforced the power of the cds. All of his records are just so damn comforting to listen to - like everything is going to be ok.

 

I never seem to tire of them!