Every now and then we will pause to remember why music has become so important to our lives by recalling a musical memory. We encourage you to share your own memories in the comments section below. As this is my first post on the subject, I'll start with some of my first memories or rather, what my mother says were some of the the first signs of my budding musical obsession. And yes, that's me as a dorky eight-year-old doing my Robert Johnson pose.
I was into a lot of music right from the start. I remember being oddly into the song "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys of all groups, while the song "Centerfield" by John Fogerty had me imagining being a major league baseball star (baseball being another of my childhood obsessions). I also distinctly remember rocking back and forth in the seat of my dad's truck while Blondie's "Rapture" rang out from the speakers - a song that Wikipedia calls one of the earliest rap influenced songs to achieve mainstream success, to which I can only conclude proves that my tastes have always been ahead of their time.
But I was a fan even before that. This, according to my mother, "Before you were born, every time your dad would turn up the radio in the truck you would kick and kick and turn and I would have to beg him to turn down the radio because you were kicking me so hard in the ribs that it would hurt. I thought it was because you hated music, but it soon became apparent that you loved music instead." Ah, the power of rock n roll!
It also turns out that the sleeping problems I have been plagued with throughout most of my life also started when I was a child (no doubt the product of my over-active imagination that only ratchets itself up at night instead of calming down). "Singing to you was the only way to get you to sleep at night. However, I made up words to the song "Lullaby" and to the Winnie the Pooh Mobile music over your crib because I never knew the actual words," says my mom.
And finally, "You also loved loud noise and excitement. I always laid you in your carryall in front of The Price is Right while I did dishes and cleaned the house. You loved the noise, and music and would kick and coo whenever they announced the next contestant and played the music they ran down to." I have no comment in regards to this.
-Travis Hare
