This week’s show is something special and well worth its 2 hour running time. I had the honour of interviewing the two most musically influential people in my life. These two don’t understand punk rock, they have never heard of most of the bands played on this show and in 1977 the last thing on their minds was the birth of a genre I have now dedicated large parts of my life to. Their influence on me goes deeper and manifests itself in the lifelong love of music I have today. The two people in question are my parents.
The show starts at the beginning, for them anyways, with he first gig they ever went to in 1957. We discuss everything from how the music was consumed and celebrated to what effect it had on the young and impressionable youth living in a very austere America in the 1950’s. Music here includes Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and of course Elvis Presley.
The discussion moves on to the idea of rebellion and to the time of huge changes in music and society which the Woodstock Festival highlighted. Music here includes records from my parents record collection, records with well thumbed corners, records that obviously meant something special to them: Janis Joplin, The Beatles (twice), Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Rolling Stones and although much later, The Eagles.
As the conversation continues we touch on some bands that stand out for both myself and my parents as we all continued to mature; Billy Joel, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young.
We also discuss what music means to us and why we are still so interested in it. We talk about the power of music to take us back to other times in our lives and to help us to celebrate as well as to grieve. Simon and Garfunkel and Bruce Springsteen are both used to illustrate these points.
And then at the end we discuss punk and we discuss what it means to me personally so of course I get a bit cheeky and wrap things up with a bit of Moutpiece.
Growing up, there was always music in the house. The stereo was available for everyone in the family and it was rarely turned off. It is something I am now trying to pass on to my own children because it has always given me so much joy and enriched my life.
I have to thank my folks for taking part in this wonderful project and would encourage anyone with a microphone to do something similar with someone that is musically special in their life.
Tune this one in, turn it to a respectable level, whatever you do, keep listening to music.