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MUSIC THAT CHANGED YOUR LIFE

I bought a couple of remastered CD's this week that brought a flood of memories back to me and well I knew I wouldn't be alone in having pieces of music that shaped or echoed various era's of my life.
It's also the reason I got into this hobby....
At 13 I got seriously into music,me amd my friends who sit around for hours picking tracks and blasting out music,this was my intial golden era.
However some 8 years later in '85 I'd moved on a bit,I was semi-grown up,been made redundant from my first job,worked in retail for a while and was back studying at college.
My interest in music had diminished a little,the 80's seemed a little facile,a lot of the music raved about somehow didn't do it for me.
I was pretty broke too,staying at home and well a little down and self obsessed as a 21 year tends to be.
One day I came across a new record just released,I liked the cover,the titles of the songs and I'd seen the band on TV a few times.
It was This Is The Sea by The Waterboys.
I was blown away,a big rock sound,epic but not overblown,a great lyricist and songwriter in Mike Scott and the music became my beacon in a gloomy time.
I followed up the previous releases by them,the live tapes,all the stuff you do.
Now I wouldn't claim this record was the greatest ever made but I wore that vinyl out,even today I could probably write you down the lyric of every song on that record,I doubt I've ever listened to any record more than that one.
It might be saying too much that it saved my life but Mike Scott's music reflected the bleakness of Britain at that time but it also uplifted me.
That winter was tough but that record kept my spirits up.
It started too a search for those who had influenced him and opened up my mind to Dylan,Van Morrison and made me realise the importance of early Blues,Country and Gospel music.
Simply put it restarted my love affair for music.
So when I listened to the first two Waterboys albums this week I was transported back to that time and despite some of the music having dated the essence of Scott's positve message still seemed as powerful some 17 years later.
The subsequent releases by The Waterboys were never as strong to me but that record had such an important impact on my life that I'll never forget it nor the times it got me through.
That's part of my story,now tell me yours.............
ben_campbell

Showing 1 response by garfish

garfish
1,840 posts
 
Ben; nothing to compare to your story, but music didn't mean much to me until Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Rick Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Carl Perkins and many others invented ROCK and ROLL (of course it grew out of Blues). There weren't many women Rock performers in those days, but a year or so later, Wanda Jackson's "Let's Have A party" was fantastic.

I was 13 years old in 1956; raging hormone storm going on too, and saw Elvis perform on the Ed Sullivan TV show--waist up only of course-- he was great. And my two year older sister pretty much wore out a 45 record by Gene Vincent-- "Be Bop A Lula", on our parents Zenith portable record player (it had tubes:)--and I helped. I KNEW I had to have a guitar-- specifically electric, as a result of all this. Well, many guitars later I still love early R&R music and its progeny;>) I play my stereo system much better than I ever played guitar though-- but still, a life-long love affair with R&R. Cheers. Craig.
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