What I appreciate most about my childhood exposure to music, is the diversity of that exposure. I spent many wonderful weekends with my grandparents and I remember always hearing music around them from my grandmother's singing of hymns and love of Elvis Presley to my granddaddy's love of old time Gospel, bluegrass, Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James and Lawrence Welk. And, if that's not diverse enough for y'all, the list of my exposure from being around my parents may be.
My parents' music exposed me to the entertaining sounds of Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, Perry Como...Rat Pack, anyone?...--if he crooned, we swooned.There was Doris Day, Lena Horne and Peggy Lee to classical music to Herb Albert and any big band greats including Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Louis Armstrong to the blues with BB King and Billie Holiday... And let's not leave out the likes of George Gershwin and Rodgers and Hammerstein. Oh, how the list goes on and on and on...and my deepest apologies to those artists not mentioned. No worries, ladies and gents, I remember you all. Quite fondly.
Funny thing- not a single one of us plays a musical instrument or carries a tune in a bucket. Oh, they tried to get me to take those blasted piano lessons. But, when you have an older cousin who everyone thinks is the best thing ever and can do no wrong and none of us will ever be as good as she at anything---well, why bother trying very hard at those piano lessons? The only thing, musically, I was ever good at was the clarinet and I gave that up for high school.
That's ok. We all had music in our hearts. And souls.
What spurred this realization? I saw Annie Lennox on the CBS Saturday news show and she's got a new album out, NOSTALGIA. I just downloaded it onto my iPod. It's quite nice. And that led me to feelings of admiration for her stepping outside of her genre into a completely different one after all these years. And that led me to the realization that my exposure to music was delightfully diverse. And greatly appreciated.
Is there any wonder that there is hardly any music out there that I don't enjoy? Except country. Of course. And, to be honest, there may be one or two of those songs I enjoy. As long as it's something by Patsy Cline.
Have a listen to Ms. Annie talking about this journey and you'll even get a bit of the sound of her efforts:
I think she's done a brilliant job here. What do y'all think?
I really enjoyed this post as it brought back many memories of watching Lawrence Welk with my family and being jealous of how my Granny liked the Lennon Sisters so much. We listened to all these songs and watched Your Hit Parade and probably every variety show after we had a TV. To my great shame and embarrassment, my parents loved country music and it pained me to hear them watch or listen to it. That is until I discovered it for myself in the early 70's when life in San Antonio almost required it. I will watch this video. And, uh 1 and uh 2 ...
ReplyDeleteThanks! There are very few country songs I will even listen to but I do, for some reason, enjoy some of the old stuff. Who knows?
DeleteI love the eclectic music you were brought up on! So fun to read the lists. It's so interesting how this music affects us forever. A month or so ago, PBS had a special on 'The British Invasion' with bands from the 60s and 70s (I think it was). I enjoyed the reminiscences so much I'm tempted to go online and see if I can find a copy of that. It was SO much fun to listen to. Not all were wonderful, but some of my favorite songs were among them. I don't care for Country music at all, well, not quite at all. I do like a little Johnny Cash - Burning Ring of Fire, for example, and a few others.
ReplyDeleteOk, I'll give you Johnny Cash. :) And I do adore Willie and Waylon and Kris Kristofferson... But that list is short in comparison to everything else. LOL
DeleteI, too, grew up with all those artists! Some of my fondest memories are of my mom singing with the radio as she did housework. We actually were kind of musical, me on trumpet from 5th grade through my senior year, my brother played trombone for awhile, my two sisters did trumpet and woodwind, while one is quite accomplished on the piano. My mom sang alto in the church choir (lovely voice) and played organ later in life (she played trumpet in high school). I took piano and organ lessons, but not long enough to really say I can play. I can't imagine life without music. I enjoy country music, but not a steady diet of it. I am not an opera fan, and can't stand rap. Anything else goes!! Great post! Love Annie Lennox. Saw her on TV awhile back, talking about this album. Have you heard the new Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga? She is also pretty amazing!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah. Opera. Hate it. I have tried and tried to listen to it to no avail. Most rap I don't care for either but that's mostly because I can't understand what the heck they're saying. LOL Oh thank you for reminding me about the Tony Bennett/Lady Gaga thing! I forgot and I want it!
DeleteSoooo the only difference here that I can see is I like ALL music. I like rap, I like country, I like opera and symphonic music! I grew up with Mitch Miller and the Rat Pack and Jimmy Durante. My Dad would play symphonic music and operettas on Sundays that left us all marching and humming! I love rock n roll and I guess Heavy Metal is the least favorite along with twangy music. But we have music playing all day long around here and I find it makes me keep going when I think I want to lie down. Nope, put on some beats and I' m a happy girl! Big hugs!
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