Flashback Friday -- The Music Edition

I almost didn't do Flashback Friday this week because music is one of those areas which TRAUMATIZES me. ...and anyone within hearing range when I sing or play an instrument. But then aren't our best stories the ones where things go wrong? Well, when it comes to me and music, things go very, VERY, VERY wrong! So here's the Flashback Friday prompt:

What role did music play in your growing up years? What, if any, music do you associate with early childhood? What music style or songs were popular when you were in high school? How did you listen to music - on the radio, albums, etc. Did you have a stereo in your room? Did you attend concerts when you were a teenager? Did the music you liked cause conflict with your parents? What song or songs take you back to a certain place and time of your youth?

Now, let me start by saying I enjoy music! One of our favorite dates is to go to a good concert. I enjoy listening to tunes on my iPod or youtube. The problem arises when I try to CREATE music. Like my mother and untold ancestors before me, I can't carry a tune in the proverbial bucket.

But that didn't stop me from trying.
~I took piano lessons until the teacher (working his way through college by giving lessons) suggested to my mother there might be better ways to spend her money.
~I played clarinet in the school band for three years until the exasperated director asked me to PLEASE find something better to do with his time!
~I was even in a church choir during high school.
My lack of ability isn't for lack of trying!

I realized in second grade I might have a problem. During music class the teacher played a record and everyone else could tell there were two different singers but it sounded like only one to me. Participating in band made me realize I could not tell the difference between notes that were near each other on the scale.

Being unable to play or sing has not dampened my enthusiasm for music though! I like just about everything except rap, heavy metal and anything overly repetitive (and every genre has that problem occasionally). I do lean more toward country and celtic (which much of country derives from) and that's probably because I grew up hearing country music. Being a southern girl and all :) I'm pretty sure I could have sung any Loretta Lynn or Charlie Pride song from memory during grade school...along with a dozen other country singers that my mom loved. I didn't discover celtic music until my adult years but thoroughly enjoy it now. These are the two genres I can listen to endlessly.

Other genres I can only handle for short periods. After a while most other music begins to grate on my nerves. Does it affect anyone else that way? For instance, classical. I really do like it, but can only listen for a couple or three hours and then I have to go somewhere quiet for a while.

Growing up, country WASN'T cool and I hid my affinity for it until we moved back down south where I could enjoy it to my heart's content. The one and only concert I went to as a child was a Johnny Cash concert at Cobo Hall in Detroit. My dad treated the whole family to it when his mom and sister were visiting from Tennessee one year. Since my mom and dad were country music fans and so was I, that was never an issue. Which is a good thing, since we had plenty of other things to wrangle over!

The Jackson 5, Osmond Brothers, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Carpenters and Sony & Cher are groups I remember from my younger teen years. During high school it seemed everyone was into Led Zeppelin, ZZ Top, and groups like that. I preferred Alabama and later the Judds. One song that sticks out from my high school years is "Big Bad Leroy Brown". I don't know why; it's not even a very good song, but it got played a lot -- in our area at least. I've always loved Percy Sledge. One of my best friends in high school had one of his tapes and we listened to it over and over and over...

During our first months in Argentina we were in a store in Cordoba and a Percy Sledge song came on the radio. I stopped right where I was, closed my eyes, and just savored the music. It soothed a little of the homesickness I was feeling.

Percy can do that for you.