Earliest music memory

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 05 May 11 - 07:10 PM

Great to see this thread coming back to life. More please!

Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,Peadar (formerly) of Portsmouth
Date: 05 May 11 - 04:24 PM

Two spring to mind from when I was around 4 or 5...I'm not sure which is the earlier memory:

Watching my dad crouch down like a sumo wrestler and stopping around in a silly "dance" to Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King"

or

Hanging over the side of my grandparents cabinet style phonograph (the ones that looked like sideboards), watching the LP spin and singing along to the Clancys ... "Whisky, whisky, Nancy Whisky..."

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Max Johnson
Date: 05 May 11 - 06:10 AM

The first music I ever heard must have been a nusery rhyme or the radio, or possibly the National Anthem which was more popular back then. Or, at least, more played.
However, I don't actually remember hearing any of them. The first song I can recall hearing was 'Little Angeline', and on the other side of that 78 was, I think, 'March Of The Toytown Soldiers'.   I was too young to march to it then, and now I hope I've got more sense.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 05 May 11 - 02:27 AM

The sound of Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper I must have been about 3 or 4. I can remember the teenage girls who lived next door saying that Holly and the others had been killed in an aeroplane crash and they were very upset. There was something about his voice that appealed to me even at a young age and the same with the Big Bopper, Chantilly Lace was a favourite of mine.

'I Guess it Doesn't Matter Anymore' always brings a smile to my face and I still remember all of the words.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Joe Offer
Date: 04 May 11 - 04:24 AM

I never thought of either of my grandmothers as singers, but my French-Canadian grandmother would sing "marching, marching, marching up the stairs" to get us to go to bed. Don't know where she got the song, or if she made it up. I can still hear her sing it, though she's fifty years dead.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Alan Day
Date: 04 May 11 - 04:02 AM

Playing Swanee Whistle in my Grandad's band at the age of seven.
I still have it.
Al

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Ebbie
Date: 04 May 11 - 01:09 AM

I didn't learn to speak English until I was age 6 or so, but I knew sme songs in English.

I remember singing with the brother just older than I: RASScue the Pear ishing, not a clue as to what it meant.

And then- so horrifying that my mother never again mentioned it, nor did I, lustily singing - with that same brother: You crazy ol' god

For the uninitiated, that should be 'We praise thee, O God.'

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 03 May 11 - 04:48 AM

Being told I was too young to dance "the Old Mole" at a Playford EFDSS meeting....aged 4 (mid 1950s)
Learning to play the piano and read music at the same age.

Paws

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 03 May 11 - 04:36 AM

As I was born (North Shields fish quay, summer 1961) the young fish wife who helped deliver me was singing Here's the Tender Coming which has stayed my heart ever since. Sadly, she wasn't a traditional singer as she later confessed when our paths crossed in the Bay Hotel Folk Club in Cullercoats 18 years later, telling me she learnt the song from a folk-inspired school teacher.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Gurney
Date: 02 May 11 - 08:17 PM

It was when I realised that I knew the words to a pop song, I think it was called 'The World Ain't Big Enough For Me.'
Must look it up.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: fat B****rd
Date: 02 May 11 - 03:20 PM

One of my earliest (78s on the Regentone radiogram) musical memories is The Luton Girls Choir singing A Dream of Olwen. Still makes me wet-eyed when I masochistically listen to it - and The Nun's Chorus which I believe was the B side of the HMV record.
Mind you they, my parents, also had C'mon a My House by Rosemary Clooney and I Wanna Say Hello by Sir Hubert Pym.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: frogprince
Date: 01 May 11 - 09:29 PM

We often had the kazillion watt country music station from Del Rio Texas on radio if we finished farmwork in time for a little relaxed time before turning in.(This was in Minnesota.) But one of the earliest things I can pin down in memory was Gene Autry broadcasting from Melody Ranch. The first song I can remember as being a personal
favorite was Gene singing Strawberry Roan. So far as I've been able to find, that exists on record only as a small fragment on a box set I bought a few years back.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: kendall
Date: 01 May 11 - 09:24 PM

One of my earliest memories is a song called "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere." One of the writers, Paul Roberts was a native of Maine.

It's in the DT

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Nancy King
Date: 01 May 11 - 08:20 PM

LOL, Kendall!

The earliest "music" I can remember is my parents singing things like "I've Been Working on the Railroad," and "Sweet Betsy from Pike," and "Mairzy Doats," and even, God forbid, "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" in the car. Beyond that, probably recordings of Rogers and Hammerstein musicals and Gilbert & Sullivan. There were probably some schoolyard ditties as well, but fortunately those have faded...

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: kendall
Date: 01 May 11 - 07:20 PM

Casey Jones was a son of a bitch
He drove a Ford with a Whore house switch
He blew the whistle and rang the bell
And went through Machias like a bat out of hell.
There is another verse but it's rude.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 May 11 - 09:46 AM

In early memory, Mission music was ringing round my nursery door...

:D

MP

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,Dsei C
Date: 01 May 11 - 07:19 AM

Sitting on my Dad's knee singing 'How Much Is THat Doggy In The Window?' which he loved, and the Slim Dusty Song 'Pub With No Beer' which was a huge hit back home in Ireland around the same time, mid 50's

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,J-boy
Date: 01 May 11 - 01:41 AM

"My Grandfather's Clock" played on a wind-up toy.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Mark Ross
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 08:43 PM

There was music in the house all the time, my folks kept the radio tuned to WQXR, the NY Times station. but what stands out in my memory is hearing the Vanguard album THE WEAVERS AT CARNEGIE HALL, Petes' banjo must have scarred me for life.


Mark Ross

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Suegorgeous
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 07:08 PM

Gosh, yes, Scarlet Ribbons.... that was such a powerful song...

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 04:11 PM

Sitting under the piano with my back against the box beside my grandmother's feet as she worked the pedals, looking up at the palms of her hands playing the keys. I can clearly remember that I was wearing a diaper -- so really, really young!

A little older, not much, standing beside the piano to sing "What have you got for dinner, Mrs Bond?" -- and it was definitely geese in the larder, and ducks in the pond. Also, "The animals went in two by two, the elephant and the kangaroo" and "Voulez-vous planter des choux, a la mode de chez nous". As I got older, the songs got more ambitious, until we were hacking through "Cario mio ben" and bits of "Messiah".

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 11:53 AM

Sounds great Don
I can vaguely remember me dad reciting a poem he learned at school
Something about a dark old mill.
Me mum would sometimes sing afew old Irish songs but I was too young to take them in.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 12 Feb 09 - 10:33 AM

My mother singing the "Spinning Wheel". I must have been about three, 'cos Dad and Uncle Tim were still away in the army, two Irish brothers who didn't HAVE to fight, but CHOSE to defend England.

I've always been proud of that.

Dad singing "Castle of Dromore" when home on leave, must have been just prior to VE Day (He was invalided out in early 45).

Primary school, learning "The Ash Grove", "Linden Lea", "The Old House", "Early one Morning", and "Waley Waley". They CARED about folk music back then.

So there you have it, and I've just realised I've been a folkie for nearly sixty five years, and not the forty nine I had previously believed.

Bred in the Bone
Don T.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Beer
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 10:06 PM

Second last verse Kendall. I think this is the song.
Adrien

THE WRECK OF THE NUMBER NINE
Recorded by Jim Reeves
Words and music by Carson Robison

[G] One dark stormy night not a [C] star was in sight
The [G] North wind came howling down the [D] line
There stood a [G] brave engineer with his [C] sweetheart so dear
And his [G] orders to [D] pull old Number [G] Nine.

She [D7] kissed him goodbye with a [G] tear in her [G7] eye
The [C] joy in his [G] heart he couldn't [D] hide
The [G] whole world seemed right for she [C] told him that night
That [G] tomorrow she'd [D] be his blushing [G] bride.

The wheels hummed a song as the train rolled along
The black smoke came pouring from the stack
The headlight a-gleam seemed to brighten his dream
Of tomorrow when he'd be goin' back.

He sped around the hill and his brave heart stood still
The headlight was shining in his face
He whispered a prayer as he threw on the air
For he knew this would be his final race.

In the wreck he was found lying there on the ground
He asked them to raise his weary head
His breath slowly went as this message he sent
To a maiden who thought she would be wed.

"There's a little white home that I built for our own
Where I dreamed we'd be happy, you and I
But I leave it to you for I know you'll be true
Til we meet at the Golden Gate - goodbye."

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: kendall
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:51 PM

The first song I can remember being sung was about a train wreck and I can't recall the title. I was about 5 or 6.

...in the wreck he was found lying there on the ground he asked us to raise his weary head...

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 09:24 AM

About 5 A.M.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Will Fly
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:35 AM

Bloody hell! "A Cherry without a Stone" - that just sent me whizzing back in time to about 1965, to a folk club in the dingy upper room of a dingy pub in Hunslet (Leeds). Full of fag smoke and the pong of Tetleys's bitter.

Strange how potent cheap music is...

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: An Buachaill Caol Dubh
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:27 AM

Can't be sure which would be the earliest, or even whether these are real memories as distinct from being told about them later, but I would sing Robert Wilson's "A Gordon for me" or Andy Stewart's version of "Coulter's Candy" when about three, so of course I must have heard them... Others which I never sang, but actually do remember hearing my father singing at about the same time, would be various ones of Burns's, Barnes's "Linden Lea", and the ballad about "A Cherry without a Stone" &c.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Stu
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 08:05 AM

Birdsong on a sunny day, looking up at the trees.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Zany Mouse
Date: 11 Feb 09 - 07:50 AM

Refreshing this because I'm enjoying reading about your memories.

Blessing
Rhiannon

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 01:01 AM

All my early-earlies are classical, with my Dad or my Swedish composer great-grand-dad. I'm listening and, sometimes, being instructed on HOW to listen, what to listen for, how to pick apart the sounds and follow instruments or rising and falling dynamics, melody lines, harmonies, or.... Not a talky music appreciation thing but a guided observing. I was well guided thru a sequence of learning, as well as getting lots of UNinterrupted time to just revel in it all. Closely snuggled. And I remember proudly telling my folks I wanted to play that Pro-ko-feef album again-- they laughed and laughed, which I knew then was VERY WRONG of them because really, I was way too young to be reading AT ALL and had made a good effort at what I recalled having seen on the cover (Prokoffi-ev).

And then before too long, hearing some dreamy jazz singing (my dad was in a quartet), and more guided listening on song-phrasing (esp. Sinatra).

I loved all of it, and it stuck, too-- that ability to listen well. It also fed the part of my brain that observes well in ALL senses. I've been paid the big bucks because of that skill/gift. I remember being able to coach a gymnast when was just 8 or 9 and not a gymnast myself, because I could SEE every detail and how her movement was constructed, mechanically. I mean I could see not only the moves but the forces OF the moves, the physics of the movement and how to adjust where and when to reach the desired arc or bounce.

~S~

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 10 Feb 09 - 12:46 AM

My aunt was the choir director for a large church. She put me on a pew to nap or color or whatever during choir practice once when I was very, very young. The singers were still arriving when the organist began practicing the Prelude on the pipe organ. I had no idea what was happening. I was confused, frightened, and delighted all at the same time—I could feel the music as much as hear it and the whole building shook. That's my earliest musical memory and I still think about it sometimes.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 05:46 AM

"Oh silver moon" on 78rpm that my father used to play to me, My mother singing "Bimbo", my mother's father singing "Nellie Dean" and the morris dancers (don't know which side) as seen from our upstairs window in Bishop's Castle.
Also both parents playing the piano. My mother used to happily pound away at tunes by ear that I have never since been able to identify while my father would stare intently at the dots of Chopin nocturns, and he never managed to play through any of them without pauses in all the years he played them.
One Saturday night, when I was about three, they came back from a concert with an LP by Trio Los Paraguayos whom they had been to see. After that I loved the sound of the harp. Shortly after that my father renewed his love of organ music and I heard many records of cathedral organs.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Neil D
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 02:12 AM

My dad singing "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and "Little Redwing" in the car on road trips.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 09 Feb 09 - 12:29 AM

Well I think that I said this on similar earlier threads, but my mother would sing me train wreck disaster songs when I was small instead of a lullaby. The wreck of the 97, the number 9, and my favourite was Jim Blake. It seems that I never actually learned these songs but always knew them. My mother has been gone for many years but I still sing these regularly. They go back beyond the range of my memory.
                Sandy

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: paula t
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 05:26 PM

A blur of memories really. Mum singing lullabies, Dad singing "Scarlet ribbons"; 3 wheels on my wagon, and snippets of songs on the radio which stay in my mind , like ,"Iam a mole and I live in a hole"(What was the rest of the song?), "A mouse lived in a windmill in old Amsterdam."
We were always singing in our house. My sister and I used to spend hours working out song and dance routines and seeing how high or low we could sing.Great fun!

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: john f weldon
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 04:17 PM

This soporific tune from 1949...

1949

...top of the pops, and a bit more relaxed than, say, Eminem.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Rog Peek
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 04:14 PM

My Dad singing to me when I was feeling poorly. Looking back it was a strange repetoire which included:
Land of Hope and Glory
The Umbrella Man
The Little Boy That Santa Clause Forgot

Sadly he passed away in 2005.

Rog

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 04:08 PM

I remember the first song I sang in public. It was during one of my first visits to church in the late 40s. As soon as the organ started playing, I piped up - at the top of my voice - with my version of a current hit, "Open the door, Richard"!

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Wolfhound person
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 02:58 PM

Being told I was too young (aged 4) to dance "The Old Mole" - a complicated Playford dance - at an EFDSS "do" in the New Forest.

Sitting under a table at tea in my great aunt's huge kitchen undoing everyone's shoelaces, my parents, my aunt's, Nibs Matthews, Peter Kennedy's, possibly Pat Shaw's, after a festival day with my dad dancing with Wiltshire Morris Men. Also aged 3-4

A book by Alan Lomax when I was 6-7, describing a journey by a girl overland from New York to San Fransisco, while her father went by sea "round the Horn" - it included lots of songs at appropriate moments - I can remember Springfield Mountain, Erie Canal, and Sweet Betsy from Pike - anyone know the book title?

Paws

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: folkypaul
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 02:40 PM

Is this a memory?

WhenI started going to folk clubs in the 60's I got into Irish songs and there was one "Bold Robert Emmett" which I knew the chorus of straight away.

I bought an album with it on and my Grandma was visiting when I first played it.

As she was listenign tears ran down her face and she told me that my grandfather Jack used to sing it to me when I was a baby!!!

PaulO

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Lighter
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 01:58 PM

"The Farmer in the Dell," "Old MacDonald," and "The Streets of Laredo" from (IIRC) a Hopalong Cassidy movie on our new TV.

The latter was my first musical chills-down-the-spine moment.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: MaineDog
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 10:37 AM

My mother singing "There's long, long trail a-winding". I found it somewhat unsettling, having no idea where it would lead.

I must take this opportunity to point out that Banjiman is essentially correct in his observation.

Until the advent of violent protests by PETA and their supporters,
Accordions were made by imprisoning medium-sized dogs in flexible boxes. The keys were connected to various needles, spurs, small knives and rotary drills, some of which were also capable of producing sounds of their own. The bellows served to keep the poor beast going during the repeated torture sessions. The dog survived on the rats and mice that would invade the instrument while it was kept in the attic.
MD

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: topical tom
Date: 08 Feb 09 - 10:01 AM

Thanks so much, Arkie and GUEST,DWR, for all that info, especially the link to the pictures and the songs. Yes, Arkie, you can tell Nelle that I dimly remember hearing her and Ruth sing at my uncle's home.Since I was very young (six?)at the time I do not recall what songs were sung. I do remember my father asking my uncle "Who is that singing?" and my uncle replied "It's the Poe Sisters. They're good, aren't they?" My father said that they really sang well and I said that I liked them.It's wonderful to hear this after all these years. Give my best wishes to Nelle and please tell her I thank her for the great music I heard so long ago.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: GUEST,DWR
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 09:04 PM

Nelle had a cassette made a number of years back. I have/had one, but I haven't any idea where it is at the moment. All I can tell you now is that it was good stuff. I will look for it. I know there are none at the Ozark Folk Center as they unloaded all the cassettes a couple of years ago. Time marches on. I suppose it is possible that she might still have some.

The LP that Arkie makes note of is apparently still available. This is one source that I found. It includes their picture. http://www.dagmar-anita-binge.de/lp122-poe.sisters.html If you want one, then you might ask Dick at Camsco about it.

There used to be pictures and a story of Nelle on line when she went to accept an award a couple of years ago. I could not find it today. If I saved it in any way, it will be difficult if not impossible to find.

Though I have been around Mudcat since 1997, I no longer sign in, but you can contact me here: dale8r AT hotmail.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: mkebenn
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 08:33 PM

My grand dad singing "Casey Jones" to me when his "medication" was acting up. Mike

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: Arkie
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 08:12 PM

Topical Tom, if you do not mind, I will mention to Nelle Yandell that you remembered the Poe Sisters from their radio days. I see her around town from time to time and we also visit by phone on occasion as well. Nelle and Ruth grew up in Mississippi and learned songs from the radio before they had the opportunity to join the Grand Ole Opry. They also toured with Ernest Tubb and Justin Tubb was a close friend to them through the years.

They never did record but recordings were made from radio transcriptions. Cattle released an lp of the Poe Sisters a few years back.

THE POE SISTERS - Cattle 122 - Early Stars Of The Grand Ole Opry
According to the notes: "The Poe Sisters were discovered by George D. Hay in the 1940's. All songs on this album were done on the Grand Ole Opry in Ernest Tubb's segment of the show. Justin Tubb already spread the news around on his Nashville "Midnight Jamboree" that this album gets its release. It's the first time that this Sister duo is on a record, and the original lacquer discs were cut for a personal memory only from 1944 to 1946. Ruth plays mandolin and Nelle guitar. They perform exactly in the style of the "Blue Sky Boys". If they hadn't disbanded because of marriage in the 1940's I guess they could have been the "female" Blue Sky Boys. Top oldtime pickin' and singin'-a real gem!"

Song Listing: As Long as I Live/ Don't Let Your Sweet Love Die/ False Hearted Girl/ Flower Blooming in the Wildwood/ Green Valley Waltz/ Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?/ In a Little Village Church Yard/ The Best of Friends must Part/ The Farmer's Girl./ The Farmer's Son

Ruth and Nelle stopped performing when they married and Nelle moved to New England with her husband. When they retired Nelle and Frank moved to Arkansas which was his home state. As luck would have it, they settled just outside of Mountain View. Ruth lived in Memphis for many years but may have now moved to Nashville. She was not in good health when I first met Nelle and I never did meet Ruth. She and Nelle did get an invitation to some occasion in Nashville a few years back and both attended.

Nelle kept a scrapbook of her country music days and Ronnie Pugh used her as one of his resources in writting the Ernest Tubb biography.

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: *Laura*
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 06:19 PM

I remember falling asleep under blankets at ceilidhs and people dancing all round me.
Also my dad rehearsing - I used to learn the songs before he did. It really pissed him off....

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: bubblyrat
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 12:28 PM

I suppose the first music that really made an impression,as in stimulated a real interest in "traditional" music,was listening to the radio,in about 1952 or thereabouts,and hearing the arrangement of said songs and tunes by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It still "tingles" to this day !!

Subject: RE: Earliest music memory
From: kendall
Date: 07 Feb 09 - 12:10 PM

I remember a blind street singer in Norfolk VA. when I was in the Coast Guard. He played an old Gibson J-45 with finger picks, and he was good! Had a deep voice right on key. That was in the mid 50's