WARNING: My dad loves to talk, so be prepared.
ME: I don’t know if I’ve really told you anything about this course I’m taking, but it’s Music of Diverse Cultures. We’re just going through different cultures of the world, and Mrs. Dr. Vaneman thought it would be really neat to talk to a parent or a family member just to see what their experience with music has been, so I was wondering what kind of music you listened to as a child?
Dad: As a child, I recall listening to Olivia Newton-John.
Pause.
Me: Is that just because she was hot?
Dad: Ummm, no . . . this was before. I mean, I don’t think I had even seen her. My first recollection of music was listening to the AM radio in my mom and dad’s car, and I want to say there were a couple of Olivia Newton-John songs that I liked that were pretty good. “Can’t Believe This Is Magic” I believe is one.
Me: Oh! I know that song.
Dad: And there were a couple others. I kind of had a feeling that this was going to be that kind of line of questioning. I was thinking about it the other day when you asked me if you could do an interview. Yeah, that was my first recollection of actually listening to music. Then about 5th or 6th grade, I came across a rock station – 98 Rock – out of St. Petersburg, Florida, and I just remember there was this song that came on that I really liked. I thought the song, the way the song went, was “Dirty Deeds and the Thunder Chief.” And when I finally went to the record store to find the album, it was AC/DC’s “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap.”
At which point we busted out laughing.
Dad: And so that was one of my early memories of music, but they [my parents] did get me a 45 – a small record player – it could play regular records and then 45’s. It came with a 45 of Elvis Presley’s “Ain’t Nothing But a Hound Dog,” which I liked. And then I also remember playing the Alvin and the Chipmunks Christmas Album.
Me: What was your favorite song?
Dad: From Alvin and the Chipmunks?
Me: Uh-huh. (So eloquent, I know.)
Dad: I think the one where Stephen Seville (I believe) yells, “ALVIN!” I think it’s called “The Chipmunk Song” if I’m not mistaken.
Me: How does it go?
Dad: Proceeds to sing. “Christmas, Christmas time is here, daa, da, daa, da, daa, da, da.” I like that. First, the chipmunks sing about what they want to have for Christmas, and then half-way through, they start discussing how the song is going, and then Stephen Seville says, “Alvin, you’re a little flat. Alvin? ALVIN!”
Dad’s Squeaky Chipmunk Voice: Okay!
I wish you could have heard my dad because he did a perfect imitation!
Me: That’s funny because I’ve heard you talk about it before, but I’ve never actually seen that movie.
Dad: Well, they’ve made movies since, but to my knowledge, it was always just a record that was put out. I’m not really sure it was originally a cartoon. I mean, I don’t remember ever seeing it as a cartoon when I was young. I just remember having the album.
Me: So, it was kind of like having books on CD?
Dad: Well, not quite. It was just done as an album. I may be wrong, but I think people were experimenting with the sound of the voice, which I think are just people’s voices speeded up, but it has that high-pitchy sound to it. I think somebody was just messing around and they said, “Well, oh, these sound like chipmunks,” and they used different recording techniques to produce that, but that I’m not sure of. Just speculation on my part.
Me: Well, what happened when you grew older? What did you start listening to?
Dad: Well, I was really big into AC/DC from around 6th grade. I pretty much listened to that exclusively. And then I want to say right around 8th grade, Grandma – your grandma, my mom – got me three albums for Christmas. One of them was Joan Jett and the Black Hearts. Another one was Triumph – I can’t remember what the album’s name was . . . I didn’t listen to that one as much. Then the third one was Van Halen II. And that was the beginning of my love affair with the Van Halen albums.
Me: So, Grandma and GranDad were supportive of the music you listened to?
Dad: For the most part. They always wanted me to turn it down, I remember that. In order for me to listen to it at decibels I wanted to listen to, I pretty much had to listen to everything before – because this was all after my parents divorced – I’d always have to listen to the music, for the most part, before Mom got home. And then, when we would go up to the farm in Missouri, I pretty much had to use the headphones, plug it into the stereo.
Me: So, overall, they were fine if you listened to rock just as long as it wasn’t too loud?
Dad: Well, yeah, I guess. I’m not really sure. I don’t think they really liked AC/DC so much, and I think that they didn’t really listen to it because they didn’t like the hard-driving sound of the band. They probably didn’t realize some of the lyrics that were going on. Overall, I’m not sure they’re really big rock fans, but they did kind of let me do my own thing as far as that’s concerned.
Me: Is that kind of how you treated me and Maria and Chase as far as what music we listened to once you became a parent?
Dad: No. I was a little more willing to censor music. There were times I would play music like Van Halen or AC/DC, but if they had a song that I didn’t think was appropriate, I would skip it.
Me: What about music that Maria and I listened to? Were you okay with me listening to Britney Spears and stuff like that?
Dad: Well, early on, yeah. She didn’t turn into a (fill in the blank) later. Her earlier stuff was fairly tame. I don’t even remember her songs, but certainly her later stuff I wouldn’t allow a younger child to listen to. I think there are certain – just like movies – you have certain levels of music. And I think it’s always been that way. A lot of music that was popular in the 50’s and 60’s had double entendre in the music, and it’s an ongoing theme throughout popular music to have double entendre. I think today perhaps there’s less double entendre and more flat-out vocalizing one’s sexual preferences and so-forth. And so it’s not quite as poetic. That’s why I think parents should censor certain music to their children until they’re able to make choices where they’re capable of understanding what’s going on.
Several minutes where we got off the subject, and my dad made fun of me.
Me: Anyway, back to music – I don’t even know how we got on that subject – Why did you listen to music?
Dad: Well, riding in the car was probably about the only thing to do back in the day, but when I started listening to AC/DC I would say that that kind of music kind of spoke to me. I know that was a tough period in my life. I think I went through a little bit of a depression over the divorce, and I didn’t really realize it until I was probably a junior, maybe a senior, in high school. But that particular time frame I was really big into AC/DC, and then right about the time I got into high school, I got more into Van Halen. And I think that spoke to me more because it was a little more upbeat. You know, let’s-have-a-good-time type of music, whereas AC/DC was sort of this grrrrr, rumbling, grinding sound, which kind of spoke more to the depressive mood that I was probably in half the time. And then, I don’t know, Van Halen just kind of stuck with me. That was the music that I most appreciated. And then I started listening to other music. I was introduced to Scott Joplin because your Uncle Aaron was learning to play piano, and he was getting sick and tired of playing Beethoven and Mozart pieces. He came across Scott Joplin and was finally able to convince his piano teacher to let him study and play it. I liked the Scott Joplin pieces, and I began to appreciate more of the Beethoven and Mozart as I heard him [Uncle Aaron] play it in recitals. But I was mostly into rock and roll, and I gradually had a little more appreciation for classical. Through Van Halen, because there’s a lot of blues- and jazz-type pieces, I became a little more interested in more classical-type jazz.
Me: So, GranDad had Aaron play an instrument, but did you just not want to play an instrument, or what was the deal with that?
Dad: I’m not really sure. I do know that I played clarinet . . .
Me: WHAT!?
Dad: . . . when I was in 3rd grade, but after doing it for a year, I wasn’t too keen on it. I was more interested in guitar going into 6th, 7th, or 8th. And then I can’t remember when I got the guitar. I got it for Christmas. I want to say I was in 10th or 11th grade. I got an electric guitar for Christmas, and I started teaching myself how to play guitar. Finally during the summer, we went to the farm. Your Uncle Aaron, one afternoon, took the guitar upstairs, and with his piano background, was able to look at the notes that I was using, – trying to learn how to play this guitar piece from Guns N’ Roses called “Patience” – and he learned how to play it in an afternoon.
Me: Aw.
Dad: And I’d been working on it for a couple months, and so I finally just said, “Tell you what. You go ahead and take the guitar.” And he started learning how to play guitar and then started taking lessons, and he became pretty proficient at it.
Me: Do you kind of wish that you hadn’t quit?
Dad: I don’t regret not doing clarinet, but I wish that I had got lessons – either piano lessons or guitar lessons when I was younger.
Me: Interesting. I did NOT know you played the clarinet, Dad.
Dad: I played it for one year. It was just basic stuff, and I just remember at one recital we did “We Three Kings of Orient Are,” and I learned some Christmas pieces and that was about it. I just kind of got fed up with it. I didn’t really much care for the clarinet.
Me: Other than the radio, was there any other way for you to listen to music? Did you guys have walkmans yet, or did you go to concerts?
Dad: No. When I was in high school, the boombox was just kind of coming out. That was the portable music device of our time. In fact, when I was a junior, I had sort of a medium-sized one. My dad had a pick-up truck that did not have a radio in it, and as we went to look at colleges, I bought a bunch of cassette tapes to play in the boombox while we were riding in the truck. That was essentially our portable music back then. Walkmans came out, and I didn’t get a walkman because I had the boombox, and I was listening to most of my music at home anyway. And back then, it was kind of a luxury item to have something like a walkman. They weren’t as cheap as they are now, and I didn’t come from a very wealthy family, so that was kind of seen as more of a luxury item. I do remember getting into college, and my freshman year – that would have been 1987 – a guy on the football team had an interesting device. It was a Sony discman – the first portable disc player that I’d seen, and I remember listening to a few songs on his discman. I was kind of intrigued by that.
Me: So, the walkman was kind of like when the iPod came out?
Dad: Yeah, the walkman was kind of an iPod, and the discman was kind of an advanced version of the walkman. The only problem with the discman that I recall was that it had a tendency to skip if you jolted it too much, so I kind of wasn’t too, too impressed . . . I was impressed enough that I liked the sound quality, but why would somebody want a discman that every time you bump it, it has a tendency to skip?
Me: I know you said you listened to rock, and you were exposed to classical music through Uncle Aaron, but were you ever exposed to music outside of American culture, like African music or Latin American music, or anything like that?
Dad: Does Gloria Estefan count? I remember hearing a little Gloria Estefan when I was younger. I do remember listening to the Top 40 countdown on the weekends. You get a good slice of different songs, different kinds of music. I was listening to see where Van Halen might have placed with their new album, and you’d wind up hearing Michael Jackson, Gloria Estefan, all these other bands of music. You know, you’re mom introduced me to Carlos Vives, and I loved his song “Driving the El Camino” – I figure that’s what it sounds like when I’m hearing it. That’s about the extent of my exposure to that kind of music.
Me: Well, since technology has really advanced, especially since I’ve grown up, have you been exposed to anything through that within the past couple of years?
Dad: Where does Zuzu fall into that?
Me: Oh my GOD. Um.
This is where we broke into hysterical laughter.
Me: I am not quite sure myself, so we’ll just leave that one alone.
Another several minutes ensued where we got off topic while my dad talked about the hot women on Telemundo.
Me: Moving on. Did you try to introduce us to certain kinds of music?
Dad: Oh, yeah. I liked introducing you guys to the music that I grew up with and that I liked, so obviously I exposed you guys to a lot of AC/DC, Van Halen , Aerosmith, Mötley Crüe . . . censored Mötley Crüe! And Ozzy Osbourne, but a lot of the rock music that I like tends to be very, in my opinion, well-put together. It has a lot of elements that a lot of classical music has. Music may start off fast, slow down in the middle, pick up again. It’s very complex, unlike a lot of popular rock and pop music where it just sounds the same all the way through. That’s one of the things that helps me determine whether or not music is good or not, is if it has the ability to morph a little bit as opposed to just being so . . . the same. And I try to expose you guys to that music that I like, which I feel has those qualities.
Me: Do you think that helped us become good musicians?
Dad: I think so. I think you guys recognize good music, whether it’s in the realm of rock or the realm of classical.
Me: Last question. This is a big one! I’m kind of interested to see if you get it right. Do you remember what you used to sing me to sleep EVERY night?
Dad: Yeah. I used to sing several things. I would sing Silent Night. I also sang MLK. It’s a song from U2. The one that goes, “Sleep, sleep tonight, and may your dreams be realized.” I would try to sing you stuff that was conducive to sleeping, so there was a lot of “I love you, you love me.” We would sing Barney songs and what-not, but I would sing Silent Night because it’s in my range for the most part.
Me: Well, I think I’ve covered pretty much everything in a nutshell.
Dad: Well, let me know what grade I get for my autobiography!
That is a really abrupt ending, but that’s what happened. :-)
