Brian Wilson, at the Beach Boys’ 1988 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: “When I was a teenager, I listened to the Four Freshmen and Frank Sinatra. That got me through high school.”
What music got you through high school? Me: the Beatles, Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi John Hurt.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Brian Wilson, getting
through high school
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comments: 7
Simon & Garfunkel, Broadway shows (RENT, Wicked, Les Mis), Alanis Morissette, Dave Matthews Band, Sarah McLachlan, and whatever my family was listening to/playing. And before you say anything, Dad, Spice Girls was got me through 5th-8th grades, but I cooled off a little on it in high school.
Word verifiction: luddyvo. So close to the last name!
I’d never have made it through high school without the Replacements’ third LP, Let It Be (whose anxiety-of-influence title links nicely to your Beatles selection, Michael, and which features the deadly accurate and teen-angsty ballad, "Sixteen Blue"). Also essential and life saving: The Velvet Underground, especially VU and The Velvet Underground and Nico. Oh, and pretty much every single Elvis Costello song recorded between My Aim is True (1977) and Imperial Bedroom (1982). This last fact reminds me to complain that a recent NY Times review by Janet Maslin demolishes the new Bret Easton Ellis novel, Imperial Bedrooms, as a poor sequel to Less Than Zero but fails to mention that both titles allude to Elvis Costello songs/records. Sigh.
The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, the Beatles.
Simon and Garfunkel, Jethro Tull, Queen, the Beatles, as best I can recall. College was a completely different story.
Wow, I'm impressed that you listened to Hooker in high school - I didn't discover him until college. The only high school music I'll willingly confess to is The Who and George Thorogood. There are several skeletons in that closet that I'll only divulge after a few drinks.
For me it was Ives' Concord Sonata, all three of the Brahms Piano Quartets, Josquin and Monteverdi (as recorded by the New York Pro Musica), Bach Cantata 78 and the Magnificat, and Mozart Symphonies, in addition to all the music I was practicing at the time.
Rachel, I wouldn’t have asked you about the Spice Girls here, honest.
Stefan, I’m wondering how you acquired Velvet Underground records in downstate Illinois.
I should have added the Mahavishnu Orchestra: I was also listening to “fusion” in high school.
Thanks, everyone, for your recollections.
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