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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2024 - 8:04 AM
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By: |
Thor
(Member)
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....and, more importantly for this forum, did any of them have any influence on your taste in music? Maybe even film music?
I realize this might be too personal for some, and I also realize some of you may have had problematic relationships to your parents, but it's an interesting topic, I think.
I can start off:
Both of my parents are still around. My mother (71) is interested in music, but none of which I have latched on to. Her greatest idol is Cliff Richard, whom she met once. My father (74), on the other hand, is a different story. I don't have the best relationship to him on a personal level, but there's no doubt that he has influenced my musical taste greatly.
I was born in 1977. As a tiny kid in the early 80s, I could overhear him play his classical records, and hated most of it. But in the mid 80s, when I was 7-8 years old, he gave me a bunch of cassettes that he had taped off of friends' LPs. They became my first serious forray into music beyond children's records. There was prog rock, jazz, pop, everything, really, but mostly from the 60s and 70s. They became my first passion. From those, I found my own favourites - Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Manfred Mann's Earthband, Jethro Tull, The Alan Parsons Project, you name it.
Simultaneously, I discovered (on my own) electronic music and Jean Michel Jarre in the late 80s, plus those "LSO Plays Classic Rock" albums. Being attuned to long instrumental passages in these things (electronic music and prog rock), and getting used to the orchestral music I hated as a tiny kid, the pathway to film music and soundtracks wasn't very long. I latched on to that ca. 1990, through the holy threesome of TWIN PEAKS, THE ABYSS and JURASSIC PARK. So via some roads, my dad is responsible for me being here on FSM in the first place.
He's still a music buff (mostly classical and jazz, occasionally some rock), and also a HiFi buff with a High End system. He cleans his LPs (thousands of them) and plays them constantly, much to my mother's dismay. I was never really able to influence him back; to get him into film music. Despite several attempts. But he's open to it.
Anyways, that was my parent/music story, told as briefly as I could. I'd love to hear yours, if you want to share.
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Anyways, that was my parent/music story, told as briefly as I could. I'd love to hear yours, if you want to share.
Thanks for sharing this, very interesting.
This is of course quite personal... my parents, unfortunately, are long gone. (In fact, I am considerably older now than my parents ever got to be.) But while I had them, I had very loving and supporting parents, so they definitely had a huge, positive influence on me. In a way, they were very "classic" parents, and I am so happy to have had them. My father was an intellectual, very rational person, who spoke several languages, had read thousands of books, could discuss Nietzsche, Dostojewski, Hemingway and Schopenhauer with anyone... and would. He loved classical music, especially Brahms & Wagner, but also Dimitri Tiomkin (his favorite film composer, he was quite a film buff as well). My dad was the type of person who would explain anything to a kid without talking down to them. My mother was a very sweet, gentle person, very "nurturing". She liked classical music as well, though wasn't much of a collector. But she especially liked Schubert. We had a piano at home, but it's rare someone actually played something on it.
I grew up listening to a lot of classical music, obviously, it was always "there", but it were special moments that made me pay attention. When I was in 2nd grade, we listened to Smetana's "The Moldau" in school, which was perhaps the first classical piece of music (apart from Peter and the Wolf) I really "got". I loved that, so my dad gave me a recording of it (on cassette tape).
One day, my dad was listening to a piece of music (an opera) that had a really scary scene.... it was the "Wolfsschlucht" scene from DER FREISCHÜTZ by Carl Maria von Weber. Gee, that sure made me look up from my Legos and shudder. Years later, I searched to find that exact recording I heard as a kid (it was the Carlos Kleiber recording) to get that on CD.
So I basically always had classical music around, and I always loved movies as well (and as far back as I remember I always noticed the music in movies... even in cartoons that I watched as a child). I would say my love for books and music is probably something I "inherited" from my parents.
Fun side fact: while I was interested and fascinated by film and TV music early on -- I audio taped sometimes movies and TV shows from the TV (my dad got me an audio cassette recorder I could connect with a cable to the TV), so I could listen to them (and the music) whenever I wanted -- I didn't actually know there were film scores released on album. When I was 13, a friend of mine lend me the film scores to STAR WARS and STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE, and I was hooked. So I loved both classical and film music early on.
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No, they're both passed away. My big sister introduced me to movie music. She bought a Superman Disco tape in the late 70's and listening to it was a mind blowing experience, I could listen to tunes which I had just recently heard in cinema. This was just before VHS recorders came, so there wasn't a way to see or listen to new movies on television. Soon after that I found original soundtrack albums and started to collecting them. A hobby that has lasted now 45 years. There's primarily three movies and composers which made me a soundtrack enthusiast, these are three Johns: John Williams (Superman the Movie), John Barry (Moonraker) and John Scott (The Final Countdown). It could have almost been four Johns, but John Carpenter's Halloween came a bit later on VHS.
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Thank you for sharing - and what a beautiful idea for a thread!
I was born in 1969, and my father (who died in 2022 at the age of 85) was not a real fan of music. He did enjoy dixieland jazz but that's it. My mother (still around, now 85 herself) enjoyed classical music but was very open to the kind of music I discovered during my formative teenage years: soundtracks and a variety of pop/rock. My older sister was just listening to what was "in" at the time, not following any artist.
So I actually had to find my own way musically - and I will always be grateful to Queen (my first pop/rock love) and John Williams (my first score love, STAR WARS, naturally, because I saw the movie and wanted to listen to that music again). From then onwards I became a huge score fan (which certainly was, um, heard at our house day in, day out) - but I was careful to get my mother on my side by making her mix tapes with the "nice" tracks (no action music, more the concert suites of beautiful themes), so my music taste could develop without getting any pushback.
Later on, my wife did enjoy some of my film music - but on car trips it´s mostly pop/rock music we both connect to. Film music, however, is part of my daily routine. I always put it on when I'm working, to be inspired or to get into the particular mood the current script is demanding.
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Both my parents are still around. Dad is 85 and mum is nearly 83. Neither are 100%, obviously. Mum is bed bound, which is hard work. Dad still mooches around the house. Right now he's in the back garden playing with his drill and some wood. He still does the cooking, most of the time.
Where I got my love of classical music from I don't know. My dad said he had classical LPs but I don't recall him playing any after I came along. I remember him listening to - Jim Reeves, Slim Whitman, Hank Willliams ,Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash etc. Mum had a few likes- Elvis, Franky Vaughan but usually said that she didn't like everything by anyone but some of this and some of that.
My interest on film music came from tv. Watching the dollars films and other Italian Westerns that occasionally aired on tv back then. Obviously it was Ennio in the lead. And then going the cinema expanded my interest.
One thing - they never said ' turn that shit off'.
Oh, I'm 58 in a few days
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2024 - 9:17 AM
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By: |
Tall Guy
(Member)
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I’m the only survivor of my childhood family, which bothers me every day. As a kid I grew up listening to my dad’s LPs of The Alamo and (a little later) You Only Live Twice and OHMSS. My brother, who was 7 years older than me (and who I’m now older than by two years following his death in 2014) used to take me to the pictures quite a lot when I was in my early teens where much of the music stuck, from Assault on Precinct 13 to Get Carter to Enter the Dragon to Earthquake to Where Eight Bells Toll.
I may not have been quite old enough to see some of those films, but the staff never asked questions!
Dad, being a working class kid from the Leeds backstreets, had worked his way through National Service and engineering City & Guilds to provide a better life for himself and his family, and was getting the benefit of that in his 40s, respectable house in a decent area, all that stuff, big company car, and was buying the occasional classical LP to expand his musical knowledge. He was struck down at 47 by a fatal heart attack, probably brought on by hard work and stress.
I still have every one of the LPs he owned, right back to the scratchiest version of The Alamo imaginable. Nothing to play them on, of course, but that doesn’t matter.
My mum used to listen to Radio 2 while doing the housework but wasn’t especially musical. She died of old age and covid four years ago at the age of 90. I’m glad at least that one of my parents got to meet their grandchildren.
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Mine are both still around. My mom indirectly got me into Herrmann by introducing me to Hitchcock when I was still in elementary school. Basically, she was assigned to watch Vertigo for a class she was taking at a community college and I decided to watch it with her and from then on I was hooked on Hitchcock and Herrmann. Other than that, I don’t think they understand my fascination with film scores, unless it’s John Williams.
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Posted: |
Nov 1, 2024 - 10:09 AM
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By: |
Richard May
(Member)
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My parents are currently both around. They met at Music college in Birmingham, England, many years ago. My dad played cello in the Liverpool Philharmonic for several years with Sir Charles Groves. My mum was a music teacher and taught me the piano.
I believe he played a few concerts with Ron Goodwin. He told me the story around William Walton, Ron Goodwin and the Battle of Britain - how Walton’s music was rejected but Olivier insisted that at least some of his music was kept - way before it was commonly discussed in film music circles.
Later my dad became a peripatetic cello teacher in schools, he also played for the county’s orchestra made up of fellow instrumental music teachers. I remember their orchestra came to the school I attended and hearing them play Star Wars main theme in the school hall as I lined up for a PE lesson. Shivers done my spine. So many well known themes tend to lose their tingle factor due to repeat listens, but that memory helps keep that theme fresh for me.
When my mum discovered my enjoyment of film music, she bought many piano arrangements of film and TV themes to encourage me. I remember her finding an LP of The Black Hole and that plus a copy of an EMI compilation of James Bond themes (must have been around 1983 since FYEO was the last track) got my hooked on John Barry. She also bought a copy of Goldsmith’s Masada on cassette. She then bought me Star Trek II and III on LP (TMP wasn’t “in print” according to normal record shops) and that James Horner. Then I discovered Silva Screen records from a compilation of TV themes and along with Dean Street records, I got a flood of Goldsmith, Williams, Horner and Barry.
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Both parents have passed away. My relationship with both of them went through rocky patches over the years, but at the time of my Mom's passing she and I were relatively close. My Dad was an imposing, volatile, and emotionally un-self-aware guy who had gone through much trauma in his life -- including serving in the Pacific during WWII in and around New Guinea, and having an abusive father. He and I were never truly bonded in a father/son way, but after my Mom died, he and I also became a tad bit closer. I remember my nephew and his wife visiting us at a family reunion later in Dad's life after Mom passed, with their new baby son, and they asked him what I and my sister had been like as kids. He answered after a brief pause with complete honesty, "Well, I don't really know as I was never around." They were stunned.
My Dad was a pragmatic, nuts and bolts guy, appropriate for a former Army Corp of Engineers member and training officer. He had little use for movies, music, and books (although he did read later in life which always surprised me). My Mom loved music and movies -- and also reading. She was probably most responsible for my love of the arts. She introduced me to our local movie theater when I was very very little. And of course, the local public library. I think I've relayed the probable family myth that she and my Dad were at the movies for a rare movie night when she went into labor with me. They always told us that they'd gone to "The Greatest Show on Earth", and sat through the movie until the end even though my Mom's labor pains started, and then went from the movie theater to the hospital where I made my first starring appearance. She loved that movie! Both of them encouraged me to study hard and to apply to good schools. They offered no resistance when I chose a double major in arts related fields, although years later my Dad said he'd hoped I would become a lawyer. Who knew? He also built a bookcase for me when I was in High School when I outgrew the shelves in my bedroom -- and racks for my lps.
Mom had a lot of 78's of mainly swing music like Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey -- and she also loved Frank Sinatra so we had a nice selection of standards when we were little kids. When she started working for a local radio station, she'd bring home any of the promotional lps that they wouldn't be playing on air -- mainly classical music and rock/pop with some soundtracks now and then. And my sister, 4 years older than me, was also raised to enjoy music, movies, and books. My sister played violin in the school orchestra, and I ended up playing a Baritone/Euphonium in our band from grade school through High School.
When I did a blind audition for the radio station along with about 20 other kids in my high school, they picked me to become a very young DJ/announcer, and my access to music just multiplied exponentially from that time on. I purchased lps with some of my salary every month, along with books.
So I owe a huge thanks to Mom and Dad -- Mom for the proactiveness and Dad for never offering up any roadblocks to my developing interests.
Great topic. Thanks Thor!
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My dad passed away in 2011. My mom is still alive, as a very healthy 83 year old.
Both of them were/are musical. Important genres being jazz and classical. My mom sings in a choir. My dad played the piano.
I didn't really get my music interest from them, though.
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Both mom and dad are lo longer here but they both built in me a keen awareness and appreciation for music. Music was ALWAYS playing in our house. My dad played trumpet in the army and that interest followed him for the rest of his life. He influenced my brother to take up music in high school and he went on to become a professional musician. Dad played classical in the background all the time. Mom was a huge fan of Count Basie and Duke Ellington so big band was often heard coming from the record player. Although there was plenty of vocal music in my upbringing I think it was this early exposure to purely instrumental music that helped me come to appreciate symphonic and film music. Even before I knew who the composers were I remember my brain tuning in on the music when I watched TV or movies. Yep, Mom and Dad and my whole family life set the stage for my love of orchestral and film music alright.
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