It's Only Rock and Roll

I made this, be proud of me. :')

  

  With no real theme for today's post, I decided to dedicate it into the musicians who originally got me into classic rock. In chronological order of when I started liking them, here are a few of my favorites.

1.) Queen

"That's not how I pictured him!"

  To be honest, I personally feel Queen gets too much recognition simply from "Bohemian Rhapsody." But hell, that's how I found the band. I heard "Bohemian Rhapsody" in the car and absolutely loved it. I must have been about ten. I went home that night and watched the movie "Ella Enchanted," which featured a cover of Anne Hathaway singing Queen's "Somebody to Love." When I found out it was also by the band Queen, my heart nearly skipped a beat. 'Wow, this band is great! I wonder if my friends know about them.'
  I always pictured the lead singer of Queen as looking like Rod Stewart. My dad had a few Rod Stewart CDs and he played them while he cleaned once, and from there, I assumed every classic rock musician looked like him. When I first saw Freddie Mercury I made a face. 'That's not how I pictured him!' But then I watched a few videos of him performing "Under Pressure" and "Another One Bites the Dust," and my classic rock obsession began.

2.) The Kinks

Look at these groovy dudes! How can you not love 'em?

  In fifth grade my dad decided that he was going to sit down and make me listen to a few Kinks songs while I was doing my homework. I didn't mind, but I felt that "Apeman" was a little strange. However, I always secretly liked them from then on but didn't tell my dad, fearing that we had something in common. (Which was something all kids dread at that age. 'Ew, you like old people music?')
  Probably in seventh grade I became the music know-it-all in my family. This wasn't entirely true, because I barely knew classic rock. But still, I knew so-called 'modern' music more than anyone in my family, so I was dubbed the know-it-all. I remember one of my dad's friends coming over and my dad pulled out the record player. He told me to go choose any album I chose, and I chose a compilation of the Kink's greatest hits. My dad's friend was so amazed when I started singing songs like "You Really Got Me" and "Lola," even though those were the only Kinks songs I knew. Still, my liking of the Kinks progressed me further into rock n' roll.

3.) The Beatles

This was the first picture of the Beatles I ever remember seeing.

  Now, this may seem like an obvious choice, but the Beatles are still my favorite band today. They're very influential and had a great deal of fans, including me. I knew I always liked the Beatles, but my first memory was in fifth grade in history class. We were looking at a book titled 'John, Paul, George, and Ben,' which was about some of our founding fathers. Our teacher asked 'does anyone know what this is a parody of?' and some kid raised their hand saying 'the Beatles.' I remember tilting back in my seat and thinking, 'I know the Beatles! My dad likes them! There's John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr... and... George....' Ironically, George Harrison is my favorite Beatle. My first memory of actually knowing their songs was watching the movie Across the Universe with my dad, which has an entirely-Beatles soundtrack. Even though the songs are covered, I remembered really liking "Hey Jude." This was probably around sixth grade. I remember sitting in my room on my parent's laptop blasting "Hey Jude" for hours. But besides that, I didn't know too many Beatles songs.
  My next Beatle-related memory is of driving in the car when "A Day in the Life" came on. This has been my favorite Beatles song ever since. I remember shouting "Hey dad, turn it up! This is my favorite Beatles song!" From there, my liking only increased. At the end of seventh grade when I had just made my Tumblr I remember reblogging Beatles posts, although I didn't know too much about them. Their first song that I became obsessed with after listening to it on Tumblr was "She Loves You." I also recall listening to "Magical Mystery Tour" and thinking 'this song is horrible!' even though I absolutely love it now.
  From summer going into eighth grade and on, I added Beatles songs to my iPod. On a road trip to Cape Cod I remember listening to "I Feel Fine" and getting the happiest, most glowing feeling in my stomach and heart and I knew I'd become hooked. At my cousin's track meet I remember listening to "Eleanor Rigby" and "Michelle" in the car. I also remember the day I had cleared my iPod completely of songs released after the year 1990 and my friends flipped. To this day, the Beatles are my number one.

4.) The Who

So groovy, it almost hurts.

  After the Beatles, I don't recall the exact order of my liking for bands. My love of The Who still remains strong, but I don't exactly remember how I started liking them. I remember my liking of them definitely started in the eighth grade, though. I was deeply into the Beatles and I thought I'd give another one of my dad's bands a try. My dad had the Who's greatest hits album The Kids are Alright, which helped quite a bit. I remember forcing my poor modern-music-loving friend to listen to "My Generation" with me as she cringed.
  The first time I realized "Who Are You" was by The Who I had a mini panic attack. 'That's so clever, they're The Who and they named a song 'Who Are You!'' I also knew the songs "My Generation" and "Magic Bus," but from there, I knew barely nothing. At that point in my life I had no idea that less than a year later I'd be standing at their Quadrophenia concert, decked out as a mod, crying over Keith Moon and John Entwistle's deaths.

5.) Bob Dylan

The Bob Dylan poster above my bed.

  I knew what Bob Dylan looked like, but I didn't know a thing about him. I always assumed he was just another old guy singer. But after I gave all the previous bands I mentioned a try, I thought Bob Dylan was a great idea as well. My history teacher that year was a large Bob Dylan fan and told me to listen to him. And so I did. "Blowin' in the Wind" was the first song I heard. It didn't leave too much of an impression on me. But "Ballad of a Thin Man" did. I absolutely loved the sarcasm and Dylan's little chuckle towards the beginning of the song. Soon I went out and bought a Bob Dylan poster, which still proudly hangs in my bedroom.

6.) Led Zeppelin

  My very first memory of Led Zeppelin goes back before my Queen, Kinks, and Beatles memories. We had just bought my dad a record player for his birthday (I was probably in about fourth grade?) so he could play all his old albums. He had brought them down from the attic and was going through them and I was by his side. I remember asking 'why do you have two of these albums?' I was talking about Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti,' which my dad had two copies of. I also remember saying 'Woah, you have three of these!' It was three copies of Led Zeppelin's 'In Through the Out Door,' all displaying the various multiple album covers that were much collected in the late 1970's.

Such a wonderful band. And stylish, too!

  My next Zeppelin memory is being in the car at the beginning of eighth grade. I was largely into the Beatles and my dad knew that. Led Zeppelin was on the car radio and I remember my dad going 'Oh, I can't wait until you get into Zeppelin!' I remember making a disgusted face at Robert Plant's vocals and thinking, 'as if!' I also remember seeing pictures of Jimmy Page on Tumblr and thinking he was kind of cute. It wasn't until I heard 'When the Levee Breaks' that I really started loving them.
 

7.) The Rolling Stones

 Up until eighth grade, I absolutely despised the Rolling Stones. Being the large Beatles fan as I was, I knew the Stones and the Beatles were against each other. So that meant I automatically hated the Stones.

Look how young they were! And attractive... *Sighs*

  Turns out, when I still did dance in sixth grade, my dance song was "Get Off My Cloud" by the Rolling Stones. I remember really liking that song but thinking the singer's voice was too raspy. Then in seventh grade I did a flash mob whose song was "Dancing in the Street" by Mick Jagger and David Bowie, although I didn't know that until about a year later. The first song I liked after that was "Beast of Burden," and immediately after, I went out and bought a Stones shirt (which I am proudly wearing as I type) and a few of their albums. Turns out, my dad had some as well. From here on, my classic rock obsession only increased; only now, I listen to a large variety of bands, rather than just one artist.

It's Only Rock n' Roll from itsamodmodworld on 8tracks Radio.