Music and Family
Hey guys! For my Music and Family section, I interviewed my grandparents.
Question:
"What kind of music was popular when you were growing up?"
Grandma: Elvis Presley was popular when I was growing up, he was a big thing. In the 60's the Beach Boys.
Me: What about you, Grandpa?
Grandpa: Well, I was born in 1946, so when I was old enough to listen to music, it was the Rock and Roll Revolution, so they had Elvis Presley was the biggest, but they had Jerry Lee Lewis, Fatz Domino, and all the 50's doo wop was popular, the stuff you hear on PBS today. Then, as a teenager, we had groups like the 4 Seasons that were at the top of the charts then, in the 60's The British Invasion.
Grandma: The Beatles!
Grandpa: The Beatles, The Dave Clark 5, The Rolling Stones, The Who, all these groups from England became big.
Grandma: Jefferson Airplane.
Grandpa: And then there was a whole Vietnam Era of Music of war protest even with the Folk music in the early 60s-65s. So, the Folk music was geared to a lot of anti-war sentiment. Then, in the 60's, there were the hard rock bands, like Ozzie Ozbourne and Iron Maiden and Iron Butterfly and all these groups. So, these were my earlier days before age 20.
Grandma: There you go - I agree with that.
Question:
Me: What was y'all's favorite genre or musical artist? What did you typically listen to?
Grandma: The Beatles were my favorite.
Me: What was your favorite song?
Grandma: Oh gosh, well I think the very first one was "I Want to Hold Your Hand." That was the first one I think they made famous was "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I don't know - what were some others, Art (my grandpa)?
Grandpa: *Singing* All my lovin'...
Grandma: Yeah - "All My Lovin', by The Beatles.
Grandpa: *Singing again* Hey Jude
Grandma: Yeah - "Hey Jude" by The Beatles
Me: Oh Yes!! I love that one.
Grandma: I saw the Beatles in 1964 at the Gator Ball in Jacksonville. I still have the ticket that says $5 to get in. I was in the 7th grade and my mother took me and my best friend Anne to see the Beatles.
Me: Oh wow!
Grandma: Yes - they were my favorite group and the Beach Boys. All of the California Surfing Songs they were all popular. Especially since I lived in Florida and grew up there. Of course a lot of boys in my class would take half days and go to the beach. They would come to school with their surf boards on top and then leave after lunch. I guess just skip class or whatever...and they would all head to the beach and go surfing the whole afternoon.
Me: What about you, Grandpa?
Grandpa: Well, the favorite music, which I grew up, of course, in the 60s, and we had Rock n' Roll shows that started at 10 in the morning and went until midnight and everybody bought tickets for the whole day and everybody- the Shirrelles, you've probably never heard of them, Souldier Boy, songs like that, the Ronnets, all the people who sang...the black artists, the white artists.
Grandma: Kind of like Dion!
Grandpa: Yeah, and Dion Dimucci, who I lived across the street from, yeah I grew up with Dion. So Run around Sue, and all those songs. That was kind of my favorite music. Then in the 60s - anything guitar related. Long guitar solos good guitar players, and The Beatles, they played a lot of guitar, but in the 60s there were a lot of songs centered around guitar music, and even still today.
Question:
Me: "Were you a part of a musical group in high school? Choir, band, or orchestra?" Weren't you in band, Grandpa?
Grandma: I was - not in band, but concert choir from Junior high all the way through high school. In fact, I was even in what they called back then, a sextet - a group of 6 of us girls and we went around singing! And usually we would be singing with a choir and then we would come out - the 6 of us - and sing our songs too. Then, at church, I was also in the Folk group, you know, with the guitars and everything. Then, personally, I took piano lessons from the 5th grade all the way through the 12th grade and was in a piano recital every year. Even in college, I was in the concert choir all 4 years. We went in with the drama department and did musicals. The drama department would do the acting part, and we would do the small parts and do the singing in the concert choir in college. Then, my college roommate taught me how to play the guitar, so I played the piano and the guitar and sang - I like to sing.
Grandpa: Well, everybody was on street corners in New York singing ocopela except me. Everybody in my high school was going to be in the choir except me - you can hear from my voice. Now, there is music in my family. My father had a stratavarious and could play the violin. He was really good, but not me, I could never follow and never do that. And Joe, our son - he's in a rock band today and has been for years since high school, and he's really good. But it never caught on with me, I can't play the piano, never took lessons, and I can't sing.
Me: Yeah, I was in chorus when I was little...
Grandpa: And you played the violin!
Me: And I played the violin, the Cajón, and Djembé.
These were just a few responses to questions I asked my grandparents. If you would like to listen to more, the recording is below! :)
Hey Landon, I love that you chose to interview your grandparents instead of your parents. it's interesting to get the perspective of a different generation. Elvis and the rock era is such a cool time period of music. I cant tell you how many times ive heard " hey Jude " also.
ReplyDeleteHi Landon! Your grandparents are actual music legends! This interview is amazing! It feels like you're time traveling through music with them. Your grandma seeing The Beatles for $5?! That's insane! The way they casually dropped names like Elvis and I ron Maiden is incredible. Also, the little details like surfboards on cars in Florida, made their stories feel so alive. It's wild how music wasn't just background noise; it was everything for them.
ReplyDeleteNah thats wild they were having the cheap concerts for 5 dollars unimaginable now, also not really suprised by the music taste my grandparents have a very similar even though they are from different places of life.
ReplyDeleteHearing them talk about music together is so sweet! I can't wait to grow old with a partner I share music with for years. It's interesting to see how many different eras of music that they've lived through and their opinions on each--they make me excited to live through future musical eras
ReplyDelete