Music was a big part of my childhood. My mom even played music extra loud while I was in-utero because she wanted me to love music, and this was in 1963, long before hipster moms glomed onto the idea of trying to influence their babies while they were still chillin' in the womb. Once I was outta there, it was mostly stuff like Elvis & Johnny Cash records for my mom, while my dad had a Latin easy listening lean, stuff like Herb Alpert & Mexican Joe. They were still in their early 20s, so while their tastes were rooted in the 1950s, they'd still pick up the odd contemporary single, things like The Monkees' I'm a Believe & Last Train to Clarksville, but it was mostly country music stuff from them beyond that.
The real eye/ear opener for me as a kid was the day the babysitter brought over her newly purchased copy of The Beatles Yellow Submarine. It being released in 1969, I couldn't have been more than 5, going on 6. I can remember it so clearly, being in the living room, sitting with her on the floor next to the big old console stereo and her showing me this record. The cover of it was marvelous, so colorful and strange! Coming into my sense of self-consciousness in the late 1960s was a weird time because psychedelia was in full swing and it had an immediate appeal for a kid like me with its bright colors and fantastical imagery. It most definitely became a foundation memory for me in terms of guiding my quests for the unusual.
When she put the record on, I recall being transfixed by the music. It was so different from anything I'd really heard before and so instantly memorable. The hooks in the songs sunk into you and never let go. You heard this stuff once and were humming it forever afterwards.
I had no idea of what went into making this music back then nor how sophisticated it was in terms of its production, arrangements and execution. All I knew was that I wanted to find more music like this. It would be several years before my record collecting obsession would fully kick into gear in 1977, but this album was the one that got me to perceive the medium as something special and collectible, objects worth coveting. At the time, however, all I knew was that I also wanted to live in a Yellow Submarine.
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