and my parents were bemused by the audience reaction, the clothing, the haircuts, and of course I loved it.

Not only was my father an old fogy about music, he was a tightwad about non-essential spending.

One day I came home from school, and my father (his day off) said, "Why don't you turn on the stereo (bought second-hand from a friend of his, of course)--just play whatever is on there."

Like an unsuspecting dope, I turned it on--and it was the Beatles' first album!! I couldn't believe it! My god--my father had made a frivolous purchase--and for me! I would never have dared to even suggest I'd like a Beatles record, not even for Christmas.

He was delighted by my reaction, and I was just over the moon.

I think he bought it out of his being so tickled by the reaction of the girls in Ed Sullivan's audience.

Thanks, Ed!

That was nice of your father. I remember my mom during the broadcast saying they looked nicely dressed and dad moaning about they needed haircuts lol he hadn't seen anything yet!

I have an LP of cover songs. Chains (my babys got me locked up in chains) is the only song I recall on it now.

It probably had some covers (I think "Chains" was on it)--the cover was dark with the four lads' heads pretty much filling it up.

My father was a farmer and had the musical taste one might expect from a southern worker of the soil. However, my mother's youngest brother (who was ten years younger than myself and was my mojo for my entire youth) actually took my father with him to see some of the greatest acts in rock music. My farmer father saw Alice Cooper twice, Creedence Clearwater Revival twice, Zeppelin once, Grand Funk a few times, and so on. It just goes to show you that you should never judge a book by its cover. He was a big Alice Cooper fan, btw. One has not lived until you have been driving the fields with your father while he listens to 'Schools Out' and then going into 'Ring Of Fire'.

I am sure I'd have fit in with all of you, those are all great bands. Other than Led Zeppelin, I have been to their shows in the past. John Fogerty, Jimmy Page and Mark Farner are all favorites of mine.

The first concert my parents took myself and next youngest brother to was Eddie Arnold and the Cowsill's. We loved it! The Cowsill's btw were the inspiration for The Partridge Family starring Shirley Jones and David Cassidy. My father worked at the local newspaper and was given free tickets or we would not have been there but am very glad that we were.

We were not exactly wealthy nor did we live close to anything, but Norfolk Scope and Hampton Roads Coliseum were about an hour north of me and I did live about 40 minutes away from one of the bigger clubs in North Carolina at the time (The Attic in Greenville... I saw several big names before they were big there). My mother took me to see The Eagles (her fave band at the time) at Norfolk Scope for 'The Long Run' tour. They opened with 'Hotel California'. You know, I find my taste very eclectic but that is because of that varied upbringing I had. In fact, comedian Tim Wilson pretty much summed up what it was like growing up where I did and with whom I grew up with. (Minus the drug use, we knew nothing about that.)

Mom was an accomplished pianist and sat on the bench with a few of the players. The Fillmore area
was a Black neighborhood then, (late 30's). 30 years later, I went to the Fillmore Ballroom many times to see all
the great old bands. The Dead, Santana, CCR, Jethro Tull, It's a Beautiful Day, on and on, more than
I can remember (I wonder why).

His early material was straight-up hard rock with a bit of an edge, but his stage persona was over the top. He ratcheted it up over time.

He's one of those artists who has a schtick that gets all the attention but slips in some really good musicianship on you.

I got to see him at the Akron Rubber Bowl in the 70's and he was wild to say the least. He cut watermelons in half and walked around stage with them on each foot lol we all were laughing.

Bob Dylan and John Lennon were fans of his. Lennon's favorite song of Cooper's was Elected and Bob Dylan remarked that Alice Cooper's music writing was under-appreciated.

Alice Cooper is a big production now, and really a solid choice for an opening arena act. He doesn't take himself too seriously and puts on a great entertaining show.

The highlight for me was "Poison". The 80's were so great because you had these 70's guys in the mix still finding ways to stay relevant. The 90's killed everything that came before.

I mowed yards as a teenage boy (typically 75 cents including hand-clipper trim) and saved my money to buy my first ham radio rig with some help from my parents. Fast forward to 1970 when I graduated with a BS in electrical engineering. I'll never forget traveling to my university the summer of '65 when I was still flipping a coin between music and engineering.

Did you ever get that guitar? Raised close to Nashville, I've always wanted to learn guitar but now too damned old.....


KY..............

and there were a number of sites, including youtube videos. Go for it!

my hesitancy is due to arthritis in my hands and I currently have one finger in each hand out of joint. Not looking forward to what the doctors are going to say, but that's what happens when I have brain farts and think I'm 39 again while working with my tools.

I even have a nice acoustic guitar that a buddy re-strung for me for left-handed play. I am also fortunate to have a very nice electric piano left over from my kids and may try some lessons just for fun. I just love the harmonic sounds of string instruments, particularly when they play those "happy" cords. That helps to keep my depression in-check.

Currently, I'm playing around with some small inexpensive electronic music synthesizers that are a blast to play with.

KY

It was an impulse purchase. I hadn't met my wife yet and living in the first home I bought myself. I was 22 and thought I would try and teach myself ala Jimi Hendrix (self-taught, left handed guitarist and one of the GOAT's) Didnt happen lol just ummmm.....NO lol.

Where did I leave that darn accordion??

my parents gave me ACCORDION LESSONS ....!!!
all I can say is that it did not last long

Accordions do not seem to attract the opposite sex lol

(With apologies to Judy Tenuta.)

“She asked me why the singer’s name was Alice
I said Listen baby you really wouldn’t understand.”

that's from Be My Lover

Nice place but a long drive from SE Az. I think I got home at 4AM.

It was a summer camp counselor in Culver, Indiana that was my inspiration. 1962. Folk songs, Peter, Paul and Mary, Ricky Nelson...then came the Beatles. Electric guitars and amplifiers...garage bands and girls. America was the greatest place on earth until the "British Invasion". My favorite band at the time was The Dave Clark Five, only because the girls were all Beatles all the time. Finding out Ringo Starr was really Richard Starkey broke my sweetheart's heart. For about 5 minutes....

you made some great memories of mine, come to my mind......

I threw both the Denver Post and RM News back in late fifties and early sixties.........I lied about my age, you were supposed to be 12 and I was only eleven. Getting up at 3:00 am to throw the News and also the same time to throw the Denver Post on Sundays....
Year round, winter storms were the worse for trying to deliver the paper, in the dark, and having to hand walk my bike because of the snow.
I had somewhere around 125 customers, 137 for Sundays...

Today, it would be classified as child abuse..........LOL

Those were some large routes, I had 58 on mine and it was an afternoon paper at the time. But I sure do remember the snowy cold winters. All worth it and honestly, the money my parents had me save I was able to pay cash for my first car. A '67 Ford Galaxy 500 new to me in 1973. I did eventually sell it for more than I paid for it to a collector. It was still in mint shape and low miles.

we made 15 cents a month for each customer..........on top of that, the F'ing Denver Post and the News both made us buy our own rubber bands.......and if any customer complained about anything, true or not, we were docked their 15 cents for a month.....

My older cousins were eagerly anticipating it, though, and I wanted to see them. Now Uncle R had a big house and more than one TV, so the cousins could gather in the room where it was and watch.

My family, on the other hand, had only one TV, and it is was in the living room. And when Dad was home, he was the one who called the shots. Period. I can remember watching afternoon cartoons when I got home from kindergarten and then Dad would come home, take one look at the TV, say, "What is this bullshit?" and change the channel.

He did like Ed Sullivan - it was always a 'really big shew!' in our house when he was on.

So the night came!

Ed looked a bit pained, like a guy who had strained his back. He always looked like he was strapped to a board. So he says, "And now, The Beatles!"

John, Paul, George and Ringo trotted out, and my dad said, "Goddamn long-hairs" and walked over to the TV and changed the channel. No remotes then.

Dang. That's OK, though. I long since made up for it by getting most of their albums, and certainly I watch some of their live performances on YouTube.

Lots of fun to read memories.
My dad was a cool jazz fan, so was pretty open minded.
The only thing that worried them is that getting into rock music would ruin my focus on jazz piano.
Back then, it didn't. But, after college I played only in rock bands. So, .maybe it did. LOL!
My parents both thought The Beatles were pretty good.
Sabbath & the glitter rock stuff were the only stuff they didn't like me playing loud.
Overall, very little pushback in our house.
Oh, and...
My dad heard me listening to Yes. (Pretty sure it was Yessongs, the live album.) He was impressed!

I too was lucky my parents were open minded other than dad about Alice Cooper the one time. He was shocked to hear he was a she lol.

Oh man I wore out the Yes song Roundabout back then, I couldn't get enough of it.