When I look at my tastes and interests in music, I can trace back a lot of their origins to my parents. Both are born in the 1940s on the island of Curacao, so what was their musical influence on me?
First of all, I have to explain that I started listening to my parents music collection at the age of six or seven. My first memory of musical enjoyment was of Melanie, the 70s folk singer. I even remember having a poster of her hanging in my room.
The first album I remember actually putting on the turntable myself was the Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack. I played that sucker endlessly and I even went to see the movie twice; possibly not a movie for a seven year old but it was fun!
Another conscious musical discovery: the Beatles. My dad had the Red Best of Album (1962-1966); I remember playing those songs and learning the lyrics without sometimes understanding what they meant: what’s a Paperback Writer and what’s with the Norwegian Wood? Uhm.. What’s Paperback? Somehow I’ve always related with the Nowhere Man lyrics, funny..
The old man also had some 70s rock in his collection: ELO, Boston, Chicago (yuck!) and.. Alice Cooper.
Again, I didn’t get all the lyrics, but my parents were getting worried about their nine year old, singing You Can Go To Hell, word by word with a nasty growl in my throat..
Less than an hour from Venezuela, there also was a South American influence in my dad’s collection: can’t remember most of the artists, but he had some tapes of Latin Crooner Nelson Ned aka El Pequeno Gigante (The Little Giant and yes, he’s tiny or more PC: vertically challenged). Didn’t really work for me. I didn’t get into the whole Latin thing.
Classical music, yes! Well, kinda. We had this cassette tape by Waldo de los Rios, with modern interpretations of Classical music Classics. Have a look/listen on Youtube, I’m too ashamed to embed the man’s music. I think many serious fans of Classical music will have a tough time appreciating these (re)arrangements 
I knew a limited number of Classical songs by heart without knowing their title or their importance, let alone how they originally should have sounded.
Let’s not forget my mom: from her I got my dose of Mahalia Jackson and some more gospel music. And both her and my dad liked the Abba thing, which I now find a bit embarrassing
Another possible influence my mom had on my musical taste was West-Indian music: calypso, soca, etc. I’m not sure if we had any albums but we did listen to that stuff on the radio, like Salt Fish by The Mighty Sparrow.
One special moment in my early musical life was the discovery of Jazz. Well, not the whole collection of genres and styles, just this one single track. My dad had the 45 of this song, I didn’t know what it was when I first put it on, but when it started with that weird rhythm on piano I was totally blown away. Then, that lazy, laid-back [brass] began to play and I was mesmerized. I still boast of being able to ‘recite’ the whole track by heart which of course is pure bullshit. The track? Dave Brubeck’s Take Five.
There was quite a lot of my parents’ music that I didn’t like: The Everly Brothers and Simon & Garfunkel come to mind, although later on I learned to appreciate Paul Simon’s work a bit. That’s the other thing, my dad sometimes tried to share good music with me when I was in my teens and being a teenager I just didn’t/couldn’t agree with his opinion/advice. He’s the one who told me to listen to Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Paul Simon’s Graceland. At first I just didn’t listen to those albums, but after a while I really enjoyed them a lot. I mean, Thriller introduced me to the genius of Quincy Jones.
So, yes, it’s fun to look back at what I took from my parents’ music collection and what I learned very quickly was that, like them, I liked different kinds and genres of music. It helped me keep a healthy appitite for music in all its variations. Still can’t get over the Abba thing tho..
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Tags: alice-cooper, dave-brubeck, jazz, mahalia-jackson, melanie, music, musical influences, nelson-ned, quincy-jones, the-beatles, the-mighty-sparrow, waldo-de-los-rios
