What got you started?

[buzzardbutt]

Hey what's up? This is just to see what got all of you guys into the music you listen to, how it all got started for you.
What was that defining song and band that you heard for the first time that made you go "Holy shit! what is this it rules!"
I know their are a lot of those moments for everyone, like the first time you heard Motley crue, Aerosmith, Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, stuff like that.
I grew up in the 90's though I was born in 83'. My dad was into the 70's disco, and was trying to drag me with him to loving it.
I liked disco but was not into it, bout 8-10 years old I was into 80's rap, all my friends were black and I lived in a black neighborhood and had really good friends. But after a while I began to get bored with rap, and wanted something different.
So I got into some blues, and when I was about 12 or 13 I was in the car with a friend and 97.1 the Eagle was on, next thing I knew (don't make fun of me)Collective Souls-Shine came on and blew me away, I'd never heard anything like that and started to crave more. So I listened to the Eagle all the time, And when I got into the 8th grade a kid in one of my classes noticed I had a Led Zeppelin patch on my backpack.
That dude got me into Pantera and was the first introduction to headbanging, When I heard Pantera I was a Changed dude.
Listening to Dime tearing it up rythm or solo wise Made me want to play the guitar.
I am forever thankfull to rock and roll , Collective Soul,and Pantera.

 

[ElectricWiz]

In 1978 I heard Kiss' Love Gun, and Rock and Roll Over, and was immediately addicted. I liked the superhero aspect, but the music mystified and excited me. I was 7 years old. I used to put the needle on the record on Mr. Speed over and over....I loved that song, but I loved them all at different times. I traded my stormtrooper action figures for Alive II.

My first hard rock tape after that was For Those About To Rock....from AC/DC, which I loved.

My first real metal album was The Number of the Beast in 1982. It blew me away, and I literally said to my brother on the first play, "This is what I've been looking for!" I remember it like it was yesterday.

I can honestly say I've been a LIFELONG music fan, and an almost lifelong metal fan....it just took me a few years to find it! But, hey, I was in deep at the age of 11. Never looked back, though of course I love more than just metal.....many, many non-metal artists are on my list of favorites. Still, at the end of the day, it's metal that will always be the center of my collection.

 

[poundingmetal74]

I traded my stormtrooper action figures for Alive II.

Bet you regret that now!

For myself, my dad always played hard rock around me. One day when I was probably 9, he sat me down and played "Rock Candy" by Montrose and proclaimed "This is REAL music". My jaw dropped. From then I stole his records to listen to and shortly thereafter, took up guitar.

KISS's Destroyer was really got me going into metal and Metallica and GNR soon followed. The rest, as they say, is history.

 

[SoundMaster]

My first dip into hard rock was in 1983 (11-12 years old) when I heard Def Lep's "Fooling" and Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel the Noize". Prior to that, I 'discovered' music a year or two earlier via early 80s pop Culture Club, Duran Duran, and the Police! Let's just say that Def Lep and QR were an awakening of sorts. My first true metal albums were Maiden's "Number" and "Piece of Mid" both of which I purchased on the same day in the summer of 1984 (a few months prior to my 13th birthday). Within a year, Ozzy, Sabbath, Dio, Priest, AC/DC, etc., were all dominating my time!!! And I've never looked back!

 

[Wyvern]

The definitive one?

Iron Maiden - 'Flight Of Icarus' video on MTV, later 'The Trooper' on radio, afterwards I decided to get the album...there was no turning back.

Hammer's Rule - 'Castle Wall'

 

[Death Animal]

Queen was first band that i realy dig at first time. Well I was listening some scooter too when I was 14. Then I bought Iron maiden-Live after Death. My second metal band was Motörhead.

 

[Belligerent]

the ONE that got me into metal full blown:THIS LOVE-PANTERA
when i seen that shit on headbangers back in 92' for 1st time..i nearly shit my pants.

BEFORE THAT-steve vai and joe satriani
they started me out with getting into heavier stuff(w/ only being 10 yrs old at the time of passion&warfare coming out...id say thats pretty good)

BEFORE THAT?? song remains the same-ZEPP (they started everything for me...i was 7 yrs old the first time i picked up the guitar and the reason was seeing jimmy page blast out some RAW DOWN N' DIRTY BLUES on "SINCE IVE BEEN LOVIN' YOU" song remains the same "beta"tape. lol

 

[EVERLOSTINDEADETERNITY]

95 7th grade started listening to Megadeth and Metallica.
9th grade in 97 I looked up Helloween and found links to Iced Earth and In Flames. The rest is history. Been a swdish death metal head ever since.

 

[Powermetal Rebel]

Cool thread bb... Brings back a lot of memories....Long before the existence of CDs or the popularity of Cassette decks in cars- there were 8-Track tapes....I was in the back seat of a friend's Ford Falcon heading to the bowling alley when I first heard 'Machine Head' by Deep Purple. From the opening notes of Highway Star I was hooked big time. That opened the door to my interest in hard rock which ultimately evolved into my appreciation of heavy metal.

 

[ElectricWiz]

My first dip into hard rock was in 1983 (11-12 years old) when I heard Def Lep's "Fooling" and Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel the Noize". Prior to that, I 'discovered' music a year or two earlier via early 80s pop Culture Club, Duran Duran, and the Police! Let's just say that Def Lep and QR were an awakening of sorts. My first true metal albums were Maiden's "Number" and "Piece of Mid" both of which I purchased on the same day in the summer of 1984 (a few months prior to my 13th birthday). Within a year, Ozzy, Sabbath, Dio, Priest, AC/DC, etc., were all dominating my time!!! And I've never looked back!

Ha. This is a good story, SM, since I know you are still the kind of fan who will go out and buy several records by the same band on the same day. Looks like you established your habits early.

 

[ElectricWiz]

Bet you regret that now!

Ha ha. Actually, I still worry that he'll figure out I got the better deal and call me on it. He wasn't a huge music fan, nor were my other brothers, so their collections slowly became mine. I traded various things for a few Kiss records, a bunch of 45s including the Eagles, Rod Stewart, Alice Cooper, Kansas.....and a few other tapes and records.

Funny thing about 45s too, they were always edited versions of songs. I had Kansas' Carry On My Wayward Son at a very young age, which is heavily edited as a 45. I remember a few years later hearing it somewhere else, at a friend's house or something, on the album. I was humming along and suddenly there was this whole section I'd never heard before. I was blown away by this information. For literally years, I had no idea that Carry On...had an organ solo in it! I learned early on that 45s suck!

 

[Wyvern]

Cool thread bb... Brings back a lot of memories....Long before the existence of CDs or the popularity of Cassette decks in cars- there were 8-Track tapes

Indeed! That first IM album was on tape, I still own it. It's a local pressing and sounds horrible these days, but at the time was blue-ray dolby digital hi-fi for me

Oh, and I still record my CDs on tapes to carry them on the car deck and the walkman

 

[Powermetal Rebel]

Funny thing about 45s too, they were always edited versions of songs. I had Kansas' Carry On My Wayward Son at a very young age, which is heavily edited as a 45. I remember a few years later hearing it somewhere else, at a friend's house or something, on the album. I was humming along and suddenly there was this whole section I'd never heard before. I was blown away by this information. For literally years, I had no idea that Carry On...had an organ solo in it! I learned early on that 45s suck!

That's so true for the most part. Two of my first 45's were Free's 'All Right Now' & The Who 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. They omitted the entire 3rd verse of All Right Now & chopped out most of Fooled. Wasn't till many years later I actually even knew there were longer versions.
There was an exception to that though. Rare Earth released 'I Just Want To Celebrate' & 'Hey Big Brother' on 45 and LP... The 45's were actully the longer/unedited, better versions. They even went so far as to include the LP verions on their 'Best Of' CD making those old 45 versions more elusive.

 

[buzzardbutt]

Indeed! That first IM album was on tape, I still own it. It's a local pressing and sounds horrible these days, but at the time was blue-ray dolby digital hi-fi for me

Oh, and I still record my CDs on tapes to carry them on the car deck and the walkman

I do that too!hahahah
I just like it cause it's pretty easy.

 

[Puckfiend]

Don't recall exactly when..probably late '81/early '82..13 years old. Was hanging out with a couple friends one afternoon. One of them went home, but left behind a cassette tape: Blizzard of Ozz. I knew the name Ozzy & heard about the bat biting incident and was very curious to hear what his music sounded like, so I took the tape home to listen to it before taking it back to my friend. I rewound it to the beginning and hit 'play'. The next thing I know, I'm bobbing my head with Randy Rhoads ripping away with the most amazing shit I'd ever heard so far. Got into Maiden & Priest shortly thereafter and still listening to metal and going to shows.

Back then, I'd buy the LP for my record player in my bedroom and then make a cassette copy for my portable boom box & Walkman. Then CDs came out and I stopped buying vinyl for the most part. Still have a record player and all my vinyl with a few 45s, plus a bunch of LPs that were given to me by people that didn't have a record player anymore.

 

[buzzardbutt]

And that's why I love music.

 

[Hawk]

In 1970 when I was 12 I heard Led Zeppelin II. After hearing 'A Whole Lotta Love' it was all as clear as glass to me, this was the music I loved and wanted to pursue!

I heard Deep Purple and Uriah Heep on the radio but the first albums I got were 'Shocking Blue at Home' and Queen's 'A Night At The Opera'. In late December 1976 I discovered Rush while reading about them in the Dutch magazine Muziek Krant Oor. That lead me to buying 'Fly by Night' and 'Lights Out' from UFO in January 1977. On the same day, mind you...

After that Scorpions, Triumph, Max Webster, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Kansas, Riot's 'Rock City' and many others followed. I got myself all of Black Sabbath's and Budgie albums in the late 70s as well.

It took me quite a while to buy the albums from some the first generation of bands, I kinda passed them over at first to get strait to the second generation of hard rock bands. For instance, only in the late 80s did I buy myself some of the Deep Purple and Uriah Heep albums.

 

[carnut]

As far as I recall, in the early to mid 70's I mostly liked "rock" bands that were popular on TV around than, Mud, Slade, Status Quo, etc..Later on in the 70's mostly Kiss and AC/DC. First tape I got was Highway to Hell and first record was Van Halen's Woman & Children first...I got really interested in underground Metal when a few guys from my school started a Metal magazine called "Sucks" in the early 80's. The somehow got their hands on the better material and passed it on to me offcourse. That were the days of NWOBHM and early US Metal.
Off topic but those guys of that mag both are big business people now. One has a big company in the east block somewhere and the other lives nearby, has a small castle and a few Porsches...haha, they must have earned a good starters capital with that mag

 

[Son of Evil]

My first band were The Beatles. I used to listen to a lot of classical music too, as well as Indian music, my country's traditional stuff, y'know.

Then I heard Deep Purple's 'Smoke on the Water' and I was really blown away by that haunting riff. I proceeded to collect every DP album, became a hardcore fan of the band at the age of 12.

Then came Iron Maiden. Damn, such an amazing band, it was also my first taste of 'melodic' metal, having only listened to good ol' Rock. I believe I haven't grown out of that yet; My taste is chiefly Power Metal, with its melody, symphonic, classical elements and choruses. Iron Maiden, being the innovators of Power Metal actually, paved the way for me to discovering the genre.

Now, I am a huge fan of Power and Progressive Metal, but I like a lot of Thrash, some Death Metal and Black Metal. No band has ever been inaccessible to me as yet ('cept for Pantera; Never liked them). But I am no elitist, and am yet exploring the genres of Death and Black Metal, being done with Power Metal for the time being.

 

[Ascension]

I had been listening to The Beatles & Hendrix at a very early age. But, the moment that broke it for me was seeing KISS on The Midnight Special show when I was in Middle School. I have been hooked on the heavy aspect of music ever since.