Coolest Music Your Parents Listened To?

My dad's record collection consists primarily of opera and classical recordings. Easily in the thousands. Maybe a few jazz thrown in like Louis Armstrong and Art Tatum, one or two Beatles, one or two Bob Dylan. So in high school, when I started getting especially into music and records, I'm combing the collection one day and I find:

The Ohio Players - Fire (which has a naked woman wrapped in a firehose on the cover)

and

Curtis Mayfield - Superfly

I asked my dad, "WTF?" It turned out that in his days as a high school music teacher in Brooklyn in the 70s, he had learned the hits from those albums so he could sing them with his music classes in school, because it was the only thing that would make a lot of the kids pay attention. He then proceeded to go to the piano and do an inimitably stiff rendition of the theme song from Superfly.

Sappy, I know.

Step-father: Abba, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel, Herb Albert & the Tiajana Brass, the Baja Marimba Band

Father: Abba, Diana Ross, the Young Rascals, Steel Pulse (that one always surprised me)

If I have any taste, it's self-made.

That said, I still think Corelli's Concerto Grosso in G minor (Op 6 no. 8 I think) is the coolest thing by far outta the 1600s and I have mom & dad to thank for that.

what's wrong with liking "music your parents liked", anyway?

Apart from that she has Genesis, Culture Club, Gary Glitter, the Police and Duran Duran, but I don't really remember her ever listening to any of it. The only memory I have of music when I was very young is Radio 1 especially Dave Lee Travis and Simon Bates, sadly. She did buy me Complete Madness, which is pretty much all I listened to til I was about 12.

My mother was something of a Slim Whitman fan.

It came as a shock to them when they discovered around 1964 that their little portable record player could play albums as well as singles. (Though only in monaural; less a wall of sound than a ricepaper partition of sound.)

That kicks ass.

my parents are so very lame.

My grandma was a folk singer and was once invited to tour with Pete Seeger, but she declined the offer because she had a family. Also, her guitar was used in a Weavers reunion concert at Ravinia in Illinois.

Anyway, my father played at Max's Kansas City and CBGB's a few times in the 70's. As a result, you could probably guess, I had a pretty good introduction to the Talking Heads, Blondie, the Clash, and a bunch of other great bands from a very young age. Anyway, aside from those already named, I've heard a lot of Steely Dan, Devo, Tom Waits, the Beatles, the Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, etc. while growing up.

we get to the driveway and see the lights, hear way past loud music.

my parents are drunk outta their branes with a pink flloyd concert on the box.

they give us scotches and we *space out*

Needless, I borrowed Stop Making Sense and found my own way around.

My dad is just 1970's classic rock. I tried to explain to him once how he was "rockist" and was gonna play him some post-rock when he kicked me in the face.

My mum doesn't really listen to a lot of music.

My mom? hahah She had a brief obsession with 60s Japanese music. I don't mean garage or pop, but schlager type muzak. Thank god it was brief.

His band also opened for The Specials once.

Anyway, my father played at Max's Kansas City and CBGB's a few times in the 70's.

on his own or w/band? details plz

In the 70's it was all Hawkwind (sees them on every tour), etc then in the eighties there was Malcolm McLaren and Eurythmics 12 inches. In the 90's he was a big White Zombie fan, although he was friends with Chris from Pansy Division. Now its mostly ambient and downtempo, I think, although he really like the Naked City cd I sent him.

Mum has every Cliff Richard single from the first to about 1973 (terrible condition mind, they were kept horizontal in the garage for years) She also saw the Beatles at Sheffield city hall in about 65 and asked for her money back, as she couldn't hear the fabboes for all the screaming. One day she came into my room once and said "this is nice it sounds like Enya" "bloody hell mum it's slowdive" It was terrible at the time, now I can just about see the funny side

He's got Terry Reid 'River', which he always says I should listen to. Got reissued recently and a lot of people seem to dig that. Am I missing out on that?

then in the '80s she listened to lot of pet shop boys,

now her taste are getting worse: her fav band are the charlatnas, belle & sebastian and embrace

Photos of 1970s rock stars with their parents

Zappa's parents ftw obviously

Joe Jackson looks terrifying

I love how most of the parents have this look on their faces like "Whaddya know, that rock music thing actually panned out for my kid!"

elton's stepfather looks like jeff goldblum

also richie havens and his dad look the same age!

Richie Haven's mum looks like she knows abt a prank that the photographer is seconds away from discovering

Grace Slick doin the Michael Jackson baby dangle

the coolest records in my dad's record collection:

The Kinks "Something Else"
The Dead Kennedys "Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables"

Eclectic taste: Frank Zappa's parents Francis and Rosemarie show that they have style of their own...

^^^Wau at purple everything!

David said he and has father had recently come to an understanding despite their differences

Mom likes rockabilly, like ALL of it. She liked some psychedelic music back in the day. When Dad was away she used to blast the rock radio, stuff like CCR and Mountain and crap, which apparently she didn't want everyone to know. She'll never admit it now, although she says she still likes "hippie" music.

Dad liked anything soul / r & b and was an awesome dancer.

The staircase in the Jacksons house doesn't lead to another floor; it leads to MORE GOLD RECORDS.

The Zappas do Italians proud!

My parents prefered singles to albums, but this got heavy airplay:

Get It On! (Ronco, 1974)

Side One:
Smokin' in the Boys Room - Brownsville Station
Funky Worm - The Ohio Players
Spiders & Snakes - Jim Stafford
Stir it Up - Johnny Nash
I'm Gonna Love You Just A Little More, Baby - Barry White
Drinkin' Wine - Jerry Lee Lewis
To Know You Is To Love You - B.B. King
Yes We Can Can - The Pointer Sisters
The Morning After - Maureen McGovern
Love Train - The O'Jays

Side Two:
Playground In My Mind - Clint Holmes
Cover of the 'Rolling Stone' - Dr. Hook & The Medicine Show
You'll Never Get To Heaven - The Stylistics
I'd Love You To Want Me - Lobo
Ain't No Woman (Like the One I've Got) - Four Tops
Also Sprach Zarathustra - Deodato
Drift Away - Dobie Gray
The Happiest Girl in the Whole U.S.A.
-Donna Fargo
Me & Mrs. Jones - Billy Paul
Painted Ladies - Ian Thomas

Both of my parents are classical musicians. They got really into Appalachian jug band music in the '60s, so they had (along w/ about five hundred classical LPs) a good fifty field recordings of plinky-plunky washtub stuff, often with incomprehensible and bawdy lyrics.

I don't think of my dad as a huge music fan, but he's always been fond of jazz. In high school I dug through his vinyl collection, which he hadn't listened to in years, and found a couple of Chuck Mangione albums, but also some Coltrane, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and even The Best of Ornette Coleman. He's also a fan of Talking Heads, Steely Dan, and Fela Kuti.

My mom's tastes are generally more anodyne -- at various points, she's been into smooth jazz, adult contemporary (Groban, Buble, etc.), and pop-country. She was probably at her coolest before I was born, when I gather she was mostly listening to the Beatles and Joni Mitchell.

hadn't really thought about original thread topic when I posted that gallery, but it does remind me that about a year ago I was playing a mix I'd made and a King Tubby song came on and my dad was like "WHAT IS THIS?" really excitedly. also, in the 90s he would go to the UK for work or to see family, and on different occasions he brought me Pulp's Different Class and Portishead's Dummy.

I remember long, long summer holidays during which my father made us listen to James Last and Julio Iglesias in the car. I picked up a huge amount of my musical taste from him though - from Mighty Sparrow and Byron Lee to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Runa Laila. I'm looking forward to getting some more CDs off him when he's back from T&T.

every time i see a clean-shaven eric clapton i realise that i have no idea what eric clapton actually looks like.

even though my mum was born in 1948 englebert humperdinck was one of her favourites in the 60s. i don't know if that made her the uncoolest teenager around or if, despite collective false memories, lots of teenagers were that uncool.

I bet I'm not the only one who grew up with that awful Chicago triple or quadruple album in its fancy box on the coffee table in the living room (born '68)....yuk!

The coolest thing my dad listened to was "Silk Degrees"

How hard people are on parents...sixties was Vietnam era, a hard time. You could do a lot worse than Hump or Chicago.

My dad was one of those dads who would dance funk and rap at weddings...which makes him a terrible role model.

grew up to a steady diet of like the beatles, simon and garfunkel, the rolling stones, joan baez, early dylan, peter paul & mary, smithsonian folkways albums, harry belafonte and the kingston trio. plus showtunes and lots of classical, especially baroque. on vinyl & reel-to-reel. realized many years later that my dad was also into heavier stuff like the dead, led zep and hendrix, but i never heard that around the house.

when my mom remarried in '78, focus shifted to adult contemporary and boomer holdouts (tattoo you and graceland, for example), along with the big band swing, hillbilly folk and old-time country my stepdad loved: benny goodman, the deliverance soundtrack, flatt and scruggs, hammer dulcimers, etc. he also had some oddball 50s and 60s records that i seriously coveted: ferrante and teicher's soundproof, yma sumac, early moog ppl like walter/wendy carlos and dick hyman. plus he really dug edith piaf and could talk about her like nobody's business.

in the early summer of 1982, my dad sent me a super-belated christmas/birthday present package that contained combat rock by the clash and the cure's boys don't cry. i was 15 at the time and pretty sheltered, so both were pretty eye-opening to me. in retrospect, it's all pretty cool to me.

dang, three x "pretty" in that last ppg. pretty pretty pretty...

contenderizer - your first paragraph describes my experience pretty well.

Hippest records:
Desmond Dekker - iSraelites 7" (Mom)
Grateful Dead - live s/t (Dad, although he definitely had some second or third tier blues rock albums that might be considered hipper to some. i never really followed in his affection for the blues).

Dad: Frank Zappa, Steely Dan, David Bowie, Cleaners from Venus
Mom: Stevie Nix

Both had a pretty extensive vinyl collections, so I spent a lot of my childhood digging around and exposing myself to new tunes. They also had this encyclopedia of rock and roll and as a kid I was transfixed by this image of Iggy Pop bent over on the stage covered in blood from self-inflicted cuts. I was like, "what the hell is up with this guy?" Wasn't til much later I found out he made some awesome music.

My dad had Merle Haggard Songs I'll Always Sing and Johnny Cash GH on 8-track, which was pretty much all we listened to driving across country every summer.

james last. my dad likes the exact same music as ilxor jaxon

We also had Kingston Trio, Anne Murray, Kenny Rogers, but those guys are prob only cool in my mind.

As a little kid I remember being kind of scared by the cover of the Black Sabbath debut, but that didn't get a lot of rotation compared to Dylan, the Band, the Dead, the Stones, the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, Country Joe and the Fish, the Doors, Sly and the Family Stone, and Hendrix.

I think this was the record I liked best from my dad's collection at the time:

http://www.chartstats.com/images/artwork/25366.jpg

I love this thread. Johnny Cash, some Alan Lomax recordings, some of Harry Smith's anthology.

Zappa - Uncle Meat, King Crimson - In The Court..., ABC - Lexicon Of Love, Neil Young - Time Fades Away...

pretty cool.

I really wish people would stop linking to the Daily Mail. Especially when you can get that story, written better and from years ago, in at least three other places on the web.

good call, sorry about that. here is a slightly different collection at the Guardian. Couldn't find anything better written though, would like to see that!

Tough question. Which is cooler, Brahms or Eddy Arnold?

http://www.tradebit.com/usr/mp3-album/pub/9002/902/902154/90215455.jpg

Photos of 1970s rock stars with their parents

Donovan's bust is kind of amazing

---

I found a 45 for The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - 'Spontaneous Apple Creation' in my mom's collection but it was probably her brother's or uncle's.

or maybe it was 'Fire'

my dad had pretty decent taste for an old, pretty unhip white dude. stuff he got me into was like: steely dan, talking heads, REM, bowie, stevie wonder, lots of motown, frankie valli, etc in addition to other like the Beatles and shit obv

i don't know about 'cool' but my dad has a Tams/ Impressions two-fer in his wood shop that i enjoy and my mom likes Van Morrison and Randy Newman and had me make CD mixes of both for her.

Actually, Eazy's righht. My dad introduced me to Tom Lehrer too, and he's way hipper than any of the country rock stuff.

Growing up, my dad seemed to know and love all the big twist songs: Chubby Checker, Sam Cooke, etc. And he was an Elvis fan. My mom maintained a casual interest in pop music her whole life, and she'd sometimes surprise me; in her '70s, I remember her telling me she'd just watched one of the Jonathan Demme Neil Young movies on Bravo.

Dad: Velvets, Zappa, Beefheart, Residents, Richard Thompson, Spirit, Blue Cheer, MC5, Soft Machine, King Crimson, Television, Talking Heads, The Clash, R.E.M., Nick Cave, Dirty Three, fusion-era Miles Davis, lots of classic rock stuff. He also saw Black Sabbath on the "Paranoid" tour and to this day claims the opener (Black Oak Arkansas) blew them off the stage. (I don't think he's heard either "Master of Reality" or "Vol. 4" as a consequence -- he dropped off the Sabbath bandwagon after that show, leaving me to seek out those albums on my own.)
Mom: Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Nick Drake, Yo La Tengo's "Fakebook" (played this in the car one day and she liked it enough to eventually purchase her own copy). I also noticed the XX and Beach House when I was flipping through her MP3 player recently, which made me giggle to myself a bit.

My mom is a music obsesso who never misses an episode of American Idol or any of those shows, going back to Star Search and Solid Gold. She used to force us to watch American Bandstand.

I can't talk to her right now because she is distraught over Whitney Houston's death!

Gerry Rafferty

Actually I think my Dad saw The Humblebums live.

My dad made a bunch of mixtapes to play on long drives when I was really young, so there are certain songs that trigger really vague but strong memories upon hearing them. I don't know what hearing the intro to Buddy Holly's "Think It Over" brings to mind, but it got hardwired in at about 3 years old.

Other songs on the tapes:

Desmond Dekker - Israelites
Jaynetts - Sally Go Round the Roses
Rolling Stones - The Last Time, Good Times
Merle Haggard - Mama Tried & In the Good Old Days (so depressing! I wouldn't play it around a little kid!)
Gordon Lightfoot - Steel Rail Blues
I'm pretty sure Madame George was on one of them but it freaked my sister and/or me out so we always skipped it
Lots of Dylan, Hank Williams, Dolly Parton

My dad saw The Stooges and my mom saw Jimi Hendrix. They saw Zeppelin together with Grand Funk...

My dad saw Charles Mingus' group (w/ Eric Dolphy et al) two nights running at the Five Spot in 1964. When I asked him about it some 40 years after the fact, he paused, looked off into the distance and said, "It was one of the greatest experiences of my life."

I also noticed the XX and Beach House when I was flipping through her MP3 player recently, which made me giggle to myself a bit.

― spastic heritage, Sunday, February 12, 2012 9:21 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is your mom in her 20s?! Neither of my parents would recognize, or ever (voluntarily or otherwise) listen to any of the music in your parents' collection.

I just found a box of 45s that belonged to my mother when she was a teen. It was mainly stuff she would listen to with her parents. I was afraid to look at it...but most of it wasn't bad, Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis and some respectable classical stuff.

I guess way back in early days of rock and roll(1960s), kids bought records that they could listen to with their parents....so that the old folks wouldn't think the kids were disrespecting them.

Is your mom in her 20s?!

Ha, just noticed this now. Nope, she's 58. She must've picked up the XX and Beach House from WXPN.