What song or band dove your mom nuts?

[Hyfi]

I was thinking back on my childhood last night.....way back...while listening to Allman Brothers Live at the Filmore. I was lucky enough to be introduced to lots of great music as a kid being the youngest of 5.

I played lots of Yes and Queen, which the parents hated but by the time I was blasting my music they were totally shell shocked and hardened by my brothers.

So anyway the long live version of In Memory of Elizibeth Reed has a long few minutes where the lead guitar can be a bit repetitious and annoying if you don't love this stuff. I can clearly remember my mom having major hissyfits when this song was on. Yeah there were plenty of others but this one stands out.

What drove your parents to the edge?

Hyfi

[Slosh]

I was in a fairly unique situation where I actually liked most of my parents' music. They were young when I was born (1968), thus I grew up with BeAtles, Hendrix, Led Zep, Floyd, JT, Dylan, Stevie Wonder, etc., etc. They weren't too keen on Metallica or Slayer but two of my brothers played guitar so they even came around to hear the merit in those, although they still didn't like the music.

It's kinda funny that my parents don't listen to entire albums much anymore, but every so often pick up on something when they come to my house. They've had me make them samplers on a few occasions now. Mostly alt-country songs from the likes of Andrew Bird's Bowl Of Fire, Wilco, Lucinda Williams, The Shins, Ugly Casanova, etc. Pretty cool, eh?

[JDaniel]

Nazareth - Hair of the Dog. I'll never forget listening to my brother's LP with headphones on after school one day. I was alone, or so I thought. I was singing at a comfortably loud level in my 10 year old voice "Don't go messin' with a........." when my dad, who had come home early, removed the headphones and gave a listen. He then promptly stopped the TT, removed the record, and broke the LP. Gotta save his boy from the evils of R&R. Too funny.

My brother is still pissed at me I think over that one.

JD

[Hyfi]

That is real funny. I can see that he was able to save your butt. I loved that album too. Haven't heard it for a long time.

[newtrix1]

Dad on the other hand had the typical "turn that crap down!" attitude. If memory serves me, I think he especially hated prog (Yes and Tull come to mind). I remember playing Thick as a Brick at an appropriately high volume level one day while no one else was around. Dad eventually pops into the room and gives me a tongue lashing about the volume.
Sheesh, 10 seconds earlier no one was even in earshot! So I killed him. ;)

[ForeverAutumn]

...I think that my parents must have been incredibly tolerant. With me, BarryL and another brother in the house, all listening to different types of music (but mostly prog, rock and metal), I don't recall my parents ever really negatively commenting on much.

My dad was the king of selective hearing, so I think that he just tuned it all out. And only on occasion do I remember my Mom coming into the room and saying, "what are you listening to?". She'd ask us to turn the volume down, but I don't think that she ever asked me to turn anything off. In fact, I credit my mom's tolerance and her own love of music, for fueling my love of music.

It would be interesting to see if Barry remembers things any differently. Too bad he's off sunning himself in the Bahamas this week. :cool:

Great question Bri. :)

[mad rhetorik]

<i>Your mom busted in and said, "What's that noise?"
Aw, mom you're just jealous - it's the Bea-stie Boys! </i> ; P

[Worf101]

James Brown or Funkadelic were guarenteed to send my elder's in spasms. James because he "blasphemed" when he hollered "Good God" and "Can I Git a Witness" and alike. Funkadelic were despised because they were acid laced, freak-assed weirdo's. But I left home soon after I discovered em both so... it was no biggie.

Da Worfster

[MindGoneHaywire]

My mother never had a problem with any of the rock music I listened to when I was a kid. Most of it was AOR & therefore not particularly flammable for most people who had a tolerance for, say, the Beatles. When I started listening to the Dead Kennedys she wasn't too thrilled. Ironically, she almost ended up working for Dutch East India Trading, which was one of the most prominent distributors of underground music in the U.S.A. at the time. I was on my own not long afterward, so she didn't have to deal with too much of that punk rock noise sh*t.

My father has never heard a rock'n'roll song he thought should even be considered music. Not one. What's strange is that he's been far more tolerant of rap. He thought Public Enemy was interesting from a sociological point of view & also because of Chuck D's booming voice. But most music he has absolutely no use for. He's a very strange person. He spends countless hours perfecting the cocktail-hour type music he's been playing at a local restaurant for more than 20 years, but never listens to anything unless he's trying to annoy a neighbor. He only buys music if he has to learn how to play a song for a gig. I only spent a year or two living with him when I was of an age when I had a stereo, so it was really never much of an issue. Simon & Garfunkel evoked the same reaction as Motorhead--sheer disgust. Hey, what the hell. I guess it's all kind of the same, anyway, isn't it?

[DariusNYC]

My mom totally hated the voices of Robert Smith and Morrissey in the Cure and Smiths, respectively, which I listened to a lot as a teenager. Oh, at an earlier stage when my brother and I were listening to heavy metal, she disapproved of anything with satanic imagery or blasphemy in it. She was otherwise pretty tolerant and tried to keep up with who the new bands were that we were listening to. Like many parents in my area, my dad couldn't stand when my bro and I played rap music or Prince or basically anything black, but my mom liked Prince a lot, and she liked that Aerosmith/RunDMC song. You know, all in all they didn't mess with my brother and me too much in this regard.

[DarrenH]

My parents never really complained about my music. Only it's loudness.

I was told countless times to turn it down.

Darren

[tentoze]

What drove your parents to the edge?

Hyfi
Not long after discovering what was referred to back then as "underground" music, I saw problems coming along these lines, and jury-rigged a headphone jack into my cheesy Sylvania poratble record player- that helped avoid the issue for the most part. I do remember once playing I Am The Walrus for my mom- not very receptive. And one evening grooving to a just-released Electric Lady Land sans-headphones- "Why in the WORLD do they make all that noise?"

[-Jar-]

My parents were very tolerant of my music. They hardly ever complained to me face-to-face about it. Though it was funny hearing my dad complain about "the white kids listening to rap" where he tought school. I got good grades, so the fact that I listned to all kinds of "satanic" (from some perspectives) music didn't seem to bother them. Boy my friend went though hell though. He had to sneak around with copies of his Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, an later Possessed and Slayer albums. His step-mom just would not allow that stuff in the house.

One funny story from my uncle involved my grandfather finding a copy of "IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING" lying around and asking (yelling) "What the Hell is THAT??" (in regards to the album cover). I think the most modern thing my grandfather ever listened to was the Statler Brothers.

-jar

[3-LockBox]

My mom (and dad) were teenagers during Rock-n-Roll's first run, so they seemed to have an open mind towards pop music in general. She liked my Eagles, Bob Seger, Steve Miller, and Stevie Wonder albums. She did wince whenever she heard my David Bowie:<i>Scary Monsters and Super Creeps</i> album though. She didn't like my brother's Black Sabbath at all.

[richmon]

Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze really lit the string on mom's tampon. To this day, 35 years later, she can hum the intro cords to the song while rolling her eyes, since my 15 year old nephew is a huge Jimi fan and she remembers how much I spun the Lp. Funny, women in general were not very keen on Hendrix for all his popularity, it's mostly a guy thing.
A good buddy brought home the first Santana album, and when his mom found it she tossed it out the front door yelling "what kind of band is named after SATAN?'
I remember Pop's going ballistic whenever I played King Crimson's 'Cirkus' . Just couldn't take all those weird time signitures and strange sounds.
Ahh, the generation gap was a chasm when it came to music.
How bout a post about your parents music that drove you nuts? That Lauwrance Welk Polka accordion stuff always got me running out the room screaming.

[ForeverAutumn]

Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze really lit the string on mom's tampon. To this day, 35 years later, she can hum the intro cords to the song while rolling her eyes, since my 15 year old nephew is a huge Jimi fan and she remembers how much I spun the Lp. Funny, women in general were not very keen on Hendrix for all his popularity, it's mostly a guy thing.

It's not that women don't like Hendrix. It's just that we really hate it when our tampon strings catch fire.

[Troy]

It's not that women don't like Hendrix. It's just that we really hate it when our tampon strings catch fire.

Oh, that's gonna leave a mark . . .

[Troy]

I'm with Darren. Mom was more than a little open minded about the music I listened to.

But I was constantly told to turn it down.

I recall one summer when i was 17 that I dragged the speakers into the backyard and played Pink Floyd's Animals at an excruciating volume. The mom next door was not amused. Got in deep doodoo over THAT one.

[Dave_G]

My parents were tolerant as well.

I do remember when I bought the 45 RPM version of "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper, and she saw that the B side was a toon called "raped and freezin", she didn't like that much at all.

But generally they were cool about my music.

They drove me nuts with their stuff, particularly barbershop music. I hated it. Still do. My dad sang in one of the quartets and I sometimes had to go to the gigs.

Fun for them as they were boozed up but deadly boredom for a kid.

In like 1978 I went to a concert, drove like 200 miles, got home at like 3 AM after ingesting some stuff that keeps you awake for a long time, walked in bleary eyed as all hell, etc., she said "glad you are home safe, how was the gig"? I almost fell out.

Plus she bought me Deep Purple's Machine Head in 1973 too so I can't complain.

I did plenty of stuff like Troy did, hanging speakers out window and all, really ticking off the neighbors. I even hooked up my Altecs in my car thru an Audiovox "booster" and blared "Rocks" (Aerosmith) on occasion. I think we even once tried to hook up my turntable in the car.

Dave