# Did you raid your parents' record collection? What made an impression? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2011, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204 "2011-08-18T18:37:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2011, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/61 "2011-08-20T13:30:34Z")
The only album that I ever permanently borrowed from my folks was _The Strawbs_ [Grave New World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_New_World). The Strawbs were completely off the radar for me and my friends in high school. We’d never heard about them, read about them, or heard their music. We’d heard of _The Monks_, who were kind of a Strawbs side-project, because of their hit “Drugs in My Pocket”, but we didn’t know they were connected to the Strawbs. The only reason why I picked out “Grave New World” from my parents’ collection was because of the William Blake cover. It turned out to be one of those albums that drew me right in on first play. It didn’t have to grow on me, I loved every song right away. Total and utter love at first hearing. To this day I’ve still never heard the Strawbs mentioned, except for once in a thread here, and once from one guy I met at a bar. None of my friends are into them. If I hadn’t have found that record in my parents’ collection, I never would have become such a fan. > [@jjimm](#): > > Pentangle My parents had Pentangle’s “Cruel Sister”. I loved the Albrecht Dürer cover so I _ahem_ borrowed this album too, but I just couldn’t get into it, so I put it back. My folks sold or threw away all of their records a few years back, so ironically the only album still in the family is “Grave New World”. Pentangle and the rest are all gone. ---
**Author:** ![Jaledin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Jaledin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaledin)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/62 "2011-08-21T00:46:32Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > Tchaikovsky, Hungarian Rhapsodies (1 and 2? not sure, but definitely #2). Yeah, I’d heard #2 first in cartoons, but I loved it sans TV. I wore a hole through that album. So what, are you a Hell-fire monster king piano player now? (It’s Liszt you’re thinking if, BTW) – cause if you can play that shit, you’re a fucking monster on ice. Party trick anyone can learn to do: that little thing starting on C# with the double octaves like in the Bugs Bunny cartoon – it’s hilarious! The rest of that is fucking hard, but Bugs was cool and didn’t care about impressing some Clifton Webb critic. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/63 "2011-08-21T00:57:28Z")
My parents were also pre-rock (records all Dad’s actually), and _I_ never raided the collections … but my 20 year old second oldest son has, long after my Dad died, with his Grandmother’s permission (of course before her death). Jazz, show, comedy, blues, classical … Dad was pretty eclectic in his music tastes. Not folk or country though. I was, like **KneadToKnow** , also listening to my older siblings’ music when young. And of course Dad had _Whipped Cream and Other Delights_ too. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/64 "2011-08-21T01:18:38Z")
The Smothers Brothers and the songs from Caberet. Imagine approx. 6-year-old Celt wandering the house singing at the top of her lungs “She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower, in fact I think she rented by the hour. . .” ---
**Author:** ![dwyr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwyr/32/363_2.png) [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/65 "2011-08-21T05:36:49Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > The Smothers Brothers and the songs from Caberet. > > Imagine approx. 6-year-old Celt wandering the house singing at the top of her lungs “She wasn’t what you’d call a blushing flower, in fact I think she rented by the hour. . .” Kinda like my little five-year-old nephew strolling along singing “Smokey the Bear choking on a camper…” My sister likes Heywood Banks. She kept expecting a phone call from daycare. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/66 "2011-08-21T07:34:03Z")
I used to borrow some of my Mom’s 45s. Nothing stands out particularly in my memory. As it so happens, my Dad died this week and as next of kin I will nherit his very large vinyl collection (though my Uncle has asked to grab a bunch). He was 60 when he died so his musical tastes probably solidified in the sixties. I know he liked the Beatles and Iron Maiden, and went to Woodstock. Any albums I should look into for awesome listening experience (or, though I doubt he kept the jacket sleeves in great condition, some osrt of collector’s value)? ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/67 "2011-08-21T09:58:02Z")
I almost forgot about [this record](http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/d32eba357acec5bcc9dea6b2e23339e9/105835.jpg) of Dad’s that I played over and over and over again. And [this one](http://www.sergent.com.au/beachboys/shutdownv1.jpg), which I also wore out. Looking at these individual song titles, I still remember every one and how it felt to really dig music for the first time. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/68 "2011-08-21T14:15:13Z")
My parents didn’t really listen much to records, although they had some in the bottom of the old console stereo/radio. One that I thought was cool had excerpts from different symphonies, etc. The one from Stravinsky’s _Rite of Spring_ and another from Mussorgsky’s _Night On Bald Mountain_ got a lot of play by me. My stepfather was a bartender and really disliked having music on at home, but my mother was a jitterbugger from the swing era and liked the early rock music of the 50s. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/69 "2011-08-21T14:18:18Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > One that I thought was cool had excerpts from different symphonies, etc. The one from Stravinsky’s _Rite of Spring_ and another from Mussorgsky’s _Night On Bald Mountain_ got a lot of play by me. Could this have been the _Fantasia_ soundtrack? Edit: Other tracks included a selection from _The Nutcracker Suite_, Bach’s _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_, and _Ave Maria_ (right after _Night on Bald Mountain_). ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/70 "2011-08-21T15:13:45Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I used to borrow some of my Mom’s 45s. Nothing stands out particularly in my memory. > > As it so happens, my Dad died this week and as next of kin I will nherit his very large vinyl collection (though my Uncle has asked to grab a bunch). He was 60 when he died so his musical tastes probably solidified in the sixties. I know he liked the Beatles and Iron Maiden, and went to Woodstock. Any albums I should look into for awesome listening experience (or, though I doubt he kept the jacket sleeves in great condition, some osrt of collector’s value)? All of them? Okay, I guess that isn’t helpful. I’d check out the oddball stuff you maybe haven’t heard of. I don’t know much about collecting, but I think a good, unscratched copy of [It’s a Beautiful Day](http://bp1.blogger.com/_s1otB7uXXIA/SBHwDS9FZOI/AAAAAAAAAo0/U1LErESsow0/s400/its.jpg) might be worth something, …and it qualifies as an awesome listening experience. I’m very sorry for your loss, **jackdavinci**. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/71 "2011-08-21T16:14:32Z")
The four I remember from preschool years playing dad’s records are: Chew Tobacco Rag In Heaven There Is No Beer Beer Barrel Polka I’ve Got a Lovely Bunch of Coconuts ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/72 "2011-08-21T16:44:34Z")
> [@MsWhatsit](#): > > Could this have been the _Fantasia_ soundtrack? > > Edit: Other tracks included a selection from _The Nutcracker Suite_, Bach’s _Toccata and Fugue in D Minor_, and _Ave Maria_ (right after _Night on Bald Mountain_). It could have been, but I don’t think so: I can’t remember the other tracks on it, but they didn’t seem to be from Fantasia, and I’m pretty sure the label didn’t have that name on it. There was no dust jacket. That’s a lo-o-o-ong time ago and a lot of beer under the bridge. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/73 "2011-08-21T17:11:26Z")
Oh yeah. I started going through my parents’ old records my sophomore year in high school. My mom had _Led Zeppelin II_. Changed my life. My dad had the Moody Blues’ _Days of Future Passed_. Likewise. Then there was Joe Cocker’s eponymous _Joe Cocker!_, and _Aqualung_, by Jethro Tull. They had the Beatles’ white album too, but that didn’t make as much of an impression on me for some reason. In any case, I feel lucky that I got to experience the tail end of the vinyl era with these records. By that time, everybody was throwing out their tapes and buying CD’s, so actual records were already old fashioned. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/74 "2011-08-21T17:11:26Z")
Tom Lehrer (all his albums) Bill Cosby’s “Wonderfulness” Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream and Other Delights” A whole bunch of 45s that I can’t remember all of anymore. My mom passed away recently, and when I went through her stuff with my dad, one of the few things I chose to take with me was a stack of her old scratchy 45s (she treated her records terribly) that reminded me of when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/75 "2011-08-21T17:34:52Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > All of them? Okay, I guess that isn’t helpful. I’d check out the oddball stuff you maybe haven’t heard of. I don’t know much about collecting, but I think a good, unscratched copy of [It’s a Beautiful Day](http://bp1.blogger.com/_s1otB7uXXIA/SBHwDS9FZOI/AAAAAAAAAo0/U1LErESsow0/s400/its.jpg) might be worth something, …and it qualifies as an awesome listening experience. > > I’m very sorry for your loss, **jackdavinci**. I have that album, but it’s not really … unscratched. In the sense of has had paint spilled on it … but a great listening experience? You bet! ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2011, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/76 "2011-08-21T22:06:48Z")
Well, I wasn’t going to mention my mom’s record collection, because it invariably brings up German militarism which brings up Nazism, and there goes another thread to Godwin. But dammit, German marches sound so cool! [And anyway, _Fehrbelliner Reitermarsch_ is pre-Hitler Kaiser Wilhelm Era](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZcb0-ocz18&feature=fvwrel) I just love when Germans sing love songs. They get a bunch of guys to roar tenderly at the top of their lungs to the woman in question. [I picked the Russian comments to circumvent all that neo-Nazi drivel that these songs attract.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9AHBl-obfY&feature=related) The pictures are interesting too, since many of them make the Nazis so ordinary looking. This is sort of how my uncles looked then, thinks I to myself. It’s a strange feeling. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/77 "2011-08-22T04:48:35Z")
> [@Jaledin](#): > > So what, are you a Hell-fire monster king piano player now? (It’s Liszt you’re thinking if, BTW) Aww, damn, faulty memory. Of course it’s Liszt [/facepalm]. And, no, there’s no way in hell I can attempt that piece, holy crap I don’t know how anyone could. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/78 "2011-08-22T15:39:58Z")
> [@jackdavinci](#): > > I used to borrow some of my Mom’s 45s. Nothing stands out particularly in my memory. > > As it so happens, my Dad died this week and as next of kin I will nherit his very large vinyl collection (though my Uncle has asked to grab a bunch). He was 60 when he died so his musical tastes probably solidified in the sixties. I know he liked the Beatles and Iron Maiden, and went to Woodstock. Any albums I should look into for awesome listening experience (or, though I doubt he kept the jacket sleeves in great condition, some osrt of collector’s value)? I would guess that: (a) the collection contains a lot of great albums and, depending on the condition, more than a few collector’s items; and (b) a lot of the aforementioned will be taken by your uncle. If you post a list, I and others would be happy to advise. (If it’s really that large a collection, maybe just list the first 50… should serve as a decent sample.) ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/79 "2011-08-22T15:47:24Z")
From my parents, their collection of Simon and Garfunkel albums and Bill Cosby comedy tapes were the only thing that made an impression. Apart from that their taste in music was fairly lacking. My first set of in-laws introduced me to Flanders and Swann, which might have been the best thing I got out of that marriage. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [August 22, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204/80 "2011-08-22T17:22:15Z")
> [@Suil\_Dubh](#): > > The only album that I ever permanently borrowed from my folks was _The Strawbs_ [Grave New World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_New_World). > > The Strawbs were completely off the radar for me and my friends in high school. We’d never heard about them, read about them, or heard their music. We’d heard of _The Monks_, who were kind of a Strawbs side-project, because of their hit “Drugs in My Pocket”, but we didn’t know they were connected to the Strawbs. > > The only reason why I picked out “Grave New World” from my parents’ collection was because of the William Blake cover. It turned out to be one of those albums that drew me right in on first play. It didn’t have to grow on me, I loved every song right away. Total and utter love at first hearing. > > To this day I’ve still never heard the Strawbs mentioned, except for once in a thread here, and once from one guy I met at a bar. None of my friends are into them. If I hadn’t have found that record in my parents’ collection, I never would have become such a fan. > > My parents had Pentangle’s “Cruel Sister”. I loved the Albrecht Dürer cover so I _ahem_ borrowed this album too, but I just couldn’t get into it, so I put it back. > > My folks sold or threw away all of their records a few years back, so ironically the only album still in the family is “Grave New World”. Pentangle and the rest are all gone. I love the Strawbs. Have you checked out any of their other albums? You might also like _Bursting at the Seams_, _Hero and Heroine_, and _Ghosts_. And I also love _Cruel Sister_. Too bad it didn’t click with you. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-you-raid-your-parents-record-collection-what-made-an-impression/593204.md?page=5)