Phases pt. 1

Everyone goes through them. They can be involving anything in your life, really. But what I'm going to focus on today is the many different phases I went through in music.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm a big fan of the Beatles. The first song that I remember catching my attention as a child was "Twist and Shout." I've loved them ever since I can remember and the fact that I still do surprised even me. But aside from the Beatles, my musical tastes have gone through many different phases.

I think for the most part, my musical tastes - as is the case for many people - have reflected the phases I've gone through in life. When I was a child I looked up to my dad and liked pretty much everything he liked. His favourite band is the Rolling Stones and not long after the Beatles I found myself intrigued by the darker tones of Mick and company. My dad, like most people his age, was a big fan of Oldies radio. So along with the Beatles and the Stones came a host of big names from the past, including: Elvis Presley, the Mamas and the Papas, Simon and Garfunkel, The Byrds, The Kinks, CCR, The Doors, Terry Jacks, Neil Young, The Guess Who, The Moody Blues, the Dave Clark Five etc etc. Oldies radio was basically all we listened to back then. Either that, or mix tapes with our favourite oldies singles on them. Needless to say, I'm a lot more familiar with music from the 60's and 70's than any 21 year old probably should be.

Unfortunately, this was all I really knew. I was completely oblivious to any current music. I remember being laughed at in grade 5 for saying the Beatles were the greatest band of all time. Not to say that that isn't quite possibly true, but considering 99% of the music I knew was recorded 25 years before then, it was a pretty ignorant statement. It was around this time that my eyes began to open to more current music. I remember two friends of mine on the bus debating over who they liked more; Bush or Our Lady Peace. Having never heard of either band, I decided I liked Our Lady Peace's name better and set out to buy the album Clumsy. Considering the darkest music I had heard to this point was The Rolling Stones, this album was quite a shock to me. It was dark, raw and heavy. Even the softer songs on the album such as Carnival and the title track had a definite edge to them. I loved it, and immediately craved more music like it.

When my next birthday rolled around, what I wanted was a given. The only thing I asked for was a CD player. I got that, along with OLP's first album Naveed. It was even darker and heavier than Clumsy, thus furthering my craving for the dark and heavy. I started listening to new rock radio around this time and making my own mix tapes of the music they played. There was one song that immediately caught my attention, highlited by the raw voice and guitarwork of the late Kurt Cobain. The song I'm, of course, referring to is Smells Like Teen Spirit. Thus beginning my 90's Alternative/Grunge phase. Through friends and the radio, more and more bands came to my attention. Bands like Green Day, Silverchair, Rage Against the Machine and I Mother Earth were suddenly being added to my meager CD library.

The fact that my parents didn't like the music I was listening to, in my mind, immediately made it cool. And because of this my desire for the loud and heavy continued to grow. I remember a vivid dream I had. I must've left my radio on that night because in my dream I remembering listening to The Memory Remains by Metallica and asking my mom who the singer was. Her reply? Well it went a little something like this; "That, Scott, is the devil." This dream, at the time, both intrigued and scared the hell out of me. Perhaps my mom was right because shortly after this dream I became all but obsessed with Metallica. Their music was the fruit of the forbidden tree and I was going back for seconds, thirds, etc. I eventually collected their entire CD library. My Metallica obsession opened the doors to many other Metal bands of the past and present. But to this day, no Metal band has done it for me like 'Tallica.

Around this time a local rock radio station called 92 Citi FM converted to a 'Classic Rock' station. My favourite era of Metallica was definitely their early work (1983 - 1988) and I found that 92 was playing more music from that era. And so began my Classic Rock 'rebirth' phase.