Post an album that you loved as a kid...

[Deja Q]

that you still love today:

[Taverner]

1. Led Zeppelin Physical Graffitti

[malta blue]

2. still one of my favorites

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Beatles_-_Abbey_Road.jpg

[AlCzervik]

3. mine, still have it

[Tyler Durden]

4. Scheherezade, Rimsky-Korsakov

Don't remember the orchestra. Heard from about 5 years old on.

Yes, I am weird.

[Patiod]

8. The background for "A Child's Tales from Arabian Nights"

I fell in love with that music as a small child, too, because it was the background on that album of stories.

But I can beat you for weird - I also had a "Child's Gilbert & Sullivan" and loved the selections from Mikado, Pirates and Pinafore.

[Patiod]

11. oops - posted in the wrong place

[Squeech]

13. Great music

for a little kid, or for anybody else.

The records I remember most fondly from my childhood were mainly late classical pieces like that: very colorful with lots of borrowed folk or ethnic influences. Also they were by and large "program music," in the sense that they had some sort of story or dramatic arc attached to them. This is now considered to be inferior by classical music snobs; so much the worse for them.

So, in addition to Sheherezade, I loved:

Beethoven's 6th symphony, the "Pastorale."

George Gershwin, an LP of the Rhapsody in Blue, with Piano Concerto in F on the other side. ("An American in Paris" is too wussy.)

Stravinsky's Firebird Suite, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.

Offenbach's Gaite Parisienne, with all those can-can dances.

Holst's Planets.

And the original cast recording of The Threepenny Opera, the Blitzstein translation of Bert Brecht's libretto, music by Kurt Weill.

If I had a kid, those are the records I'd give him/her. I'd probably add some Debussy, including La Mer and some of the piano music, and Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra.

[Patiod]

14. Don't you think people underestimate what kids can appreciate?

As I posted above, and aunt gave me a "Child's Gilbert & Sullivan" and I loved it.

[Squeech]

19. Of course

Kids are naturally curious and adventurous, and if their parents and teachers haven't twisted them, they can be remarkably open-minded. They do have their limits-- I remember the first time I heard Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, at about the age of 8, it scared the daylights out of me. But I wish my parents had more 20th century music around the house, I think I'd have gotten big into Bartok right out of the box. (My parents' classical collection, and tastem pretty much ended with Firebird-- after that they got big into show tunes.)

But I think that to appeal to a kid, music still has to have color, and it helps to have some sort of narrative. Peter and the Wolf is the obvious example-- not just that there's an entertaining story, but how it marshals some of the less obvious timbres of the orchestra-- oboe for the cat, clarinet for the duck, those chilling brassy chords for the wolf, etc. But my experience suggests that less obvious examples work too. I'd like to try, say, Histoire du Soldat out on an actual kid.

I'm subtly testing this stuff in the rock area. The nephew I've mentioned occasionally, to whom I give guitar lessons, walked in with an ear for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and that sort of classic hits. Among other things I've been trying to turn him on to, both the classic country blues, and its mutant '60s version, Captain Beefheart. (I let him take Shiny Beast home, haven't heard back yet.)

[LaraMN]

5. *snort*

It's just fun.

[ghostsofgiants]

6. Radiohead's "The Bends"

[Common Sense Party]

9. You're a young one, eh?

[ghostsofgiants]

10. I was 10 when it came out, haha.

[Common Sense Party]

25. You'll have to speak up, whippersnapper. These old ears don't

hear so well anymore!

[ghostsofgiants]

29. Yeah, sure thing, gramps.

:P

[Common Sense Party]

7. Queen, ELO, Godspell

[Patiod]

12. The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle

And Born to Run, which I just about wore out!






Also I still love Jimmy Buffett's Coconut Telegraph, which I loved as a young teen!

[maveric]

15. Concert for Bangladesh

George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shankar, Leon Russell, Badfinger.... I played this one to death.

[LanternWaste]

16. Grand Illusion & Glass Houses

Styx's 'The Grand Illusion' & Billy Joel's 'Glass Houses'. My first two "rock" albums.

I still dig the Billy Joel stuff, but as for Styx... they just don't do much for me anymore, and Lord knows I still try them on for size every few years or so.

[Common Sense Party]

27. Ooh! Those were 2 of mine as well. And Foreigner "Head Games"

[WoodyTobiasJr]

17. Klaatu

[shanti]

18. peter, paul and mary

blowing in the wind....mom loved them.

[Phillycat]

20. His Highness

[REP]

21. Saint-Saens: Carnival of the Animals/Danse Macabre/Rouet d'Omphale (etc)

Can't find an image of *my* album ... nor can I find a comparable digital recording of le Rouet d'Omphale.

[MsKandice01]

22. Yes, I know...

It's Michael and all..but this is still one of my all-time favorite albums.

[regularguy]

23. Eat a Peach:

Learned to play guitar along with this album.

[trackfan]

24. Ugly Bug Ball

[livetohike]

26. I was 12 yrs old when this came out

It still makes me smile to hear it :-).

[joneschick]

28. Yertle the Turtle and Gertrude McFuzz

wrong picture, but I tried!

[Dora]

30. Free to Be, You and Me

[Aristus]

31. "Danny Kaye reads Grimm's Fairy Tales."

Um...when you said "kid", how old did you mean exactly?