All things come from somewhere. The history of the path from a common ancestor is not always of interest to people trying out on their own, but it still exists. For the topic of this post I’m talking about musical lineage. Even purists have a line to follow, those who came before gave each musician a jumping off point. How far they jumped, and to where, is where it gets interesting. Growing up I had some pretty diverse influences. That, along with the incredible need to be different, pushed me to seek out things that were not a popular as what my classmates were listening to. My father played Indian Classical Music, Latin Jazz and BeBop around the house, as he played both the tablas and the congas with other musicians. My mother that period of the mellow rock sounds, James Taylor, Carly Simon, Carole King.
Looking at the charts for lets say 1978, you’ll see Queen, the Bee Gees, Meatloaf, Kansas and other FM staples. The Ramones, Talking Heads and Paul Simon are on that same list of radio favorites. By then I was listening to Jeff Beck, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Genesis, Yes and the Dixie Dregs. Not liking Kiss or Olivia Newton John made me a pariah in high school, though Zeppelin, ZZ Top and the Southern Rock bands filled my needs. I still leaned toward fusions of different things, blues/rock, rock/jazz, etc. Finding a way to meld those different likes into one thing was very pleasing, even to an immature drummer of 15.