What Are Your Answers to These 10 Musical Questions?

Getting to know each other through The Wonderful World of Music

Writer, music lover, and all-around groovy guy Paul Combs recently tagged and challenged me and some others in a prompt that asked readers to answer 10 fun biographical music-related questions.

Here is Paul’s very entertaining piece:

In the above, Paul explained that he was inspired to do the challenge when he read this great article from Scott-Ryan Abt, the awesome person who created the prompt in the first place.

Since I loved reading both of those pieces and because I find it very hard to resist challenges that are related to music, here are my answers to the 10 questions.

1. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DO YOU LIKE?

I’ll listen to just about anything, as long as it entertains me. However, my favorite type of music has always been Rock and Roll.

The Rock and Roll genre is very wide-ranging, though, isn’t it? After all, there are a LOT of different types of rock!

I love just about all of it — Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Bubblegum Rock, Yacht Rock, Classic Rock, Prog Rock, etc.

Like the legendary actor and singer Tim Curry…I DO THE ROCK!

The Shameless Self-Promotion Section of The Article

Speaking of Rock, I recently did an episode of my GOTTA POP podcast with Medium writer and all-around cool person Paul Walker, in which we discussed three legendary Prog Rock bands: King Crimson, Yes, and Porcupine Tree.

Check out the sample below to hear us. NOTE: Paul is the one with the cool English accent.

Another Prog and Classic Rock band I love is Pink Floyd. They were the subject of the most recent episode of my show. This episode, by the way, is the first episode of GOTTA POP that is available to watch on YouTube, in addition to the audio-only places where the show can be regularly heard.

And this concludes the Shameless Self-Promotion Section of The Article. We now return you to our regularly scheduled article…

2. WHAT KIND OF MUSIC DID YOU GROW UP ON?

I got into music on my own in the mid-1970s, when I was around 10 years old. Prior to that, most of the music I was exposed to was whatever my father played around the house. His favorite artists back then were The Kingston Trio and Neil Diamond, and he frequently played their records and tapes a lot.

While I was (mostly) okay with The Kingston Trio’s music, I preferred the music of Mr. Diamond. This is probably my favorite of the songs that got played a lot in the house when I was a little kid:

When I started listening to my own music, it was mostly a mixture of what was popular on radio stations during my late childhood/pre-teen years in the late 1970s. The first records I owned included a mixture of artists like KISS, Cheap Trick, The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and ‘oldies’ like The Beach Boys and The Beatles — and the band that is the subject of the next answer.

3. WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE SINGER OR BAND?

It’s always been The Monkees.

Like countless other people, I first discovered their music while watching reruns of their TV show from the 1960s. When an aunt of mine (one who religiously frequented yard sales on a weekly basis) found out I loved The Monkees’ music, she began searching for their old records for me at yard sales. In a very short time, I owned original copies of several records by the group. To say I played them “a lot” back then in the mid-1970s would be a major understatement.

To say that I still listen to The Monkees “a lot” in 2023 would also be a major understatement. It’s very rare that a week goes by in which I don’t play at least one or two songs by them.

“The Girl I Knew Somewhere” has always been one of my favorites by the band. This video of it is taken from a very funny episode of The Monkees TV series entitled ‘Monkees Get Out More Dirt.’

The actress in it is the legendary Julie Newmar, who is perhaps best known for playing Catwoman in the Batman TV series. In the episode, each member of The Monkees has fallen head-over-heels in love with the character played by Julie — which can clearly be seen in the video, as each member daydreams what it would be like to be with her.

4. WHAT IS THE FIRST CONCERT YOU WENT TO ON YOUR OWN?

It was in November 1981 when I saw The Go-Go’s in Philadelphia. They were then riding high on the success of their debut album Beauty And The Beat, which contained the hit songs “Our Lips Are Sealed” and “We Got The Beat.”

I couldn’t find a video from the concert I attended, but the below performance is from a concert The Go-Go’s did just a few weeks after I saw them.

P.S. — I’m sending this one out to my pal Bob Merckel, because I know he loves this song as much as I do.

5. WHAT’S THE FIRST RECORD/TAPE/CD YOU BOUGHT WITH YOUR OWN MONEY? DO YOU STILL HAVE IT?

Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Heart was the eponymously titled debut (and final) studio album by a short-lived spinoff group of The Monkees featuring Micky Dolenz, Davy Jones, Tommy Boyce, and Bobby Hart. Dolenz and Jones, of course, were the primary singers of The Monkees. Boyce and Hart were a singing and songwriting team who had written several songs for The Monkees, including the hits “Last Train To Clarksville,” “I Wanna Be Free,” and “(I’m Not Your) Steppin’ Stone.”

The album was released in Spring 1976, not too long after my 10th birthday. I’d recently started getting an allowance and I was thrilled to use some of my hard-earned (not really) money on the album. I very clearly remember buying it at a department store called Gaylord’s.

I played the album a lot and loved it. I was sure that Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart was going to be the next ‘big thing’ in music! Unfortunately, though, the album wasn’t promoted well by the record label. In turn, the record didn’t sell well. Shortly afterward, the group broke up.

It’s a shame that things worked out the way they did because there were a few really good songs on the album that could have been hits if they’d been marketed better.

This is one of my favorites from it:

Do I still own my copy of the album? Yes and no. My original vinyl copy is long gone but I now own a CD re-release of it (which has a different and far less cool-looking front cover than the original release, which can be seen in the screencap of the above video.)

6. WHAT’S THE BEST SHOW YOU’VE EVER SEEN? WHAT WAS THE WORST?

I don’t think I can pick one act as being ‘the best I’ve ever seen,’ but the Live Aid concert I attended in Philadelphia in 1985 was AMAZING and one of the best days of my life.

The Cars were just one of the many incredible bands I saw that day and night. I still very clearly remember their performance from it.

The worst show I ever went to was probably Cheap Trick — but I don’t blame the band. I saw them at a no-longer-around venue in Delaware called Kahunaville. The show was supposed to be on the very large outside deck of the place, but a thunderstorm caused it to be moved indoors at the last minute.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough room inside the fairly small venue for all of us ticketholders. We were packed in there like very, very unhappy sardines! Not only was it very uncomfortable for people like me in the crowd, but the members of Cheap Trick were given a ridiculously small space/last-minute makeshift stage to perform on. Their sound system broke down several times and the band members were visibly angry — even though they tried their best to give us a good show. In their defense, they sounded great (when you could actually hear them play, that is!)

One of my favorites by them…

7. WHAT IS THE NEXT SHOW YOU ARE GOING TO?

I have nothing planned — and I’m very okay with that. Even though I’ve been to hundreds of concerts, and I loved almost all of them, I’m now sort of done with going to big shows — especially ones in large venues that hold tens of thousands of people. I just don’t like being in large crowds like that anymore.

Plus, most concert tickets are way too expensive anymore!

I’m not saying I’ll never go to any more shows, but when I do, they’ll most likely be at reasonably small venues with at least somewhat affordable concert tickets.

8. WHAT IS ONE ACT BAND YOU STILL HAVEN’T SEEN LIVE THAT YOU WANT TO, BEFORE IT’S ALL SAID AND DONE (FOR THEM AND YOU?)

The great Sade.

They’re apparently working on a new album, which will be their first one in over 10 years. If they tour around here to promote it, I’d like to see them — even in a large venue.

9. WHAT IS THE GREATEST SONG EVER WRITTEN, HANDS DOWN?

This one’s almost impossible to answer but I’m going to go with “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys.

I’ve seen and read multiple interviews with Paul McCartney in which he’s said it’s his favorite song ever.

Who am I to argue with Sir Paul? I don’t know if “God Only Knows” is ‘the greatest song ever written,’ but it’s certainly one of my favorites ever written.

The music, the vocals, the lyrics, the production — it’s all wonderful and beautiful.

The song has been used in many television series and movies over the years, but my favorite usage of it in a movie was when it was featured toward the end of Love Actually. I think it fits in perfectly in the scenes featuring the main characters in the movie — and in short clips featuring random people in an airport reuniting with their loved ones. I’m touched by it every time I watch it.

SPOILER: As noted above, this is from the end of Love Actually. If you’ve never seen the movie and think you may want to at some point, don’t watch the below video.)

10. WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST REGRET, MUSICALLY?

My only musical regret is that I wish I’d been a better student while I was taking saxophone and guitar lessons when I was a kid. I didn’t stick with either instrument for very long.

I’m slowly learning the guitar, though, now. It’s fun! Who knows? Maybe I’ll try the saxophone again someday too. After all, it’s never too late, right?

So, how about YOU? Let me and the world (or at least The Wonderful World of Medium) learn more about you by how you answer the above questions.

Come on, it will be fun!

And speaking of fun, here’s some from my old friends The Monkees…

Thank you for reading! If you’d like to connect with me outside of Medium, you can also find me on The Platform Formerly Known as Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Threads, and Goodreads. I’m also the host of the Gotta Pop podcast. Links to all of those things can be found here.