STEWART COPELAND

Heh...I was just thinking about this and wanted to hear what song any of you all who play any instruments learned to play first...not well, but learned...in any way at all!

I'll always remember when I was a yong-un and wanted to learn to play bass my older brother taught me to play Dazed and Confused...{he passed away some years ago...he was the older brother who took you to your first trip to Tower records when you were a kid...and told you that the stuff you wanted to buy (say Toni Basil, my first 45) was shit and instead led you to the world of Led Zeppelin, Clapton, Rolling Stones, Who, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and so on, so forth...<grin>}

Of course, when I wanted to take up the drums...secretly in between practicing the Swiss Army Triplet and Lesson 25 (LOL) the first song I 'learned' to play was the legendary beat of When the Levee Breaks...

A few years ago my hubby wanted to learn to play guitar...he thought we would be a cute White Stripes duo (minus the divorce <grin>)...so his instructor taught him to play Blister in the Sun...then only a few months into lessons he had an "accident" slamming the car door shut and lost the first joint of his index finger...I shit you not, he almost died when he heard me singing On Any Other Day for the first time (he has only recently been indoctrinated in thier entire oeuvre)...he has a new hero now, after having learned Tommy Iommi lost tips of a few of his fingers in an industrial accident...last day on the job, naturally...and had to melt bottle caps over the tips to play better with them <grin>

My first song, on the guitar, was House of the Rising Sun.

It was 1975 or 1976. I was five and I was always listening to one of these songs and trying to learn them on my drumset.

1. Land of 1000 Dances - Cannibal & the Headhunters
2. Suzie Q - Live version by Johnny Rivers
3. Black Magic Woman - Santana

My first 'gig' was sitting in on drums age 5 or six at the Tangiers lounge in Akron, Ohio where I kept a beat to Black Magic Woman while the band played along. I remember it somewhat.

I'm not sure which came absolutely first: either "Three Blind Mice" on the clarinet (hated it) or Greensleeves" on piano. Probably still the only song I can play on the piano.

First song on a guitar: "Stairway to Heaven." Cliched but true.

I think it was "Under The Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I think it was "Waiting Room" by Fugazi, or "Deans Dream" by The Dead Milkmen.

I think it was Chop Sticks on the piano.

On guitar it would have been a Police bassline as I couldn't wrap my young mind around chords for at least a year. Probably the bass to Canary In A Coalmine or When The World Is Running Down...

On the guitar it was the famous bass line on "Smoke on the Water."
Everyone could do that one.

I regret to say this but when I was about 12 years old I learned Cold as Ice
by foreigner.

Probably "Deportee" by Woody Guthrie...

That's sad to hear about your brother, Gina. What an amazing story about Tommy Iommi, tho, very inspirational!

Geez, i can't even remember my piano and clarinet days. On guitar it would probably have been Come As You Are.

I still don't know any chords!

[quote="Grant"]I regret to say this but when I was about 12 years old I learned Cold as Ice
by foreigner.[/quote]

Ha ha ha ha!

Grant you are my new Stew web hero! (next to Dive of course!)

YOU ROCK!

Do you know double vision too?

I learned Marry had a Little Lam, when I had to take music in middle school. I played the Veola, but quit after the first year (all we had to take), because my teacher never taught us how to read sheet music...

"Mary had a little lamb, her father shot it dead, and now it goes to school with her between two bit of bread!"

I am a drummer, the very first track I learned was "Gold" by Spandau Ballet. In fact, I found most of their tracks very useful for learning some basic drumming concepts. John Keeble was (is) a pretty good drummer, though - much better live than the studio stuff.