Which song made you fall in love with the acoustic guitar???

[Long Jon]

I guess Bob came first for me, but it was Neil around early '70's that made me really want a Martin.

[kydave]

I guess I came to guitar in a different way from the OP, in that no song in particular did it.

I started singing not too long after I was talking and was in choirs as a little kid. At around 6 or 7 years old, after watching the singing cowboys, Roy Rogers and Gene Autry on black & white TV, I thought that it would be cool to play guitar while I sang and started pestering my folks.

They didn't take me seriously then and by the time I was 12 & they finally got me a cheap Sears electric, the rock sound was going full strength and the Beatles were almost ready to hit our shores & change things forever.

But as soon as I could play a few chords on that electric, in addition to my rock garage bands, I started doing folk music, too. At first I'd used borrowed acoustic guitars and then finally got a little Gibson 12 string.

So no particular song, but the acoustic guitar as a vehicle for singing from all the way back to Roy & Gene was my itch.

[zombywoof]

Back in the early 1960s my mother gave me two LPs she bought out of Publisher's Clearing House catalog of something. One was Woody Guthrie and the other Leadbelly. A friend of the family then gave me an old Martin archtop she had laying around in closet for my birthday.

[billgennaro]

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

I can still remember my brother getting this album for Christmas and me running up to our bedroom to play it. I was only 12 and had never heard of them before. I'll never forget the first minute of listening to it. First, the acoustic guitar rang out and I thought to myself, "what is this"? then the vocal harmonies hit and i said again, "what is this"? What a Christmas morning it was.

[aknow]

Originally Posted by billgennaro

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes

I can still remember my brother getting this album for Christmas and me running up to our bedroom to play it. I was only 12 and had never heard of them before. I'll never forget the first minute of listening to it. First, the acoustic guitar rang out and I thought to myself, "what is this"? then the vocal harmonies hit and i said again, "what is this"? What a Christmas morning it was.

Truly, a great acoustic sound.

[Neil K Walk]

In all honesty it was "Stairway to Heaven" which was transcribed in a mid-1980s issue of "Guitar for the practicing musician" magazine. Up until then I'd been into learning how to play electric guitar only.

[M19]

Both Beatles; Accoustic: It's Only Love. Electric: I Feel Fine. IMHO I Feel Fine is one of the best tunes of the 60's.

[soao]

Embryonic Journey

[Wardo]

Wasn't any one particular song but when I started to hear bluegrass music more as well as some fairport and steeleye songs - that all got me switched from electric to acoustic.

They are a bit loose by bluegrass standards but I saw these guys play this song when they came through here one time many years ago and pretty much next day I traded my amp and a shotgun for a good acoustic guitar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beATl3QI2X8

[Dru Edwards]

I guess my response is different than many here. I grew up on '80s metal and I always enjoyed those metal / hard rock ballads, such as Skid Row's I Remember You, Warrant's Heaven and Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive. Those songs always brought the girls closer.

[Halcyon/Tinker]

'Friends' by Zeppelin. Introduced me to alternate tunings and I've never looked back.

[philjs]

I got my first guitar when I was 7, a National electric (that I wish I still had), and the inspiration was "Meet the Beatles". The first "song" that I can remember that did it for me was Steppenwolf's "Magic Carpet Ride". Soon followed by Alvin Lee and 10 Years After at Woodstock and Humble Pie "Live at the Filmore". The rest of the 70s were a blur

I was a big fan of the "acoustic 70s" (America, CSN, etc.) and then went through a variety of stages that, by the late 70s, had me listening, playing and inspired by bluegrass, then classical and light jazz through the mid-80s. Studied classical guitar for a few years then put guitars away to return to school.

In 1990 I was forcefully re-introduced to acoustic guitar by a chance visit to a record store (remember them?) that was playing Michael Hedges' "Live on the Double Planet". His version of "All Along the Watchtower" blew me away and Hedges was my introduction to melodic contemporary fingerstyle guitar.

A year or so later I met Don Ross and he introduced me to celtic guitar (at the time Don was playing in "The Harbord Trio" with his first wife, Kelly McGowan and violinist-extraordinaire Oliver Schroer, both no longer with us). It's been all downhill from there!

Phil

[StevenL]

Hard to remember. Probably Neil Young that really got me going.

[rbock]

As far as solo acoustic playing, probably something by John Fahey. "Take a Look at that Baby" was one of the first finger picking songs I ever learned. Spent a lot of time listening to and playing "Some Summer Day" and "When the Springtime Comes Again," as well.

Good question. Made me go back and see how much I could remember.

[tomana]

I can't say it was a song that caused me to go acoustic, because it wasn't. An older cousin had a 1957 Strat and I heard him strumming and singing Little Red Ridinghood to the aunts and uncles and eventually I got to play the strat when he was away fighting in Vietnam. Parents could only afford a Green Stamps acoustic so that's what I was given. LOVED it, though it made my fingers almost bleed

First song that drew my undivided attention to the guitar lick was For Yasgur's Farm by Mountain but that's not an acoustic piece. For acoustic it was Steve Howe of Yes