What song started your guitar journey?

[Dru Edwards]

Iron Maiden when I started listening to their Powerslave album. Aces High and Rime of the Ancient Mariner would have led the way and it quickly grew to so much more.

[Street Glider]

It would have to be the first song I ever learned, which was Neil Young's "Helpless"...

[Jimmyhaws]

Originally Posted by kakashi

thank you all for sharing! seems like i'm probably one of the younger guys in here, it's cool to see what captured your ear that was being played during your time as we all come from different generations, backgrounds, and culture.

Sorry if you already shared it and I missed it, but I'd love to know your answer to your original post. It is definitely fun looking through everyone's answers. Great idea for a forum question! It is fun thinking back to the beginning of what got this hobby started.

[leew3]

Lead Belly's 12 string version of the Boll Weevil song. On a plastic 45 I got from the Scholastic Book Club in 4th grade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQOPTEd24l8

[raysachs]

No specific song, but seeing the Dead for the first time in October '77 was the straw that broke the camel's back, motivated me to finally buy a cheap guitar and start learning to make sounds on it. The only songs they played that night that I knew by name were Casey Jones and Truckin', but it turned out I recognized a bunch of the stuff they played - I just didn't know it was them before I saw the show. I'd been wanting to do it for a while, but after that show, there was no more putting it off - I HAD to do it.

-Ray

[bufflehead]

First song I ever performed on guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGFoJahe3uc

[kakashi]

Originally Posted by Jimmyhaws

Sorry if you already shared it and I missed it, but I'd love to know your answer to your original post. It is definitely fun looking through everyone's answers. Great idea for a forum question! It is fun thinking back to the beginning of what got this hobby started.

sorry I forgot to add mine! this came up while i was browsing youtube in my sophomore year and never looked back. got to play this for Andy couple months ago, very cool experience!

[Jimmyhaws]

Originally Posted by kakashi

sorry I forgot to add mine! this came up while i was browsing youtube in my sophomore year and never looked back. got to play this for Andy couple months ago, very cool experience!

Thanks for sharing! Beautiful song, I'm impressed that you can play it! So cool that you got to play it for him

[MHC]

One song and then one album.

The first time I ever sat next to a guitarist and watched him play a song up close was when I was starting high school and worked at a gas station. The young man (a drifter really) was quite young, maybe 20, and was just passing through town and needed supplies. He had a guitar, sat down and started playing Neil Young's "Seen the Needle and the Damage Done." I knew nothing about the guitar -- but it sounded so good and it seemed like a miracle to me that one person could make such great music all alone, that I pledged to one day learn the guitar. When I look back I remember that he was very skilled player (I know that now, but didn't then) but he really did make it look very easy.

Life got in the way and my pledge kind of faded over the years, until I heard Mississippi John Hurt's album "Now" especially the song Louis Collings, and that was it. I got a guitar soon after that. I wanted to do something like what I heard.

[guitarman68]

Don McLean's "Vincent" got me started playing steel string guitar in 1987 after studying classical guitar for four years. I got a tab book and could not believe it's playable, but it was - after weeks of trying. The same book contents also Kansas' "Dust in the Wind", Neil Young's "The Needle and the Damage Done", Bruce Springsteen's "The River" and Jackson Browne's "Song for Adam" (beside some John Renbourn, Bert Jansch and John McLaughlin). That's were I got started.
Next were Paul Simon, Jim Croce, James Taylor, Cat Stevens.

[Chickee]

The night I watched Glenn Campbell and John Hartford perform Gentle In My Mind during Glenn’s TV show. Right then and right there it cemented the idea I would be a guitarist. I still get a little weepy once in a while, seeing them introduce that song to the world that night. It became Campbell’s closing theme song for the show after that.

[antbar]

"Wish You Were Here."

I went to my grizzled old guitar teacher (he was probably all of 40 years old, but he had a little grey in his ponytail) and asked him "if he'd ever heard of Pink Floyd." A treasured memory, still gets a laugh from my brother, especially.

He was so kind about it. Didn't even have an amused look on his face. He said "I believe I have," and proceeded to change my life.

Edit: when I really think about it, it was when I saw Jim Croce on television. I couldn’t have been six years old.

https://youtu.be/bS_Fj47-Dp4

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by KevWind

First song I learned in 1964 and what a journey it has been

Hi Kev,

My 15-year-old grandson has expressed an interest in learning to play the guitar. We are meeting this Sunday morning to start; I am letting him use one of my older guitars that is well setup and not terribly expensive but plenty good.

The song he wants to learn first: "The House of the Rising Sun" as played by the Animals. I don't know how he even knows about this song, but I still remember how to play this from when I was 16 years old.

However, the singing on this song is something else, requiring a pretty high vocal range to hit all those high A notes starting on the 2nd verse!

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by islandguitar

Fall of '66, 5th floor of my college dorm....."Stew Ball" ("was a race horse and I wish he were mine!"). Played in D.....memories!!!

I remember "Stewball!" I thought that was so cool! I was already playing guitar when that song came out, so I jumped right on that!

- Glenn

[Roksbug]

Originally Posted by Andromeda

Two songs really inspired me to play the guitar. Rocky Mountain High by John Denver and The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel.

Same here!
But the first song I remember is a 6th grade guitar class at school. The teacher wanted us to play John Denver’s Country Roads. It was the easy version in G. I was thrilled when I was able to play the “real” version in A!
I wanted to quit the class after the second lesson but my mom said to stick with it and I might like it. The third class something clicked and I’ve loved guitars and playing for close to 45 years!!