I was born on March 12th, 1981.

More memorable and fascinating to me than any characters on Sesame Street or Today’s Special, larger-than-life figures like Tina Turner, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Bruce Springsteen formed my earliest memories.  From these clues, I figure my earliest memories were formed around 1984.   As a 3 year old, plopped in front of the TV, I fixated on these characters who seemed like gods.

Each of these characters were reduced to cartoon-like symbols in my mind:

Tina = huge hair

Prince = purple

Michael = the glove, the moonwalk, the king

Bruce = the stadiums, the American flag, his bum on the cover of his album (which made me laugh)

One memory that might even be a bit earlier is of watching Culture Club’s video for “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me.” This could have been 1983, when I was 2.  I remember being intrigued and disturbed by Boy George.  I thought for sure he was a woman, and couldn’t understand why she would call herself “Boy George.”

This is the first music video I remember watching…

I still love the song and it makes me really happy to think that I was exposed to what my girlfriend would call a “queerdo” at such a young age.  The early days of MTV (and Much Music for us Canadians) were pretty exciting.

What are your earliest musical memories?