The first tunes / songs you ever learnt to play

I've been feeling a little nostalgic lately and thinking about the good old days. Does anyone recall what the first tunes / riffs / songs etc you ever learnt to play?
That's If any of you oldies can remember that far back

Here's mine: from mid 1990 when I started playing bass.

U2 - New Years Day (Bassline), taught myself to play it on a crappy acoustic from a U2 tablature book
The Stone Roses - She bangs the drums (Bassline) A guitarist friend taught me it on his Westone Thunder 1 bass....it took me weeks to perfect it.
The Cult - she sells sanctuary (bassline) We used to do this song in the first band I was ever in. I still have a recording of it. it's painful, nobody ever told us we had to tune in first before playing.

Jay

Jeebus... that's back in the 60's for me... probably "House of the rising sun" apart from the stuff I was taught, like scales and modes. Imagine teaching a small boy scales and modes...

I'm pretty sure I learned "Man of mystery" by the Shads pretty early on, along with " Apache" and "Kon Tiki" plus a few NZ songs you blokes will never have heard of so I won't bore y'all!!

First tune on organ was... wait for it..... yes; you've guessed it; "Whiter shade of pale", followed by "Girlie"...

Bass, don't know as I only ever really filled in on bass but I did record "Move it!" playing bass....

Banjo, "Orange Blossom Special", "Ballad of Jed Clampett"... an instrument I should never have sold...

Mandolin, "Losing my religion" probably; I seem to recall playing a load of Irish stuff about my mandolin period!!

Lap steel, "One of these days" ...'cause it's easy... all in Em!!

Likewise...House of the Rising Sun..

By a fella that was on his way home from church and was swept away in the flood waters after some serious heavy rainfall. Thanks mate.

Bass,my main instrument, Sam + Dave(salmondave) Great soul music.

I'm surprised these weren't mentioned yet, but my first riff ever was "Smoke on the Water" shortly followed by "Iron Man"! How cliche are those?! But it was true nonetheless.

The first full song was "Amazing Grace", which wasn't nearly as fun.

First bass riffs I learned were from Cake songs I think, don't remember which ones. The first full song I learned was an original. I'm not good with covers, I think I've only ever learned two, and have forgotten how to play them both.

My first guitar lesson was Dust in the Wind - 1984 I believe.

Rock you like a Hurricane Scorpions

First song when I took lessons what Pinball Wizard - My teacher really was pushing me to start with those barre chords.

sarcaster wrote:First song when I took lessons what Pinball Wizard - My teacher really was pushing me to start with those barre chords.

I always used partials on that 'cause I hated the barre chords early on!! Besides it was always the intro that rocked my boat on that song, eh!! Still a cracking tune and the punters love it!

corsair wrote:

sarcaster wrote:First song when I took lessons what Pinball Wizard - My teacher really was pushing me to start with those barre chords.

I always used partials on that 'cause I hated the barre chords early on!! Besides it was always the intro that rocked my boat on that song, eh!! Still a cracking tune and the punters love it!

Yeah, if you watch Pete play it, he's not barring all the way across - he's playing the fragment on the last 4 strings and muting with the thumb over the top. He has big hands.

I actually like barre chords, I just can't do them in G shape because my hands are tiny (which has prompted a few inquiries into how in the hell I manage to play bass! ). I will admit that I'm very slow in changing chord shapes, so there's always two or three muted beats if I'm playing anything more complicated than power chords.

The Chad wrote:I'm surprised these weren't mentioned yet, but my first riff ever was "Smoke on the Water" shortly followed by "Iron Man"! How cliche are those?! But it was true nonetheless.

The first full song was "Amazing Grace", which wasn't nearly as fun.

+1 I think Paranoid was in there as well.

I thought this would be an easy question to answer...but it ain't!
I got my first "guitar", a battered up old flat top that someone had painted with pink enamel paint (Hi John), when I was about 8 or 9.
I can remember laying in my bunk bed listening to Elvis on the AM radio and trying to play along. Didn't have a bloody clue what I was doing mind.

Later on at the ripe old age of about 12, I had a new improved flattop from Simpsons-Sears or Eatons (a mail order Department store) and commenced ta playin' along with Johnny Cash, "I Walk the Line", etc.

Tragic.

WARNING: RISK OF SEVERE BOREDOM

First songs? Do partial riffs count? No? OK....

House of the Rising Sun - Animals
Satisfaction - Otis Redding/Stones
Electric Funeral - Black Sabbath (my parents bought me a Dunlop cry-baby)
Sundown - Gordon Lightfoot
Wild World - Cat Stevens
Heart of Gold - Neil Young
zillions of faceless plain jane blues progressions - the kind you can play when you are damned close to nodding off

In my second year, I learned the cliche grail - Stairway to Heaven - Zep - as well as "Hair of the Dog" - Nazareth
My buddies and I went on to learn much of Sabbath's "Paranoid" album, including (wait for it) the ubiquitous "Iron Man". What 14 year old could resist those weird falling/rolling opening chords? Not me.

Bloody Sundown; that song gave conniptions ages ago when I first tried nutting it out as I could never get that sound from an open chord!! Stumbled on the stacked 5th by accident and then went mad with it as it's used in the cheats version of "Every breath you take" and "Roads to Moscow" and " Friday on my mind"!!

Ahhhhh... Memories; good post!

Yeah - we wrestled with it as a 4 -student group in my teacher's basement. His dog (a big mofo of a Russian wolfhound, a grey shaggy bugger) would stare at us perplexed as we strove to hit that opener just "so".. I think that tune provides some fodder for what is music vs a song.