It is amazing the power music can have - its ability to evoke memories, places, feelings ..... a way to travel in time and space. Although I am not a musician ( I don't play any instruments, and the only singing I do is along to the radio in the bath ! ) it seems like music has always been there in my life .... as it is in most people's , I expect.
Browsing through the sales a few weeks ago, I found a copy of " The very best of ELO " at a very cheap price. I've always liked some of their music so I bought it - it didn't matter if I didn't like all the tracks, for I wouldn't be wasting too much money. Listening to it at home, I suddenly found my mind being taken back in time ..... to my childhood in the late 70's ... memories of playing in the garden, the sound of " The diary of Horace Wimp " being played on the radio drifting out from the house. Television didn't play that much of an important part in my childhood : looking back, it seemed we were always listening to the radio, and it was from the radio that I heard most of the music I remember. It was quite a mixture - country, easy listening, pop, classical ...... ELO, Supertramp, Sky ( remember them ? ).... I'm sure Jean Michel was in there somewhere, ( after all, Oxygene came out in ' 77 ) but I'm not conscious of it at that point in my life... I do remember Emmeson, Lake and Palmer with " Fanfare for the Common Man " though ( connected to the 1976 Olympics. I think ? ).... so electronica came into view from an early age it seems.....
The 80's and it's music takes me back to my teenage years ...... from Duran Duran , Howard Jones and Nik Kershaw to Prefab Sprout, Peter Gabriel, Sting, Black, Pet shop boys, INXS .... most of the music I listen to now stems back in some way to that time in my life ..... oh, and my little obsession with a certain artist started about then too.... LOL!! .... memories of school days, dancing around my bedroom to " Union of the Snake ", revising for final exams with " Notorious " playing in the background ( as you can tell, I was a bit of a Durannie then.... ).... happy, care-free days ...... seeing the cover of " Revolutions " for the first time, and watching Destination Docklands on Channel 4 - now * that * started something that hasn't finished yet ( and I hope it never does ) ........
So Life carried on, I grew older, more music entered my little world to accompany new experiences.... The Shaman, James, Sash!, Seal, Transglobal Underground, Natacha Atlas, Khaled, Rachid Taha , Afro Celts, Air..... my first trip to Paris, seeing Jean Michel in concert for myself @ Wembley Stadium ..... the ups and downs of adult life .... heartache and heartbreak ...... good times and not so good times .....
I can be taken back to any place, any point in my personal time line, and all it takes to do that is for me to just listen to a CD , or a song playing on the radio....... and the music can take me there. Long may that continue .......
1 comments:
The strange thing is that I didn't really grow up with music. Just some classical stuff, my parents where into that kind of stuff. And so was I, I only had a compilation of cover versions. But then I dug a little deeper into JMJ and that turned out to be really neat. For some reasons I've always been into 80s music the most. But I'm digging the 70s too, now. Pink Floyd and Supertramp are some really neat examples... :)
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