Soundtrack to My Life

It would be an impossible choice. Luckily it’s highly unlikely if I’d ever be called upon to make it – the choice between Music or Books. Those who know me, or read this Blog regularly, will know my passion for books. If you bump into me at any point you’ll probably find me in a book shop or sitting somewhere book in hand. If I’m stuck in traffic or waiting for someone or something to start I’ll be reaching into my back-pack for whatever I’m reading at the moment. Not only is my house groaning under the weight of the books I’ve accumulated to date but I keep accumulating more each week. I’m sure that a coroner someday will have to write an odd cause of death: buried under a pile of apparently unread books.

Fewer people know about my love of music – probably because I listen to most of it at home (a 70’s compilation double CD at the moment) or on headphones so they can’t hear what I hear, and although my CD stacks aren’t quite as high as my book stacks they are slowly getting there. I’ve said before that I’m interested in almost everything – hence my book mountains – but I’m also at least initially to listen to almost any kind of music. There is my tried and tested core favourites but I do try to listen to things outside my natural comfort zone – Jazz being a case very much in point. I’ve tried over the years to like Jazz but have failed to do so. I can listen to the odd CD but it doesn’t have anything like the appeal of my favourite genres.

Growing up in the 1960’s and 70’s in Liverpool means that, no matter what, I’ll always have a soft spot for the music of The Beatles and the lesser examples of Merseybeat. But I think my early love was Progressive Rock (I don’t know if it’s still called that) exemplified by bands such as Pink Floyd. I think this love stems from my older brother and his friends listening to such things and me hanging around and generally being annoying as younger brothers tend to be. I think my younger brother also introduced me to The Rolling Stones in the early to mid-70’s and the love of that band continues to this day. Of course the 70’s (the decade that style forgot) through up a whole host of music types some of which I still enjoy listening to: Disco, Motown, Glam-Rock, New Wave, Punk. I still remember who my brother’s musical tastes changed almost overnight from Sister Sledge to Souixie and The Banshees and The Boomtown Rats. Those where definitely exciting days for a late maturing teenager! It was the 80’s, as I’ve mentioned before, that turning out to be my favourite decade for music. I was introduced to U2 in 1983 when I went to University and my Punk friend Ron introduced me to the likes of Ian Curtis who I still think was fantastically talented. Those where the years of collecting cheap vinyl 45’s and becoming reacquainted with bands such as Tomita.

Of course having a job comparatively soon after leaving Uni and being in employment now for 26 consecutive years (gulp) has allowed me to accumulate a great deal of music over the years. I try to listen to as much of it as I can as often as I can. Since I reduced my TV watching to almost nothing I’ve listened to a great deal more and, with my TV presently ‘off-line’ I’m listening to even more. I do find that it’s a very pleasant way to wake up in the morning – if you pick your music carefully!

As to my favourites? That’s difficult. Although I do have preferred artists I’m more a fan of types or genres. If I had to plump for one favourite it’d probably have to be rock music (I do believe that the electric guitar is probably one of mankind’s greatest inventions) very closely followed by The Blues which I absolutely adore. You should already know of my love of the female voice in all its incarnations and that covers a very wide area. I still do love Punk for its energy and, to be honest, anger and although looking back it is crude and largely unformed it was symptomatic of the time and I can’t help but be fond of it still.

Finally I have to mention Classic music which I have a slightly odd relation with. Classical music as always had an elitist feel about it. I wasn’t exposed to it very much growing up on working-class housing estates and about the only time we heard it was on TV adverts and in movie soundtracks (one reason why I still love Rollerball – the original please!) for introducing me to Tomaso Albinoni. I still have no idea why it is so but Baroque music stirs something deep, deep down inside my ‘soul’ and I could listen to it all day turned all the way up to 11. Likewise I love piano music especially by composers such as Rachmaninov. Funnily I often feel inadequate when I think about Classical music being, as it where, self-taught. I don’t really know what it supposed to be good and what it considered kitsch but then another part of me says that as long as I like what I’m listening to then why should that matter. Apparently my Classical music collection would be considered to be ‘obvious’ and ‘uninformed’, you might even call it ‘working class’, which, of course, amuses me to death. But, no matter what, I love my music and would struggle a great deal if I ever had to live without it. It has helped me through the bad times, kept me sane and lifted my spirits when they needed lifting. Long may the soundtrack to my life continue rolling on.