Music Lists

There was a thing doing the rounds on Facebook a few weeks back where people were being asked to name the top 10 albums of their younger years, the premise being that the music of your youth has a far greater sway over your musical preferences than anything you hear at a later date - which got me to thinking.

I don’t entirely agree with that view, but, before I get into that, let’s start with my list of the 10 albums that, in my younger years, spent more time on my Dansette than any other. In no particular order, they are:-

Who’s Next – The Who

Born To Run – Bruce Springsteen

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

All Mod Cons – The Jam

Le Chat Bleu – Mink De Ville (a flawed but forgotten classic – worth checking out!)

I Don’t Want To Go Home – Southside Johnny & The Ashbury Jukes

Heat Treatment – Graham Parker & The Rumour

My Aim Is True – Elvis Costello

London Calling – The Clash

Colossal Youth – Young Marble Giants

Now, while it is true that I can, with suitable encouragement in the form of an appropriate form of liquid refreshment, probably sing every track on Born To Run and Who’s Next, in order, from start to finish (and this from a man who has absolutely no memory for lyrics – despite having played “The Weight” at most gigs with my band for the past 10 years, I can still only remember the verse that I sing), I really can’t remember the last time that I played any of the above in full. While they most definitely formed a part of my personal musical heritage, I have no burning desire to go back and re-visit them with the intensity and frequency that I used to. They are all most certainly, very fine pieces of music (I will accept no dissent on that point!), but they are more remembered with fondness than played with passion. So, while I get the "music of your youth is very influential" thing, I don't think that you are then incapable of being similarly affected by music  you come across in your later years.

To illustrate that point, I now have another set of 10 albums that I have discovered/re-discovered (some of them coming from a time before I started listening to music avidly) in later years that are more of an influence on my musical taste as the “teenage” list above. And these are:-

Mule Variations – Tom Waits

El Corazon – Steve Earle

Moondance – Van Morrison (way better than Astral Weeks – the World’s Grumpiest Songwriter ™ will never write a better opening five tracks to an album)

The Band – The Band (the motherlode of all Americana)

Nebraska – Bruce Springsteen

Time (The Revelator) – Gillian Welch

Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams

Anymore For Anymore – Ronnie Lane

Pretty World – Sam Baker

Car Wheels On A Gravel Road – Lucinda Williams

Interestingly, this second list does get played regularly – nowadays, I will reach for Nebraska rather than Born To Run, Mule Variations rather than London Calling, Anymore for Anymore rather than Who’s Next. And, arguably, my musical taste (both what I listen to and what I play) is much closer to my older self’s list than the music of my callow youth.

The Return of the Prodigal Blogger

It's been quite a while - and, despite the occasional nudge from my GLW* I have managed to not post a blog for about 6 months. However, I now feel the need to arm myself with virtual quill and parchment and cast my words of wisdom on to the four virtual winds. In fact, my new 2017 self is determined to make this at least a monthly occurrence.

Why the need to start up again? Well, when I started this blog, I envisaged it as a commentary on my transition from 41 years and 5 months of working (not that I was counting) all with the same organisation, and the difficulties that I expected to encounter in moving into a life of gainful non-employment - I had some serious concerns that I had become institutionalised and the seismic jolt from no longer being at work would be significant (and, therefore, would be useful source material for a blog!).

Well, I got that wrong (initially). I slipped into the life of a non-worker with considerable ease. I found a number of activities to stretch me - building a guitar, trying (and failing - but I'm still trying!) to make decent bread, helping out with a number of local charities and other organisations - and had very quickly achieved what I felt to be a sensible balance between keeping myself busy and allowing myself time to do what I wanted. My GLW* commented that, far from taking some time over a transition to retirement, I seemed to carry on without a break in step - once I'd shaken off the hangover from my work leaving drinks, work was behind me and I was home free. Consequently, I felt I had little to write as it was all going so swimmingly.

That was all going fine until Christmas, when I had a bit of a set back, which I take as a delayed reaction to retirement (and, at this point, I really need to apologise to my family for my grumpier-than-normal attitude - looking back, I realise that I was less than perfect company). For a period of about 4 weeks, I felt disconnected and adrift from the world. With the benefit of hindsight, I think it was the hiatus in the activities (volunteering and so on) for the holiday period that suddenly left me with not a great deal scheduled to do. What I seem to have been doing is using my activities as a work substitute to make me feel that I still have some utility, and I hadn't prepared myself for (or recognised the effect of ) a break in that.

I hadn't realised how important my activities had become in my post-work world until they disappeared for a period - and when I started getting involved again in early January, everything started feeling a bit better. When you boil it down, I feel the need to be needed - the portrait I carry of myself in my head of a completely independent and self-sufficient person needs a bit of adjustment!

Now that I've got that worked out in my head, I'll still continue to do what I do, but I'll be better prepared for the next break.



That's it for this time, and I promise that next month's missive will be lighter and less focused on the retirement angle. I will wrap up now with my "what I've been listening/reading/watching" selections:-

What I've Been Listening To
I've not been seriously attracted to any new music this past month or so (it's usually not a good time of the year for good music), but I have been exploring some old stuff, particularly on vinyl, as I mentioned in my last blog. Although it's not recognised as one of his best albums, I have been enjoying my vinyl version of Mr. Zimmerman's "Planet Waves", especially as I've recently realised that it is the only official studio release that he did with The Band.

What I've Been Reading
And on the subject of His Bobness and The Band, I got "Small Town Talk" by Barney Hoskyns for my 60th birthday in December. It tracks the history of Woodstock (the town, not the festival - despite being held some 60 miles away, the festival used the name of the town) as an artistic community, focusing on the time that Dylan, The Band, Van Morrison and various other luminaries spent in the town. Fascinating reading.

What I've Been Watching
Retirement has afforded us a great deal more time to get to the movies, and, as we are running up to awards season, there has been a slew of excellent films released recently, My favourite, though, must be Nocturnal Animals - stylish looking, multi-layered plot, and three top drawer performances from Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and the very wonderful Michael Shannon.


*Good Lady Wife