My love affair with dad rock and other musical compulsions...

09 Dec 2006

Bollocks. What you're actually reading is the second draft of a seriously large blog that I accidently deleted. I managed to pull off some random combination of keys to select all the text and simultaneously delete it, with no way of undoing it. There is no way I could perform the same operation in such a such a short space of time ever again. BOLLOCKS.

So where was I? Ah yes. I want to try and write as many blogs as possible so I can improve on my writing. Although after the last one, I was struggling to think of a subject in which I can be passionate about, since nothing had actually happened to me since, except for going shopping in Aldershot, and that's quite depressing and of no use to anyone. So, in the quest for a subject, three things that I could talk about popped up. Music, books and games. I wasn't a hardcore gamer before I joined the industry and I feel I can only really talk knowledgably about a relatively small area of that field. Books can happen later.

What really floats my giant, rusting hulk of a steamboat though, is music.

Music is a great leveller, and I always find that it's a great backup subject if ever I'm struggling to hold my own in a pub conversation. Loving music, I thought it was only right that I should try being in a band, but in my only serious project I gave up after four years. With thousands of pounds spent on rehearsal space, getting to gigs, duplicating copies of our single three track demo and recording it, I was no closer to achieving anything, except for the grim realisation that I wasn't really getting anywhere with it. So I painfully retreated, leaving the band to continue on. I was gutted about that.

So, the period between late '99 and 2004 was my 'mid-twenties rock star' period. Shame though, as I imagine I looked about as rock n roll as my dad, and I really haven't a clue what he looks like. Apart from a few uninteresting details, the only decent thing worth recounting about him was that he was a singer in a band. Maybe somewhere deep down that's my reason for doing it. One day, I'll start again, but it's going to have to be tailor made for my untrained voice, rather than the screaming dervish I criminally got away with for all that time. One day.

1980 - THE FIRST SONG I HEARD

My earliest recorded love affair with music began with the song Bright Eyes from the soundtrack of the Watership Down film. I don't care how uncool that sounds, as (if) you read on, it will become clear that my favourite tunes are anything but cool. So, that's my earliest memory. After that (apart from the radio, etc) I used to burrow (no pun intended) into my mum's boyfriend's 12" record collection. In it I found lots of great stuff, like Mike Oldfield, Dire Straits and The Beatles. Sadly, there was also a lot of questionable guff, like those Top of The Pops cover records of current songs that didn't feature the original artists. Much later, last week in fact, I found out that most of these were apparently actually performed by a little pianist known as Reg Dwight, who started off on these, trying to earn his crust before finding superstardom as Elton John. I remember there being an awesome interpretation of Paint It Black by The 'Stones on one of them. I think one also featured an instrumental of Stairway to Heaven, but I'm not sure.

Before I go on, I must warn you that Rachael thinks I'm borderline autistic with my music tastes. I haven't bothered to look up what this actually means, because I'm scared it might mean I'm strange. Although to be honest, most people who know me, have already accepted this and moved on. Anyway, the reason she thinks this is because I tend to discover one artist and immerse myself in finding everything out about them, buying most of their back catalogue and reading biographies. She thinks it's odd, I think it's good to experience more of something if you enjoy it. Maybe that's why I drink lots of beer and eat dodgy food in large quantities.

1985 - THE FIRST TIME I HEARD MY FAVOURITE SONG

Had to have been in the car of one of my mum's mates. It's a song called 'The Boxer' by Simon and Garfunkel from the Bridge Over Troubled Water album. It's actually a very depressing song about a down and out in New York, although looking at the lyrics now, it might even be about New York itself, ending beautifully in the final, haunting passage, which sums up the tone of the song well...

"In the clearing stands a boxer and a fighter by his tradeAnd he carries the reminders of every glove that laid him down or cut him till he cried out, in his anger and shame, I am leaving, I am leaving,But the fighter still remains..."

Oh well, just thought I'd share that with you ;)

1987 - FIRST TAPE I BOUGHT / FIRST GIG

The first tape single I remember buying with my own money was "Cold Cold Heart" by Midge Ure in 1991, but my first real compulsive (musical) obsession came much earlier with Michael Jackson. It all kicked off with the album BAD, which was a bit of a zeitgeist of that time. I then picked up most of the early Jackson Five recordings, followed by his solo stuff, finishing with Dangerous (and let's face it, most people did). I even had the records from The Jacksons' teen years, like 'Triumph' and 'Destiny.' The first gig I went to was as part of the Dangerous tour, too. Other bands I listened to a lot during this time were Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Pink Floyd. At school we used to go through periods of watching the same music videos over and over again. These included: The Wall by Pink Floyd, A greatist hits video from The Cure, The Number of The Beast by Iron Maiden and Pump by Aerosmith. It wasn't all rock though, as rap music was the in-thing at the time. Public Enemy's Fear of A Black Planet was a stereo (or rather hi-fi) favourite, as was "efil4zaggin" by NWA and Original Gangsta by Ice Cube.

It was also during this time that I joined the school choir. We were all told that we had to choose at least 'extra curricular activities,' and given the painful choice on offer, I opted for one that most of mates chose. Possibly because it sounded like a doss. We were called St Andrew's Church Choir, but (at first) sung a lot of popular interpretations of old songs, like Andrew Lloyd Webber and Paul Simon. Ironically, Bright Eyes was one of these. Considering I started this off as a doss, I really enjoyed it. We used to perform at evening concerts to lots of elderly people who actually paid us for the honour. We did a few weddings and funerals too. I wasn't particular good at it, but made Head Chorister, ironically after my voice broke. I didn't carry it on for much longer after that, mainly because I had to sing harmonies with the tenors and it just wasn't as fun as singing lead. Oh, and I also joined the army cadets, but got thrown out for misbehaving. Much like what happened when I got thrown out of cubs. Oh well.

1992 - MY FAVOURITE BAND

Next up was REM. I discovered them as most people did, when "Losing My Religion" and "Smiling Happy People" were tearing up the airwaves. The thing about most REM fans though, is that no one will admit to doing the same. They're most likely to reference a much earlier recording, such as Life's Rich Pageant or Murmur, because that's a much cooler thing to do. Me though, I think there's no shame in admitting that I heard something on Radio One and liked it. So if I'm ever pushed for an answer to the "What's your favourite band?" question, it will have to be REM. No other band for me, including The Beatles has struck such a chord with me, with a consistently great back catalogue that spans over 25 years. My favourite album from the band is rather predictably Automatic for The People, featuring 'Everybody Hurts' and 'Man on the Moon.' My favourite track on the album is the lovely 'Find The River.' Another favourite would be Reckoning, which includes the pop-country 'Don't Go back to Rockville.'

1996 - THE DANCE YEARS

After my first real holiday with my mates, in Ibiza in 1996, I had a brief love affair with dance music. Not in 1989 like everyone else did, but I was only 12 at the time, so that's ok. It was a dominant genre at the time, and I was exposed to it by more and more at clubs and my mate Gav who would do me mixtapes and play me white label tracks that usually made it to CD, I'd then dutifully trudge to Our Price first thing on a Monday morning and pick up at least two of the new release dance singles.

I also got my first (and only) acoustic guitar for my 19th birthday, along with my first CD player (I started very late) and a copy of Zeitgeist by The Levellers, a band who I'd followed for the previous three or so years following the excellent Levelling The Land album. One album that remains a favourite today. I haven't played the guitar for about 3 years, and was never that good.

1998 - WHO's NEXT...

I was at a gig once at The Brighton Centre, watching Ocean Colour Scene, to promote their second album. During the introduction to one of their bigger hits, "The Day We Caught The Train," the singer explained that the song was based on a song called 5:15 by The Who, from the Quadrophenia album. The album was about a confused teenager named Jimmy who was in a Mod gang in the sixties. Without wanting to ruin the story behind the album/film, the character was unable to leave behind his mod identity when all his mates went to work led relatively normal lives, and just wanted to be a rebel. This comes to a climax when he journeys down on the train, pilled up on pills to the scene of a recent clash between some mods and rockers in Brighton. It's a rainy weekend and there's none of the glamour of the previous weekend's fighting.

Both songs are about that train journey. This started a very conscious shift for me in what kind of stuff I was into. Oasis, Blur, Paul Weller etc., make no bones about their musical influences being as part of that early sixties era. Blur even featured Phil Daniels in a cameo role on the Parklife song. Daniels was the actor who played Jimmy in the 1979 Quadrophenia film, but now he's in Eastenders.

So I decided to ditch listening to modern bands and go back to the source material, as the Britpop bands, although great, were like those first Top of The Pop albums, dimmer approximations of greater musical fodder.

Don't get me wrong though, I have never been that big on The Beatles or The Rolling Stones. I don't know why, and realise this makes me a bit of a musical cretin, but I get bored very easily with popular songs. I've heard it and now I've moved on. Instead, I was most into The Who. I picked up a best of album when I was at University and found out I really, really liked it.
So basically, I like Dad Rock most of all. Before you scoot off to Wikipedia, I don't think it's on there, but the meaning is as obvious as it sounds. It's the type of music on a double CD advertised just before Fathers Day with the sole reason of manufacture being to capitalise on that holiday.

In my (very late) twenties, McWorld of music, I most like that period between the mid sixties and early seventies, where rock'n'roll had begone to diversify, morph and change into all sorts of weird genres that became huge for a short time before fading into obscurity. Under that banner comes Southern Rock, Country Rock, Folk Rock, Prog Rock and Heavy Metal. That pretty much somes up what I listen to these days.

Some of you might remember a television series called 'Rock Family Trees' which would document the links between bands and how other bands would grow out of that. Surprisingly, most of the bands in the 60s/70s period I like a lot grew out of other decent bands, and that's how my taste works. I listen to everything around a band, their solo projects, and anything else similar. It's an expensive way to work, but I can never get enough of a good thing. Then I wait until something else takes my fancy and start again.

One thing in music that I really love is if there's loads of harmonies going on at once, the more the better. Which is probably why I like Simon and Garfunkel, The Beach Boys and Crosby, Stills and Nash so much.

2006 - THE LAST CD I BOUGHT

..was 'Money Can't Buy A Thrill' by Steely Dan. I got it from a place called Music Zone in Chiswick on Wednesday. It's got 'Do it Again' which was a hit for them in the seventies I think. I'd heard that before and really liked it, although it wasn't until I was speaking to Adam Hartley recently that I seriously thought about buying any of their stuff. It's also got 'Reeling in The Years' on it too, which I've heard on the radio a lot. They're bit like a poor man's Eagles, although I'm looking forward to hearing more of their stuff, in my odd, rather compulsive way.