Musicology

My formative years spanned, in my opinion, the greatest period of music.

I was born in 1963 when popular music was in its first major transition from somewhere middle of the road characterised by inoffensive style and middle age appeal typically to an accompaniment of a big band, orchestra or choir to the emergence of solo singers and groups in a true rock and roll spirit.

The following twenty years saw tremendous developments in different genres born out of the inspirations, environment, opinions and outlooks of an increasingly confident and demonstrative younger generation.

Out of the post war recovery and boom came stability and affluence which allowed youth culture to exert their previously largely ignored status and influence.

I was slow to join the ranks of my contemporaries mainly down to the fact that I lived in a small and parochial town where there were very few role models and just the one independent record shop, if you discounted the sanitised and chart biased record department in the local Woolworths store.

I am ashamed now, but was oblivious then in 1974 , to admitting that my first actual vinyl purchase was, well, equally embarrassing, either I am confused to recall The Streak by Ray Stevens or Remember You're a Womble by whoever controlled that band of litter gathering and kleptomaniac puppets living in the wilds of Wimbledon Common.

Things did not improve any for around the next four years as I drifted in and out of the collected albums of my parents which included sounds as diverse as Sandie Shaw to Abba, The Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band to Cliff Richard . I seemed to have missed the Glam Rock and Disco eras completely as these were distinctly city and urban centre based. Both of these came and went, either fading out naturally in the case of the former or bludgeoned by a combination of racism and homophobia marshalled against the latter.

I remember one extremely cringeworthy moment at school when we were asked to bring in a favourite record, play it to the class and then explain why you liked it. My peers arrived clutching the latest Sex Pistols album, heavy and progressive rock classics from Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen and a few obscure psychedelic offerings borrowed or stolen from older siblings.

When it was my go I brought out from under my uniform blazer a square cover with a photograph of a rocky high mountain and duly placed its contents on the hi-fi turntable. I must have swayed a bit and mimed the vocals of the song as the classroom erupted in a mixture of scorn and disbelief at the sound of Rocky Mountain High by the diminutive, bespectacled country and western icon of John Denver. That was possibly the lowest point of my relationship with popular music but understandably from a very low base only.

Things could only get better and in 1978 I bought, second hand, a tatty copy of Blondie's Paralell Lines. There followed a rapid accumulation of vinyl and cassettes, the latter badly recorded directly from the transistor radio speaker or pirated from the record collections of friends.

1979 was a good year for me in many respects mainly as a consequence of a house move to a larger, more lively town and just a short bus or train ride away from a thriving regional city. I could re-invent myself in the new surroundings and this was achieved with the help of the purchase of a tartan lined donkey jacket, drainpipe jeans, floppy jumper, suede boots and a new found attitude.

There followed the trends of New Romantics, New Wave, Mods and British Heavy Metal, Electro-pop, Ska and Reggae. A momentous period, the best in music.