Someone said to me the other day that listening to the music of the 80s (or something - let's say the year I reached my majority, 1983) in 2020 was like listening to the music of uh, 1940something in 1983. Which is very more or less true. I like to think of myself as someone who listens to music from a broad range of eras, and I also like to think that I don't give a flying fuck what the music I listen to says about me (I was cogitating a little bit about this a few days ago when I was thinking about what the 60s meant in the 80s). As I have also mentioned in recent weeks (I think when I was meditating on 10CC's How Dare You) musicians in the 70s were so often motivated to create 30s or 40s-style music, which is so odd in hindsight (and of course not what the 70s is remembered for really or defined by). There was of course a massive amount of 50s-style kitsching going on in the 70s too - think of the victory lap 'impromptu jam' of 'Are You Ready, Eddy?' on Tarkus.
Anyway, that's off topic. I was more talking about myself at 55 and what I should and shouldn't be allowed to listen to and still think of myself as somewhat having a finger somewhere near the pulse.
When I was a kid and had a show on RRR - 1983 - there was a guy who did the show I think after mine, his name was Toad. He was a really nifty guy and I liked him, butand he was mired in the 60s and not in a way I thought of as cool, that said, I can only recall any essence of his playlist thus: one time he brought in an american woman, who seemed like a real hippy, and who claimed she was going to manifest a whole soundscape for Toad's show which began with something from The Doors' An American Prayer. To me, a little newness fascist, this was like saying that a cavewoman was going to skin a sabre-tooth tiger for dinner and not in a good way, notwithstanding (I now realise) that record was only five years old. I wonder who Toad was really, Wayne, do you know?
The reason I've been thinking about this is actually because of Tam Vantage/Richards-Matlakowski. Tam is one of those songwriters who is sort of able to generate all kinds of styles and sounds from not much, he's a bit of a genius really and makes it look effortless (maybe it is). Last month he produced a few cassettes of demos and I was slow off the mark and only scored #4, but I have been listening to it every time I get in the car, and I shit you not every time it plays I think 'wait who's this again? All I know is it's a really cool 70s-80s band.' I don't know if you'd label this as Tam being timeless or old-fashioned or me just being clueless, perhaps based on this description alone you'd say Tam was derivative (I wouldn't say that, although there is one track for instance which starts off sounding like the Buzzcocks' 'Boredom' then goes into something else, which is kind of cool, not derivative).
And I do listen to music made now, but I have to confess it's probably hardly cutting edge music at all. I really like the Waterfall Person album that came out last year; I am waiting with bated breath for the Pop Filter album which I gather is on its way to me as I write; I bought the second 208L Containers tape the minute I heard it was out. But to be honest I don't know enough about new popular (indie) music in 2020 to know whether these are where it's at and whether the fact that they undoubtedly fit with the kind of thing I've always liked means I'm still relevant or they're not! I also have to say, I'm not as uptight about this shizzle as I might appear to be. If I have to be the new Toad or his hippie friend then so be it.
This afternoon on fb someone posted some invitation to post an album you love in its entirety and would never skip a track. My go-to is, of course, The Red Crayola's Soldier Talk which I happen to think of as the consummately perfect LP: there is not one thing wrong with that record, IMO. I am also aware that this was a record I played just as my brain pressed record on the standard gauge forever for me. I was 17, it was the age most boys in history had been initiated into the rites of the tribe, this was my culture giving me instructions: 'from now on this is your baseline set of beliefs'. I wonder if there was an equivalent film? Maybe it was Make Mine Mink, I don't remember when I first saw that. An equivalent book? Well, I did read both Voss and The Man Who Loved Children when I was 17 (at/for school) and I did for a long time after claim those as my favourite books, although I would also have to say I haven't revisited either since then.
I have probably droned on about these things on this blog before, I can't remember, I am aware they are consistent interests to me, but just to reiterate, they are not things that worry or concern me so much as just interest me.
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