April 5th – I guess, in a way it would be useful if they
should be programmed with a cut-off switch…and because that’s missing, I get a
little sad at the outcome…and I think that’s particularly apposite in the case
of pop music.
Pop music is, by definition, something of its type and, more
importantly, of its time. Those songs that put you in touch with what it was
like to be discovering love, loss, direction, future
and the concomitant confusion which comes with all that ‘grown-up stuff’ did so
because we became aware of them at a time in our lives when we were receptive
to such things. That’s not to say these things (love, loss, direction and
future) are denied the older folk amongst us but if there is a soundtrack
playing to the feelings of the wrinkly generation the titles will be slightly
altered; songs like, 'Shake Your False Teeth Beaker' or 'Love in Your Socks' or
that old AC/DC favourite, 'Heatpadseeker'...
I’m a heavy rock fan/ex-player and
although my musical taste is pretty wide ranging and eclectic that’s where my
roots are. However, I also have a great deal of fondness and time for some of
the pure-pop recording bands of my youth; The Searchers for one. Some of their
hits, ‘Needles and Pins’, ‘Don’t Throw Your Love away’ and, in particular for
me, ‘When You Walk in the Room’ (didn't Paul Carrack do a half-decent version
of that) sort of caught me at the right (or possibly wrong) time in my life
when they were first released, and for each generation the songs that capture
and freeze that same moment for them is different to mine but, for me, the
lyrics, musical sentiment, harmonies and chord progressions in ‘When You Walk
in the Room’ just sum it all up; that situation at a gathering, that’s just
what it feels like…
Some of these 60’s recording artists
are still on the road and it’s very much open to question whether or not they
should still be touring. They’re all in their mid-late sixties so not the most
nimble at getting round the stage as they once were, their voices have all but
gone and they often struggle to do a set longer than twenty-five minutes…and speaking
very personally there’s something inherently sad in watching these so-called geriatric
old pop dinosaurs hobble about the stage using a Les Paul guitar as a support
mechanism when they should be using a Zimmer frame. So, for me, I’m happy to
conjure up the sometime dormant remembrances those singles conjure up they by just
playing the records. But then, maybe these interminable tours, done by ‘geriatric
old pop dinosaurs’ give other, younger people the chance to experience and
discover the self through the music that did it for me in the 60’s. No bad
thing really, and I guess they’re only trying to turn a buck, just like the
rest of us…
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