In the last week I have been sorting through my collections of books, movies and music. As far as collecting goes (and I hoard collect a few different things) music, CDs mostly, are my first love. The result is that I have hundreds of them and with our impending move to the states I need to thin them out as shipping them all is unaffordable.
It’s been very strange going through my collection. I haven’t actually been able to go through my CDs for a couple of years as they have been packed away in boxes. I have also not been buying many CDs for the past through years as we didn’t really have the money for a long time and when we did there was always the prospect of moving to Chicago and having to ship them. Added to that Beth is, understandably, not a fan of having hundreds of CDs lying around! So when we packed up to move to Glasgow in 2010 I made MP3s of all of them and boxed them all up.
Most of my CDs were released in the mid to late nineties when I was at uni and they have a lot of memories attached to them. Isn’t it funny how music does that? Anyway, it’s been fun going through each CD deciding to keep or (hopefully) sell. Lots of images of Aberdeen and Japan. Memories of gigs and bands. I wonder what it is like for the kids of today who’s lives are so well documented by photos and videos. Where I find a CD and reminisce they can trawl through facebook or the pictures directories.
Not to sound like most of our Dads but I haven’t felt a connection to music like I did in the nineties for a long time. A fact I was discussing last weekend. Listening to a britpop CD a friend was playing I realised there were so many great songs back then. And the scary realisation that these songs are older now than the late Beatles albums were when I was born! How do the kids I teach in S1 view that era of music. It’s a strange thought. Anyway, I digress. There were so many good songs back then, I didn’t value all the creativity going on that I was so connected to, these bands seemed invincible and would be around forever. I can’t clearly remember the first time I heard Chasing Rainbows or Flying or Govinda. The only song I absolutely remember hearing for the first time is ‘D’you Know What I Mean?’ in all it’s overblown lunatic grandeur and more importantly ‘Stay Young’ which came on the radio straight after and blew me away even more. I would love to have times like those again.
It’s quite unusual I find a song that I really love from a new artist these days. There is plenty of good music about but not much I love instantly with that anthemic vibe I really like. This song hits all the right notes though
I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to write about when I started this post, just that I was thinking about music. This keeping a blog is going to take a little bit of practice. Enjoy the tune and take care.