Music doesn't matter to me as it did when I was young. In my teenage years and through into my twenties, the only obsession I had that could match music was girls.
I went to see as many concerts as I could, attended festivals and on at least five occasions hitchhiked all the way down to London from East Yorkshire just to see some of my musical heroes in concert.
Acts I saw in those years included Jethro Tull, Free, Grand Funk Railroad, The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Mott the Hoople, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Donovan, Slade , The Beach Boys, The Moody Blues, Roxy Music, The Nice, Yes, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Buffy Sainte Marie, Loudon Wainwright III, Ten Years After, Tim Hardin, Linda Ronstadt, Taste, The Who and numerous others that I cannot recall right now.
In later life, the musical candle had not entirely gone out and I enjoyed superb concerts by The Jam, Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Keane. But it was never quite the same as when I first discovered music and listened to it obsessively.
At the end of tonight's Sunday quiz, Mike, Mick and I were comparing notes about musical acts we saw and concerts we attended when we were young. Not in a boastful top dog kind of manner but just out of interest.
Like me, Mick has moved on from music - it doesn't figure in his life as it once did, On the other hand , Mike has remained very much tuned in to the world of music and it still plays a big part in his life. He listens to music daily and until very recently he was the leader of a little "Americana" band that were paid paper money for gigs. They were called Dogwood Rose. Unfortunately, his health has been blighted by a mysterious condition called myasthenia gravis that will remain with him till his light goes out.
What about you dear reader? Does music still grab you as it did when you were young or is it just something that plays in the background from time to time like muzak in a supermarket? What were the best concerts you ever attended and how do you feel about music now?
Music doesn't grab me much these days, at least new music. I still occasionally listen to the music of my youth when like you, sought it out with the same passion as girls. Part of the reason I no longer seek it out is because I'm older and now realize the utility of the money that it would cost me to purchase seats at a concert and then be forced to stand the entire concert in order to see and never use said seat. I still occasionally attend small local concerts where seats are reasonably priced and I am assured that I can enjoy the concert while sitting in it.
ReplyDeleteWe have the same business with seats in many football stadiums (soccer). I like to sit but if somebody in front of me is standing up then I have to stand up too!
DeleteI'm the same as you. I went to The Who recently but otherwise have little interest in concerts. I do enjoy music as background and have favorite songs on my Apple Music for walking/running.
ReplyDeleteDid The Who come on stage in wheelchairs with their nurses?
DeleteI, too, have lost much interest in music. The best concerts I ever attended (that I can still think of) were David Bromberg, Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger, and Bette Midler.
ReplyDeleteIn your role as a radio presenter and interviewer, you must have interviewed a few musical "stars" Bruce?
DeleteThe first time I ever interviewed anyone it "was" a musical star: Fats Domino. And many years later I interviewed Alice Cooper. Can't remember any others.
DeleteI still love to listen to music but at a lower pitch. Half the bands you list I've never heard of. Funny how European bands didn't get to America. I did miss 5 years of music when I was in the Arctic. There were not many concerts to attend out here in the boonies.
ReplyDeleteI see that "boonies" is short for "boondocks". I had never heard the word before but I rather like it.
DeleteI love music and have it on almost all the time, but my days of concert-going, fighting crowds and such, are done. Now I like an assigned seat and an actual seat to sit in.
ReplyDeleteGosh I'm old.
Yes - you are old and grumbly too but not as old and grumbly as me!
DeleteI listen to music when I am in my car and I listen to the current music on the radio. I do like to sing along but often get the lyrics wrong. I did not go to many concerts as I was cheap and couldn't afford it. But we had "sock hops" at school and I loved to dance. I remember the twist, the mashed potato, the jerk, the popcorn, the monkey, the swim, and a lots of other dances that I don't know the name of!
ReplyDeleteDid you do The Refrigerator? "The Jerk" sounds like a weird dance Ellen!
DeleteMusic is the background to life. I remember seeing Marmalade at the Happy Valley Racecourse in Hong Kong. My first every band.
ReplyDeleteWhen we moved to Australia the offerings were a bit slim being so far away and tickets so expensive. But I did see a few. Your music tastes align very closely with mine. Emerson Lake and Palmer always remind me of my final exams in high school. I played them constantly over those weeks for some reason.
Were you doing an O level in Emerson, Lake and Palmer?
DeleteI was never one to pay the money to go to a big concert and pop music wasn't a huge thing to me. I still like to listen to the hits of my youth and I'll still occasionally go to a small venue to hear a lesser known act. I like the way a concert takes my full attention and the music takes front seat
ReplyDeleteI haven't been to a concert in a while. That's a good feeling you're referring to Kylie.
DeleteI still love my heavy and Prog Rock and still go to Rock festivals even though I am nearly sixty. Your never too old to rocknroll YP.
ReplyDeleteI admire your ongoing passion for music Dave. This often comes out in your award-winning blog.
DeleteI never attended concerts for two reasons, 1- bands just didn't come to a tiny mid north town, 2-there was no money to spare in my home anyway. I did spend some days sitting on the floor with my ear glued to the speaker on the radiogram. I didn't really discover music until my kids were teen and pre-teen, they would watch music shows on TV and I would hear music coming from their radios and if I liked what I was hearing I would ask them what it was and who was singing. most of what I liked and listen to now is still the songs from my kids teen years (80s and 90s) and a smidgen of later stuff. I have it playing most days on my one remining mini i-pod because Lola seems calmer when music is playing. I tried radio, but she dislikes the broadcaster talking.
ReplyDeleteIs Lola your pet monkey? Of course The Kinks made a song called "Lola". You could find it on YouTube.
DeleteLola is my cat.
DeleteI could not live my life without music, my Alexa gives me anything I want to listen to, to become deaf would be a huge blow for me.
ReplyDeleteI never planned to become disinterested. It just happened. I am pleased for you that the music keeps on giving.
DeleteIt's all a question of generation, but these days I don't listen to the latest pop music and have no idea who, or what, the latest trends are.
ReplyDeleteAs a teenager I used to go the the local jazz club, which was the "in" place to meet up with friends on the one night a week (Saturday) we were all allowed out from under our parents beady eye!
These days, thanks to You Tube, I can listen to my favourites without anyone casting aspersions on my choices!
I suspect that those secret choices include Billy Fury, Englebert Humperdinck and Ken Dodd?
DeleteWho?
DeleteMy parents were listening to a lot of music when my sister and I were little. We were fed anything from Bach to Beatles, French chansons to Glenn Miller. That vast range of musical genres allowed us early on to appreciate very different styles and kinds of music. None was considered ‚better‘ or more important, they were all music.
ReplyDeleteIn our teens, we became avid readers of papers such as Melody Maker, Smash Hits or New Musical Express. Most of our pocket money was spent on those papers and on records. Concerts were too expensive for us to go to regularly, but I did see Depeche Mode, Fad Gadget, The Simple Minds, Die Toten Hosen and a very memorable performance of The Stray Cats.
We were so obsessed with our favourite bands that I could even tell you the name of the person who made the sarnies while the band were recording at the studio.
It all changed when we left school and started work, time and energy were taken up by all the new things we had to learn and the long working hours.
But music still matters greatly to me, and I rarely use it as a mere background noise.
When you say "we" I presume you are thinking about your sister. It must have been nice to share that musical interest with her. I also used to be an avid reader of "Melody Maker".
DeleteYes, "we" is mainly my sister and I, joined a little later by our two best friends, also sisters, who lived wall to wall with us in our row of terraced houses.
DeleteOther than The Bootleg Beatles, my last visit was to Jools Holland. Both were excellent, but, like you, my interest in music has diminished. These days I listen to French Café accordion music whilst relaxing with a glass of rouge.
ReplyDeleteBootleg Beatles tickets seem to cost as much as if the real Beatles were resurrected.
DeleteI think a lot of people listen to music differently from how many of us used to. We would buy an LP and listen to it many times. A lot of younger people now listen online without the same degree of repetition. I think that misses out on a valuable experience.
ReplyDeleteThe music of my youth, is all on the oldies channel today. I almost always have music playing in the background when I am working. One of the musicians from Grand Funk Railroad way grew up near where I did, his Beach Barron would show up at the local airport when he was home visiting his mother.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if the music I loved (and still do) is such a part of my very soul that I don't need to listen to it the way I used to. Does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteMusic mostly annoys me although at times I like to wallow in music nostalgia on YouTube, and discover something rather brilliant.
ReplyDeleteI've also moved away from music. My boys play music (fairly loudly) while showering and working out and I've discovered their playlist actually contains some of my old favourites; The Eagles, Steely Dan, Fleetwood Mac, America, Linda Ronstadt and Blue Rodeo. The music from that time still gives me a lot of pleasure even if I'm not actively seeking it out.
ReplyDeleteListening to music rivals reading books for me. The ratio between the two might not be the same as in my youth, but music is still one of the more important things in my life. I've always preferred studio music to live music, however.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I've found it to be less significant in my life as I get older. I used to listen to it all the time in my car or while out and about, and now I rarely do. This seems to be a natural progression that a lot of people go through!
ReplyDeleteMusic has always and will always mean a lot to me. It is important for my mind, my heart and my soul. I never attended too many concerts. There were reasons. But my little $13 record player and used records and the radio did a lot for me. I made my own kind of music and sang my own kind of song. I still listen to the same music and it still thrills my heart and soul.
ReplyDeleteWell music tends to go through me without stopping. Listened and enjoyed George Ezra recently - Green, green grass. As for the past once danced at the hall on Eel Pie Island to The Rolling Stones, before they were famous and still love them.
ReplyDeleteGiven that it's post comment closing time I wasn't going to bother but you've reminded me just how important music has been to me all my life. Clearly my likes and dislikes are different to yours but that's natural. We are all different. However you have given me an idea for a post some time.
ReplyDeleteMusic still "grabs" me. I have made a lot of bad decisions because of music, including succumbing to religion for a while in my late and probably thereby prolonged adolescence, and working as a teacher for the perk of being able to practise on school grand pianos. I probably spend less time listening to music than I did once, but in some ways I think that's because I make the music I do actually listen to go further. I always have other music in my head because I still play the piano most days.
ReplyDelete