Originally Posted by
Vanash Naick
Andy, needless to say, you are a well traveled man. All your travels clearly made lots of priceless memories for you.
Nothing like a song to bring a place you once visited back to life. Music is a time machine of sorts. This is the ultimate exercise of this thread.
This thread has really given me the opportunity to revisit the days of my youth, places that I’ve been to and relationships that I had.
Many of the songs that I have posted here, featured in my life between 1992 and 1997. These were phenomenal years for me. That said, even as a kid, I loved the old school tunes and made a habit of playing my favourite vinyl lp whenever I needed some quality escapism...
I think that travelling certainly had a big effect on the actual music I was exposed to and came to appreciate, it probably went a long way in my developing a very catholic (adjective with a small 'c') taste in music but I don't think it made a difference to how big a part of my life it was and how defining and personal it's always been to me.
From a very early age I loved music, I have very early memories of wanting to visit a particular Auntie because she had a record player and a large box of records which would keep me occupied on my own for hours at a time.
Spending a good portion of my youth in the UK, when I was at primary school I would go to bed with my radio hidden and listen avidly to shows like John Peel and I was lucky to learn to listen and appreciate music I wasn't familiar with and music I didn't know the tune or the lyrics to. As I got older I watched TV shows like the Old Grey Whistle Test and The Tube and I started buying at least a record every month. Every weekend a group of us would randomly pick a live music venue and we'd just go watch whatever band was playing. These venues were very personal, there would be a crowd of 1 or 2 hundred people and we'd usually drink with the performers and actually talk to them before and after the show.
I do wonder if music will ever or could ever mean the same to todays youth. Music consumption in all forms was an event, even buying a record had at least three days planning and probably a week or two saving money and deciding which record it would be. It was a bus ride to town with a few friends who'd just come along to spectate and share in the moment, a whole morning in numerous seedy basement record shops and lengthy last minute discussions with the gurus that worked there and finally an hour on the bus home again to spend the afternoon playing it, listening to it, discussing the various tracks and lyrics and guitar riffs. Nowadays it's a WI-FI connection and a visit to youtube or MP3skull and in less than a minute there's an untangible, disposable file on a memory stick. For me it was about seeing a band progress from the pub scene through larger live venues and onto the organised tours and sometimes finally go and see the same guys that you knew personally after talking and drinking with them play to a crowd of 80 thousand at Wembly or Nebworth or Glastonbury. Some of the artists I've seen live to start with as crowd of under 200 people and finally with a crowd of over 50K would include Lenny Kravitz, New Order, U2, The Smiths, The Cult, The Clash, ZZ-Top the list is long and the memories are many.
I just read the post and got a reality check, I'm sounding old. I'm bemoaning progress and getting into 'kids of today' rants which isn't good so here's my old school cool nomination.
1987 (I think) on a random Friday evening in a Manchester venue called 'The International 2" there were 2 American acts playing which was quite unusual. The first was a very Rubinesque black lady who's name I cannot remember, she had a great Blues/Gospel voice and sung her heart out to a mixed but very quiet and appreciative crowd of about 100 people. The next act was an equally unknown American rock singer/guitarist who was a kinda rasta looking dude with a half unbuttoned shirt and some kind of Bee Gee's looking gold thing that swung across his exposed chest. He incidentally released an album later the same year called 'Let Love Rule'. He played about an hour or so and the place went wild, 3 encores later we spent the rest of the night buying him and the Blues Singer Lady drinks.
Here's one of the songs he played in the main set and again as an encore. It's an uncomplicated protest song, sweet and to the point.
Lenny Kravitz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lq6rEPBN7aA
"Mr. Cab Driver"
Mr Cab Driver won't you stop to let me in
Mr Cab Driver don't like my kind of skin
Mr Cab Driver you're never gonna win
Mr Cab Driver won't you stop to pick me up
Mr Cab Driver I might need some help
Mr Cab Driver only thinks about himself
Here we go
Mr Cab Driver, Mr Cab Driver
Mr Cab Driver, Mr Cab Driver
Mr Cab Driver don't like the way I look
He don't like dreads he thinks we're all crooks
Mr Cab Driver reads too many story books
Mr Cab Driver pass me up with eyes of fire
Mr Cab Driver thinks we're all one sixty five'ers
Mr Cab Driver fuck you I'm a survivor
Oh yeah, one more time, ahah
Let me in
Mr Cab Driver, Mr Cab Driver
Mr Cab Driver, Mr Cab Driver
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