Friday, 12 October 2007

This Track First Got Me Thinking



I don't know how everybody feels about music.
I do know, not everybody sees it the way I do.

Music is one of the most important things in my life. To me, it is not only one of the true pleasures of being alive, it is the underlying rhythm that we all emote to.

When people say to me 'Oh, I like anything, me' or 'I'm not that bothered about music', I know they are not a person I will ever share a wavelength with.

I pretty much always have music playing at home. If I could have a chip installed into my brain, to keep music playing inside me every waking minute, I would.

This track is important to me, because it was the first track I listened to and UNDERSTOOD.
Hearing this, was the first time I looked at the world I lived in and started to develop values of my own.
Not my parent's values.
Not my teacher's values.
Not my schoolfriends' values.
My values.

It was late eighties boomtime. I was about ten, I think.
Weekend after weekend, my brother and myself were dragged round house after house, from Victorian townhouse, to newly built showhome.

The housing market was soaring. My father wanted to sell our house for twice what he paid for it, while he could, and make the best deal.
And move into a valuable property.
It dominated his life.
And ours too.

This was the triumph era of 'Greed is good'.
This was the era where the cogs in my brain first asserted their independence.

At this age, I first read about Hitler and Stalin, about the Civil war, about other faiths.
At this age, I started the first tentative steps towards a worldview.
In an era where it really was all about having loads of money.

I can still remember another kid at school shouting 'We're richer than you' at me.
He meant it.

When I first heard this track, I was on the school bus. I can remember sitting forward and listening.
I just felt mesmerised by this song. So much so, I think I memorised the lot on first hearing.
I GOT it.



It is about a stepfather asking his stepson what he sees on the TV. It is about the hollowness of the future being served up to the young of that time- and don't think it has changed for the better, it certainly hasn't.
I was old enough to get the point, but young enough to know that I was part of the generation growing up in that world.
For the first time, I saw the world I was growing up in as it was, hollow, valueless and empty, a world of families isolating themselves in six bedroomed showhomes, staring in silence at the TV, whilst the great things that humanity had in them, the things I had started to learn about, died.

And I felt strange.
The questions started then.
And I knew from then on, that I couldn't rely on anyone else to answer them for me.

For the first time ever, I had seen the wider ramifications of the existence that surrounded me, and I really didn't like what I saw.

I don't think I was alone there.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have never heard of that song before... but I know what you mean about song connections.
Music is a gift, what would we do without it?

Anonymous said...

The thing is, I don't know what song you're referring to here. I get some text, then a big space and then your post. I'd dearly like to know which song.

Anonymous said...

Music is a powerful tonic. It transcends my world. I couldn't live without it. We all have a soundtrack to our lives.

Anonymous said...

Crushed, I'm glad to see you're looking at your own experiences to see how you have been shaped, and that you're using your experiences to share your worldview. Rhetoric has its place, but after a while it turns into preaching, and except as road or drinking friends (vis a vis Tom Joad and the Preacher) few trust a Preacher who says "do/listen/trust as I say, don't worry about what I've done"

Although the Preacher comic series was pretty bad ass.

Anonymous said...

In these final hours of this world's existence, one cannot help but see and hear Satan's overt spirit within the music of this age. Have a nice weekend!

Anonymous said...

Betty- I don't think it will ever make the top 100 greatest singles of all time, but I never forgot it.

Music is a very important part of my life, it is a gift as you say.

James- http://www.angelfire.com/me2/zelsparkbench/song182.html

Those are the lyrics in full. I think was about 1988.

Is my blog becoming hard to upload?

Alexys- I always have music in my head. Sometimes it fits my mood, sometimes it's irritating stuff that just won't go away, like the Smurfs song.

I se Depeche Mode as being the band that fit all moments in my life. They sing the way I think.

Helen- My grandmother always had hopes that I'd be a priest one day, I think she still kind of hpes it.

I can safely say there are MANY things I've experienced which will NEVEr appear in detail on this blog.

But i guess it doesn't hurt to give some context once in a while.

Stan- Ah, if you mean the Dance scene, I beg to differ, I always found it very empowering.

Pop Idol stuff, I agree.

The world is ending? You sure?

Anonymous said...

Wow... you realized so much at that point. Childhood experiences do shape us so much. I don't remember actually 'noticing' many songs... I just know I got really irritated when my dad would keep changing the channel on the radio just as there was a song i liked...:-)

Anonymous said...

In some ways music is just there for me. We have lots of CDs, half classical and opera, the other lots of folk from those days and some modern popular singers. Hardly any rock which seemed to pass me by leaving me unaffected on the whole. I pick haphazardly through these hundreds of CDs.

Every now and again I am brought to tears by some piece of music and I think, there you are not so unaffected after all.

Anonymous said...

I hear ya guy. I am such a music person. My whole life is one big soundtrack. I remember things by the music I heard when it happened! I could never date a guy who didn't love it as much as me.

Anonymous said...

Eve- One of the first things I can remeber watching on TV was Top of the Pops. I actually first came to like Depeche Mode at seven !

I have always loved music, I own about 500 CDs

jmb- Music has always been there for me, it has always been a force for good in my life.

Sometimes, I feel some tracks send energy through me like a wave.

Poody- Yes, so do I. I always remember things by what Music I was listening to then.

Different songs remind me of different people too.

I play 'With or Without You' by U2 when I want to remember my first love.

Anonymous said...

It is eerie when you find one of those songs that goes beyond simple liking, instead really grabbing you at your core. I have a few songs I love but feel I can only listen to on occasion because they are just that damn powerful.

I find that people who aren't music people just sort of smile and nod when you try to explain to them the power of certain lyrics or bands. I had a resurgence of interest in music and live shows about two years ago, and I can honestly say that it changed my life.