There's a card in Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies pack (you're at a web-enabled device, go and look it up) that says something like 'Take the most embarassing detail and magnify it'. When I started this blog, I knew there were some iffy records on the shelf, and some embarassing stories to go with them, so let's magnify and embarassing detail, shall we?
This reminds me of going to the Downton Memorial Hall discos with my mate Andy. I guess it would have been the last year of school, so this album had already been out for a few years. We were really into the shole psychobilly thing - The Meteors, King Kurt, swamp rock, The Cramps, enormous rock-hard hairsprayed quiffs and huge baggy combats. But like a lot of early teenagers, I guess we hadn't fully committed to it, because I know damn well we were listening to Wham!
I know that because I remember walking home with him after a Memorial Hall disco one night (it must have been summer, because I remember it was still light), and we were having a go at duetting 'Wham! Rap (Enjoy What You Do?)'. I thought we'd given it a pretty good go, but when we got to the end, he said 'you know Zak, there are these things called lyrics - the songs actually have right words. You should check them out'.
Happily I can't remember what I'd been rapping, but that's been a trademark of my music apprecistion over the years - misheard lyrics like you can't imagine. And yes, I'm aware of the irony of a vocalist/MC/rapper who doesn't listen to other peoples' lyrics.
Still, what's even more embarassing is I'm certain I didn't buy this at that time - it's a sneaky retro purchase. Let's just say it hasn't dated very, shall we?
Magnify embarrassing details? How about the first musical purchase I ever made (well, my mum made on my behalf) was Whigfield's Saturday night. I was 10 and we had been listening to it at school, around about the time of Now 29.
ReplyDeleteFortunately I followed it up with Definitely Maybe and something by Dylan, so it was obviously a necessary step on the way to musical enlightenment(!)
I think it's healthy to tell everyone your most embarrassing secrets. To paraphrase Crocodile Dundee (and that's a sentence I never thought I'd write): once all your frineds know about your problem, it isn't a problem any more.
ReplyDeleteHaHa Whigfield's Saturday Night, I was well into Ice skating when that came out, I was very good at doing the dance in a big conga line round the ice rink.
ReplyDeleteHellfire - crownbrewerstu on ice, the musical!
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