This is the saddest thread
I have read and contributed to so many threads on so many forums over the paste few years and few I have come across have provoked such emotion.
I find as the years go by time seems to speed up, days turn into weeks into months and years so quickly. Work takes up so much time and my regular night shift means that I sleep through the best bit of the day. For this reason I find myself looking back with nostalgia to days when for me were not so tough. Each memory has a soundtrack. My first date, my first job, the day I started at the comprehensive and everything else good and bad that has happened to me. For each moment there is a groove.
Sometimes on a night shift the radio may blast out a particular tune. I am transported to another time. A magical memory maybe or even one of those embarrassing moments of which I'd rather not be reminded.
Reading through some of the contributions I hear great tunes in my head and feel compelled to dust down a few records that may not have seen the light of day for a number of years. I will revel in the scratches and pops, each with their own story, a paticular party or maybe a clumsy miscue as a kid on my Marshall Ward bought snooker table, one of my suprise Christmas presents over my South Wales valleys childhood.
For this reason choosing a favourite record and why is probably one of the toughest questions I have ever been posed. I am pretty sure of many thing , fairly sure of others and not sure at all of others, but to choose a favourite record and why is asking me to look into my past and dig out the most magical of moments, when I first heard the song that made me feel great, not good, but great. When for one moment the cares and concerns of the world were lifted.
I love music and have hundreds of albums some good, some fantastic and others that have not stood the test of time as well. However there is one song that stands out, head and shoulders above every other. Its the record that maybe captured the mood of a time unlike any other. It is bleak and miserably, dark and unforgiving. It should not point to a great time in my life. Thatcher had been elected as Prime Minister, 3,000,000 had been put out of work. My dad was laid off and things were tight at home. However to me none of this mattered, I was a teenage schoolboy, discoveing girls and space invaders and had a lifetime ahead of me. It was too soon to worry about work, marriage, mortgage or even O levels which would come later. It was all fairgrounds, fights, 10p in the Invaders and pointless hours spent hanging around the cafe.
It all made sense when I heard the record that changed my life forever. It was the record that taught this man what the world was going to be about. That record was 'Ghost Town' by the specials.
From that opening keyboard intro (thank you Mr Dammers) to the vocal outro, through the changes of tempo and key Ghost Town truly is a magical, though sometimes scary ride.
We didn't know at that time what Thatcher was capable of, we were just kids. Within 3 years our families would be on strike. Within 5 years our pit vallage had become the Ghost Town as boards went up on the shops in the once thriving communities.
From 'Ghost Town' onwards in I was a dedicated 2-Tone fan. Madness, The Selecter and even the sadly too brief catalogue of the Bodysnatchers. I loved them all and worshipped at the alter of Ska.
Did I say this was the saddest thread?
Sure it is, I have a lump in my throat as I type this.
And I bet you thought I was going to chose 'Save all your kisses for me' by Brotherhood of Man. Ah, that sets off another trail of memories, and is another story altogether....
[note Ghost Town was not an album by The Specials but a number 1 single, all that my 50p weekly pocket money could stretch to: Albums came into my life maybe 2 or 3 years later but none had an impact on me quite like Ghost Town. I would be a liar if I tried to convince you otherwise]
I have read and contributed to so many threads on so many forums over the paste few years and few I have come across have provoked such emotion.
I find as the years go by time seems to speed up, days turn into weeks into months and years so quickly. Work takes up so much time and my regular night shift means that I sleep through the best bit of the day. For this reason I find myself looking back with nostalgia to days when for me were not so tough. Each memory has a soundtrack. My first date, my first job, the day I started at the comprehensive and everything else good and bad that has happened to me. For each moment there is a groove.
Sometimes on a night shift the radio may blast out a particular tune. I am transported to another time. A magical memory maybe or even one of those embarrassing moments of which I'd rather not be reminded.
Reading through some of the contributions I hear great tunes in my head and feel compelled to dust down a few records that may not have seen the light of day for a number of years. I will revel in the scratches and pops, each with their own story, a paticular party or maybe a clumsy miscue as a kid on my Marshall Ward bought snooker table, one of my suprise Christmas presents over my South Wales valleys childhood.
For this reason choosing a favourite record and why is probably one of the toughest questions I have ever been posed. I am pretty sure of many thing , fairly sure of others and not sure at all of others, but to choose a favourite record and why is asking me to look into my past and dig out the most magical of moments, when I first heard the song that made me feel great, not good, but great. When for one moment the cares and concerns of the world were lifted.
I love music and have hundreds of albums some good, some fantastic and others that have not stood the test of time as well. However there is one song that stands out, head and shoulders above every other. Its the record that maybe captured the mood of a time unlike any other. It is bleak and miserably, dark and unforgiving. It should not point to a great time in my life. Thatcher had been elected as Prime Minister, 3,000,000 had been put out of work. My dad was laid off and things were tight at home. However to me none of this mattered, I was a teenage schoolboy, discoveing girls and space invaders and had a lifetime ahead of me. It was too soon to worry about work, marriage, mortgage or even O levels which would come later. It was all fairgrounds, fights, 10p in the Invaders and pointless hours spent hanging around the cafe.
It all made sense when I heard the record that changed my life forever. It was the record that taught this man what the world was going to be about. That record was 'Ghost Town' by the specials.
From that opening keyboard intro (thank you Mr Dammers) to the vocal outro, through the changes of tempo and key Ghost Town truly is a magical, though sometimes scary ride.
We didn't know at that time what Thatcher was capable of, we were just kids. Within 3 years our families would be on strike. Within 5 years our pit vallage had become the Ghost Town as boards went up on the shops in the once thriving communities.
From 'Ghost Town' onwards in I was a dedicated 2-Tone fan. Madness, The Selecter and even the sadly too brief catalogue of the Bodysnatchers. I loved them all and worshipped at the alter of Ska.
Did I say this was the saddest thread?
Sure it is, I have a lump in my throat as I type this.
And I bet you thought I was going to chose 'Save all your kisses for me' by Brotherhood of Man. Ah, that sets off another trail of memories, and is another story altogether....
[note Ghost Town was not an album by The Specials but a number 1 single, all that my 50p weekly pocket money could stretch to: Albums came into my life maybe 2 or 3 years later but none had an impact on me quite like Ghost Town. I would be a liar if I tried to convince you otherwise]
