It's impossible to over-emphasize the importance of music in my life, with its educative , revelatory, spiritual and humanising qualities. A high octane fuel for the imagination and for the heart ..
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Mos' Desitively..
I became musically conscious in the years just after the coronation of our present queen, as a boy of 9 or 10. In the early fifties, those grey, grey days, what colour there was in our lives came from such records as " The Portuguese Washerwoman " and " The Poor People of Paris", " Cherry Pink" and " Mambo Italiano ", ( not to mention,..and we shouldn't.." The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane "..! ) whilst musical theatre, much more pervasive then than now, I recall, was presenting such hits as " Stranger in Paradise " and " Hey There ".
Soon after , things coarsened agreeably, and a new earthiness appeared ...
" Blueberry Hill " , " Rock Island Line " and Duane Eddy, and the first Yellow Bricks in my musical Road ahead were laid, the road that led to the curious condition of Now.
My appreciation has broadened enormously, but not necessarily deepened, I don't think. Back in the days when there was less of everything, and I had no money to speak of , each record bought was sucked dry, every note and nuance sniffed and squeezed.
Today..well. there is soooooo much wonderful stuff of all persuasions to attend to across such a wide spectrum of possibilities, and I now have the money to indulge..The danger is that one becomes a Collector..I must have this..I must have that..and the Initial Innocence is lost, while the Absorption Gland withers and the Sound of Surprise just ..doesn't ...