Monday 8th February
I borrowed the title from McCartney but it is true all the same. So many records, so much music – and yet I still crave more. At one time my ambition was to own every record made; then it reduced to everything by Dylan, Leonard, The Beatles, Bowie. Elton, Rod, Neil Young, Joni – and of course hundreds of others – because I have become somewhat of a complete-ist. I read record reviews all the time and make mental notes about new singers, though I am rarely moved to buy them. And of course I already own all the Beatles records and Dylan’s and Leonard’s and almost everything by many many others, but then they bring out box-sets with out-takes or totally unreleased songs and I am tempted. I still buy a few records on a whim, sometimes out of boredom I will look at the bargain bin on Amazon or just boot up ebay and see what is selling, and occasionally a gem pops up and I buy and cannot wait for the postman to deliver it.
And my daughter buys me dance records for Christmas and Birthday and I have grown to love Massive Attack, Groove Armade and Faithless and a few others I would never have bothered with otherwise.
And now we have Facebook and You-tube and so much new music to dip into. I have been tempted to sign up to Spotify but know I would probably listen to stuff I already own. And here is the thing – I have been tempted to download the occasional album, when the CD is unavailable or punitively expensive. I diligently burn it onto a blank CD, seek out and print the cover but somehow it feels as if I don’t really own the thing. I am stuck in that 20th Century mentality of ownership and all the files on my Computer don’t have any value at all. But although at times it seems my memory is almost full I can slip on a CD and hear a song I haven’t heard for maybe 40 years and I still know the words and the melody by heart.
And I expect there is still room for a few more surprises along the way, though I do feel sometimes that there is really nothing new anymore. Having lived through the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties, when NEW music was emerging every month, changing and evolving with every new release it seems we have hit a plateau, where nothing really different is being recorded; most artists simply settling into a style where their audience is content to buy the same stuff just rehashed slightly with each new album. But hey, I still have all that wonderful music from the last fifty years to listen to…….I won’t get bored.