'LISTS !!! HURGH. WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR. ABSOLUTELY NUTHIN. SAY IT AGAIN.'
Lists. A modern plague it seems. Along with anger management, poor management and mental health disorders. Anxiety, sexuality crisis, impending global catastrophe and must see football matches every couple of hours.. Have I missed anything. I'm sure I have. Make your own list. Start your own blog while you're at it. I can recommend it highly. This one has certainly worked out very well for me. It's encouraged positivity for starters. So I'm planning to keep chipping away at the seam until I either hit gold or else a supporting beam gives and the whole thing collapses in on me.
A couple of days ago I found myself in W.H.Smith's in Canterbury where my parents live and I'm currently staying over Christmas an the New Year. I spotted this on the shelves of music related magazines. 500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... ranked! Kate Bush on the cover. I didn't mind that at all. What hot blooded man would. Though I doubt somehow if my blood is as hot as it once was as I head towards the last months before my 60th Birthday celebrations. Sorry Kate. You should have got in contact in the Eighties and Nineties. It's too late for us I'm afraid. I'll be ready for my rocking chair soon.
But lists. More pertinently The 500 Greatest Albums of the 1980s ... Ranked! who needs it. I never ever thought of such things as I was making my way through it. Nobody did in those days. I was too busy living, or at least trying to. The Eighties were more than any other decade my decade. The decade I came of age. Importantly fell in love... twice! Lost my virginity. Once! Became dreadfully ill and had to drop out of university. Lost an incredibly dear and wonderful older sister in the most painful circumstances. Held myself together through the love and support of truly wonderful parents and friends and made a physical and emotional recovery that allowed me to return to university. Just as a love and the person I lost my virginity to departed and headed off to Italy and the arms of a sleazy sounding middle aged Brummie. I then completed my degree creditably and to my satisfaction as the Nineties started and headed off to Czechoslovakia to begin teaching driven adventures of my own.
That's my Eighties in a nutshell. I bought the magazine a couple of days ago. I'm ambivalent about lists, but do like magazines from the Uncut stable and this will keep me going for over a year, make me think and write plenty and re-evaluate plenty of great albums from my youth.
Starting with .... 10,000 Maniacs. I saw them supporting R.E.M. at the Hammersmith Odeon in 1986.when I was unwell. R.E.M. were showcasing Document before it had actually been released. As was their custom, they were fantastic. Natalie Merchant came on for an encore with them and she and Michael hugged onstage fuelling, rumours that the two had embarked on a passionate romance. In hindight this might not have been the case.
This is a fine record. My sister had a copy. It felt more like a loosely assembled compilation than a coherent studio album with a detectable beginning, middle and end like records were supposed to have. But some of the songs are quite lovely, the Maniacs rock out with some vigour on occasion and Nathalie still has a bewitching if slightly earnest presence and quality.
As for my latest list. I recommend the magazine this will be drawn on. You get plenty to chew on for a £10.00 imvestment and on this series we will be done next Spring as I start to career down the final slope with as much dignity as I can muster towards 60.
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