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I Know What I Know

November 10th, 2008 · Posted by Skuds in Music · 4 Comments · Music

Having an interesting dialogue with the sister in the comments here which has got me thinking about gaps in (musical) knowledge.  Really, there is so much music that it is difficult and probably impossible to keep up with it all.  I guess it is easier if you are really into a specific genre or style fairly exclusively. If you love reggae and listen to reggae radio stations, go to reggae clubs and hang around with people who have similar tastes you could get a good knowledge of it all – but if you love reggae but also punk, electronic, prog rock, metal, pop – and then get fond of soul, hip hop, folk and other stuff too you are going to miss out a load of things.

Some of those things will be albums or artists that you would like, but just never got around to.  It can be very frustrating when you eventually catch up because it is never going to be the same.  Rush were one of those bands I missed completely until the last few years but although I appreciate them I can’t get as familiar with the music as I would be if I had heard the albums when they came out, and played them to death.

Thinking about it, as a schoolboy and then as a student there were only limited funds to buy music.  Radio stations were much more limited back then and there was no music TV or internet.  If you didn’t have it and none of your mates played it to you then you didn’t hear it.  By the time I was at college it may be that my friends there had Rush LPs hidden away, but it was the new Echo & the Bunnymen, Monochrome Set or dead Kennedys they were showing off – they took the piss out of me mightily for buying Duke when it came out, so I wasn’t going to invite more scorn by asking about other prog-type bands.

When you did buy an album it was often without hearing it first, either on the strength of previous albums, or particularly persuasive reviews or adverts.  Sometimes it could be something as trivial as the album sleeve that tipped the balance.  It sounds superficial but faced with a choice between a band you know you quite like and an unknown band you might love or hate but who has a crap album cover it is often easier to play safe when you can only afford one record that month.

Just recently I have been listening to Planet Rock quite a bit as background and I have started to lose track of the number of times I have thought something sounded good and then found out it was a band I dismissed unheard twenty or thirty years ago – or didn’t actively dismiss: just never bothered to listen to.

Earlier this year I heard Faith Healer by SAHB and it really grabbed me.  I had to go and download it there and then and it gets played quite a lot in the skudmobile.  Just today I heard tracks by Kansas and Barclay James Harvest that I rather enjoyed.  I can’t remember hearing anything by them ever before.

Other recent gaps that were filled in were Wishbone Ash, Saxon and Groundhogs.  I’m almost afraid to carry on listening in case I hear something by Budgie and discover that I like it!

All this relates to concerts as well.  I hadn’t really realised it but just about every concert I have been to was somebody I had at least several albums by orwas at least familiar with a lot of their songs.  If they played a really old song that they don’t normally play or did something in a different style I knew the significance of it ans was duly excited.  I can remember the thrill of seeing Les Negresses Vertes for the third time when they played Mambo Show live in the style of the remix rather than the original album version for example, or the surprise of having Angelique Kidjo come onstage to join Santana, knowing that she wrote one of the songs on his album.

This year the only concerts I have been to were people I don’t dislike, but whose work I am not so familiar with – Paul Weller and the Chemical Brothers.  Both were enjoyable, but I just had no context for a lot of the songs so that for much of the time I was a lot more objective that I would normally be. In the case of the Chemical Brothers I wasn’t even sure when they finished one song and started a new one.

All this is going nowhere… just thinking aloud really and trying not to mention that I don’t have a single thing by Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, the Byrds, Bad Company, Cheap Trick, Judas Priest or Sinead O’Connor in the CD collection.  Looking on the bright side though – I don’t have any Kenny G either.

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4 Comments so far ↓

  • skud's sister

    Kenny G? Well, not anymore….
    We’ve got a fair bit of Joni Mitchell – somebody at University got me into her and Leonard Cohen but, surprisingly , they were not at all hippy-ish to the naked eye. I always felt that was the best thing I got out of my relationship with my ex, Mark, was the range of music he played for me. He really reinforced a liking for Bowie, reminded me how much fun Marc Bolan was and introduced me to Nick Drake, REM & Strawberry Switchblade. (Well, nobody’s perfect….) I think I listen to music the way I play Risk – sit back, don’t push yourself forward too much and settle for second place. This way I am picking up musical influences from all over the place – I have a 24 year old colleague who gave me a copy of the Ting Tings, among other things, but who knew the cover of Atom Heart Mother. (Depressingly from her Dad’s CD collection – it could have been worse I guess, I probably know loads of the stuff her grandparents like too…..)

  • Skuds

    Can I play you at Risk over xmas? 😉

  • skud's sister

    You are assuming that you would be the winner. Interesting…..

  • Skuds

    Well if your tactics are to sit back and settle for second place I should be in with a chance in a one-on-one!