Autumn 1976: Grumpy arrives at university. His neighbour in his hall of residence owns three records (three more than Grumpy), and two of them are Boston's 'More Than A Feelin'.
Now it can be told: although we didn't strike up a beautiful friendship, I'm eternally grateful to him that it was that rather than 'Anarchy In The UK'. Because it turns out that I'm not alone. Q magazine has compiled a list of 'musical guilty pleasures', being 'songs people love but are too embarrassed to admit to listening to', in which 'More Than A Feelin' only narrowly missed the top spot.
It was beaten by its near contemporary, ELO's 'Livin' Thing'. Since he was 11 at the time, it probably won't embarrass my brother very much if I reveal that 'Out Of The Blue' was his first record. Not half as much it embarrasses me to admit that mine, acquired when I had already reached man's estate, was by Genesis. Well, you see, there was this girl...
Why the embarrassment, anyway? Mainly, of course, because we were all supposed to be into the oeuvres of persons festooned with safety pins and razor blades. But the only punk band that gave me any genuine pleasure was the one that took it least seriously, viz the Ramones. And I don't suppose I'm alone in that, either.
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1 comment:
OI bruv! That's classified information!
The difficult thing is to enjoy today's guilty musical pleasure in a pure way, unalloyed by irony.
Yes, ELO is a bit embarrassing - who wants their first record to be one they can never mention in polite alternative society? I can't even say I bought it for the cover - airbrushed spaceship. Five years earlier the first track I recorded off Radio Luxembourg was Free "Alright Now" - sounds cooler on paper, but is it?
The Q magazine list is largely horrible! I'm not as guilty as all that. My guilty pleasures are things like Anarchy in the UK. A bit of OI...
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