40 - argh! - with Linda King

In honour of my birthday, I decided to invite some fabulous bloggers to help me celebrate.
Their task? To create a post with the theme 40. Today's guest is Linda King...

Happy birthday, Annalisa and welcome to your next decade!

So… 40. What to write about 40? I feel myself drawn to the Top 40 (the British music chart, for our friends from other places), remembering laying on my belly in my best friend’s bedroom on a Sunday tea-time, listening to and – this shows my age – taping our favourite tunes. We’d be in a state of hushed excitement, waiting to discover whether The Boomtown Rats were at number one or whether David Bowie’s new, unusually ‘dancey’ single had made it into the chart. It mattered to us, back then. Now, I have hardly any idea what’s in the chart. Sad, in a way, but right in another way. Kids don’t want us grown-ups laying claim to their musical territory.  

Music seems so much less exciting now. It’s lost its raw edge, its inventiveness, its shock value (unless you count the recent ‘twerking’ and that wrecking ball video – and to be honest, I didn’t find it shocking, just a bit pitiful.) I don’t know if anything will ever again be as deliciously shocking as the Frankie Goes to Hollywood video for ‘Relax’ was at the time. Even the way music is delivered to our ears is less exciting… CDs, those sterile, shiny silver disks, so far removed from the black vinyl we were used to. Tapes got chewed up in the machine or wore out – vinyl was the medium of choice! Vinyl had album covers that often opened out and a lyric sheet printed large enough to read, sometimes even in the artist’s handwriting. I don’t often bother trying to sing along with the right words these days – the print on CD covers is so tiny.  And then, there are downloads. No physical album cover, let alone lyric sheet, although of course you can go online and find the cover and (probable) lyrics for anything. I think I remember lyrics being published in The Record Mirror, somewhere near the back. In an age of ‘wait and wonder’ as opposed to the instant scurry of a computer mouse, that was really exciting!

I’m not meaning to come over as a fuddy-duddy. I love progress, technology and all things that genuinely move us forward, but I think we all hanker a little for the days of our youth; days of discovery, of new feelings, of innocent anticipation and thrill. I miss looking forward to the Top 40 on a Sunday, even if it was slightly tainted by the looming prospect of school the next morning!

In honour of your birthday, Annalisa, I was going to collate my own Top 40 of favourite singles and albums, but I think I’ve probably rambled for on long enough already!

Instead, here’s one of my best-loved album tracks by Bowie, who really has to be my all-time favourite artist, and which takes me straight back to my early teenage years. It’s not too long and I think it’s rather beautiful!

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Which track or artist would have to make it into your Top 40?

Thanks for reading – and thank you so much for having me, Annalisa! 

Linda King blogs at Excuse Me While I Note That Down