Inspired by talking to Shaun Panda Nicolson about his podcast, 4 Songs and a Dream, last week, I decided to pretend I was a guest on the show and tried picking four songs that "meant something" to me ...
Oh heck! This was MUUUCH harder than I thought it would be. At the start I honestly really struggled, because I didn't want to just give my "Top 4" songs as that would be far too obvious [Sorry, Prince fans - Ed]. Then I tried to think about the milestone events in my life and what music was around then, but that felt very forced/staged and didn't sit right with me. After that, I tried for songs through the decades, but found that I was picking/curating a cool playlist of songs that I liked/should have liked, whether the tracks meant something to me or not. THEN I REALLY STARTED OVERTHINKING THINGS and had to stop before I got overwhelmed.
After a bit of a sit down and a nice cup of tea [God, you're old - Ed] I got back to battle, wiped the slate clean and went right back to the beginning, to the music that actually "made" me, so let me take you back with me to the early 1970s [cue swirling mists of time here - Ed].
There's been music in my house for as long as I can remember. From playing classical and country music records on the big teak radiogram in the living room, to listening to Take the Floor on Radio Scotland on a Saturday, I have always been submerged in sounds. I still have my records of the massed pipes and drums that I learned to walk to, marching up and down the lobby with my guinea-pig. And I still have my Larry the Lamb and Disney's Robin Hood albums, the Crackerjack [CRACKERJACK! - Ed] album with the song a Hot Cross Christmas Pancake Day on it and all those knock off Top of the Pops compilation albums but, in 1975, something happened. I found the Bay City Rollers [oh god no, please no - Ed] and I was away. EVERYTHING was tartan. I had the half-mast troosers, the spiky haircut and the printed scarf, I knew all the words of all the songs [you still do - Ed] and pestered my folks until I got a couple of records. I was 6 at the time and I had found my music. Don't worry though, I'm not going to make you sit through Bye Bye Baby or Shang a Lang. Instead, here's a number 1 song from early 1976 that, I only found out recently, the Rollers had actually turned down, and it was actually this song that broke me out of my literal Roller-mania.
Slik were a Scottish band that were short-lived and extremely under-rated. This song was the chart debut of the wonderful Midge Ure and I just loved it. The organ intro, the tolling bell, the hypnotic monks chanting, the anthemic chorus. [You were 7?! No wonder you're weird - Ed] This is Forever and Ever.
Fast forward five years or so to 1981. I was in first year of secondary school, so 12-ish, and the radio happened to be on (we didn't listen to Radio One at home so it must have been in the car or a shop or something) and I heard a snippet of a song. Just a minute or two, not enough to get a title or a band or anything but I was OBSESSED. That mm-cha mm-cha rhythm, the plaintive brass, the glorious vocal. I couldn't forget it. So much so that, on and off for the next nearly FIFTEEN YEARS, I tried looking for what it was - no computers or Shazam apps in those days, mind - and I eventually discovered it, totally by accident, when it was played in an episode of Father Ted. This is Ghost Town by The Specials.
However, back to the plot, and back to 1984. When I was 15, I had 3 posters on my wall - Prince, a Lamborghini Diablo made to look like a police car, and Simon Le Bon. In the 80's you were either a Fan-dau (fan of Spandau Ballet) or a Duranie (fan of Duran Duran) and I was very definitely in the latter camp. If you asked me why at the time, though, I couldn't really pinpoint the reason for my allegiance. I think it's maybe that I found Spandau's songs a bit meh when what I wanted to do was dance. Then I saw the video for Wild Boys and I re-affirmed my belief in the great god Le Bon. The Sci fi/Mad Max feel of the set, the band's rougher, long hair/leather/stubble look, the innovative monochrome/technicolour flip part way through and that water-dunking windmill all served to satisfy a hormonal teenager. The song was pretty cool too.
Final song of the pack and it's finally an easy pick for me as, thanks to spending time looking back through my musical youth [no, don't pass the duchy anywhere - Ed] I can now follow the path I took that led me to this point. I went to university in Dundee when I was 17. I had blue hair, vintage clothes and heavy eyeliner and The Damned were playing in the student union. That was the first proper gig that I ever went to, Dave Vanian was gloriously gothic and this song played live was everything I wanted it to be. Eloise.
So thank you to Shaun for sparking my trip down memory lane and giving me new insight into what made me who I am today. There are so many other songs I could pick and stories I could tell but this seemed like a good place to both start and end. I actively encourage you to seek out past episodes of Shaun's podcast 4 Songs and a Dream and you can NOW find the FIRST EPISODE of his latest series HERE. To find out more about it from the man himself, you can read my interview with him here.
Image - Shaun Nicolson
