I Loved You Yesterday

A friend of mine was struck recently by the fact that he was now onto the fourth different format of some of his most-beloved music, (mind you, nobody exactly forced him to buy that top-of-the-range ipod, but still...), which lead onto a discussion about an unexpected side-benefit of all these technological changes. Well, after the usual boring-old-muso debate about cd vs vinyl for sound quality, but we won't go into that now - I have limited time before one of the kids wakes up (again!) & I'm back on daddy-duty.

Possibly the greatest benefit is the opportunity it allows to quietly "edit" your music collection in a way that's almost entirely invisible to the casual observer/incurable music-snob friend/woman you're pathetically trying to impress. Personal historical revisionism that comes at a cost only to your bank balance.

Now, I'll freely admit that the first single I ever bought (aged 10) was "Ok Fred" by Errol Dunkley (no.11 in 1979), which may even be moderately cool ?? - and the only reggae-related purchase I've ever made, oddly enough - but most of my friends are unaware that I used to own a couple of ...umm...Chris de Burgh albums, for which there can be NO excuse! (errr...John Giblin on fretless bass? high production values? ok, now I'm flailing...)

These strangely failed to be upgraded from cassette tape. Can't think why?

At one point I had a box of about 300 old tapes, containing doubtless many other musical horrors that my memory is thankfully repressing, but that went the way of all things during a spring clean a year or so back, so the damning evidence is no more. Which is a pity, because if you can't have a good laugh at the follies of youth (I wore a pair of light blue-grey slip-on plasticky shoes when I was 15. There. It's out now, and I feel so much better for it) from time-to-time, well...

For the record, though - I have never, EVER, owned anything by Wham!, Simply Red, or Tiffany. Honest. And I can prove it - you can check my cd collection if you like...?