Thursday, 19 April 2007

Number 10

Schopenhauer said that music is "the highest and best form of human artistry." He considered it to be completely abstract and therefore a pure aesthetic. He was also a rampant anti-semitist, so his logic could well be considered flawed.

Nonetheless, I do think he was on to something. Like Mojoey, music is hugely important to me. I would, in all honestly, struggle to live without it; it has a most powerful effect upon me. A pure experience, it could be said.

Putting aside my love of Miche & the kids, music provokes in me, the strongest feelings of delight, happiness and wonder. It has a very real effect on my body. It is part of who I am.

Therefore I am delighted to join Mojoey in listing my top ten songs. Now, I would struggle to decide on my top ten songs of all time. They change by the day. I know that any list I decide upon, would change unrecognisably by the time I'd finished writing it.

So, my top ten is more a description of my musical awakening. I plan to tell you about the music that is significant to me, and how it defines key moments in my life.

So, where to start? The beginning I suppose;

In 1980 I was eight years old. I went to bed at eight o'clock. One evening per week, (I think a Thursday), Top of the Pops (TOTP) was aired on BBC1 at 7:30. Before this fateful night, TOTP and 'popular' music for that matter, wasn't of any interest to me. Dinky cars and mud were more pressing priorities. So, as usual, this programme only registered in the background.

Until I heard this song.



I swear it was an epiphany. I'd never heard anything like it. Never seen anything like it, for that matter. I immediately fell in love with the song and remain infatuated to this day.

This marks the start of my musical journey, and my ongoing love of all things Bowie.

2 comments:

Mojoey said...

David Bowie is amazing. From the very first note, to the very last. Amazing. Just pressing the play button makes me happy.

I have this memory of my grandfather giving me a lecture about the evils of David Bowie. He had appeared on some TV special as an androgynous figure of Bowie singing Space Oddity in about 69 or 70. My grandfather forbid me to listen. He also forbid me to smoke. Neither worked very well.

jamon said...

I vaguely remember my Dad muttering something similar. With equally powerful results ;)