As some of you know, I'm a bit of a tape fan. Not so much that I couldn't bring myself to buy a new mp3, but they did play a big part in my adolescence and as such, they have a place i my heart. It all started with Simon & Garfunkel albums and old sixties compilation tapes from Tel-Star (Top sixties acts suspiciously absent, replaced by 2nd division beat boom chaff like Billy J Kramer, Manfred Mann, Gerry & The Pacemakers & the Hollies) on long car journey's. Embarrassingly enough, I could still sing you 'Me & Julio Down In The Schoolyard' or 'Tell Laura I Love Her' to this day.............
Anyway, I made it through my fathers best attempts to damage my love of melody and rhythm and by the time I was buying music, CD's had appeared. I could never afford them, so I bought vinyl and tape instead. Tape LP's were always the last resort though. Sure they were easy to carry about, but they never lasted, always warped or self destructed..................
They came into their own though on a personal stereo. I remember spending a fortnight in York with my family, permanently plugged into my Walkman and listening to Carter USM, Nirvana and U2 albums on an endless loop. Doubtless I wasn't mute the whole time, but it felt like it. There were two worlds open to me and at the time I knew which one I wanted to live in.
Zipping on a few years and the odd lesson in social interaction, the trusty tape saved me again. An hour it used to take me to get to College. Mazzy Star, Madder Rose and Morrissey (among many others) all eased the pain of the journey, if not the grim reality of an HNC Communications course......................
The final stand for the tape LP came in my kitchen years. This was my chance to impress or disgust people with my musical tastes. I think I just about managed an equal balance. Bliss at Bonhams was being left to prep salad with the Pixies, make soup for REM or wash dishes to the Flaming Lips. Later, at the Bank Restaurant the bigger kitchen meant everyone else's fuck awful musical tastes were discharged in my direction without mercy. There was no escaping the aural buggering that was the 2nd (3rd & 4th) Oasis album(s), or the incessant repeat plays of various 'hit singles' of the time (1999), all of which drove me to the edge of insanity. By this time CD players were making their way into such workplaces, though it was never advisable to bring a disc in. While tapes could easily be left in the deck for all eternity, anything in the CD player could at any moment be flung out and replaced by some verruca faced trainee chef's 'Bonkers' Happy hardcore CD while you were on a day off. By the time you came back in, the CD case would be in at least three separate segments in various parts of the kitchen, the inlay lying in the dry store, attractively decorated with tomato ketchup stains and the CD itself lying down the back of one of the chest freezers, covered in flour.
Anyway, I recently discovered some old tape albums I thought I'd lost. In no real order............
Metallica - Black Album - AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
Both bought on holiday in France many moons ago. The Metallica tape is great, but the AC/DC one is a true joy. I could be wrong, but for me it's Malcolm Young's synapse shredding riffs that make it stand out, though shouts for Angus Young and Bon Scott will be considered...........
Associates - Popera
This is what all pop music should have sounded like in the early eighties. That it didn't demostrates just how fucking wrong the rest of the world got it.
Belle & Sebastian - The Boy With The Arab Strap
God how I tried to like this mob! Really, I gave it my best go, but could only conclude that they were pioneering some evil form of 'Easy Listening' for fey Glaswegian hipsters, and by dint of that, every other soggy arsed pseud in the country as well. Arch, twee and inheritors of Morrissey's box of old hearing aids.
Ok, that's the vitriol and jealousy out of the way, what of the music ,viewed in the cold, sober light of day...................Yeah, it's ok. The odd nice tune, the odd clever lyric, but you still want to hit them. Hard.
Ramones - Ramones
'Hey Ho, Let's Go!'
If you think I need to say any more than that, then I believe you may be missing the point..............
Morrissey - Vauxhall & I
Why is every new Morrissey album a disappointment? For me it's because he made his best solo record in 1994 and will never surpass it. There are great moments on many of his albums both before and after this one, there will probably continue to be great moments on any CD the mardy old fucker chooses to release between now and the end of the world, but none will get within sniffing distance of the sheer majesty and consistant loveliness of this record. So there!
REM - Automatic For The People
I'm a sucker for sad songs. This has probably got more tear jerkers than most country albums. With two exceptions (Ignoreland and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight), it's all pretty much as maudlin as it gets, but in a sort of cosy, non-depressing way. You might be crying (if yr a big jessie), but you'll be smiling as well.
