Music writer and Radio Free Matlock presenter Simon Tucker writes about how the pandemic has affected his relationship with music..and what has saved it.
Four weeks
in...I hope this piece finds you safe and well in these strange and
unset...nope can't even finish that sentence. It's replaced the "I hope
this email finds you well" which let's face it we all use. I do hope you and yours are well though because..well
you know. The world is swirling in the seven stages of grief and how are we
coping? are we coping? Ask me that
question four times a day and you will get a different answer. I am certainly
not feeling Zen about all this and what is spinning me out is one of the first
changes emotionally and mentally to take place within myself has been my
lifelong relationship with music. I never thought I would see the day where
music became, in select moments, superfluous and background fodder lacking in
an emotional hook for me. Music has been my main passion (outside of biscuits
and Liverpool Football Club) since I was a child so this switch that seemed to
occur during the first couple of weeks of official lockdown really threw me a
wobbly. I was consumed by news news news, social media, internal panic and
anxiety and NOTHING not even my beloved music was helping. Anyone else feel
this?
Then a
change began to slowly happen. Music started pushing the buttons it always has.
Sometimes it was making me weep, other times smile and dance like I was back in the
Sanctuary Milton Keynes circa '97 (ask your parents). What changed? Well the
first time I really noticed it was when I started taking part in the Tim Burgess Listening Parties on
Twitter . Here I was feeling
that communal aspect of music and I really fucking needed it. Of the nights I
have taken part the ones that really helped turn the tide for me and my re-connection with music were Mogwai's Come On Die Young, Sleaford Mods Divide
& Exit and New Order's Power, Corruption & Lies. Why these? Well I have
history with these albums...
The
aforementioned albums all invoke emotional connections to family and
friends..people I am desperately missing yet here I was listening to an album
the exact same time that they were..holding hands across the country,
conversing via emotions and tapped in to shared memories at the exact same time
(with the added music geek bonus of reading members of these bands talking us
through their creation). The only weird feeling I had was when I realised
that listening to an album the whole way through was now considered a novel
exercise...bizarre. Another reason these listening parties were working for me
was that crucial ingredient in my new courtship with music, and the one that is
getting me through all this, nostalgia.
Nostalgia
has been essential for me and it has appeared in many forms the most obvious
being in the music I am choosing to listen to. Apart from the listening
parties, when I have been physically choosing something to put on I have found
myself drawn to music made predominantly in the 1960's and 1970's. Now, this
isn't any "music was better then" guff piece as we all know that's
nonsense but there is something about music made during these decades that is
really connecting and comforting me. Of course there's the music of Bowie
(there's always the music of Bowie let's be honest) and other big hitters like
The Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan but aside from that the decades themselves are
full of music that speaks to us and these...strange and uncertain times. Why?
Because they were strange and uncertain times and it all
oozes out of the music made in those times. If you are looking for comfort and
warmth you can dive in to Pet Sounds and swim in its rich melancholy, if you're
feeling angry you can screech out at high volume the Jimi Hendrix Experience or
The Kinks more sarcastic and biting cuts. Then you have the surreal oddness of
The Piper At The Gates of Dawn whose insidious shimmy feels like standing in a
cue for food shopping....you can throw in Aftermath for some aural menace. Then
you can spin the first three Velvet Underground albums depending on what fix
you need. Personally I have been looping the third self-titled album as I find
the softer edge and songs about faith and yearning incredibly comforting.
Songs of
protest rub up against songs of naive hope and even though the Hippy ideal
collapsed in on itself for a myriad of reasons there are certain elements of
its ethos that is worth clinging on to right now, so spin your Buffalo
Springfield, your Byrds and your Mammas and Pappas. Of course then we come to
the titans of the Sixties in the shape of The Beatles and it is in their world
that I have been mostly found wandering. If you need a lift and a dose of
energy crank up those early singles and let them fly. 3-4 minutes of pure Vit C
that can shake even the most stubborn soul awake. If I have been feeling low or
in need of just a gentle arm around me I can turn the piano ballads, the warm
folk of The White Album or the
glistening sunshine of Abbey Road..The Beatles have had it all for me and I
have been ever so grateful for them and for them being there when I have needed
them most.
Nostalgia..it
has not just been in the music I have chose to listen to but also the medium
and format. Radio has risen back to its original importance and it is glorious
to see. According to a recent report streaming figures have not been as high as expected and from my completely amateur point of view I can only assume that
people are either doing exactly what I have been doing and going back to music
they are incredibly familiar with (in which case I assume those already own the
albums) or they have been listening to a LOT more radio. Why? well from one
persons point of view radio acts as a comfort blanket in much the same way as
the listening parties..we feel connected to others when we listen to the radio
especially when you are hearing names you recognise being read out by the
presenters. Good radio creates conversation on social media and that is the
digital version of a hand being held or a hug. From a logistical point of you
radio is excellent at times like these because it takes the stress of what to
choose to listen to out of our hands. We can work, home school or relax with
the radio on in the background and it can be just that...background or it can
be more focussed and central to our day. You get the news bulletins that many
need to hear (though there is a good argument for many music orientated
stations dropping the news bulletins to help with listeners mental health).
Good radio hinges on its presenters and a great radio presenter knows exactly
how to pitch the tone of a show (see Lauren Laverne
and Mary Anne Hobbs' shows for a great example of this and the radio station I have a show on Radio Free Matlock...shameless plug maybe but the team really are putting out some amazing radio).
The final element
of nostalgia is the proliferation of curated playlists. Playlists have obviously been
popular for a while now but I have personally swerved listening to many yet
now, with time on my hands, and with people I admire putting more and more out
(just have a look at
the people Invada Records have had compiling playlists for them)I have
found myself drawn more and more in to their world. Where does nostalgia come
in to this? Well it's that old hobby of making mixtapes for people on a huge
scale isn't it. I know you all know this already but listening to these
playlists has tapped me in to my younger self once more...and I need that right
now.
There's
plenty of great new albums coming out at the moment for you to fill your boots
with (honourable mention to the new Baxter Dury, Knife Liibrary, Warren Ellis
and Laura Marling albums) and I have enjoyed them in brief spells but for me
and my sanity nostalgia is key, is balm, is mantra. Music from over four
decades ago is helping me get through the here and now..how are you getting through it and has your music listening been affected in any way? let me know at simontucker1979
"and in
the end / the love you take is equal to
the love you make" - The Beatles x
No comments:
Post a Comment