A month after buying the record player, I finally got to a record store today. While my other half and youngest daughter perused clothing and book stores, I flipped through boxes of vinyl albums and debated about spending far too much money on two albums.
There is a back-story here.
My other half has somehow held on to her entire record collection over the years - even though we have not had a record player for quite some time. After buying the record player last month we were talking about it with friends and realised she had almost no female artists in her collection - which flew in the face of the CD collection I got rid of a couple of years ago - which was littered with the most famous female singer song-writers and bands of the last thirty years.
So I’ve been making lists. And being horrified at the price of vinyl albums, and therefore not pulling the trigger and buying anything. Until today. Actually, that’s not entirely true - when I bought the record player, I also bought a Kylie Minogue album. Stop rolling your eyes.
You know the problem with setting foot in a record store? They never have the record you actually went in there for - so you then spend ages debating over records you didn’t really have in your thoughts. That was me today.
After much indecision, and much flipping through boxes, I walked up to the counter with Madonna’s “The Immaculate Collection”, and Taylor Swift’s “1989 (Taylor’s Version)”. While having a coffee later with my other half I divulged my decision and she immediately started calling me a “Swiftie”.
When we got in I put 1989 on first, and was half-listening to it when my other half volunteered that she couldn’t see how Taylor had got so famous - that she wasn’t a great singer - that the songs were pretty forgettable - that there wasn’t much point to any of it. I tried to find the words to explain that there was more to it than just the music - that this was a person WAY smarter than anybody realised, that had ripped the old music industry a new one - and beyond that, that the political establishment appear to be terrified of - for all sorts of reasons.
I love that. What’s more, over the last several years I’ve come round to her music - her songs.
I remember years ago reading iWoz - Steve Wozniak’s book recounting his many and storied Apple adventures. Back in the mid 1980s - after Apple had exploded and he had more money than he knew what to do with - he organised a music festival - filled with a huge number of both pop and country music stars of the time. He received a lot of criticism about the country music from the usual quarters, and retorted with something I’ve always remembered - that while it’s easy to dismiss country music, at least the songs are about something - that they come from the heart - that they tell stories that people can relate to.
I suppose I’m biased because I visited America when I was young, and experienced wall-to-wall John Denver at the height of his fame. He was filling stadiums, starring on the Muppet Show, and had posters for concerts on the side of skyscrapers. As a result I’ve always had a weak spot for country. It explains why I’ve always liked Shania Twain, Dolly, and yes - Taylor Swift.
I first heard Taylor quite some time before anybody else I knew. While travelling into and out of London in the mid “noughties” I would often email friends (years before instant messaging took over) - to catch up with them, and to pass the time. While asking for music recommendations for the train one day, a singer-songwriter I know in Oklahoma recommended that I buy an album that had just come out that she had been listening to at home - by a teenager called Taylor Swift.
I bought it, and loved it. It took me back to John Denver, Carly Simon, James Taylor, and an almost forgotten generation of musicians that actually sang about things.
I need to get back in touch with that singer-songwriter in Oklahoma. I need to tell her I bought Taylor’s album - on vinyl. She will smile.
I’m listening to the album now - and wondering if these songs have not become a part of the tapestry of a generation’s life already - just as so many songs wove their way through previous generations. Songs that remind us of places, people, and moments. Songs that remind us how we felt - the good times, the bad times, the happy and the sad times. Songs that tell our stories.