It would be nice to think that in the last 10-15 years of my life I have changed a bit, grown up a little, learnt something. But, seemingly, I haven’t.
In the early nineties when I was just into my teens there was a new toy on the market, the compact disc. It was catching on fast, despite being around for a while it was when I was first properly into buying music that the CD really got big (as far as I remember it anyway – so ner).
I had a record playter, a stack of LP’s plus the hundreds of singles inherited from my mum and I loved them. I used to make the daily trek to the small indepedent music shop in Cheltenham’s Regent Arcade called the Longplayer (see – records – get it?) where singles would be a pound or so cheaper than the newly opened Virgin and the pokey Our Price (remember them?)
This was in the days of the indie charts, when melody maker meant something and my music taste was fucking rubbish, christ some of the stuff I bought then is embarrassing.
Nevertheless I resisted the onset of the CD, all my friends had them, but I didn’t, I stuck with the records.
If you’d have asked me at the time then I would have probably spouted some bullshit about the sound quality or the cover art, but looking back, in all honesty, it was more to do with the fact that it knowingly set me apart, on my own terms. It was a talking point. It is for the same reason that in this modern day life I still refuse to try to learn to ride a bike.
Eventually, as we all did, I succumbed to the shiny laser disc (as an example of my teenage awful music taste the first two CD’s I owned were Extreme’s III Sides to Every Story and the Best of Eric Clapton) and built up a sizeable collection over the ensuing years of varying quality.
My music taste is ace now, bloody marvellous, and most of the things I have is in my ipod/itunes. My CD buying had faded away in the last few years.
But in recent weeks, after borrowing a stack of CD’s from Claire and my laptop being perilously low on memory, I have reverted to playing them on my stereo again. I need a new stereo as mine has almost stopped playing CD’s.
I should put all this borrowed stuff onto my computer – but oddly, I’m feeling a slight fondness for the CD, why? Well, I’d tell you that it’s because the sound quality is better and there’s CD inlays to read.
But we all know, I’m just trying to buck the trend
Maybe I should learn to ride a bike.
Yes you should learn to ride a bicycle and then you can use your new ipod to listen to Queen’s I want to ride my bicycle while riding you your bicycle. Its all good.