Reviewing your parents' music collection
There is such a thing as the musical wallflower. An album that has been there forever, blending in with its background on the shelf. Hidden from view. I must have skipped over Mike Rutherford's Smallcreep's Day for years when looking through my dad's vinyls. I don't remember listening to it ever before. Maybe because my… Continue reading Wondrous Wallflower: ‘Smallcreep’s Day’ is no stroke of genius – but worth a listen!
It's 1971. Emerson, Lake & Palmer are performing Pictures at an Exhibition at Newcastle City Hall for the first time. A couple of years later my dad will buy the ELP 1979 live album, featuring that concert and will find himself listening to Mussorgsky's melodies for the first time. Struck by the music, he will… Continue reading The Great Gates of Prog Rock Perfection: Emerson, Lake & Palmer reimagine ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’
Maybe you can relate: You've been listening to a song for years and years and suddenly you stumble upon the information that what you thought to be the original is actually a cover version. Think of Whitney Houston's I Will Always Love You (originally performed by Dolly Parton) or Tainted Love - you've probably heard the Soft Cell or Marilyn Manson… Continue reading ‘Werbung, Baby!’ or How the Finnish wrote Van Halen’s ‘Jump’
It’s summer 2006. I’m sitting in the back of my Dad’s blue Peugeot 407, next to my brother as we’re driving uphill to a remote village in Northern Italy. It’ll be the farthest I’ve ever been from home. We’re here for our family holidays. And, if I remember correctly, we only have three albums in… Continue reading Same same but different: Listening to ‘The Paul Simon Anthology’ then and now
The Dad Anthology 