Musical memory
Music can take you to new places and remind you where you’ve been.
August is a month of anniversaries for me and not the happy kind. But in each of them, music looms large and that got me thinking about music and memories.
A song can take you straight to a place and time. That’s probably one of the things I love the most about music. It can lift you up, dare you to dream or have you sobbing. It can take you to new places and remind you where you’ve been.
Right now, I’m 20 years old again. Out of school and finding my place in the world, a head exploding with new ideas and theories, and ears filled with brash bands in small bars, brimming with attitude more than aptitude.
The central soundtrack of my life back then was The Celibate Rifles, variously described as punk, surf punk or indie guitar rock. Whatever they were, they played hard and fast and incredibly LOUD. I must have seen them a hundred times.
Out front was Damien Lovelock, older, streetwise, his laid-back drawl in complete contrast to the frenetic energy of the band.
It’s two years this week since Damien died, so I’ve spent a day listening to the Rifles’ extensive catalogue. Those early records are blistering, raw and joyous, a fantastic combination of schoolboy high jinks and smart, incisive lyrics, topped with a brilliant sense of the absurd.
A Rifles song was just as likely to name check Jean Genet as describe the joys of surfing or a drug deal gone wrong, or offer a social commentary on single mothers and the welfare state.
All this was wrapped up in warp-speed guitar riffs and relentless drum rolls. And just when you think you’ve got them pegged, they throw in a country song, an acoustic ballad or an ode to Albert Einstein.
I love the fact they didn’t fit the mold or play the game, so defiantly uncool they became gloriously cool because of it.
If you’re yet to discover them or want to relive some teenage memories, Platters Du Jour is a good place to start – a compilation of their singles – or Sofa (as in so far so good), a compilation from the first five albums.
