Pop Idealism

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I was talking to my mum the other day and the conversation turned to music. Mum happened to mention that there were certain records, songs, albums, that she enjoyed very much but which she hadn't consciously heard in many years. (One example was Lexicon of Love, reason being she doesn't have a record player anymore.) This was subsequently extended to include records which reminded her of earlier times, before I was born, when she was younger, of my Dad etc etc, but which she had not consciously set out to hear for ages.

I pressed her a bit on this, as to whether she'd avoided listening to these recently in case she "spoiled" them (or perhaps more accurately the memories associated with them?) but I think her conclusion was a purely matter of fact: she just didn't have access to them.

So, a few points from this discussion:

1. Are there any songs/albums etc which you enjoy but which only exist as "ideas" in the mind for you? Why is this? Are they bound up with any kind of memories or moments?

2. (More technical): How would a song exist only as an idea? I tried, as an experiment to imagine a complete song in my head, vocal, instrumentation, all of that: but it always comes out fragmented? When you have a song stuck in your head, what happens!

Comments

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Your *mum* had a copy of Lexicon of Love? Now I really feel old....

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when she was about 27! Still feel old?

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i did an ILM thread once on parental taste (title sumfin abt "MAW and PAW" but i don't think you can search three-letter words -- i think it is an interesting topic (not least as default jimmy carr type "jokes" abt what mum and dad like still seems to imagine that parents = victorian virgin aunts)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

or at least derek nimmo as an vicar...

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

sean is old ;)

i think i get what you mean, it's like me and tom waits, like what i was talking about the other day (http://www.livejournal.com/users/carsmilesteve/20812.html), that was really a "can't be botherd to go and buy them even though i really like them and they're always £6 each" kind of way, rather than romantic reasons (in the broadest sense).

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I dunno, you certainly seem to ever so slightly romanticise sitting in a duvet and smoking too many cigs, there! :)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

hehehe, yeah but no but yeah, it was only when i got the songs again that i came over all romantic ;)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I probably used to have many songs which existed as memories or ideas but nowadays it's the work of a half hour to transform them into glorious MP3 reality, innit. I dunno whether this has killed nostalgia or allowed it utter and final victory or more likely both at once.

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

I think I was thinking of songs which you enjoy but would prefer to remain as memories or ideas. But then, how much would you like this songs if you didn't want to hear them....?

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Yes! Except I don't have time to elaborate because I'm on a timer in an internet café. Um remind me to talk about this later cos it's v interesting.

(Teenage angst songs, basically. The ones which you don't need to listen to, or which would put you in a frame of mind you don't want to be in, but which you can still appreciate/cherish from a distance - I'm talking 'Precious Things' by Tori Amos, basically.)

[steviespitfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think "teenage" with or without the angst is what me and my mum had in mind.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Ah yeah, that kind of song. "Don't forget the songs that made you cry / Or the ones that saved your life" etc.

(reference what the Young Folk will not get prolly)