I hated it then, but I love it now

[AndyM]

As you say, which I agree with, every genre throws up proportionately more crud than classics. But I don't agree that disco's bad stuff is necessarily worse that found than other genres. The anti-disco prejudice inculcated in you lot at a formative age dies hard, it seems, although I can't say I'm surprised at that.

[Adam Blake]

Ah but if you judged genres on the basis of their fans, you'd reject 'world music' because its most ardent devotees were librarians called Gavin with really frumpy wives.

Scandalous, scurrilous and spurious all in one sentence! Nice one, Andy.

(You're right about crap disco being no more or less crap than any other kind of crap. That was my old teenage prejudice talking. I was only hoping you would not make such a keen observation. Damn...)

[AndyM]

Scandalous, scurrilous and spurious all in one sentence! Nice one, Andy.

Well somebody has to dish out the acidic one-liners around here.

[Jamie Renton]

Ah but if you judged genres on the basis of their fans, you'd reject 'world music' because its most ardent devotees were librarians called Gavin with really frumpy wives.

Don't take it personally Andy. I wasn't suggesting you were a medallion-ed macho bloke with chest hair and too much aftershave (I mean you might have been, we don't know)

Some weedy punky kids grew up to be librarians called Gavin.

Now enough of this thread drift. I want to know about the stuff forumistas have learnt to love.

[Adam Blake]

Now enough of this thread drift. I want to know about the stuff forumistas have learnt to love.

Tammy Wynette, bits of Mozart, the odd smidgeon of Grateful Dead, a few Disco records (see thread drift), Vegas period Elvis...

Still holding out against Frank Sinatra.

(By the way, I've met two separate people who have worked for Grace Jones, a good twenty five years apart, and they both said that she is an absolute sweetheart.)

[Jamie Renton]

Vegas period Elvis...

Still holding out against Frank Sinatra.

Interesting. Why Vegas Elv but no Ole Blue Eyes? Speaking as an ignoramus in such matters, they strike me as quite similar. I'd have thought the two would (like love and marriage) go together like a horse and carriage.

[Adam Blake]

Don't like him.

[Jamie Renton]

Don't like him.

Even as an actor?

[Adam Blake]

Oh no, he's OK as an actor. No Robert Mitchum of course, but not bad.

[Pete Fowler]

I was quite disgraceful during Punk and its aftermath. Here I have been, for the last forty two years, in the small northern town of Macclesfield. Teaching, from '72 to '83, in the local Art School. The Foundation Course - and to this day I believe these courses (post A Level, pre degree) to have been the very best educational model I've ever seen. Wonderful, full-on creativity. As one of my missions, I always ran record sessions; and the students would come back with their stuff. So persuasive was this one kid, all pink hair and ripped jeans, that I decided I'd go to this pub to see the group he was raving about. Joy Division. When they'd finished, I sat there, all snotty and suddenly probably appearing elderly (35?), and slated them. Tell that bloody singer to listen to somebody other than Jim Morrison. Tell that guitar player that there are other people than Lou Reed.

So, the only group that this town ever produced formed here when I was here and I saw them in their earliest moments.

It was Cathy, my wife, who shouted at me a few years later. About how wrong I was. And, late one evening, when the kids were asleep and Cathy was out, I slipped on Love Will Tear Us Apart and had that awful feeling.

And thought of that Shel Silverstein song. I got stoned and I missed it.

[Kari Salonen]

you'd reject 'world music' because its most ardent devotees were librarians called Gavin

I'm a librarian, but my name is not Gavin. Do I qualify?

I'm taking no part in the Great Disco Debate here, though. I was too traumatised by my weedy punk days I guess. But second vote for country. Couldn't stand it then, love it more and more frequently now.

But the frequent (and ultimately very silly) question in my young head back then was, "Am I allowed to like this?" when hearing something else than the stuff that had passed the peer approval test. In other words, classical, jazz etc.

[AndyM]

you'd reject 'world music' because its most ardent devotees were librarians called Gavin

I'm a librarian, but my name is not Gavin. Do I qualify?

I'll have to consult my Big Book of Outrageous Stereotypes and get back to you on that one.

[Chris P]

I'm a librarian

Did I imagine it, or didn't you say you were a translator once Kari? Do you still do that work too?

Gavins: Gavin Maxwell, Gavin Davenport (don't think I've heard his music), Frankie Gavin, Gavin Hastings (don't even know who he is, oh I see he's a rugbyist), Gavin (and Stacey)

[Kari Salonen]

I'm a librarian

Did I imagine it, or didn't you say you were a translator once Kari? Do you still do that work too?

The translating work is dormant now. The business became so bad I needed to learn a second profession. And since I have been partly living in libraries ever since I was a kid, what would be a more logical step? I'm a trainee now and loving the work. Hardly ever miss the old job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukJmF6f0JdQ

[Adam Blake]

The bloke at my Careers Advice interview at school told me I ought to be a librarian. Remarkably perspicacious of him. I often think he was right.