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What's your most nostalgic song?
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Fitter Stoke
Fitter Stoke
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Re: What's your most nostalgic song?
Jul 26, 2014, 10:24
What an interesting question.

As kids, we're invariably introduced to music by whatever those who bring us up are listening to, and some songs we'll love, some we won't. It's not really a song, but Beethoven's Fifth Symphony was the most definitive example of my dad's (mostly excellent, in retrospect) musical tastes that left its mark on me. For nearly 50 years it's remained my single favourite piece of music, and every time I hear it I hear new things, as well as basking in the warm glow of happy memories. (My sig pic is me putting that very record on, by the way, circa early 1969.)

From around the same time, my elderly junior school teacher used to inflict his rather arch and old fashioned musical preferences upon a not very receptive class. Many years later I heard a record of Lionel Monckton's 'The Arcadians', a forgotten operetta from the Edwardian era which was one of Mr Etherington's favourites. I was immediately transported back to what was to be the last enjoyable part of my childhood education. "Oh what really charming weather…"

Dave Brubeck's 'Take Five' was the other BIG record in our house in those radiogram days. It takes me right back to that front room and my dear mam's homemade curtains. And I adore Brubeck to distraction to this day. He'll play at my funeral.

The first record I remember liking for myself was the Stones' 'Paint It Black'. Our neighbours' older son had that 45 and I recall constantly pestering him to play it every time we visited. I see that mono record player and living room decor even now when I hear what remains a remarkable disc.

These are just a few examples. But really, every record we come to like brings its own in-built nostalgia. I can remember where I was and what I was doing when I first heard, or got into, pretty much every record I own. And even songs I've always hated carry their own memories. Such is the power of those little dots, squiggles and lines.
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What's your most nostalgic song? (Sowiesoso)
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