Music Wherever She Goes
Weekends with unscheduled time are becoming hard to find. We have, of course, the chores, which are important, as they become unmanageable if left too long, and visits out to Windsor, which swallow entire days, so this past weekend involved taking the opportunity it presented to do some prep-work for 4 August, on which we expect to entertain a hoard of new/old (depending on which of us you are, I am . . . never mind) friends, gathered for the express purpose of celebrating M.’s birthday, which this year also constitutes a milestone of sorts (depending on whether you regard such things in such way, which I do not, but so what?). So we spent an inordinate amount of time visiting with George, who has a terrific stereo setup, including two DJ-quality turntables and mixer, producing hours of party music for the event. Very successful we were, too. As a result of nicking my little brother’s LP collection off to Australia with me (I inherited them decades ago, when he became a travelling man and couldn’t lug them around anymore – if he’d wanted them, there were ways to get them back, but now they’re mine), plus years of non-marital status spent collecting CDs galore, I have an extensive if only marginally eclectic music collection, and this served us well enough, but George is the archivist, and as such, although he has a particular taste for Soul, which has led to some interesting gaps from the 80’s, he’s got exactly what’s needed in his collection to ensure you can have a crisp copy of Buddy Holly doing “Well, All Right” instead of settling for the Blind Faith cover, when the mix calls for the original, or an obscure B-side Kinks that never made it to LP. I don’t think I ever knew “Hanging on the Telephone,” although I prefer Blondie’s version to that of The Nerves’ original.