I don't know if it has anything to do with the looming significant milestone of a birthday but I have been listening to a lot of stuff from my spotty youth and comparing it to what I'm listening to these days and trying to find the similarities and influences. What got me from there to here if you like. A process that even up until a couple of months ago I would have been reluctant to do as I tend to see these kind of reflections kind of wanky and don't want to turn into a look back bore.
Nothing wrong with listening to tunes from a bygone era but comparing them to today's music is totally irrelevant as you don't get the same intensity from the rush of hormones that you did when you were a teenager.
Anyway, I was listening to this album at the weekend and the rush of mixed up emotions, the hair standing up on the back of my neck when the drums start, the melancholy and joy of the song are all still present and just as vivid as when I bought the single from Menzies in Airdrie and took it home to play it for the first time. I swear I could even smell the weird plasticky smell that the shop had.
For the record, in my opinion there isn't a recent band that holds up in comparison to Blondie at their best and this is a fine example of them at their best.
God I'm begining to sound like an old git.
Blondie - Union City Blue
and before they stop allowing us to look at such things, here's the video.
