The lure of sex can make us do irrational things, drugs can certainly cause silly behaviour – but what about rock ‘n’ roll? A couple of days ago I went to the trouble of finding the AARP (American Association of Retired People) CD version of Bob Dylan’s most recent album Shadows In The Night – the one given away on the front of a magazine – from a seller in the US, purely because it would fit nice and neatly inside the BobBox, alongside the rest of the catalogue. With shipping I paid around twice as much as the jewel case version would have cost on amazon (about ten quid instead of five).
Please make me feel better/help to normalise my behaviour by telling us: what silly, irrational or downright nerdy things have you done in the name of music?
>>>>>
No.
You daft bat.
I might even listen to it 😀
Oh dear. Just had a flashback to buying records in a Woking shop at 14/15 just to be served by the good looking girl who worked there. If she said something like “nice choice” I would float all the way home.
In a second hand record shop last year I found an actual section dedicated to German Comedy. There was a stunningly beautiful woman behind the counter. I thought it would be devastatingly witty, funny and charming if I asked her which one she would recommend. “I haven’t listened to them sorry” was the reply. I picked up a definate hint of “Fuck off.” I fucked off.
I slept in my car in Bridlington just to see Radiohead play in a theatre before they took off globally after OK Computer came out.
No regrets.
When I was 15 I queued up overnight to buy tickets to see Simple Minds on the Street Fighting Years tour.
Regrets.
Nicely nerdy, Bob.
Where to start? Buying almost any “Yes” album after “Going For the One”? Again see a band I’ve seen a dozen times play the same old set at a (heh) progressively slower tempo, with fewer and fewer of the original musicians? Rock and roll, I gave you the best years of my life.
Nothing comes to mind. I don’t do silly things.
Possibly taking my daughter to see “the Scottish band” That is, driving from Bolton to Stirling and back in the same evening. According to Google maps that is a 430 miles round trip. Not as far as the coachload of German fans travelled but they probably stayed overnight.
That’s not silly, that’s unsane!
You took your daughter to see the Bay City Rollers? You monster!
I once bought, of my own free will, a Michael Bolton album.
Top that for dopey, daft, pillocking.
Whaat!! That’s ridicluous. Michael Bolton? Ha!
*slinks away without admitting buying a Julio Iglesias single*
I’m stunned. Which one was it?
Begin The Beguine
Of course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtSscfzxKcI
Taking the first Mrs S to see Altered Images at UEA just cos I was in love with Clare Grogan. We were the oldest people there by, oh, twenty years. And to top it all as we were leaving we bumped into Son No2 and his friend ( both all of twelve years old) who were supposed to be at Scouts.
Wonderful! So who was most embarrassed?
Me, of course!!
Today it seems incredible that I spent all night queuing to get tickets for Bob Dylan at Olympia and then The Who at the Lyceum.
On another occasion I flew into New York to visit my brother and on the way in from the airport discovered that Lucinda Williams was playing in a small cinema somewhere up the Hudson. A few phone calls confirmed there was no chance at all of getting tickets. I promptly took the train and spent all afternoon queuing for returns.
To my amazement I got in, but was extremely knackered for the whole show. Well worth it though.
I also almost missed my plane back to Sweden from JFK another time as I wanted to see Ry Cooder and Ali Farka Toure in Central Park. Mercifully they cancelled but I still got to the airport with only minutes to spare. Very stupid!
Not on quite the same scale as @beany, I too went to see R_nr_g. A kind soul drove me to the venue.
I was slightly in my cups at the time, having decided to drown my sorrows at getting fired that very day..
Frank and Walters in support, and a cheap bar.
6 mile walk home. I’m lucky to be alive. All because I liked one of the greatest bands Scotland has ever produced*
*possible hyperbole
I once bought a Barbra Streisand record. Brand new, not second-hand.
There, I’ve said it.
I went to a shop and handed over six shillings and eight pence (or it might have been 33p, I can’t remember if we’d gone decimal by that point) in early 1971 for Stoney End her cover of the Laura Nyro song.
Mind you, I still think it’s a fine record and David Hepworth recently waxed lyrical about it on his blog which gave it massive legitimacy.
So it could have turned out a lot worse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djTV8lsoQoY
It’s alright, but it’s no Guilty.
I bought a Dreadful Grate album once, back in the 70s when I was a weedheid.
Not silly at all.
In fact, very wise and astute.
If I tell you it was Terrapin Station, would you still think me wise and astute?
I’m going to see The Pistols. Fuck!
I’m young, stupid, invincible. Leicester Square. From Hampton Wick. Tobes. Me.
His parents think he’s at mine. Mine, at his. Dad’s away anyway. Mum will take a pill. Go up early.
Cold. Wet. A Monday night. A Fucking Monday!
School today. School tomorrow. We get shouted at by skinheads. We get chased.
God Save The Queen. Fucking hell! They’re fantastic. I’m scared shitless. Amphetamine thrilled. Cider fuelled.
Seventeen. The world is mine! It fucking belongs to me! And that girl in torn tights and leopard skin top.
We run all the way to Waterloo. Last train. No tickets. Run all the way home.
Hello. Fuck! The light’s on. Dad. Back. He’s smoking. Drinking scotch.
He looks at me. Says “I have no idea what you’ve been doing. And I don’t want to know.”
Adds “If you want to screw up your future…” Tails off.
The Future? I want the future that is NO FUTURE! My ears are buzzing. My head is buzzing.
School tomorrow. What will Mum say? Fuck!
As I climb the stairs. Dad says “Your mother doesn’t need to know about this.”
Wait. I hate my Dad. Why is he being decent?
School tomorrow. Can’t wait. Fuck!
And …….. Relax.
Deep breaths, Fin. It was just a flashback. I’ll prove it to you – if it’s 1970-something how come you using this internet thing, hmm? No school for you today (unless you work in one of course, in which case you still need to keep a roof over your head).
Lovely work there Fin
Given, amidst all the other angst, the wrong demographic realisation, I recall the day I went to see the Levellers for the first time. Not long after the release of “Levelling the Land”, they were at their peak of crustiness. The Hummingbird, then a ballroom and reggae venue on it’s last legs, was packed to the roof with hardcore spiral tribe travellers, shaved half heads, whitemans dreads, fierce tattoos, few teeth and industrial cider. I came straight from work. Ooops.
Great show though, from my vantage point, upstairs, behind a pillar, well away from the mosh below.
Top stuff. It’s almost as if I was there with you.
that sounds like a top night not silly or nerdy at all @fin59
I think being sucked in EVERY TIMe to these limited release deluxe Dylan sets when the same albums are released later for a fraction of the cost. At least I didn’t buy the 18 versions of LARS.
I’ve seen Atari Teenage Riot play live four times.
*drops microphone, exits stage*
Blimey BL, pigeons learn faster than that.
I have now banned myself from impulse buying “album classics”. Why? you ask. Because too many times I’ve seen iconic albums and thought “I really ought to own that album. I’ve heard it of course, but it’s an absolute classic and I really should have my own copy”.
So I buy it, only to get home and discover that I do own it. I’ve had it for years. I just don’t play it, because I’m not that interested. So now I own two copies that I never want to listen to. Hooray!
Never again.
You should do the proper nerdy thing and make a database, which if on your ‘phone, you could refer to when out record shopping.
No phone. 🙂
I like The Fall’s ‘I’m Into CB’ so much I printed my own t-shirt of it. Just the words ‘I’m Into CB’ across the front.
I stopped wearing it after I got sick of explaining what CB is, no it’s not a sexual practice, that I’m not really into it, that it’s the name of a song by The Fall, who The Fall are…
I also went to London in a white T shirt which I had drawn this image on. In pen. It rained and soaked all the ink off and made the wool green squares I’d sewn on myself go all soggy too. It was a disaster all round.
http://i.imgur.com/Py88dGi.jpg
Buying a Paula Abdul tape whilst on holiday in Thailand. Don’t ask me why, I was very young.
I once drove from Aberystwyth to Norwich to go to an Alabama 3 gig. The whole road infrastructure of the British Isles is set up to prevent you driving from Aberystwyth to Norwich. All the roads go up and down, not across. It’s like they assumed no one would ever want to make this journey, which is a fair guess, actually.
I don’t even like Alabama 3. I went to see the support, who was on for 30 minutes.
We have a winner!
You know when you see a record in a charity shop you like the look of and you have no idea what the music is like. Well that happens quite often to me. It’s worth taking a punt and the charity benefits as well. So it was recently with this CD. It translates as All Children’s Favourites in Swedish. What’s not to like?
https://flic.kr/p/ByYnxa
Which reminds me: where in hell is @moose-the-mooche ? I miss you, Moosey-baybee.
Me too @moose-the-mooche
Please come back. My days are dull without you.
Hello folks. I missed you too.
^ That picture explains my fishy breath. And the least said about “Klapp och klang” the better.
Would like a welcome back thwack?
Would “you”, that is.
Sorry, was rushed due to cat on keyboard.
“Deeet var en gÃ¥ng en mus, och den musen hette Klas,
och han var alltid bjuden, när det var stort kalas.
Det bästa som han visste, det var att roa sig,
nu tar du inte miste, det handlar ju om mig,
faderullan lej!”
Some classic tunes on that album! 🙂
Ahem
Slept in a bank lobby after failing to find anywhere to kip post Levellers gig in Birmingham
Hand drawn a Fields of the Nephilim logo on a perfectly good white cotton shirt (didn’t rain though, @black-celebration)
Walked down Union Street in Plymouth on a Saturday night in full goth regalia past all the lagered up squaddies and sailors. My mate had tinkly bells on his boots. Tinkly bells.
Tried hitch hiking through a blizzard to see The Mission. Gave up after two freezing hours without a sniff of a lift.
Ostentatiously read the inlay card to my Dawnrazor tape on the school bus hoping to catch the eye of the pretty goth girl in the sixth form. I didn’t.
Paid good money for an Ozric Tentacles gig
At the Hummingbird were the Levellers? I’m sure the scared looking bloke in a collar and tie would have put you up if you’d asked………..
they were indeed. Autumn 1991 it was
91? 1991?!
Jeez, where’s the time gone…………
Also paid good money* for an empty LP sleeve because it was signed by the artist.
Peters and Lee.
*50p
artists
You have not seen it. Think it was just one of them. *winks*
I don’t remember which book it was in, but there was a particularly cruel gag where a Stevie Wonder record sleeve is signed by the great man – “Best Wishes – Stevie” and half of the writing has gone over the edge.
Have also been thinking about at some point getting the 2CD version of the Basement Tapes Bootleg Series, even though a lovely AW-er has already furnished me with a download of the complete 6-disc set. Why? Because otherwise my Bootleg Series collection (the other Bob box, which is kept neatly in an ice cream tub) would be incomplete.
Help.
Want the 18 cd set? Nah, can’t believe you do….
I’d need a dump truck (baby) to unload my head afterwards.
Whilst most of my generation were having their life changed by The Stone Roses, I was listening to Guns N Roses.
Nah, fuck it, I’m still right….
Me too.
Stone Roses – life changing?
They weren’t no Quireboys or Dogs D’Amour.
Carter USM and PWEI were simply streets ahead.
(I never “got” the greatness of Fools Gold, and never truly appreciated The Stone Roses until Second Coming. But lifd changing … not on your nellie)
Fought for my right to paaaaaaardayyyy
Fought the law (the law won)
Fought, fought, fought, fought, fought for this love
I’ve been…
…warped by the rain, driven by the snow
I’m drunk and dirty don’t ya know, and I’m still, willin’
Out on the road late at night, Seen my pretty Alice in every head light
Alice, Dallas Alice
I’ve been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’, to be movin’
I’ve been kicked by the wind, robbed by the sleet
Had my head stoved in, but I’m still on my feet and I’m still… Willin’
Now I smuggled some smokes and folks from Mexico
Baked by the sun, every time I go to Mexico, and I’m still
And I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that’s ever been made
Driven the back roads so I wouldn’t get weighed
And if you give me: weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign
I’ll be willin’, to be movin