Meals only and great tunes of the past

Meals Only
Originally uploaded by pupski.

Saw this great sign outside a restaurant in Cromer today!

I went to the coast by train, I love train journeys, they are a great time to reflect. There are several things I like to do on train journeys
1) read a novel
2) listen to music
3) write
4) chill out and look at the scenery

I did all of these today except reading a novel. I had spent ages on the PC last night changing the tracks on my MP3 player. You would think that 60 tracks would be enough for anyone wouldn't you but it is actually very hard to choose. However, choose I did eventually, although it was hard and I had to download some new ones that I had read about in High Fidelity by Nick Hornby and in his 31 greatest songs (although I have to say I didn't agree with all of them!)

This got me thinking about my greatest faves and I decided that I would work on my top 100 songs (or maybe 50). So far I have got 30 (watch this space!).

It also got me thinking about how much music has been an influence in my life. When I was younger it was one of the most important things to me. I used to have secret aspirations to be a music journalist when I was younger. I'm not sure that I ever told anyone and of course I had no idea how to go about making this dream a reality. (I sometimes wonder what I could have achieved had anyone taken an interest when I was a teenager).
I used to daydream about writing for NME or melody maker. How cool to get paid for doing something that you enjoy anyway.

My earliest musical memory is being in the kitchen of my childhood home with my mum. My dad had rigged up these speakers so that you could play the stereo in the living room and listen to it in the kitchen and for some reason my mum was playing Like a rubber ball by Bobby Vee and I was singing along, somehow I knew all the words and I remember my mum was really impressed, I was about 4 I think or younger. Why she was listening to Bobby Vee I don't know as that was not her usual type of music.

I also have odd memories of Top of the Pops, which we always watched. Steve Harley sitting on the stage with bare feet, the sinister "Sparks", Pans people dancing to: Monster Mash, Tie a Yellow Ribbon, Dancing with the Captain, and Woa I'm going to Barbados. My brother liked Showaddywaddy and the Wombles and my sister was a fan of Leo Sayer.

There were those records that stayed at number one for weeks though noone seemed to like them - like I am Sailing by Rod Stewart and Mull of Kintyre by Wings, even Bohemian Rhapsody was annoying after six weeks or so at number one!

I found Top of the Pops more interesting as teenager. Videos like Ashes to Ashes, Boys Keep Swinging and I am a DJ by David Bowie were real visual treats, and it was always a thrill when a little known band you were a fan of finally got a TOTP appearence (like Girl or Whitesnake).