I continue to maintain that my taste in music is questionable, and might best be described as 'populist'. Certainly, more than the odd sneer has been levelled at the 1,400-odd mp3 tracks on the micro-SD card in my mobile phone, a collection that ranges in time and style from vintage Frank Sinatra to the Sugababes. The sneers do not matter. This is the soundtrack of my life, and I'm not perturbed if entire genres are missing, or that much of the collection is basically 'top of the pops'.
I'm still adding to it. My prime source nowadays is the Amazon MP3 Store on the Internet, but even they do not always have what I want. Recording artists and bands have sometimes got into disputes with their labels, or with each other, and that may delay or prevent the listing of many mp3 tracks that one might now badly want. For instance, most of the Dave Clark Five's output in the 1960s is not up for purchase on Amazon. I do have Glad All Over, but I'd dearly love to bag Bits and Pieces, and several others. Or it may be that just one or two individual songs are inexplicably not available, such as You Don't Have To Go, by The Chi-Lites in 1976, even though all the rest are easily purchased.
Sometimes I can't buy because I can't remember the name of the artist nor the correct title of the song, even though I may recall odd little details about it.
Here's an example. Some months back I added James Blunt's amazing 2005 song You're Beautiful to my collection, which is about his catching the momentary gaze of a girl with the face of an angel on a tube train. I won't swear that I ever saw a video for it, but I think I must have. Anyway, real or imaginary, it had confused my memory of another tube train video, an older one, which showed a naked girl singing directly to the camera while the other passengers completely failed to notice her nudity. Her song is one that I've long wanted, and I believed she was singing about love or beauty. One other thing: she had an unusual name. But I couldn't remember what it was. You can see that Mr Blunt's song and video had got in the way. But then there was yet another song, very popular, about being beautiful, and I wanted that too. I had no idea who sang that one, but I knew she was so well-known that I'd kick myself when I eventually found out, and it might be the same girl who was singing her heart out in the tube train.
And then today, when idly searching in the Amazon MP3 store, I came across Christina Aguilera, and a few clicks on from that, her 2002 anthem Beautiful, which was one of the songs I couldn't remember. Duuuuh.Kick! And then the mists cleared. The nude girl on the tube train had been singing about being thankful, not about being beautiful. A few more clicks, and I finally had the song: Thank U by Alanis Morissette in 1998.
Ah, what pleasure it was to finally have these two missing songs at last! It had taken over a decade.
But now I can sing along with the two girls in my bathroom, or when doing the ironing, and kid myself that my own voice is very much like theirs. Well, a bit like theirs.
I'm still adding to it. My prime source nowadays is the Amazon MP3 Store on the Internet, but even they do not always have what I want. Recording artists and bands have sometimes got into disputes with their labels, or with each other, and that may delay or prevent the listing of many mp3 tracks that one might now badly want. For instance, most of the Dave Clark Five's output in the 1960s is not up for purchase on Amazon. I do have Glad All Over, but I'd dearly love to bag Bits and Pieces, and several others. Or it may be that just one or two individual songs are inexplicably not available, such as You Don't Have To Go, by The Chi-Lites in 1976, even though all the rest are easily purchased.
Sometimes I can't buy because I can't remember the name of the artist nor the correct title of the song, even though I may recall odd little details about it.
Here's an example. Some months back I added James Blunt's amazing 2005 song You're Beautiful to my collection, which is about his catching the momentary gaze of a girl with the face of an angel on a tube train. I won't swear that I ever saw a video for it, but I think I must have. Anyway, real or imaginary, it had confused my memory of another tube train video, an older one, which showed a naked girl singing directly to the camera while the other passengers completely failed to notice her nudity. Her song is one that I've long wanted, and I believed she was singing about love or beauty. One other thing: she had an unusual name. But I couldn't remember what it was. You can see that Mr Blunt's song and video had got in the way. But then there was yet another song, very popular, about being beautiful, and I wanted that too. I had no idea who sang that one, but I knew she was so well-known that I'd kick myself when I eventually found out, and it might be the same girl who was singing her heart out in the tube train.
And then today, when idly searching in the Amazon MP3 store, I came across Christina Aguilera, and a few clicks on from that, her 2002 anthem Beautiful, which was one of the songs I couldn't remember. Duuuuh.Kick! And then the mists cleared. The nude girl on the tube train had been singing about being thankful, not about being beautiful. A few more clicks, and I finally had the song: Thank U by Alanis Morissette in 1998.
Ah, what pleasure it was to finally have these two missing songs at last! It had taken over a decade.
But now I can sing along with the two girls in my bathroom, or when doing the ironing, and kid myself that my own voice is very much like theirs. Well, a bit like theirs.