The blog of photographer Kim Ayres

Sounds of the Seventies

Sometimes my children’s taste in music surprises me. As I sit here typing at my computer, they’ve got the stereo on in the living room, blasting away golden oldies – vintage music from three decades ago.

Despite two flights of stairs and a couple of doors between us, I can hear the base thudding through the walls, the thumping of their feet as they leap up and down and their voices screeching along in an altogether quite inharmonious fashion.

I am an antichrist
I am an anarchist
Don’t know what I want but
I know how to get it
I wanna destroy the passer by
Cos I
Wanna be
Anarchy

This then set off another train of thought about the music piped through the old folks homes. When they want their residents to drift off in a sea of nostalgic memories, they play wartime music from the 40s. I wonder if they'll be playing the Sex Pistols thirty years from now?

10 comments

The Birdwatcher said...

Your children have impeccable taste! They can't have been any more inharmonious than Johnny Rotten though surely?

Its a faintly re assuring thought in a way.Going quietly senile to the sounds of the Sex Pistols, the Clash Sham 69 etc.

Anonymous said...

That must be a very funny sight! Children can be hilarious!

Attila the Mom said...

I hear you!

My Little Guy is totally caught up in Fleetwood Mac, Santana, Steppenwolf, Donna Summer...all from listening to the "oldies" station in the car.

His latest obsession is the Go-Go's.

Which he misheard from me and spent a few weeks calling them the "Do-Do's"!

;-)

Binty McShae said...

Maybe they will be listening to alternative versions of classics... for example, check out this folksy rural Sex Pistols cover, "Anna Key in the UK"... head to http://www.podshow.com/music/?artist_id=1670 then scroll down and click it.

Kim Ayres said...

Birdwatcher - of course ten years later it'll be acid house playing in the elevators.

Pat - I was in a different room so didn't get to see them, but I could hear them without any difficulty :)

Attila - that's a list that somehow I can't see my kids leaping up and down to :)

Binty - it's incredible! I was struck dumb by their Britney Spears cover too.

It reminds me of when I first heard Mike's Flower Pops doing a cover of Oasis' Wonderwall

or even better the cover of Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit by the Ukulele Orchestra

Mine is a Gin said...

Brilliant! Though I fear the old folks homes will be playing the likes of Gilbert O'Sullivan rather than the Sex Pistols. Best buy the earplugs now.
Oh, and the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain are wonderful. Have you seen them live? If not, grab the opportunity if they're playing near you. I took the children a few months ago and we all loved them - fabulous entertainment.

Andraste said...

"I wonder if the'll be playing the Sex Pistols thirty years from now?"

Oh, how I hope so! I shudder to think what popular music will sound like in 30 years. And the Sex Pistols were a lot more melodic than they get credit for.

Kim Ayres said...

Mine is a Gin - not Gilbert O'Sullivan. I hope I go deaf with age.

Andraste - you're right, they sound quite tuneful these days and it's difficult to remember what all the fuss was about.

Music today - pah! Give me a tune I can spit at other people and pogo to...

stinkypaw said...

I hope they will when it's time for me to be in a home!

What is scary is when a "remake" is playing and a kid says "that song is so cool", or when they look at you funny because you know the lyrics. I actually once said "I know the original version from way back..." sad...

Kim Ayres said...

Sometimes the remakes are better. I prefer Marilyn Manson's version of Tainted Love than the one by Marc Almond.

Although I have a funny feeling that even that one was a remake of a 60s song.

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