3's

A long running bone of contention between the wife and I, revolves around our differing tastes in music. Whereas she likes keeping up with the latest bands, hits and such like, I'm very happy to stick with what I know and more importantly, like.

You can put forward reasoned arguments for both camps. However, since this is my blog (!), I will simply state that, if I ever heard music in the charts that matched the musicianship and quality of the people that I like to listen to, I would readily give the new bands/singers a chance. However, when I'm humming songs by people like Lennon and McCartney, Paul Simon or Bob Dylan, these unfortunate newbies have a pretty high bar to reach.

Their case has not been helped by the superlative recent offerings emanating from some of the aforementioned gentlemen. I say this, because I am currently listening to the latest Dylan production, Modern Times and without exaggerating, it's an absolute stunner. Paul Simon's recent album Surprise was another belter and McCartney's Chaos And Creation In The Backyard showed him to be no slouch in the songwriting stakes either.

It's great to see that these so called "oldies" are still producing work of immense substance, particularly through albums released within the last eighteen months or so.

I mustn't be too harsh on the wife. She is a big fan of Queen, so there's still hope that she might come around and, what's extremely encouraging, is that she's commented most positivily on a number of (the oldies') songs she's accidentally heard when listening to the radio, driving my car or even (gasp) watching MTV!

My "friends" are still demonstrating their membership of a dwindling club. I just wonder how many of today's artists will be eligble to apply when the entire club is reformed, in Dylan's words, beyond the horizon...