I’m the Dandy Highwayman

Today I experienced a blast from the past because a colleague lent me some music, which covered a wide swathe of my youth from my very first music purchase up to college days. First: Adam and the Ants greatest hits! I was listening to it on my headphones while wading through someone’s document that needed reviewing. My boss, who sits next to me, looked a bit curious as to why a schema change request should make me smile so I told him what I was listening to. He’s about my age and a big classical music fan, but even he knew to cross his arms across his face in true Ant style, which compounded my smile.

Then there was some Cocteau Twins that was so beautiful and brought back such lovely autumnal memories that it nearly made me cry. Oh and some Siouxsie and the Banshees and … I did get some work done, honest!

It still surprises me how much music can be a set of coat hangers on a clothes rail for the rest of your life. It’s like a filing system – “I was listening to X when I did Y” – and a much stronger or more pervasive linking than “I was wearing X when I did Y” or “I had hair style X when I did Y”. I wonder what music our children will absorb into themselves. Currently it’s stuff from our music collection, plus Veggie Tales. I can imagine them in the old folks’ home in many years’ time, joining together in a rousing “If you like to talk to tomatoes; if a squash can make you smile; if you like to waltz with potatoes, up and down the produce aisle…” and getting confused over the lyrics to We Are The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything (which are rather confusing).