AD
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Me
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But after Martyn's training, I was becoming a rock snob. I might talk and jam with my friends over The Who, The Beatles, Led Zepplin, Wishbone Ash and Queen, but back home I had a dirty little secret - The Carpenters. I wanted to be cool, of course, but I found that so much of what I liked was not cool. It was ok to like classical music, and I did. It was cool to like jazz, which I didn't really, but said I did. But it was not good to like commercial, clean pop. But I loved Karen Carpenter's voice, and couldn't get enough of it. At this time my dirtiest little musical secret was still in the future, but, ironically, needn't have been a secret. Through the remainder of the 70s, I was a closet Abba fan. I was sure that admitting this would undermine my musical credibility with the people I respected. In fact, I was wrong. The list of musicians that acknowledge Abba's influence and quality is very reassuring. In the later 70s, though, I would be a rock, jazz or even folk purist in public, but then return to my room where I could listen to Agnetha telling me "I've been waiting for you" in the privacy of my headphones. Agnetha with the aluminum voice with the aluminum hair. Wonderful. |