AD


1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

Me

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18



John's hypertextual youth Why? Who? How? Really? Leave this self-indulgent tangle!
Martyn introduced me to Emerson, Lake and Palmer, my favourite musicians. Even Mr. Humphreys, the school music teacher, gave their Pictures at an Exhibition an approving review. Through Martyn I also learned of Yes, Genesis, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Focus. Rock music is, for me, defined by early 1970s bands like these, many of which I recorded from Martyn's records in violation of copyright laws. I still have Focus playing Sylvia live at the Rainbow . When I was 16, I played this track, which I think has an all-time great melody, to my mother, who judged it to have "no tune". In 1995 I was delighted to find the original album version of Sylvia in a music store, which I bought and later played for my mum. I mentioned that she'd heard it about 20 years previously, and what did she think. She said it had "no tune".

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.