davidquanticklikes

...to write a column for Record Collector. Yay Remembering when 60s went 80s

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Like most people I am quite ignorant, and my ignorance extends to many areas. Like the tentacles of an overly endowed octopus, my ignorance extends into science, sport, literature, life skills and what the archaeologists call “heritage rock”. Heritage rock is music made by old people that other old people like. It does not for some reason include pop (although Wings and ABBA teeter on the brink of acceptability) and is mostly made up of artists who began their career in Laurel Canyon or were a bit folky.

I know a bit about these people but as I grew up during the great Punk Diaspora, much of their music was forbidden to me. My musical upbringing was not so much Year Zero as Decade Zero. Also, I was young(ish) and like many youngish people did not find artists who began their career in Laurel Canyon or were a bit folky particularly exciting. But now I am old and covered in moss and I have begun to investigate the back catalogues of the heritage acts. And the odd thing is that, while I like the holy texts of the 60s and early 70s – Blonde On Blonde, After The Gold Rush, Astral Weeks, Simon & Garfunkel’s Greatest Hits – I find I actually prefer listening to what I believe archaeologists call these artists’ “gammy years.”

I first became aware of this when I started buying 80s Bob Dylan albums, none of whose names I can recall – Empire Leicester Square, Under The Deep Blue Sea and