JUST a T-Shirt?

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A freezing morning today however one chap in his luminous pink jacket was displaying a Clash T-shirt...that classic London Calling album nicked off of Elvis. Now you wear this kind of t-shirt (think black cheap t-shirt with a perfectly square transfer of an 'iconic' album on the front) to either:

1. Show you were there at the time and/ or you genuinely like them
   OR
2. You're just conforming with the rest of the show off brigade and wearing an oconic album t-shirt for the sake of it.

This guy had some years on me, and I can imagine him banging his head to Rudie Can't Fail whilst nursing a pint of foamy nut brown ale in his one bedroomed granny flat near Heanor Market...for this reason alone I will let him off.

Now i am a strong believer in the idea that all music is opinion. If lots of people like the music then the more established the opinion becomes. However, this aside...if someone can justify liking a Phil Collins song (exc. Sussudio and In The Air Tonight) then I probably will like you less for it...not that you should like certain music to gain approval from certain people. That's what these t-shirts do; they encourage you to think..."ahh he likes the Clash, like me, and like Mark Radcliffe, and Brad Pitt and so I think he's quite cool." And if you see the Humph (Lyttleton) you'll think "yeah he was a nice chap," but if you realise he rocked out to Clash City Rockers then no doubt you'll think, "wow, what a cool bloke that Humph was."

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Not sure if you've ever done this but...I once asked someone what they thought of Beefheart. They replied "yeah his Trout Mask Replica album was pretty weird."
"Well, yes, it was," I reply, "but what about Decals or Spotlight?"
"Eh?!" He is confused.

You see, people will listen to the most famous album of an artist and they think that's it...they can like them. Sure you can, but when you actually get talking about the musician and their life you can't sum up the whole of their career in one album. If they based their whole opinion of Dylan on Self Portrait then they'd come away thinking, "Dylan...rubbish!"

I was asked a girl at 6th form college what she thought of the Beach Boys. I expected her to name some of the surfin songs but she just said, "erm well Good Vibrations is cool." Oh
I then asked her what she thought of Pet Sounds. She said she had never heard of it.
Now I think that college is an excellent time to listen to music you have never listened to before, so when someone asks you 'have you heard Pet Sounds' and they reply 'no' then that's ok.
So I lent her my copy. Two months later she hands it back to me with a cracked case, saying she didn't get time to play it. Now that IS a piss take!

That musical journey is long and you never stop listening to music. But just because you have listened to Trout Mask Replica by Beefheart doesn't mean you stop there. You go deeper and listen to Mirror Man in the dark early in the morning, or drive with Crazy Little Thing blasting out to rush hour commuters.

Rant over.

Peace