Music & Words

 Mistress Maddie has graciously bestowed upon us this Music & Words Award, for which we are extremely grateful as we now have something of consequence to post about!
 However, on reflection, it's less of an award, and more like hard work! With that in mind, we're going to pass this one over to The Host.
 Great. So I have to fire up the old musical memories, scour You Tube for the relevant videos, then combine everything into a coherent blog post?
 That's about right. Ta ra! I'm off to play in the copper telephone wires as you need our body for this.

Humph! Well, it's been a while since we've had an award and/or meme like this, so I hope I'm not too rusty? Here goes!

What does music mean to you?
 I don't know? I mean, I don't know if it means anything to me in general. However, in the moment, it can provoke an emotional response that real life rarely does for me. It inspires and induces the firing of my imagination. And I find it to be a comfort at times - something familiar that I can get lost in.
 As an example of a song that almost never fails to punch me in the feels:



 In fact, Neil Hannon/The Divine Comedy is a terror for producing music that gets my buried emotions going. Step forward "Come Home Billy Bird", "Laika's Theme", and "In Pursuit of Happiness" (British readers may recognise part of this track as the theme from Tomorrow's World).

What is your first music related memory?
 Before the years of piano and flute lessons and languishing in the school orchestra as 3rd or 4th flute; before listening to Igor Stravinsky's The Infernal Dance from The Firebird, Gustav Holst's The Planets (particularly Mars and Jupiter), and Richard Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in school assemblies; and even before the ubiquitous taping of Top of the Pops from the telly onto an old cassette recorder that Grandad gave us, there was an old record player in the alcove behind the TV that my sisters and I sat around while listening to a record of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf (although I can't remember who the narrator was), and a record compilation of songs ("The Court of King Caractacus", "Jake the Peg", "Two Little Boys", "A Windmill in Old Amsterdam" amongst others I can't remember) possibly all performed by Rolf Harris (no comments or jokes about the reasons for his conviction, please - let's leave it alone).



 There was also The Dinosaur Record - a tape I found in a bargain bin at Roys of Wroxham (you can listen to it here if you're so inclined) that we pestered The Parents to play on the car's stereo whenever we went out.
 I remember also that The Father had some Johnny Cash tapes, but also an ABBA tape that he'd recorded - I particularly remember "Dancing Queen"...

What was the first album you ever purchased yourself?

 Whatever it was, it was a cassette tape (too young for vinyl, too old for CDs)! I don't know if compilation albums count, but I bought Now XIII in 1988 (funnily enough, at the age of 13). As for an actual album by a single artist or group, possibly Paula Abdul's Forever Your Girl also in 1988 (although this could have been Indescribable's, but I definitely bought the cassette single "Opposites Attract" from Roys of Wroxham).

 The next earliest I can remember definitely buying is Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 in 1989.

What is the latest music you purchased?

 At last, an easy one: All Possible Futures by Miami Horror. I bought this album last year, and haven't bought anything else since. Although I'm dithering about purchasing Miike Snow's iii...

What is the very last song you listened to before writing this post? Be honest!

 I think it was Goldfrapp's "Cologne Cerrone Houdini", but it could have been Scissor Sisters' "Might Tell You Tonight"? What I do know for definite (because I wrote it down thinking I had time to write the post there and then - Ha!) is that when I was reading Mistress Maddie's Music & Words post, I was listening to Röyksopp's "Forsaken Cowboy" from their Senior album.

 And there you have it. Thank you once again to Mistress Maddie - I hope this has satisfied your curiosity?

 All that's left is to open this meme up to the rest of you. In particular, I'd like to see Ms Scarlet, LX, The Very Mistress MJ (although I'm not going to hold my breath), Dinahmow, and Hound have a go at this.