One of my best friends once pointed out that there is no such thing as bad music. There is music you like and there is music you don’t like, but that doesn’t make it good or bad. Mind you, I am sure a quick glance at my own record collection might challenge that view.
In line with the name of this blog, I would say my taste in music is eclectic. My very favourite band of all time is Steely Dan. Their very best music – the album Aja represents their very best music – still gives me goose bumps. Is it better than anything else? Who knows? I would argue that the best band of all time was the Beatles because without them virtually everything we listen to today would not exist. As the legendary drummer Joe Vitale once told me after a gig in which he played with Crosby, Stills and Nash, “Without Paul McCartney, none of us would be here.” You might not like the Beatles, although I cannot understand for the life of me how you could not like at least some of the songs they made, but their influence on everything else is everywhere.
I know what I like and I know what I don’t like. I like Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Gaz Coombes, the Avalanches, Jordan Rakei. You don’t have to. You can like anything you want. You can even listen to Queen, Muse or even Oasis, the most derivative band of all time. I don’t hate these bands – hate is a word I reserve for the likes of Margaret Thatcher, Rupert Murdoch and Kelvin McKenzie – I just can’t stand listening to them.
There is currently a movie doing the rounds called Bohemian Rhapsody which has been savaged by the critics, but is loved by many Queen fans. I have no more interest in what the critics say than I have of watching it. I used to watch Eldorado for goodness sake and still avidly consume ancient episodes of Quincy and Highway to Heaven. Having said that, I was initially taken in by Queen.
When their first single appeared, I bought it. I liked the guitar on Keep Yourself Alive, even though I found it far too low in the mix and the singer far too high. By the time Seven Seas of Rhye appeared, it dawned on me that this wasn’t the type of rock I was used to. And I didn’t like it. Queen were no Led Zeppelin, that’s for sure. I saw rock music as Black Dog and Rock and Roll, not Killer Queen and Radio Gaga. Put simply, I didn’t get it at all and I still don’t.
I remember watching Live Aid and being left completely cold by Queen’s performance, while the rest of the world lapped it up. It was me, not everyone else. 100,000 people loved Queen’s performance that day. I couldn’t understand why. But then, I never really got Coldplay, the Spice Girls, Black Lace or Oasis (except for Acquiesce, that is).
We live in the greatest time ever for music. That’s a simple fact because we have access to everything that came before and everything that’s coming out now. If Queen, Muse, Oasis or anyone else I can’t stand floats your boat, well, keep on sailing. There’s room for everyone, as long as I don’t have to listen to Bohemian Rhapsody ever again.
