The memory of youth music is a treasure that can travel through cities and fields, on buses or pedestrian paths. The joy and melody of tunes from artists like Van Morrison, Bowie, or The Cure richly beating out from the deck of the record player, offering an invitation to revisit them when you return home. The leisure of a Saturday afternoon skimming through shelves of vinyl records in a music shop takes one to a world far away from the pressures of school.
In the safety of the living room, behind closed doors, one could surrender to the fading light penetrating the drapes, while circular black vinyl scratched with use play on. Hours of saved pocket money would be expended for that coveted single, maybe Hazel O’Connor or something like Ghost Town from the Specials. All these, found their way into our lives when we were merely nine-year-olds, painting a dual-tone picture of Dublin.
Our commitment to the bittersweet melody of adolescence is etched in these songs, seeking the perfect rhythm to convey our diffident nonchalance and compensate for the stammering sentences that we struggled to articulate or write in school. These songs made up for our social awkwardness. “Frau Stuart, who are you?”
These memories have now been uploaded, streamed into a virtual memory bank, from where they emerge unexpectedly during long drives. In an unfamiliar rented vehicle, while trying to locate the local station, the sudden influx of forgotten tunes, not quite classic but nonetheless hitting hard. Suddenly the car, or rather its passengers are bathed in warmth, recalling a forgotten joy that brings a smile.
The author, Paul Perry, who has penned several poetry and fiction books, including the most recent ‘Jamais Vu’, is a professor at the University College Dublin (UCD), helming their creative writing programme. His recollection of growing up with music provides unique insight into the impact of early musical experiences.
Paul Perry, a prolific writer credited with various collections of verse and narrative works, recently brought forth ‘Jamais Vu.’ Perry holds a professorship at UCD and heads their creative penning curriculum.