I loved your post. For two reasons.

First and foremost, because it made me remember my own childhood soundtrack. There were the songs you chose, and then the ones you were influenced by. I grew up in suburban London, my mother’s kitchen the hub of the house, with her Radio 1 DJs guiding her and us through the day. She loved Gladys Knight and Diana Ross and Marvin Gaye – the volume knob went up for soul and down for rock, so my exposure was amplified and fettered in equal measure.

But then my father bought a fancy ‘music centre’ – with a cassette deck, radio and turntable all rolled into one. The best bit was that his old turntable was cascaded down to me, my room, my den. To start with, I had no money to buy records of my own, so I worked my way through everything he had – Moody Blues, Rod Stewart, Dave Brubeck, Glen Campbell, Frankie Laine & the Four Lads (gospel in a Jewish family :-) – an eclectic mix.

Then I found out I could borrow LPs from the council Library and suddenly my world got bigger. It would be years before I bought my own collection scratching to 100s of albums (yes Led Zep IV amongst them).

But the second thing that your post reminded me of was the school bus home. In contrast to my mum’s station, the driver played Capital 95.8, a commercial station with a mix that the school kids roared at and swooned on. Some sang along, others hid away. Boys began to realise that aligning yourself to what was deemed as cool to the older kids affected your social standing. Rebels chose to hold out for alternative punk, whilst girls laughed along together to Abba. I still remember Electric Light Orchestra playing “Wild West Hero” as we rode through the rainy winter afternoon on the late 5pm bus after rugby practice. Heroic indeed.

Thanks for the memories.