Contrary to popular belief I do occasionally read books with a lighter theme. I have just finished one I really enjoyed. It's called 'The People's Songs' by Stuart Maconie and the sub title, 'The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records' really does explain what the book does. Starting with 'We'll meet again' it describes our history since World War Two through popular music. It really was the history of my life with its own soundtrack. A few of the chapters, each one is about a specific song and theme, really stuck home. Describing the industrial unrest in the late 1970s and early 1980s using 'Part of the Union' by the Strawbs, the Cold War with 'Two Tribes' by Frankie goes to Hollywood and the dawn of New Labour with 'Things can only get better' may seem obvious but they are still really vivid memories.
The book also brought other things to mind like David Bowie's appearance on Top of the Pops on 6 July 1972 when his performance of 'Starman' was genuinely ground breaking or Elvis Cotello's evocative song, Shipbuilding, about the Falklands war. Those chapters reminded me strongly about school and university respectively. He didn't mention 'Rip it up' by Orange Juice which was being played around the time I did my finals and seemed to foretell a nightmare exam which, fortunately, never came.
The book as a whole does remind you of how big a part music plays in both our lives and our memories. We all enjoy coming up with lists of songs and Maconie's list of ones to describe our recent history is a good one.
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