41 and an era

8 track. Remember that? I do. My dad was a mechanic and a music enthusiast. More to the point, he was country mad. That's what made him having Queen's greatest hits on it even harder to believe! I was 4 - or 5, or even maybe older. Who cares. It was a time of music revolution. We were all encouraged to learn an instrument.. Get involved. So we did. Top of the pops reigned. MTV was non existent. We remembered ABBA. Boney M was brilliant. B sides were as good as the A. Then cassettes came. Duran Duran. OMD. Depeche Mode. Dire Straits. Your brother gets a job and buys you Simple minds. Life would change forever. You miss Queens last ever live gig because you were too young. For the one split second in your life, you hate your mother. You state that when you are older, you will buy every single going. Then CDs happen. And you buy all your best albums all over again. The pixies turn up, and the Smiths, and you buy the Springsteen live double album all over again. Then your tape of Alchemy Live finally can't take any more patching so you buy the CD. Your collection is pretty awesome so you decide that you've had enough and live music is the way to go - for quite some time. Many beers later, you come out of your shell and realise that, once again, all the rules have changed. MP3 is what the game is all about. But wait, apparently, some sneaky b has stolen a quick one and started charging you for having what you already own in some new digital format, which isn't even as good as the one you have! Sod him. Let's try OGG or FLAC or whatever it is they call it. Sod this. Live is the way to go again. Steve comes along and convinces the masses that iTunes is really what is needed. Hmm, ok, fed up with all this fragmentation. After all, Coldplay is the only thing that has changed since Belfast Child - or is that the same? But wait, Sergey has a different view ...
Now, I've got a phone that can do the lot - except it's still not the same as seeing them live. Different skin, same purpose. True to life really ...