Last Night I dreamt
Last night I dreamt about Mark. We were 17 years old. He showed me two Magazine albums he owned. One was Real Life, the other a compilation. In my dream I referred to Real Life as Definitive Gaze, the opening song of Real Life and still one of my favourite Magazine songs. The second album I just called a Magazine compilation album. If memory serves me well Mark never owned a Magazine compilation album, he did own, again according to my memory, Magic, Murder and the Weather. Why I changed this in my dream I dont know, probably because I own After the Fact, the first official Magazine compilation album. It was my dream after all, not his.
I'm writing this not because of Magazine, even though it was one of the most interesting and influential bands to come out of Post-Punk. I'm writing this out of nostalgia, and the tricks the mind plays with us to remind us that once there were more important things than kids, mortgages and (the health of our) bank accounts. What we listened to, which bands we loved (or just discovered), who we championed and, as a result, who we would consider our friends because of similar musical taste, it was once the most important thing in our lives. And then it vanished, went up in smoke, in careers and the real life of adulthood. Many things I forgot in the years since. What I remember most vividly is when and where I listened to a particular record for the first time (London Calling, Playing with a different sex, Low, Do you believe in the westworld?, Zombie, Pornography, In the Court of the Crimson King, Blue Valentine, Second Edition, the list is endless...). What does that say about me, about my life? Nothing more I guess than that we remember most clearly what was most important to us at the time. Right now, right here, at this moment I dont know anymore if it was the music or the friendship, or maybe just the boundless opportunities of a teenager. https://open.spotify.com/album/57l34nudIa2wEI2q3zdTVo?si=hUg5QBE1Te64sxBvTvo9JA