I was reminded of this song the other day- Belle And Sebastian's This Is Just A Modern Rock Song. It came out in December 1998 and was the first piece of vinyl I bought after the birth of our first child, I.T. It starts very quietly and builds over seven and a bit minutes, not getting very much louder, but building all the same. It's got some good lines, including the sarky 'This is just a modern rock song, this is just a sorry lament, we're four boys in corduroys, we're not terrific but we're competent', which I always took to be a dig at the tailend of Britpop, and the verse where singer Stuart Murdoch summarises members of the band. It's also got Postcard Records boss Alan Horne on a very Smithsy sleeve.
I.T. spent the first two weeks of his life in the special care baby unit so getting him home was a real milestone. I bought this in a long gone record shop in Altrincham on a trip out to buy baby essentials. This song and a few others really soundtrack his first week or two at home for me, where I tried to play quiet music which wouldn't disturb or wake him, and I suppose I thought if there was always music around he'd get to love it like I do. A month later he was diagnosed deaf in both ears, so I guess playing records quietly didn't really matter that much, he wasn't hearing them anyway. This song awakens things in me I thought I'd put into jars and screwed the lids onto tightly a long time ago, but I love it regardless. To end on a slightly more upbeat note the cochlear impant I.T. had fitted at the end of January is really paying off. We've had to build the levels up slowly and he's had to get used to a completely new type of sound, but he's now hearing things he wouldn't have heard before. Which also means we've got to watch what we say around him.
This Is Just A Modern Rock Song
5 comments:
Great tune.
I need to take a leaf out of your book, the other day the 2 year old couldn't get a toy out of the box and I distinctly heard him say "aw shit!" which i am prone to saying.
Great song, and great to hear about the implant. Got into and then a bit back out of B&S a while ago, but hearing this again reminds me a lot of a very different stage in my life. Guess in part that's what music is for.
B&S pants. But the cochlea stuff good new.
Drew- we've spent years saying what we like almost, less so since Eliza was born but still swearing our heads off when Isaac's around.
Mr AN- nice to hear from you again. Must catch up.
Ctel- thanks. Can always count on you for opinions and a world without opinions is dull as fuck.
My wife and me were in the kitchen the other day and our boy came in, walked up to the wife and said 'lovely arse'. He is 2. It could have been worse though, he could have walked up to my mother in law and said it.
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