Reelin' in the Years
The Soundtrack of a Northern Life
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3.3 • 12 Ratings
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- £6.99
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- £6.99
Publisher Description
When Mark Radcliffe was born in the late 1950s, Britain was trying to find its own version of the dangerously sexy Elvis … we gave the world Cliff Richard but by the time Mark was old enough to recognise pop songs on the radio, the UK was exploding into the world's most exciting place to be for a young music fan.
In this, his eagerly awaited new book, Mark Radcliffe takes a record from each year of his life, using the song as a starting point from which to reach out and pull together a wonderfully entertaining catalogue of memories and asides about British culture. And, as one would expect from this unique and popular broadcaster, the tunes he lists are not the usual suspects. From The Kinks' 'See My Friends', through Slade's 'Coz I Luv You' to Kraftwerk's 'Europe Endless' and Joy Division's 'Atmosphere', Mark's selections bring forth a diverse collision of styles from eras uniquely defined by their musical genres and fashions.
Bringing his choices right up to the present day, we see the inclusion of artists such as Richard Hawley, Elbow and Fleet Foxes. Mark's hugely entertaining and affectionate trawl through his favourite music of the past 50 years is guaranteed to surprise and delight his many fans.
Customer Reviews
A trip down musical memory lane
It's always a pleasure to read about music from someone who genuinely loves it, and on the substance of this book you can't get more loving than radio stalwart Mark Radcliffe. The book is effectively an autobiography using a track from each year to fire the author's memory or to provide some 'local colour'. Think Nick Hornby's '31 Songs', but a bit more organised.
There's music from almost every genre here, and every one a cracking track. To get the full experience, I ended up pulling together iTunes playlists of all the tracks (I published them under 'reelin' in the years' on the iTunes Store if you're interested in doing the same thing and want to save some time!) - a real musical trip through time, and a fantastically comedic, affectionate book.