[Exile on Spencer St]

I suspect our ages may have much to do with it, Margaret.
When I was a teenager and into my mid-twenties music was a vital interest.
Mary’s Music was a bit too ‘musical instruments’ to me but I do recall going downstairs in Tony’s record shop on Blackburn Road to listen to the latest songs in a little booth, walled with perforated hardboard. And spending hours sifting through racks of LPs upstairs in a record shop somewhere. Could rarely afford to buy anything, though. But recorded music was a constant topic of interest and conversation to me and many I knew.
S’funny, a bit later when I started buying records, or illegally taping them, I never had a single Beatles disc. I liked them but their music seemed so ubiquitous on radios and tv that there was no need to have my own copies.
However, one thing that made the Beatles, and Dylan, so memorable as they got into their stride was that each new LP seemed so different from the last. As soon as the latest album was played to death there was an anticipation about what they’d do next to top it.