Music has always been a tremendous source of joy for me, both playing and listening. And I love both spiritual and secular music. And I’m also a big fan of music-related magazines and newspapers and biographies and autobiographies.
And now that I’m getting old, music brings back the earlier years of my life. Back in the 1960s, my grandad used to like The Good Old Days, a British entertainment show set in the early years of the 20th Century. Funny to think that the 1960s are now 60 years ago. And I’ll be a grandad myself soon 😀.
I didn’t really get into pop music until 1972, but I was aware of music before then, mainly my parent’s music and the odd pop song. I became a huge pop fan in 1972. It was great fun discovering all the pop groups. I’m a little like that now with regard to modern worship music. Back in 1980 when I committed my life to Christ, I learned all the charismatic and Pentecostal choruses of the time. I soon settled down in a Baptist church, where we sang more of the older hymns. Throughout the 1980s, I liked both new and old hymns. Then, around 1990, I started liking the old hymns more. And then around 2017, I started getting interested in the new ones again. I like them all now and my taste in pop and rock music has also broadened.
For secular music, maybe the peak interest was in my early teens. Initially, it was the UK charts, then The Beatles, Pink Floyd and a few other prog groups. Then, when I was around 16, I got into punk and new wave. I pulled back a little when I became a Christian, but I did maintain an interest. It’s tough work nowadays trying to find pop/rock music that I enjoy, yet I do sometimes find tolerable songs. But I mainly live in the past. Music is so wonderful. I have sometimes heard people trying to explain it in evolutionary terms, but I see it as a beautiful gift from God.
Just yesterday, I discovered an Audible book that’s a free listen for subscribers – it’s the biography of various hymnwriters. It’s a real joy to listen to the background to hymns that I’ve known and loved. And I notice another couple that are available to me as free listens.
Anyway, to close, I’ll add two songs from 1972, and two songs from 2025, two spiritual and two secular. I’m not familiar with many from 2026 yet 😀.
Hibernia Gospel 