Friday 16 November 2007

Influential Music

I was asked by Princess Sarah Wife to write about the most first song that kindled my love of music.

The first piece of music that really engaged me was the Dr Who theme tune by Ron Grainer. The show was essential viewing for a child of the seventies with Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop making a low budget sci-fi TV show into something truly enthralling. My anticipation of each episode was full of excitement and also fear, and the theme tune with it's surrealistic title sequence just enhanced the emotions, as my brother and I hid in the clichéd location behind the sofa . The tune has a raw simple electronic feel, as it opens with rhythmic heart pounding pulses. This gradually transmutes into a throbbing melody, before the wail of the main melody whips through the whole thing on another level completely. During the closing titles there was also an extra treat where a bridge brings in a new melody in an truly uplifting medieval style.

Is their any wonder that I grew up with a love for electronic and instrumental music? They can go and stuff their new orchestral version, it's lost all it's machine soul!