Who Put That On—Again?
Another great lead from Gaudeamus following on from his recollection of books. 
It is hard to know where to start in regards of forming a list of albums—or LP’s as they were commonly known back in the day. I was an avid album collector before incarceration at the start of 1973 and always tried to develop my collection during the time spent in prison.
I had built up quite an anthology by October 1974 but sadly like the rest of my possessions they disappeared in a puff of smoke—and many flames—during the Long Kesh fire. Many of the albums I lost at the time were later replaced and of course added to. As a young man my taste was fairly eclectic. Normally if I liked something I played it or listened to it—often to the dismay of friends—many of whom I found had a certain air of snobbishness around their musical preferences. However, I like to think I stopped short with the bubblegum and saccharin sweet pop that seemed to abound in the early to mid seventies.
My early heroes or heroines were Neil Young—The Faces—Rod Stewart went down in my estimation after the Smiler album of 1974—Joni Mitchell—Van Morrison who was one of the universally liked artists throughout the compounds—and bands like Creedence—Lynyrd Skynyrd –and most of the West Coast stuff that seemed to be the legacy of the sixties cult. I had favourite albums for all of these stars—Harvest—Every Picture Tells a Story—Blue—Astral Weeks—Pendulum and Pronounced.
In my time the record player had to be booked. There were notebooks for everything then—Doctor—Welfare—Governor—Visits–Growing a Beard—and the record player. In theory you may have had to wait quite a while before you got your turn. Especially if one of the Big D merchants got on to it before you!! These guys tended to be married—had kids—were prolific letter writers and all round Sad Sacks. They hogged the Dansette big style. If you heard the wail of Charlie Pride asking if Anyone was Going to San Antone—or indeed Patsy Cline telling us all repeatedly that she was Crazy—or Porter Wagoner declaring his undying love for wee Dolly—then sure as shit you were in for a real downer of a night.
January 1975 in Compound 18—not long after the Fire and we had been relocated to a decent compound. Our hut OC was Jackie Whitten. A great guy—very popular—smashing sense of humour—but an aficionado of Country and Western music. Then it was possible to book the record player for the full night. That covered from tea time to around ten o’clock. Earphones didn’t exist so basically everyone could hear what someone else was playing. The record player held around six LP’s and once one was finished the next one dropped. So this particular evening the rest of the hut were suffering while Jackie wallowed in his country reverie and overdosed on Johnny Cash and Slim Whitman. The yodels were echoing off the timbers. Luckily Jackie needed to go to the toilet. It was the chance we were waiting on. Quick as the proverbial flash I nipped into his cubicle while he was in the toilet. I removed the top three LP’s and slipped in one of my own. Monty Python’s Flying Circus—Live at Drury Lane. Jackie returned and went back to the letter writing and Slim was telling us all about That Silver Haired Daddy. The record ended and we—all ten of us gathered in the next cubicle—listened to the mechanical sounds as the next record dropped…First track on the B side—Spot the Brain Cell—John Cleese..” Hello, Good evening and Welcome….” Cue–Mayhem!! There was no muted mutterings from Jackie—just a loud explosion with all conceivable bad words thrown in. Of course I got the blame but he couldn’t prove anything. In the absence of proof Jackie done what all OC’s would have done—he gave the ten of us a half hours fatigues each!!
Of course as anyone will tell you it would be extremely difficult to choose one LP over another and rate it as your favourite. I had too many that I liked to have one that I would have played more than another. You had your favourite at a certain time that rapidly changed upon the release of another. Everyone had their own genre that, in general they stuck to. Older guys had easy listening or country music. Punk occurred at a time when there weren’t too many new people coming through the gates so to me that style had a limited following. Some of the bands that emerged out of the Punk era certainly had their followers—The Clash—The Pistols and The Jam being the best examples. I had a fondness for The Jam and latterly Paul Weller. Albums also did the rounds. As Gaudeamus pointed out the up tempo ones were used for the gym and he points to a good example. Records that I remember being passed round the most included Bad Company—Running With The Pack—The Eagles—Band on the Run by Wings. We all had our favourite albums for leaning on when writing letters and mine was Bad Co.—the first album. It had a million little marks on it from thousands of letters over the years.
I could write a list of my ten favourite albums right of the reel and come back tomorrow with a completely separate list. Music played a huge part in everyday life within the compound system—if it wasn’t listening to your LP’s it was watching Top of the Pops and for the younger ones the Old Grey with Whisperin’ Bob. I remember a programme that was aired for a short period of time—Revolver—and it was here that we witnessed Dire Straits for the very first time. 
They played Sultans of Swing and blew everyone away to the extent that we all phoned out on Monday morning–no mobiles mind you–by using the Welfare facilities– to have the LP sent in with our next parcel!! Writing this short piece has whetted my appetite to go out and listen again to many of the albums that I would eventually replace with CD’s from the early Nineties on. I feel guilty for leaving many great albums out here and will no doubt be reminded by others about that. But over the years the albums that would have given me the most pleasure were—and bear in mind for each artist I could list their full catalogue—briefly as follows…..
Led Zeppelin—Physical Graffiti
Ry Cooder-Borderline
Bob Dylan-Dylan—cover versions
The Stones-Exile on Main Street
Talking Heads-Stop Making Sense
Nine Below Zero-Live at the Marquee
Paul Simon-Gracelands
U2-Rattle and Hum
R.E.M-Eponymous
This list goes on and on, and may in fact be revisited soon!!
Billy Joe
