Radio Luxembourg

My daughter mocks my musical tastes regularly “Mum Dean Friedman’s songs are bizarre how on earth can you listen to that tosh?” she giggled as I belted out my favourite chorus “Did you see Lisa? Yes, I saw Lisa” from the song “Lucky Stars” from 1978.

She let me listen to her latest Snoop Dog single “Sensual Seduction”. It has a back beat of electro pop that sounded so fresh and new.

I smiled, sat her down and clicked on Herbie Hancock on You Tube; she was amazed to hear the man sing an early similar version of her favourite rap star’s latest hit.

Why do the youth of today think their musical taste is far superior to the older generations? It’s all been done before.

The German pop synthesiser group Kraftwerk, were making sounds in the late 60s that generations of pop stars would follow.

Music is one of the things my daughter and I share a passion for and she was interested to hear how back in the 70s my brother and I would tune into Radio Luxembourg to hear a wider range of music.

They played fabulous pop tunes and lesser known acts and introduced me to an amazing collection of songs and bands that I would never have got to listen to through the standard BBC or local radio stations in Scotland.

Steely Dan, Supertramp, Nils Lofgren, Al Stewart and Todd Rundgren quickly became my hero’s through that crackly old radiogram we had at home.

Now in today’s youth driven MySpace and YouTube world, every genre of music is readily available and instantly downloadable for everyone to enjoy.
But I loved my old radio, lying in bed slowly turning that dial till I finally found Radio Luxembourg was just the best feeling in the world.