Editor’s Note

It’s not often that Student Weekly has a classical musician on the cover. In fact, this week might be a first for this magazine.

Having a young, award-winning musician featured in SW got me thinking about my younger days and the kind of music I listened to when I was a kid.

Up until I was about 14 years old, I never listened to pop. Oh sure, I’d hear it on the car radio or be subjected to it by my parents — classic Motown from my dad and stuff like Olivia Newton John, the Mamas and the Papas and Carole King from my mom — but I had a very limited ability to tolerate pop music.

Left to my own devices, I’d retreat to my room and immerse myself in classical music. Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain and Saint-Saën’s Dance Macabre were two of my favourites, but I also loved Beethoven’s Fifth, Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. I also loved movie soundtracks.

Needless to say, I wasn’t a normal kid. I remember my father rolling his eyes in exasperation when I’d tell him that for my birthday I really, really wanted that cool recording of Pictures at an Exhibition and the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack.

But my singular obsession with classical music was not to last. I still remember the shocked look on my father’s face the day I finally responded to the siren song of pop.

Christmas was approaching, and as usual Mom and Dad asked if there was anything special that I wanted. I gave them the list, including the requisite action figures and books on astronomy or dinosaurs or whatever. I’m sure they expected that to be followed by a request for recordings of The Firebird and The Four Seasons — but I had something else up my sleeve.

I know Dad couldn’t have been happier and probably rushed out right then and there to buy the records I’d asked for before I had a chance to change my mind.

That year on Christmas morning I became the proud owner of my first pop records: Men at Work’s Business as Usual and Queen’s The Game. (In my defense, the questionable Men at Work choice is more than made up for by The Game, which is a classic.)

Dad was pretty excited, too. As I disappeared into my room to revel in the newfound charms of “Who Can It Be Now” and “Another One Bites the Dust,” he turned to my Mom with a smile and said: “At last, I’ve got a normal son.”

Sean Vale
Editor
seanv@bangkokpost.co.th