The Olive Reader

It’s 1981, and I’m 15, a gawky, pimply, f*cked up soup of hormones, and I’m busting my ass up on the subway to get back and forth to my new high school where no one likes me because I’m new and I’m not from the suburbs.

Reagan is president, I’m convinced he’s going to make me sign up for the draft in a few years, if he doesn’t annihilate us with nukes first.

The radio is filled with crap like “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie, Kenny Rogers, Sheena Easton, Juice Newton. It’s worse than bad. It’s insultingly bad, like saccharine on a popsicle.

Then I discover the Clash. Specifically, “London Calling,” with its brilliantly dark, apocalyptic title track, plus “Spanish Bombs,” “Guns of Brixton,” and “Death or Glory,” just to name a few.

This is a punk band, yeah. I’m 15, I’m all about that. But there’s reggae in there, dub, rockabilly, ska, pop culture references ... and POLITICS.

LEFT politics. These guys are playing Rock Against Racism, they know their history ("Spanish Bombs” is about the Spanish Civil War and fascism, “Guns of Brixton” is about the Brixton race riots) ... and they can flat-out PLAY.

At 15 you’re right at the bottom of the trough, as awkward and angry and frustrated and drug-taking and screwed-up as you can be. And when Air Supply and Abba and the gel in Hall & Oates’ hair were all conspiring against me, along came Joe Strummer, Mick Jones, Paul Simonon and Topper Headon putting out music that was angry, vital, political, engaged, smart, and most of all, REAL.

And after a few hundred listens, you figure it out. It’s OK to be screwed up and angry, because you can be all those other things, too. Note by note and song by song, they showed me the way.

i haven’t even hit seventeen yet so i’m not exactly sure if an album has changed my life or not. if i had to pick one though, it would be the velvet underground’s the velvet underground and nico. the album made me realise the wider spectrum of music outside of top 40 radio and broaden my horizons. i’ve always loved music but it made me become in love with music and led to me liking to more bands and subsequently discovering “indie” music and so on and so forth. now i’ve become ridiculously obsessed with music but not in the way that many of my peers claim to be but in a way good music just hurts my heart and i feel like i want to drown in music. oh man, i feel so melodramatic right now and i don’t know to properly convey my emotions concerning music! anyway, “sunday morning” is one of my favourite songs. i put the album on the back burner for a while until i rediscovered it recently and it’s as great as it was first listen. “heroin” is also a really great song and i love the lines “i don’t know just where i’m going”, which i felt like i could relate to. i used to fall asleep to the album and it brings me nostalgic memories. i wish i had a bigger story to tell about an album that’s changed my life but again, i haven’t hit seventeen yet but as cat power told me, “you have a lot of things to look forward to.” have a lovely day x

Come with me to Borås, Sweden. In the summer of 1984, I was all of nine years old and visiting relatives for a week. Stuck in a tiny apartment with nothing to do and no-one to play with, I started digging through my uncle’s collection of vinyl records.

Looking back, it turns out my uncle had excellent taste—Fleetwood Mac, John Mellencamp, Led Zeppelin, and many other rock greats mingled on that shelf. But again, I was nine. Nine-year-olds don’t know classic rock. I was looking for Born In the USA, because Springsteen was tearing up the charts right then and there.

But these people didn’t seem to visit the local record store too often. Nothing was newer than maybe five years old. So I had to settle for the only Springsteen album I could find: Born To Run.

I couldn’t understand a word Bruce was saying, of course. Did I mention that I’m nine years old here, and Swedish? But the power and intensity of these songs blew me away regardless. From Thunder Road to Jungleland, you can just tell that Bruce’s heart is in it. He could have been singing in Turkish or Swahili for all I care—you’d still know that there were great stories in here somewhere.

So I found a battered old English-to-Swedish dictionary on my uncle’s bookshelf and settled in for the week. Forget Rosetta Stone; I’d rather learn new languages through music any day. And it certainly helps that Bruce Springsteen likes to write lyrics in whole sentences that make sense, about people in real situations and real trouble that make you feel their pain. Even in a foreign language.

By the afternoon, someone handed me a pair of headphones because they were getting sick of rocking out all day. Two days later, I was told to stop singing along. 25 years later, I’m still singing along. Bruce Springsteen was my first English teacher. If that’s not life-changing, I don’t know what is, because that nearly lifelong love affair with this language eventually took me to Florida where I work as a journalist.

Thanks, Bruce. I’m sending my kids to your school of rock next.

Yeah, Its true that good (liked) music changes life. Its happened with me and i would like to share my experience here by submitting my post. infect i am the student of 646-204 and 70-271 These are certification exams which are very difficult to get certified. But music gives me the new life to study these i prepare my 70-553
exam while listening music. And at the end i get certified of these difficult certification exam. Music has been really changed my life.

I couldn’t understand a word Bruce was saying, of course. Did I mention that I’m nine years old here, and Swedish? But the power and intensity of these songs blew me away regardless. From Thunder Road to Jungleland, you can just tell that Bruce’s heart is in it. He could have been singing in Turkish or Swahili for all I care—you’d still know that there were great stories in here somewhere.

So I found a battered old English-to-Swedish dictionary on my uncle’s bookshelf and settled in for the week. Forget Rosetta Stone; I’d rather learn new languages through music any day. And it certainly helps that Bruce Springsteen likes to write soft in whole sentences that make sense, about people in real situations and real trouble that make you feel their pain. Even in a foreign language.

hanks for the great advice, I myself am starting a business and am interested in finding more information, can you point me to any additional websites

Is it too late to win the book? Because I like U2.

I made this little contest on the internet where musicians would post links to their original song and then people would vote for the best one, and the maker of that song will get a prize once the votes are in.

But it somehow turned into this HUGE thing, and lots of people are voting and waiting to enter the next contest, so is there any way I can tell if one of them is cheating?