My last blog , R.E.M: Reconstructing the Pageant (1985-86), mentioned my so-called ‘USA of the Mind’, where US authors and music combined in this imaginary place, to conjure up an imagined version of somewhere I have never visited. In my mind’s eye, Sonic Youth (along with the Velvet Underground and Television) were one of the bands who made up my imagined version of New York, a place of clubs like Max’s Kansas City, CBGB’s, and so on and so forth.

I thought rightly or wrongly , that Sonic Youth were effectively an update of the Velvet Underground, a band who were not afraid to experiment with songs outwith the ‘normal’ structure, using unusual guitar tunings, and other musical instruments , objects and devices in their compositions.

My first encounter with the music of Sonic Youth was blasting from a stereo in Aberdeen’s 1-Up Records, at the time their ‘EVOL’ album was released, wow , what was this ‘Noise as Art’, as I then called it?. I really enjoyed ‘Death Valley 69’, with Lydia Lunch, its doomy sounding guitar lines, and pummelling basslines. ‘Expressway to yr Skull’ was something else, quite unlike anything I had heard before or since. I recall speaking to a friend, one boozy night, in the Venue, Aberdeen , a favourite music venue of the ’80s, saying that I thought ‘Expressway….’, would provide a good soundtrack to the Clive Barker story, ‘The Midnight Meat Train’, were it to be filmed. I said I would contribute an article the said friend’s fanzine , the name of which escapes me, about the song and its soundtrack potential, but only drafted the said article in a long gone notebook, and the final version never saw the light of day. As often in those days, I was pointed in the direction of SY by the reviews in Sounds and NME, particularly one of which by my go-to critic of the day, Edwin Pouncey. My diary of the time noted that I had bought several albums & cassette tapes, that month, June of 1986, the eclecticism had really kicked in at that time, and I had the Dream Syndicate’s ‘ Medicine Show’, Blue Oyster Cult’s ‘Club Ninja’, John Fogerty’s ‘Centrefield’,a mini -album by The Thirteenth Floor Elevators’ Roky Erickson called ‘Clear Night for Love’, and Sonic Youth’s ‘Evol’! .

It was reading ‘A Sonic Life’, by Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore that revived the above memory for me, as the book conveys Moore’s passion for the music he plays and has listened to and collected over the years

Almost forty years after I first heard SY, my own passion for eclecticism in music ( and books about music) is undimmed, and I have recently read Moore’s memoir which chronicles his life and music from his early days up until the present day, and documents the music and evokes the periods in time exceedingly well from the U.S rock of the mid ’70s, through the ‘No Wave’ era of the late ’70s,punk rock , ’80s alt-rock, and the ’90s when Nirvana came along . All this and various detours into his encounters and collaborations with musos as diverse as avant jazz pianist Sun Ra, eclectic guitarist John Fahey, and rock legends Paul McCartney, and Patti Smith. It all adds up to strongly recommended musical memoir!