Es hatte sich zufällig ergeben, dass ich mir mal wieder „High Fidelity“ gegriffen habe, jenes bezaubernde Debüt von Nick Hornby, in dem es vordergründig um Musik geht und hintergründig um Beziehungen. Zu Frauen, zu anderen Menschen, und – zumindest beim Protagonisten und Ich-Erzähler – sich selbst.
Bei so Menschen wie dem Protagonisten – und in Abstrichen auch bei mir – läuft beim Lesen eines solchen Buches automatisch der Soundtrack im Kopf mit; kenne ich eines der angesprochenen Lieder, „spielt“ mein Kopf es auch.
Da ich nicht weiß, wie man bei youtube eine Playlist erstellt (Schritt eins, vermutlich: sich bei youtube anmelden), gibts hier die Videos eins nach dem anderen. Es gibt nicht jedes im Buch erwähnte Lied (das sind einfach zu viele), aber zumindest die meisten:
I never really got over Charlie. That was when the important stuff, the stuff that defines me, went on.
Some of my favourite songs:
We’re in a quiet street in Holloway, carefully placed to attract the bare minimum of walk-past punters; and the people that live here don’t seem terribly interested in my Stiff Little Fingers white label (twenty-five quid to you – I paid seventeen in 1986) or my mono copy of Blonde On Blonde.
I cannot imagine what kind of conversation we’d have if I were to tell Dick about my weekend. He’d probably just crumble to dust if I explained that Laura had left. Dick’s not big on that sort of thin; in fact, if I were ever to confess anything of a remotely personal nature – that I had a mother and father, say, or that I’d been to school when I was younger – I reckon he’d just blush, and stammer, and ask if I’ve heard the new Lemonheads album.
Barry puts his hand into his leather jacket pocket, produces a tape, puts it in the machine and jacks up the volume. Within seconds the shop is shaking to the bass line of ‚Walking On Sunshine‘, by Katrina and the Waves. It’s february. It’s cold. It’s wet. Laura has gone. I don’t want to hear ‚Walking On Sunshine‘. Somehow it doesn’t fit my mood.
They [The Beatles] belong to me, not to me and Laura, or me and Charlie, or me and Alison Ashworth, and though they make me feel something, they won’t make me feel anything bad.
There are many songs that I’ve been trying to avoid since Laura went, but the song that Marie LaSalle opens with, the song that makes me cry, is not one of them. The song that makes me cry has never used to make me cry before; in fact, the song that makes me cry used to make me puke.
I stand up to go, and then get back on my knees; I just want one last, lingering look.
‚Can I buy this Otis Redding single off you?‘
‚Sure. Ten pee.‘
‚Oh, come on. Let me give you a tenner for this, and you can give the rest away for all I care.‘
‚OK. Because you took the trouble to come up here. And because you’ve got principles. But that’s it. I’m not selling them to you one by one.‘
Dies ist etwa ein Viertel der Geschichte. Im nächsten Abschnitt erzählt der Protagonist davon, wie er Laura kennengelernt hat und welche Musik er als DJ aufgelegt hat. Aber das gibts ein anderes Mal 🙂
Alle Zitate aus: Nick Hornby: „High Fidelity“, Penguin Books, 2000
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