ECLECTIC PLAYLIST #3 THE CROSSBEATS

Imagine a crazy parallel universe where, instead of changing the future of popular music throughout the 1960s with their global popularity and chameleon-like ability to shift styles or invent genres as quickly as the flickering zeitgeist, The Beatles had instead, devoted themselves to an early form of cringeworthy church-pop.

Which universe would you choose?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPkQa1I3ImI

Tim's latest track is from the 60s Merseybeat group, The Crossbeats.

If Only was released in August 1965, at around about the same time that the real Beatles were playing the planet's first ever stadium gig to over 55,000 people, appearing in Help! the movie and collecting MBEs from the Queen.

This is where the age difference between Tim and I opens up. The Crossbeats were the very first Christian band that Tim ever saw. He says they came and played at his school; I don't think they would have survived at mine without some form of riot sheild. By the time I was doing youthwork myself, music had evolved so far that we were taking The Band With No Name around schools to jump around and drop the mic. If music reflects the culture in which it was born, then Christian music has always lagged behind, reflecting at best, the tunes of four of five years ago. This, I'm afraid, has not aged well.

Anyway, that whole time-lag thing is a discussion for another day. For now, it's worth thinking about the mop-topped structure of this little ditty. The recording is awful (but somehow quaint), the song is simple (and predictable) and the heart of it (while I agree with it) is really preachy. To Generation X, some Baby-Boomers telling us we might be missing out on something great with a sort of whistful 'If Only' actually switches us off, rather than piquing our interest. To Generation Y, this must be an alien landscape.

It's a pleasant enough tune though, and a heartfelt sentiment. The guitars are tinny, the vocals are wobbly and the drumming is classic. It just feels like a dusty relic from a distant time, crackling as the needle bounces across the fifty year-old vinyl. And while the question they're asking is still relevant and while these brave young men (now quite old, I'd imagine) are singing out the central truth of the eternal gospel itself, as a piece of music, the song doesn't do anything more for me.

But then, I don't think it's aimed at me, is it? I'm from a different universe.