It won't be long before musicians who play in nursing homes will need to learn some Beatles songs.

My mother recently passed, aged 80, after suffering 6 years severe stroke illness in a Tyneside nursing home. She remained passionate about music throughout her active life, as did my grandmother if it came to that - in the years before she died in ripe old age she listened to nothing but Abba. I suppose everyone will be different in this respect, but I dread the day when I'm in a nursing home and some well meaning entertainer regales me with pop hits of the 1970s, or even Roll Out the fecking Barrel, no matter how embedded these might be in 'The National Psyche' - whatever the hell that is! Hopefully I'll be too far gone by then to notice, but at the age of 50 (I've worked with far younger stroke / dementia sufferers) I'd say there is nothing by Flanagan & Allen and George Formby (etc.) that wouldn't cause extreme distress in people of the Baby Boomer generation.


A vast Database is the key here; it's not just a matter of songs, but particular recordings. Easily done in this MP3 age.