Tom Dunne: Pope Francis struck a hopeful note with his love of music
Part of buying such a thing is the joy of wondering who used to own it and what albums did they so treasure. In fact, the records were in those album type of books that the modern word 'album' comes from.
They had either been perfectly kept or never used, but possibly 70 years since first purchase were still mint.
You can imagine my disappointment when I unpacked them to reveal that I had bought a collection of Latin masses. I couldn't help but wonder who would want to sit home and listen to recordings of a mass? In the Jazz Age, why this?
I was a particular fan of 78s at the time. Prices then were through the roof. People were briefly obsessed with these old-fashioned, no longer manufactured, shellac recordings. The bottom fell out of the market as soon as I invested. Years later, I could hardly give them away.
But the excitement of winding up the player and putting the needle into a groove, untouched for decades, was still something.
I also had some 78 blues records from the 1920s. The shear humanity of the performers, their joy, and vivacity was wonderful.
But the masses! I was dumbfounded. The Church by this point didn't really feature in many recordings. The album Pope John Paul II in Ireland had been a high-water mark. But now, Popes just tended to get less that respectful mentions in songs by the Ramones or John Prine.
This suited my world view. I don't trust people who don't like music, never have. I warm to those who do and have based relationships on admiration for other people's record collections. If someone says they 'don't get music' watch them closely and check everything they say.
Hence the news that Pope Francis had a favourite record shop in Rome came a great surprise to me.
I just didn't see that coming. And that he used to drive there in a white Fiat 500 and browse the racks knocked me for six. You don't expect to meet a pontiff in the indie rock section.
The Stereosound record store in Rome was a favourite of Pope Francis. (Photo by Vincenzo PINTO / AFP)
But it appears there was a lot about Pope Francis that I didn't know. I knew about his prog rock album, Wake Up! but that was no biggie, JP II and Benedict had released similar. But that he had once been a nightclub bouncer in Buenos Aires and owned over 2,000 CDs and 19 vinyl records. No, I hadn't known that.
The shop, Stereo Sound, is a family-owned business near the Pantheon. Patti Smith has shopped there and signed an album. In 2022 when it was renovated, Pope Francis blessed the renovations. The owners say he was passionate about music and had been a customer since his days as a cardinal.
His music tastes ran to classical, Elvis Presley, gospel records and Edith Piaf. But his favourite was Mozart of whom he said the Et Incarnatus est from his Mass in C Minor is matchless. "It lifts you up to God,' he stated. The idea of a pope, seeing God in the music of mortal men is one of the most uplifting things I have heard in a long time. In makes me think that had we indeed hooked up over the import section of Stereo Sound I'd have had much to tell him.
Obviously I'd have started with the Beach Boys' God Only Knows. It's still the one that threads the line between the promise of the divine and limitations of our mortal coil most poignantly. But the joy of The Undertones, The Go-Betweens and the Blue Nile would not be far behind.
He has set a high bar this pope called Francis. I await the white smoke with eager anticipation. I have re-watched Conclave just to be safe. But I await with far greater trepidation the first strains of whatever music first comes from the private chambers of the newly elected pontiff.
And what of the 19 vinyl albums? What are they and what kind of system had he got? Will they now appear second-hand in Freebird Records? One lives in hope, which is as the great man would have wanted.
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