As noted in this earlier piece, I have finally acquired a pair of reading glasses, after years of compensating for my gradually deteriorating eyesight with the aid of magnifying glasses. It has not prompted a reading binge, but it has made it easier to do the puzzles in the weekend paper, as I expected. An unexpected consequence of putting the magnifying glasses to one side has been revisiting many of my old music books.

Many of them had been boxed up and not unpacked since the last house move but I finally got around to digging out most of them. I am not confident or patient enough to work out the chord sequences for anything other than a simple 3- or 4-chord pop song. I prefer to have the chords laid out for me, and have learnt plenty of songs using “The Little Back Songbook” series. These have been close to hand for most of the last five years, incorporating hundreds of compositions written or sung by the following artists: Elvis Presley, Paul Weller, David Bowie, Abba and Elton John.

All of these volumes are now far more readable with my new glasses, as are the larger books that have been restored to my bookshelves. These include a “Fake Book” that I bought in New York City in 1999 (over 1000 songs ranging from classics from old musicals, to big pop hits of the 90s), my Beatles Complete Guitar / Vocal Edition and the Complete Bob Dylan. The first song I revisited with glasses on was “Idiot Wind” in the last of these books. I had practised it many times in the early 2000s but had not tried to sing it for many years.

The first song that I learnt to play with glasses on, and then performed in public, was The Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love”, which is just about my earliest musical memory. Since then I have learnt the following, and also performed them at least once in public: “Candle in the Wind” (the best-selling record of all time, though I sing it with the original lyrics, relating to Marilyn Monroe), “It’s Too Late” (a 1971 US #1 for Carole King), “I Can See Clearly Now” (a US #1 for Johnny Nash in 1972 and a French #1 in 1994 for Jimmy Cliff) and “Wednesday Week” (my favourite Undertones song).

I always aim to sing and play music without the use of prompts (lyric sheets, chord charts, melody lines) and am still surprised at how often people look down at their phones or tablets when singing songs that they have known for decades. Is it really that difficult to learn the words to “Dirty Old Town” or “Whiskey in the Jar”? I have taken to saying to people, after they have performed a number with the aid of their phone, “You know, you really shouldn’t be checking for emails halfway through a song”. Nobody seems to have taken offence at this bit of teasing, not yet anyway.

Even if I had wanted to look at lyrics or prompts on my phone before now, I would not have been able to read them easily. But now I can. More importantly I can read my music books while playing along. At a recent music night I took a songbook out of my bag and gave it to one of the other musicians so that he could play along. I explained: “I have been revisiting many of my old music books, for two reasons. First, I now know where they all are. And secondly, I can read the bloody things again…”