Teddy Bears

When we arrived in England in 1953 we did what many new immigrants did, we moved in with family friends who had emigrated from India before us. Then, after 6 months, we bought our first home. My parents also bought a TV and radiogram within the first few months of settling into our home. Pretty forward thinking for those days.  There was only one TV channel and just three BBC radio channels. Back in those days a lot of the programming concerned people talking or maybe dramatic plays but very little pop.
One of the most popular radio shows was on Saturday morning for a couple hours of children’s favorites. Requests came in from children to hear tunes that they liked. I was recently watching a documentary on Eric Clapton and he mentioned being a child and listening to the same show. His early introduction to music. A favourite song that was constantly requested was one called The Teddy Bears Picnic it was done by Henry Hall. I remember it well from those Saturday mornings.   It also was a song we sang as a family in Calcutta. 

Even before Disney turned Winnie the Pooh into a worldwide money making machine, the simple but sweet philosophy of Winnie the Pooh was a big hit with the hippies and the love generation. I remember having a small paperback called the hums of pooh. In wide circulation again in the mid-sixties.  (I am pretty sure a friend showed it to me first. We shared its insights over many coffees.)
One of the original members of  Buffalo Springfield was singer-songwriter and later producer,  Jim Messina. When Springfield broke up Jim hooked up with Kenny Loggins  and as a duo, Loggins and Messina they had quite a few hits. They had a lovely one where they’re singing about Winnie the Pooh. It’s called the house at Pooh corner.

I loved reading when we were 6 by A.A.Milne to my daughter and my mother would sing "They're Changing Guards at Bucking Palace"...

(Christopher Robin Went Down with Alice,) to them also.

Teddy Bears Picnic - Henry Hall

House at Pooh Corner - Loggins & Messina

They're Changing Guards at Bucking Palace - Vera Lynn

        

OTIS REDDING

December 10, 1967 I was working my first serious full-time adult job in Oxford, England. I was an editor at the Clarendon Press, a part of  the OUP (Oxford University Press). The office was on Saint Giles, then an old road from the Woodstock & Banbury Road junction and the shopping district and at the edge of various colleges. I had a short two stop bus ride or about a half an hour walk from the office in order to get “home”.  I finished at five pm and walked to my bed sit on Chalfont Road, made a simple meal on my one-ring burner and put on the BBC News on the transistor radio.  I was shocked to hear of the death of the great Otis Redding in a plane crash in the US. Along with members of the Bar-Kays who were backing him on the tour. I actually cried. 
He was a great artist that all my friends and I admired. My friends and I went as a large group to see him, (and the whole revue,) in the great Stax-Volt Revue when it came to London. As I discovered later, The Beatles & Stones were in attendance too, as they were huge fans.

51 years later he is still admired around the world and his great posthumous number one hit, recorded  just days before he died (Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay remains a staple of radio in the 21st-century.

Oh, to be in England

It is odd that of all the many citizenships one can claim, one cannot be “English “, unless you were born in one of the ‘Shires’.
I am British, but it is the imagery, of ‘England’, that Rupert Brooke aspires to in that amazing poem that I feel, too.
I remember walking down English Country lanes, or driving them in later years. Admiring the vista and the people.
Don’t get me wrong, I am a proud Canadian also.
But as an “English school boy” we were taught Brooke’s poem in a period when poetry was completely lost on me, he suddenly resonated with a wimpy 14 year old.
I have loved his poetry all my life and his collected works are within reach, even now.
Not just Rupert Brooke, but many other great men and women had lives cut short.
I thank them.

it was a different time

Recently in the news we had television personalities commenting about the use of "Black Face" make up as an accessory for Halloween costumes. It cost Megan Kelley her hosting job. I have no love for her as a commentator but am appalled at the lack of analysis around how common that form of entertainment was right up to the 1970's without others receiving a similar raking over the coals.

I completely understand how a Black American can feel mocked by such an outfit, but Halloween is full of absurd outfits for adults. Why is the "Sexy Nurse's Outfit" not raising similar outcry for people doing a very necessary and demanding job.
Of course, the simple answer is that most of those costumes are meant as humour not mockery. I do agree that Black Face is inappropriate for a child's Halloween dress up, though. How we dress up our children should be held to a different standard.
Living in Britain throughout the 1950's and '60's my family often watched one of the most popular television variety shows of the time: George Mitchell's Black and White Minstrel Show. It lead to a long running stage show that lasted until the mid-1970's. Also there were albums of the shows that dominated the pop music charts for a couple of years before The Beatles and similar youthful acts stormed into our lives. I cannot imagine how such a show would be handled nowadays.
(p.s. really was not a very good show. Its success says more about the lack of alternative viewing than the merits of the show itself. However, the lengthy success of stage show does puzzle me. Especially in London with its enormous choice of great stage offerings.)
In my own life I have been called many derogatory names but have also been treated with utmost respect and affection from the same community that the people mocking me came from.
One of the truly humorous names I have been called is "Paki". As an Anglo-Indian from Calcutta with a great love of Britain, and my British friends it seems an absurd moniker to foist onto me and shows how ridiculous name calling is when it is based on a single item of a complex human beings existence.

Buddy Holly

I have been a Buddy Holly fan from that  day in 1957 that I bought the 78 RPM of That'll Be the Day. However, my appreciation of his great catalogue of songs did not happened right after that acquisition.

It was the summer of 1958, my sister and I were sharing our last school year together. 

There was a boy who had lots of singles and EP' s (45 RPM Extended Plays,) and he clearly had a crush on my sister but she did not return the attention.  I begged him to lend me his bunch of Buddy Holly EP's.  Of course he did so, hoping to get in good with my sister. No she never went out with him but I fell in love with so much of Holly's material, especially the fantastic party tune Rave On.  

I have quoted David Hepworth in a previous Blog and his believe that  Buddy Holly: ".. was the most influential rock star of his time" because he made so many young people, mostly teen males, believe they could play the guitar and be in a band. I may not have begun my own musical career but Buddy's music definitely inspired me and never left my turntable, iPod, etc. for 6 decades!

Chelsea Hotel NYC

In July 73 an English friend and I went to New York City for a visit. We flew into La Guardia with no plans made, walked out of the terminal to the taxi rank. Got in a cab and asked the taxi driver to take us to the "Chelsea Hotel." He had never heard of it. So he called dispatch and asked for directions. They were no help either. After heading into downtown Manhattan somebody in the dispatch office finally gave him the address. I do not remember it now but we did arrive at the Chelsea Hotel and checked in. Let me tell you, it did not live up our expectations. It was really seedy.

Chelsea Hotel has been written about in song and books by many artists. Patti Smith wrote about it in her autobiography, Just Kids. In it, she speaks of Robert Mapplethorpe and her early relationship when they got to NYC and how they lived in the Chelsea Hotel. From her timeline, it would seems that She and Robert were there that night my friend and I were staying there too. Dodging cockroaches!
When we were checking out, there was mail for Arthur C. Clarke on the reception desk. He, too, was a frequent patron when he visited New York. 

One of the most famous odes to the hotel is Joni Mitchell’s Chelsea hotel.  I heard her do it live before I left England and came to love the song. It was definitely the reason we headed there, but it was a sight to behold in summer '73.

Chelsea Hotel's front desk in the sixties. It is a completely different space these days. Very up-market.

More about the sixties and music

Uncommon People is a book written by David Hepworth. The uncommon people he is talking about are rock stars. The book scans 40 years and looks at one year at a time and picks one star for every year. For 1959 he picked Buddy Holly: February 3, 1959 is of course the date of Buddy Holly died.  As Don Maclean wrote in his world-wide hit, 'American Pie', it was the day the music died. 

Here is a quote from David Hepworth about Buddy Holly:
"He was the most influential rock star of his time, possibly of all time. Influential is not a synonym for good or successful. It denotes the extent to which other people feel they can pattern themselves off of you. Buddy Holly is where the do-it-yourself ethos of rock ‘n’ roll begins.  He inspired thousands of people to play. There wasn’t a band with an electric guitar in the early 1960's they didn’t play at least one Buddy Holly song."

Nothing emphasizes this more than the fact that 'That’ll Be The Day' is the first song recorded by the Quarrymen who as we all know now is the group that became The Beatles and 'That’ll Be The Day' is of course the first hit by Buddy Holly and the crickets.    

Another track that has a special significance for me  is 'It Ain’t Me Babe' done by Bob Dylan. He has recorded many versions of it over the decades, but one specific release is important to me.

In order to circumvent new rules dictating when music becomes a part of the public domain, Dylan‘s record label is releasing masses of recordings that they have in the vault. There is a new CD just released in July 2018 but it covers a series of live recordings done in the mid 1960's. It Ain’t Me, Babe was recorded on 17 May 1964 at the Royal Festival Hall on London's Southbank. I was at that concert when this was recorded. Listening to it now brings memories flooding back. The images of that day are still very firmly rooted in my brain. My friend and I looked like the schoolboys we were, (actually, just finishing High School,) while most of the other people in the audience looked as if they were auditioning for a part in a movie of "On the Road"! I have been a lifelong Dylan fan after seeing him then. Listen out, I think you can hear me clapping at the end.  

 I also recently read a reprint of  The Longest Cocktail Party by Richard DeLilo. He worked at Apple HQ in Saville Row from 1968 to the early 70's. He was an assistant press officer for Apple corp. An American working in London in that time. He was affectionately referred to  as the House Hippie, He chronicles what was going on at that time. One of the significant aspects of those dates is that in mid-1968  Apple Records was launched. The first tune the Beatles released on Apple Records was Hey Jude.  Of course, it has gone on to become one of the giant iconic tunes of the sixties. 

Another of the first releases on Apple Records was James Taylor's  self-titled LP which included Carolina on My Mind and that became the first single released from the album. It features Paul McCartney on Bass & background vocals. When I saw James in Halifax a few years ago, he introduced this song with a chat about the recording of it. Speaking of how crazy in was in those days of Apple's beginnings and the sentiments in the song are very much how he felt back in 1968. He missed America greatly. You can feel it in these lyrics.

Another of the first Apple Records releases which went on to be a huge worldwide hit. 'Those Were the Days' sung by Mary Hopkins and produced by Paul McCartney. Within a few weeks, Apple Records had the No.1 & No.2 hits in pop charts everywhere. A pretty auspicious start to a fledgling record company.

 Playlist :  That'll be the Day - The Quarrymen/ It Ain't Me, Babe (Live) - Bob Dylan (at the Royal Festival Hall, May 1964) / Hey Jude - The Beatles/ Carolina on My Mind - James Taylor/ Those were the Days - Mary Hopkins

Greyhound Bus in Chattanooga, Tenn.

When I was travelling in the USA in the summer of 1966, I got a charter flight from London to JFK, planned to spend time in New York City and then travel down to Florida. I expected to spend most of the summer with my Aunt and Uncle in Gulfport, Florida; It is completely surrounded by St. Petersburg. I read that one could buy a Greyhound ticket that permitted the traveler unlimited mileage, as long as one did not double back on one's journey. It cost $99 and could only be bought outside the USA. It could not be acquired after I landed in New York. There was a Greyhound Office on Regent Street, so I found my way there and purchased said ticket.
I traveled south on a Greyhound route that basically followed US Hwy 1. It clung to the Eastern Coast. It was great. For the return to New York, I took the greyhound bus from my aunt and uncle’s place in Florida back to New York City. I picked a route that deliberately took me inland away from the Atlantic Seaboard and arrived in Chattanooga Tennessee. As a long time fan of Glenn Miller I wanted to go and see the railway station . It was in the early hours of the morning and I stopped and shaved and did my teeth in the washroom of Chattanooga railway station humming that song to myself, Chattanooga Choo-Choo. It was a special moment.

Playlist -
Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Glen Miller & his Orchestra

Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Bill Haley & the Comets

Carnaby Street

I was still at school in 1963 when my friends and I discovered Carnaby Street, a small street back then, behind Regent Street and known especially for trendy shirts, even some special made too order ones. In no time at all, by early 1964 it was booming with boutiques specializing in all manner of "Mod clothing" not just shirts.

It was the summer of 1966 which I spent in America traveling around, but spending a lot of  time with my Aunt & Uncle in Florida.  My Aunt worked part-time in downtown St. Petersburg, and I would go with her we so could have lunch together;  the rest of the time I would wander around the shops. One day that August 1966, I was in the downtown Sears department store and went to the youth department. They were doing a promotion for a line of clothing that was being touted as straight from Carnaby Street. It was from Lord John boutique. I was intrigued by the activity and stood in the sidelines. I noticed the only other guy in the department with long hair sitting on a chair looking bored, so I went and sat beside him.
Somewhat surprisingly, I took the initiative and started chatting. I asked him if you knew what was going on. That was when I discovered it was a promotion and the Lord John connection. Getting all excited I told him "well, my friends and I go down to Carnaby Street all the time and I shop at Lord John’s frequently."
He smiled and shook my hand and said hello he is Lord John.
It was on a promotional caravan going across America stimulating interest in Carnaby Street fashion.
It’s amazing who you run into when you’re on holiday thousands of miles away from home. You are away from your usual shopping habits, and then you run into the owner of one of your favourite shops!

Paint it Black

The Caldwell-Hill house is located on Robie Street in Halifax. Near the junction with Jubilee Road. It has some spooky tales concerning its 'black window'. The window is on the side of the house facing Jubilee Road.  
The story I heard was that a woman had been killed in there and after the house was sold, people on the outside could see a ghostly image of a woman inside the home. The house was sold again and the subsequent owners painted the window black so no-one could look in and see a ghost,  but the window cracked; every time it was replaced and painted black, it cracked. So eventually, the glass was removed and boarded up with the board being painted black.
There are a range of stories some involving a man who hung himself on the tree outside and witches dancing on the veranda!
The house is referenced on Wikipedia too.
Every time I drive past it I hum Paint it Black by The Rolling Stones!

Sci-Fi & songs & other things

In the early 1970's, Chariots of the Gods was a very popular book that everyone had an opinion about. In it Von Däniken, the author, posits a variety of hypotheses dealing with the possibility of 'extraterrestrial beings' influencing ancient technology. Von Däniken suggests that some ancient structures and artifacts appear to represent higher technological knowledge than is presumed to have existed at the times they were manufactured. The people around me, friends or workers, all seemed to read alien affects into everything. We had many interesting discussions around alien influences and where they may be referenced. The song Longer Boats,  from Cat Stevens, falls into this category. Longer Boats is from Cat Stevens' "Tea for the Tillerman" album. The lyrics refer to the "Longer Boats are coming to win us." We thought Cat was singing of alien spaceships... I remember some interesting evenings talking with friends about the allusion. In a 1973 interview, Cat Stevens does allude to flying saucers in a dream that made him think of the lyrics when he woke up. Well, what can I say?!!

Playlist

Longer Boats - Cat Stevens

What Can I Say - Boz Scaggs

 

p.s. of course, Cat Stevens is now known as Yusef Islam.

folk music & more

As a schoolboy meeting up with friends on a Friday morning in school we loved to pour over the weekly music papers The two favored ones were The New Musical Express and The New Record Mirror. As we we developed into blues & jazz fans we also read Melody Maker. A more "cultured" music paper (!)
In the UK from our pre-teen interest in "Trad Jazz"  we moved on to folk tunes, blues tunes and the solo singer guitarist styles that  was exemplified by Bob Dylan. Trad Jazz had began incorporating those anyway. Then the Beatles hit the scene and nothing was the same again. They went from simple, but catchy pop to highly experimental  and even avant guard material. (Just listen to Revolution #9 on the White Album".)

Everyone wondered what music style would replace the Beatles & the so-called 'English sounds' that had filled the airwaves & charts from February 1964 onward in America. Well, much of the musical acts that grew in popularity in the 1970's right up to today, were already performing in the late sixties. I am not talking about the solo Beatles the Stones or Dylan. One classic example is Carole King and her hit with "Will You Love me Tomorrow." It was a tune she and her previous husband Gerry Goffin wrote for the Shirelles. It was on her massive selling album. Tapestry. Tapestry changed the landscape for female singers. In a way that Joni Mitchell had not quite managed yet. She certainly left a mark after Ladies of the Canyon and Blue. Check out  Joni Mitchell with "Willy". It is from the Ladies of the Canyon album from 1970.

Joni's song "Willy" was about her lover of that period, Englishman, Graham Nash. Graham says in his autobiography, Hard Tales, Willy was her nickname for him. Another group from the late 60's that dominated the arena circuit of the seventies were Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. (Which included that same Graham Nash.)

At first much of  the 'folk' songs became a very pop styled melody as the success of Australian group The Seekers or British Trio The Bachelors proved.  Here is a 'folk song' that began as a Coca-cola advertisement that was a big hit -- "(I'd like to) Teach The World to Sing" from The New Seekers. They grew out of the Australian group The Seekers. When they disbanded in the early seventies, Keith Potger from the group got The New Seekers together to continue that style of singing. They did have some success throughout the 70's.

Another folk band from the sixties that changed into a electric folk rock style, but still incorporated traditional instruments were The Fairport Convention. They added Sandy Denny to their line up in the late sixties which is when I saw them. She wrote the lovely "Who knows where the Time Goes".  Awhile back, I read White Bicycles by Joe Boyd. His book on life in the 1960's. He was an American who landed up in London at the start of the Beatles phenomenon and psychedelic movement. He helped run Middle Earth in London in the late 60's THE hippie club. He also managed bands and was involved with Sandy Denny who wrote Who knows where the time goes as I noted previously. He recognised it as a great song with potential. He hooked Sandy up with an agent who helped her set-up her copyright appropriately so that she could benefit from the royalties. So many artists get ripped off by people supposedly guiding their interests. It was a good move, as that song has been covered by dozens of artists. Including Judy Collins who named an early LP with this as the lead track.
PLAYLIST
Will You Love me Tomorrow  - Carole King 
Willy  - Joni Mitchell
Teach Your Children   - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
(I'd like to) Teach The World to Sing  - The New Seekers
Who knows where the time goes done  - Fairport Convention

Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet

I was still in London in January 1970 when the first Jumbo Jets went into service with Pan Am. I was standing on the Thames Embankment when one circled overhead on its approach to Heathrow. It looked immense; of course, it was!
Throughout the Seventies, as a bachelor with no mortgage or home-ownership items to spend my pay on and saving for retirement had not clicked-on in my brain, I spent my dollars on travel. Not bucket-list safari stuff but seeing family in 3 countries and friends on 3 continents.
Pretty soon I had flown on many Jumbos.
Those were interesting flights. You could ask for "upgrades" to First Class, and if there were a lot of those seats available, they would give them to you at no cost. Obviously, it was a teaser to encourage one to promote those extras that one received.
What I remember most, and fondly because I cannot imagine it happening now on commercial flights, was the bar where you could stand and drink your Johnny Walker Red with 2 ice cubes only!!

Yes, there was a spiral staircase that took you up to the hump on the top of the plane where the seats were more like a lounge than the usual rows of seats.

The lounge shown in the above picture was not the one I sat in but the only one I could find on the Internet at the moment. The comfy seat I had, was arranged more like a small room or the ones we see nowadays on private business jets.
I flew one time in a 747 First Class that was configured such that my seat was right in the front nose cone with a window directly in front of me. It was an awesome journey through the clouds!

Youthful magic

The sixties gave birth to some of the best songwriters of the whole century whose music resonates still today. On my radio show, I limit myself to songwriters in English, but, the interesting thing is that these writers really had more of an impact on world music than Gershwin and Irving Berlin in the half century before. YouTube has Beatles tunes in many other languages to back up my point.

Another facet of the sixties' artists is their willingness even as  songwriters themselves, to do each other's famous songs. [Here are two I played recently:Things we said today from the Beatles movie Hard Day's Night done by Bob Dylan. Then Dylan's If not for you done by George Harrison.]  

One group that were eager to meld music and pop-art into rock were the Who. Their pop-art tune of Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere  is a classic example of how pop music at the time was very anti-establishment and trying to widen its influence. The Who's shows were quite the Happening back then. And if you don't know what a Happening is, then, any written explanation will simply fall flat. As the saying goes, you had to be there.

If you were young and a music lover in the UK in the sixties, your weekend began with Ready, Steady Go. The youth show for quite awhile. Its first theme song was  5-4-3-2-1 from Manfred Mann. It was released as a single and was their first hit. They went on to many more hits. Made great interpretations of Dylan tunes too.

Liverpool was not only home to a great number of groups that found fame in Britain and the rest of the World when the youthful music and joy of the Beatles became a true sociological phenomenon. However, it was not just music that caught our attention. There was a vibrant arts scene there too, specifically poets and poetry readings. When I say they attracted attention, I'm not kidding. One particular group, incorporated poetry and music into their act and have carved out a career as long as the Beatles. It was the Scaffold. They had a number of pop hits and even a No.1 chart hit, Lily the Pink.  The Scaffold consisted of 3 people, Mike McGear, real name Michael McCartney, yes, Paul's brother, John Gorman and Roger McGough. McGough was a poet, who along with Brian Patten and Adrian Henri had a Penguin Modern Poets Volume 10 published to huge success. My friends and I all bought it and read it constantly. Their style was modern and very much sounded like the life we wished to live. It has gone on to become the most successful poetry publication in Penguins long list of poetry books.

Ah, we were full of  bliss under our blue suburban skies. (Thank you Penny Lane.)

women's suffrage, Michael and music

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in Nova Scotia. Specifically, April 26, 1918 was the date the bill was passed in the Provincial Legislature. Other Provinces celebrate other dates. Britain also  marks its 100th anniversary this year; However, none were universal suffrage; there were limits to women. For example,  being 30 or older, Homeowners or married to  Homeowners. Wider enfranchisement came later.

I arrived in Canada on March 15th 1970. I was sleeping on a friend's "Davenport".  Couch surfing before it was a thing. I had no job, only a suitcase and dreams. There were no Sunday papers, so 6 days a week I scoured the classified columns for employment, which was scant at that moment. But I did enjoy reading the paper from front sheet to back. There was a lot of talk about the "Women;s movement". Possibly sparked by the March 20th news item - 

Betty Friedan gave her farewell address as outgoing president of NOW (the National Organization of Women), and called for a nationwide women’s strike on August 26 (the 50th anniversary of winning the vote.  Although, it took the 1965 Voting Rights Act to ensure Black women could execute that right which the 19th Amendment should have granted in 1920.) As the momentum for a women's march built,  and the myth of bra-burners gathered steam, I found most of the people in my new circle were strongly modernists in their outlook. The circle of friends and acquaintances all supported a wider role for women in society. That included the males. 

As noted above, Women getting the vote, women working side by side with men in factories throughout two wars, was not enough to break the many barriers that women faced in life. Regardless of race, ethnicity or status. It was these invisible, but very durable barriers that women needed to break. 

Women had been successful in music and the entertainment industry in limited numbers, but the music itself did not address their struggle and receive wide distribution. 

It took until 1971 for music to catch up. 

Helen Reddy's feminine anthem I am Woman, was out in 1971 on her debut LP but was not a single until 1972 when it topped the charts. Of course, it went on to win the Grammy for single of the year and in her acceptance speech, Helen Reddy, thanked a female God. It was a pivotal moment for increasing awareness of the issue.  Also in 1971, Carly Simon released That's The Way. Although that shortened title belies the mood of the song which the full sentence conveys very well: That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be". It's about a young woman coming of age and seeing her parents unhappy marriage & friends mindlessly settling down and giving up on their dreams.Not sure why, but I bought the 45 when I did not have a record player. Still have it in fact. (Just to re-deem myself, let me clarify, I had a cassette player & a friend put it on a cassette for me to hear in my bare bones bachelor apartment!)

These are the Helen and Carly numbers:

I am Woman - Helen Reddy

That's The Way - Carly Simon

A final thought, regardless of these decades of increasing power and control for women, the #metoo movement has made it clear that society has far to go still. If you are young and powerless when seeking employment, women face not just "barriers" but harassment as men remain the gatekeepers to the entry to so many paths. Mind you, it is clear, young men face similar harassment in many industries, too.

Skip Spence

 Skip Spence was born in Windsor Ontario but grew up in America. He was born on April 18, 1946.
He was one of the early members of Jefferson Airplane. I loved Jefferson Airplane in their early days and played Surrealistic Pillow  again and again in the late 60s and right up to the 21st-century. But Skip apparently was a troubled soul. he left the airplane and joined a bunch of other groups before cofounding Moby Grape,  another great 60s band.
I met Skip  in London in a friends flat in Tottenham Court Road. It was August 1969  Skip had flown in to see the free concert that Blind Faith was putting on in Hyde Park and my friends and I had gone as well and when I return to my friend’s flat, his flatmate introduced me to Skip.  They had become friends when he was studying in California. I have to admit I was a little silly and starstruck and didn’t say anything sensible.  And that particular day though Skip was full of fun and bright, and didn’t foreshadow a terrible breakdowns that he suffered in the 70s .
Skip wrote My Best Friend, a lovely tune the Airplane put on Surrealistic Pillow.

Mik's Life with music and especially music with friends

   Recently, the Rolling Stones released a  CD made up of tunes that they played when they were on the BBC Radio. The recording quality is good and some of the tunes really hearken back to their early blues & rock stuff.  Listening to the tracks  reminded me so much of standing in a room above a pub completely immersed in stale cigarette smoke "groovin' to the vibes" !

   A long time ago, I made  a list of acts I had seen. Of course, 45+ years of moves has meant that a lot of paperwork has disappeared. Recently, I began re-creating the list of performers that I saw live. I shared it with a friend in the UK to compare our memories. 

Not surprisingly, my list from another continent did not match his exactly; Although, from our early years of going to clubs, there was a lot of overlap on many of the artists. Furthermore, it was a large music-loving group that I used to hang out with. Hence, I truly do not recall who was where & when at many of the events. For example, a large group of us saw Janis Joplin at the Royal Albert Hall, and Yes was her opening act. We had the whole row filled with  friends - but who was there with me?  I cannot recall who they were.

   We saw Aretha Franklin, it is my number 1 live show. She & the backing group were dynamite. We were lucky to see the Stax-Volt package. We  were at the London Hammersmith Odeon show, the only one of the series of European shows that had Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas and Eddie Floyd, Arthur Conley plus Booker T & the MG's with The Mar-keys, too. Otis closed the show. I feel privileged to have seen this wonderful artist, when he was backed by the Mar-keys plus the great Steve Cropper & Booker T.

   The early blues fanatics that we were saw Sister Rosetta Tharpe at the Blues & Gospel caravan show. We saw the Yardbirds when  Eric Clapton was with them; and even the time they had Jeff Beck AND Jimmy Page together!!

   My friends, who were not only from school but lived near me, went to see a young Pete Brown; the folksy man who wrote Sunshine of your Love and White Room for Cream. Our school's catchment area was vast. Many of my friends lived miles away. Of course, we journeyed far to see performers.  We were lucky to see the blues era Rolling Stones, (more than once,)  but also all the blues greats : T-Bone Walker, Otis Span,  Buddy Guy (he was just 19 I think). Memphis Slim, Muddy Waters, many, many more. They were at the Croydon Folk & Blues Festival we attended. One of the highlights of a music going life.

   As a DJ with a  Beatles and Beyond show now, the songs from that era, such as The Boxer by Simon & Garfunkel and Richard Harris'  MacArthur Park really left an impression on me.

    The odd thing for me is, that, back then, I never owned either of those songs. A good friend  had the 45 RPM of Boxer & and another had Harris' LP which his sister (who lived in the US,) sent him. Every time I was at their places, (I should say, "we were") those songs got played.  Of course, they were also ridiculously popular tunes on the radio and we heard them wherever we hung out. I have a very vivid memory of being in Dorset with all of us sitting outside the pub by the seafront and MacArthur Park came on. I close my eyes and I can "see" us hanging around. Searching out tunes for my show has made me understand that so often my choice of material, and dialogue to go with it, raise memories even from the tunes I never owned or played at home.

   I didn't expect that in the beginning when I started to work for the Station years ago. In addition, the memories become linked together, even if they actually occurred at different times. My brain has simply catalogued them together -- often as "good old times with friends."

Special thoughts of Leonard Cohen
   I so sad hearing of Cohen's passing. Not just his music: Suzanne, Famous Blue Raincoat & others, which reminded me so much of  a dear friend, first, and then of his wife, too.

   But my strongest memory is of sitting with him, and usually, two other friends,  but occasionally a cluster of others. This friend's "apartment" a term I use very loosely (!) as it was more a cold-water,  garret in Highgate, North London. We would be  toasting bread on the gas fire while Leonard sang (& to complete the vision, Janis Ian's Society' Child!)
They were such innocent times full of potential and hope -- our giggles were such a counter-point to the music. Our attempts to "plan for the weekend".... which we were so inept at doing.  The weekends always ending up a mystery. With my friend sleeping over at our house overnight on Saturdays on many an occasion, before a pub & music at lunch time.

   However, Leonard's music, although appreciated by most of us, was linked with that friend because he was the first to buy Songs of Leonard Cohen.  Suddenly, as I heard of Leonard's death, my thoughts flooded back to those evenings in Highgate.

To borrow from Bob Hope, thanks for the memory--  Mr. Cohen and my old friend, MJB.

Tartan Day Playlist (Brief one)

April 6 is Tartan Day here in Nova Scotia 

We have a right to be proud as  Tartan Day in Canada originated with a proposal from the Federation of Scottish Clans in Nova Scotia and has since been proclaimed by all the provincial legislatures. 

In Australia the similar International Tartan Day is held on 1 July, the anniversary of the repeal of the 1747 Act of Proscription that banned the wearing of tartan.

I am 1/4 Scots myself. A member of Clan Borthwick. The Borthwick family still exists in Scotland and own an impressive castle, named unsurprisingly, Borthwick Castle. I haven't  been there to see my bedroom yet, but its on my bucket list.

The next few tunes all show respect for things Scottish.

Loch Lomond sung by Martha Tilton with backing by Benny Goodman & his Orchestra, The Far Cuillins by Andy Stewart and the Skye Boat Song - theme from the Outlander TV series the song features Kathryn Jones.

Another song that harkens of far away places is Vera Lynn's Travelling Home. A tune she recorded in 1957. with lyrics like -

I'm travellin' home
Travellin' home
Far have I roamed from the faces I love
Winds that have blown me on my way
Blow me right back to harbour

appropriate for a playlist for Scotland, (and other distant places.)

The rock n roll show to watch in the UK in the 50's was Oh, Boy! on Saturday's.  It was produced by Jack Good who left UK for California and found fame as the producer of Shindig. Jack just passed away in Sept 2017. The next obscure hit, was from the band who played the backing for most of the artists on Oh, Boy,  Lord Rockingham's XI.  "Hoots Mon". It is a rocked-up version of the traditional Scottish song "A Hundred Pipers", featuring Scotticisms like "Hoots mon, there's a moose loose aboot this hoose!", talk about cultural appropriation!! But, I believe it is done in fun & not meant  in a mocking way. 

SONGS

Loch Lomond - Martha Tilton & Benny Goodman Orchestra.

The Far Cuillins - Andy Stewart 

Skye Boat Song - theme from Outlander featuring Kathryn Jones

Travelling Home -Vera Lynn

Hoots Mon - Lord Rockingham's XI

The Animals

It was summer 63. My friends and I heard of a new group from Newcastle upon Tyne that were up and coming. We went to The Scene Club, one of the  trendy clubs just off Piccadilly Circus. Not our usual haunt. It was a small, stuffy basement club, but the animals were on and they were fantastic. Following the Beatles success on the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, the next British band with an American No.1 was the Animals with this classic, House of the Rising Sun.
I helped book them into the Polytechnic for a Saturday Dance, too. They were amazing; again. Another member of the Social Committee sold the television rights to the BBC for 8GBP ! The whole evening  was an amazing success.

Movies and Rock - a Playlist from Daddy Cool

This playlist is shining a spotlight on the Beatles and other artists of their era whose material was featured in movies.

Hollywood had made musical films for half a century almost. The great Bugsby Berkley extravaganzas, Broadway shows turned into great movies, such as my favourite, South Pacific. Cheap fad movies that played on new cultural norms, Like Don't Knock the Rock and Don't Knock the Twist. I admit that I saw them all. However, The Beatles and the growing post-war youth market, was not captured very well until the Beatles first film, Hard Days Night. London-based, American director Richard Lester hit the nail right on the head; It truly captured Beatlemania. Many other movies followed that were aimed at teenagers, not  Hollywood's idea of a "teenager" which was a 30-year old Doris Day saying "Golly Gee". This playlist featuring films of the Beatles era & Beyond has to begin with  Hard Day's Night. The Beatles first film.

Hard Day's Night, is followed by Ko Ko Mo from The Beach Boys. It is not the title of a film but is from the soundtrack of a young Tom Cruise movie, Cocktail. It was released as a single and topped the charts. Their first big hit for a decade.

SONGS

Hard Day's Night .- The Beatles

Ko Ko Mo - The Beach Boys

Probably the defining rock festival for my generation was Woodstock. The promoters knew they had something special and planned to film it, as it happened. They commissioned Joni Mitchell to write a song to play over the credits. A month before I emigrated to Canada, I saw Joni perform at the Royal Festival Hall on London's South  Bank art institutions. She premiered it there. Her version is a simple piano driven song. She put it out on her Ladies of the Canyon LP. Before she played it, she mentioned that the producers did not feel her version fitted the wild rock atmosphere of the event so were having it re-recorded. Of course, when I arrived in Toronto, and the film Woodstock came out that spring, I could see their point. Here is CSN & Y's version from the film followed by the Rolling Stones' Gimmie Shelter. It is the title song from their film Gimmie Shelter by The Mayles, which captured the disastrous Altamont concert in California where a spectator is killed by the security crew. It is a haunting film, and this tune fits it well, too.

Then,  Help!  the title song from the Beatles second film.

SONGS

Woodstock - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Gimmie Shelter - Rolling Stones.

Help! -The Beatles

Riding on the wave of the British invasion were Anglo-Australian group The Seekers. This was their big hit, which was the theme  from the film Georgy Girl which starred British actress Lynn Redgrave. Some film producers saw the extra bucks to be made from movies with a hit song included which could lead to a popular soundtrack LP. One huge movie in winter of 1969-70 was Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid. Producer John Foreman and Director Roy George Hill commissioned Burt Bacharach & Hal David to compose a song that is incorporated into the movies' narrative as an idyllic sequence that foreshadows the 2 protagonists need to move on and get back to their old lifestyle.  Raindrops Keeping Falling on my Head by B.J. Thomas is the resulting tune.

SONGS

Georgy Girl - The Seekers

Raindrops Keeping Falling on my Head - B.J. Thomas

Windmills of your Mind is the tune from Canadian Director Norman Jewison's  blockbuster film The Thomas Crown Affair.  Dusty Springfield had a hit with it. She is followed by the theme song, Mrs. Robinson from Simon & Garfunkel which is in the iconic 1960's movie, The Graduate ; One of the defining cultural events of the baby boomers' life.

SONGS

Windmills of your Mind - Dusty Springfield

Mrs. Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel

The movie hit of summer 1967 was an odd British one, To Sir with Love starring American actor Sidney Poitier. The theme song was sung by Scots gal Lulu. It was released as a  single and it topped the charts. The Beatles 3rd film was a weird animated one based on the 1966 hit song Yellow Submarine from the Revolver LP. The film  and its soundtrack were released in 1968. It was panned at the time but is now loved, as  the Boomers tend to hold memories that are tinged with rose-tinted nostalgia.

SONGS

To Sir with Love - Lulu

Yellow Submarine - The Beatles

The following are movies that  tried to cash-in on the British invasion and featuring other popular bands playing themselves on a journey to musical success. All have hit songs in their title. Mrs. Brown You've got a Lovely Daughter by Herman's Hermits. I saw it recently on Turner Classic Movies channel. I assure you this film is not a classic. Ah, well, then Catch Us if You Can from the Dave Clark 5 and  Ferry Across the Mersey featuring Gerry & the Pacemakers. Both from movies with those titles.

SONGS

Mrs. Brown You've got a Lovely Daughter - Herman's Hermits

Catch Us if You Can - Dave Clark 5

 Ferry Across the Mersey - Gerry & the Pacemakers

What's New Pussy Cat was a 1965 film cashing in on the world's, but especially America's, curiosity for all things British, and over the top action of James Bond movies The hit song is by Tom Jones. In their early days, the Beatles featured film tunes in their live sets and 2 were on their first LP, Please, Please Me. One tune is Taste of Honey from the British film of the same name, and Til There was You from the 1962 film The Music Man. 

SONGS

What's New Pussy Cat - Tom Jones

Taste of Honey - the Beatles

Til There was You - The Beatles

The 4th film the Beatles owed  the studio  was planned as a movie about reading for a live concert and the concert itself. However, internal group strife resulted in a cut-and-paste movie from the hours of  recording in the studio instead and the previous  movie idea was aborted. However, the idea of a concert film resurrects itself  towards the end, where the Beatles perform 5 songs Live on the rooftop of their Saville Row HQ of Apple Corp. The film was  called Let it be, which was also a single released in March 1970 before the movie came out. While the Beatles did win an Oscar for the soundtrack, in 1973, Paul McCartney, now with his band Wings wanted an Oscar for himself and produced the Theme song for the James Bond film, Live and Let Die. He lost out in the Oscar stakes to The Way We Were (Evergreen.)    

SONGS

Live & Let Die - Wings

Let it Be - The  Beatles

Enjoy this playlist from Mik & Daddy Cool