Saturday, 26 October 2019
my life in music, chapter 1,002...
My early exposure to music was pretty unusual and radical for a six-year-old. It was the American forces network radio and BBC overseas programming !
So my childhood memories are songs such as Les Paul and Mary Ford's The World is Waiting for the Sunrise and Hank Williams' Hey, Good Looking and the giants of the immediate post-war music scene, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Andrew Sisters, Eddy Arnold, Glen Miller, you get the picture!
However the first album I acquired reflected a peculiar fascination for a preteen with the big band sounds of the 1930's. That first album was a recording of Benny Goodman and his band's radio performances of the late 30's. They were issued in the mid-1950's. If I am correct in my thinking, a neighbour had a copy and I heard them there. With my early Calcutta immersion into the sound anyway, these recordings struck a chord with me. (To coin a corny phrase.) I went on to acquire many other Benny Goodman albums and they are still with me down in the storage room of our Condo.
Friday, 18 October 2019
Me and my Little Transistor Radio
Like most of us when we are young, our frame of reference is obviously the environment around us and our family and you think that what you are experiencing is the norm.
However looking back over my life, especially as young Michael, I am very appreciative of how special were the experiences I had early on in my life.
I was going back into hospital in late 1959 when a family friend, who was an ex pat Brit from our days in Calcutta returned to England and he came to visit us in London. He showed me this newfangled device that he had. He bought it at the duty-free stop en route, which I no longer remember it was Aden or if he came back the long way from Calcutta heading east, and picked up the "toy" in Hong Kong. What it was, was an early transistor radio. It was the size of a current cell phone, had a plastic body and for protection it had a lovely real leather case.
He gave it to me so that I could listen to the radio when I was in the hospital. He knew how much our family loved music.
I remember well listening to that little transistor radio, which in England in those days we called the "tranny." Probably not politically correct these days as the term does not refer to portable radios anymore but refers to one’s gender identity.
However, I spent hours and hours listening to my little transistor radio; hunkered down under my bed coverings. I was in the children’s ward, so it was lights out at 9 pm and hello good morning at 5 am!
It was the height of the Trad Jazz fad in the UK so the BBC regularly had shows on Dixieland music which the trad jazz genre constantly referenced. Of course I listened to the 'BBC Light Program' for a miserable few hours of popular music back then. But I fell in love with Dream Lover by Bobby Darin much of Paul Anka’s many hit tunes, especially, I liked Lonely Boy which was prominently featured in late 1959 and so much Buddy Holly.
Even though it was only an AM frequency Radio (for which Halifax is poorly serviced) I still miss my little transistor radio.
However looking back over my life, especially as young Michael, I am very appreciative of how special were the experiences I had early on in my life.
I was going back into hospital in late 1959 when a family friend, who was an ex pat Brit from our days in Calcutta returned to England and he came to visit us in London. He showed me this newfangled device that he had. He bought it at the duty-free stop en route, which I no longer remember it was Aden or if he came back the long way from Calcutta heading east, and picked up the "toy" in Hong Kong. What it was, was an early transistor radio. It was the size of a current cell phone, had a plastic body and for protection it had a lovely real leather case.
He gave it to me so that I could listen to the radio when I was in the hospital. He knew how much our family loved music.
I remember well listening to that little transistor radio, which in England in those days we called the "tranny." Probably not politically correct these days as the term does not refer to portable radios anymore but refers to one’s gender identity.
However, I spent hours and hours listening to my little transistor radio; hunkered down under my bed coverings. I was in the children’s ward, so it was lights out at 9 pm and hello good morning at 5 am!
It was the height of the Trad Jazz fad in the UK so the BBC regularly had shows on Dixieland music which the trad jazz genre constantly referenced. Of course I listened to the 'BBC Light Program' for a miserable few hours of popular music back then. But I fell in love with Dream Lover by Bobby Darin much of Paul Anka’s many hit tunes, especially, I liked Lonely Boy which was prominently featured in late 1959 and so much Buddy Holly.
Even though it was only an AM frequency Radio (for which Halifax is poorly serviced) I still miss my little transistor radio.
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