Christmas

mostly, my family and friends know me as a Scrooge-like person when it comes to Christmas celebrations.
The truth, however, is less obvious. The scrooge character has become associated with people who are tight fisted or unhappy or trying to squeeze the last drop of work out of the staff without acknowledging their family's needs.
Scrooge has also become associated with what we now call the "ghosts of Christmases past" and "Christmas Future" -- a future that will happen if we do not change the present. (Present as in Time not gifts.)

Well, if Christmas was a one week affair, full of carols and hymns with it culminating  in a family gathering. I would love it.

I am not the first, nor the only one, that laments all the commercialization of Christmas, but to me it is not about gift giving or the Santa fable, with too many voices saying how parents can harm their children with the continued spreading of that tale.
It is a) the length of the shopping spree that depresses me, and b) the types of gifts. Really, A car with a bow on it for Christmas?!  How big is this demographic? Of course some of the One-percenters can do that.
Just to set the record straight, I love Christmas. I still remember "Christmases past" with a smile and a tear. I was raised in vicarage for my first 9 years. I still remember sitting in the church watching my Grandfather conducting the Christmas service; every time I hear Hark the Herald Angels sing, I can see him standing there announcing the "final Hymn". I cry, even it is Mariah Carey's version!
And Elvis singing Blue Christmas recalls a very special memory and link with my sister. (I miss you, honey. If only the young Michael had a clue as to how jets, the Internet or Skype are useless tools for replacing the touch of a hand.)
It is the Christmas-Futures I can no longer cope with.
The ache of missing loved ones increases every month and Christmas just seems to amplify the pain.

On a brighter note, Bring on the eggnog ! Put on Phil Spector's Christmas LP ! I also enjoy the sharing of time with family and friends, but I do not need another gift to open for the rest of my life... however, if you need a hint, I always appreciate another book. (p.s. not a hardback!)

Discrimination

I have to say that for the major part of my life I have been treated the same as everyone else in the community around me. My friends and neighbours were blind to my skin colour, accent and accurate knowledge of my origins.

That is not to say that people have not insulted me along the way nor made absurd assumptions about my links. On reflection, some of them were hilarious.
In the fifties, the local busy-body of the neighbourhood introduced my family to the "other new immigrants" in the vicinity... small issue, he was a Jamaican, not from India... or even Asia! There was little that we had in common, other than ANY newcomer to an area.

Luckily, he and his English wife were a charming couple and did not take offence. We did not actually become fast-friends, but we were always friendly to each other.

I write about this now because I was listening to a radio interview which focused a lot on discrimination that Blacks were suffering in Canada, specifically Ontario and Nova Scotia in that radio show.
Yet, I had many West Indian friends in Toronto and, it amused me no-end that they would make fun of other Blacks that had come from Africa. Admittedly, it was many years ago, and the substitute terminology "African-Canadian" to include all Blacks was not in common usage. However, back then, they saw their two worlds as being very different.

In Toronto, I was trying to rent a 1-bedroom apartment in the Italian quarter of Toronto, (it was a great flat!) but the woman showing it to me, the "head" of the family no doubt, asked if it was for my wife and me. When I said "No" because I was a bachelor. She told me I should find a good woman and settle down. I, a single man, ought not to be looking for a 1-bedroom flat in town.
Her logic was comical... I guess she thought that I would regularly be bringing women back to her family's "home" and it was not appropriate. I am not sure how I was supposed to find a good woman to settle down with, if I did not actually have a base from which to start looking.
So, even bachelors meet weird discrimination.

It may be that I was fortunate to grow up in a quieter more gentle time. The world seems a lot more angry nowadays.

The most obvious discrimination my family met most people do not even know about. We are Anglo-Indians. In Calcutta, now Kolkata, in the immediate post-colonial time, we did not fit in anywhere; As Christians, our religion was away from the mainstream, and at that time, the two main religions on the sub-continent were not even getting along with each other. That was why we immigrated to Britain.
If you wish to see what Anglo-Indian discrimination was about, watch PBS' Indian Summers; It does a decent job of bringing out the problems.

correspondence

From my teenage years, I have written letters regularly to family and friends. It did not matter if they lived just down the road from me, or around the world. There is magic in receiving a letter in the mail, opening it and then sitting down to enjoy reading it in peace; Then re-reading it immediately.

I have a "pen-pal" from 60 years ago with whom I am still friends. She also became a huge family friend and we shared many fun filled travel outings together in different countries.

When I arrived in Canada, a century ago... at least. I wrote a round-robin letter. It was addressed to the whole family: Parents, Nana, Aunts (in 2 separate locations) and my sister. Back then, the copies were carbon copies. Sometime after a year or so of employment, I was brave enough to sneak into the corridor where the photocopier was, and make copies in the lunch time to send to the different locations. I kept track of which family member received the "top copy" and who got the Xeroxes! I rotated the receiving of the much prized hand written version!!

I also did something similar with the gang of friends I left behind, and in the first two years, I would often receive back a multi-party tome. Sometimes created under a haze of booze and late night party going. (I often wondered what kind of socializing they were doing without me, if someone was to suggest around midnight, "Let's write to Mik" and there were others who  agreed that this might be a fun thing to do !!)

I am not as hopelessly misguided as to thing that I was a siren-calling  attraction, it was a lot more a case of boredom and a desire to emulate a Monty Pythonesque situation. (We were big fans.)

After a couple of years, the family correspondence continued in the previous manner, but old friendships broke up, drifted away or just plain preferred a one-on-one natter. Luckily, there were 3 or 4 of those friends that trailed into the next century. Only a handful, but I still enjoy putting pen to paper for them.

I truly feel the present generation, and society in general, severely under-estimates the joy of writing letters.

Now that my parents have passed on, as have Nana, Aunts & Uncles, and way too many friends, I often dig out the old correspondence, -- did I forget to say, it is important to retain the material? -- and read those stories and tales and jokes of a long time ago.

I do have  a digital social media presence (Hello! what am I doing RIGHT now!) However, I cherish those old letters.

Thank you Sir Rowland Hill, you started a wonderful thing.

End of September 1966

It was the last week of September, 1966. I was in New York City staying at the YMCA at 34th & 8th Avenue. It was a beautiful autumn week and I was overwhelmed by all that I had experienced that summer. I forget precisely whether the return flight was on the 28th or the 29th !! However, I do remember one thing very clearly  -- I bought Sam & Dave's new LP,  Hold On I'm Coming for Dee. I was so anxious to get home and play it for her; while we drank tea and lounged on our blue living room carpet and fretted over our seemingly chaotic lives!

Of course, from a 50 year perspective, I know how simple our lives really were. We were still unnecessarily dragging our emotional baggage from school days & college.
"Life" had not truly begun yet..

More Beatles

I feel more than fine that I was at the vanguard of the post-war generation and to have spent my youth in England along with The  Beatles.  To press home the point here are  the Lads with I Feel Fine.

SONGS
I Feel Fine - The Beatles

I Feel Fine  was recorded in Oct. 64 released in November 64. While for us in the UK,  Beatlemania began in 1962 & gained steam throughout 1963 it was a part of a whole youthful music explosion. 

 Suddenly, record companies were signing up every group appearing on a stage in the UK. However, the music papers still liked to create dynamism by setting one group off against another. Are they the new Beatles, etc. One of the first so called rivals was the Rolling Stones. They went  on to world wide success,  right up to the present day. The tune that cemented their reputation in the USA was Satisfaction.

Oddly enough, the British group with the next No.1 in the US after the Beatles in the summer of 1964 was not the Stones but The Animals with House of the Rising Sun.

SONGS

Satisfaction  - The Rolling Stones

House of the Rising Sun - The Animals

 

There was a resurgence in musical friendship at this time. A lot of mutual  admiration and support. Not surprisingly, the public followed the musicians' lead. The British bands loved Aretha Franklin Here is her classic cover of Otis Redding's Respect.

SONG

Respect - Aretha Franklin

Following on the British invasion was American youth's discovery of its own great artists. Especially Tamla Motown material. Here is I Can't Help Myself from the Four Tops. A No.1 in 1965 that was replaced at the top by the Stones with Satisfaction.

SONGS

I Can't Help Myself - The Four Tops

 

Before the Beatles landed on Ed Sullivan & took over the Billboard music charts, US young people were obsessed with Surf style rock and the whole California life-style. Sun, sand & songs; Unlike the east coast music which focussed on Broadway, Brill Building and Do-wop.. One of the most popular groups of the era that are also big and still touring in the C21st are the Beach Boys. Their central creative genius was Brian Wilson. The Beatles felt that in the mid-sixties it was the Beach Boys who were their arch rivals because they too explored uncharted musical territory. Next up are 2 California themed hits.  California Dreaming from the  Mamas & the Papas and  Help Me Rhonda by the Beach Boys.

 

SONGS
California Dreaming - Mamas & the Papas

Help Me Rhonda - Beach Boys

A Liverpudlian group that began by covering  US R'n'B songs but also found a distinctive style of their own were Freddie & The Dreamers. They ended up being bigger stars in America than in the UK because the American public fell in love with Freddie's zany antics on stage. Here is I'm Telling you Now from  Freddie & The Dreamers. Then another early Beatles hit, the John led vocals of Do You Want To Know a Secret.

 SONGS

I'm Telling You Now - Freddie & The Dreamers

Do You Want To Know a Secret - The Beatles

An American group that I was in love with in the sixties were the delicious girl group The Ronettes. Their hit, Baby, I Love You is an icon of Big Haired girl groups from the 60s. Also, a song that came to define everything that was associated with the Post WWII society, My Generation from The Who.

SONGS
Baby I Love You - The Ronettes

My Generation - The Who

 

The Ronettes were masterminded by their manager/producer Phil Spector. Another Spector produced hit was You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling a No.1 hit for The Righteous Bros. Spector was called in to finalize the production of the Beatles last LP, Let it Be.  The first Beatle with a solo vocal LP was Ringo singing You Always Hurt The One You Love on his 1969 released Sentimental Journey album. Full of his mum's favourite songs. He also had a huge 1973 success with Photograph.

 SONGS

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Bros

You Always Hurt The One You Love - Ringo

Photograph - Ringo

 

The late sixties were a time of turmoil in cities with young people protesting the Vietnam War and the Old Ways in general in Europe. True to its happiness ethos Motown had Martha & the Vandellas singing Dancing in the Streets. A great dance tune re-done by loads of others over the decades. But the sixties bad boys of rock -- the Rolling Stones sang an anthem for the times in Street Fighting Man.

 

SONGS

Dancing in the Streets - Martha & the Vandellas.

Street Fighting Man   - The Rolling Stones

  

 

Leaving tonight with  a classic Beatles song We Can Work it Out. A hit from 1965, however, one of the daddies of R'n'R was Chuck Berry a big influence on the Stones and the Beatles. Here is his 1964 hit You Never Can Tell. The story of a teenage wedding,  listen to the story telling that Berry winds into a great rock rhythm. Just as the Beatles learned to do with such success themselves.

 

SONGS

You Never Can Tell - Chuck Berry

We Can Work it Out - The Beatles

 

 

Reflections on the Beatles and the American Sixties music scene (+ playlist)

These are my thoughts on The Beatles and Beyond. They stem from the preparations my alter-ego Daddy Cool goes through while getting ready for his radio show. Of course,  I am really Michael Lavalette. While looking over old photos & articles of the era, really emphasizes the old saying -- success is basically a matter of being at the right place at the right time. This was especially true for the Beatles, as their appearance on the world's multiple media stages occurred when so much else was changing in society.

 

I feel privileged to  have been at the vanguard of the post-war generation and to have spent my youth in England. All my life, I have been music mad, right from my childhood in Calcutta.

When the Beatles came along they were my rock and roll buddies. I do admit that their first Parlophone release, Love Me Do did not exactly knock my socks off, but after Please, Please Me and From Me to You, the first of their singles that truly bowled me over was She Loves You. Although, I did like much of the first album.

SONGS

She Loves you - The Beatles

 It was recorded in July 1963. Released in august in \Britain and soon after in the US & Canada but to no success. It topped the UK charts in Sept. and became the biggest selling UK  record of the 1960s and the Beatles biggest seller of all in the UK.

Also in august 1963. America, Russia  and Britain signed the first ever Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

It is difficult for people now to imagine how seriously we took the threat of imminent annihilation we all lived under back then. As a school boy in the 50s, My friends and I truly expected an Atomic war would break out during our adult life.

70 years of atomic free hostilities has dampened that fear now. But 1 year after the Cuban Missile crisis we still expected mushroom clouds on the horizon. These sentiments came to influence a lot of music by the late 60s, & again, the Beatles were a part of it.

 

While for us in the UK,  Beatlemania began in 1962 & gained steam throughout 1963 it exploded off the British shores in Feb 1964 with the Beatles'  Ed Sullivan appearance.

Then the log books of record achievements were scrapped & began anew.

 SONGS
Bad to Me - Billy J. Kramer

Billy J. Kramer had a UK No. 1 hit in August 1963 with this song. It was written by John Lennon while on holiday in Spain with Brian Epstein. It made the Billboard Top 10 in 1964. It was a part of the so-called British Invasion.

The American music press was pretty myopic back then and it was all about categories & "The Liverpool Sound", here are The Hollies with Bus Stop a part of Billboard's Liverpool Sound, unfortunately, the Hollies were from Manchester! Great song however.

SONG

Bus Stop - The Hollies.

 

Another feature I hope to shine a light on in later shows, is how these groups were fertile ground for the successful groups & solo artists that came up in the 1970s and even up to this century. Graham Nash later of Crosby, Stills and Nash was with the Hollies first. He was on that song.

In 1964,  Paul McCartney was living at the family home of his girl friend Jane Asher. Jane had a brother Peter.  In 1964, Peter was one half of the duet Peter & Gordon. Paul wrote a tune for them that topped the charts in the UK & USA.  A World Without Love.

The main British competition for the Beatles in the music press were The Rolling Stones. Here is one of their first self penned hits. The Last Time. Followed by the Beatles 1966 summer hit - Paperback Writer.

SONGS

World without Love -  Peter & Gordon
The Last Time - The Rolling Stones
Paperback writer - The Beatles

Before the Beatles, music was very reflective of individual country's folk traditions or music traditions. In the sixties, this changed. Artists may have gravitated to London, NYC or Los Angeles to record, but they came from everywhere and melded many styles. Manfred Mann's lead Singer & frontman was Briton, Paul Jones; but Manfred himself was south African and started the group in London to international success & in the 70s was one of the first singers to have a no.1 Billboard hit written by Bruce Springsteen. Blinded by the Light.

Similarly, what was once considered "race music" or RnB material for specific Urban Markets became widely appreciated by all suburban kids. The leading exponent of this was Berry Gordon's Motown label. Here they are with Baby Love. No1 in the UK & US.

SONGS

Pretty Flamingo - Manfred Mann

Baby Love - The Supremes

  

Here are 3 more British groups charging into the Billboard charts. They all were successful for decades, and in various incarnations, remain active in the 21st century. Gimme Some Lovin' credited to The Spenser Davis Group, but the star was young  prodigy, Steve Winwood.  I Can See For Miles by the Who and the Kinks You Really Got Me. Its iconic guitar riff is every bedroom guitar players practice chords.

 

SONGS
Gimme Some Lovin' - The Spenser Davis Group
I Can see for Miles - the Who
You Really Got Me - the Kinks

Another beneficiary of white suburban interest in RnB music and as it was also called Soul Music, were the Atlantic Group labels. Here is prominent Stax recording artist Eddie Floyd with Knock on Wood. The Beatles and the Stones were big soul fans and helped fan the flames of popularity for these artists. Followed by the Beatles summer 1965 hit Day Tripper.

SONGS

Knock on Wood - Eddie Floyd
Day Tripper  - The Beatles

While it seemed as if the charts in the Beatles early era were dominated by groups, a lot of solo artists, and singer/songwriters came to prominence.

An Indian born but British raised singer was Englebert Humperdinck who topped the charts with Please Release Me. He prevented the Beatles masterpiece Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields from reaching the No.1 in the UK. Sacrilege!! Bobby Darin was one of many singers who recorded If I was a Carpenter and had a hit with it. It was also recorded with less success by its songwriter the Late Tim Hardin. This is followed by British singer Dusty Springfield with her Windmills of your Mind. It was the film theme from The Thomas Crown Affair.

SONGS

Please Release Me - Englebert Humperdinck

If I were a Carpenter - Bobby Darin

Windmills of your Mind - Dusty Springfield

 

Just as in the 50s, groups trolled through old time hits to re-do as rock songs. Similarly, 60s groups did them as harmony songs. Here are Harper's Bizarre and Chattanooga Choo Choo.(Their name is a pun on the fashion magazine, Harper's Bazar, which is further indication of the merging of the music and fashion scene of those times.) Then one of the most enduring hits from 1964. It was a hit again in the 1990s after its use in the movie of the same name. Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison.

SONGS

Chattanooga Choo Choo - Harper's Bizarre

Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison

 

This has been a reflection on the first episode of my 97.5 Community radio show  the Beatles and Beyond .

 

Last song is a classic Beatles melody Lady Madonna. A hit from early 1968, recorded just before their trip to India;  and  when they came back, everything had changed. They were very different  Lads.

 

Goodnight from Daddy Cool and the Beatles and Beyond.

 

SONGS

Lady Madonna

Departures

After college, I had no idea what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. All I knew was that I did not wish to end up old and hanging out at the same pub every Sunday drinking and adding flat notes to everyone else's merry sing-a-longs.

However, it was a series of unplanned steps that resulted with me living a life pretty distanced from my family and youthful friends. I worked hard not to lose touch though. Being a bachelor for so long, allowed me to regularly visit my family in Florida and England, mainly. Although, they were in Indiana and Arizona for brief periods and I saw them there as well.
I traveled to see the friends, too, and had exciting times.

For all the coming and going, people often asked me how I could do it; wasn't it difficult to keep leaving family and dear friends. The way I managed it was simply to not view it as a departure: I was always looking ahead to the next visit, even though it was usually an unknown date in the future.

Now that I am older, and with less family and fewer friends to visit, I really will not give in to the idea of departing those people linked to my heart. I still plan to see everyone very soon.