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!