Thursday 28 May 2009

When I was young I'd listen to the radio..








When I was growing up, we didn't have many records in our house. It was the early seventies, and my dad was already turning into the classical music fanatic he eventually became. 
So, for me, there were the two staples.  Beatle's Greatest Hits (both volumes) and Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits.  Not bad.  They're both on my iPod today.

My elder sister had my mother's limited collection to leaf through.  Which was basically a few Carpenter's LPs.  As a result of this, I grew older with a loathing of the sugary-sweet-middle-of-the-road duo.   Particularly, as whenever she wanted to 'play' the Carpenters, I had to be Richard, the owner of the world's uncoolest jumpers and geeky sounding voice..  

I was a scrawny little kid, and she was bigger and scarier*,  so I had to go along with it.

As soon as I'd left home and become re-aware of them, I discovered these songs could recall some great memories, and my opinion changed.   I gradually became rather fond of them, despite the occasional attempts at singing by Richard.  
Luckily, most of the duties in that department went to his sister's rather excellent deep voice.   

I don't actually have any of their songs in 2009, (not recorded by them anyway.  I do have the 1994 covers album 'If I were a Carpenter' which contains tracks by Sonic Youth and Grant Lee Buffalo and well worth a listen, curiosity seekers) , but on occasion  I do have a sneaky listen to their version of  'Ticket To Ride' and 'Goodbye To Love'.  Courtesy of Spotify.

Another L.P. my Sis played to death was an abridged version of the film of "The Railway Children"  This was dialogue from the movie interspersed with a little narration.
As a result of  multiple replays of this record , much of the dialogue got committed to memory. 

Even now, thirty odd years on, we can be in a innocent conversation, when  a word or phrase will come up and force us into a surreal re-enactment of a whole scene.  Much to the horror of onlookers.



*I'm a foot taller than you now. SO YOU CAN  BLOODY WELL BE GARFUNKEL!

4 comments:

Bright Ambassador said...

Daddy! My daddy!

Kolley Kibber said...

Give us a quick chorus of 'Calling Occupants of Inter Planetary Craft', then...

Jon Peake said...

It's only the rats!

Oh that beastly woman

I hate do a job like this. Specially at Christmas

It's your birthday tea, Perks.

We had record too. Loved it. Still got it.

I didn't like the Carpenters as a child because it was also mum's music. But now, I think songs like This Masquerade, Superstar and Bless The Beasts and the Children are masterpieces. That voice. So pure.

Valentine Suicide said...

The phrase that usually gets us going is 'Where have YOU been?' Remember that F-C?

Right..ahem... 'In your mind you have capacities you know, to telepath messages...'

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