Beatlemania!
People say they always love the decade where they were teenagers the best. Growing up, I always wished I'd been a teenager in the 60s, seeing The Beatles and The Stones live and being engulfed in Beatlemania. I was brought up on a diet of these music icons as my mum was a hardened Stones fan and my dad The Beatles. The closest I think we got was a bit of Brosmania with our Grolsch bottle tops!
I'd sit and listen as they played the LPs, one after another. I loved the changing vibes and how they reinvented themselves. The clean cut Love me do era to the wacky Sergeant Pepper phase. I'd sit listening to Lucy in the sky, transfixed on the colourful, busy album cover. It totally transfixed me. I'd always spot Marilyn Monroe first.
My favourite album was always Rubber Soul and I loved the song, Norwegian Wood. 'I once had a girl. Or should I say, she once had me. ' 'This bird had flown.' I loved the relaxing, soothing melody to this album.
As I listened to the Beatles, I always took the lyrics in. Lennon and Mcartney were poets. Such fab, quirky detail and characterisation. I'd often wonder about Eleanor Rigby; she felt like a real woman to me. I love the image these lyrics portray of her waiting at the window, wearing a face that she picked from a jar. Then the question, 'Who is it for?'
I'd imagine this face of jars where she could choose a different one each day.
I'd sing along to the melancholy melody, wondering if Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane were childhood friends. I then realised Penny Lane was actually a street in Liverpool, 'beneath the cool suburban skies'. I loved watching Carpool Karaoke with Sir Paul McCartney, as he popped into the hair salon to say hi and signed the Penny Lane street sign.
The fab four really were fab. So versatile and talented. I loved every one of their albums and every song. I'm always playing Hey Jude and Let it Be on you tube for my daughter to keep the music going down each generation.
We have all the Beatles Best of CDs which are fab but it's not the same as leafing throught my dad's box of singles, loving the green Apple label of Imagine in tne centre of the record. We also follow The Upbeat Beatles, a brilliant tribute band to the Fab Four.
Now to The Rolling Stones. So different from The Beatles. I loved Paint it Black and Let's Spend the night together. They were so full of energy and Mick Jagger was a sight to see in his drainpipes, strutting his stuff and eating the microphone. Brilliant! But then, a rolling stone gathers no moss so no wonder they were so energetic!
Even though The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated the 60s and into the 70s, I was also fed more amazing music. My mum's ultimate fave was Elvis and we played his records and sang along to his films all the time. We loved Blue Hawaii and made mocktails with little umbrellas. I always wore my flower lei and pretended to be a hula girl!
You learn so much from Google and Pinterest! I never knew my fave actress, Angela Lansbury or Jessica Fletcher was in this film with Elvis. She's one of those characters you'd like to have as your Great Aunt. Imagine the adventures you'd get up to in Cabot Cove!
Queen was another brilliant band that was always played in our house. I loved the rock ballads and my favoutite was Somebody to Love. We always watched Highlander and loved the amazing Queen soundtrack to this. Who wants to live forever? This song makes me so sad. I will never forget where I was and how I felt when my mum came into my bedroom that night and told me Freddie Mercury had passed away. I'd been eating garlic so the smell of garlic brings back that memory. My mum said the same on hearing the awful news about Elvis.
I have followed the amazing Queen Tribute, Mercury for about seven years now. They are so talented and full of energy. We are off again to see them in May at an outdoor venue and I can't wait!
We also listened to Abba and Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe that Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in the year I was born! We always watched Eurovision with Terry So can. He was so sarcastic. Graham Norton has done really well filling his very big shoes. My fave Abba song was always Dancing Queen. When I hear it now I'm seventeen again with my dancing shoes on!
Fleetwood Mac were amazing too. I remember The Chain being the opening song for the Grand Prix and I'm so glad Guardians of the Galaxy 2 used it. Such a powerful ballad.
I can't write about music growing up without mentioning The Bee Gees. They were fab and my mum and I loved Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive with John Travolta. We'd loved him in Grease with Olivia Newton John. Now he was in this white suit with his collar up, as cool as a cucumber, strutting his stuff on the sidewalk, then on the dance floor. We loved it!
As I grew older, we loved watching music films such as Grease, Footloose, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. I couldn't sit still though and would get up and dance to every song. Now I find myself telling my daughter to move out of the way of the telly! We also loved the series Fame with Leroy Johnson. Names from years ago just stick in your head. Over the years, we've rewatched these amazing films over and over.
We'd watch the old musicals too that I used to watch with my grandma. We loved Doris Day and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire especially. I would sit with my gran watching Singing in the Rain and Calamity Jane, then 20 years on, it continued onto the next generation. South Pacific, Carousel and Oklahoma. The list continues. One of our favourite songs was Secret Love by Doris Day. Such a pure voice.
I used to love listening to my grandma and grandad's LPs on the old record player. Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Julio Eglaisis were just a few. Christmas was a musical time and I have very fond memories of singing and dancing along to Chas 'n Dave, "I've got no beer in the sideboard here..." Memories that just make me smile. Dad loved The Old Grey Whistle test and Jules Holland and had a pretty eclectic taste. We'd be listening to the B52s one minute, then Ian Drury would be shouting out, "Hit me with your rhythm stick" the next! He alsi loved the 50s rock 'n roll era,with the greats such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochrane and Buddy Holly. Such talent!
My uncle had a Games Room where all the cousins would get together to play on the massive billiards table while listening to his 50s and 60s rock n roll singles. We'd love placing three or four singles on the top of the player, watching each drop one after the other. My favourite was the song, 'Venus in blue jeans, Mona Lisa with a ponytail.'
I need to finish my trip down Music Memory Lane with the heavy metal I would hear from my big brother. I had no choice with our thin walls! It was so funny looking back. I'd be there with my Debbie Gibson and Belinda Carlisle LPs that didn't stand a chance against Dio, Black Sabbath and Metallica. The nearest I got to rock in my record collection was T'Pau Rage and INXS Kick! I loved going to the record stores every Saturday, Casa Disco and Egs and leafing through all the LPs and CDs.
Love this old photo of a record store, especially with the Madonna vinyls on display. Brings bsck some fab memories!
I did enjoy the softer rock like Bon Jovi, Dec Leopard and Europe and would ask him to turn them up! I loved certain songs like Cinderella, Long, Cold Winter, Alice Cooper, Poison and Winger, Hungry. The best part of my rock education was being introduced to Faith No More and their album Epic. Just brilliant.
I am so thankful for my amazing technicolour musical upbringing. It's kept me open minded about enjoying and appreciating all kinds of genres of music and different eras. I love this quote. Not only are you what you eat but you are so what you listen to.
I love going back to music. It is like seeing an old friend again and reminiscing. As a student I loved Morrissey, a bit like marmite I suppose. I still love just blurring out the odd lyrics, 'twisted bicycle on a hillside desolate'. My husband just thinks songs like this are depressing and he does have a point. He doesn't get how I can enjoy listening to it, or the reading of Sylvia Plath poetry! I suppose Music choice is a personal choice and it varies with what mood you are in. Music is so powerful at bringing people together, sending out a message. Music is therapy. Sometimes you just need to relax with your favourite playlist and let the vibes take over.
People say they always love the decade where they were teenagers the best. Growing up, I always wished I'd been a teenager in the 60s, seeing The Beatles and The Stones live and being engulfed in Beatlemania. I was brought up on a diet of these music icons as my mum was a hardened Stones fan and my dad The Beatles. The closest I think we got was a bit of Brosmania with our Grolsch bottle tops!
I'd sit and listen as they played the LPs, one after another. I loved the changing vibes and how they reinvented themselves. The clean cut Love me do era to the wacky Sergeant Pepper phase. I'd sit listening to Lucy in the sky, transfixed on the colourful, busy album cover. It totally transfixed me. I'd always spot Marilyn Monroe first.
My favourite album was always Rubber Soul and I loved the song, Norwegian Wood. 'I once had a girl. Or should I say, she once had me. ' 'This bird had flown.' I loved the relaxing, soothing melody to this album.
As I listened to the Beatles, I always took the lyrics in. Lennon and Mcartney were poets. Such fab, quirky detail and characterisation. I'd often wonder about Eleanor Rigby; she felt like a real woman to me. I love the image these lyrics portray of her waiting at the window, wearing a face that she picked from a jar. Then the question, 'Who is it for?'
I'd imagine this face of jars where she could choose a different one each day.
I'd sing along to the melancholy melody, wondering if Eleanor Rigby and Penny Lane were childhood friends. I then realised Penny Lane was actually a street in Liverpool, 'beneath the cool suburban skies'. I loved watching Carpool Karaoke with Sir Paul McCartney, as he popped into the hair salon to say hi and signed the Penny Lane street sign.
I loved all the funky, strange lyrics and the different places they sang about. I always wanted to go to Strawberry Fields and live in a yellow submarine. I always wanted to meet 'the girl with kaleidoscope eyes. She'd be interesting!
The fab four really were fab. So versatile and talented. I loved every one of their albums and every song. I'm always playing Hey Jude and Let it Be on you tube for my daughter to keep the music going down each generation.
We have all the Beatles Best of CDs which are fab but it's not the same as leafing throught my dad's box of singles, loving the green Apple label of Imagine in tne centre of the record. We also follow The Upbeat Beatles, a brilliant tribute band to the Fab Four.
Now to The Rolling Stones. So different from The Beatles. I loved Paint it Black and Let's Spend the night together. They were so full of energy and Mick Jagger was a sight to see in his drainpipes, strutting his stuff and eating the microphone. Brilliant! But then, a rolling stone gathers no moss so no wonder they were so energetic!
Even though The Beatles and The Rolling Stones dominated the 60s and into the 70s, I was also fed more amazing music. My mum's ultimate fave was Elvis and we played his records and sang along to his films all the time. We loved Blue Hawaii and made mocktails with little umbrellas. I always wore my flower lei and pretended to be a hula girl!
You learn so much from Google and Pinterest! I never knew my fave actress, Angela Lansbury or Jessica Fletcher was in this film with Elvis. She's one of those characters you'd like to have as your Great Aunt. Imagine the adventures you'd get up to in Cabot Cove!
Queen was another brilliant band that was always played in our house. I loved the rock ballads and my favoutite was Somebody to Love. We always watched Highlander and loved the amazing Queen soundtrack to this. Who wants to live forever? This song makes me so sad. I will never forget where I was and how I felt when my mum came into my bedroom that night and told me Freddie Mercury had passed away. I'd been eating garlic so the smell of garlic brings back that memory. My mum said the same on hearing the awful news about Elvis.
I have followed the amazing Queen Tribute, Mercury for about seven years now. They are so talented and full of energy. We are off again to see them in May at an outdoor venue and I can't wait!
We also listened to Abba and Fleetwood Mac. I can't believe that Abba won the Eurovision Song Contest with Waterloo in the year I was born! We always watched Eurovision with Terry So can. He was so sarcastic. Graham Norton has done really well filling his very big shoes. My fave Abba song was always Dancing Queen. When I hear it now I'm seventeen again with my dancing shoes on!
Fleetwood Mac were amazing too. I remember The Chain being the opening song for the Grand Prix and I'm so glad Guardians of the Galaxy 2 used it. Such a powerful ballad.
I can't write about music growing up without mentioning The Bee Gees. They were fab and my mum and I loved Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive with John Travolta. We'd loved him in Grease with Olivia Newton John. Now he was in this white suit with his collar up, as cool as a cucumber, strutting his stuff on the sidewalk, then on the dance floor. We loved it!
As I grew older, we loved watching music films such as Grease, Footloose, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing. I couldn't sit still though and would get up and dance to every song. Now I find myself telling my daughter to move out of the way of the telly! We also loved the series Fame with Leroy Johnson. Names from years ago just stick in your head. Over the years, we've rewatched these amazing films over and over.
We'd watch the old musicals too that I used to watch with my grandma. We loved Doris Day and Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire especially. I would sit with my gran watching Singing in the Rain and Calamity Jane, then 20 years on, it continued onto the next generation. South Pacific, Carousel and Oklahoma. The list continues. One of our favourite songs was Secret Love by Doris Day. Such a pure voice.
I used to love listening to my grandma and grandad's LPs on the old record player. Perry Como, Bing Crosby and Julio Eglaisis were just a few. Christmas was a musical time and I have very fond memories of singing and dancing along to Chas 'n Dave, "I've got no beer in the sideboard here..." Memories that just make me smile. Dad loved The Old Grey Whistle test and Jules Holland and had a pretty eclectic taste. We'd be listening to the B52s one minute, then Ian Drury would be shouting out, "Hit me with your rhythm stick" the next! He alsi loved the 50s rock 'n roll era,with the greats such as Fats Domino, Little Richard, Eddie Cochrane and Buddy Holly. Such talent!
My uncle had a Games Room where all the cousins would get together to play on the massive billiards table while listening to his 50s and 60s rock n roll singles. We'd love placing three or four singles on the top of the player, watching each drop one after the other. My favourite was the song, 'Venus in blue jeans, Mona Lisa with a ponytail.'
I need to finish my trip down Music Memory Lane with the heavy metal I would hear from my big brother. I had no choice with our thin walls! It was so funny looking back. I'd be there with my Debbie Gibson and Belinda Carlisle LPs that didn't stand a chance against Dio, Black Sabbath and Metallica. The nearest I got to rock in my record collection was T'Pau Rage and INXS Kick! I loved going to the record stores every Saturday, Casa Disco and Egs and leafing through all the LPs and CDs.
Love this old photo of a record store, especially with the Madonna vinyls on display. Brings bsck some fab memories!
I did enjoy the softer rock like Bon Jovi, Dec Leopard and Europe and would ask him to turn them up! I loved certain songs like Cinderella, Long, Cold Winter, Alice Cooper, Poison and Winger, Hungry. The best part of my rock education was being introduced to Faith No More and their album Epic. Just brilliant.
I am so thankful for my amazing technicolour musical upbringing. It's kept me open minded about enjoying and appreciating all kinds of genres of music and different eras. I love this quote. Not only are you what you eat but you are so what you listen to.
I love going back to music. It is like seeing an old friend again and reminiscing. As a student I loved Morrissey, a bit like marmite I suppose. I still love just blurring out the odd lyrics, 'twisted bicycle on a hillside desolate'. My husband just thinks songs like this are depressing and he does have a point. He doesn't get how I can enjoy listening to it, or the reading of Sylvia Plath poetry! I suppose Music choice is a personal choice and it varies with what mood you are in. Music is so powerful at bringing people together, sending out a message. Music is therapy. Sometimes you just need to relax with your favourite playlist and let the vibes take over.
Fantastic music era. Loved them all Queen and Abba were my favourites.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant era , oozing in talent!
ReplyDelete