Tell Us About ….Musical Influences

Hello everyone

 

 

Another month, another international creative writing challenge for Tell Us About…. and this time the theme is Musical Influences, a theme chosen by the writer and blogger Suzy Turner.

 

I began this theme by saying to myself, ‘I wonder whether music means all that much to me now’. I expect most of you are shocked at that statement. Indeed, have I ever been influenced by music? I mean I have loved some genres of music, especially when I was younger, but now, if I have a choice, I always, always, turn to the spoken voice. For starters I am a podcast addict, of a particular kind, the political and/or historical podcast, so whenever I can, I listen to The Rest is Politics with Rory Stewart and Alistair Campbell. When I’ve finished their Wednesday and Thursday podcasts I go on to listen to Empire with the author William Dalrymple and Ann Anand, then there is The Rest is History with Tom (not the actor) Holland and Dominic Sandbrook. And don’t forget The Rest is Money with Robert Peston and Steph McGovern. If I have any time left to spare for podcasts I might move on to The News Agents. And so it goes, I’ll look for another podcast and another.

 

Then there’s my time to read, my time to write (always in the morning). I mean unlike Mr F I couldn’t possibly write with any music in the background, too distracting by far, I have to have total silence. And then there’s my exercise class time, and going out and about, for walks or shopping and don’t forget the visits to various cultural activities such as museums and art exhibitions. In the evenings we relax by watching films and television, not all of it brilliant, as I am a great fan of crap tv! So, there you go, music just doesn’t feature in my life and I’m going to tell you my perception of music. If I hear music, any music, when I’m thinking or trying to concentrate it’s like bees buzzing in my ears – it’s very irritating. So that’s my view of music. I’d rather avoid it, if you don’t mind.

 

But, it wasn’t always like that.

 

Perhaps it’s something I’ve inherited from my parents as I don’t remember either of them playing any music of any description in our house whatsoever, that is until both me and my sister, Elizabeth, became teenagers and we both had our own record players. So yes, when I was younger, I loved all the current pop hits.

 

The thing is I grew up with in the 1950s when television was incredibly conventional with news readers wearing DJs and, goodness me, not one of the newsreaders was a woman, although there were some female continuity announcers who wore evening gowns. But slowly things changed, and television began to acknowledge and pick up on pop. Who remembers the Six-Five Special, which began in early 1957 and featured, shock, horror – pop music? I was eleven years-old and the first few programmes were extraordinary events as television always closed down between 6.0pm and 7.pm. Why? To put young children to bed! That really happened, and that was why it happened! The BBC was still very benevolent and aware that the good of the nation was in their hands.

 

But to an eleven-year-old, the feeling of wow, what is this, when the first Six-Five Special ran on a Saturday evening at, you’ve guessed it, 6.05pm. I can still hear that theme tune in my head. It felt so exciting, so audacious, so transgressive, so daring, to be watching the television and listening to this new-fangled pop – through the hours of 6 and 7pm! The BBC still as conventional as ever and not really liking this ’popular music’ pulled the show the next year, when Oh Boy started on ITV and ratings dropped. We didn’t have this second channel, so our pop watching stopped until Juke Box Jury came on in 1959. This consisted of a very staid panel of people (chaired by none other than David Jacobs) who listened to the latest pop songs and award them something or other, can’t remember what.

 

Top of the Pops was the next big pop watch on television, and perhaps the best ever. It started in 1964 and ran for 40 seasons until 2006. I was 18 when that started, and I was a keen watcher. Oh, my goodness, I wasn’t a very good child or daughter, I watched and played pop as I knew it annoyed my parents. They didn’t like music much, but they really didn’t like pop. So, listening to pop music was part of me being a rebellious teen.

 

I had a great time being a teenager in the late 50s and early 60s and I remember those times best for the way we spent our weekends. Every Saturday we met up in the one coffee shop in my nearest town (Woking) and while we drank our frothy coffee (that tasted of nothing much at all) in the clear plastic coffee cups, we would discuss the latest pop song. This would be well before the Beatles, whose first hit was From Me to You in 1963 was when I was 17, and the Rolling Stones, whose first hit was also in 1963. No, we would be discussing the relative merits of Tommy Steele, possibly Cliff, and of course, the King, Elvis.

 

After drinking our coffee, we would move on to a local department store to look at dress patterns and bolts of material, to decide whether we’d make a skirt or a dress. I remember while doing my A-levels I found enough time to make myself a very Mary Quant-like dress with a large cut-out circle at the back. Then on to the record shop where we would go into a booth and listen to a record to see whether it was worth buying. If we stayed out for our lunch it would be a burger at the Wimpy and then a film at the cinema, most likely one of those ghastly films starring Elvis, which I adored at the time, but not forgetting there would be a black and white noir crime film beforehand, with a newsreel and a cartoon as well. This was all considered quite normal and when I left home, for the delights of London and nursing, cinemas might also have had an organ that played in the interval. I remember one that rose from the depths to play during the interval surrounded by neon flashing lights.  Again, that wasn’t considered unusual, we just took that for granted as something to be expected in our capital city.

 

I do remember that the latest thing in the way of pop concerts was to have a string of pop stars performing in local venues. I remember one, held in our local cinema, which I went to when I was coming up to 18 and the headliners were – the Rolling Stones!!! I had never ever seen such skinny legs encased in the tightest of black jeans. You could hardly hear them for the screaming!

 

But when I left home my musical influences broadened and with input from my nursing friends, I turned my attention to classical concerts especially at the Proms, the famous music festival held annually at the Royal Albert Hall, we went to many of those, often standing throughout the performance.  But the first classical concert I witnessed at this amazing venue was in 1963. I was 17 and studying for my A-levels. I’d recently taken my O-levels and in English Literature O-level we’d looked at the 1914-8 War Poets, and especially those of Wilfred Owen.  This concert was the first concert performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem – reader, it blew my mind. It was my first experience of music heard for real, so to speak, and it was truly a life-changing experience. Thereafter, I went to many concerts at that venue and loved every one of them.

 

After a variety of boyfriends I met Mr F, at the quite late age of 27! A year later we married. Mr F is a quite the pop/rock music afficionado, and while I dragged him off to the proms, we also went to some gigs, and continued that for a while – gigs with Sting and Shade come to mind. But slowly that fizzled out and our tastes moved on to the visual and it is film and ‘looking’ that I do. Mr F meanwhile listens to music during the day when he’s in his office, on headphones, but I prefer silence or podcasts. I do like jazz and some female voices. When I hear them, I think, oh that’s nice. But. I don’t seek music out. There you go – that’s how it is with me and music.

 

And now it is time to read the other lovely women in this challenge. First of all, we have the writer Suzy Turner who thought up this month’s theme. Suzy’s Musical Influences have ranged from pop to rock, shaping her journey through diverse genres. From Madonna’s catchy tunes to the soulful rhythms of Motown, music has been a constant companion, inspiring her creativity and enriching her life. Click here to read Suzy’s post.

 

Gail from Is This Mutton was transfixed one day in 1971 by the star who became her icon. Since then there have been other dalliances, and she has even switched to a different type of music. But she still remains true to the Prettiest Star. Click on this link to find out who this star is!

 

Marsha who blogs at Marsha in the Middle grew up when AM radio reigned supreme. Elvis would be crooning in the background along with Tom Jones and even a little Frank Sinatra. As music changed from the crooners to rock to heavy metal to hip hop, Marsha’s tastes changed too. Or, did they? You’ll have to read her post here to discover the answer!

 

Debbie of Deb’s World goes back in time to her teenage self, rediscovers some favourites from watching Countdown on TV and realises she was very naïve when it comes to song lyrics! Read more about this here!

 

The iconic Jill who blogs at Grown up Glamour found this an interesting theme as she wasn’t sure she had any Musical Influences, instead Jill simply looks at music she has enjoyed. To read about this, click here.

 

That is all for now, thank you so much for reading to the end, but do tell me about your musical influences. However, as you know, I’m in Spain now, so do forgive me for not replying to your lovely comments, but I will read them, for sure.

 

With love, Penny, the Frugalfashionshopper