MUSIC IS MY SOUL

I was born with music inside me. Music was one of my parts. Like my ribs, my kidneys, my liver, my heart. Like my blood. It was a force already within me when I arrived on the scene. It was a necessity for me-like food or water
Ray Charles

Music is my soul – as the song says “It’s my soul and Inspiration”

From my earliest memories music has been there always every step of the way from the early childrens songs on “Children’s Favourites”yes I’m that old! to modern songs of today they all play apart of making me who I am. At the age of about 3 – 4 songs like “There was an old lady who swallowed a fly by Burl Ives and was starting my interest and then by 5 the record of the day was Tommy Steele – “Singing the Blues” and I would stand on the kitchen table with a hardboard guitar my brother made performing this song. That’s when it started.

The first record I ever bought was not a hit but it was a doo wop song called “Heartaches by The Marcels famous for their version of Blue Moon. It was bought with my pocket money in W H Smiths in Richmond Surrey. Smiths were then a major record stockist unlike now when the internet has changed the music industry beyond recognition from those early days.

In the early 60′s the music trends changed rapidly the British music scene was picking up late Rock’n’Roll songs like Move It by Cliff and Shakin all over by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates were showing that British artists could compete with the Americans who up to then had virtually ruled the airwaves. Then came a new English producer who shook the US Charts by getting a BRitish group to No 1 in America. The producer was the wonderful Joe Meek with the band The Tornados and “Telstar” a great instrumental. This was before The Beatles were hardly heard of but obviously they followed on the breakthrough by storming the US charts and starting a Brit Revolution with fantatsic 60′s bands like The Kinks, The Who, Spencer Davis Group, Dave Clark Five and many more.

At age 10 I was taken to my first live concert by my brother at Kingston Granada. In those days there were a lot of acts on one nights bill. This night we saw The Outlaws, Tony Sheridan, The Bachelors, Mike Berry, Sounds Incorporated and Brenda Lee.

The band for me that night was Sounds Incorporated a great instrumental band who did their own set and then backed Brenda Lee. They really caught my imagination and I collected all their releases from then on. They didn’t make it big in the charts but were a fantastic live act chosen by the Beatles to be their support act at the Shea Stadium Concert and also backing the Beatles on the track Good Morning Good Morning on the Sgt Peppers Album in 1967.

After that night I went onto to see many bands going now with my mates we saw Johnny Kidd & the Pirates (another great act)  Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas, a very young Cilla Black, The Fourmost, Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Tich, The Herd, Marmalade, Tremeloes and The Who. At that concert the Who finished the show by smashing up their instruments and keith Moon throwing the drumkit towards the audience it finished with the kit balanced on the edge of the stage. Whilst it was amazing to watch I did find it a bit annoying as I was saving up to buy a guitar at the time they could have given one to me instead of smashing it up (ha ha).

To this point the following is probably a representative sound track to my life:

Soundtrack of my life 1952 – 1966 = There was an old lady who swallowed a fly – Burl Ives / Singing the Blues – Tommy Steele / Shakin all over – Johnny Kidd & the Pirates / Sounds like Locomotion – Sounds Incorporated / Heartaches – The Marcels / Telstar – The Tornados / Hippy Hippy Shake – Swinging Blue Jeans / Glad all over – Dave Clark Five / Here comes my baby – Tremeloes / Kites – Simon Dupree & the Big Sound / Summer Holiday – Cliff Richard (my first date with a girl) / Price of Love – Everly Brothers / California Girls – Beach Boys / Let’s Hang on – Four Seasons / Wimoweh – Springfields / Nashville Cats – Lovin Spoonful / Universal Soldier – Donovan / Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire / Turn Turn Turn – Byrds / Jet Black – Drifters (Shadows) / Hava Nagila – Joe Brown / Blowin in the wind – Bob Dylan / 40 Miles of Bad Road – Duane Eddy / Blue Suede Shoes – Elvis Presley.

As you can see from that list it’s very eclectic and that very varied taste continues through my life music is music I do not like to be stuck in one genre variety is the spice of life as they say.  One other thing you may have noticed is up to this point there are no Beatles songs in the list so far that is because at first I didn’t like them I wanted to be different all my friends liked them so I thought they were overated and annoying but that was to change. To end this chapter I have to mention the worst group we ever saw live because it came as a shock that they were so bad on the night we saw them it was The Bee Gees. We travelled to Slough to see them quite a way on the bus and they were absolutely awful. The first act had been closed by Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich who gave a fantastic performance but The Bee Gees in the second act were terrible they were off key, the band seemed as if they were drunk and the whole thing was so bad we actually walked out it was the only concert I ever walked out on.

Next Time: The Beatles finally get into my soul, Country music is introduced to me and two older artists/acts  I had never heard of become a major part of my music life.