40 and Over Club Meeting

[trekkiedane]

I still get a shock over the color in some TOS eps, probably because my multiple black and white viewings of it was at such an impressionable age.

+1

My dad saw no point in having a TV If there was only one channel to watch, so he joined a neighbourhood antenna-union and we got clear reception of three more channels (albeit in German).

Mein Gott, Jim! Er ist tot.

 

[scotpens]

We had a LP of Peter and the Wolf that was music and narration.

There have been many recordings of Peter and the Wolf, but it’s possible that I had the same album. The spoken narration was written by Prokofiev as an integral part of the composition. It’s still a very good tool for cultivating musical taste in children and teaching the concept of the leitmotif.

Another of my favorite childhood recordings was a four-LP-disc set of actor Cyril Ritchard reading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and doing different voices for all the characters.

And I agree that Billy Don't Be a Hero is crap.

Hell, even for bubblegum it’s crap.

I've never been able to sit through the Sound of Music, I am bored to death by it.

It’s the one Rodgers and Hammerstein musical I simply can’t stand. Way too much treacle.

Anyway, in 1967 (when I was three) Halfdan Rasmussen wrote rhymes for each of the 29 letters of the alphabet. They were published in a book with illustrations by Ib Spang Olsen and have ever since been a must in the library of all Danish children.

I see by the cover illustration that the Danish alphabet has the characters Æ, Ø and Å, but no W. That makes a total of 28 letters. What’s the 29th?

Are you familiar with the music of folk-singing duo Nina and Frederik? I understand they were pretty popular in Europe back in the Sixties. Hell, they just might be the best Danish calypso singers ever!

Nina enjoyed brief notoriety in America some years later, when it was revealed that she was Clifford Irving’s girlfriend at the time he was trying to palm off a phony Howard Hughes autobiography. She appeared in a few movies in the 1970s and ’80s, notably Robert Altman’s The Long Goodbye. Her singing was much better than her acting, but damned if she wasn’t gorgeous.

(Sorry for getting a bit off-topic, but I have a thing for Scandinavian blondes.)

 

[rhubarbodendron]

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FO1G7tIdLk[/yt]
Loved that when I was 4 and cathegorically refused to go to bed unless my parents played that record.

 

[Mary Ann]

Damn, I'd typed up a post with 3 YouTube links and none of the links showed up. So the short version...the first song I can remember playing on the radio was When When I See You Again by The Three Degrees. I have strong memories of sitting on the floor in front of a big teak Blaupunkt radio listening to one of the Hilversum stations (this was in the Netherlands). I had several albums of children's songs and stories but they were all in Dutch, so I very much doubt that anyone on this list would know them.

 

[boobatuba]

Lots of good stuff jogging memory circuits that haven't been engaged in a long time, but far and away my favourite childhood album has to be Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder - I just wanted to hear that again and again. When Obama gave Stevie that award at the White House I was totally "Right On!" Harry Chapin's Taxi was another fave.

Excellent. Songs in the Key of Life was my first 33 when I was about 12.

Do you know what the album title refers to?

 

[bluedana]

I still get a shock over the color in some TOS eps, probably because my multiple black and white viewings of it was at such an impressionable age.

We did not get a color TV until I was in high school, around 1983 or so. At that time the network used to show The Wizard of Oz every year, and we'd pop popcorn and watch it. I actually fell off of the couch, that first year with the new TV, when Dorothy stepped into Oz and everything was in color. (I had never gotten the sight gag of "That's a horse of a different color"). I had not known that "Kansas" was in B&W, and Oz was in Technicolor.

I remember one of the "deepest" songs when I was a child was Terry Jacks' Season in the Sun. Now, I cringe.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eec6fYuUTYU[/yt]

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ Wow, that is just painful to watch. So many songs from the 70's are just ghastly.

Here's one that I have memories associated with that is not quite as syrupy:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uovFeeTvG0[/yt]

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

bluedana I had the same experience with The Wizard of Oz! We watched it every year and then one year we watched it at someone else's house.. !!!! I was totally smitten.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Okay, ladies - hands up if David Cassidy was your first kiddy-crush!
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJYSu2OVCGM[/yt]

I think The Partridge Family Album might have been the first record I ever got, after harassing my mom for, like weeks!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Partridge_Family_Album


However, about the same time, I was getting interested in the music of Three Dog Night, although I was not old enough to stay up 'late' and watch them on any shows (I assume they must have been on Ed Sullivan, but I don't remember it...):

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U0viaAqouA[/yt]

I think my first 'real' rock records where a Three Dog Night Album (can't remember the name though, or even what it looked like) and Grand Funk Railroad's Closer To Home album (after which Mark Farner quickly took David Cassidy's place as my rock star crush:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyF5J7au1jE[/yt]

I do not remember GFR's concert at Shea Stadium...although I had an older cousin who lived in NYC and went...which I thought was the coolest thing ever.

 

[scotpens]

I remember one of the “deepest” songs when I was a child was Terry Jacks' Season in the Sun. Now, I cringe.

I can say the same thing about Bobby Goldsboro’s maudlin tearjerker “Honey.”

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59BZxgohr9g[/yt]

 

[PKTrekGirl]

^ AAAAAUUUUGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!

Okay...just for that, you get this one, which even in 1975, I knew enough to hate:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLV4BBmjnzM&feature=related[/yt]

 

[Miss Chicken]

OK, we are getting aslightly off topic but the absolutely most sickening song of all time (as far as I am concerned) came out in 1979. I know I was an adult by this time but if I had been a kid I still would have hated it.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAZR4b5d8ZQ[/yt]

 

[RJDiogenes]

Wow, lots of hostility toward 70s sentimentality in this Thread. "Seasons In The Sun" and "Honey" are both classics. One of the great things about the 70s was the variety of styles and themes in Pop Culture, something that's sadly lacking now.

Damn, I'd typed up a post with 3 YouTube links and none of the links showed up.

Because of a glitch in the software, YouTube links disappear after you preview them. So you have to copy the contents of your Post, preview it, paste it all back in and click Submit.

 

[Mary Ann]

Thanks for the advice, but I didn't preview them. I just saw blank white squares, so something must have screwed up during the copying and pasting. My computer's acted up with YouTube before. I'll try again...

Edit: nope, it's still not playing. Never mind.

 

[Mutai Sho-Rin]

Born in 1946, I cut my toddler musical teeth on big band music. "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller was, and remains, a favorite piece of music. Vera Lynn, Frank Sinatra and other WW2 era singers were also popular in the house. Later years bred new favorites but it all started in the late 40s with the big bands.

 

[trekkiedane]

I see by the cover illustration that the Danish alphabet has the characters Æ, Ø and Å, but no W. That makes a total of 28 letters. What’s the 29th?

It is the W -it's just not on the cover (although I don't remember it in the book either...)

Spoiler: Picture of my keyboard

Are you familiar with the music of folk-singing duo Nina and Frederik? I understand they were pretty popular in Europe back in the Sixties. Hell, they just might be the best Danish calypso singers ever!

Sure, I've heard them on the radio every now and then, and the tv still shows clips with them in nostalgia-shows

 

[rhubarbodendron]

I had several albums of children's songs and stories but they were all in Dutch, so I very much doubt that anyone on this list would know them.

Could you post them nevertheless? I speak a little Dutch and it'd be a chance for me to improve my knowledge of both the language any the culture.
Or if you think they aren't of any public interest, could you PM them to me, please? (there's no hurry - I'll be afk the next 2 days, attending a conference)

 

[RJDiogenes]

Thanks for the advice, but I didn't preview them. I just saw blank white squares, so something must have screwed up during the copying and pasting. My computer's acted up with YouTube before. I'll try again...

Edit: nope, it's still not playing. Never mind.

That's funny. When I get the white squares it usually means it's time to reboot the modem.

You can always just paste the raw web address into your post; it will automatically become a link.

 

[PKTrekGirl]

Wow, lots of hostility toward 70s sentimentality in this Thread. "Seasons In The Sun" and "Honey" are both classics.

Well, in your opinion they might be 'classics'.

However, writer Dave Barry's readers apparently would disagree with you. I believe both songs were high vote-getters in his reader survey regarding the worst songs of all time - and were included in the subsequent book entitled Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs - one of the most hilarious books I own.

Regarding Honey (one of the absolute highest vote getters of the entire survey - I think it came in 5th place):
"Bobby (Goldsboro) never caught on that he could have bored a hole in himself to let the sap out."

I think for some of us (and I am one who falls into this category, admittedly), there is a difference between thoughtful reminiscence and syrupy lyrics to the point where you are almost embarrassed for the singer.

And mccloudt, if you would prefer to have the videos posted into the thread, you can send me the links and I will post them for you, if you like. That would be really annoying!

 

[scotpens]

Born in 1946, I cut my toddler musical teeth on big band music.

OMG, there’s someone on this board who’s older than I am!

Regarding Honey (one of the absolute highest vote getters of the entire survey - I think it came in 5th place):
“Bobby (Goldsboro) never caught on that he could have bored a hole in himself to let the sap out.”

To be fair, let’s give the credit (or the blame) to Bobby Russell, who wrote “Honey.” Bobby Goldsboro just sang the thing.

Incidentally, Russell also wrote “The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia” for his then-wife Vicki Lawrence. She later remarked that the song was the only good thing she got out of that marriage.

And mccloudt, if you would prefer to have the videos posted into the thread, you can send me the links and I will post them for you, if you like. That would be really annoying!

If you want to embed a video, just right-click (Control-click on a Mac) on the YouTube image and select “Copy embed html” from the menu, then paste it into your post.

Unless that isn’t working either.