Music is my tardis

A good friend wrote the above phrase on my facebook after reading my last blog, just about the time that I realised that I hadn't mentioned music in my list of memory inducing 'prompts'. So I dedicate this blog to Carl with the hope that he will listen to all my favourite 'tunes' and not suffer too much at some of them....

Like humour, one's own musical tastes are so subjective. I have seen really good friends nearly come to blows over the 'best' rendition of a song. Just this last week I entered into a really fierce facebook debate on the best version of Leonard Cohen's wonderful Hallejuah - obviously John Cale although not everyone agreed....

And memories induced by music don't always mean that the particular piece of music is one of one's actual favourites! For instance whenever I hear Dexy's Midnight Runners' Come On Eileen it reminds me of a holiday in Woolacombe in the 1980s. I like the song but it wouldn't be one of the pieces I would chose for Desert Island Discs.

I know you are all waiting for me to start quoting all the Bob Dylan songs that mean a lot of me and all the memories they hold. Well there are so many that I will just give the one song, from the first Dylan album I ever bought [Bringing It All Back Home] way back when. The song is Love Minus Zero and reminds me of hours spent in my mother's front room with my old mono record player [yes that was what they were called back along!] I can't find a YouTube that does justice to Dylan singing it so have mixed two musical memories to link to this version by Joan Baez.

Most couples have their own tune and we have ended up with
Where do you go to my Lovely? by Peter Sarstedt . How this happened we have no idea but it is a ripping good tune...

I am hopping all over the place with these memories, why Queen appear next with Bohemian Rhapsody I have no idea, except memory is like that - random and not orderly! We used to listen to Queen constantly when we were 'exiled' in Germany [working for Ford] in the late '70s. And to the embarassment of all my children Other Half and I both know all the words to this whenever it is played anywhere and sing along with it - loudly!

Back to the late 60s and hippy times, to when we first heard Arlo Guthrie singing Amazing Grace. Since then we have heard lots of artists perform this, including massed bands, but there is still something unique about Arlo's performances. We have had it played at Christenings and Funerals and I am dropping hints for a forthcoming wedding!

Another completely random choice would be something by Paul Robeson. A favourite of mine, but he was also a favourite of my Father's. The trouble is, I really don't know which one song I would choose - the lullaby my mother used to sing, one of the Welsh songs he sang to support the miners, the hymns ..... Oh well Mum, here's your song Curly Headed Baby!

Roy Bailey is the music man I probably go to see most frequently these days. So my song from him I Ain't Afraid would be and the memory is of him and Tony Benn doing a great set at Cambridge Folk Festival in 2000. A set we have seen many times and enjoy every time!

I could go on for ever but must stop but before I do there are two songs I cannot ignore. Family know why I have Joan Baez singing Dylan's Forever Young. A very special memory.

And lastly, Billy Bragg's version of The Internationale. This song encapsulates so many memories: Family, friends, beliefs, hopes and ideals. And it is my ringtone on my mobile. And Billy and I are both 'Made in Barking'!

No photos today - the PC won't play.

Take care of all your memories.

Its really too hot to work, so have been chatting on Facebook and I happened to remark how depressing I found a comment just heard on the radio:

Windchimes always remind me of my Nan

Being a great windchime lover [yes I have them all over the house and garden] I always thought they expresed our hippy past rather than our increasing seniority! Although I do remember when first putting up a bamboo chime in the garden nderneath our bedroom window just before going to bed one hot night, Other Half getting up in a temper at about 3am as its lovely tones were keeping him awake...

I went on to comment that Yardleys Old English Lavender Water reminded me of my two Nans - and I have also been searching the net ever since to try and find pictures of those fly traps that were cardboard pictures of things like budgerigars or kittens in a basket which hung from the ceiling [we are talking circa 1955 btw!]

So a thread developed about what sparks off memories. A smell can take one back years. My mother wasn't a great one for cosmetics, but there was a certain face cream my mother used which I have very rarely smelt since a child - but if I ever catch a whiff of it - wow! And my Dad - well there was the smell of the wood in his wardrobe mixed with the sort of moth balls they used way back then - that sounds awful but was actually rather nice!

I am not a foody person so cooking smells don't do a lot for me - but that smell of candy floss at the sea side or fair, or better still - toffee apples. My mother used to make these and I do remember one batch she made and when we came down the next morning they were covered with ants who had also been unable to resist the smell..

My two grandfathers: the English one was 'Granfer' and had whiskery stubble on his cheeks which I laughed to rub my cheeks against. I think that began my love of bearded men! [Other Half, Brian Blessed...] My Welsh one: Granfa [note spelling difference] had such a round face and smile and used to talk to me about piano playing. Both passed over too soon.

Strawberry smells remind of the day I got home from school and found the house empty but smelling deliciously of strawberries. I couldn't find a relative or a strawberry - but to be honest I was most worried about the latter. I was in the fortunate position in those days to live next door to more family and it eventually turned out that a new baby had just been born and thus everyone had left my house for next door. So the smell of strawberries reminds me of that cousin! [The strawberries were eventually found in our house, neatly turned into pots of jam. And I can't stand jam!]

My father died when I was a teenager so I never really got to know him as a person rather than a 'Dad'. But when I find an old book with his signature in it I feel close to him, finding a little bit of his character in his choice of books. And his writing was so appalling because he was a lobby correspondent and never learnt shorthand - used his own system and wrote very quickly! I have always loved seeing Eldest Son doing jig-saws because it reminded me that as a child if I left a jig-saw unfinished overnight, when my father got home from reporting on parliamentary matters he would finish it!

When my mother died and we cleared out the loft and emptied the house two things that had to go to the tip upset me . One was the old electric radiator that used to get wheeled into my bedroom every time that I was ill - very often in the 1950s as I was asthmatic! - and the other was the suitcase that came down from the loft at holiday time. It still had some of the stickers on it from when we sent it on ahead by train [before the years of the car!] The suitcase was old and tatty, although Other Half offered to keep it I couldn't inflict it on him!

The last thing that we took out of that house was one of my mother's evening dresses that had somehow survived from the 1960s/70s. Eldest Daughter had worn it to a legal ball when at uni and I couldn't send it to the charity shop somehow. A couple of years later Youngest Daughter decided that she would like to wear it to her school prom. Youngest Daughter being shorter than Eldest Daughter and my mother meant considerable work had to be done by me to get it to fit but I managed somehow. I bought Youngest Daughter a pair of smart sandals to go with the dress - but being ever the individul she decided to wear a pair of pink converse boots with it! I must admit she looked good, but since I worked in the school at the time I got fed up with other teachers telling me the following week what a good idea that had been and threatened to put a note on the staff room notice board with the receipt for the sandals on it!

My children never seemed to remember the things/outings/events we thought that they would - the trips to places of interest, educational visits etc etc. But they do remember me turning a film off before the end and telling them the [false] happy ending. And Youngest Daughter embarassed herself in front of her driving instructor when she refused a wine gum because she thought it contained alcohol. [That was one of Other Half's jokes when she was very young] Plus the driving instructor was his best friend so that was a double embarassment for him]

My grandchildren [eldest aged nine] are already savouring memories - and what odd things they remember - never what one hopes! Eldest grandaughter remembers 'the lovely meal' I cooked on holiday once - my sphag bol which is one of the only things I can cook and really doesn't rate that highly in culinary terms! Eldest grandson on visiting the holiday town we hadn't visited for nearly a year remembered exactly the position of the shop which sold delicious fudge. Are children's memories always food induced?

Funny what things spark our memories isn't it! As Bob Dylan said:

Take care of all your memories. For you cannot relive them

I am not on my usual computer so can't access my photos. I hope I have downloaded a link to 'Memories' from the musical 'Cats'.

At Last, Rowan Williams.....

Yesterday I was really pleased to hear the Archbishop of Canterbury,Rowan Williams talking sense about the Coalition government's 'plans'. Of course the government in the persona of David Cameron replied to Dr Williams' criticisms.

Obviously, to those who have read my comments before, I am going to agree with Dr Williams' comments. Equally obviously David Cameron, representing the government, will disagree. But this is the sort of healthy debate that should be encouraged in our 2011 society. Some journos and contributers and commentators to and on Blogs were suggesting that the Archbishop of Canterbury should be 'above politics'. How ridiculous is that?! Religious discussions are surely amongst the original platforms for political reform. For example, just read the Beatitudes, what a wonderful set of 'rules' for those wanting to lead a good life. [Because I am talking about the Archbishop of Canterbury I am using examples from Christian teachings. All religions can show similar examples]

I am not suggesting that all Christians will agree with Dr Williams. Or that one has to be a Christian to agree with him! As a Christian and a pacifist I have been disappointed that he has not 'come out' definitively against our military actions for example. But the more that public figures like Dr Williams open up the debate about whether or not they feel the Coalition Government is doing the right things the better it must be for all of us, surely?


Oh and the photo? Well it is a very early shot of Bob Dylan singing three verses of With God on Our Side in May 1964 on the BBC programme Tonight. When Other Half heard Dr Williams' comments he remarked 'So the Government do not have God on their side?' This was repeated hours later on the TV news. Always knew that OH should have been a headline writer. He is wasted as a press officer.....

Please listen, Vince Cable

So today we are to hear Vince Cable addressing the GMB conference where it is reported he will 'warn' [in my translation this means 'threaten'] that any further "co-ordinated strike action may lead to tougher union laws"

As I have said in previous blogs, pre the 2010 General Election I had quite liked Vince Cable - in his Liberal Democrat days. He seemed a bit right wing but talked a reasonable amount of business and economic sense. However once he had a sniff of power things changed and he seemed to adopt the Tory mantras with all his heart. There was a moment when he seemed to be falling out of love with his new buddies, when he attacked the Coalition proposed proposals [don't you just love that tautonomy!] to reform the NHS

However, now I sense in Cable a man desperate to hang onto/gain power at any price to his so-called 'principles'. The sort of threat it appears he will make at the GMB conference today takes us back to the 1830s and the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Government action then did not stop workers from unionising - in fact it strengthened their cause and if the present government takes on the already weakened Union movement they will find they have a similar effect. [A lot of people do not realise that the 'oath' for which the Tolpuddle Martyrs where tried, convicted and transported was very, very similar to the oath that Freemasons did and still do swear]


The day of action on March 26th has obviously rattled the Coalition government more than they admitted then - the answer is to listen to our grievances and not threaten us with punitive measures.

I am writing this blog in a temper when only just back from a relaxing time away which followed a lovely family wedding. Please Mr Cable re-think your speech and let me and others get back into our zone of freedom to express our grievances. Don't take us back to the pre-Victorian times.



The image is taken from the Tolpuddle Martyrs site: http://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/index.php?page=martyr-s-story
Read and be warned

Happy Birthday Bob Dylan!

Well, Bob Dylan is 70 years old today. That actually seems impossible to me, I absolutely cannot have been following the genius that is Bob Dylan for almost 50 years. Yet I have.

I suppose that to me and many others of my generation the name 'Bob Dylan' is synonomous with the change that seemed to rush through the early to mid sixties in music, art and society - to the generation that was young then. To badly filch and paraphrase Wordsworth:

Exciting was it in those years to be there, But to be young was very heaven!

My twin gods were Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. I can still remember the shiver that went down my spine - literally - when I first heard the tune and listened to the words to With God on Our Side, it expressed so exactly what I was fumbling to say at those early CND meetings I was attending.

The 'Bob and Joan' combination provided me and my friends with many adventures in and memories from those days. One of the things that drew Other Half and I together was our mutual respect for Dylan. I remember a madcap ride with friends [this was in the late sixties] to the Electric Cinema Club in the Portobello Road, Notting Hill to watch the film Don't Look Back which was a documentary about Dylan's 1967 tour of England which showed other artistes including [obviously!] Baez, the Animals, Donovan and more. The Electric at that time was falling apart and there was a very strange smell in the air. I suppose the occupants were dressed oddly, not that we were any different in our ponchos, ragged trousers and long skirts. The music and light show before the main film started was King Crimson's Court of the Crimson King. Then there were the festivals and shows, with longer and longer gaps between our attendance and children started to arrive and thus the buying of the records replaced the buying of tickets.

Unravelling Dylan's words and music helped us to think. Maybe they even helped us through the Sociology parts of our degrees. Certainly they were often played loudly at those times! His music and voice [yes!] have been a comfort, a friend and an encouragement.

We went on Dylan's musical journey with him, not always liking the twists and turns but always appreciating his depth of knowledge and skill. I loved it when he 'went electric' but wasn't so keen on his Planet Waves era. But I stuck with him and am still enjoying his recent stuff - Modern Times was awesome. And yes I loved his Christmas Album of Christmas 2009 - it was for charity too! - and laughed and cried at it!

As our children got older they started listening to the music and being dragged [not unwillingly I hope!] to the festivals and concerts to hear our heroes. The cross-over point occurred not when they began actually asking to come with us but when eldest son announced he had bought tickets for us and him to see Dylan in London. And we realised when we got to the venue that there were lots of parents our age with children our son's age and wondered if they were being similarly 'treated'?! But eldest son is a true Dylan fan and named his eldest son Dylan as proof. And whenever his Dylan talks about the older Dylan he refers to him as 'Bob not me'. Fair enough.

A new 'audience' has been reached with Bob's Radio Hour, first broadcast on US radio and successfully 'imported' here. His deep musical knowledge has been confirmed to a new generation - great work!

So on Bob's 70th birthday today we are having a Bob fest and playing his music all day. Not necessarily all sung by him, so many other artistes have recorded his music all around the world. The dear old Beeb have been playing some wonderful tributes and programmes about him for nearly a week. One tribute programme featured Billy Bragg talking about a show he was at in the then Hammersmith Odeon in the early 90s, I realised that was the show we couldn't get to because we were snow bound and which we were are still sulking about - now even more so because I missed out on Billy Bragg too! Last night the BBC news even 'leaked' that at one time Bob took heroin. Shock, horror. We never would have guessed. However, for all that has been written and discussed about him , for all the interviews that he has taken part in - he is still a puzzle wrapped in an enigma.

A couple of years ago we threw a Bob fest in a hall and charged an entrance fee, raising a tidy sum for charity. Another year we decorated the outside of the house - as we often do that neighbours just thought we had yet another relative, this time called Bob. This year I thought I would just write about him and share my gratitude for all the pleasure he has given over me all the years with you. Thanks Bob.




The Times They are a-changing. When I clicked onto the site to show the lyrics for With God On Our Side the banner ads at the side of the site were for the Weight Watchers organisation rather than the adds on the back of my precious copy of Subterranean Homesick blues as shown in the above picture. On the back of that sheet music the ads are for other sheet music by: The Weavers [Pete Seeger's Band]; Joan Baez; Peter, Paul & Mary; and a 'Young Folk' mix. Ahh the memories! The Electric Cinema Club, after going through some very bad times and getting even more decrepit is now swish and is an experience.

Anniversary Blog

Well today is the first anniversary of this blog. So time to take stock? No not really, taking stock can be depressing although when I look back I have enjoyed writing even if unexpected turns have been taken at times!

The blog was started for three reasons. In the wake of last year's General Election I needed to let off steam and I had enjoyed the political debates I had been having online during the run up to the campaign, being unable to get to many 'in the flesh' debates due to health issues. I was also meant to be writing a book about my naughty ancestors and the blog was a way of flexing my writing muscles. The health issues had also meant that I had had to retire a couple of years early from my lecturing job as a [mainly] English Lit lecturer to adults so I thought I would throw in the odd literary blog but somehow the social observations [or ranting] took over and the literariness got sidelined and emerged in the Clarice blog on New Year's Eve last year. Clarice is not quite as prolific as she should be but that should be addressed soon! The naughty ancestors book is still in the 'planning' stage.

But I have enjoyed the blogging. Sometimes my blogs have been picked up by other bloggers and re-blogged and even posted onto web sites. I was 'commissioned' to write a film review and have been asked several times to 'publicise' a 'cause'.

And have I ranted and plugged causes! Amongst others #saveournhs/keep our nhs public ; #saveourforests ; save the UK Coastguard centres ; #save our libraries ; and another to which I devote most time and thought.

I have ranted about and written open letters to various politicans including David Cameron and Vince Cable and praised such worthwhile, wonderful voluntarily run organisations such as MAMAA and Gateway Clubs. I have 'advertised' various rallies and demos and reported on some of the ones I have managed to get to. I have celebrated the lives of various people including some lovely family members.

I have made some online friends [and probably some enemies too, although I really hope not!] but above all I have enjoyed myself and hope some readers may have enjoyed my witterings too. To those I have annoyed, sorry about that but these are solely my own opinions after all.

And the photo image above? Blake's Jerusalem . Why? Why not? As good an anniversary song as any other.

Nick Clegg: Saviour of the NHS???!!

So yesterday Nick Clegg decided that he is against Tory plans to 'revamp' the NHS. I am sure I am not the only blogger remarking this morning about this volte face on the part of the Lib Dem leader.

[A bit of recent Lib Dem history: in March Nick Clegg had to accept the motion put down by his MPs at his party’s spring conference condemning Andrew Lansley, the Conservative Health Secretary, proposed reforms.] Those who were said to be angry over their leaders 'agreement' with the proposed reforms included Baroness Shirley Williams.

We could not have been the only household watching Cleggy on the TV yesterday chanting 'Why now Nick?' Could it have been to do with the drubbing at the polls on Thursday in the local elections? Has he realised, with other high ranking Lib Dems like Vince Cable and Simon Hughes, that now the electorate really see their party as just a paler blue version of the Conservative party?

I do not like the NHS being used as a 'political tool' to make a politician gain votes. To me a National Health Service has been and should continue to be a human right for British citizens for the past 60+ years thanks to Aneurin Bevan and his colleagues. We cannot as a nation afford [morally and financially] to lose it. As a family historian I often read the death certificates of ancestors, mostly poor working people, and wonder if the NHS had been available 150 years ago they would have survived the illnesses which killed them.

As an individual I thank the NHS for their care in just this past six weeks, let alone my whole life! Youngest Daughter as you may know, has just given birth to a lovely grand-daughter. However both needed a lot of care from the NHS, Youngest Daughter had pre-eclampsia which got worse after delivery and thanks to the care of her hospital she is still with us to tell the tale [but still receiving treatment] - again this is one of those conditions that 150 years ago would probably be shown on a death certificate. At the same time youngest grand-daughter had to go into special care for a couple of days but is thankfully now at home with her Mum and Dad and keeping them awake at night!

Whilst this was happening in one county we had two very elderly relatives, to whom we are next of kin, in hospital in another county. The wonderful NHS saved the life of one and now he is home are now sending a district nurse in every day to him and carers to both him and his wife. And in another county my elderly aunt was in yet another hospital as she had to have treatment for another problem.

Thank you so much NHS and all the wonderful workers.


Reading Nick Clegg's biography, courtesy of Wikipedia so usual wikipedia cautions apply, the most interesting fact to me is that his great great aunt was Moura Budberg, a long time mistress of my literary hero and left wing campaigner of the early 1900s, H.G.Wells.

The picture of Nick Clegg above is again courtesy of Wikipedia. The reason I have chosen is because it is rather a badly posed picture from his point of view as the camera angle makes him look much smaller [and thus less important/inferior?] to David Cameron......

Please join with me and hundreds and thousands of others in signing the petition to #savethenhs