It was most likely a warm day on the day I was born, well it was summer in the northern hemisphere and I would like to believe the weather was...
Nineteen Sixty Four
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This week I was given the Facebook challenge to ‘share a song from your teens’ everyday for seven days… music had always been such a big part of my life that the challenge seemed easy.
Every generation would claim that the music they listened to was the best and for me this was a claim I thought seemed accurate when applied to MY generation.
My earliest musical memory was of The Animals with their version of House of the Rising Sun, released the year I was born I was probably 9 or 10 when I discovered it, often spending hours in the garage bashing a collection of old drums, pots, pans and various ‘lid symbols’. Mum came from a musical family and she often played the organ at our local church to fill in when our neighbour was unavailable.
As I got older music and I seemed to always cross paths, my good mate Allan was in a band and I often helped these guys out as a kind of junior roadie. Before I started High School I was already playing guitar which I continued with into my early ’20’s.
In 1975 when I started at Eltham College I had the opportunity to give several other instruments a try and even had private lessons in guitar, piano and drums until after I started working.
Early Days
Day #1
Ok so there is a “Share a song from your Teens” every day for 7 days thing going around… I’m not going to tag anyone (you guys can get onboard or not without my help…)
As a kick off here is a rare Skyhooks song that was performed during their 1978 Guilty Until Proven Insane Tour.
As part of that tour they played at Eltham College on 6th May 1978.
Day #2
So for Day 2 of the “Share a song from your Teens” week I’m going to post a song from a singer/songwriter that I was introduced to by Edward, a friend I met during my high school years.
James Joseph “Jim” Croce had already been tragically killed by the time I was introduced to his music however I had all five of his albums and his music was always playing somewhere during my teens – This song “I Got a Name” was due to be released the day after Jim was killed.
Day #3
For Day 3 of “Share a song from your Teens” I’m going to diversify a little and hopefully it’s within the ‘rules’. During my teen years I had the opportunity to learn several (8) musical instruments, one of my early favourites was drums and as a young (10) kid I was often found bashing a heap of old tins in the garage to songs like ‘House of the Rising Sun’.
While at school I was lucky enough to have some guitar (and drum) lessons with Michael Barclay (Little Murders, Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls and Weddings, Parties Anything) Michael was an early musical influence which contributed a lot to my choice(s) of music.
So here as a tribute to Micheal is ‘Dumb Things’
Day #4
Well its Day 4 of “Share a song from your Teens” and today I’m going to post a song that was actually released while I was IN my teens.
The album ‘Get the Knack’ (The Knack) was released in June 1979 and I bought it not long after it was released, when I started working it was a pretty regular thing to travel to ‘CC Records’ and buy a new album, my friend Allan encouraged me to buy this album and at first I was very annoyed at the purchase, over time I warmed to The Knack and this album is still one of my all time favourites.
‘Maybe Tonight’ was track five and made it onto the album ahead of the number one single (and best known track) ‘My Sharona’ so today I’m posting “Maybe Tonight” written by Doug Fieger.
Day #5
For Day 5 of “Share a song from your Teens” I have another song that was realised when I was 15, I was given this album for Christmas in 1979 and listened to it almost continuously that summer.
“Dream Police” was the fourth studio album for Cheap Trick with the single of the same name peaking at #26 on the Billboard Chart, by contrast the song “Voices” (#32) has gone on to be a more well known song and featured on most of the bands compilation albums.
It would be almost ten years before the band released “The Flame” which gave them their first number one hit in Australia, sadly though they didn’t write the song making the 1982 release “If you want my love” written by guitarist Rick Nielsen their most successful at #2.
So here is the song “Voices”
Day #6
It’s Day 6 of “Share a song from your Teens” and today I have a song that I listened to every week for three years…
During my apprenticeship (1980-83) I attended RMIT University for trade school and was lucky enough to have a weekly radio show on the campus radio station 3SRA.
3SRA (Student Radio Association) allowed budding announcers access to some pretty cool technology, it also spawned station 3RRR (1976) and many notable Melbourne announcers.
Each week I had a ‘milkcrate’ full of albums to choose from but sadly only one song, from one album ever struck a chord (musical pun) with me.
“Echo Beach” by Martha and the Muffins was released as a single from their album “Metro Music” in 1980, I never really thought Echo Beach was a good fit for the station… but I played it anyway.
Day #7
Well its Day 7 of “Share a song from your Teens” and I still have so many songs that made up my teenage years its difficult to choose (I may have a couple of bonus tracks to sneak in).
My teenage years were about starting work, driving ’round, hanging out with friends and finding love, so much to try and express in just seven songs.
This next song was the first track on the album “Precious Time” released just four days after my 17th birthday, by the time I turned 17 I had a job, a car and a girlfriend, life was good and as always music was a big part of everything.
Pat Benatar was not my favourite artist but her music certainly sounded great cranked up to 11…
Precious Time was Benatar’s only number one album (US) but much of her music was popular in Australia with seven albums reaching top 20 here.
So here’s to all the great times…
Bonus Track #1
For the first of my bonus “Share a song from your Teens” tracks today I have a track from the Irish band “Thin Lizzy”, with so many iconic songs (many of them released during my teens) it’s hard just to choose one, songs like “The Boys are Back in Town”, “Cowboy Song” and “Southbound” are still favourites.
I have chosen “Soldier of Fortune” the opening track from their 1977 album Bad Reputation. The crash of the gong signaled the start of the album and in the days of music on vinyl meant the next 35:50 (often spent with good mate Tom) was sure to get your ears ringing…
Bonus Track #2
My second bonus “Share a song from your Teens” track (I only have one more) is from a band I was introduced to during the late ’70’s. During my early teens our family spent time with friends that lived in Mordialloc which was a strange contrast to the suburbs near where I grew up. Our friends had two sons that were older than me and they were both into (music) Volkswagen’s and surfing… again a little different from the V8’s and swimming in the Yarra that I was used to.
One of the bands they introduced me to was the English band “10cc”.
10cc had a sound that was different from much of the other music that I was listening too at the time, and it was also different to most of the other music recorded during the ’70’s.
In 1973 the band released “Rubber Bullets” which gave the band their first number 1 (UK), followed by two other well know tracks “I’m Not in Love” (’75) and “Dreadlock Holiday” (’78) so… load up, load up, load up with rubber bullets.
Bonus Track #3
My final bonus “Share a song from your Teens” track is from a band that were a significant part of my teens, with 11 of their 15 studio albums (none of which I actually bought) produced either before or during my teenage years their music was a regular choice.
If I was really pushed to choose only one favourite band it would probably have to be “Pink Floyd”, there was always a song that suited whatever mood I was in.
My good friend Allan was always around in those days and we spent hours listening to and talking about music, Pink Floyd also introduced me to quadraphonic sound which I was lucky enough to experience as Allan’s parents owned a quadraphonic system, the sound it produced in the ’70’s was amazing.
In March ’73 Pink Floyd released “Dark Side of the Moon” which was their most successful album (selling 14 x Platinum in Australia) and one of the earliest albums recorded in “Discrete 4 Channel”. I’m not sure if we ever listened to the album in 4 channel but on the 11th of February 1988 as part of the “A Momentary Lapse of Reason Tour” I was lucky enough to see the band live at Thebarton Oval in Adelaide, the 22 song set included “Money”, “On the Run”, “Us and Them” and the song I have selected “Time”, all from Dark Side of the Moon and all performed with the most amazing live sound I can remember…