I still have a record player. Do you? As I remember my youth so much of it involved records.
Here is my modest much quite serviceable record player. it actually was my fathers. I went through several record players during my years of living in the inner city of New Haven, Ct. where my house was robbed six times. If I had been a little quicker I could have bought them back a couple of streets over from the drug addicts that stole them. I came to feel I was single handedly supporting the town's drug culture. came to feel I should put a sign on my door, "Don't bother, I have alredy involunarily given.!"
I have managed to hold on to this record player living here in the backwoods backwash of Ontario. Here the drug culture just grow their own, share in and barter it. No need for stealing. Well, at least for drugs anyway.
I realized that at one time I loved "les chanteuses", the female divas. Above you can see disks for Diana Ross, Carly Simon, Olivia Newton John and Joni Mitchell.
div/
Our family had a small record library of funny records that were played so much and laughed over that they became part of our secret family code language. We could say a phrase and everyone would laugh knowing the whole funny skit it came from. To this day the only song I will sing in public is "I'm Shy, Mary Ellen" using my timid falsetto voice.
The above photo show some of our favourites. They are all British humour, Hummmm! Stanley Holloway sang wonderful music hall songs. Flanders and Swann had wonderful skit type songs in "At the Drop of Another Hat", "Beyond the Fringe" was a skit record by four very funny English lads, the best known would be Duddly Moore. "Fool Britannia" was a special comic record with skit tunes based on the John Profumo scandal. He was the British Minister of War who shared an illicit lover with a Russian attache at a time in the cold war when national security was at stake. It was also known as the Christine Keeler affair. It is very funny it you know the history. I am sure my brother and sister would start to laugh if I made reference to any on these records content, even today.
Current music and comic skits hold little interest to me. My interests are kind of frozen in time. It seems there was a time through which I passed. I am glad I can continue to enjoy them and relive those years.
I guess my age is showing.
4 Comments:
I introduced your mother to American, Tom Lehrer, whose best known album was "That was the year that was, 1965". In today's parlance this would be known as a "politically incorrect" album.
One of the most memorable songs was "The Vatican Rag", done to a ragtime beat and making great fun of the catholic faith: "First you get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries, then genufleck, genufleck...When in Rome do like a Roman, make a cross on your abdomen...Drink the wine and chew the wafer -- two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate...Ave maria, gee it's good to see ya... gettin' ectastican, gettin' dramatican, doing the vatican raaaaggg.." etc. I can still remember the words and the tune it was played to, even though I haven't heard it since 1965. I also remember your mother laughing her head off until it finished, and then, in a complete about face, she put on this shocked look and said, quite seriously, "That's a terrible song, you can't play that here again."
I have my mother's half dozen Tom Lehrer records. I did not mention them as I was not a fan and didn't remember them becoming part of our famly coded language.
I often forget how much time my cousin spent with my mother, living in her house for a while. I was away at school. i know she enjoyed his stimulating company.
I still have a few albums myself, but not many. I have never heard any of the funny records that you mentioned, but they sound delightful!!
I loved your pictures in the previous posts. The wild roses are so pretty!!
I love listening to my old records. Helps me forget the day, relax and go back in time. Haven't had much of a chance lately with the kids here. I am listening to books on tape while I am outside working. Shuts the world out and time seems to fly by.
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