MY KINDA MUSIC -BLASTS , SNOT AND SPITTLE FROM THE PAST

During the  Christmas - New Year period strenuous efforts are always   made to try and get the filing  cabinets , numerous in  and out baskets , bundles of  envelopes  containing a miscellany of  forgotten items , cascading  books- some under the bed in  overflowing boxes ,   into some  kind   of  order. While  rummaging through stuffed cupboards  and jammed  bottom drawers , various DVDs of   old favourite  songs and artists   surfaced.  Way back ,  Jose Feliciano was all the rage  and  Light  My Fire  and California  Dreamin'  reverberated  throughout  the  house and  district . Almost got me eating Mexican  food.

And  the  Beach Boys...man, Good Vibrations  sent me  jiving .  Young (then)  looking Glen Campbell got inside my head with Wichita Lineman , played over and over .Who can forget  Bill Haley and the Comets and  the  stunning Rock Around The Clock ? Cry Guy Johnnie  Ray , who came out to the  Sydney Stadium  in my time ,  also appealed . I  now  have  something  in common   with the  late   Johnnie Ray- a hearing aid , which  my  exasperated  wife  and eldest  daughter rudely tell me to stick in my ears.

Other  great songs  come to  mind ...San Francisco  , Baker Street.Dare I mention Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade and Chattanooga Choo Choo ?  Dusty Springfield  wowed me  with songs like  You Don't Have to Say You Love Me and Son of  a Preacher Man . A  friend ran me off a copy of  Kinky Friedman and  Little  Jewford in Australia  and I played it over and over  because of the  song   about    Ol' Ben  Lucas  , who had so much  mucus  it was often seen running off the end of his nose  ,  that   it became scratchy and  inaudible. Still , it inspired  a  skit  about Lucas being banned  from all Qantas flights because of  his  excessive expectorating . Alas, they  don't  write   and  perform   great songs  like  these  anymore.

 PS: Winchester Cathedral,Wimmaway (The Lion Sleeps Tonight ) and the haunting theme  music  from the documentary about  radical  British PM David  Lloyd  George .