“Hey Dad – I’m listening to the Kingston Trio and Trini Lopez and thought of you. I’d be curious to hear more about these times in your life sometime…”
The shift in time was instantaneous. I looked at Drew’s email and the list of artists from the 50’s and 60’s – ones that he apparently had listened to recently. He must have realized that, in another time almost 50 years ago, they would engender thoughts, memories and emotions about my youth. How quickly they came back; how amazing that clusters of neurons coded all this and have kept it stored for so long scattered across this old brain.
Dion DiMucci. Who? Why Dion and the Belmonts, of course. I was thirteen and fully into the throws of a painful adolescence. I would take comfort in the dank basement of our home in Virginia where I played “I Wonder Why” over and over and over. God, I loved it! I could lip sync perfectly with it, imitating the moves I had learned from watching American Bandstand.
But my awaking neurons shout, “Wait! It goes further back…to the very genesis of your love of music: The Chords!”
Huh?
“Sha-Boom!”
Hey nonny ding dong, alang alang alang
Sh-Boom ba-doh, ba-doo ba-doodle-ay
Oh, life could be a dream (sh-boom)
If I could take you up in paradise up above (sh-boom)
Yeah, of course. I was eleven years and was thrilled when it edged out “How Much Is That Doggie In The Window” for number one spot in popular music. I took all my money and bought the record – it was a 78 and I must have played it a million times on an old record player in my parents bedroom (Norfolk, Va., if it matters).
My memory center has come alive, sort of. What else is back there? Yes, I loved the Kingston Trio. They were from Hawaii and became famous when I lived there as a 14-year nuevo-delinquent. They had even gone to my high school (as did Robin Luke – “Susie Darlin’”).
I knew all the Kingston Trio songs. I was fifteen and had a guitar. I used to play these songs at parties. My kids would never believe this but people actually got up and danced once while I was playing! I was shocked.
I played Bo Diddily, too, sort of.
I had two friends, Rick and Jim. We each had a guitar and would find a place to play where we would drink beer (Country Club Malt Liquor) and Thunderbird wine, just playing and having a great time. I wish I could do that again – without the beer and wine.
Peter, Paul and Mary were even better. I played a lot of their songs, too. “If I had a Hammer” was popular when I was a young officer in the Navy. A fellow officer told me I shouldn’t listen to them because they were pacifists. I was embarrassed at the time; now I am outraged. I would give anything to have been a hippie in the ‘60’s. Instead, I had been brainwashed and sent to Viet Nam. When I came back, my father hugged me for the first time. “Make way for this boy”, he said, “he’s been to war!” Like it was some badge of honor of something. It was perverted.
The first time I heard Trini Lopez, I was in a gigantic stereo store in Hong Kong looking for stuff to bring home. I found the two 60 lb. teak speakers there that I have been lugging around since, until 2007 when they were summarily pushed into the dumpster in Tucson. Lopez was being played in the store speakers – I think it was “If I Had A Hammer” I was blown away.
“Never My Love” by the Association was a great love song if you’re in to that stuff which I wasn’t in 1966. But you can’t touch “Along Came Mary.” I don’t remember the lyrics but the rhythm was kick ass.
I was never much into Rick Nelson. My sister adored him – had pictures of him everywhere. I told her he was gay – I don’t think she ever forgave me. He wasn’t, not that it mattered.
Whenever I hear Wha Watusi I think of beaches and beer. That’s all I can remember.
“Do The Bird” escapes me but “Surfer Bird” by the Trashmen remains on my top ten all time favorites – as does 96 Tears, Gloria, The Mountain Is High, Sea of Love, and so on. I’m not proud of this.
I thought the Kingsmen were more famous for “Louie, Louie”. I was imprisoned in the Naval Academy at the time trying to figure out the lyrics. They were banned in Seattle someone said. I regretted not going to a party school back then but probably would not be here to remember if I had.
I thought “Because” by the Dave Clark Five was way too sentimental. “Glad All Over” was what is was all about for me – more of that rhythm thing.
So I guess you could learn a lot about someone if you knew what memories were triggered by old songs. Funny how they have a way of taking you right back to that very day in some cases. Yet, as we hear them over and over for 50 years they lose their magic somehow. The senses and feelings of excitement are dulled…but maybe they’re not meant to be recycled any more than the memories they elicit. The 60’s were a tough time. I was young and impressionable, looking to find an identity that escaped me for another thirty-some years. It’s not that I don’t want to remember…just not dwell on those times as anything more than learning experiences. Great music, great times – and some not so great – memories all the same. If I could filter out the pain, maybe I would…but I’d have to give up the good with it. I wouldn’t want to do that.
Rock on.
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