Blue Snorkel Coated Punk Rocker - The Soundtrack



This month's musical extravaganza is a quick rundown of some of the musical influences on the teenage Yorkshire Windbag (there I go again with that third person thing).

Click on the picture (the geezer in the parka) to the left to get to the music.

 

 

 Roy Orbison was the Morrissey of his day. Each song was a three minute symphony of misery. For some reason my dad had three album's worth of Roy in quite a small record collection.

Obviously I rebelled against this stuff when I was a teenager. However by the time I was in my twenties and more broadminded I grew to love this.

 

 

 I guess most people of my age grew up with Abba as the soundtrack.

'Knowing Me Knowing You' is a sad song about divorce but it invokes in me only happy family memories. I think me and my sisters bought this as a present for one of our parents from the record shop in Ossett.

 

 

 Eventually my dad showed me how to operate the record player. One of my early favourites when I got to choose the music was Simon & Garfunkel. 'The 59th Bridge Street Song (Feelin' Groovy)' in particular reminds me of Summer and the endless possibilities of the School holidays.

 
 

'Parallel Lines' by Blondie was the first album that I really fell in love with and at one time I used to listen to it every night. This song 'Sunday Girl' also reminds me of school discos for some reason. Sitting there and refusing to dance until nearly the end. Then realising you were really enjoying yourself just as the disco finished (I'm still the same now!)

 

 

 

The first album I properly thought myself was 'Nobody's Heroes' by Stiff Little Fingers. At the time we didn't even have a working record player so the chances to listen to it were few and far between. I remember listening to it while babysitting on headphones and the stereo sound just blew me away.

 
 

 

 

'London Calling' is one of my favourite albums of all time. However I didn't really appreciate it until my late teens. However the title track was a real favourite of mine when it came out as a single in 1979.

 
 

 

In my opinion 'New Rose' by the Damned is one of the greatest singles of all times. The Damned also happen to be the first gig I ever went to.

 

 

To my everlasting shame the first ever single I bought was 'When' by Showwaddywaddy (it wasn't even their best song - 'Under the moon of love' was better). Still my second single was much more credible. It was 'She's So Modern' by the Boomtown Rats