@steevc nominated me for this challenge, and I do accept as I’m a mad music freak and he knows it.
As this is my final day, I’m going to break one of the rules and make a story out of my last wayback challenge.
There is no band named ‘Special Edition’, nor is there a song named ‘A Tale of Music and Retribution’. I can’t write this before the song ends, there’s simply too much to tell.
I grew up in living next to a pub. It wasn’t that bad but my parents quickly learned that they had made a mistake. Noise is the main problem, as well as frequent vomit.
Drunk people tend to stagger out and throw up in the nearest convenient place, this can be on your doorstep. I’m sure it happened more than once. Then there is the singing and shouting in the streets, which can be right outside your bedroom. I was a kid at the time and completely oblivious to these things.
Source: Picture was taken by myself
The Boars Head was built in 1674 and the house with the white door at the right edge of the screen is where I lived, and was originally an extension of the pub.
Two songs firmly remain in my mind from the year 1978 and are connected to this story, ‘Love is like Oxygen – The Sweet’ and ‘Nice n’Sleazy – The Stranglers’. There will always be a connection in my mind between the two songs.
The pub had a jukebox playing almost constantly and I kept hearing this bass line beating through the walls. It was very distinctive and I found myself listening to this song and not knowing what it was.
For a music freak like myself this was rather annoying, so one day when said song started reverberating through the walls, I raced downstairs and jammed my ear to the wall. I could then hear it, but still didn’t know what it was. There was no Shazam in those days.
This song I was to learn was, ‘Love is like Oxygen – The Sweet’. Listen to that bassline! You can detect it through walls.
Love is like Oxygen- The Sweet
If you look at the picture of ‘The Boars Head’, the centre right window was next to my bedroom and the proprietors owned a Jack Russell dog named ‘Butch’. This dog I swear when not eating, drinking or sleeping constantly barked and was locked in this very room, every evening.
I grew to literally hate this dog. As I kid I had loved dogs, I had befriended them, they followed me about, but I was always denied owning one. My parents were at loggerheads with the landlord and landlady of the pub and to say they didn’t see eye to eye was an understatement. The barking continued evening after evening.
My father used to turn his radio toward the wall and crank up the volume until white noise was emitting toward their, ‘dog room’, but I had other ideas in the form of ‘Nice n’Sleazy’.
Nice n’Sleazy - The Stranglers
I owned a mono record player in 1978. I can’t find anything that looks like it but suffice to say it played records at 16/33/45/78 RPM’s. Can you get anything like this now?
This Stranglers song was the most noxious one I owned at the time, so it was, record player toward the wall, volume cranked at maximum and ‘Nice n’Sleazy’ on repeat for several hours. I still love that synthesizer section in the middle. The song oozes obnoxiousness!
I had quite some success with my strategy. The dog never seemed to be barking when I finally removed ‘Nice n’Sleazy’ from the turntable.
We moved away from Church Street and ‘The Boars Head’ in November 1978.
I nominate @katharsisdrill for this challenge!
The rules:
- Choose one song from your high-school/college years.
- Write a few words about who made you listen to this song for the first time, what this song means to you (was it a breakup song? you blasted it at 100% on your audio system when you were partying with your friends?) whatever you want.
- Write your text while listening to the song. As soon as the song ends, wrap up what you where writing and submit it.
- Do this for 7 days in a row if you get nominated
- Mention one person who should do this on each day.
- Tag it with #musicwaybackchallenge and include these rules at the bottom of your post
