The thread title was of course a popular, if self-conscious, reply to the question “Dislikes” in the Lifelines column which ran in NME throughout the 60s.
It harks back to a more innocent time when pop music was still in its infancy and the simple working class lads and lasses who were suddenly thrust into the public glare took themselves just a little too seriously, feeling they had to give deep and meaningful answers to a series of asinine questions.
Hence, the height of sophistication was to answer the question “Favourite drink? with “Scotch and Coke”. “Favourite food” invariably drew the response “Steak and chips”, while without a hint of irony “Favourite car” would nearly always be “E-Type Jaguar”.
The Beatles (who else) would do much to kill this trite nonsense with typically surreal and witty answers to such questionnaires and the whole thing died a welcome death as the psychedelic era told hold.
I particularly like the answers on the back of the Animals EP pictured above
Chas Chandler dislikes “Bigots, big heads and bad service in restaurants” and who could argue with that?
Meanwhile it’s “People who talk too much” which offends the splendidly-named Hilton Valentine .
Eric Burdon takes aim at “Unhip people and bigots” while drummer John Steel has an aversion to “Phoneys (sic), overacting, louts, gin, snobs and (ho, ho) questionnaires”.
Elsewhere we learn that Chas likes “Attractive women and enjoying life” then almost as a patriotic afterthought he adds “Newcastle United”.
And so it goes on. “Listening to records” and the newly imported fad of “bowling” were popular hobbies, while those evil “bigots” continue to get the communal thumbs down.
And remember, this was no fly-by-night airhead boy band. The Animals were a credible hard rockin’ R&B outfit. But like almost everyone else they succumbed to this juvenile nonsense in the early days of pop.
I’ll try and dig up some more of this stuff if there’s any interest.
Here’s one from The Byrds circa 1965. Roger was still Jim McGuinn and Crosby’s love of sailing is already apparent (along with his dislike of “Ignorance, stupidity, prejudice, war”).
Dylan and The Beatles are universally liked and all the boys love their high-powered British/European sports cars, it seems.
That’s interesting. “Songs For Sunshine People” was the sub-title of Donovan’s 2nd LP Fairy Tale and, as it turned out, the Sunshine Superman LP didn’t appear in UK until June 1967 and only then as a compilation of two different albums.
I wonder if he still has any of those “black cloaks”
Ah yes, the 500 Miles hitmaker…I listened to her a bit during my brief folkie period (before Dylan turned up and blew it all away). One of the Pete Seeger mob, IIRC.
Aha! I was an obsessive NME reader from about 1960 to about 1965, so I would have read loads of these. (I actually sold a big box of them not that long ago, certainly into the eBay era.) The Beatles seem to have taken it all reasonably seriously in February ’63 – John hopes to be rich and famous, and Bongo wants to get to the top – although I doubt the Billy Cotton Band was really Paul’s favourite.
These ‘Life-lines” remind me of the famous “Focus On” feature in Shoot! magazine in the 1970s, wherein the top footballers of the day would tell you that their favourite singer was Diana Ross and their favourite food was “Italian”.
I always remember, responding to the question “If you hadn’t been a professional footballer, what do you think you would’ve been?”, the Charlton Athletic striker Derek Hales answered “A burglar”.
Current car was usually Ford Cortina (lower league player), BMW (1st Division player) or Jaguar XJS (only Trevor Francis as I remember).
And every issue featured a player displaying his plaster cast, cartilage operation scar, or bits of his kneecap in a jar (there was always something in a jar – what if he had recently been circumcised?)
Graham Rix quoted his favourite book as Monty Pythons Big Red Book – when I found a copy I was surprised that it wasn’t very big, and it wasn’t red either
The thread title was of course a popular, if self-conscious, reply to the question “Dislikes” in the Lifelines column which ran in NME throughout the 60s.
It harks back to a more innocent time when pop music was still in its infancy and the simple working class lads and lasses who were suddenly thrust into the public glare took themselves just a little too seriously, feeling they had to give deep and meaningful answers to a series of asinine questions.
Hence, the height of sophistication was to answer the question “Favourite drink? with “Scotch and Coke”. “Favourite food” invariably drew the response “Steak and chips”, while without a hint of irony “Favourite car” would nearly always be “E-Type Jaguar”.
The Beatles (who else) would do much to kill this trite nonsense with typically surreal and witty answers to such questionnaires and the whole thing died a welcome death as the psychedelic era told hold.
I particularly like the answers on the back of the Animals EP pictured above
Chas Chandler dislikes “Bigots, big heads and bad service in restaurants” and who could argue with that?
Meanwhile it’s “People who talk too much” which offends the splendidly-named Hilton Valentine .
Eric Burdon takes aim at “Unhip people and bigots” while drummer John Steel has an aversion to “Phoneys (sic), overacting, louts, gin, snobs and (ho, ho) questionnaires”.
Elsewhere we learn that Chas likes “Attractive women and enjoying life” then almost as a patriotic afterthought he adds “Newcastle United”.
And so it goes on. “Listening to records” and the newly imported fad of “bowling” were popular hobbies, while those evil “bigots” continue to get the communal thumbs down.
And remember, this was no fly-by-night airhead boy band. The Animals were a credible hard rockin’ R&B outfit. But like almost everyone else they succumbed to this juvenile nonsense in the early days of pop.
I’ll try and dig up some more of this stuff if there’s any interest.
Here’s one from The Byrds circa 1965. Roger was still Jim McGuinn and Crosby’s love of sailing is already apparent (along with his dislike of “Ignorance, stupidity, prejudice, war”).
Dylan and The Beatles are universally liked and all the boys love their high-powered British/European sports cars, it seems.
That’s interesting. “Songs For Sunshine People” was the sub-title of Donovan’s 2nd LP Fairy Tale and, as it turned out, the Sunshine Superman LP didn’t appear in UK until June 1967 and only then as a compilation of two different albums.
I wonder if he still has any of those “black cloaks”
“Favorite singers: Hedy West”
Hedy West? I confess I’d never heard of her. Had to google her name. Hmm. Interesting.
Do we have any Hedy West fans/experts among the Afterword Massive?
Ah yes, the 500 Miles hitmaker…I listened to her a bit during my brief folkie period (before Dylan turned up and blew it all away). One of the Pete Seeger mob, IIRC.
All I knew about Hedy West was that she penned the much-covered folk hit 500 Miles (not the Proclaimers song).
Interesting to read that she spent time in London in the 60s and recorded two LPs for Topic with @colin-h ‘s mate Bill Leader at Topic records
Richard Weize founded Bear Family Records in 1975 to release an album (BF 15003) by Hedy West that no-one else was interested in.
Wow! Never knew that. Great piece of info, thanks.
PS that was the first image I’ve ever posted here, so go easy on me, please.
The image was just fine
Aha! I was an obsessive NME reader from about 1960 to about 1965, so I would have read loads of these. (I actually sold a big box of them not that long ago, certainly into the eBay era.) The Beatles seem to have taken it all reasonably seriously in February ’63 – John hopes to be rich and famous, and Bongo wants to get to the top – although I doubt the Billy Cotton Band was really Paul’s favourite.
Curse those imitation potatoes.
And here it is. I never did understand Ringo’s dislike of Donald Duck
Interesting to see R-and-B was so popular back then (not to mention c-and-w)
From 1961 singing bus driver and Sinatra-alike Matt Monro.
Seems he disliked “Women making themselves up in public”. I agree with Matt. Those hussies . It’s a disgrace.
I note one of Matt’s favourite Musical Directors is Tommy Watt, Dad of EBTG’s Ben.
Scott Walker likes to get away by himself occasionally – no surprise there, then…
How about a photo of the Walker Brothers and the Beverley Sisters doing some kind of Tiller Girls-style high kicking?
Not so cool and moody now boys, are we?
It’s a giant leap from Mantovani to BB.King to Sandie Shaw, but John Walker has managed it.
“It was probably idiotic of us to ask a poet like Bob Dylan to contribute to our Life-Lines feature. You can’t expect an idyllic dreamer to do it-as you or I might do it.” Yup.
http://expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1006
I would have said “Look Bob, if you’re going to take the piss, let’s forget the whole thing. I’ll get Donovan instead”
Australia went decimal in Feb 1966, so that’s the reason that piece is still showing prices in pounds as well as dollars
Last week that wonderful cricket poster, and now this. The Concheroo archives make the British Library look like part-timers.
6′ 3″ / 10st 10lbs and 6’1″ / 10st 7lbs. Not, I would hazard a guess, statistics enjoyed by many Afterworders nowadays.
Distinctly remember Hendrix’s answer to “likes” (48 years ago!) was: fields, mountains, hair. Funny what these threads dredge up.
These ‘Life-lines” remind me of the famous “Focus On” feature in Shoot! magazine in the 1970s, wherein the top footballers of the day would tell you that their favourite singer was Diana Ross and their favourite food was “Italian”.
I always remember, responding to the question “If you hadn’t been a professional footballer, what do you think you would’ve been?”, the Charlton Athletic striker Derek Hales answered “A burglar”.
If not Diana Ross, then it would be Billy Joel.
Current car was usually Ford Cortina (lower league player), BMW (1st Division player) or Jaguar XJS (only Trevor Francis as I remember).
And every issue featured a player displaying his plaster cast, cartilage operation scar, or bits of his kneecap in a jar (there was always something in a jar – what if he had recently been circumcised?)
Graham Rix quoted his favourite book as Monty Pythons Big Red Book – when I found a copy I was surprised that it wasn’t very big, and it wasn’t red either
what if he had recently been circumcised?
Clear evidence that Graeme Souness had been going in with his studs high again.
Ptere Crouch answered the “if yuou weren’t a professional footballer, what would you be” question with:
“A virgin.”
As did Peter Crouch, coincidentally.
Edit feature now!!!!
Or new fingers, whichever is simpler.
“Yuou”??? Kill me now.
I seem to recall reading in ‘Rave’ magazine in the mid-60s that Keef had a sister named ‘Hashish’.
Wasn’t it his cat?