It’s coming up for Mothers’ Day (2nd Sunday in May) here in Australia, I think maybe it’s a different day back in the old country. And it’s going to be my first without my Mum who passed away at the end of May last year.
So in the spirit of that, and the person who commented over on the “what ails the blog” thread that we used to discuss important things like who’s your favourite Beatle, I ask the question above.
For the record, my Mum used to say “Paul’s the nicest looking but Ringo’s got the nicest smile”. Brings a tear to me eye just thinking of her saying it…
Dunno mate. I will ask her this weekend. 99 in July.
Manly pat on shoulder re your Mum. That first year of anniversaries can be quite tough.
Thanks mate. And best wishes to your Mum. Better not mention the three figures though.
I’ve told her @Mousey that if you make 100 (and her sister is 103 so there is a fair chance) and if you want your letter from the Queen your going to have to fess up.
At the Hull Regal on 24th November 1963 she said precisely this:
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Mum was nine in 1963, so I think she said “Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!” or something like that. They visited Sweden in late October early November that year and appeared on TV show Drop In. The next day, allegedly, all the boys came to school with their hair combed forward.
November 1963…. a bad month for throats.
And foreheads.
….which became groovy in 1966.
Take zimdon if you’re suffering.
Got some in me leopardskin pill-box.
Oh dear, maybe I should have said “mother or grandmother”. Forget there’s a few young ‘uns round these parts…
My mum thought they were “common”. My dad preferred Val Doonican. They found my brothers hippie phase a bit of a shock.
Not so much the Beatles, but Mum would see 70s and 80s bands on TV really getting into it (especially guitarists) and ask “Why do they have to do that?”
She had a point!
Mum’s comments on TOTP and the OGWT were classic
He looks like he needs a good meal – Paul kosoff nodding out
Why is that barrow boy so cross? – sham 69
He seems a credit to his race – Curtis mayfield
It was like watching with Edna Welthorpe (Mrs).
My mum thought Paul was really ugly, she preferred Herman’s Hermits.
Don’t recall my Mum’s view of The Beatles but she did buy me the single of “Help” (the B-side of which, “I’m Down” was always my fave). Her brother did once take Ringo and John’s inside leg measurement.
I hope he put them back, and in the correct order.
Have an up. ROFL
This, ladies and gentlephones, is why I personally love this place and keep returning
My mother was too old for The Beatles being 31 when Love Me Do came out (and me being about 6 months she was preoccupied), she was very religious and didn’t approve of their drug taking amongst other things. Quite liked some of their songs though.
I don’t remember my mother saying anything about the Beatles, but she certainly disapproved of the Stones, thus falling right into their cunning trap.
I do remember her saying that Elvis was a “horrible slug”. She much preferred that nice Tommy Steele.
My mum loved Ringo, got animated when he was on a chat show – that kind of thing. Once he insisted that he would only appear on a 70s TV show (possibly Russell Haty) if he could watch Coronation Street beforehand. He expressed some worries about Gail, if memory serves – which amused her greatly. Although she herself was only 30 during Beatlemania, I think she thought they were for the younger generation. My dad never mentioned music and had no records at all. My mum however had records by Frank Sinatra, Neil Diamond, Julio Iglesias, Carpenters, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder and Barbra Sreisand. Later in life, she bought the Beatles at the BBC on CD.
She liked them, had a few of their singles (I’ve got them now) up to Tragical History Tour. Didn’t seem as fussed after that point (but was saving for a wedding/house).
As I’m sure I have mentioned round these parts, possibly pre-Drupal, my mum dismissed the Fabs as lightweights and went to gigs by local heroes The Unit 4+2 instead. For a while (until Concrete & Clay started heading chartwards) she dated the bass player.
Does she win the Indie Bonus prize?
What we regard as popular culture passed both my parents by. My dad, in particular, was born about aged 60, liking only classical and opera. Mum was a bit more open minded but only really listened to Radio 2 in the background although there were a few musical soundtracks in the house and a Seekers record on Music For Pleasure.
They were better people, that generation. If I had kids I’d be constantly mocking their musical taste, pointing out how it was either a tepid rewarming or lobotomised insult to greater records that came before. And how sh*t is it now that international acts are playing in Dublin every week?
Oh, and can I borrow your top? I’m djing later? Yes you can come along if you bring that hot friend who clearly fancies your old Dad. Still got it, eh? Eh?
In the sixties and before, people grew up and became adults as soon as they left school. Now they refuse to grow up at all. So we have 65 year olds acting like Mick Jagger (who is 128).
Just realised I didn’t answer the question. My mum would probably have said something like: I quite like Yesterday but not their weird stuff about The Egg Man.
My dad: “Bloody hippies” probably.
It would have been 1963 maybe 1964 and I used to stay at my grandparents during school holidays. I distinctly remember my gran – who was in her late ‘50’s at the time – remarking that George “looks sickly”
I also recall that she often get fed up with me playing records on my Dansette Bermuda “endlessly” so she used to just unplug it from the mains. At this point I would often burst into tears!
On one occasion her sister was over for the day and I happened to put Another Side of Bob Dylan on – this must have been 1964(?) and by the end of “All I Wanna Do” the pair of them were in hysterics claiming the singer couldn’t actually sing properly! 50 plus years on and I now know they were right!!!
Mum? Not much. Her two younger sisters were Beatles obsessives. One was a Cavern regular and the other was much too young to see them live but bought their records.
Mum preferred Soul music, particularly Stax & Motown. She was especially fond of Aretha, Otis & Marvin.
I was indoctrinated by all three of them.
My mum likes the Stones and Beatles, but preferred the Who and Cream at the time I think. There’s plenty of soul in her and dad’s collection too, but I remember her saying once that she never much liked James Brown as it was difficult to dance to.
And her own dad used to get really wound up with Roger Daltry’s stuttering on My Generation. He’d get really cross, which wasn’t like him.
Your mum was a cool lady, @Tiggerlion!
She still is! 😀
Too “wierd” when she was in her prime.
But I have a vivid early memory of her dancing in the scullery (we were/are commom as muck) to Obla di, Obla da.
Mind…I also have a memory of The Who’s Substitute playing whilst I sat on a potty as she put on her stockings…..
The word scullery reminds me of two things.
a) Huge Scullery, the first presenter of Antiques Roadshow.
b) Griff Rhys Jones in Smith & Jones Home Made Xmas Video: “Everyfing is ready for the magical day tomorrow… down in the scullery the skulls is workin’ their fingers to the bone”
When I found her copy of “Hey Jude”, my lovely mother (first name Judith) told me it was written about her. Of course I told everyone at school.
Ha! I told my son, aged four, I was a werewolf. He told everyone at school. They believed him. Including the teachers.
I told my 5 year old daughter that whales ate honey off the sea floor with their beaks.
I’m also guilty of the classic..”swans and ducks don’t float, they extend their legs and walk on the river bottom”
My mum rather liked The Beatles but, bloody hell, when I first played The Times They Are A Changin it was “Who, what, leave this house immediately”
You should have played them the Bob Dylan record instead. Your version blows. That George Formby voice you do it in…. no.
Elvis was better.
I love “Wooden Heart”
My Mum was very tolerant. She let me have the radio on whenever I wanted, and bought me a transistor in 1963 so I could listen anywhere (mostly to Luxembourg in bed). Mum and Dad also bought my first record player in 1963 and my first single, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, so I think she had no problem with them. The Rolling Stones were another story…
My Mum bought me “Twist and shout* and “She loves you” in 1963 along with a Beatles (100% PVC) wig and an untunable Beatles guitar (but it did have different coloured strings – surely there’s a demand?). She was a John fan, telling me he was a poet, but even at age 5 I gravitated to George as lead guitarists are obviously better. I still have the singles, though sadly the wig and guitar are consigned to history.
If it was one of these then I had one too. I think the strings lasted no more than a few months. I subsequently broke a front tooth on it doing a what I thought was a neat impersonation of Pete Townsend.
https://bit.ly/2I6NRbE
That’s the kiddie!
My Mum was ambivalent about The Beatles – she saw them as the acceptable face of popular music but couldn’t understand why they had to jiggle about so much. The Stones of course were another matter; she used to refer to Jagger’s ‘lascivious lips’ with a shudder. Mum was more tolerant of my musical tastes than my Dad, who saw all pop music as evidence of terminal moral decline. When he saw Roy Wood of Wizzard on Top Of The Pops he was convinced that the apocalypse had arrived.
My best mate’s mother nearly fainted when she saw Bowie put his arm around Ronson on TOTP.
When he saw Roy Wood of Wizzard on Top Of The Pops he was convinced that the apocalypse had arrived.
This is the stuff! That’s a real dad… none of this modern liberal “Heyyyy, that’s got a good beat!” nonsense.
The only comment I can remember my mum making about the Beatles was she thought ‘Paperback Writer’ was called ‘Bareback Rider.’
A dirty story of a dirty man indeed.
My parents only had a small box of singles and a handful of albums. I started playing them when I was around 8 years old and pretty soon knew every note of all those singles. My favourites were Eddie Cochran’s ‘Three Steps To Heaven’, The Hollies ‘I Can’t Let Go’, Gerry and the Pacemakers’ ‘How Do You Do It?’ and the only Beatles record they had, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. My mum started bringing home random cheap ex-juke box records from a shop in Barnsley, and I mean random. It wasn’t unusual to find her fetching a record by Boney M and one by Dr Feelgood. But it was the older stuff I liked. I used to listen to Jimmy Savile’s old record club on a Sunday lunchtime with my dad telling me what he knew about every record/band.
I soon started heading straight for the record collection whenever we visited anybody. One of my nans only had a few records, Al Jolson being her favourite, but my other nan was a lot more cultured. Her record collection was mainly classical, show soundtracks and people like Mario Lanza. She lived at the seaside, Robin Hood’s Bay, where we spent all our school holidays. I must have been around 11 years old, Lennon had only recently died, when in amongst all the aforementioned boring (to an 11 year old) records I found The Beatles’ Red album. I have no idea how it ended up there, because nan thought that all pop music was rubbish, although she loved A Little Touch Of Schmillson In The Night when I taped it for her to listen to whilst she worked in the bookshop. Probably the only record that was recorded after 1950 that she liked.
So I gave the Red album a spin and that was it. A Beatles obsession begun that got me ridiculed at school (by the same tw@ts who decided they loved the Beatles a decade or so later when Oasis arrived) and lasted for years. Well, it’s still there really, but I like a lot more other stuff now, whereas back the. it was The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Bonzos and that was pretty much it for a few years. Which is a long-winded way of getting to the question the OP asked, but I’m not very good at getting straight to the point! My mum is 7 years younger than my dad, who was more of a Billy Fury and Elvis fan and said he was never really bothered about The Beatles. He was stationed in Africa in the RAF for most of the 60s though. So, imagine my surprise when my mum showed me some letters he wrote home to her, where he used to always draw variations of the little stick man with the halo from The Saint in the margins (not mucky ones I hasten to add), and saw a Saint with a moptop and a guitar with ‘I’ll get you, I’ll get you in the end’ in a little speech bubble. So he knew enough about them to quote a b-side!
My mum was a 60s teen. She was more of a fan of The Hollies, but said she saw The Beatles at Sheffield City Hall. Ooh I was jealous. She told me her favourite Beatle was George and that her and her mate had drawn a lifesize George portrait for an art project. I don’t think she ever told me what her favourite Beatles song was though. But the Red album went home with me from my nan’s and for my birthday a few weeks later I asked for two more Beatles records. I don’t know how I found out about things like album titles when I was 11/12 in 1981, but I decided I wanted Please Please Me, because Twist and Shout wasn’t on the Red album (I played the track 15 times, one after the other, on my birthday!), and the Blue album. I do remember my parents trying to put me off the Blue album, my dad in particular, because by then the Beatles had started taking drugs and their music had apparently ‘gone weird’, but I wouldn’t budge and I was so glad I didn’t listen to them. Wouldn’t it be great to go back and hear those albums again for the first time. I gathered all their albums and a few Dylan ones over the next couple of years, at birthdays and Christmases. In fact, my dad bought me all the remaining Beatles albums when the Barnsley branch of Woolies closed, along with everything else, during the miners strike. They reduced the price of all their albums massively, but it was still really thoughtful of my dad, who had just lost his job, along with most of Barnsley. Whilst going back to hear The Beatles’ albums for the first time again would be great, it wouldn’t be so great to go back and live in Barnsley in 83/84 again, when Thatcher destroyed the town.
But there, that’s more or less the story of my family and The Beatles. I can’t imagine that any of my family have purposely listened to a Beatles record since I flew the nest in 1988. Fortunately I was over the obsessive part of being a Beatles fan by then, or at least I could keep it under wraps, as I ended up moving to Liverpool, as it was the only place that was offering the paediatric nursing course I wanted to do. A good coincidence though, as it gave me access to plenty to feed my former and re-kindling obsession. The next coincidence was that I ended up dating a local lass for 6 years who just happened to live a stone’s throw from Mendips and who went to Quarrybank. Crikey, if you’d have told me that would happen when I was 12 I would probably have exploded!
Edit: Blooming heck, I didn’t realise how long I’d been writing until I pressed save, so apologies for going on a bit!
I always enjoy your posts, Paul, so the longer the better! (Steady Moose.)
hur
The best thing Larry Klein did for The Beatles was put together the Red and Blue albums. Released in 1973, it seemed The Beatles had died a lifetime ago. Those albums refreshed their catalogue and reminded the world how great they were. They also, found their way into everyone’s collections to be discovered by later generations. Like you, Paul. Personally, I’m grateful to them just for Old Brown Shoe, a track I wouldn’t have heard otherwise and one of my favourite Beatles B sides.
I used to get a kick out of putting the more obscure Beatles b-sides on the jukebox when the single was there. Back to Robin Hoods Bay again, I remember a few raised eyebrows when I put The Inner Light on in the Dolphin.
Back to the point I made about wondering how I learned about which albums to buy, I remembered I had the Guinness Books of British Hit singles and albums, so I guess I used those and the Jimmy Savile radio show to start with. Although many of the older albums I bought tended to be greatest hits. In the pre-internet and pre-specialised music channel times you just listened to the music wherever you could find it. One of the best places for great 50s, doo wop and girlie band songs were the Lemon Popsicle films, for instance, which I watched at a far younger age than I’d like my kids watching anything like that. My love of The Shirelles started by hearing Soldier Boy on one of those films. Plus I had read in ‘Shout’, mine and most people’s first Beatles book, that some of the Please Please Me tracks were Shirelles ones. I think my choice of first Dylan albums came from hearing Like A Rolling Stone on Savile’s show, which knocked me off my 12 year old feet, and by reading in Shout that Lennon loved Bringing It All Back Home, so that album and Dylan’s Greatest Hits were put on the Christmas list.
I don’t know why I forgot about the Guinness books because I practically memorised the singles one. It was up to the end of 1978, so I must have got it when I was 10. 78/79 was a good time to be first taking an interest in music, cos there were some great singles getting played on the radio. It took quite a long time to get to hear all the music I wanted to hear though. Getting a Barnsley Music Library ticket when I was 16 was a big help. I pretty quickly had all the Pink Floyd albums taped, for example. I only had Ummagumma, which my uncle gave me when I was around 14/15, along with several other old albums of his, my favourite being Tim Buckley’s debut.
And then fastforward to a couple of years ago when I started delving into the world of hip hop. Thanks to the internet I was able to hear and get hold of everything I wanted to at the push of a button. By reading all the hip hop websites (of which there are surprisingly few really good ones) and various blogs/forums (which were much better for pointers into which directions I should take) I was able to get through a thousand albums in the time I waited between birthdays and Christmases to get the next album I wanted when I was a teenager. But knowing what I was like as a 12 year old I would have killed for what my 12 year old daughter has access to. A dad with 6000 albums, rather than the dozen that my dad had, and an iPad that gives access to everything else. And what does she listen to? The latest Now album and little else. My 8 year old lad has more eclectic tastes though, so there’s hope for him. He doesn’t like daddy’s sweary talking records though, so I’ll not stick the 2 Live Crew album I’ve got on right now onto his iPod then.
You mean Allan Klein. Larry Klein was that rangy wazzock who used to be married to Joni. (Good bassist tho but)
A pedant wrtites – his first name was akshully spelt Allen…
And Larry K was also co-producer of Walter Becker’s wonderful Circus Money album…
I just remember finding him quite annoying on the Shadows and Light film. Can’t remember why… that spoons solo he started to play during The Boho Dance wasn’t appropriate though.
I have Larry on my mind as I’ve been listening a lot to Carolyn Leonhart, Madeleine Peyroux and Melody Gardot albums produced by him. He might not be able to play spoons but, boy, can he produce! (I also like his bass playing.)
Not being a connossieur, I have no opinion on the quality of his spoonsmanship… it was just …. misjudged. OOAA
A pedant writes – bass player on Shadows and Light film was Jaco Pastorius…
BOOOOO-DOOOWWWWW! (but also weepdiddle um de doo, bap shebooba bebop, diddlyum a shebop, baow baow baow!)
My mum liked Paul because he dated Jane Asher who was a Drs daughter, and therefore a nice girl, so Paul must be a nice boy.
When I went to buy The Beatles Movie Medley single in 1982, my mum said “What do you want that for. There’s an album at home with all that on”
Me: “WHAT? You’ve got a Beatles album in the house and not told me!”
It was 1962-66, and didn’t have Magical Mystery Tour on it, so I still bought the single.
Bloody inconsiderate parenting – from the moment my kids were born, they were played The Beatles (and loads of other stuff) – I’m sure they’ll thank me one day
They’ll moan to anyone who’ll listen that you’ve ruined their lives.
Just like all teenagers do at some point or another.
To which the correct response is, “No, you’ve ruined OUR lives”.
That’s good parentin’.
My mom was silent about them, my father couldn’t tell them apart from the “Morrison’s Green Group”, an old Swedish newspaper wrote once about them:
Beatles är en sådant orkester
Vars frisör har ta’t semester
(Beatles is such an orchestra whose hairdresser took holidays).
Hey @Pizon-bros! Another Swede on the AW? Things are shaping up.
Vi kan soon ta över.
I refer the honourable gents to the noble @locust …. not to be confused with Beatles.
Then Kaisfatdad (another hybrid), of course…
Well, I am an hybrid, so, you might get the Swedish invasion with a French twist
“I Paris schangilla salar värsta buse Franska talar…”
My partner is a hybrid as well. A French twist doesn’t hurt.
No @Neela , and if we are enough afterworders in Sweden, we could organise a diner or a cruise…
What’s Swedish for mingle?
@Pizon-bros
I would enjoy that. Most of the Swedish section seems to be in Stockholm. I’m not though.
I know @kaisfatdad and @Locust are in or around 08.
@Neela
Yes, I’m Stockholm born and bred, living in the city.
Weren’t you coming to Stockholm for a gig in June or July or something? Perhaps a mingle could be organized during your stay – unless you just pop in for three hours and pop back immediately?
(Although I’m slightly torn between wanting to meet you all and just wanting to be left alone behind my keyboard…but it does begin to feel a bit silly after all of these years to never have met any of the Stockholm Afterworders IRL)
Go for it Neela – the Sago Museum will still be there when you get back 😉
Good initiative @Neela, @Pizonbros and @Locust. And let’s not forget the King of Spånga, @DuCo01.
No mingle would be complete without him and he is a wizz at organising things so that they actually happen. I am, by contrast, very spontaneous and “go with the flow”
June the 30th. Paul Simon live. I’m afraid it will probably be a three hour pop in. Work and stuff, you know. @Locust.
@Neela
Oh well, one of these years I’m sure we’ll all be at the same place at the same time for an AW mingle… 🙂
Enjoy the gig!
A French twist won’t hurt? You can do yourself a mischief dancing to Daft Punk.
I recommend le singe instead.
I prefer Jaques Dutronc, I think. Goes well with le singe.
Whither la pomme puree?
At the time, in the ’60s, my late mum didn’t say much about them at all, though I don’t think she reckoned much to them.
In the ’80s and ’90s she was frequently heard to say they wouldn’t do very well now, with how they sounded in their heyday. I used to reply that “they wouldn’t be doing it like that now”, but I’m not sure she understood. Not sure I’d have been completely right either.
My mum was a pre-Beatles music fan. Her fave was Little Richard who she saw on his first UK tour in ’62. She liked the Beatles but during the 60s she moved over to Motown predominantly and then in the 70s she really got into folk music when we moved out of London and into Somerset. I think she started to get in touch with her Irish roots. She and my dad became close friends with a hippy couple who were in their late teens and were really into the folk scene. Mum bought a piano and started singing Gaelic folk songs to them and that was it. They were always getting her to sing in pubs and clubs around Taunton and on the coast. She even sang on stage one night with Steeleye Span according to my dad! She was an orphan and got out of Ireland as early as she could seeing little reason to stay there. It was only a few years ago that she discovered she wasn’t an orphan at all but had been given up for adoption by her mum who died in ’62, the year my mum left Ireland.
“I couldn’t tell what they were playing!”
Exiting Coventry Locarno back in ’64 or whenever it was.