Thursday 29 March 2018

Hey there Mister Blue

Mr. Blue. He invented glam, you know
A songwriter friend of mine came over the other Saturday afternoon with his guitar - we played, drank gallons of tea and swapped a few ideas. He produced a melody and some snatches of lyrics he was turning into a new song. He told me its premise was all the girls he'd ever gone out with were together in one room - and what they'd say.

"Are you mad?" I think I may have blurted out. But he wouldn't listen. "Finish that song mate and there's a whole world of pain coming your way, nothing's so sure."

However, it did get me thinking. What if all the people I'd ever done a mixtape for all congregated in the same room? "Fuck me," they'd say to one another, I thought he only put 'Car 67' on mine just to wind me up. And what was 'Sunscreen' all about? But I really liked that bluegrass version of 'White Wedding' he put on mine." A lot of the blokes may remember me putting this on their CD compilations: "I think I got yours" one of the chaps would say to the girl in the corner wondering what she was doing in a room full of strangers - all clutching a drink in one hand and a C90 cassette in the other.

"Oh! Oh! Who remembers that song by the crazy Bollywood guy? I still dance around the kitchen to that one!"


Mohammed Rafi - Jaan Pehechan Ho (1965)

Some of my 'Best Bits' would be playing thru the PA and a few in the room may get dewy eyed about Another Train. Others maybe jumping on the furniture when Block Buster! comes on. Not pretty.

But I wonder how long it would be before Barry Blue's 'Do You Wanna Dance' entered the conversation? "He used to tell me Barry Blue invented glam", one would say, and someone else would pipe up "And did he put it on at the start, just after Gene Hunt shouting "Don't move you're surrounded by armed bastards?"

"YES!"

Rumbled.


Barry Blue - Do You Wanna Dance (1973)



For Alyson - even though I've never done her a mixtape

6 comments:

  1. Oh my - all very much my era this although I had forgotten about Car 67 and that great Brummie accent. Billy's White Wedding is great to dance to by the way but not done so for about 30 years!

    Poor Barry Blue has pretty much been forgotten about and sadly if I ever think of him now I also think of that other glam rocker with the initials GG so not good, but all down to the alliteration with the names.

    As for Pans People, I think I know what boys thought of them but we girls also loved them - Without looking it up I can still remember that the classic lineup was Babs, Dee Dee (loved her hairstyle), Cherry, Ruth and Louise. Dancing looks so lame now and it was usually overly literal but a fond look back at simpler times. Thanks for this one.

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  2. A - I don't think you could dance to this version of White Wedding; though I'd love to see you try. As I've said on here many times, music - and the swapping of music - has been my currency for as long as I care to remember; it was the driver behind this very blog and why I started writing it back in 2010. And as we touched on in our emails earlier this week, I know your writing has its roots in pretty much the same place.
    I say at the bottom of this piece that it's dedicated to Alyson, though I never did her a mixtape. A lot of my music listening these days, especially in the car, is done digitally now - so maybe I should do you an SD card.

    Hasn't quite got the same ring about it, has it?

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