Mick and I won the pub quiz up at "The Hammer and Pincers" tonight. Just the two of us. It's nice when things come together and hunches work out. In "guess the year" I knew that Cruise missiles first came to Greenham Common in England before our Ian was born. I drove down to Winchester to attend the wedding of my friend Jock and his lady - Sally. I stopped at Greenham Common to tie one of my father's old handkerchiefs to the wire fencing. I had drawn on it in permanent marker the "Ban the Bomb" peace symbol: ☮. The year was 1983.
Riding home on the Number 88 bus I heard the voice of Stevie Nicks playing in my head - a voice that was and remains very evocative. It speaks of vulnerability and tenderness and simply being human. I suspect we all hear old songs in our heads in idle moments. They rise to the surface like fish and we listen to them all over again. Sometimes they just play in the background - rather like radio music in a taxi cab.
Congrats on the win!
ReplyDeleteStevie does have one of those instantly recognizable, take you back to that place you first hear her, kind of voice.
It's much more than singing in tune. You have to "feel" every word.
DeleteShe has such a beautiful, distinctive voice.
ReplyDeleteA great songwriter too. She is now 75 years old.
DeleteGreat voice. P always had a crush on her.
ReplyDeleteWhy pine for a cheese sandwich when you have fillet steak at home?
DeleteTo win the pub quiz with such a small team is no mean feat! Well done, the two of you.
ReplyDeleteThere were two big teams - regulars too but we had a good night.
DeleteGreenham Common? Wasn't that where all the women with unshaven armpits gathered before Maggie 'strongly discouraged them'? Nevertheless it is good to know your thinking, no matter how ineffectual, was correct in your youthful days back in 1983.
ReplyDeleteThe sexist right wing media made those brave and determined women look like crazy hippies. But their cause was right.
DeleteTotal cost of Britain's nuclear weapons stretching over 50 years
Deleteis difficult to assess (hidden costs too) but would amount to
hundreds of billions of pounds.
Look at us today. We can't even repair our roads & pavements.
On Sunday morning I walked into Glasgow city centre.
Hope Street at the Central Station was filthy, alcoholics everywhere.
I came along by Waterloo Street, named after Wellington's defeat
of Napoleon (with a lot of help from the Germans).
Once proud Sauchiehall Street is a wasteland, electric bicycles
speeding on the pavements at 40 MPH.
A nightmare for pedestrians.
Who would want to invade our sad broken country ?
I love Stevie Nicks. Landslide is my favourite track of hers or Fleetwood Mac.
ReplyDelete"Landslide" is indeed a masterpiece.
DeleteBetween my father's first retirement, and second retirement, he worked as a quality inspector in a cruise missile factory.
ReplyDelete"Yup Dave! This one'll kill a village filled with people just fine. Put a 'pass' sticker on the sucker!"
DeleteFleetwood Mac was one of those bands I was "supposed" to like. Never did. I have no idea why.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on winning the pub quiz!
I remember the very first Fleetwood Mac tide with Peter Green. They evolved into a very different band.
DeleteCongrats on the win! My son goes to "Trivia night" at a local bar every other Tuesday. He joins my brother and his wife and daughter and a friend to make a team. Last week they won when my son knew the final answer (and he was the only one in the bar who did). The question was, "who was Marvel comics first super hero?" Do you know, Neil? (no fair using Google!) : )
ReplyDeleteNope! I do not know the answer Ellen. It's one of several knowledge zones in which I can appear quite stupid.
DeleteALTERNATIVE RESPONSE (Using Google)... Wait a minute Ellen, is it Human Torch?
DeleteYes, it's the Human Torch, Neil!
DeleteYes, Stevie Nicks is a good one.
ReplyDeleteI can imagine you skating to the sound of Stevie Nicks.
DeleteI do remember that song playing OVER AND OVER AND OVER on the radio back in the day. I didn't mind it but I wasn't a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. I like "Landslide" and I did own the album "Tusk," but only about half the tracks are listenable.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the pub quiz victory! I went to peace marches around that time too.
The Greenham Common women were right. Also, I agree that "Landslide" was a great track.
Delete