 |
| The single first appeared on this album |
Just like anybody else, there are songs that I associate with particular times in my life. In the 70's I spent four and a half years at The University of Stirling in Scotland. The song that I mostly associate with that time is "Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)" by Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel. It was often playing in "The Allangrange" students' pub.
The lead line "Come up and see me" was drawn from a Mae West film of 1933 - "She Done Him Wrong". There are deeper, more meaningful songs with better-crafted lyrics but there was something very human and plaintive about the Cockney Rebel song. Apparently it was engendered late one night as Steve Harley reflected on the bitter break up of his original band
Even after forty three years "Come Up and See Me" still reverberates in my head and takes me back to that concrete university campus by Airthrey Lake in the shadows of Dumyat and The Ochil Hills. I am in touch with very few of the people I knew back then though some were truly loved...
There's nothing left, all gone and run away
Maybe you'll tarry for a while
It's just a test, a game for us to play
Win or lose, it's hard to smile
Resist, resist, it's from yourself you have to hide
Come up and see me, make me smile
Or do what you want, run on wild
Are there any particular songs that mark key times in your youth?
It's ages since I've heard this song...thanks for the refresher.
ReplyDeleteLife would not be life without music...we have so much to enjoy...and so much of it brings back memories...good, bad, happy, sad.
I've just been listening to Miriam Makeba...and then followed by the Scottish tribal band Clann an Drumma performing Bloodline album mix at Scone Palace, Scotland; followed by Celtic battle music - The King of The Highlands.
Not really music to send me off to sleep, I know...now I'm all stirred up, so I'll go back to watching a crime-legal series streaming on Netflix....that probably won't do the job, either! It's only 8.30 pm Saturday evening...so it's too early to go to sleep...plus, I'm not tired!!!
You would have to be seven years old to go to bed at 8.30pm! Why not put on your pink lycra running gear and go for a gentle jog round the block? That'll help to get you off to sleep.
DeletePersonally, I can see nothing wrong if you're tired at 8.30 pm or so, and can't keep your eyes open you feel you want to go to bed/sleep early - and do.
DeleteI do so, if I'm feeling tired...why fight it? Switch off and go to sleep seems to be the very simple remedy to me. I don't have to excuse myself to anyone. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.
As for donning pink lycra or lycra of any colour I have none, and these days running is not on my list of things I can do. And I think hobbling around the block with my walking stick in one hand, in the dark at 8.30 pm would be a stupid thing to do. I'd not be able to move for a couple of days thereafter, that is for sure.
So, no, Mr. Pud...no hobbling around in pitch darkness at night for me. For that matter, none in the light of the day, either.
For your information, presently here in Australia we are experiencing winter and here in south-east Queensland today the sun will be setting at 5.24 pm. Come 11th November, 2018, the sun will set at 6.13 pm. It is never light through to the middle of the night here. Night is night and day is day...and the light behaves accordingly!
I know you were...or think you were just having a dig at me, but I believe it doesn't matter what age a person is, if they want to go to sleep at 8 pm...they can! :)
(I finally shut down everything and went to sleep around midnight last night - and was up out of bed this morning at 6.25 am).
We all live in a yellow submarine because it was played over and over one night when I had a hotel room right over the bar.
ReplyDeleteI bet the first dance at the Kline wedding was also to "Yellow Submarine". Very romantic.
DeleteYes, there are many, but the only one I'm willing to talk about is "Disco Duck" which was played over and over during the first week of my first year at university -- over loudspeakers from a mobile broadcasting unit and audible to every corner of the large campus and inside every building. I still smile when I hear it. That was my first time away from home and my mom's fairly restrictive rules and I was looking forward to the freedom it represented to me.
ReplyDeleteYou went to university in Scotland? Have you ever written about that and in particular how you settled on that choice?
See this post from 2015 Jenny...
Deletehttps://beefgravy.blogspot.com/2015/01/stirling.html
Thank you - I enjoyed reading that.
DeleteWow, this post takes me back to the Cyprus Tavern in Manchester in the early 80's.
ReplyDeleteThe song would have to be Tainted love by Marc Almond. It made me sit up and think that something different was on it's way. Before that I'd very much been a rock fan, with a bit of folk music in the local pubs (they couldn'd half play fast :o )
Hello No Roots. I am happy that this post reminded you of "Tainted Love" and a special time in your life.
DeleteI have NEVER heard that song! At least not that I remember. I think maybe it just didn't make it to the states!
ReplyDeleteSo many different songs remind me of so many different times. My earliest song memory might be "American Pie," which I distinctly remember hearing on the radio when I visited a friend's house in kindergarten.