Xmas and The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl

 

Christmas December 1977 is lodged in my mind for being the year I had a Christmas present that unlike a good number from that era I still own.

On May 4th 1977 following the previous years excursion into remarketing the beatles a new album came out that featured recordings of their August 1964 and 1965 performances at the Hollywood Bowl in California that had been recorded for posterity by Capitol records.

1977 was several years on from the end of the Beatles with each member moving on with their own solo careers and other interests to varying degrees of success but close enough for our generation to have known fleetingly about them first hand.

In the main I was more into Paul McCartney and Wings being swept away as mid Junior boy by My Love and Band On The Run three or so years before and loving this years Mull Of Kintyre single which I also had. 

While individual studio albums were still available and it was only three and a bit years since the now legendary 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 compilations had come out with myself having the latter myself in March 1977, their had been nothing that captured the feel of Beatlemania.

This album compiled of two shows, transferred from the vintage three track tapes to 24 track equalized and remixed, did capture the feel of being at a show with a typical half hour set complete with 17,000 young screams.

It was a deluxe gatefold sleeve edition that I bought on  Friday December 17 from the local record shop all by myself before handing it over to Mum for safe keeping until Christmas Day when it was played.

My copy is a first edition cut by Wally Traugott at Capitol mastering with -1/-1 matrixes rather the later recuts done by Harry T Moss at Abbey Road.

The inner sleeve of the UK edition I had and the North American differed with theirs having a mocked up live photo while ours showed the currently available studio and compilation albums complete with track lists on vanilla background.

This proved useful for a thirteen year old me to plan how to build over time his beatles albums collection and put on birthday and Christmas wish lists.

Falling between two stools

We mentioned a bit about gender identity earlier on and actually that has a big part to do with the history of this blog which is some people misunderstood me taking me into whole areas that really were not.

There was not a question in my own mind that biologically I was male and I didn't beyond natural curiosity really go around thinking that in some way actually I was a girl but the thing was I had feminine interests and feelings.

Back in the nineteen seventies and eighties that was a massive issue because while I was happy to be "one of the boys" what was in that boy was wider and I couldn't openly be me in an era when boys were ridiculed and assaulted for being like me by other boys if not humiliated by macho male teachers. 

I wanted to play some of the playground games girls did but that wasn't allowed, You liked some girls toys but you'd never be allowed to play with their friends and your mates would make your life hell if they had an inclining you did.

It was bigger than that even.

I did like to wear sometimes skirts and dresses, not because I wanted to be a girl or later on transition to be a adult female becoming for all intents and purposes but just because I felt comfortable dressed that way although I didn't mind wearing shorts.

Long trousers were and remain a hatred of mine.

It was all just a mess.

The Plaid Appeal

For a very long time plaid designs had a hold on me from the tins of shortbread biscuits whose contents I devoured as a boy to Scottish Regimental soldiers in kilts via the sensational Bay City Rollers pop group I loved as a young boy.

Perhaps that's where that liking for plaid skirts and matching clan ties came in and my mum did have ladies kilt skirts that I sometimes would try on as I wasn't much for all the ceremonial things associated with the male kilt but did like skirts.

I almost bought one back in 1984 from the Giroscope magazine the bank National Girobank had.

Childhood reading revisited

One thing I will probably be doing more of is reading which for all my difficulties with it, is something I'm really enjoying right now and one site has an upcoming readathon I'll be able to take part in, sharing observations around the story as we all read together.

This week I've been reading the Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton which is about a group of children - Jo, Bessie and Fanny - who having moved to the Country, encounter a  most odd wood at the end of their garden - The Enchanted Wood where pixies, fairies and others live.

Growing in this wood is the Faraway Tree which initially the children climb that leads to the top where you can enter lands, lands that change regularly where many an adventure is had often featuring Moon-Face who has a face just like the moon and Silkie who has hair just like silk.

Some of the lands are really magical like Nursery Rhyme Land or the Land of Presents, cautionary such as the Land of Do-as-you-please or a bit nasty like the Land of Tempers. Well, would you liked to be surrounded by people always in a bad temper?

My copies of The Faraway Tree and the Folk of  the Faraway tree are copies I had from my chronological childhood being printed around 1971 and1972 but the first book of the series the Enchanted Wood is a newer copy from 1987, all just being decimalized but otherwise keeping the same text as earlier editions which isn't the case with the current ones with name changes for the three children, gollywogs being removed and any mentioning in passing of slaps or spanking as punishment removed.

Related to that and again from my original copies from the early 1970's I read Wishing Tree series (in the original series there but two books) which are fun to read. 

The plot is essentially that of two children, Peter and Molly who go to an antique shop to by their mother a present and come back with a chair that, when wishes are made has the magical ability to fly. 

They discover and make friends with a pixie called Chinky and have adventures flying in the Wishing Chair meeting also sorts of amazing and sometimes slightly scary characters.

As with Faraway Tree, these two books (Adventures of the Wishing Chair and the Wishing Chair Again) have been extensively 'revised' in their current editions to remove all the stuff so-called 'Politically Correct' people have issues with even mentioning.

Thankfully for those without copies, the Deans hardback Rewards series are easy to find used in at least acceptable condition being in print until at least 1990 where the heavy revisions came in.

Billy Joel, the Piano Man Pt.2

This is the slightly over due part two of our music specials on Billy Joel whose music I loved growing up.

Following a bit of a gap the program resumed with 1978's fantastic 52nd Street jazz influence album with it's hit singles My Life and FM album favourites like Zanzibar which like all of  Mobile Fidelity's  issues in this series isn't just a finely mastered cd besting regular Columbia/Sony issues but also a even better sounding super audio cd that can be played on a dedicated sacd player or many Blu-Ray players that have playback built into them.

These releases use a mini lp style of presentation complete with lyric inserts which I much prefer over plastic jewel cases.

 On July 31st 2012, the specialty reissue company Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs as part of it's program of Billy Joel reissues put out a new version of Billy Joel's 'new wave' Glass Houses album from 1980, the one with 'It's Still Rock and Roll To Me' on it.

If you like Billy Joel as I do then you're no doubt familiar with numbers like 'All for Leyna' but what makes this so enjoyable is it hasn't had any extra narrowing of the quiet and loud passages applied to it so when those drums kick in you can tell! 

Plus it sounds really clear in the presence area great for Billy's voice and the percussion.

The last edition of I bought was the 1998 Sony re-master which I have on Minidisc.

This 1982 album saw Billy emulating the feel of the 60's with many a nod to Paul McCartney and featured hits such as Allentown that caught the despondency of the early 80's Reagan era America as the smokestack industries faced decline.

This new version on regular cd is the best I've ever heard this album which although recorded digitally was actually mixed to analogue tape.

It is to be hoped the 50's pastiche that is An Innocent Man gets this treatment soon.

Scouting attire for the little sissy girl

 Time marches on and we have entered Winter which is when I love to get out and about.

The practicality of the traditional boys scout uniform is evident I feel in this photograph that shows the pockets of the shirt and short trousers with a notch to hold say a knife although today especially in urban centres you need to careful about displaying knives.

Shorts don't have those issues of both knees in long trousers becoming worn through kneeling or caked in mud where bare knees can be easily cleaned.

The only real advance I feel on shorts for scouting for gurls like me would be a fitted skort with pockets where the inner short provides the modesty that can be difficult to get in a skirt much  above the knees in the field.

 

A skort is a pair of shorts with a part-elasticated waist and a buttoned wrap-over front panel and these also features two back pockets and a handy zip pocket on the side.

I feel such a practical but feminine item is better for gurls.

I'm bored

 

I'm bored is the usual cry you hear from children but what is boredom?

One way of looking at is spare time to which you haven't found something that holds your interest to do.

That can be for a variety of reasons such as limited imagination - you fail to visualize something you could do - that may involve others or where say the adventures maybe in a book or tv show are such that they'd take a hold in your so that for you at that point they taken on real emotions.

That was one reason I liked to hear stories read at school with all that vocalization.

Another reason for some is sadly they fail to see others in that they can't relate to them in social settings so working on some joint activity just doesn't happen. They either do everything by themselves or failing that just sit doing nothing waiting for something to happen where just maybe someone might invite them.

Certain times of the year sometimes have a saddening affect and for sure the onset of the Winter is one when it's cold to play, natural daylight is limited and ice sometimes cause the groan ups to call off going round to your friends.

I've always liked doing things with others and boarding school was really good cos well we all were still at school after lessons to do stuff before evening meals and lights out.

If you changed the gender of the person on the right of the picture to a gurl in a skirt, that was very much a Tammy style of play running around the playground they'd of loved!!!!