Fab to be reminded of all our yesterdays
THERE is no future in nostalgia, as someone once said. But there is a lot of emotion. I was surprised to feel it creep up on me when watching a BBC4 programme called Sings The Beatles, that featured 20 tracks of other artists performing the music of the Fab Four from the Beeb archives.
One or two of the covers are there for novelty value. Others were classics that took me back to much younger days. A fresh and youthful Cilla Black (If I Fell), Sandie Shaw (Day Tripper and Ticket To Ride), Elton John (I Saw Her Standing There), Oasis (I Am The Walrus) and Siouxsie and The Banshees (Dear Prudence).
For me, the outstanding, hairs on the back of your neck, performance was Joe Cocker’s With A Little Help From My Friends. This was the song that closed his Woodstock set in 1969 and became one of the highlights of the festival.
Unfortunately I was not at Woodstock but Maria and I joined the crowds that queued outside cinemas to watch the three-hour film of the event that was released the following year. We both had long hair, beads round our necks and knee high boots.
The TV programme brought back vivid memories from the 1960s, an era through which we were privileged to have lived and to have experienced such a rich time to be young, when the youth movement found its voice, social boundaries were reset, Britain ruled pop and rock, the Beatles sang All You Need Is Love and Lennon sang Give Peace A Chance and we believed such pleas might work. What a time to be young. I suppose every generation thinks the same and I remember my daughters being surprised when they discovered I was an Oasis fan.
They asked why. Because they were the closest thing to The Beatles I’d heard in years.
On Youtube I found plenty of Beatles live performances and videos and, in particular, was struck by the young people from around
People who lived in these times must have had a geat life. Now technology has made
us slaves
the world adding plaudits after watching the hypnotic (George Harrison’s description) live version of Hey Jude and its endless nah-nah-nahs when the studio audience surrounded them as they played to sing along. Two million views and climbing.
“People who lived in these times must have had a great life. Now technology has made us slaves,” says a girl called Vicky wistfully.
Ian says: “This makes me wish to be in England in the 1960s.” Me too, Ian.
Beatles music continues to be played and enjoyed 60 years after much of it was written. What a time to be young… and how quickly the years have gone.
Today’s youngsters should remember this was the time when their grandparents were young.