I didn't come from a musical family.
Dad made his own banjo when he was 18 and played in the local bush dances, but by the time he was 21 he was buried in grownup work and responsibilities and unyielding West Coast mallee paddocks and he'd left all that fun and trivia stuff behind. He always had a radio on though, often on the ABC's classical music station 5CL, but it seemed to me he was only trying to keep silence at bay, augmented by his ability to endlessly whistle quietly and tunelessly to himself. I did several great road trips with him as a kid, but I have no idea how Mum stood it for 10-12 years.
Mum had no leaning towards music at all, and I never remember her singing. It just wasn't her style. Her younger sister used to, and wasn't half bad on the piano, but my early brush with music - I was 4-5 years old - consisted only of the pianola being pumped and the magical keyboard playing itself as half a dozen soldiers and several aunts belted out wartime songs. But "Music" as a personal cultural discovery didn't happen till I was 16.
It was 1956. Something was in the air. Other than employment, disposable income, and increasing testosterone. It was Records. Music. Bands. Singers. Teenage. They became a subject for conversation between mates. Along with girls, cars, motor bikes, and girls. We compared notes on all of it. Which meant you had to be something of an expert on each or at least sound as though you were. There was a lot of bullshit.
With music, the yardstick was "The Hit Parade." (Which had the theme tune "Look Sharp Be Sharp" by Sharkey Bonano, a classic piece of Dixieland. I love Dixieland to this day and it was nostalgia heaven when I heard this one again for the first time in some 60-odd years. Click on the link below - sorry about the bloody front-end commercial - and turn up the volume if you want to be transported back to 1956....
At six o'clock every Sunday night this cranked up on radio station 5DN, who then put on a half hour of "hits", pumping out the week's top eight singles from the sales of records and sheet music at Adelaide's biggest local retailer Allan's Music, and invited listeners to submit their prediction for next week's top eight to win one whole 78 rpm record. The thing is, it was all designed for us new breed (and cashed up market) - The Teenager. Who at least had access to a wind-up gramophone.
But Rock'n'Roll hadn't quite arrived. It was on the way but wasn't yet invading dear old Auntie Adelaide "The City Of Churches". So, in the meantime it was anything with a decent beat, or done by a sexy (by 1956 standards) girl, or had lyrics that tugged at our hormones. We thought we were cool, but had no idea what was still to come.
The thing is, Marlon Brando's "Wild One" and his motor bike had already been through out lives - compulsory viewing - but the music in it was still from our parent's (and elder brother's) era of jazz. Modern Jazz. And the dudes in it were all adults, making out they were "Beat Generation". It dictated what we wore - sunnies, black denim jeans, black leather jacket, white t-shirt, elastic sided boots - and what we smoked - Monopole Midgets (thin short strong cigars). Geez we looked cool. But it wasn't the whole package. We didn't know it but "the sound" was missing. Our parents were suitably horrified by our dress codes and deportment, but we had a way to go.
I found a notebook from 1956 the other day, with my "Hit Parade" lists in it. Which started a major nostalgia binge with the help of YouTube and all those kind people out there who just have to upload stuff. Because they can. You name it, YouTube has it. Anyway, this is a selection from six Sunday nights Top Eight Hits. Have a listen to them if you want to be "there".
Rock Island Line - Lonnie Donegan ("skiffle" from the UK, but had potential)
The Great Pretender - The Platters (very cool)
Ivory Tower - (schmaltzy track from one of those sexy women I mentioned)
Almost Tomorrow - (ditto)
Moon Glow - (orchestral movie theme to memory, adults went for it)
Che Sera Sera - Doris Day (need we say more!)
Hot Diggety - Perry Como (starting to sound vaguely like what we really wanted)
Sweet Old Fashioned Girl - Teresa Brewer (it was compulsory to seriously bullshit about her!)
But then - IT happened. "Blackboard Jungle" was released.
Okay, it was a mob of 25 year olds being passed off as 16 year old High School misfits and giving teachers a bad time but the theme tune was Bill Haley's iconic "Rock Around The Clock". Sitting there in that theatre, and having "One two three o'clock four o'clock ROCK..." suddenly come belting out at us, our hormones went mad. Yes! - THIS is what we want!
Just about overnight it wasn't up to "The Hit Parade" to let us know what we liked, so it was.....
Shake Rattle And Roll
See Ya Later Alligator
Tutti Frutti
Long Tall Sally
Maybellene
Heartbreak Hotel
Jailhouse Rock
....and we all snuck off to Tuesday night Learn To Dance classes to master the compulsory moves that went with it - Rock'n'Roll. Not jive, not jitterbug, not quickstep and swing, but Rock'n'Roll. OUR dance. We went mad. Hormones flying about with the sweat every Friday night down at the local bughouse to the beat of some rock band cobbled together that afternoon. And that's how we became bodgies and widgies and it all lasted for - geez - at least a year and a half! Fun while it lasted.
The thing is, it was Rock'n'Roll that got me going, that got me hooked on music, but I never lost my wider taste, even back then, as I also found in that 1956-57 notebook a wish list of every record I wanted to buy, and while all the Rock classics of the day were thick in it, it also has a lot of Dixieland Jazz (Alan Rhodes, Graham Bell), Big Band Swing (Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller), along with Johnny Ray, Teresa Brewer, Jim Brown, Freddy Gardner, Frankie Lane, etc.
My tastes in music weren't to change much after that (didn't have time to explore the Flower Power era) until I hit the mid 1970s. Seriously hit it head on. Seriously. Rewired my brain.
Cheers...
T.R.E.
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