Story Chapter 31- Ready to Roll???

I've been thinking about my childhood a lot lately and something that came to mind was the contribution that music has made to it.

From....
*Dancing on my dining room table age four belting out ABBA's dancing queen.
* To being amazed at the Solid Gold dancers and trying to emanate their routines with my friend Suzy Duncan.
* The music from the Goodnight Kiwi.
*My first music album (yes vinyl) ABC The Lexicon of Love.
* My first concert; Roxy Music at the Dunedin Town Hall.
* Listening to Rick Dee's Top 40 on the radio.
* The teenage years of listening to the top 9 at 9 and calling in shout outs to friends. And trying to tape favourite songs onto terrible mix tapes- where the start of the song was voiced over by the announcer.
* Ready to Roll at 6pm on a Saturday and Radio with Pictures late on Sunday night.

 My musical tastes were wide and varied I was strongly influenced by my Dad- alternative, Jazz, and all sorts. Music like the Michael Franks, Go-Betweens, The Violent Femmes, Joy Division, Pink Floyd, Prince, Everything But the Girl, early U2. But also some classics as well- songs like Nights in White Satin, Hotel California, Stand By Me, and Sexual Healing.

Of course I was influenced by my friends and popular culture.
And later by boyfriends. Read- Faith No More, Fugazi, Mr Bungle, Cyprus Hill, Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails.

The names that spring to mind are many and varied: from the Beastie Boys to Chris Issac, Ben Harper to Leftfield, Lady Blacksmith Mambazo to Bjork. So many I have forgotten too.

Some of my fondest musical memories relate more to what I was doing at the time. Like the year I got a walkman for my birthday, a ten speed for Christmas and a tape of the Blue Nile. In the days after Christmas I spent hours and hours and hours riding my bike all over and listening to that tape. I remember the intensely joyful feeling of being both alone and totally free.

I remember reading the passage in The Motherstone (Maurice Gee) where Susan is walking across the dessert with the blood cat- and the New Order album I was listening too was the perfect accompaniment. If I hear that music I see that story in my head. And if I see the book I automatically hear the music. I'm listening to it as I write and I can feel the desperation and the heat, the low energy of the characters trek and the tension from the wild cat.

 I've often turned to music when my emotions were at their extremes there are mental sound tracks to my most happy and most sad times and most especially when my life has been up in the air. 

One of my most favourite things I've ever created was a story that I first told my class at Arthur Street I used music from a variety of sources to tell the story of an island over 20 minutes. It starts in paradise- relaxed and calm, beautiful, And then there is visitors, invasion, take over, industry, destruction- and finally rebuilding. Every time I've told it to a class I've had them get comfortable and then close their eyes. It's like a roller-coaster ride and includes music from New Order, Big Mountain, Roger Waters and some really heavy industrial stuff I liked. I always do it at the end of the school day so that they can go home and consider what they heard and felt. The next day they come back with a truck load of questions about the truth of the story- is semi factual, but really just a conglomeration of stories like that of Bikini Atoll.

More recently our family has had a couple of theme songs that we've rocked out to- Bernard Fanning's 'Wish You Well' is a great driving song Les, the big kids and I have listened to it many times. And 'Something in the Water' by Brooke Fraser is one that we were rocked out to just before we left NZ.

Dave Dobyn's 'Loyal' is regarded by Les and I as 'our song'. 

I'm writing this retrospectively (again) and just last night (21/11/13) Kieran and I were talking about music while driving to Hockey and ended up putting on the soundtrack to Pulp Fiction- and rocking out to that there and back- finishing up our journey with a bit of seated Twisting- Jack Rabbit Slim style. It's an average Thursday night turned magical by sharing music with someone I love that I hope to remember for a long time.

 ♥