But wait a minute. There's something coming on that channel that I really want to watch. It's a documentary entitled "The Day The Music Died" and it's all about the making of Don McLean's classic song "American Pie." It's probably better known by the phrase "The Day The Music Died" rather than for its actual title.
I so remember this song coming out in 1971. I was at college and somebody put it on in the pub. Do you remember the days when we had Juke boxes? They even had a programme called Juke Box Jury and if you want a laugh look at some of the old footage of that on You Tube. There's one with Nina and Frederic and David McCallum and his wife at the time Jill Ireland. They all sounded "frightfully posh" and one of them raved on about the brilliance of a song by Pinky and Perky! Yes those disgusting little pigs who spoke and sang in high pitched voices. That said much for the music of the day. David McCallum and Jill Ireland looked pig sick (deliberate pun there) at being there and host David Jacobs tried to jolly everyone along. McCallum split up and got divorced - probably had something to do with the record by the two pigs.
But I digress as I so often do. There I was drinking a half (not sure if I had enough money for a full pint) of beer in the Painted Lady pub in Harlow. I don't think the pub exists anymore but I did find a photo of it from the 1950s on the internet and I hope I'm not contravening copyright by reproducing it here and apologise if I am.
There I was drinking a half when somebody put American Pie on the juke box. My ears immediately pricked up. What was this song? It was so long that the 45 rpm single was split into two sides with the first part of American Pie on the A side and the second part on the B side. So if you wanted to hear the whole thing you had to pay twice.
This song was something else. So full of imagery and poetry and it talked about the day the music died which was a bit premature as for me the early to mid 1970s were the golden age of pop/rock music and have never been equalled. That might have something to do with where I was and what I was doing at the time as much as for the music. But these were times when music was new and fresh and a new LP or single was met with great anticipation.
So I looked into Don McLean and this epic song at the time and discovered other wonderful pieces of music by him like "Vincent," "Crossroads," "And I Love You So" and many more classic pieces of folk rock on his first two albums. If you haven't heard anything but American Pie and Vincent, do check those albums out.
So I'm looking forward to watching the documentary which I believe is available from the middle of next week.
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Hooray, hooray It's a holi holiday to quote Boney M. Yes my Facebook account is back. Many thanks to all those who said they missed my blog. With a bit of fiddling about I have managed to keep it going over the past two days as writing a blog every day for a year is part of my marathon walk for the East Anglian Air Ambulance. OK I know that writing isn't walking but the two activities are tied together. Anyway it's good to be back as Arnie S once said (actually he said it a lot of times).
How was the blood pressure I hear you ask? Well not too bad. Seems that it's being kept in check. I popped along to the local surgery to have it checked and then came home and checked it myself.
That's all because of WCS which is something I suffer from. That's White Coat Syndrome to you. The dislike of any kind of medical setting. So when I went in it was higher than I would have liked. After a few breathing exercises it went down considerably. The same happened when I checked it at home which suggests that deep breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth is good for you and probably something I should do a lot more of (along with drinking water).
I do try to drink plenty of water but it's not that easy if you aren't close to a toilet whilst you are doing it.
Tomorrow I will tell you about young gardeners from Hethersett and a special visit we are expecting to make today.