“Yes, this is me and I’m half as stern as I appeared back in Victorian London (14 February 1895 to be precise). How did I get there? On this occasion I remember my receding hairline occasioning an appointment with my Top Hat makers (Farquahar & Watts, The Strand, London) for a bit of measuring and reassessment before attending the first night of “The Importance of Being Earnest”. But I missed dear Oscar’s famous curtain call as I was suddenly transported back (I have no control over these things) to 1956 to relive once more that blessed evening when my Dad brought home a second-hand Dansette record player. What a wondrous object! Open the lid, breathe in that fragrance of wiring, tube valves and rubber - aaahhh, if someone would bottle that fragrance, I’d buy a case. But the best thing was, the seller had included a pile of 78rpm records. A mixed bag of light classical - Mendelsohn’s ‘Fingal’s Cave’ - light opera - the then ubiquitous Mario Lanza - and popular hits such as: ‘O Mein Papa’, by British trumpeter Eddie Calvert and ‘Rose Marie’ by American country crooner Slim Whitman. Being only five years old and not subject to stylistic discernment of any kind, I loved them all, subconsciously grasping only that music transported me to a very happy place. But soon I would hear something that really changed my life.

It came in the form of a 78rpm disc on the His Master’s Voice label, carrying in its grooves the seeds of a revolution, namely the voice of Elvis Presley singing ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. Elvis’s charisma carried all before it but as important in the magical invocation was Scotty More’s crashingly confident guitar solo and Sam Phillips’s perfect production; the close delay on the voice, the perfect reverb creating intimacy and maximizing monumentality (they have a plug-in for that these days). That revelation was fairly swiftly followed with exposure to the great Lonnie Donegan.

I’d say that Lonnie Donegan’s influence on the British music scene was huge. Skiffle was the punk music of its day. It sold thousands of cheap acoustic guitars and put callouses on the fingers of the nation’s spotty youth. And it introduced many to the world of the blues: the legacy of Leadbelly, work songs, Appalachian music. Well, it made a huge impression on me amidst the anodyne pop landscape of the mid-50s. Look at this live performance of Gamblin’ Man and get a sense of the power and energy he generated. I think that was his brother on guitar and chewing gum. And there’s a drum solo too!

I think it’s fair to assume that that performance was seen in Liverpool by a certain young John Lennon and led directly to the formation of The Quarrymen. And the rest is history. And my personal history continues with a neverending list of fresh musical inspirations. Let me see now…. (continued in part 2)

A Likely Story, part 1

Warsaw Prog Days Festival