Sorry for the tautology, it's always been a favourite of mine and was attributed to one the truly great manglers of the English lingo, Yogi Berra (the legendary Yankees catcher of the 40s 50s & 60s)
This is very remotely surf related but, do any of you ever get a tiny bit of a song stuck in your head and you just can't rest until you work out what it is?
Happened to me today and I reckon if it were not for the good old intertubes , I never would have worked it out.
Driving to mum's today, I'm listening, as I usually do, to talk radio because I dislike most music and they were talking about the old shops in Sydney and a famous old Dance and big band venue in George street called the Trocadero.
It was well and truly past it's prime when I was young and had been reduced to the occasional deb ball and Miss Australia show but it may have been because I had been for a surf at Manly this morning and had the boards in the car that it jolted my memory about the one and only time I went there.
It was around the very early 70s and they had a festival of surf and music culture, to this day I can still recall possibly the coolest dude I had ever seen in my life, up until then, glassing a board in a display booth, I think he was from Shane.
He had really long bleached blond hair that had not seen a comb in years and he had this huge pair of really woolly Ugh boots on, covered in resin.
The second thing I remembered was that there was a band with a Female lead singer with a really good bluesy voice and I even remembered a few of the lyrics of the song they were doing.
“Dirty old man in a long ???”
“I'll try and be true”
“I'm get'n old just wait'n for you”
And those 3 bits' of lines were all I had to work with.
I reckon it took me a good 15 minutes to find it.
It was Alison MaCullun when she was with Freshwater.
I was as proud as punch when I finally worked it out.
You're not wrong, I can't believe we used to watch that stuff and thought there was nothing wrong with it.
That backing groups (freshwater) were famous for one thing and one thing only, and I had forgotten about it until I researched her song.
They did a song called called "Satan" or something similar, it was focused the Manson family killings at the Roman Polansky home in Hollywood.
I remember the chorus was utterly charming.
"Sharon Tait, you must die"
I guess some could argue that they were ahead of their time, other could argue that lyrics like that were about as good as they would ever manage.
Yes, I recall the Saints.
They were famous the world over for out punking the punks.
Not just out of left field, Oz that is.
But that bastion of all things with right wings, and white shoes, Queensland
Jo B Jerky did not even have to wait for the Fitzgerald enquiry to start chipping away his veneer of respectability.
Like fortune tellers, the Saint became a metaphor of his demise.
I imagine Flo B Jerky desperately wanting to shove Pumpkin Scones up their arses before booting them out of the state with her sensible shoes .
This was one my missus loved from about that time, I didn't mind the occasional listen. I think she still plays it often on her ipod.
I had that first Hunters and Collectors album. It was really good and a lot different to the stuff they did later. Midnight Oil's first 4 albums were good too and they were great live. Going back even further I've pretty much got everything the Stones did in the 70's thats when they were at their best. They look like corpses now.
YeP i WaS a pUnK and so was Lacey,I first met him on the floor as in I was plasted and he was kissing the pole and most of the the time we were the drunk to
Close but this is getting near,but I love this one back way and way then,when I was on a single fin because twins,threes and fours were just like going to space
For a couple of years Richards kids went to the same school as my kids and put it this way our school fairs became a rocking night
More single fin,little did vanders or simondo know that we were sharing waves with Bugg's Rabbit last Sunday.