Golden Years ... not quite

My first day at Marist Brothers Primary School, 1975.

David Bowie: Golden Years, released 1975 on the album Station to Station.

Lyrics:

Golden years, gold whop whop whop x 3

1

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere, angel

Come get up my baby

Look at that sky, life's begun

Nights are warm and the days are young

Come get up my baby

2

There's my baby, lost that's all

Once I'm begging you save her little soul

Golden years, gold whop whop whop

Come get up my baby

3

Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings, angel

Come get up my baby

In walked luck and you looked in time

Never look back, walk tall, act fine

Come get up my baby

4

I'll stick with you baby for a thousand years

Nothing's gonna touch you in these golden years, gold

Golden years, gold whop whop whop

Come get up my baby

5

Some of these days, and it wont be long

Gonna drive back down where you once belonged

In the back of a dream car twenty foot long

Don't cry my sweet, don't break my heart

Doing all right, but you gotta get smart

Wish upon, wish upon, day upon day, I believe oh Lord

I believe all the way

Come get up my baby

Repeat: 2

Don't let me hear you say life's taking you no where, angel

Come get up my baby

Run for the shadows, run for the shadows

Run for the shadows in these golden years

Repeat: 4

In 1975 I started 4th grade at a new Catholic Primary School, it was the school I was to remain at till I graduated Year 12 in 1983. The school was an all boys school run by the Marist Brothers. In 4th grade my reports indicated that I was a dreamy kid and not too much trouble in class by 6th grade my teacher put it bluntly when she called me "bone lazy". I appear to have missed swathes of school during my 3 years in the Marist primary school ... I do remember having many problems with my eye. 

Since I had been two years old I had/have suffered recurrent infections in my left eye caused by the same herpes virus that gives people cold sores - I just got them on the Cornea of my eye. In the years at Marist Primary they grew more ferocious in intensity as my Ophthalmologist feared I would lose the sight in my left eye. All this concern culminated in two eye operations to graft a clean piece of cornea onto my eye in 1977. I didn't lose all of my sight but I only have around 20% vision in my left eye.

The interesting thing about the 1975 period of my life is that I remember so little of it. I do know they weren't great times for my family as my parent's marriage slowly disintegrated to it's finale, also in 1977. In fact 1977 ended up being a pretty crappy year as it was the year my surviving Grandfather also died!

The one thing I do clearly remember though is this David Bowie song. It was the first time that I thought music was cool; the first time I saw that it could be different. I understood something of creativity in this musical moment. It planted a seed that took many a year to germinate (see director MSND blog).

Bowie's song was released around the time of the Butterfly Ball album which was the brainchild of Deep Purple's Bass player Roger Glover ... This was also the first album I was ever given and I will write about this at a later date.

And I've sorted out the music embedding ... Hoorah!

U2 and a road to nowhere ...

Myself and Thomas Ehren (my son) 1987.

So, here's the promised post:

U2's Where the Streets Have No Name, released 1987 on the Joshua Tree Album. 

Where the Streets Have No Name

I wanna run, I want to hide

I wanna tear down the walls 

That hold me inside.

I wanna reach out

And touch the flame

Where the streets have no name.

I wanna feel sunlight on my face.

I see the dust-cloud 

Disappear without a trace.

I wanna take shelter 

From the poison rain

Where the streets have no name x 3

We're still building and burning down love

Burning down love

And when I go there 

I go there with you

It's all I can do.

The city's a flood, and our love turns to rust

We're beaten and blown by the wind

Trampled in dust.

I'll show you a place

High on the desert plain

Where the streets have no name x 3

We're still building and burning down love

Burning down love.

And when I go there

I go there with you

(It's all I can do).

One of the great things about this song is the build up at the beginning. The swell of music sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it, and when I've heard it live - ecstasy. I have also played this song 'live' in my home town of Canberra, in a covers band called: Howard Hughes is Alive and Well; so called because our drummer's name was Howard Hughes! I used to play Bass guitar and it was one of those songs you could put a lot of energy into the playing of it without losing the rhythm.

When the Joshua Tree album was released I was 21 years old, married and about to become a father! Yikes! There where a couple of songs from this album that hit the mark for me and the other stand out was Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, it was a song I used to sing to my new born son when I was nursing him. But it is 'Streets' that still sends those shivers up my spine, in part a nostalgia nod to those times but also the song's yearning quality measured a similar quality in my own heart/mind/spirit. 

It wouldn't be too long before the marriage failed and I was shunted into a life of distance parenting, at first from the easy distance of the same suburb but in a few years to come from another city a couple of hours drive away ... different streets, a change of scene, building a new life ... tearing another down. The music swells in resonance of a memory captured.

That's the irony of it I suppose, the well worn plan of family and building a future for that thing didn't come with a map nor compass, and although making big 'adult' decisions, we were all still kids at heart trying to find our way. I was also in the final stages of my god bothering phase and took the responsibility for all this stuff earnestly and seriously. But, for my part, I had no tools to deal with the difficulties that came my way and I made the harrowing decision, after counselling and consultation, to leave the home and end a relationship that was becoming destructive and having a negative impact on my son. It's a sign to me how quickly Tom settled after the separation but it was a huge price to pay and one that my son and I are still paying for.

I wanna take shelter from the poison rain

Where the streets have no name ...

The bummer for my blog at the moment is that I haven't figured out how to add audio but I'll leave it up to you to search out this track for it's aural pleasures.

New post/New thoughts ...

Welcome all ...

I am starting this blog in hommage to Nick Hornby and my good friend George Huitker (Google them) who have written about the music that has influenced their lives. I'm going to take it further to include with my reflections on music, films, theatre, art and maybe some of the practitioners that I find particularly inspiring. I will use the blog to elaborate on some of the stories of my life ... The art/life matrix.

In a couple of days I will post my first reflection on a song released by U2 on their Joshua Tree album, Where The Streets Have No Name ... Look out for it!

Cheers

Lajos aka The Veldtman/DirectorMSND