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!