My mother’s recitations & John McCormack’ ballads
Irish storytellers, James Stephens, O’Casey & O’Faolain, James Hilton’s Mr.Chips, J.B.Priestley, Nathanael West’s novels, Durrell’s Quartet, Joyce’s Dubliners, LeCarre & Deighton, the Flashman series, Camus, Dostoevsky, Bertrand Russell, Orwell’s essays, William Morris’ News from Nowhere, Proudhon, Kropotkin, Bakunin, Ba Jin’s Autumn in Spring, Conrad’ Darkness, T.E. Lawrence’ crippling Wisdom, Malcolm Lowry’ Volcano, Elizabeth Smart waiting at the station, Hugh Garner in Toronto, Marcus Aurelius accepting his Fate, John Donne’s metaphysical allegories, Dylan Thomas’ wordplay, G.M. Hopkins’sprung rhythms, W.B.Yeats’ Innisfree, Carl Sandberg’s Chicago, Robert Frost’s wintery woods, Mark Twain on the river , Walt Whitman’s Leaves, J.P. Donleavy’s Ginger Man, J.D.Salinger’s Catcher, Isherwood’s trip to Berlin, Kerouac on the Road, Allen Ginsberg & his Beat friends acid induced screams, while Baldwin, R.Wright, Cleaver, Malcolm X & Martin Luther King awakened my conscience as well as Acorn, Birney, Pratt, Klein, Layton, Cohen, MacEwen, Purdy in Canada, eh! and Harold Innis, Marshall McLuhan, George Grant & Northrop Frye re-defining our history & media.
Gregorian Chants, Vivaldi & the Seasons, El Greco stretching to heaven, Canaletto & Handel’s fireworks on the water, while Hogarth etched in the back alleys, J.M.W. Turner’s light lit seascapes, someChopin Nocturnes under a moonlit sky, the Joy of Beethoven, with Elgar, Delius, Ralph V. Williams and Benjamin B. waving the flag at the Albert Hall.
Then jazz arrived in its coats of many colours, Gershwin’s Rhapsody, Paul Robeson on the River, Satchmo serenading, Frank crooning, Joe Williams, Billy Eckstine, Arthur Prysock, Al Hibbler, Frankie Laine, Johnnie Ray, or some Duke E, Count B, Quincy J, Oscar P, Charlie the Bird, Jack Teagarden, Gerry Mulligan with Paul Desmond, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Ben Webster, Lester Young, Larry Adler, George Shearing, Ahmad Jamal, Ramsey Lewis, MJT+3, Barney Kessel, Leon Bibb, Eartha, Ella, Lena, Dinah, Nina, Sarah, Jo Stafford, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Edith Piaf, Juliette Greco, LadyDay & Mahalia J, The Staples or getting lost with Chet Baker or Eddie Constantine in Alphaville & Oscar Brown Junior talking to a signifying monkey.
Meanwhile Buck Owens, Ferlin Husky, Lefty Frizzell, Webb Pierce, Don Gibson, Hank Williams, John Anderson, Don Williams, Jim Reeves, Merle, George, Kris, Waylon,Willie, Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, Conway & Loretta, Tammy, Ricky Nelson & Freddie Fender gave Elvis, Gene Vincent, Jerry Lee, Eddie Cochrane, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, Ronnie Hawkins and his rockabilly friends some room to rock & roll, while Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Jackie Wilson, Sam Cooke, Clyde McPhatter, Ray Charles,The Drifters,The Coasters opened up R&B before Motown gave us Marvin, Otis, The Temptations, The Four Tops and The Supremes. Then there was Folk with the Kingston Trio, The Brothers Four, Pete Seeger, Woody, Peter, Paul & Mary and Joan Baez, Miriam Makeba, Odetta, Harry Belafonte, Alan Stivell, Charles Aznavour, Stephen Stills, Shawn Phillips, Gilbert O’Sullivan, with Gordon Lightfoot, Judy Collins,Joni Mitchell, Ian & Sylvia, Bob Dylan hanging out at The Riverboat in Yorkville. etc., etc., etc.
But to name more, if I had the room, I would mention all those feature films, docs, radio & television shows that I grew up with, starting at the age of three in England.
Reflections
Loose lips sink ships (poster WW2)- various images of spies listening in on military gossip.
Be like Dad and keep Mum (WW2)-smiling face shown to me by Mr. Casey when I was ten.
Your country needs you (WW1)- Lord Kitchener image on enlistment poster.
“Put the kettle on and we’ll have a nice cup of tea.”- from a Beyond the Fringe skit when the bombs were dropping on London.
“Make love not war.” printed words poster sent to me by John & Yoko from Toronto.
Tony Hancocks radio and television skits e.g. The Blood Donor– my father’s favourite show.
The Goon Show– a radio comedy show where I learned to laugh at the absurd. “Mr Crun, the atom bomb”, then a sudden loud explosion; the end of the world. (MJW)
“Disneyland is a 20th century fantasy theme park, which copies our churches, temples, mosques & synagogues, whose ceremonial performances are spiritual fantasies.” (MJW)
“What’s said in the church, etc. should stay in the church”, for when did the Creator take sides and when did his messengers become the symbols of mass persecution and spiritual cleansing? (MJW)
“Before you laugh at others, learn to laugh at yourself and leave your ego at the door.” (MJW)
“ No tickey, no laundry.” Chinese laundry owner getting paid.
“Imagine! If Don Quixote was fighting today’s windmills, would climate change be a problem?”(MJW)
Our so-called citizens’ rights and freedoms are useless if freedom from fear & freedom from want are abandoned by the irresponsible decisions of our elected politicians. Then Brexit trumps logic and we become the next global victims of a corporate conspiracy where profit, profits the few. (MJW)
If Life were so fine and dandy, where is George Carlin when you need him? (MJW)