Musical security.

March 14th – I may have covered this subject lightly before, if I have then consider what follows as further evidence of the sincerity of my opinion…or further possible clues as to me losing my marbles. Anyhow, what I wanted to expand on was what music is; (won’t expand for long, my concentration span is quite limited) but I wanted to explore that question a little.

For starters, anyone who takes modern music in the least bit seriously, and I don’t mean writes a thesis about it or lectures on it, I mean just folk who think that its sum total is worth more than having it reduced to elevator muzak, anyone who takes modern music in the least bit seriously knows that music is more than a gang of sounds lumped together to create a tune that is, hopefully, less grating than a Stockhausen work yet more interesting than a Philip Glass symphony. To get this stage of understanding we have to step outside the writer/performer bracket (groans all round; "Do we have to, Peter?" "Yes you freakin' do.") we have to step outside the writer/performer bracket and inspect what it is that attracts us to any particular pop/rock song, what makes it memorable TO US; and I guess we all know it’s more than just about the music.

Time and place create the mortar that fills in the gaps between the music’s timbre and lyrics. They build for US a monument to our sensibility and mood at the time we first heard a particular track. Like with a particular scent (Nina Ricci's ‘L'Air du Temp’) a fleeting glimpse of colour (red and white broad check) a style of dress (white-silk see-thro’ blouse) or the feel of a certain material (Black Bear fur) we can be transported back immediately to a zone of our life that recreates the mood and passion and gives us a glimpse of ourselves coming back. But these feelings are only on the surface; pivotal times in our lives are date-stamped by the music we associate with them. Times of puberty, love, loss and realisation, the really important stuff that’s lumped together with the rest of life but that we seem to miss because we’re too busy jumping over the plethora of hurdles that 'just holding things together' puts in our way.

Anyway, that entire preceding gobbledegook was there as a preliminary to flagging up the fact that, on this day in 1970, Mary Ann Ganser died. On the 12th of March, I wrote that it’s not very productive to have slaved all your working life in the entertainment business if, at the end of it all, folk say;

“Who?”

Well, Ms. Ganser may well be one of those people, but not to me…and isn't that what immortality is? That after your death, when even just one person remembers you fondly and recalls the times spent you spent together, then don’t you live forever…? Dunno, anyway, on with Mary Ann. 

Mary Ann Ganser was one of the members of a girl singing group called, ‘The Shangri-Las’ and they had a number of chart hits in the 60’s. Particular to me were their hits of 1964, when I was 16. Now, I know there’s a lot of ‘my dad’s bigger than your dad’ chat about how one sex or the other suffers more than the other during their adolescent period. I’m not going to argue the case for or against ‘cos I reckon the suffering caused by libido and hormones in the 'teens can be a pretty rough ride for anyone…of any sex. What I would say is the difference with boys is they don’t talk about it and so have fewer outlets for comparison and commiseration and so less chance to come to terms with those feelings through shared experience because of that.

Now, because ‘The Shangri-Las’ were a girl group and sang about adolescent themes like alienation, loneliness, abandonment, love and death (I mean, come on, what 16 year-old hasn't locked themselves in their bedroom, drawn the curtains, turned out the light, lit a candle and laid on the bed in a tomb pose? Hm? Oh, OK, that’ll be just me then…). Because of those themes it was hypothesised that their lyrics and their interesting use of sound effects to amplify their points of observation would only appeal to pubescent girls; not so. I can state on very good authority that their work rang true with a great many lads at the time; at the end of it all, love is love and loss is loss to everyone. How the individual chooses to deal with those things is a matter for personal resolution made possible by their intellect and background, but the singles ‘The Shangri-Las’ released, particularly ‘Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)’ and ‘Leader of the Pack’ laid out the meaning of love, life and universe to many pubescent teen, and the interchangeable gender lines in their single, ‘He/She Cried’ brokered an understanding not yet understood by many: 

“…And when I told him I didn't love him anymore, he cried,
And when I told him his kisses were not like before, he cried,
And when I told him another man had caught my eye, he cried,
And I kissed him with a kiss that could only mean goodbye…”

These lyrics honed the feelings of anyone who would seek to contact the holistic understanding of what it was/is, not to be gay, lesbian, bi-sexual or transvestite, but what it is/was just to be human, confused and broken by events that are seemingly out of your. If I hear those songs now, I can be carried right back in an instant to the events and times I shared with folk, some of who have long since passed but who nonetheless infiltrated my frame, my personality, my consciousness and understanding and, because of that connection, this conglomerate of sensations, music and memory accompany me in the life I’m living right now.

Not a bad thing for just another silly pop group to be remembered for, is it?

Answers to yesterday’s quiz: 

1) ‘Lots of scenery and one tolerable song.’ & ‘Lifeless star vehicle shot on glamorous locations.’

Blue Hawaii

2) ‘Thin, even by Presley’s standards.’ & ‘A just tolerable musical.’

Viva Las Vegas

3) ‘Well into his descent into celluloid oblivion, Presley tours a Europe that a mere of wind would have dislodged.’ 

Double Trouble

4) ‘Turgid western with Presley wandering expressionlessly through a stock plot. All but unwatchable.’ & ‘Dismal western with a singing star playing it straight. A bad experience.’

Charro

5) ‘This is not exactly a feast of wit and erudition, but is one of Presley’s better lightweight vehicles, thanks largely to the presence of Stella Stevens.’ & ‘Empty headed star-vehicle for die-hard fans.’

Girls, Girls, Girls

Today’s quiz: The single, ‘Leader of the Pack’ had the sound of a revving motorcycle on it. What make was the motorcycle?