December 5th – Songwriters find inspiration for
their works in the oddest of facts or happenings.
B. A. Robertson was seemingly in demand by all producers of
music. He wrote tracks for Cliff Richard
and Mike and the Mechanics, has
penned the TV themes for Multi-Coloured
Swap Shop and Friday Night, Saturday
Morning completed film themes and is a featured artist in the Children in Need Scottish end. He’s
acted for film and TV, had hits and released several albums and singles, so no
slouch as far as musical production goes; even if one of his songs did win a Razzle in the worst original song
category…can’t win ‘em all.
When five torpedo-carrying aircraft, TBM Avengers, (collectively
known as Flight 19) went missing
there was a kerfuffle back at US
To lose one TBM Avenger
is unfortunate, but to lose five sounds like carelessness.
What we humans love next to sleb gossip is a good old
mystery, particularly if that mystery can be attributed to the occult, even via
the flimsiest of connections. Lay my cards on the table; personal opinion: It
never ceases to amaze me how many people turn out to watch what are laughingly
referred to as psychics when these
modern-day snake-oil salespeople go on tour to various theatres. They sell out,
y’ know? I mean 1,000 and 1,500 seater places…sell out. I’ve been asked to
leave shows where I’ve voiced my disquiet at these charades being perpetrated
on the gullible and distressed. Not a thing I subscribe to and no way to earn a
living but my guess is they fulfill a need so… Megadeath released a track on their Rust in Peace album titled, Hangar
18 (nice use of numbers… again). It refers to the infamous hanger on Wright-Patterson Air Force Base that’s
supposed to hold the evidence appertaining to the Roswell
Back at Flight 19, Mr.
Robertson heard of the disappearance of the 5 planes and this fanned the embers
of his interest which was then blasted into an inferno when he discovered the
loss of the planes was over…dan-de-dan-dan! The
Bermuda Triangle.
These sorts of incidents are tailor-made for songs and
stories; they’re what make our oral tradition of passing down mysterious,
fantastic tales from generation to generation so compelling; it’s what religion
is built on after all. For many-a-decade planes, ships, flotillas individuals
had been involved in mysterious happenings in the Bermuda Triangle area and many of them had not lived to tell the
tale which makes the mystery even more phantasmagorical…not only has something
happened but we don’t know what because… dan-de-dan-dan! No one lived to tell
the tale.
Turns out, of course that the real explanation as to what
happened to Flight 19 was far more
mundane. Imagine a straight line running from position number 1 to position
number 2, dissecting position 3 along the line. That was the direction of
flight of the five aircraft. Now picture a distant point due north of this line
which was position number 4. The five aircraft were lost in mysterious
circumstances at position number 4. You know things are going awry when you get
the following message over the radio from the flight leader in answer to the
question:
FT-28, this is FT-74, what
is your trouble?
The reply came back:
Both of my compasses are out
and I am trying to find Fort
Lauderdale , Florida Fort
Lauderdale
Don’t know ’bout you but if I heard my flight leader say that
I’d think to myself;
Well, that’s us fucked
then.
All the evidence pointed to a combination of circumstances
(storm, instrumental failure, poor visibility and bad directional choices) that
caused the loss of the aircraft.
Mr. Robertson’s song, Flight
19 was a popular musical work of fantasy on an area of the earth that
carries more than its fair share of fantastical if somewhat doubtful tales. But,
as I wrote yesterday, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
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