PapsWeb Our Tune Resurrection

Music and gigs
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I can’t say that I was ever a great fan of Simon Bates but I thought that it might be interesting and fun to resurrect his famous ‘Our Tune’ radio feature. Most people will know the format: pick a tune that instantly transports you back to a particular event or time in your life. Sad or happy, fun or serious, fleeting or seminal, sexual or cerebral, it doesn’t matter what sort of event or time, just so long as you give a brief description as to why this tune means something to you.

I’m gonna start with a serious one for a change.

I heard this song performed live on a beautiful sunny day at the Isle of Wight Festival in 2005. It was already a well-known and popular song, so much so, that the audience of about 40,000 sang along to it in unison. This made the lead singer so emotional that he struggled to compose himself for quite some while.

What makes this song poignant for me, however, is that I attended the 3 days of this festival with my 13 year-old youngest son. Anyone who has parented children through their teenage years, or anyone who has passed through the teenage years themselves, will know that the age of 13, or thereabouts, can be a watershed in the parent/child relationship: the natural process of growing older usually means that from this age onwards children begin to spend more and more time with their mates and girl/boy-friends, and less and less time with their parents. Nothing wrong with that: nothing worse than a clingy parent desperately trying to hold on to their kids; nevertheless, looking back, it can be a poignant time for parents.

It became particularly poignant for me on account of my son experiencing some very difficult times throughout his subsequent teenage years. For a long long time the happy carefree son with whom I had attended that festival became a distant stranger – not literally, of course, but perhaps some of you will know what I mean.

Anyway, before I start blubbering, let’s get on to the song! I’ve actually chosen a cover version and not the original version of the song that I heard that day. This is because, in my opinion, the female vocalist on the cover version puts incredible emotion into the song and sings it beautifully. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I like staring – sorry, Lou, I mean glancing – at her tits.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/jqpAgMxhx30

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During my mid teens I started a romance with a lovely girl, who was a bit older than me. Young and inexperienced in the art of love, I fumbled my way through those heady, early stages of courtship, trying to find a way to express myself with his emotional maelstrom i felt inside. We laughed, we read to each other, we watched films and listened to music as we explored young innocent love, both excited and fearful of placing such trust in each other.

Anyway, I banged her first time to this tune and then went off to tell my mates about it.

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Great thread, Halo. But I feel that I could post here all day and not cover the musical associations I’ve developed over the years.

I’ll start with this…

Billy Bragg’s eulogistic tribute to his father who died when he was young. His dad was in the army - the tank regiment I believe, and Bragg felt that it was fitting to produce a musical tank park salute. I love the fact that it has a church memorial feel to it musically and Bragg’s tuneless voice comes booming out over the top of it. A tribute on his terms.

I played this song for days after my own dad died, and I found a comfort of sorts from knowing I wasn’t alone in my grief.

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That’s very moving, Bletch – thanks for sharing.

I’ll throw in another one:

Both myself and the young woman who, unbeknown to me at the time, was destined to become Mrs Stickman were adamant that neither of us were cut-out for parenthood, even though we were in a happy long-term relationship. Then one day the future Mrs Stickman discovered she was pregnant. That week-end she had to go away on a work-course, so I was left alone with plenty of time for reflection, soul-searching and decision making. The previous week I had bought the record below, and that week-end I played it over and over again. One of the lines on the record is: ‘Friday’s child is full of soul’ … which, coincidentally, is the day of the week on which our first son was born about 7 months later.

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… and here’s another one:

Some years ago I was on the receiving end of some serious neighbour-from-hell problems – where’s Unbelievable Jeff when you need him – so as a consequence I can’t listen to this without recalling some pretty dark thoughts swirling around in my head.

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At the age of 6 and 3 respectively, I and my sister were taken to my first and so far last festival (Reading) in 1978 by my parents. I don’t remember seeing Patti Smith sing Rock n Roll Nigger but I do remember the Tom Robinson Band singing 2-4-6-8 Motorway. It ended up being our singalonga family car song.

37 years later I am taking my children (who are, would you believe, 6 and 3) to their first and my second festival. We bought tickets months ago before it was announced last month that the Tom Robinson Band would be appearing. One song, three generations linked through spacetime…pass me the mushrooms.

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That’s a terrific song, and would merit a place of honour in the cover versions thread in its own right. The singer on the Massive Attack version is, of course, Horace Andy, who also sang the best-known version (which was, in turn, used by the great Dr Alimantado for Poison Flour). But the song is originally by the Paragons and was written by their lead singer, John Holt. So there you go.

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In the late eighties I had the good fortune to be rutting with an acrobat. Not only could she sit on my face, make like a crab and blow me at the same time, but she also introduced me to much of the rap music that I still love today. Tone Loc still makes me well up.

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i like that gb i have never heard that b4, do you have more recommendations like that tone loc bro pls what should i download on itunes if i want more stuff like that pls?

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More moons ago than I care to remember, I spent 2 months driving through Texas to Mexico with a Japanese guy. a Frenchman and a 50 year old ex-Navy SEAL for company. We drove in a big car, camped in mountains, chewed tobacco, pissed by the roadside, drank ourselves stupid, howled with coyotes and listened to this pretty bad Motorhead song a lot.

It was fucking awesome

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Doc! You never heard Tone Loc? Go away now and spark up a big one and listen to Loc-ed After Dark!

I also recommend Ice T: Power (You’ll like the sleeve art)

Public Enemy: It Takes A Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back (for when you want to stick it to the man)

Boogie Down Productions: By All Means Necessary (just because)

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Of course the best rapper of all time is Earl Sinclair:

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If we’re going with GB’s offerings then you need to listen to this too:

Follow the Leader - Erik B & Rakim

Born to Mack - Too $hort

If we’re sticking with late 80s then:

Paul’s Boutique - Beastie Boys (although to my mind Check Your Head is a better album)

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I can’t really reply to this thread frivolously. It’s already hit too many emotional notes to do so. There have been times when I’ve been particularly moved by music I never thought would shift me. I remember one particular time driving up the M6 heartbroken, listening to sad ballads and crying my fucking eyes out. Post break-up shit, mainly.

Being a little older, I realise that those were transient phases. If I had to pick a song, I’d go for this. My nan used to play it all the time, she’s much missed, and it’s local.

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Flying over Texas with Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s Dallas on my headphones. Sounded so different in the right surroundings. Probably one of my most evocative memories - at the time I was filled with hope, expectation and excitement for the unknown. The rest of life never quite matched that feeling. I wish I knew how to get it back.

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Surely the beginning of Papsweb brought some of those feelings back?

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Originally posted by @Numptyboi

Anyway, I banged her first time to this tune and then went off to tell my mates about it.

That made i laugh.

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For our younger contributors, here is the radio slot that Halo mentions in the OP.

And here is the music that became ‘synonymous’ with the it.

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Bletch, I always try to look for the best in people, and I accept he had some difficult issues to work through; but, in truth, I’m struggling to warm to that David fella on the clip you’ve just posted. :slight_frown:

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Originally posted by @Coxford_lou

… at the time I was filled with hope, expectation and excitement for the unknown. The rest of life never quite matched that feeling. I wish I knew how to get it back.

Ah yes, Lou, that cursed arrow of time, moving inexorably forwards; never backwards

A long time ago the songs of Roxy Music, Bowie, Reed and Oldfield’s Tubercular Bells, constituted the background music to my life. I, too, was filled with hope, expectation and excitement for the unknown when first witnessing the clip below. It may not be your cup of tea – these days, I’m not even sure it’s still my cup of tea – but stick with it till the end before watching the second clip, even if only for the sight of Brian Eno, in leopard print and golden latex gloves, twiddling his switches and twirling his knobs.

Now fast forward 42 years to what I feel is an an almost painfully sublime rendition of Roxy’s last ever chart hit, with its haunting and, seemingly, stark refrain.

‘The sea on the tide has no way of turning.’ Accept it and embrace it, Lou!

Accept it and embrace it. :wink:

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