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Friday, March 11, 2022

Music from the past: Time travel on the Pony Express

We've all experienced this, hearing a song that instantly triggers a memory. Sometimes that memory can just be a fleeting nano second recollection of where you were the first time you heard that particular tune, on other occasions the song can bring back the memory of the excitement you felt on a first date or equally a lost love (i.e. the song she dumped you to!) or indeed the bitter sweet memory of a long lost loved family member or friend. This happened to me recently when I was in Glasgow wasting time wating for my mates to arrive for our six weekly meet up (i.e. a pint and to talk rubbish). As is my norm I decided to stroll around the Forbidden Planet megastore and snort disparagingly at the new comics on sale as only a grumpy old git can do, when out of the blue the song below came on the sound system.
I think the last time that I heard this song was when it was released in 1970 but as soon as I heard the singers "grunts" at the start of the song my mind was instantly transported back to 1970 and to some friends and school mates I had at the time and hadn’t thought about in decades. The song by Johnny Johnston and the Bandwagon is very much in the bubble-gum pop mould but it is a fun upbeat tune and is pretty much the type of song I was listening to as a 10 year old in 1970's Glasgow, little knowing or caring what tomorrow would bring. Sadly Johnny Johnston passed away in 1979 at the all to young age of 35.
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8 comments:

  1. KidMarch 11, 2022 at 9:30 PM

    Don't think I've ever heard the song before, McS, and think I'll live if I never hear it again, but I know what you mean. Same thing happens with 'smells' too. I caught a whiff of disinfectant while walking past a house one day and was instantly transported in my mind back to the environs of my primary school toilets. I stress the words 'in my mind' because had it happened for real, I'd have had some explaining to do to the authorities. (Ho-ho, I am a card!)

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  2. McSCOTTYMarch 11, 2022 at 10:45 PM

    Lol every time I smell burnt toast I think of my wee gran. She had terrible eyesight and burnt the toast she was making for my breakfast when I was staying at here when I was about 15 . She only noticed the black burned bits when she gave it to me and got upset, but I said not to worry I like burnt toast. Next morning I got 2 slice of burnt toast, as I liked it 😃,

    I love that song but even pop songs from my youth I don't like bring back memories for me as those were the songs my peers listened to but I haven't heard many of them in years but catching up now on that. When I hear Jim Reeves (and bands like Tony Orlando and Dawn, Frank Ifield etc) I think of my mum and dad dancing in the living room to their records ( I like some of their stuff as well).

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  3. baggseyMarch 12, 2022 at 5:14 AM

    I have no memory of this song at all, McScotty, but probably because at age 10 I was more into Benny Hill's "Ernie, The Fastest Milkman In The West". But I did enjoy the video you posted, and it evokes an era for me. Of course, a few years later I was assiduously taping the Radio 1 Top 20 every week, and came across a few of my tapes the other day, and relived the hits of 1973. These songs, and comics and films and American TV and certain paperbacks all coalesce to form the tapestry of our teenage years.

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  4. McSCOTTYMarch 12, 2022 at 11:17 AM

    I wish I had kept my top 40 tapes that would have been fun listening to them again. I try to catch the retro show on Radio 2 which is really good with old Tony Blackburn. The only person I know that remembers "Pony express" is my mate who's a total music geek . I love that Benny Hill song it's still funny today. It is strange that in 3 more years from this song musically things change with T-Rex, Slade and of course early Bowie etc and only 6 years afer this song Punk rock hit.

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  5. Colin JonesMarch 12, 2022 at 2:04 PM

    Forbidden Planet megastore? Cardiff's Forbidden Planet is just a poky little shop.

    I enjoy listening to the songs on the sound-system in Tesco while I'm doing my shopping and some of them are songs I haven't heard in donkey's years such as 'Sound & Vision' which I heard recently (I know you're a Bowie fan, Paul). A few months ago Tesco played a song which I hadn't heard in nearly 30 years - 'Sleeping Satellite' by Tasmin Archer which reached #1 in 1992. I liked that song when it was in the charts and it was great to hear it again!

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  6. McSCOTTYMarch 12, 2022 at 2:12 PM

    Yeah the Glasgow stores pretty big Colin. Actually I'm not sure if they call it a mega store but it's the largest one I've been in outside London. I love that Yasmin Archer song. It's great to hear old songs again that you haven't heard for a long time I've heard a few in ASDA and other stores.

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  7. Rip JaggerMarch 14, 2022 at 7:19 AM

    This is new to me, but I rather like it. Vintage bubblegum is one of my guilty pleasures.

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  8. McSCOTTYMarch 14, 2022 at 2:46 PM

    Same here Rip this music for me is so evocative of the time abd gas a youthful joy to it

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