Yesterday afternoon after my swim I wandered down Clayton Street where I live. It was a sunny day the skies were clear. I decided to go into one of the charity shops. I like charity shops. Sometimes there will be an item of clothing that takes your fancy, A record going cheap to make your afternoon . The rainbow of existence is built on these essential moments and sensations.
I pulled out a couple of plums almost immediately. There were a number of clothing items on one of the racks which appealed to me. A mandarin jacket for only a tenner with a neat row of buttons. Could I get away with it. Would the fit be too tight. I had a chat with the pretty young woman waiting outside the changing room. We exchanged some pleasantries and she said I could go ahead of her if I wished. Being nice is underrated. More people should try it..
I left the shop, but then glanced back in the window and saw that there were a few racks of second hand albums which I had initially missed. That's always my hidden agenda when I go into a Charity Shop I realise. I like clothes, like to dress reasonably smartly but vinyl treasure is always my prize catch. My principle objective.
I went back in. The racks were full of the kind of records you would expect in High Street Charity Shop racks. Johnny Matthis. There are always Johnny Matthis records somewhere. How do you possibly ascertain which Johnny Matthis album you want or need. Whether you actually need any. It's a dilemma. Cliff Richard also haunts these racks I've noticed,.Like the shy one at some orgy as someone observed
There was a bloke with a white beard browsing next to me. I showed him the crass Eurovision collection I'd noticed and said to him 'this is the record you're looking for.'It certainly wasn't. It was a record no one needed. The songs weren't even the originals. Crass session covers of Jack In The Box, Boom Bang a Bang. Puppet on a String. If it had been the originals I might have considered buying it. .
Anyhow we started to chat. About charity record purchases. About Nina Simone. Bobby Gentry. Then onto capitalism. Conversations with people you make a connection with but know you will never meet again are probably my favourite kind of conversations. A brief exchange of humanity. Anyway I'd found a couple of records that had taken my fancy.. £2.00 each. A Cilla Black Greatest Hits with Cilla wearing a cool hat. Some orange strides. A cravat and a cool brown leather jacket'.Also Petula Clark's 1967 album Colour My World
I got back home and I've played the album twice already and I'm going to play it again, Music has magical qualities. There is no other word for them. They can take you back unerringly to a time and place, This one takes me back to my grandparents cottage in Charminster, Dorchester where I used to go for breaks with my family in the Seventies and Eighties,
My grandparents didn't play Petula Clark on their record player in the living room. I'm picturing the armchairs, the settee. The family piano.. They played Roger Whittaker, Val Doonican, Max Bygraves and Pam Ayres records. We played board games together and watched Star Trek and went for trips to Weymouth and Corfe Castle and Burton Bradstock. But Petula fits the ambience, my memories perfectly.. Just putting Colour My World on my record player transported me instantly back to the neat corner bungalow of blissfully happy childhood memories fifty years ago.
Thinking about childhood visits to your Grandparents are magical journeys through the low hole in the wall we all have access to which takes you to an enchanted kingdom. The act of remembering is a great psychological defence system. An essential restorations of humanity. These times are wondrous things to hark back to as you get older yourself. Petula Clark is still alive. She's 92. But she seems like a star from another time. From a world that's disappeared. Though she's by no means as innocent as she may initially appear. Jimi Hendrix made a pass at her apparently. One which she rebuffed. She was a woman of the world of course. But her records have a beautiful innocence and purity that's treasurable. Her voice soars.The melodies and lyrics are spectral. Special.
Colour My World had a different cover in The States,I prefer it to the cover I've got. The album itself seems aimed squarely at Las Vegas and suburbia. I imagine Pet played the former and was a big hitter in the latter.
There are plenty of hearty and well constructed songs by Tony Hatch and Jackue Trent on here.Tony Hatch went on to be a panel member of ITVs New Faces with Micky Most and always struck me as a spectacularly nasty man. But he was clearly a deeply talented one.too. Petula chips in to the songwriting credits. There are cool covers of Reach Our I'll be There, Here There & Everywhere. Even some kitsch sitar. Groovy suburban parties. Mrs Robinson in shades sizing up Benjamin before making her move.The best £2.00 I've spent for a while. My memory banks flew open yesterday like the gates of a grand country estate wuth a windung, marvellous drive Driving in your car. It was a rare open sesame moment, and I wallowed in the sensation all day. Thanks Pet !
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