So I'm driving home yesterday and flipping channels on the radio trying to find something other than already overplayed Christmas music when all of a sudden I hear the familiar piano chords of Paul Mc
Cartney's song MAYBE I'M AMAZED from Wings' 1976 three record concert set. Suddenly I was taken back 32 years to Christmas eve of that Bicentennial year. Normally, in my family, we opened gifts on Christmas morning but that year for some reason (perhaps simply my 17 year-old impatience) we had done it on Christmas eve and I got WINGS OVER AMERICA as a present. I remember very vividly sitting up until the wee hours of the morning straining to hear every little guitar note and giggle through the thick black headphones plugged in to the stereo (yes, with an 8 Track. Wanna make something of it?) next to my bed. Suddenly it all seemed so weird as I imagined myself lying there then and now, exactly 32 years later to the day after I first heard it, hearing that song on the radio!
Cartney's song MAYBE I'M AMAZED from Wings' 1976 three record concert set. Suddenly I was taken back 32 years to Christmas eve of that Bicentennial year. Normally, in my family, we opened gifts on Christmas morning but that year for some reason (perhaps simply my 17 year-old impatience) we had done it on Christmas eve and I got WINGS OVER AMERICA as a present. I remember very vividly sitting up until the wee hours of the morning straining to hear every little guitar note and giggle through the thick black headphones plugged in to the stereo (yes, with an 8 Track. Wanna make something of it?) next to my bed. Suddenly it all seemed so weird as I imagined myself lying there then and now, exactly 32 years later to the day after I first heard it, hearing that song on the radio!I wasn't sitting there idly, however, on that long ago evening. Lest I fall asleep, I was also reading (big surprise) my OTHER big Christmas present of 1976, THE COMPLETE SHERLOCK HOLMES, taken down from its place of honor here in the Library just this evening and scanned for your viewing pleasure.
Holmes needs to be read when you are young. I have a Penguin Complete edition, which was given to me by my grand-dad when I was about sixteen or seventeen - 29 YEARS AGO, MAN! - I remember reading it through one crappy, cold January, and being sold on Conan Doyle for life. And, yeah, I had WINGS OVER AMERICA, too. great album. whatever happened to Paul McCartney, 'ey?
ReplyDeletea couple of hour late, I know, fella, but Happy Christmas. I hope it was a cracker for you and the clan.
what's an 8-track? ;)
ReplyDelete>>Holmes needs to be read when you are young.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. I got hold of a copy of the complete short stories when I was 20 and read the lot in three days flat.
cheers
B Smith
For the record, according to my journal from 1976, I actually got the Holmes book at Christmas of 1975!
ReplyDelete