Weekends Away, Not So Clandestine Affairs and Teen Idols

WIAA: Alyson…, oh Alyson.

ALYSON: Hi WIAA, I’m sorry I missed adding to your pages last weekend but I was away from home, having a wonderful couple of days with another man.

WIAA: Oh. Didn’t expect that to be the reason! What did your other half say about that or did you not tell him?

ALYSON: No, he knew and was ok with it. In fact he joined us during the day for long walks and trips to coffee shops but went home at night to leave us to it.

WIAA: This is getting weirder and weirder Alyson, and I thought I knew you.

ALYSON: It was magical WIAA. We snuggled up in bed at night and I stroked his gorgeous brown curls. In the morning his head was lying next to me on the pillow and his paw was on my shoulder.

WIAA: Paw, paw – what kind of half-man/half-beast is he?!?

ALYSON: Oh sorry, did I not make it clear? I was spending the weekend with Alfie the puppy whilst his mum and dad were away.

WIAA: Grrr… I think you were messing with me there Alyson.

ALYSON: Maybe I was, a bit, but I fooled you didn’t I? Anyway that’s why I wasn’t able to write a new blog post last weekend but now that I’m a regular blogger again I’m sure I’ll make up for it down the line.

WIAA: Ok, you’re excused. Any appropriate songs for me?

ALYSON: Well I have been looking for songs about dogs but they’re either overly sentimental, novelty songs or just plain bad. I did find this one though written by Harry Nilsson called The Puppy Song. I didn’t even realise it was his song as the only version I knew was the one by David Cassidy from 1973, when it was released as a double A-side along with the song Daydreamer.

I remember being gifted a flexi-single with Jackie magazine in 1973. It had a few words from David Cassidy in conversational style then he shared snippets of both the songs on the upcoming double A-side. It got to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart so that little bit of promotion obviously did the trick, although at that time he was selling out stadiums all over the world, so he perhaps didn’t need any help in achieving sales.

We first got to know about David Cassidy from his role playing Keith Partridge in the kid’s television show The Partridge Family. It first aired in the UK in 1971 when I was still in Primary School and it’s fair to say most of us girls developed a huge crush on David and he started to fill the pages of our magazines. By the time I got to Secondary School he was a bona fide teen idol, outselling every other artist in the world. As the teenage hormones started to kick in I found myself bursting into tears as I listened to his songs, and I didn’t even understand why.

Poor David died young at the age of 67 in 2017 and I wrote a tribute for him (link here). I also made him the main character in a bit of fairy-tale fan fiction the following year (link here). It centred around his rivalry with fellow teen idol Donny Osmond and although it was fun to write, it perhaps didn’t do my music blogging credibility much good!

Anyway the last word should go to the real life puppy, my lovely weekend companion, Alfie. He was genuinely upset when I packed my bag to go home and apparently sulked with his mum and dad all Sunday evening, giving them the side-eye as if to say, “I had much more fun with granny”. There will be many other weekends and holidays I’m sure.

Until next time…

The Puppy Song Lyrics
(Song by Harry Nilsson)

Dreams are nothing more than wishes
And a wish is just a dream
You wish to come true, woo woo

If only I could have a puppy
I’d call myself so very lucky
Just to have some company
To share a cup of tea with me

I’d take my puppy everywhere
La, la, la-la I wouldn’t care
And we would stay away from crowds
And signs that said no dogs allowed
Oh we, I know he’d never bite me
Whoa de lo…….
We, I know he’d never bite me

If only I could have a friend
To stick with me until the end
And walk along beside the sea
Share a bit of moon with me

I’d take my friend most everywhere
La, la, la-la I wouldn’t care
We would stay away from crowds
With signs that said no friends allowed
Oh we, we’d be so happy to be
Whoa de lo………….
We, we’d be so happy to be together

But dreams are nothing more than wishes
And a wish is just a dream
You wish to come true
Whoa whoa……….

Dreams are nothing more than wishes
And a wish is just a dream
You wish to come true
Whoa whoa woo……..