Category: Sunshine pop

Farewell 2021, The Association and ‘Windy’

It’s the last day of 2021 and like many of us I’ve just looked back to see what I wrote on this same day last year. As expected it was all about what an awful year it had been, but I did add, “At least there is hope on the horizon, as vaccines are now coming on stream faster than you can say Jack Robinson (god bless the scientists). Hopefully by Spring, life will have started to get a bit easier for all of us.”

Each person’s pandemic experience has been different, but personally I’ve not felt this year has been any easier at all. In fact it’s been a whole load worse in some ways as I’m fairly sure my old life has gone for good, never to return. I am aware some families have had a far worse experience, so not the time to moan about it, but my goodness, lets hope 2022 is indeed a better year. If my old life has gone, I need to set about creating a new one.

In 2020 I was more prolific with my blogging than I’ve been this year – We had this momentous new situation to deal with and there was much to write about. There were rants, posts written purely to entertain, reviews and diary entries (all accompanied by an appropriate song). This year I’m aware my posts have been a bit more downbeat, as I think I’m suffering pandemic fatigue. Apologies for that, but hope you’ve noticed I’ve tried to end the year a bit more joyfully, kickstarted by sharing a few words of wisdom from her Dollyness, Ms Parton.

Revisiting favourite old songs makes me happy, as does finding out so much more about them than was ever possible back in the day. Tears sometimes prick my eyes when I’m out and about battling whatever restrictions are currently in place (visiting my mum in her care home has been a challenge, as has earning my living and meeting up with friends), but making a ‘new’ old song discovery, always raises the spirits. This year, as happened last year, my favourite new discovery was from the late 1960s. What can I say, I was born too late.

Windy by The Association:


Because The Association were never that well-known over here in the UK, when their song Never My Love appeared on the soundtrack to one of the dramas we watched on telly this year, it was new to me, and I was immediately smitten by their sunshine pop sound. Unbelievably, that song turned out to be one of the most listened to of the 20th century, but over in North America and not here. Of course I ended up writing about it and in the comments boxes mention was made of other hit records by The Association. One of those hits was this song, Windy, which I can’t help thinking sounds like the theme tune to a kids telly show from my childhood, but I’m not having much luck finding out if that was actually the case. Maybe someone out there could help? Whatever, maybe because of that perceived association with my childhood, it makes me smile whenever I hear it.

It wasn’t about this Windy

The song was written by Ruthann Friedman about a man, but in the version by The Association they changed the lyrics to make Windy a girl. It’s a long time since anyone called me a girl, but after another shitty year, there is nothing I would love more than to: Trip down the streets of the city, Smilin’ at everybody I see (whilst not wearing a mask). Who knows, maybe in 2022?


Until next time… A very Happy New Year to everyone who drops by this place.

Windy Lyrics
(Song by Ruthann Friedman)

Who’s peeking out from under a stairway
Calling a name that’s lighter than air?
Who’s bending down to give me a rainbow?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
Smiling at everybody she sees?
Who’s reaching out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

And Windy has stormy eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (Above the clouds)
Above the clouds (Above the clouds)

And Windy has stormy eyes
That flash at the sound of lies
And Windy has wings to fly
Above the clouds (Above the clouds)
Above the clouds (Above the clouds)

Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
Smiling at everybody she sees?
Who’s reaching out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
Smiling at everybody she sees?
Who’s reaching out to capture a moment?
Everyone knows it’s Windy

Outlander, The Association and ‘Never My Love’

A new song came into my life last week which I have just discovered is one of the most listened to of the 20th century. Why am I only finding out about it now, as for me, it ticks all the boxes?

  • Released in 1967
  • Recorded by a band of the sunshine pop persuasion
  • Made with members of the legendary Wrecking Crew (that group of session musicians based in Los Angeles who worked with Sonny & Cher, the Mamas & the Papas, the 5th Dimension, the Monkees, the Beach Boys and many others)

The Association were until last week unknown to me, however according to the well-known online encyclopaedia, they hit the No. 1 spot in the charts in October 1967, and had four other top ten hits in the late 1960s. Ah…, but not here in the UK, in America (as I would have called it then). That would explain it, as it seems they largely bypassed the notice of the great British public. The song I have become quite smitten by is this one, their version of Never My Love.

Never My Love by The Association:


The reason I stumbled upon this beautiful song from over 50 years ago was because it featured in the final episode of the historical television drama Outlander, which we have just finished binge watching for the second time. Overkill perhaps I know, but we needed something to fill the gaps in our viewing schedule and the storyline is about events and people from our neck of the woods. It’s also one of the reasons why we’ve been getting so many visitors to the Highlands over the last few years (pre-pandemic), as what with time-travel and romance as well as drama, the Outlander books and television series have quite the cult following.

Anyway, I won’t give too much away in terms of spoilers in case anyone hasn’t reached the final episode of season five yet, but the main character Claire returns to her own time, the late 1960s, in a surreal, dream-like set of scenes. The song Never My Love would have been chosen because it fitted the era, as well as the love story that runs through the whole plotline. Here is a clip that uses some of that footage, as well as footage from the mid 1700s, where she goes back in time and meets her handsome Highlander, Jamie Fraser.

It was a strange coincidence then that we reached the end of a series that all kicked off with the build up to the Jacobite Rising, just as we were about to mark the 275th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden, the last pitched battle held on British soil. As most people know, the Jacobite army led by Charles Edward Stewart was decisively defeated by government troops on 16th April 1746, and over 2000 Highlanders were killed or wounded.

Although 275 is not a particularly round number for anniversaries, a large event had been planned at the visitor centre for last Friday, but sadly, due to continuing pandemic-related restrictions, it all moved online. The battlefield was still open for walks however, and as we are local we decided to go up with our new camera equipment, hoping to make a little film. I’ve shared a few dashcam films around here before, but this time all credit goes to Mr WIAA who put this effort together. A few Outlander fans were there on the day looking for the Clan Fraser stone (Jamie’s clan) and as usual it had a few floral tributes in front of it.

Culloden Battlefield – Site of the last pitched battle fought on British soil

So, ‘What’s It All About?’ – I love that I’m still making lots of new discoveries from the late ’60s as I do seem to have a real affinity for the music from that time. More often than not it comes from having heard it on a film or television soundtrack, and as there is nothing like an older song to evoke the era, film-makers usually choose wisely.

As for the Outlander phenomenon, not so many visitors for us over the last year, but I am hopeful that by summer we will be able to open up again and welcome people back. My little holiday hideaway is being prepped and made appealing for bookings as we speak. I know we won’t get many from abroad this year (nor should we), but hopefully we’ll get some guests from other parts of the UK. I hate the word ‘staycation’ which keeps being bandied about – For someone like me brought up in the ’60s and ’70s we never went abroad, and all our great ‘holidays’ were in Scotland. A staycation would have happened during one of those summers when for one reason or another we had to stay at home, and just had day trips instead – Something quite different to my mind.

Jamie Fraser from Outlander

Anyway, whatever it’s called, all being well we will be able to travel more freely this summer and you would be made very welcome if visiting the Highlands. Hopefully the visitor centre at Culloden will be open for business again and I can thoroughly recommend it – You can even dress up in a kilt, just like the one worn by Jamie in Outlander. As for the term Outlander, it apparently means foreigner, or more specifically an English person (used to describe Claire) although I’d personally never heard it before and am more familiar with the word Sassenach which essentially means the same thing. But again, whatever it’s called, you would be made very welcome, so what are you waiting for? The midges await!

Until next time…

Never My Love Lyrics
(Song by Don Addrisi/Dick Addrisi)

You ask me
If there’ll come a time
When I grow tired of you
Never my love
Never my love

You wonder
If this heart of mine
Will lose its desire for you
Never my love
Never my love

What makes you think love will end
When you know that my whole life depends
On you?
On you

You say you fear
I’ll change my mind
I won’t require you
Never my love
Never my love

How can you think love will end
When I’ve asked you to spend
Your whole life
With me?
With me

You ask me
If there’ll come a time
When I grow tired of you
Never my love
Never my love

Never my love
Never my love

Never my love
Never my love

New Cars, Mama Cass and “It’s Getting Better”

As visitors to this place know, I am often earworm afflicted and that usually comes about from having listened to something on the radio on the way home from work. Recently Mr WIAA’s car died on us and re-joined his friends from the conveyor belt, in that giant scrapyard in the sky. It had served us well for 15 years however, first as a family car and then as a means of transporting his large, messy, work-related items and sporting apparel.flat,550x550,075,f The replacement car, being a lot newer, has come with a much more cutting edge sound system and after a bit of “discussion” about how this car would have to be kept immaculately clean at all times, we made a swap. He now dots around town in a little red city car whereas I have now taken custody of the new family car with the cutting edge digital radio and sound system. Bonus.

This week, despite the political shenanigans going on all around us, there have been a lot of beautiful sunny days and the drive home from work has been a joy. I usually choose to skirt around the edge of town, rather than drive through the centre, which means you get to see the Firth, the Ben and the Bridge.

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The journey is quite a short one so there is usually only time to listen to about five songs on the radio, tops. Earlier this week the 1969 song It’s Getting Better by Mama Cass Elliot came on and it being an uplifting, joyful one I decided to test the volume control and am pleased to say it passed muster, although not wise to drive with the sound that loud for long periods probably. The song, needless to say, did become an earworm (a calque from the German ohrwurm I discovered last year) for the next few days as often happens when I hear something sung by that big lady, with the big voice.

It’s Getting Better by Cass Elliot:

I have written about Cass Elliot (as she preferred to be called) on these pages before (here and here) so no point going over old ground but she is the only artist I think other than George Michael, to have cropped up three times now. Considering her time in the sun was when I was still under the age of ten, she, and her sunshine pop style of music, obviously made a big impact on me and I still feel real joy whenever I hear her songs today.

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So, “What’s It All About?” – This song is obviously about a down-to-earth but very satisfactory relationship rather than one that is extravagantly romantic. I was nearly 30 when I met Mr WIAA and after a bit of a slow start precipitated by my carefully planned turning of the correct corner (documented recently), it has indeed just kept getting better the longer we’ve been together. Who needs fireworks when you have someone who will quite happily swap cars with you, squeeze himself into a quite frankly very girly mode of transport, just so that you can enjoy the new sound system!

Until next time…….

It’s Getting Better Lyrics
(Song by Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil)

Once I believed that when love came to me
It would come with rockets, bells and poetry
But with me and you it just started quietly and grew
And believe it or not
Now there’s something groovy and good
Bout whatever we got

And it’s getting better
Growing stronger warm and wilder
Getting better everyday, better everyday

I don’t feel all turned on and starry eyed
I just feel a sweet contentment deep inside
Holding you at night just seems kind of natural and right
And it’s not hard to see
That it isn’t half of what it’s going to turn out to be

Cause it’s getting better
Growing stronger, warm and wilder
Getting better everyday, better everyday

And just like a flower that takes time to bloom
This love of ours is taking time to grow
Ba da da da da da da da da da da da
And I don’t mind waitin’, don’t mind waitin’
Cause no matter how long it takes
The two of us know

That it’s getting better
Growing stronger, warm and wilder
Getting better everyday, better everyday

Autumn, “California Dreaming” and The Mamas & the Papas

Having totally accepted now that autumn is well and truly with us, it’s possible to start enjoying all the things it brings. It was interesting this week to discover that the Pagan name for the autumnal equinox is actually “Mabon”, and that it really is a celebration of the fact the harvests are in and we can count our proverbial blessings for another year. Not that I’ve suddenly gone all new-age or anything but I decided to head out for a walk on Thursday (the day of the equinox) to gather some of nature’s riches in a basket. Hubby decided to humour me and tagged along. Living right on the edge of a forest we didn’t have to go far to find all sorts of interesting bits and pieces. The basket idea was ditched however in favour of a bag (too Little Red Riding Hood-like otherwise) but when I asked hubby to retrieve the bag from his pocket it turned out he’d taken a giant plastic one from a well-known sporting goods store. This was not the rustic, rural idyll I was trying to recreate so he very kindly headed back for something in cloth or hessian.

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Celebrating Mabon!

It was a beautiful afternoon and the walk in itself would have been enough but I was really pleased to be able to gather so many interesting berries, leaves and seedpods. Once back home, my items were placed in a bowl on the hearth but when darling daughter arrived home and questioned why there was indeed a bowl of “stuff” in the living room, I explained we were celebrating the start of autumn and the fact the harvests were in for another year. “But we go to the supermarket” she said, seemingly nonplussed – Missing the point there I think!

Anyway, having done my bit of new-age celebrating (with a candle no less) it occurred to me that one of my favourite autumnal songs is California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & the Papas. Now this is a really great song (not least because of the harmonies) but can cause real seasonal confusion. It shouldn’t really as the lyrics are quite straightforward – The narrator is basically longing for the warmth of his home in LA during a cold winter’s day in New York. But what with the reference to the autumn leaves, the winter’s day, and the sunshine of California, it kind of encapsulates three seasons in one song.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey.
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.
I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.,
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.

California Dreamin’ by The Mamas & the Papas:

This autumn/winter song was written by John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas & the Papas. Because it is so closely associated with The Mamas & the Papas however, it confusingly comes under the sub-genre sunshine pop. They, along with other mid-sixties artists such as The Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, were part of a musical aesthetic called The California Sound. To be a teenager in southern California in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it must have felt as if you’d died and gone to heaven, and the songs identified with that culture were full of wide-eyed, sunny optimism. They were all about surfin’, riding around in hotrods and partying at the beach. The California Sound however gradually evolved to reflect a more mature world view, becoming less to do with surfing and cars and more about social consciousness and political awareness. Between 1964 and 1969, it inspired artists to tackle meatier themes such as sexual freedom, black pride, drugs, politics and war.

But for now I will just enjoy the song, whatever musical sub-genre it belongs to. I was too young to enjoy The California Sound first time around but it is a sound we are all familiar with. The offspring of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, and Mama and Papa John and Michelle Phillips, went on to form the late ’80s band Wilson Phillips so one of those second generation things going on there – Sadly I was a bit too old for their kind of sunshine pop by this time so yet again missed the boat. I will however leave you with their biggest hit, Hold On from 1990 (which incidentally had a bit of a starring role in the very funny Kristen Wiig film, Bridesmaids). Enjoy.

California Dreamin’ Lyrics
(Song by John Phillips/Michelle Phillips)

All the leaves are brown and the sky is grey.
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.
I’d be safe and warm if I was in L.A.;
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.

Stopped in to a church I passed along the way.
Well I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray.
You know the preacher liked the cold;
He knows I’m gonna stay.
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.

All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray.
I’ve been for a walk on a winter’s day.
If I didn’t tell her I could leave today;
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.
California dreamin’ on such a winter’s day.

Upbeat Records, Mama Cass and “Make Your Own Kind of Music”

Short post for me but just wanted to end the weekend on an upbeat note. All this autumnal melancholy is getting me down. Had a look through the digital music library and remembered that a few years ago, this happy, upbeat song turned up in the television series Lost, that bizarre show set on a deserted tropical island. Was it sci-fi or was it just plain weird? Not sure, and after a while we abandoned it as it was obvious the writers were just trying to spin it out for another few seasons, with more and more unlikely twists and turns.

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Anyway, at one point the people lost on the island found an old abandoned bunker and inside was Desmond who had been there on his own for some time, with only a record player for company. The track he played every morning after waking up was this one – Make Your Own Kind of Music by Mama Cass Elliot from way back in 1969.

Make Your Own Kind of Music by Cass Elliot:

I definitely had Mamas and Papas albums in my collection, but had forgotten all about this particular track until listening to it on that show. I decided to take it into work to gee up the troops if anyone was flagging. Worked for me but not sure if the rest of the team or the “big boss” quite got it (sadly), so it had to go.

I must have been an odd ’70s teenager in that I collected a lot of this kind of music which was probably seen as a bit old hat by my peers. I blame life as an only child and a rural upbringing – Meant I probably watched way too many old movies on television and I loved ones from the ’60s as they showed a totally different kind of world to the one I had experienced in my small Scottish village. Flower Power and the hippy era passed us by I’m afraid, but then so did glam rock, punk and everything else in-between.

Poor Cass Elliot died in her hotel room in London aged only 32, as a result of heart failure. She was instantly recognisable and the physical contrast with fellow Mama, the elfin Michelle Phillips, was striking. But what a voice and glad that I thought of it tonight as now heading off to bed (far too late again) ahead of a new working week in a happy frame of mind.

Make Your Own Kind of Music Lyrics
(Song by Barry Mann/Cynthia Weil)

Nobody can tell ya
There’s only one song worth singin’
They may try and sell ya
‘Cause it hangs them up to see someone like you

But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along

You’re gonna be knowing
The loneliest kind of lonely
It may be rough goin’
Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do

But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along

So if you cannot take my hand
And if you must be goin’
I will understand

But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along