Tag: Heroes

10 Years of Blogging, 500 Posts and A David Bowie Anniversary

Well, I didn’t know if I could do it but I have timed things to perfection and this will be my 500th post, just ahead of this blog’s 10th birthday, which is tomorrow. 500 posts in 10 years won’t seem like a lot to some of the daily bloggers, but my efforts are usually quite long, require a fair bit of research, and at times I’ve been MIA (regular followers know why), so I’m quite chuffed with myself. Of course the fact I wrote 100 posts in my first 10 months of blogging shows that I’ve really slowed down over the years, but 50 posts per year seems like a good average to me. I hope to get an achievement badge from the WordPress people once I press the publish button on this one, and a birthday badge tomorrow!


I started this blog, by coincidence, the day we heard the news that David Bowie had died, so it was inevitable my first post would feature him. I had planned to write about “music and memories” – pick a song from my past and write about what life was like back then, with a few musical anecdotes thrown in. The decade I was most invested in chart music was the 1970s, as anyone born right at the start of the ’60s will probably agree. The songs you listen to then stay with you for life, and in a Pop Quiz, I am the expert on the Top 30 for those years.

And so it came to pass, on day one of the blog, I was writing a tribute for one of the few true icons (that word is used far too loosely nowadays) this country has ever produced. It didn’t take long for me to realise this would become a pattern as if I was getting older, my pop idols of the ’70s would be getting even older. David Bowie died of cancer, on this day in 2016 at the relatively young age of 69. We didn’t ever have to watch him get really old and infirm which is a bit of a blessing, and right up until his death he was still crowned the best-dressed Briton in history. I’m sure, however, his family would have liked to have had him around for a lot longer.


The very first song I shared around here was therefore Life On Mars? and I have pretty much shared a Bowie song every year since on this date. The film for Life On Mars? (we didn’t yet call them videos) still looks pretty avant-garde today, 53 years on. This leads me to believe I was born at just the right time for a life-long fascination with the theatre, frills and falderals of pop music. In the 1960s we watched our favourite pop stars in black and white, and in the main, especially on UK prime time telly, they were dressed fairly conservatively – men in suits and women in those evening dresses that looked a bit like nighties. It was starting to change at the tail end of the decade but once we started to watch them in colour at the start of the 1970s, glam rock had really taken hold in Britain, and boy were we in for a treat. David Bowie was definitely the most flamboyant but we also had T. Rex, Sweet, Slade and Roxy Music. What a great time to be entering our teenage years and I know many of my blogging pals still hold those years very dear indeed.

Life On Mars? by David Bowie:


Here is something I haven’t mentioned before – last summer I started following the Official UK Charts again, and I get an email every Friday at 6pm telling me what’s changed since the week before. As the months have gone by I’ve become familiar with the runners and riders, but because we consume our music so differently nowadays, via streaming mainly, the charts are nothing like the ones my friends and I used to follow with avid interest in our teens. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the Top 10 was hogged by only three artists, Taylor Swift (with three songs from her The Life of a Showgirl album), Olivia Dean (with three songs from her The Art of Loving album) and three songs from the stars of the animated film, KPop Demon Hunters (the most watched film in Netflix history). The song Golden stayed at the top spot for weeks in the autumn of last year, performed by the fictional, animated, K-pop girl group Huntrix (the first time this had happened since the Archies achieved the same feat in 1969 with Sugar, Sugar).


I don’t think K-pop is really for my generation (you don’t say!) but for the youngsters of today, it seems all pervasive. During the month of December the Top 10 stayed pretty much the same with Wham!’s song at the top spot, Mariah Carey as runner-up and the usual suspects filling the other slots (all songs from 40-60 years ago). Now we are into the new year we’ve had a song that’s been sitting around the Top 10 for quite a while finally reach the top spot (Raye’s Where Is My Husband!), and yesterday I got an email telling me that it had been replaced by someone called Djo. Who the heck is that I thought, and blow me down, if it isn’t the musical moniker of Stranger Things actor Joe Keery, aka the handsome Steve Harrington. His song End of Beginning was originally released in 2022 and has hovered around the lower rungs of the chart since then, but with Season 5 just having ended his fan base have taken to streaming his song in big numbers. Another Netflix show that has influenced our UK Singles Chart. Here is Joe/Djo with his song.


Well I don’t know about you, but I think the Top 10 of my teenage years was far more innovative and interesting, with big change happening every week. In the interests of research however I will keep tabs on things and give all of you who would rather poke your eye out with a sharp stick than listen to the current Top 10, an update!

I didn’t really expect my 500th post to go this way but I often don’t know what I’m going to write about until I sit down at my computer. The really great thing that’s happened since I started this game 10 years ago, is that I’ve made an awful lot of new like-minded friends, both virtual and in the real world, which I certainly didn’t expect. There are regular features I join in with, like Rol’s Saturday Snapshots, John’s Photo Challenge and Ernie’s Pun Fun. We’ve had four quite big BlogCons in cities all over the UK and a fair few mini meetups with two or three bloggers. It’s not how we made new friends in the old days, but it’s how things happen nowadays, so maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive of how the teens of today operate.

I’m definitely going to keep going, and if I’m spared I’ll aim for another 500 posts in 10 years. Whether blogging and WordPress will still be around at that point is anyone’s guess, but I hope it survives in some form.

To end, I really think I should share something else by David Bowie on this, the anniversary of his death. Here he is singing 1977’s Heroes [starts at 1:00] at Live Aid in 1985. There is no bright blue eye-shadow this time, but just like in the film above, his hair is tinged with red and he is sporting a well-cut pale blue suit – an homage I suspect. I still have my copy of Words magazine from when the song Heroes was released and back then they wrote, “Of all our current top rock stars, David Bowie is the one most likely to remain a major musical force decades hence… .” And they continue, “Listening to this [Heroes], you realise that Bowie’s strength and durability lies in the fact he refuses to fit neatly into any specific category. He will constantly surprise even his most dedicated followers, while maintaining an unvarying high quality of performance.” They weren’t wrong.

Heroes by David Bowie:


Until next time…

Heroes Lyrics
(Song by David Bowie/Brian Eno)

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing, will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day

And you, you can be mean
And I, I’ll drink all the time
‘Cause we’re lovers, and that is a fact
Yes, we’re lovers, and that is that

Though nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes, forever and ever
What’d you say?

I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day

I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame, was on the other side

Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day

We can be heroes
We’re nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we’re lying, then you better not stay
But we could be safer, just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh

Postscript

I did get my achievement badge for publishing 500 posts so have edited it in above. Yeah me.

And now my birthday badge.

Alyson’s Archive #5 – David Bowie, “Heroes” and Seasonal Duets

Think back forty years ago, to this week in December 1977. I’m pretty sure I would have been busy at school sitting mock exams ahead of the Christmas break (luckily we got them out of the way beforehand so had the luxury of no holiday revision). But what else would I have been doing? Oh yes, that’s right, I would have been picking up my monthly copy of Words magazine, of which a couple of issues have already been shared in this series.

On the cover was none other than Mr David Bowie, as 1977 was a pretty good year for him having released two successful albums, “Low” at the start of the year and “Heroes” right at the end. Hard to believe that he left us nearly two years ago now. I started this blog on the day we heard of his death and despite never having really been a Bowie fanatic, he has appeared on these pages many times now. He obviously infiltrated the “tracks of my years” in a stealthy fashion without me having realised, and the song Heroes from that second album is one of my all-time favourites.

Heroes by David Bowie:

I’ve visited the soundtrack to the film Moulin Rouge! twice before in this blog (here and here) but as it’s coming up to Christmas (and the sumptuous red dress and glittering lights in this clip remind me of the festive period), I can’t help but share the Heroes portion of the medley performed by the two main actors, Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. A total of 13 songs were melded together to create a cornucopia of love-songs, but for me, Bowie’s Heroes worked the best (starts at 1:00).

But as usual I’ve become side-tracked – Getting back to the magazine, the music journalist who wrote the column on December’s “Cover Star” seemed to get it just right. To quote from the piece, “Of all our current top rock stars, David Bowie is the one most likely to remain a major musical force decades hence… .” And they continue, “Listening to this [Heroes], you realise that Bowie’s strength and durability lies in the fact he refuses to fit neatly into any specific category. He will constantly surprise even his most dedicated followers, while maintaining an unvarying high quality of performance.” As I’ve discovered from this series, we didn’t always get it right back in the day and the slightly disparaging remarks in my 1978 journal about artists who went on to great things, proves this – Sorry Squeeze! Likewise the music journalists often got it wrong themselves and many of the stories printed in these vintage mags were about people who are now residing at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Makes for a somewhat excruciating read.

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You can’t have failed to notice that Bing Crosby also appears in the picture above – As I’ve already mentioned the “C” word in this post there is no point in holding back any longer. My first festive offering for this year is therefore going to be that very unusual foray into the 1982 UK Singles Chart by David Bowie. As explained in the column above, it came about as a result of this guest appearance on Bing Crosby’s 1977 Christmas Show. Poor Bing died a month later, before it was aired on television, but if you can get past the highly scripted, faux exchange at the start, it is a remarkable piece of archive material, especially as both “boys in blue” have now passed on. It is unlikely that Bing even knew who David Bowie was before recording the show but once the Peace On Earth counterpoint was written for the duet, Bowie got on board. It was apparently available as a bootleg for several years before the record company decided to release it as a bona fide single, complete with dialogue. Bowie was unhappy with this move however and it probably led to him leaving RCA soon after.

Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy by David Bowie and Bing Crosby:

So, “What’s It All About?” – As of this last weekend the festive madness has begun, but it seems to be impossible to opt out. I’ve also just discovered that the online retail store named after a vast South American river is almost out of everything that darling daughter requested on her Santa list (yes he still visits 22-year-olds apparently), so a trip to the shops seems to be on the cards. Looks as if Mr WIAA and I will have to be “Heroes”, just for one day.

Oh and one more thing, the reason this particular cover jumped out at me is possibly because there is currently a 10 foot tall picture of David Bowie residing at the entrance to our local shopping centre – Forty years on, and two years after his death, his images still exude “cool” which has obviously made him the perfect candidate for a certain watch-maker to use as inspiration for their latest timepiece.

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Until next time….

Heroes Lyrics
(Song by David Bowie/Brian Eno)

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing, will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day

And you, you can be mean
And I, I’ll drink all the time
‘Cause we’re lovers, and that is a fact
Yes, we’re lovers, and that is that

Though nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes, forever and ever
What’d you say?

I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day

I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame, was on the other side

Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day

We can be heroes
We’re nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we’re lying, then you better not stay
But we could be safer, just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh

Postscript:

Just in case you’re curious as to what else we were listening to in December ’77 (other than David Bowie) here is a copy of the Words contents page which also includes two sets of lyrics. How many of these (without Googling) would you remember?

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Abba

The Name Of The Game by Abba:

Eurovision Memories, Riverdance and Måns Zelmerlöw

Following on from my last post when I wrote about the sad passing of Sir Terry Wogan, I feel I can’t end that thread until I have mentioned The Eurovision Song Contest. Love it or loathe it, the contest is a big fixture in television’s annual calendar and is watched by, wait for it…… up to 600 million people worldwide!

Terry presided over the television commentary of the contest from 1980 until 2008 after which he hung up his headphones, making way for another witty Irishman, Graham Norton. During his years at the helm, Terry’s commentary was far more of a draw for viewers than the contest, or nonsense as he called it. Who can forget all the “eejit” on-stage hosts we had to endure, and his observation that the Danish pair in 2001 looked like “Doctor Death and the Tooth Fairy”.

My first memories of Eurovision were from 1967 when a barefoot Sandie Shaw won for the UK with Puppet On A String. I have mentioned my “anorak” tendencies before in this blog and The Eurovision Song Contest is a dream for people like me – Endless possibilities when it comes to stats, lists and databases. Who won in which year; where the contest was held; which artist represented each country and so it goes on…

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Anyway, in 1967 when I was still only 6 years old I remember using a little blue Silvine notebook to record my family’s verdict on the songs which had made the shortlist as potential contenders for our entry to that year’s contest. I can’t remember if as a family we did pick Puppet On A String but I do remember that we all had to give each song points out of 10 and I was savvy enough to realise that if I started with a lowish score of 5 out of 10 there would be room for manoeuvre. I also can’t remember if we actually sent in our verdict on a postcard (or if you couldn’t afford one of those a stuck down envelope), but for me, it was the start of a long love affair with all things Eurovision. As the years went by I became an even bigger fan of the contest and when colour came to our television screens things just got better and better.

Sadly when my teens and twenties came along, and I found myself a social life, Eurovision lost out as I tended to be out on a Saturday night but it would have been impossible to miss the fact that we won again in 1976 with Brotherhood of Man’s Save Your Kisses for Me, and soon after in 1981, with Bucks Fizz and Making Your Mind Up.

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The contest at this time was entering a fallow period and it was definitely not cool to admit to being a fan. Terry’s commentary continued to amuse but we didn’t really put up any worthwhile candidates and didn’t win again for another 16 years. During the ’90s however the Celtic Tiger was rearing its head and Ireland won the contest four times in five years. It seemed they could do no wrong and when Bill Whelan’s Riverdance was performed as the interval “filler” during the 1994 contest, a new and very lucrative art form was born. Gone were the days of folksy, green velvet-jacketed Irish dancing and in breezed Michael Flatley and a cast of thousands with their toe and heel-tapping spectaculars. Johnny Logan who won the contest himself for Ireland in 1980 and 1987 also wrote the winning song for Linda Martin in 1992, making him the most successful entrant ever. Wonder if any of this success was down to Terry and his Irish charm?

The times they were a-changing however and when the wall came down, Eastern Europe suddenly wanted to be a part of this music-fest, not realising that here in the UK it was still seen as a bit of light-hearted nonsense. In the rest of Europe, the contest has become a juggernaut of a show with each country putting up their most talented artists and in the build up to the live final, practically bankrupting their country with the promotion of their song. It all got a bit too much for Terry however, and his astute observation that there may well have been some political voting (never!) led to his eventual departure from the commentary box.

Since my daughter has been old enough to enjoy Eurovision with us, it has become one of my favourite nights of the year. We print off the scoresheets, invite friends round, serve the food and drink of the host nation and wave our little flags when the UK entrant appears on stage. Since the debacle of 2003 when Jemini had the distinction of receiving the first ever score of “nil points”, we have generally languished around the bottom of the scoreboard and it is hard to see how things are ever likely to change. We don’t really take it seriously, we are part of the “Big 5” who pay for the thing so go straight through to the final (no-one likes someone to get an unfair advantage) and yes, political voting is absolutely part of the contest and pretty much nobody wants to pal up with us in the world of Eurovision.

You are probably wondering if I am ever going to get round to the song in this post well here we go. Last year after watching the contest for nearly 50 years on television, I went to watch it LIVE in Vienna! We went with our best friends dressed as Bucks Fizz and had the best time ever. As usual the UK came about last but we made loads of new friends and were “papped” constantly in our outfits. The winner was a young Marti Pellow-lookalike called Måns Zelmerlöw from Sweden with his fantastic song Heroes. Sweden are now knocking on the door of Ireland’s record of seven wins in the contest with a very impressive six, their first being the song Waterloo by the most successful Eurovision act of all time, Abba.

Heroes by Måns Zelmerlöw:

There are a lot of problems in the world today and even in Europe we are facing big political decisions in the very near future. I just wish we could gather together some of our leaders for the next Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm. The whole concept behind the contest in the 1950s was to help a war-torn Europe rebuild itself. The European Broadcasting Union set up a committee to search for ways of bringing countries together, via a “light entertainment programme”. From our first hand experience of Vienna, it certainly works and if Angela Merkel and David Cameron want to join us we have a couple of very fetching Bucks Fizz outfits going spare?

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Heroes Lyrics
(Song by Linnea Deb/Joy Deb/Anton Hård af Segerstad)

Don’t tell the gods I left a mess
I can’t undo what has been done
Let’s run for cover
What if I’m the only hero left
You better fire off your gun
Once and forever
He said go dry your eyes
And live your life like there is no tomorrow son
And tell the others

To go sing it like a hummingbird
The greatest anthem ever heard:

We are the heroes of our time
But we’re dancing with the demons in our minds
We are the heroes of our time
Hero-uh-o-o-oes
O-uh-o-o-oh
We’re dancing with the demons in our minds
Hero-uh-o-o-oes O-uh-o-o-oh

The crickets sing a song for you
Don’t say a word, don’t make a sound
It’s life’s creation
I make worms turn into butterflies
Wake up and turn this world around
In appreciation
He said I never left your side
When you were lost I followed right behind
Was your foundation