Tuesday 16 October 2018

Freewheelin'

There is an LP that has been one of the features on the shelves in my study for countless years, I bought it around 1964. It was Bob Dylan's second album and was released in 1963 and the album cover, below, has become an iconic feature of those early 1960's folk years for a lot of people. It shows the young Bob Dylan and his then girlfriend Suze Rotolo walking down a frozen Greenwich Village street in early 1963, posing for a series of photographs.
I've lost count of the times my eyes have been drawn to that album cover over the years, especially now in old age, and been taken back to those same years of my youth.


Taking me back to times like this, in late 1966 or early 1967. I was 19 and my girlfriend, who later became my first wife, was several years younger.

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Those times seem an awful long way away now and I guess after 51 years, they most definitely are. But how simple life was then, no latest communication technology to crave after, no need to save wages, listening to the latest music releases by standing in a booth in your local record shop. Only the responsibility and financial restraints of marriage changed everything. This week for my Autumn reading pleasure in the coming weeks, I have bought three newly published books - "The Real Enid Blyton" by Nadia Cohern. I have read many books about Enid Blyton (she was not such a nice person) and have all 21 of the Famous Five books, and anything to do with her takes me back to my childhood in the 1950's and how her books allowed me to escape from an unhappy childhood.
 "Made in Scotland - My Grand Adventures in a Wee Country" by Billy Connolly - easily the funniest comedian Britain has ever produced, I could watch him all night.
"The Extraordinary  Life of  E Nesbit" by Elizabeth Galvin. I've never read any of her well known books but was drawn to this book by the fact that she lived a bohemian life-style and I have quite a collection of books now about people that have lived that kind of life-style, such as the Bloomsbury Group. I can so easily identify with that way of life in the 1920's/30's and would love to have lived it - the best I could do was the 1960's, when we indulged in some drugs, lots of drinking and group sex - I miss it.


14 comments:

  1. Group sex Derek?? Tell us more - or on second thoughts perhaps not.

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    1. Without going into detail Pat, it was what it suggested. A number of people all having sex with each other in the same room at the same time. The 1960's opened the doors to a lot of things and that was one of them.

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  2. I'll have to look into those books you have selected; I am always on the lookout for good books. I don't miss the days of my youth and young adulthood so much - I am happy to have experienced them and to have survived them, but I don't want to go back there. I am greedy for more years and am trying my damndest to stay healthy enough to enjoy them.

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  3. I enjoy these posts when you take us back into your past. I'm with Weaver on this though - a bit more detail on your bohemian sixties lifestyle please!

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  4. Some detail is best left as history Steve.

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  5. I frequently cycle past the church where E. Nesbit is buried on Romney Marsh.(https://romneychurches.org/st-mary-the-virgin-st-mary-in-the-marsh)

    Her last and much loved and loving husband (an old seaman) made her grave marker from wood since she had said she did not want a grave stone. Since she died in 1924 it had deteriorated considerably so is now kept in the church. But a copy was made for her grave in the churchyard.

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  6. Thanks Avus. There is a photograph of the grave marker in the book that I've just bought - simple but effective.

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  9. I'm about the same age as you and that album reminds me of my youth too, the 60's were a great era and Dylan played a big part in my youth. The Famous Five were also on my reading lists,my favourite being Five go to Mystery Moor.

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  10. Good to hear that Dave, do you still go to see Dylan, my best friend from the 60's and I, still do every time he comes over. Our first concert was the Albert Hall in Spring 1966.

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  11. I have seen him a few times and in 93 I took my then 15 year old daughter to see him. One of his best concerts for me was in Earls Court in about 1974. His songs are still great and I think I've been through about 3 copies of Blood on the Tracks.

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  12. The latest Bootleg CD's are being released early Nov. and consist of all out-takes and various re-records as he put together the Blood on the Tracks album.

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  13. This blog is getting better all the time. Marsh Harrier counts interspersed by group sex stories; great stuff.

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