20th of February 1974 to the 19th February 1975
For myself, during this year of my life’s journey,..
…the most significantly important and joyful thing happened at Christmas later that year; and I am extremely fortunate that my parents captured part of it on film for prosperity.
You see, while my sisters were busy going through all their presents which they were joyfully unwrapping, I was transfixed on only one.
For Christmas 1974, I received my first record player.
As I mentioned previously,..
…records and record players were already holding some significance to me. To the point where I would quite happily sit there and watch the record going round and round, while also listening to the music that it was producing from its rotation. A simple but extremely satisfying experience.
It was possibly also around this time that I was working out the sizes of the records and deciphering that certain types had to be set to certain speeds.
My parent’s record player could play, not just 33’s and 45’s, but also 78’s and even 16’s (although that latter speed was never really used for anything owned in the house, just for slowing other types down for amusement purposes only, or for when I eventually broke the spell on any Pinky & Perky records in the household, if you catch my drift), it was mainly the two former speeds which were commonly used the most; although there was 78 set I do remember of “Pinocchio“, on multi-coloured marble or splatter effect disc, which told the story, and included the songs, of the film. This set may well have belonged to me, as it was the first film I happened to experience at the cinema (obviously a re-release as I wasn’t around for the original showing back in 1940).
I have no recollection of that first cinematic event, only getting the information from my mother, and when I tell people of it, the sentence is habitually ended with the word “apparently”.
Anyway, back to the core subject, and the way I used to work out records was, if it was a 7 inch size, it would go on for a manageable length of time not to trouble my attention span, whereas an album on a 12 inch record would (just like the difference in size between a child and an adult) most probably be more for the grown-ups. It was slower, had usually more mature music on it, and thus would be a bit more boring, as it couldn’t hold my attention span for as long as it played. Although the covers were always more interesting as they at least had pictures on them, and writing (which of course I couldn’t yet read; but more about that later).
Now, I just want to be clear;..
…the acquiring of my own record player did not mean that the use and fascination of my parent’s record player diminished in any way, and there’s a valid explanation for that.
You see, being the age that I was at that time, it wasn’t quite the right moment for me to have something with as many delicate parts and mechanisms. My player was (and had to be) a bit more robust.
Yes folks, my first piece of musical hardware was a genuine brand new Fisher Price Music Box Record Player!
This baby had 5 thick rigid coloured discs;..
…orange, green, blue, cyan (or light blue as I would call it), and violet (or purple). The ‘grooves’ worked in the same way as a little rotating drum in a musical box (hence the name), except they were in disc form. On each disc, there were strategically placed nodules, or pins, which produced different tunes on each side; therefore having 10 songs in total to choose from.
The arm and ‘stylus’ of the player itself housed the metal teeth which provided the sound, similar to a musical instrument called a lamellophone I have since discovered.
By placing your chosen disc onto the player, you then swung the arm over and wound up the clockwork mechanism which rotated the disc and played the tune. You could then change the disc by swinging the arm back (just like a real record player), lifting the disc away, choosing another, placing it on the turntable and moving the arm onto it once again. There was even an on/off switch, just in case you didn’t want to put a new disc on a moving turntable.
Just a quick note – Calling it clockwork in no way sections this all-in-one unit into the Direct Drive catagory; therefore it is unfair to categorise this bad boy as a direct predecessor to the Technics 1210 or similar (just a little bit of my eccentric humour right there).
As I mentioned earlier, each disc had a different song on each side. So for instance, the blue disc had “Humpty Dumpty” on one side and “Baa Baa Black Sheep” on the other (I think); and this is something that fascinated my mother especially. Not because of the discs having two different songs, but how, at the age of 2 years, I could tell the difference from one side to the other.
Most children, I’m guessing, would be able to pick out the colour if they knew the tune they wanted was on that disc, but then it may be a 50\50 chance that they would get it correct by putting the right side on.
According to my mum, this was something I never had an issue with. If she asked for “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, that’s exactly what she got, every single time.
How did I manage to do that? I haven’t really got much of an idea. I certainly couldn’t read at that age. The only theory I have is, that I saw the words as patterns; by that I mean I would see the words as more a loose interpretation of Morse Code or something similar. So for instance, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” would become “——- ——- —— —-” which would look different to “—— ——“, which was “Humpty Dumpty”. It’s just a theoretical long distant shot, but a possible real reason, that seems to still shed a faint light in me.
I mean, think about it for a second. How many of us can really remember much at that age, when you haven’t learnt to read yet?
Of course, it worked on the other ‘records’ too. Such as “Edelweiss” (———) on the cyan record, or “Camptown Races” (——– —–) on the orange one. I’m remembering these from memory by the way. I haven’t looked at those records for at least 45 to 50 years. I’m hoping I’ve got the titles right.
This type of deciphering inside my head also came into effect with the real thing,..
…especially 7 inch singles, which commonly came in plain paper sleeves the majority of the time; so I had to work them out by the label colours and designs as well as my ‘Morse Code’ method (if there were several singles distributed by the same label).
Most of the time I would have worked it out quite easily, even if, like my sister’s growing collection, there were several on the ‘RAK‘ or ‘Bell‘ labels.
As for the music itself,..
…I was increasingly becoming more aware of music, whether it was through the cream Bakelite radio in the kitchen, the TV, or the records played; I was beginning to latch onto some which would mould my taste in music and become favourites.
There were some which I loved listening to, some which I couldn’t wait to hear again, some which fascinated me, some which bewitched me and others which scared me.
This would be the time when I really began to take it all in.
By now, I was truly getting acclimatised to my own world, and it all seemed so wonderful.
Just as before,..
…to give a feel to what the musical landscape was like at that time in my life, I will first go through the chart from the week of my 2nd birthday counting down the Top 50 singles (as it was still limited to back then), and then the same for the albums, before heading through the music I remember which would have charted throughout the rest of the year, as I toddled along the journey to my 3rd birthday.
Having a quick look at the albums especially, there are some absolute treasures appearing, which had begun to be released throughout the previous year and were still deservedly enjoying immense success; not that I was taking too much notice of them at the time, but they were there, and they create a backdrop to the audible atmosphere which was forming at the time around me.
But first, I’ll be running down the singles chart, which has such a broad and eclectic range of musical styles, that to me, its like the bubble they’re all encased in is beginning to feel too tight to hold so much for much longer. The most significant change I feel with the singles as a whole is the real effect it was receiving from the Sound of Philadelphia which was beginning to show a real prominence on the airwaves; a sound and feel I distinctly and lovingly hold in some of my earliest reminiscences of my infancy.
It’s going to be an interesting, memory soaked audible journey to the era where I really began to take in the sounds of the time, albeit in my own innocent little 2-year-old world.
Are you ready? Let’s go in.
Grab Your Binoculars, Come Follow Me
My Socials
What is it…?
Who am I…?
Why am I…?
When am I…?
How do I…?
