Musical memories

[ambient]

I played a gig yesterday afternoon at an old people’s home. We mostly played jazz standards along with few Glenn Miller songs. There are some fantastic songs with really beautiful melodies in the standard repertoire. I never get tired of playing them.

The best bit of the event for me was the one little old lady’s reaction after we played autumn leaves - a song I absolutely love playing anyway, it really lends itself to playing how I like to play bass, melodically as well as playing walking lines. 

You could tell it took her back to another time, bringing back memories. She was smiling and laughing, I heard her saying to someone how she had always loved that particular song.

It made all the hassle of the two Covid tests prior to going in worth it.

Edited June 26, 2021 by ambient

[Mykesbass]

Fabulous. The funny thing is though, this music is now older than most of the old folk we have left. Even for those in there 90s Glen Miller is music of their childhood.

[Dad3353]

1 hour ago, Mykesbass said:

Fabulous. The funny thing is though, this music is now older than most of the old folk we have left. Even for those in there 90s Glen Miller is music of their childhood.

Many, old and young alike, enjoy music from the beginnings of music, and since. Classical music has a wide following, as do folk songs around the world. Music is not always 'disposable', to be replaced by the latest fad (although some of it is, I'll allow...). The 'good' stuff tends to stick around for more than a generation or two. 

[Mykesbass]

24 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

Many, old and young alike, enjoy music from the beginnings of music, and since. Classical music has a wide following, as do folk songs around the world. Music is not always 'disposable', to be replaced by the latest fad (although some of it is, I'll allow...). The 'good' stuff tends to stick around for more than a generation or two. 

Yes, sorry, wasn't implying anything against older music. Big fan of Autumn Leaves, although I don't like Miller. Was partly a reflection of my late mum's attitude who hated Vera Lynn and the fact that everyone thought it was what 'people if her age' wanted. She was a Sinatra fan but also partial to a bit of Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones.

[Crawford13]

Yup totally agree it's awesome how music is connected to memories. 

I remember reading an article about how you will always love and relate to the music love listened to between 14-18.

This is very true in my case. 

[ambient]

1 minute ago, Mykesbass said:

Yes, sorry, wasn't implying anything against older music. Big fan of Autumn Leaves, although I don't like Miller. Was partly a reflection of my late mum's attitude who hated Vera Lynn and the fact that everyone thought it was what 'people if her age' wanted. She was a Sinatra fan but also partial to a bit of Pink Floyd and Rolling Stones.

I’m not a fan of the Miller stuff either to be honest, I’m not sure the audience particularly likes it either. The band’s sax/clarinetist likes it though, he’s in his 80s and played in big bands in his youth. From what I’ve been told since yesterday, the old lady that caught my attention used to love visiting jazz clubs with her husband.

[TheGreek]

Two things help me to "time travel" - music and smells - both will take me back to good times in my past.

[Grahambythesea]

Worth remembering that Presley would have been 86 had he have lived. The inhabitants of care homes now were the original rock n roll generation.

[ambient]

9 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Two things help me to "time travel" - music and smells - both will take me back to good times in my past.

Yes definitely this.

When I was very little we used to go on holiday to Devon and stay in my dad’s friend’s caravan. The caravan had a shed where they kept deckchairs and tables. I remember it had a very strong smell of creosote, I only need the slightest whiff and I’m transported back in time.

Music though I can remember where I was when I first heard a particular song. I associate songs with events too.

[ambient]

8 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

Worth remembering that Presley would have been 86 had he have lived. The inhabitants of care homes now were the original rock n roll generation.

Yep. For the old lady it was jazz she loved, but you’re right, it would be rock n roll. They’re my grandparent’s generation.

[Maude]

2 minutes ago, ambient said:

Yes definitely this.

When I was very little we used to go on holiday to Devon and stay in my dad’s friend’s caravan. The caravan had a shed where they kept deckchairs and tables. I remember it had a very strong smell of creosote, I only need the slightest whiff and I’m transported back in time.

Music though I can remember where I was when I first heard a particular song. I associate songs with events too.

The smell of creosote, and I'm back to the seventies helping my Grandad do his fence in Kingsbury. 

[casapete]

16 minutes ago, Grahambythesea said:

Worth remembering that Presley would have been 86 had he have lived. The inhabitants of care homes now were the original rock n roll generation.

Exactly this. My duo play a couple of times a year at the home my dad spent his last years in, and the requests are nearly always from the 50’s and 60’s. They like an old time singalong as well, but rock and pop wins the day.

[casapete]

3 minutes ago, Maude said:

The smell of creosote, and I'm back to the seventies helping my Grandad do his fence in Kingsbury. 

Great smell but wicked stuff though - remember doing the fence with it at my first house and getting horrible blotches on my arms where it had splashed. 

[Leonard Smalls]

1 hour ago, Mykesbass said:

the fact that everyone thought it was what 'people if her age' wanted.

It's funny that if you go to an old folks' home nowadays they'll still have entertainers coming in and singing songs from the war, before many of the inhabitants were born!

I wonder if when I'm in my dodderage in one of those places, the daily diet of David Dickinson will be broken up by be-leathered and zipped singers jumping around and shouting "Gawd Save The Queen She ain't no human bean!"

[ubit]

3 hours ago, ambient said:

The best bit of the event for me was the one little old lady’s reaction after we played autumn leaves - a song I absolutely love playing anyway, it really lends itself to playing how I like to play bass, melodically as well as playing walking lines. 

You could tell it took her back to another time, bringing back memories. She was smiling and laughing, I heard her saying to someone how she had always loved that particular song.

That's just lovely. I wish there was a care emoji for comments. It's great that you can bring happiness to others when you play and older people often get forgotten as needing entertainment.

[ubit]

7 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

I wonder if when I'm in my dodderage in one of those places, the daily diet of David Dickinson will be broken up by be-leathered and zipped singers jumping around and shouting "Gawd Save The Queen She ain't no human bean!"

I often think this too. When Im 85 I will still like Slipknot and Rush etc. Im sure that will seem strange to youngsters in the future who will be into some kind of hip hop jazz fusion type rubbish.

[ubit]

1 hour ago, Mykesbass said:

Was partly a reflection of my late mum's attitude who hated Vera Lynn and the fact that everyone thought it was what 'people if her age' wanted.

My Mum hated Vera Lynn too. She was born in '33 so was alive during the war. Her dad went off to war and was captured by the Japanese, spent 2 years in a camp and then was torpedoed by the Americans. She loved Neil Diamond and Glenn Campbell.

[Dad3353]

3 hours ago, Grahambythesea said:

... Presley would have been 86 had he have lived ...

What..? Are you implying that... Oh, no..! Why wasn't I told..? Oh no..! 

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, ubit said:

That's just lovely. I wish there was a care emoji for comments...

... or ...

... or ...

... or even ...

... but not ...

[4000]

FWIW my  mum and dad were also born in ‘33 and they, and pretty much everyone they knew, were jazzers. 

The music they were into in their teens wouldn’t have been rock’n’roll. 

Edited June 26, 2021 by 4000