Just heard Lisa Tarbuck on radio this morning saying she was somewhere this week where the Ladies loo played birdsong when you shut the door. She loved it and so do I. What a brilliant idea.
Was also contemplating my Inheritance Tracks this morning too, courtesy of Radio 4. You know, what song did you inherit from your parents? And what song will you pass on to your children?
My dad’s inheritance track is easy. Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Dad plays the piano by ear (yes, we know all the jokes) and he loved Mozart and this was his fave. He also loved Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring so all my memories with Dad are of light classical music. I remember he had one of those 8-track machines in one of his sporty cars but you know I can’t for the life of me remember what was on them.
My mum wasn’t a great music lover or at least I don’t remember any particular favourites. She used to tell me that she loved Hoagie Carmichael and that Dad used to play The Old Music Master to her on the piano but she never had any albums or anything until we bought them for her. We had the radio on on Sunday afternoons when Mum did the washing and I know she loved Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole and others of a similar ilk but I don’t remember any specific songs she liked. For some reason Those Boots Were Made For Walking by Nancy Sinatra sticks out in my mind because I remember laughing hysterically to her dancing to it in the kitchen, so that always makes me think of her. Then years later she became a big Queen fan and loved Bohemian Rhapsody but suspect she never listened to all the music we bought her when she was on her own.
The Inheritance Track I shall pass on to my boys will probably be something by Bowie. No one track, I don’t think, so it would have to be an album – perhaps Hunky Dory. They might also remember fondly Lou Reed’s Transformer and Carole King’s Tapestry because I know they know all the words still today. That’s the sign of a classic.
So what track did you inherit and what are you passing on?
RevRuth's Rantings 
There’s no one track that I’ve inherited from my parents, but I think my very eclectic taste in music comes from them.
Your Mum did washing on a Sunday?? Controversial for those days.
‘for those days’? How old do you think I am?
Lemme see: from Mum definitely “Stand by your Man by Tammy Wynette (she is a major C&W) fan. Dad wasn’t really musical but the song I singer I associate him with was “Distant Drums” by Jim Reeves.
Oh yes, my mum liked Jim Reeves too.
No question, it’s ‘ Begin the Beguine’, sung by Chick Henderson with the Joe Loss Orchestra.
My Mum & Dad had a Mills & Boone romance involving separation and reunion. Dad was killed in WW II but one of my few memories of him is of Mum and Dad dancing round the lounge to that song.
Come off it – if you are talking about Hoagie Carmichael we are talking the 1950s at the latest. I was considered a bit outrageous amongst a certain generation when I washed on a Sunday in the late 80s.
In the Summer Time by Mungo Jerry (first time round). My dad loved that song. When they were in Spain (early 60s) they played it again and again on a village bar jukebox until the locals complained, so they left, but not before putting enough money in the juke box to re-play it a dozen more times after they’d gone.
Abigail, their’s was the first concert I went to. I was in love with the guy who blew into a large bottle!