Teenbeat: the Mamas and the Papa's

It's almost a cliché to say the nineteen-sixties produced some of the most memorable popular music of the modern era and growing in the era afterward I was very much in that shadow cast by it cos if your folks and relations didn't have it, then often it was played on the radio.
One trend  amongst many was the fusion between folk music and the emergent rock in the middle of that decade which you see with the Byrds, Bob Dylan and naturally Simon and Garfunkel.

 

A popular sound often leads to others getting on on the genre and the other essential act you really need to listen to was the Mama's and Papa's who through a career that only spanned from nineteen sixty-five through nineteen sixty-eight, releasing seventeen 45's and five albums.

They comprised of John and Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty  and Cass Elliot and were signed to Dunhill records in 1965 .

The combination of close harmony singing and relatively sparse instrumentation coupled with the dreamy quality of the songs lyrics is a core reason these productions stand out among many others.

Imagine not hearing such songs as Monday Monday, California Dreamin' that summarized that era, Dedicated To The One I Love, Creeque Alley and Dream A Little Dream Of Me before they made their separate ways? To anyone around it would be unthinkable and even when I was growing up, their records were always played on oldies but goldies shows on the radio which trust me I heard a lot of being ill during my childhood and reliant on the radio to cheer me up, it was was left for me to listen to.

Their have been a number of compilation albums of their music issued over the years as while there's a bit of me that loves the original studio lp jackets, in truth their always was a bit of filler on those albums and like many sixties albums seldom run much beyond a half hour or so making a well compiled compilation a sensible option.

The strength of two thousand and five's Mama's and Papa's Gold  is it offers many of the songs from the individual albums in addition to the hit 45's on two well filled compact discs avoiding the mistake of including solo recordings that featured on the nineteen ninety-one Creeque Alley package so there's a clear focus and it can act as good alternative to a full set of albums.

Best of all, this is an inexpensive double in Universal Musics Chronicles series negating any need to consider single cd sets completely.

Recommended

More G.O.* fiction

I've not been too brilliant this week with one thing or another, not the sort of thing that benefit from "localized heating" not that mind that when it's needed but more bigger things being unwell so between things have been doing a spot of reading as it helps keep my spirits up.

With the Secret Seven's stories I had changed from a mixture of newer copies and old paperbacks to being in hard back editions with original texts over the years as the alterations made no sense.

This lesser known author wrote Jill At Hazelmere in nineteen sixty-four and Jill Investigates both borrowing from the Girl comic strip series Wendy and Jinx school based adventures where both are Forth Formers.

It's the very sort of book I love and actually it's the first time I've owned a copy - mine's from nineteen sixty-six  although I'm sure saw a copy at boarding school in the Seventies.

Sadly the Girls Comic site which had extracts from many British girls comics including Girl that was published between nineteen fifty-one and nineteen sixty-four has disappeared as has the middlescommonroom.com site where mainly older  junior fiction was discussed.

Trying to find a G.O* or mainly G.O discussion board where such staples of the junior fiction I read back then is proving difficult.

*G.O = Girls Only, the very girl centric type of novel or comic writing usually about schools, horses and princesses.

Pinafore dress patterns

Hi, Hi peoples after a few days with a really bad migraine,I suppose you can say expect the unexpected cos I'm feeling very little at the minute with a few chunks of memory temporarily M.I.A. after that.
But anyway I felt like posting a little about dresses (gasp!).

 Most of these patterns are from the late 50's and the 60's and starting from the above while all are really nice, two stick out as potentially me rolled back to the age, the bottom left plaid one and especially the lower middle one in blue with the red ribbon.
I'm not really into 'fussy' designs that probably has something to do with finding dressing at times difficult by myself.

 From the second picture top right panel, that blue dress with the bow looks more the kind of thing I could worn at a party, Alice style as there's just about enough 'pouf' in the skirt to make a pleasant change from school dresses.

 This next set is from 1964 and I think it's the blue one with the detail on the bodice and again I like how the skirt hangs on it.

 Same era and it could be either although I suspect the blue check just edges in with a classic cut preferring an A line to a tube shape.

Fast forward to 1969, and it's the one on the left, bring out the white tights and the ribbon and I'd be in seventh heaven apart from feeling definitely little. And little I am!

And there with have it with aid of missing bits of memory to cut out any internal fighting, I, Joanne, do admit to being a girl who loves dresses.
Darn it the secret's out!
Is there gonna be  a cry of "Can you please sow my button back on please?" next.