I purchased my first very own
musical recording at the age of ten or eleven, at a “ten cent” store in nearby
Englewood, New Jersey on a Saturday family shopping trip. It was the beginning
of an “indulgence” which has seen a revolution in recording science and which
continues today. That early investment was a black 78 rpm wax disc with a red
label featuring Bing Crosby and Kate Smith singing Don’t Fence Me In. “I can’t look at hobbles and I can’t stand fences”
the two proclaimed and my Dad had to explain “hobbles” to me. It was a humble
beginning. The collection of easily broken and scratched black wax “singles”
continued right up to Harry James, the Andrew Sisters and the “Fire House five
Plus two” and a hundred others! They’re still in my cluttered basement today
(weighing more than fifty pounds per boxful!)
The age of vinyl and the coming of
first binaural and then stereo sound saw me building my own room-filling sound
system which is still with me today, and a record collection which grew
exponentially; and that barely mentions my Tanberg and Sony tape decks and the
collection they spawned after the “experts” of the day proclaimed that “tape”
was the ultimate recording medium, after which there could be nothing better.
Already my wife is urging me to build a cabinet designed to “hide” my stacks of
CDs from the public, but I tell her to “hang on”, the coming world of
“down-loading” will obviate the need if something even more dazzling doesn’t
come first.
And that leads me to the story I
really want to tell. One of the last vinyl L.P.s I purchased was an album cut
in 1968 featuring Petula Clark performing some of her most famous hits,
including This is My Song, Don’t Sleep in
the Subway and Groovin’. My
record of activity on the back of the cover indicates my last play took place
on March 16th, 1969, just prior to our family move from Vermont to
Utah, and the apparent retirement of the sound system which did not get
“plugged in” again.
Shortly after moving to Rockville, I
learned that the daughter of one of my radio fans was a personal friend of
Petula Clark, and had been for much of her life. Shortly after that, I was
introduced to Petula’s daughter, Bara De Cabrol on an occasion when she had
stopped in southern Utah to pay a visit to that family. By coincidence, I was
the speaker at the event being visited on that occasion which led to a brief
exchange of correspondence with her and thereby a personal connection after she
returned to her home in NYC, from which I have enjoyed a most pleasant memory.
Not long ago I received an
unexpected, but very much appreciated and timely gift from my Utah friend in
the form of a brand new, 2016 CD recording of Petula Clark titled FROM NOW ON, just released from a
recording studio in London. Petula, at age 84, and still singing her heart out.
I listen to it with some regularity, but especially when I need to be reminded
that like the English lady with a full head of curly blonde hair, I yet have places to go and worthwhile
things to do.
Alongside the well-known lyrics from
out of a famous past such as these: Blackbird
singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. All
your life you were only waiting for this moment to arise is a new poetic
challenge found in such as these my favorites:
I don’t
need to know what your life has been, I’ve been there too and I have seen. All
that really matters is From Now On.
. . those last three words the song’s title.
And perhaps the most personally meaningful of all :
Wandering
around the world I’ve seen, the good the bad the in-between, no one is perfect,
this we all know but my heart and soul keep telling me Never let go. Keep doing
what you’re doing, and giving it all you can. NEVER LET GO.
Not only is her voice “youthful”
and as lovely as ever, but she writes and sings her own music, and adds piano,
harp and string accompaniments along the way. I for one hope the inimitable and
unstoppable Petula Clark never let’s go.
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