0002 When I was a boy

I was in a service station a couple of weeks back and happened to notice a shelf of heavily discounted CD's. Being a chap that likes a bargain I had a little look-see and stumbled across this;

That's the latest album by ELO and their first since 2001.  Now although I'm not a hardened ELO fan they were a band a liked once upon a time, when aged about 10 or 11, and £3 seemed like a bit of a steal. So, adding it to the TV listings book and the Mars bar I went in for, I paid up and headed on home for a listen.

I wasn't completely oblivious to the album's existence prior to that moment and had heard the single; When I was a Boy, and a couple of radio interviews with Jeff on the albums initial release the year before.  I knew I was going to get something reasonably familiar, nostalgic probably, but certainly a thing of quality because Jeff Lynne is a master musician, an excellent song write and a stunning producer of beautiful sounds.  I know this because I owned Out of the Blue...

...and had done since 1977, when I had requested it as a Christmas present from my parents. I spent a lot of time inside that double disc album, both musically and visually, because in both respects its an almost cosmic piece of work.

 

Its hard to explain good music and so much easier to just go off and have a listen.  To which ends you'll find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIt9t11xgY8 and probably lots of other places as well.  Enjoy.  But before going off and doing that, lets get back to that amazing artwork.

 

The album cover's spaceship was designed by John Kosh with art by Shusei Nagaoka.  It was based on the logo Kosh designed for ELO's previous album, A New World Record and has now become synonymous with the band.

 

This is post 2001-A Space Odyssey and  pre-Star Wars technology.  It's big, clean, bright and optimistic. It's tripy, progressive sci-fi that doesn't need to fully explain itself because the ideas are from our future and we don't quite grasp them yet.  We need to evolve and grow.  We need to aspire and work at attaining that understanding.  We need to dream big and then chase that dream into reality.  Who wouldn't want to go on that journey of discovery.  I did. I imagined myself aboard, one of the many crew.  This would be my future one day.  I was 10.

 

I've journeyed round the sun a few times since then and most of it with my feet firmly on the ground.  I still like a big idea though and I still value the power of the imagination.  Jeff Lynne's a lot older as well but he can still write a good tune or two.  The new album is OK although its very reflective of where Jeff is now in his life.  The lyrics are less optimistic, the scale more personal.  This is to be expected I suppose.

 

I'm not sure the big ELO space ship featured on the front cover is quite the same vessel any longer either.  It seems smaller to me, remote and unmanned.  And the kid on the front seems content just to sit and look at it.  There's no immediate or visible desire on his part to get on board.

 

And inside the album, inside the spaceship, its altogether different as well.  Its a small corridor or maybe a room.  Its functional, off-white and lined with pipes and conduit.  There's an empty chair by the window and photos stuck on the walls. Guitar, radio set, coffee cup and a towel.  These are the possessions of just one individual who isn't even there anymore.  Nobody is dreaming of the future in here, this is all about the past.

 

 ...and I find that a little sad!

 

I have this theory, and it's one of the reasons I'm drawn to examine the past of my childhood, that we used to dream bigger back then.  And the artwork above would seem to reinforce that. There used to be a greater a sense of wonder, of possibility and of our own enormous potential.  We don't seem to project all that far forward anymore.  Perhaps we think this is it; we are already here. This is the future now!

 

It doesn't seem like it to me though and I liked us all so much more when we knew we had farther to go.  I find myself contemplating, not how we can bring the past back but how we can remember who we used to be.

 

Funny how a bit of album art can make you feel.

 

Steve

 

 

Oh and yes; I think they know they ripped-off the corridors of the Nostromo from Alien (1979) they were just hoping you wouldn't!

Lake Monster books of the 70s. (+1 from the 80s)

1975                                                                 1976

 

1973                                                            1982

Cybermen - 1975 to 1982

I've been thinking about the Cybermen recently, following a couple of very good articles in a recent issues of DWM. Now I'm old enough to remember watching The Revenge of the Cybermen on first transmission back in 1975 and I was still watching when they made their surprise return in Earthshock in 1982.

 

Somewhere in between that I became a "proper" Doctor Who fan and as such you have to decide who your favourite monster is and for me it was the Cybermen.  Sure the Daleks were good but the Cybermen were much better, much scarier, much more unknown and unknowable.  As a modern fan of the new series, I'm very much of the opposite opinion because the new writers really understand the Daleks, where as the Cybermen have been reduced to tin plated soldiers, looking for a good plot.  And with hindsight, they always were.

 

Anyway my recent thoughts were about how and why the Cybermen had become my favourites back then, especially when there was so little of them on screen for so long.  And we are going back to a time before the internet, video and with little or no repeat of old shows on any of the two BBC channels. How then did they even feature in my younger life.

 

How indeed...

 

Revenge of the Cybermen 1975

 



1975

1975

 

 

1975

 

1976

 

1977

 

1977

1978

 

1978

 

1979

 

Black Legacy - Comic strip 1980

 

Deathworld - comic strip 1980

Throwback - Soul of a Cyberman comic strip  (1980)

 

1981

Earthshock in 1982

 

And there you have it; they were hiding in plain sight.   Interesting though how almost no two are quite the same and at least half are not the correct version for the story they are meant to be illustrating.  And yet the Cyber brand is clearly identifiable and strong enough to carry the race's reputation across the decade.

 

Steve

UFO books of the 70's

 1977                                                               1978

1976                                                             1976

Phase IV by Barry N Malzberg (1973)

"ebay - delivering the past to the present since 1995"...  Or at least that's how I think of it!

 

As mentioned a few days ago, I decided to order Barry N Malzberg's tie-in of the film Phase IV after many years of just not getting round to it.  It only arrived today so I've not started into it yet but I understand there is a variation to the ending.  I will report back here with my thoughts and observations, once read.

Of course its worth remembering that back in 1973, the novelisation would have been the only way to relive the film, which was obviously also true for other movies and TV shows.  I bought and read a lot of tie-ins as a kid and really enjoyed them.  Sometimes it was even a way to "see" an 18 certificate film, when you were too young to sneak into the cinema - Such as Alien, to name the first one that comes to mind.

 

With the advent of Video, DVD,  Blu-ray and Digital Download we can now have those films on hand and on repeat almost any time.  As such this kind of fiction has all but gone which is a shame.  As a generalisation they are usually quite exciting and an easy read.  And that certainly helped me begin to enjoy reading when the school-selected titles were doing their very best to provoke the opposite.

 

 

Steve

Look-in #3 (1972)

The cover star is Catweazle, an eccentric 11th century wizard who accidentally travels through time to the year 1969.  And the competitions are all about the Apollo moon missions.  Magic and rocket science in equal billing.  This is 1972.

 

 

Steve

The Prince in Waiting Trilogy by John Christopher. Cover art by Stephen Lavis (1981)

1970

1971

 

1972

 

First published dates are beneath each of the images however these are the very handsome 1981 Puffin Books editions with cover art by Stephen Lavis.  John Christopher famously wrote the Tripods trilogy of course along with a great many other books for both children and adults.  I've read more of the latter than the former and didn't buy these until recent years.  However I do remember seeing them in the kids section of most bookshops around that time as well as featuring in the School's Bookworm book sales.  They are gorgeous, aren't they.  For me, Lavis is right up there, along with Heslop, as a leading cover star of the day.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham - Penguin edition (1980)

The Day of the Triffids.  John Wyndham - Penguin edition 1980

Art by Peter Lord

 

I'll be somewhat controversial now and say that John Wyndham has suffered from some fairly awful cover designs on his books over the years.  This one by Peter Lord I really like and, for the most part, the rest of the Wyndham back catalogue that I collected through the early 1980's. More on those later.

We'll also be back to look at Triffids - the walking, stinging  plant creatures - in more detail in future blogs because although the book its self was published in 1951, I grew up with a comic strip (1975), a movie (1962) shown on TV in the 1970's, as well as the 6 part BBC TV adaption (1981).  Triffids were everywhere back then, including any household or garden containing an unexpectedly large or troublesome plant that seemed to bare a grudge!
 

 

I quite like the 3rd cover of the 6 - that's by Mark Salwowski.  I've a little time for 1 and a little more time for 6 but  2, 4 and 5 are just jaw droppingly wrong.

 

 

Steve.

Children of Morrow - H M Hoover (1973)

Children of Morrow.  H.M. Hoover. Puffin Edition (1973)

Cover art Michael Heslop

 

I read this in 1980, selected from the school library.  I really liked it. Exciting and original, I thought although I had yet to read John Wyndham's The Chrysalids (1) at the time.  I did about a year later and found the latter to be a little derivative if I'm honest.  The truth of course is that The Chrysalids, predates Children of Morrow by almost two decades and so the opposite is actually true.

 

Fancying a re-read - or simply the possession of a piece of the past - I bought myself a copy a few years ago from off of that ebay place.  Stock photo images being what they are, it was actually the Beaver Books version (published 1975) that arrived and with an altogether different cover(2) from what I recalled!  It's by John Raynes and is very attractive in its own right - and somehow reminds me of Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout(3) - but it doesn't have standing stones or the lens flares painted on the cover so it didn't scratch the itch.  As such, I ended up seeking out another copy a bit later, once I was sure it was really the original Heslop design.

 

I've still not re-read it yet but when I do, I'll have two editions to choose from now.  Until then I'm happy to drink the whole adventure in through the eyes, and in stereo! Which is not so much a mixing of my metaphors as a blending of the senses, which is what great art should feel like. Yes?

 

We'll talk much more of Michael Heslop and John Wyndham in the future.  And of Nicolas Roeg, Walkabout and most probably standing stones as well.  Until then I'll address the one question I've so far left unanswered which is; which of the two similar books is best?  Well, I'll say this much: I own two copies of Children of Morrow but have only read it once, where as I own only one copy of The Chrysalids but have actually read it twice. - You do the maths!

 

 

Steve

 

 

(1)(2) (3)

Look-in #15 (1975)

 

 

 

Steve