I know nothing
When you have been with your partner for 38 years, you would think there wasn't too much you didn't know about them.
We were watching the English tv show Vera last night. The show is set in and around Newcastle in the north of England, where R hailed from. The scene was set in a pub.
R: I worked in that hotel. It was at the base of the High Level Bridge.
Me: Fascinating dearest. You've worked in so many places, it is a wonder you can remember.
R: Yes, my brother in law to be and me both worked there as we were saving to go to Butlins (a holiday camp of the most ghastly variety, but this is with hindsight) and of course that was where I met Cat Stevens. The hotel has changed........
Me: Stop! Now! What did you just say?
R: About meeting Cat Stevens?
Me: Yes, you've never told me that before?
R: Thought I had. Cat Stevens was Irish (I didn't know that) The pub was owned by an Irishman and he was a friend of Cat and he came to visit him once at the hotel and we were introduced.
Me: How come you have never told me this?
R: I thought I had. He was only semi famous then.
I used to find Cat Stevens so sexy before he became a weird religious Moslem nutter who agreed with murder of those critical of the prophet Mohammed. I am quite perplexed as to why I did not know R had met Cat Stevens.
We were watching the English tv show Vera last night. The show is set in and around Newcastle in the north of England, where R hailed from. The scene was set in a pub.
R: I worked in that hotel. It was at the base of the High Level Bridge.
Me: Fascinating dearest. You've worked in so many places, it is a wonder you can remember.
R: Yes, my brother in law to be and me both worked there as we were saving to go to Butlins (a holiday camp of the most ghastly variety, but this is with hindsight) and of course that was where I met Cat Stevens. The hotel has changed........
Me: Stop! Now! What did you just say?
R: About meeting Cat Stevens?
Me: Yes, you've never told me that before?
R: Thought I had. Cat Stevens was Irish (I didn't know that) The pub was owned by an Irishman and he was a friend of Cat and he came to visit him once at the hotel and we were introduced.
Me: How come you have never told me this?
R: I thought I had. He was only semi famous then.
I used to find Cat Stevens so sexy before he became a weird religious Moslem nutter who agreed with murder of those critical of the prophet Mohammed. I am quite perplexed as to why I did not know R had met Cat Stevens.
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Yes, the joys of a couple. "You never told me that"...
ReplyDeleteThere were a few over the years Jackie.
DeleteCat Stevens's real name was Steven Demetre Georgiou. Later he became Yusuf Islam. I wonder what name he will adopt next? Maybe Paddy O'Riley as Ray claimed he was Irish! He was about as Irish as Fred Flintstone. But God, the lad could sing and create special songs like "Father and Son".
ReplyDeleteYP, it's s prime example of why historians hate oral histories, as interesting and entertaining as they can be.
DeleteCat's in the Cradle was my favourite I think.
DeleteName dropper!
ReplyDeleteRay certainly wasn't JayCee, as it took him 38 years to mention it. I wrote about as soon as I heard about it, so I stand guilty.
DeleteMy partner loved Cat Stephen’s music. I hated it and then he went weird
ReplyDeleteShe still likes the music
I liked his early music, but took no notice of him when he went as you said, weird.
DeleteCat Stevens was dead sexy. And his voice, I loved it.
ReplyDeletePixie, I can't remember finding him attractive but in the last few years when I began seeing his old clips online, whoa, hot as.
DeleteLove to listen to Cat Stevens. I had an Aunt and Uncle married for 70 years.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very long time Dora. I hope you can make that.
DeleteMy first teenage love introduced me to Cat's music but I never knew about the musician's descent into madness. ~sigh~ It was only a few years ago that I learned my husband and his two older brothers were raised by a nanny.
ReplyDeleteDarla, it is curious that you didn't learn that much earlier. "Tell me about your Mom, husband".
DeleteMy husband the entire generations sense of humor while Michael has all the sense of nostalgia. He not only surprised me by reminiscing over their nanny, but recently grew super excited to find a store selling their late mother’s favorite candy, which I’d never heard of before in my life. lol You would have thought he’d won the lottery.
DeleteHe was quite good looking back then, but I never liked his music all that much, but didn't rush to turn off the radio when it played any of his songs.
ReplyDeleteHe was very handsome, River. I turn the radio off for country and western, high opera, most torch songs, heavy rap and raucous rock music. The rest I just turn down.
DeleteI reckon I'm just the right age for Cat Stevens as he was at his peak in Australia just when I was going through my early teens enthusiasm for popular music. Older friends of my big sister had Teaser and The Firecat and Tea for the Tillerman, which we listened to religiously at their place, poring over the lyrics. (Because my sister and one of those friends played the flute there was also quite a lot of Jethro Tull.) I actually bought with my very limited funds Catch Bull at Four. At about the time CS kind of shut up shop I had already I moved on from "popular" music of the sort you would hear on commercial music stations. Probably Billy Joel my last enthusiasm of that sort - and I'm totally over him now.
ReplyDeleteI still like CS's music from that period. He worked with a lot of good musicians. He's back-pedalled on the Islam stuff and claims he was backed into a corner with cunning questioning on the Fatwa issue. Maybe, or maybe also the zeal of the convert.
He always had a religious angle. I was at a religious school and the school chaplain trying to be groovy* got a lot of mileage out of "Morning has broken" (which was also playable by a young pianist, btw).
*He also hitched a lesson or two to Lennon's "Imagine."
Obviously never Irish!
You were more into him and music than I was MC. I can't remember the last of the limerick the verse that was around then. Something beginning...'Morning has broken. I have awoken. I've got a big b.....'. Now you've set me off with limericks.
DeleteI quickly find the metaphorical stop button if I begin to hear Piano Man or Uptown Girl.
I really hope I don't ever try to be groovy to young people. I remember how ridiculous certain words or phrases coming from older mouths sounded, even my mother using the word 'villean' in the 80s.
Kudos for "poring", most people write "pouring" and I cringe yet again.
DeleteI would not write pouring but I am not sure I know poring well. I think that is a word I would have to check. Pawing almost works.
DeletePawing is using the hands to "paw" through things, such as piles of clothes on bargain tables, "poring" is to intensely study through written works, while "pouring" is of course for pouring liquids from one container to another, also for powders such as laundry detergent, "pour a half cup" into the dispenser etc.
DeleteWow, he met Cat Stevens. I remember when he converted and I thought "shoot" cause I had liked his music and couldn't enjoy it anymore.
ReplyDeleteStrayer, yes, I was the same. I just wrote him off as history then.
DeleteWell that's interesting Andrew. Cat Stevens wasn't Irish, he was born in England. His father was Stavros Georgiou, was a Greek Cypriot.
ReplyDeleteHis mother, Ingrid Wickman, was Swedish. He grew up in London above the family restaurant.
Rather liked the look of him when he was young and his voice was certainly a little different.
Thanks for checking Margaret. Half Swedish makes him extra interesting. You could share a herring with him perhaps.
DeleteWelcome back. We all have untold stories.
ReplyDeleteThanks TP. I wonder what I forgot to mention? Too late now.
DeleteWe can never know everything about another person and it's good that we can still be surprised by them.
ReplyDeleteJB, like the parking fine receipt I found when sorting out paperwork that I was never told about.
DeleteGlad you are back, Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI was never a big CS fan but he sure looks good in that pic.
Thanks Pat.
DeleteHow cool that you met Cat Stevens! He is still one of my favorite musicians and songwriters. I don't think he's Irish, though -- he was born in London of a Cypriot father and a Swedish mother, if I remember correctly. Maybe he lived in Ireland at some point but I never heard that. Although he became religious, I think he eventually moderated some of his more extreme viewpoints. He went back to performing secular music, for example, which he didn't do for a long time.
ReplyDeleteOh, sorry -- I meant to say how cool that R met him, not that you did!
DeleteSteve, I wish it was me.
Delete