Remember "Billy Don't Be A Hero?"
Do you have an embarrassing song from your youth that marks your passage into the teen years that you sort of remember with fondness from time to time? I was reminded of mine last night while talking to my daughter about her favorite songs. Friends and family have always made fun of my taste in pop music--and I don't blame them. My song from when I was around 12 was "Billy, Don't be a Hero" performed by Paper Lace
and later by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods.
The song reminded me of all the brave soldiers who served in the war -- many of my classmates had older brothers who served in Vietnam. I used to have a record that I would play all day long for weeks, and then, one day, I lost interest. Today, I think of the song with fondness and from time to time, it goes through my head, despite my best efforts to get rid of it. If you are too young to remember the song or just too cultured to listen to such stuff, here is a clip of Paper Lace (from 1974) singing "Billy, Don't be a Hero." If you have one favorite song from your youth, what was it and why did you like it?
and later by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods. The song reminded me of all the brave soldiers who served in the war -- many of my classmates had older brothers who served in Vietnam. I used to have a record that I would play all day long for weeks, and then, one day, I lost interest. Today, I think of the song with fondness and from time to time, it goes through my head, despite my best efforts to get rid of it. If you are too young to remember the song or just too cultured to listen to such stuff, here is a clip of Paper Lace (from 1974) singing "Billy, Don't be a Hero." If you have one favorite song from your youth, what was it and why did you like it? Labels: dumb songs, nostalgia
posted by Helen at 8:37 AM
45 Comments:
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Brown Eyed Girl" by Van Morrison was my favorite for years and is still high on the list.
"Billy, Don't be a Hero" still brings a tear to my eye. My sister's boyfriend was killed in Vietnam plus a couple of other male friends. I barely knew the one of the guys but I still have the newspaper clipping of his death.
Dadvocate:
I also love Brown Eyed Girl. I think I also loved "Billy Don't be a Hero" when I was a kid because I wanted to join the military (Air Force) and be brave like Billy. Unfortunately, my dream of being a pilot didn't come through and my only hope of being brave is posting about my embarrassing choice of songs on a blog post. Oh well....
I would describe "Billy, Don't be a Hero" as kind of a bubblegum anti-war song. Not an angry song, but romantic and kind of wistful. There are dozens of folk songs with the same theme - young man goes off to war, his true love begs him to stay, he dies in battle, etc. Kind of a universal experience, I guess.
I'm familiar with the Bo Donaldson version. Didn't know Paper Lace did one. One of my guilty pleasures from the 70's is "The Night Chicago Died," also by Paper Lace. If you don't remember it, it's about a huge, winner-take-all shootout between Al Capone's gang and the Chicago Police Department. Never really happened, of course - but the song was cool anyway.
Anybody remember "Come and Get Your Love" by Redbone? That's Redbone the Native American rock group, not Leon Redbone the strange guitar picker.
Helen - sorry you didn't get to be a pilot. I wanted the same thing, mostly because my dad flew attack jets in the USMC. Now I'm a technical writer. Which is ok because it turned out I was not mentally equipped for military life. I think you have done well getting your PhD and helping people. It may not be as romantic as being a fighter jock, but it has greater longevity. At our age, a fighter jock's best years are already behind him and he's probably flying a desk. You, on the other hand, are probably just as capable of doing your chosen work as you were twenty years ago. I think my best years are still ahead of me.
*blush*
anything by Lou Christie
I'm better now
All those death songs - "Last Kiss," "Billy...," "Tell Laura I Love Her" - creeped me out.
My head is so full of bad pop songs it's a wonder I can function. The most embarrassing? Probably "I am Woman" by Helen Reddy. Ugh.
But music is so evocative. Whenever I hear Stevie Wonder's "My Cherie Amour" I am transported back to my hometown of Buffalo NY. Anything by The Fifth Dimension ("Up Up and Away") reminds me of tooling around in my sister's Corvair (unsafe at any speed) convertible when we were teens...
In junior high and high school I listened to James Taylor constantly. I was a lonely, shy kid and his music soothed my soul.
Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody".
My brother and I wore out the 45.
Kung Fu Fighting. The really embarrassing thing is that I still like it today.
I love "Brown Eyed Girl." It will always remind me of my Dad (I'm his only brown eyed girl as I have his eyes).
Anyway, as far as embarrassing goes, I would have to say "Karma Chameleon" by Culture Club. It was popular when I was very young (maybe five at most), and I have very fond memories of it.
Lindsey
That was 1974, wasn't it?
That was my second favorite song that year. My favorite was "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks.
My third favorite was "Rock me Gently" by Andy Kim.
I guess I had a taste for bubble gum in those days.
Stairway to Heaven, when it first came out around '74.
Now it's a tired, golden oldie. Back then it was magical. ;)
"Run Through the Jungle" by CCR, my unit adopted it as our theme song. I was but a pup of 18. Even today when I hear it the memories cascade as if it was yesterday.
"Runaway" by Del Shannon.
It struck me as tragically romantic in a way I didn't quite understand. Of course, I was only in the third grade when I first heard it.
I had a 45 of it. Another favorite of mine was the novelty song "The Ballad of Irving."
That was my second favorite song that year. My favorite was "Seasons in the Sun" by Terry Jacks.
That's one of my most hated songs. It came out about the time my father died and well, the song just sucks IMO. I don't know Terry but we have the same last name. I hope to God that we're not related.
I graduated high school in 1975. Our class song was "We May Never Pass This Way Again" by Seals and Croft. Compared to what passed as popular music in the 1970s, it didn't suck too bad. The 70s were not good years for popular music.
Oh my God....
I Want To Hold Your Hand (Beatles)
For Your Love (Yardbirds)
Truckin'-live version (Grateful Dead)
Watch Out Where the Huskies Go, and Don't You Eat That Yellow Snow (Frank Zappa) [I won't go into that one]
Tupelo Honey (Van Morrison)
Wild Night (Van Morrison)
King of the Road (Roger Miller)
As could everyone, I could go on forever. Songs are like scents. Like memory glue. Boy do they bring back the years. I have about ten years on most of you, it kinda shows.
You could do worse. How about Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road?
My junior high years coincided with the retro craze inspired by American Graffiti. So a lot of my guilty pleasure songs don't even properly belong to my era--Kathy's Clown, My Boyfriend's Back, A Thousand Stars. I also had a penchant for weepy folk songs I heard via my older brother--Leaving on a Jet Plane, For Emily Wherever I May Find Her, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, etc.
On the other hand, I remember listening to my little transitor radio and thinking that Al Green's "Call Me" was just about the best song I'd ever heard. And I'd still stand by that. So I didn't have uniformly awful taste in music.
I was an 80’s teen, so my songs are a little newer. I’m not making a crack at anyone’s age. One of the first songs I remember hearing was Journey’s, Don't Stop Believing. I lived in a small town and the local DJ played that song when the station signed off. Fast forward a few years. Bon Jovi had come out with Slippery When Wet. There’s a song on there called Never Say Goodbye. They played that at a friend’s funeral. I still think of him every time I hear it.
Uh, I listened to a lot of Rod McKuen songs and tended to give Rod McKuen poetry books to girls I was dating.
Sigh.
Also, "Wildfire" (horse lost in a snowstorm). ..bruce..
"Friends of Mine", or anything else by Burton Cummings. Add to that anything by Zappa and "Time of the Season" by Yardbirds.
Bugs: I like several anti-war songs. I like a lot of the stuff from the 1960s and 1970s probably because my dad played his music a lot. I know it was popular to oppose the Vietnam War at the time. Several I like include: "War" by Edwin Starr, "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire and
"Imagine" by John Lennon. I tend to feel the instruments are more powerful than the words.
I'm not really embarrassed about any music that I like. I remember about 10 years ago I was listening to a song by Sonny and Cher and my dad said my friends probably don't listen to that. I have the first Britney Spears cd. I like to rap to Eminem even though I am normally shy and not very talkative and I don't swear much.
"Father's Arms" by Daniel Amos, 1977. Even then my favorite memory was of being carried up the stairs by my dad after I fell asleep on the sofa. I woke up when he picked me up but pretended to stay asleep so he wouldn't put me down.
I'm not really embarrassed about any music that I like....I have the first Britney Spears cd.
That's OK, serket. The rest of us are embarrassed enough for you. No need to duplicate effort.
Truckin'-live version (Grateful Dead)
Great song. I don't know of any Grateful Dead albums I don't like. "Me and my Uncle" is wonderful as is "Big Boss Man" There's a live album with a fantastic drum solo.
To all,
Great, I've now spent the last hour on Youtube listening to most of the songs you have mentioned here. I'm pretty much overdosed on 70's and 80's music.
Soccer Dad,
I loved Andy Kim, "Rock Me Gently" was one of my favorite songs.
dadvocate, the live version I like so much is from the grateful dead live in europe 1972 album. Christ, I was already 20 in 1972.
American Beauty is a GREAT album.
"Touch of Gray", their one and only radio hit, was great tune. Then Garcia died and it was all over.
Don't want to argue, oligonicella, but "Time of the Season" is the Zombies. Circa 1970. Speaking of the Zombies,
"She's Not There" and "Tell Her No" were also great tunes.
Grizzly Bear (The Young Bloods)
The Kinks!
You really Got Me
All Day and All of the Night
Tired of Waiting
Good Vibrations (Beach Boys)
Unplug the Computer!
Hmm, I didn't really have any. My teenage years were the mid to late 90's, but I listened to classical only until about 13, then classical and oldies (KOMA in OKC) until about 18 or 19. I'll go with "I Am A Rock"... I was very much a loner in high school...college...today. As such, I still have my books and poetry to protect me.
I have a lot of songs on MP3 listed here, including Billy Don't Be a Hero, Seasons in the Sun and The Night Chicago Died. I even have Saturday Night (Bay City Rollers--big when I was in seventh grade.) Two of the silliest are Sweet's Fox on the Run and Ballroom Blitz, which are still fun to listen to (especially since the latter reminds me of the excellent TV series, Life on Mars.) None embarrass me, though my kids make fun of me for my eclectic collection (until I find the very same MP3s on their players.)
The only song in my collection that is truly horrific is William Shatner's Rocketman, which I keep for reasons unknown since I've listened to it once when I decided to listen to every song in my collection--it was almost unbearable.
Oh, I still don't have a copy of Richard Cheese's Last Resort. Need to rectify that.
(Writing this made me listen to my Monty Python collection. The Galaxy Song is playing as I write this.)
br549 --
No argument. As soon as I read that, I slapped my forehead. On Parrot labels.
Paul Revere and the Raiders 'Indian Reservation' probably takes first prize(now I'll have it stuck in my head today). Following close behind is 'The Eggplant That Ate Chicago', we sang that in the car till my parents went mad.
From high school? 'Magnet and Steel'(blush blush blush) LOL
Great topic, Dr. Helen!
Thanks for the memory nudge. I blogged about it, too, at www.dadscenter.org
But you're not doing what the flip side said....
Oh, can I just throw one thing out there? Since we're already talking about music?
I'm convinced American Culture will continue to degrade until any given person can go one freaking day without hearing Strawberry Alarm Clock somewhere.
Seriously. Just once I'd like to go to a mall, or a grocery store, or a Wendy's that didn't pipe the top 40 from 1967 over the public address system. It's time to move on.
Daddy Claxton,
"but you're not doing what the flip side said...."
What did the flip side say?
I think that Andy Kim was a member of the Archies.
And BTW, you might be interested in this.
The #1 song the the week I was born was "Please Mr. Custer."
"Good Morning Starshine" from hair. And I'll add that "Overprotected" off Britney's second album is one of my favorite songs, so you're not alone Serket.
I decided long ago not to give a damn what anyone thought of my music, and am proud to say I enjoy listening to pretty much *all* musical genres now.
Yes, it *is* kind of cool having my MP3 player go from Britney to George Strait to Megadeth to the Wicked soundtrack...
Dr. Helen, something tells me you were a big fan of **shudder** Muskrat Love too! :)
I'm evil, now that song will stuck in your head all day.
Difster,
No, I hate that song. Now it's stuck in my head, thanks a lot.
You mean the Captain and Tenille version or the America version? Not that there's that much difference, except Captain's obnoxiously cute little "mating muskrat" sound effects played on the synthesizer.
serket: Have to agree - there were some powerful anti-war songs back then. I was too young to feel the impact at the time, but I could appreciate them later. Have to disagree about 'Imagine,' but only because because I was never wild about John as a solo act. He jumped the shark before shark-jumping was recognized as an actual phenomenon. George was more my speed.
I've scoured iTunes for all the crap I used to listen to in the old days. What 70s music lacked in quality it made up for in strangeness. Anybody got "Convoy" or any other stupid CB radio songs on their iPod? "Get Dancin" by Disco Tex and the Sex-o-Lettes? "Star Wars Theme/Cantina Band" by Meco? "Shame, Shame, Shame" by Shirley & Company? Anything by Kermit the Frog? I'm wondering how we survived with our brain cells intact...
I didn't know America did a version of that song too. I shan't be seeking that out.
I will admit to a past fondness for Air Supply as a teen. If I hear it now though I nearly die of secret shame.
I thought America's version of "Muskrat Love" was far superior to Captain and Tenille's. Somehow it did not seem as cutesy to me.
Caught "Convoy" on the car radio recently. What a dumb song. My kids thought it was hilarious but they didn't understand any of it anyway.
America wrote it and also recorded it. Captain and Tenile "covered" it.
I never dreamed I would hear Bob Dylan in elevators. Hmmmm.... Like a Rolling Stone was a great tune too.
I'm trying to stick with stuff that "made it to the radio", so to speak.
Remember when "FM" radio was "underground radio"? Later on "Album Rock"?
Peace, man. Let's twist one up and light the fuse!
Copacabana. Played it over and over and over again.
If I'd switched to death metal chock full of subliminal messages persuading me to attempt suicide, my parents would've considered it an improvement.
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