Will you still love me tomorrow? (The Shirelles)

The white pebble is from Rishikesh -
thanks to friends Christine and Paul

Wie geht's?

Obsessed? Moi?

It may look like that from the outside (Jacky posed a question t'other day - You'd cut your arms and legs off to bring John Lennon back wouldn't you?) but on the inside The Beatles have been a constant powerful presence and loyal friends who've been alongside me since watching them on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 (my memories here as well plus a clip of I Want To Hold Your Hand). And they keep on showing up!

I'm not alone. It's also not my fault (okay - yes, my music rooms surround me with Fabs posters/prints and memorabilia such as in the above picture).

Mojo Magazine regularly have cover stories on them, books like Ian Leslie's John & Paul keep coming on a regular basis (I warmly recommend his book as it takes a fresh look at that seminal relationship - my playlist is here), records keep appearing (Anthology 4 is the latest) and their musical and cultural influence persists (I use the word Beatlesque to describe a lot of music on my music blog).

Imagine a world without The Beatles? No thanks.

Love and peace - Warren Ono Purdy

P.S. I Love You...erm...I mean - I'll always be true (to answer The Shirelles question).

I feel fine (The Beatles)

Wie geht's?

I'm fresh from watching The Beatles '64 on Disney+. It's a new documentary produced by Martin Scorsese and the current keepers of the Beatles flame (Sean, Paul, Olivia and Ringo).

Unashamedly, I got very emotionally involved as I watched because it touched on some core memories - of joy, wonder, love, shock, appreciation.

Memories I have written about before - especially around my reaction to the fabs appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

The documentary starts by putting The Beatles 1964 tour of America in context with a series of clips about John F Kennedy. He was assassinated on November 22, 1963 and The Beatles world tour reached America in August 1964.

I certainly remember the assassination, as the shock waves rippled their way to 18 Korma Ave., Auckland, New Zealand. A paper clipping was kept and the funeral images are seared into my brain.

The Beatles '64 world tour started in Denmark in June and went to The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, England, Sweden and back to England, before heading to America in August. Thirty concerts during those three months. They worked their socks off!

The documentary just concentrates on the American part because they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show twice and the world was never the same again.

As one interviewee says - the world was darkness, The Ed Sullivan appearance happened, and the light went on.

I loved the interviews, both archival and new.

Paul in '64 disagrees when an interviewer, trying to sum up the Beatles influence uses the term 'western culture'. Paul says, "It's not culture, it's a laugh".  

What I noticed again and again in the film were the smiling faces of the boys and their audiences, all the people having a laugh.

The Beatles unleashed a torrent of joy. One interviewee says the music touched her heart. She says, "I could relax".

I definitely felt that as I watched as they, impossibly young, performed on Ed Sullivan and in Washington, and reflected on how fate led me to the lounge at 18 Korma Ave., to watch their original appearance.

The awe is still there and I'm so grateful that my time on the planet has intersected with John Paul George and Ringo.

Love and peace - Wozza

Back then long time ago when grass was green (George Harrison)

Wie geht's?

This fantastic book was a gift from Jade, Chris and Asher. Yes, I may be an easy person to buy for, but still...

Around this time of the year (end of September, start of Rocktober) I always manage to get some fabulous Fab related items.

Even though I don't have a Beatles inspired tattoo (never going to happen) the lure of The Beatles never fades (unlike a tattoo).

So, thanks for keeping the streak going Jade! Love the gift!!

The only other one I have related to the 1964 tour of New Zealand is Eight Days a Week by Graham Hutchins. When We Was Fab (an echo of George's hit - When We Was Fab) is a much bigger book and full of great photos and exhaustive commentary on the Australian/New Zealand part of the 1964 tour.

It goes top of the to-be-read pile!

Love and peace - dad

Well my heart went 'boom' when I crossed that room (The Beatles)

 

Wie geht's?

Me? Slowly getting there - better each day. Thanks for asking.

The upside of living in Covid-ville is that the reading pile has been considerably reduced. Three books so far and halfway through the fourth.

This may come as something of a shock - but I quite like books about The Beatles. I have a few (some are pictured above) and I'm always keen on finding new ones.

Craig Brown's One Two Three Four is my latest acquisition and it's great! Mainly because he flits around with time - jumping into lovely anecdotes and offering some alternative realities (just like me and G Knowles esq - what if Paul hadn't failed Latin and therefore hadn't become friendly with the younger George Harrison at school?).

His research is top notch - I loved the background material on Jane Asher's family for instance. And his list of 1957's (a key year) neologisms include long playing records now being called 'albums'!

He turns the distance from the Beatles' evolution - some sixty to sixty-five years on now, into an advantage, so that he can forensically analyse the different witness statements from those who were there at key events. It's remarkable how different they all are, and how much the events morph over the years in people's heads.

Plus, and this is especially important, he interjects some excitement and personality into his musings, and I'll even forgive him this beast of a sentence and the non-use of a semi-colon after the colon.

If I could be any Beatle, at any time, I would be Paul in his Wimpole Street years, living with Jane, cossetted by her family, blessed by luck, happy with life, alive to culture, adored by the world, and with wonderful songs flowing, as if by magic, from my brain and out through the piano: 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'I'm Looking Through You', 'The Things We Said Today', 'And I Love Her', 'We Can Work It Out', 'Here, There and Everywhere', 'Yesterday'.

He makes a great point here. 

By the way, Paul McCartney was aged 21 to 23 during this time (1963 to 1965). Extraordinary!

Love and peace - Wozza

I've got a feeling, I think that everybody knows (The Beatles)

Happy 30th to DLG

Wie geht's?

Thanks to Peter Jackson and Jade Purdy the weekend was a super lovely one. 

We celebrated Jade's 30th birthday with her on Sunday. BTW I love that photo above - beautiful!

This means the Purdettes pictured below are all now in their thirties. As a mate said to me recently - who would have thought we'd have children in their thirties? Feels strange given I still feel 22 inside but there you go.  

And Peter Jackson? Well, there are no words of gratitude adequate enough.

I watched the three episodes of Get Back over three days with a permanent grin. The culmination of the rooftop concert makes even more sense as a climax now. Maybe even Macca will agree with that - at the time he was really unsure about the roof as a venue - he was aiming for a more conventional audience.

I loved it and I'll be watching it again.

That brings to an end, for now, celebrations of the original Let It Be album and film. Phew - records, book and the three Get Back episodes. 

Job done!

Love and peace - Warren Ono Purdy

That was 'I Dig A Pygmy' by Charles Hawtrey and the Deaf-Aids! (John Lennon)

Wie geht's?

The Beatles Get Back book was supposed to be released back on Oct 15 but it was delayed, delayed, delayed.

I kept ringing Whitcoulls because I figured they'd get it the same time as the online providers and I'd rather buy local if I can. So, I kept bugging them. And bugging them.

Eventually, on Monday I figured enough was enough so I searched for it on The Book Dispository, Fishpond and Mighty Ape - all of which I've used successfully before. 

Mostly the price was $90, although the highest was $143 for some reason (on Mighty Ape I think). Okay - but the delivery times were all 15 plus days away - from around Nov 26 onwards.

So again, I looked for it on the Whitcoulls site. They had it for $90 and were promising a 3 to 10 day delivery.

This is stoopid I thought - so I rang them figuring if it was only 3 days, they should have a copy soon at the Hastings store.

I rang and the shop assistant said, "Just a sec, I look it up on the computer". A few minutes drift on by and she comes back all bright and breezy and says, "We actually have a copy! We'll hold it for you".

"I'll be right there", says I - a nano second later - I'm handing over my loyalty card and getting $5 off the purchase price!

Jolly hockey sticks! At last!! 

I exited the shop (masked of course) holding the book aloft with two hands, punching the air like Rocky Balboa. YEEEEES!!

Now I just need to hook up Disney Plus to my device for the 6 hour Peter Jackson extravaganza. Sheer bliss.

I hope it's easier to do than obtaining the book has been.

Love and peace - Wozza

No, you can't stop the music, nobody can stop the music. Tell the sun don't shine, stop Old Father Time 'cause that's easier to do (Village People)

Wie geht's?

It's the last week of Term 3 - the winter term in New Zealand.

The week, our second with new brother and sister duo Roland and Stevie pictured above, got off to a flyer yesterday with Arsenal beating North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur 3 goals to 1. After a dire start to the season this win was a real tonic.

Aside from that the records I ordered some weeks ago from Auckland stores during the level 4 lockdown have finally arrived!!

And, in other news: I've pre-ordered my copy of The Beatles Let It Be - 5oth anniversary deluxe 5 record boxed set. It's due out around October 15th so I have a few weeks to wait impatiently.

I'm really really looking forward to this and Peter Jackson's six hour Get Back documentary later in November.

Aside from that - we now have three days left before we head off for a two week break - hoping to get to New Plymouth to visit Vinyl Countdown and...something else...what is it? Oh yes, and the in-laws!!

Love and peace - Wozza

If they make Tony Adams captain we could all go screaming in the park (Joe Strummer)

In one of my happy places

Wie geht's?

For the most part, I'm a happy sort of bloke. A colleague and I were discussing happiness recently and she offered to lend me some of Gretchen Rubin's books.

These are The Happiness Project and The Four Tendencies (which I'll write about in the Baggy Trewsers blog).

Why am I generally a happy bloke? 

According to current research cited in Gretchen's book - its mainly about your genetics, so I have my parents to thank for 50% of my predelection for happiness (age, gender, ethnity, marriage status, income, health, occupation, religious affiliation make up to 20% and the other 30% is a product of how I think and act).

So thanks to Dulcie and Graham, Jacky Purdy (she's beautiful inside and out), and me - I'm a happy bloke. 

It also helps that I'm a teacher on a good wage who lives on a few acres in the country with no neighbours to speak of.

I'm pretty sure my other 30% comes from my love of music (15%) and English (reading and writing - 15%).

Here are the things that are currently adding to my happiness:

• It's autumn (I LOVE autumn) and we had our first frost yesterday (so good!)
• Music and reading (on the day I wrote this post I finished a Desmond Bagley adventure story, started another Anne Tyler novel, dipped a toe into The Happiness Project while listening to Brand X albums in the warmth of our Garden Room while the dogs slept at my feet)
• Writing (I worked on some posts to four of my blogs)
• I enjoy menial tasks like hanging out washing, picking up horse poo, baiting rat traps (rats don't like winter so they start casting around for some warmer lodgings)
• Following Arsenal F.C. - we play Liverpool overnight so I'm forever hopeful (if they lose I'll be momentarily less happy)
• Looking at my record collection and posting photos on the Facebook vinyl group I belong to (the Brand X live album is great so I needed to share that today)
• Listening to MNAC albums and writing about them (Herman Dune was the latest band I never would have discovered without Alex, Lew and Tom's input) 
• Seinfeld (the show - it figures in my daily life in many ways - quotes come to mind and Pinterest groups have stills that instantly make me smile)
• The Beatles posters in my music room (as well as my other decorations in there - they bring me joy everytime)
• Watching Asher interact with his mum and us (Papa and Mema) is a real source of happiness!

Love and peace - Wozza

The long chain of gold that binds me.

Wie geht's in your lockdown bubble?

These are memorable days! Or are they?

I'm going to riff on this for a few posts (probably, or it could just be this one - that's the way I roll).

This idea was prompted by a great passage in, erm, Great Expectations. Here's Pip:

That was a memorable day to me, for it made great changes in me. But, it is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

Pause.

Iron or gold, thorns or flowers: I have so many memorable day examples to draw upon it's not funny, but I'm going to narrow it down to three major gold links in the chain, without which my life would have been much different:

1 The day I watched the Ed Sullivan Show and a group called The Beatles came on and blew my socks off (not literally but they rocked my world for evermore). 

Place and time - our lounge at 18 Korma Ave., Royal Oak, NZ. Although the show happened originally in February 1964, it didn't reach NZBC until many months later.

Picture me - age 7, alone in front of our black and white set. Mesmerised by John Lennon.

Without that seminal experience my obsession with music in general, and The Beatles in particular wouldn't have happened.

2 The day I attended an interview at Mt Albert Grammar in late 1970, and answered Mr Hall's question, "Do you have a career in mind for when you leave school?" by saying, "Yes, I want to become a teacher'. 

Picture me, as an out-of-zone applicant from Manukau Intermediate - age 12.

Without that response, and if I'd failed at that interview - no teaching career, and consequently no number 3 below. 

Luckily, my dad was a MAGS old boy so I got an out-of-zone place and no one there ever tried to dissuade me from my goal - even though I failed everything!

3 The day in December 1982 when the Headmaster at New Plymouth Boys' High School, Tom Ryder, rang me at home (4 Ramelton Rd., Mt Roskill South) and asked me a few questions and then said a telegram was coming offering me a job!

Picture me - age 25, off and running in my first teaching job.

Without this day I would never have met Jacky, our four children and one grandchild wouldn't exist and the world wouldn't be spinning correctly on its axis.

Love and peace - Wozza

Here come old flat top - he come groovin' up slowly (The Beatles)

Wie geht's?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Very true.

Last night, I unpacked my new turntable - Edwards Audio Apprentice 77, new Denon amplifer, new Dali speakers, and new copy of The Beatles' Abbey Road.

Combined, it's a thing of beauty. I watched it do it's magic throughout side 1 before I figured the neighbours above and below might be getting a tad twitchy.  

Oh, and Come Together still sounds like pure joy.

Love and peace - Warren Ono Purdy

Don't ever let anyone steal your dreams (Dexter Yager)

Wie geht's?

Walking towards The Emirates on the weekend, I spied a HiFi shop on Holloway Road. Bartletts HiFi to be precise.

With LOML egging me on, I walked out with some great new kit - Denon amplifer, Edwards turntable and some classy speakers. 

So, now I needed to find a vinyl copy of Abbey Road. My quirky ritual for any new stereo set up (moving house for instance) is to play my vinyl copy to test the sound.

Can't beat that moment when needle hits vinyl and Come Together rolls out its magnificence.

Chaldon Books and Records had a second hand copy for 30 quid but I figured - new stereo equals new copy. Luckily, yesterday, Fives on the Broadway in Leigh-on-sea had a fresh, remastered edition for 22 pounds. 

Back of the net.

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. The Arsenal walloped Spurs 4-2 in the afternoon to cap off a perfect day!

I'm not expecting to grow flowers in a desert but I can live and breathe and see the sun in wintertime (Big Country)

Outer layer: Likes and dislikes (blame my relentless positivity).

Over the years my love of Star Wars, Arsenal, and The Beatles has been a constant feature and a neat shorthand for getting to know Wozza, the teacher.

It's easy to spot - I have a huge number of posters, T shirts and ties promoting each of the big three.  

In reality my love of music is way deeper than one band (albeit the best band ever). And I appreciate a wide range of movies, TV shows and art. Yes, I am a follower of Arsenal FC but football for me also means Brazil, the dutch team from the 70's, my own playing career, Rochdale, the culture of British football and so on. 

I also support the NZ All Blacks, the Golden State Warriors/the Giants of SF and the Steelers of Pitsburgh. I love many types of literature and...I could go on...it gets complicated and people don't wait around for complicated generally. Attention spans and all that.

So you see - I've used the trio of loves to add distinctiveness to my brand and it's been very successful.

For this, my first post on that onion layer (see previous post) I'll return to my journal from 2005 to provide some specificity.

The 'I love...' list at the back of my 2005 journal summarises things I'd written about during the year:

• The weather
• The Houses
• 28 Victoria Road, Leigh-on-sea
• Scottish borders
• The trains
• The underground
• People (staff) at school - King John
• The Guardian newspaper
• The Times
• Weather forecasts
• Snow
• Walking - Southend/Hadleigh Castle/ Hockley Woods
• Leigh-on-sea shops at night
• London sun
• Fopp

All smiles!

Picking one at random - here's an excerpt from 2 January about the Scottish borders:

The border area remains a real favourite of mine. We stopped at the English/Scottish border - huge winter winds/ a rain shower and gathering gloom from impending night and the mists made this a real highlight!

I can't help it. I much prefer autumn and winter to the heat of summer. Gloomy days and early darkness have a lot of appeal. Particularly when allied to the warmth of English houses and pubs.

What does all this say about me? And how does it add to my brand?

Much like everyone, I'm multi-faceted and full of contradictions. But I know what I like.

Next up: middle layers - political views, social attitudes and so on.

Love and peace - Wozza

How could I fail to be inspired so hotly said (Mervyn Peake)

My life was empty, forever on a down, until you took me, showed me around. My life is free now, my life is clear.*

Love and peace - Wozza

btw - the pebble from Rishikesh is courtesy of Paul and Christine Ryan and * is from Sweetleaf by Black Sabbath.

It took me years to write, will you take a look? (The Beatles)

Week 6 - Book 6: Read The Beatles (Edited by June Skinner Sawyers)  

Watching the English (book 5) turned into hard work and that means it took me nearly two weeks to read. I don't like that feeling - that reading is tough work. 

I should have stopped really but I was half way through it and past the point of no return. So it turned into a bit of a chore to finish. Hate that.

But as Mary Chapin Carpenter says - I take my chances! No remorse, no regrets.

Coincidentally, although kinda apropos nothing as well - my Seinfeld calendar for today has the following George quote: I got news for you, it it wasn't for the toilet, there would be no books.

Ahem, on to the next - I bought Read The Beatles last year, during a visit to see Jade in Palmerston North. We went for lunch and I had a minute to browse a bookshop. I walked out with this compendium of 'classic and new writings on The Beatles'.

A slight misnomer - it's divided into two parts - half the book is made up of writings on the Beatles, the other half is called 'Apart' and features writing about the Beatles' solo years.

I have quite a lot of this material already but it's fun to have in one edition and to read again. The foreword by Astrid is pretty cool too!

Sad and OCB? Mmm - probably.

Love and peace - Wozza

This shirt is just an old faded piece of cotton shining like the memories inside those silver buttons (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

When I visit Patrick and Randy's Ferntower north residence, I always marvel at the collection of shoes and jackets and bags and other stuff in their massive walk in wardrobe.

I can't compete. Except when it comes to T shirts. Then, sorry boys, I win hands down!

This weekend SWMBO and I finished converting a useless office space in the centre of the house (yes - centre) into a walk in wardrobe/ linen area. 

Jacky has some of her shoe collection organised in there (she has a lot of shoes) and I have a corner for my shirts.

A casual look will reveal my passionate devotion to football - both national sides like Brazil, Qatar and, of course Arsenal F.C., and Rochdale F.C.

Yes, okay - mainly Arsenal shirts - from 1971 replicas. and from 1990s onwards - home and away shirts and other  Arsenal themed casual attire.

But wait there's more. There are Star Wars, Hard Rock Cafe, Beatles, John Lennon, All Blacks, Seinfeld T shirts, and loads of others.

Over the last few years, they've been scattered about in various draws in our houses. Now my own golden boys have been collected up into a nice quiet corner of our brand spanking walk in wardrobe.

Nice.

Love and peace - Wozza

P.S. Jerry understands!

Everybody's saying that music is love (David Crosby)

Music is love (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 7, part 1: The Sixties)

Very 'umble - my whole collection in the early days -  the first 12 albums and singles

Everybody's saying that music is love, 

Everybody's saying it's love, 

Yeah everybody, everybody, everybody 

Everybody's saying that music is love, 

Everybody's saying it's love, yeah.

In keeping with the order from my original autobiography (copyright 1992) we have reached chapter 7: Music is love.

I love music. I can't live without it. Music is love.   
Some of my earliest memories centre around music, whether it be on television, radio, films, or records, and many of those memories gather around The Beatles.

Let's start at the beginning shall we?

Dad built our first TV from a kit set. He was an early adopter and he loved electronics so we had television from the early sixties onwards. 

The Ed Sullivan Show was a regular on the one black and white NZBC channel available. To this day I can picture my eight year old self kneeling on the floor, elbows leaning against a coffee table in our lounge at 18 Korma Avenue, Royal Oak, Auckland. Gaze fixed on the TV in the right hand corner.

After Mr Sullivan did his introduction, a band came on and ripped up my old life and started me on an obsession that is ongoing.

Ladies and gentlemen - The Beatles...screams...the band steps up...oh my God - the lead singer...Oh yeah I...

...and I'm gone. Lost in a moment. Totally. Irrevocably. A John Lennon fan for evermore. A Beatle obsessive forever.




This was my Heartbreak Hotel moment. John immediately stood out for me. Johnny Rhythm - the smart one, the caustic one, the dreamer, the honest one.

If ever there was a seminal moment, this was it!

That I watched in awed silence, alone, was symbolic of my remoteness. Ross and my parents never shared my hell bent fervour for rock'n'roll. Nor does Jacky. Curious.

For the rest of the sixties, music came to me via my dad's records, television shows like Ed Sullivan's and local variations like C'mon, and the radio. 

Jazz and easy listening sounds were my sixties soundtrack for most of the time. Herb Alpert, Sergio Mendes, Big Band swing and Dave Brubeck were there long before T Rex, Slade, Zeppelin, Sabbath and Purple took over.

In these early days, we had a radiogram type device before dad upgraded equipment. As well as being an early adopter, he was what is now termed an audiophile. It was all about the quality! He built amps, bought new turntables and speakers on a regular basis. Whatever was new! Thank God.

Later, he would build my amps and make speakers for me to go with my Garrard SP25 Mk3 turntable.

Radio Hauraki and later on, 1ZM, were life savers. They provided the signposts to going further out into the musical cosmos. I discovered so many new sounds - progressive stuff, and deep cuts. Sadly radio is no longer the force it was. Now it's niche marketing and, too often, blandness. Then it was less is more, and, therefore, different, and vital to my musical education.

Many highlights for me growing up were musical in nature: hearing Yellow Submarine on Hauraki; seeing the Let It Be movie posters in cinemas; having the Do The Bluebeat single by Dinah Lee; and seeing a promo for the Woodstock movie.

John Lennon was the total package throughout these pre teen years. 

I admired his creativity, intelligence, ability to articulate his feelings, and the ability to cut through his own persona and myth with self deprecating humour. I came to admire other things about him too - how he confronted his masculinity and how caring and loving he was to Yoko. Certainly, he made mistakes and opened himself up to ridicule, but that just made me love him more. 

I know this is crazy talk, but I feel, no doubt like millions of others, that I connected personally with him. He touched our lives so profoundly; his loss is still felt, and always will be.

I not only collected records, but... I also took pictures of them!

I was about 12 when I got my first real records. From a mixture of sources: Christmas presents (1970's Hey Jude - The Beatles); twisting mum's arm at the new food market in Three Kings (1967's Pisces Aquarius Capricorn and Jones Ltd - The Monkees/ 1969's The Autumn Stone - the Small Faces/ 1968's Best of The Cowsills); and the RCA record club (1969's Santana).

My collection slowly built up.

It wasn't until the seventies that I collected back catalogue items from my favourites, and much, much later that I compiled a number of sixties albums and singles that now make my top picks.

And so, here it is, my first list - my top 20 picks of the sixties!

1 The Beatles – The Beatles (1968)
When I was a teenager, I finally caught up with this. We were living in Asquith Avenue in the mid seventies and I played this album endlessly in the front lounge while we were there. It instantly conjures up sunny, carefree days in Mt Albert.

2 Revolver – The Beatles (1966)
Hearing Yellow Submarine on the radio in the back yard of Korma Ave is a distinct memory. Smart move by the Fabs - a kids' song that hooked us kids!

3 Electric Ladyland – Jimi Hendrix (1968) 
In the 4th form I was lent a single of Hey Joe b/w Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) by Clive Webber. I'm pretty certain he's totally forgotten about that but I never will. Wow - especially the B side. This guy sounded dangerous. And huge!

4 Abbey Road – The Beatles (1969)
I remember going to a friend's place, a birthday party and trip to a movie, and his big sister had the Come Together single playing. I looked at the label - an apple. AN APPLE!!! The sound was amazing and the graphic design stunning. I wanted more!

5 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin
(1969)
My first Zeppelin experience came from III, bought in Onehunga. Instantly, I was a fan - taking cuttings from Groove magazine. Then I backtracked via II, to the debut. My parents hated it!

6 Crosby Stills and Nash – Crosby Stills and Nash (1969)
Dad would often be Mr Fixit for friends' Hi Fi issues. I remember him working on a friend's car - something to do with the 8 track cartridge player. I remember seeing the cartridge for this and Who's Next in the car - and thinking how cool the covers were. The music seemed impossibly cool as well.  

7 Woodstock – Various (1969)
I've already mentioned the promo which grabbed my interest, my other memory of this involves aching over the price of the triple LP boxed set in Woolworths (at Three Kings Plaza in Auckland). It seemed so exotic and kind of subversive, and so so out of reach!

8 Santana - Santana (1969)
As pictured at the start of this post. This came from a record club. Dad bought it but I quickly 'borrowed' it and thrashed it! Soul Sacrifice, as performed at Woodstock, and here, is an immense sound. No way can I sit still while this is playing!

9 Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band – The Beatles (1967) 
On one of our family holidays to 
Sydney I spotted the gatefold cover in a store - I was too young to actually buy it, but I still vividly remember that moment. I wanted it badly, but I didn't have enough pocket money saved.

10 Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys (1966)

The Beach Boy singles in the sixties sound tracked our summers via Radio Hauraki. I didn't really appreciate how much until I bought some of their albums from Marbecks when I worked there (much more on this in the second seventies post). I love all the double vinyl sets I bought from Marbecks - this one came with Smiley Smile.

11 Hot Rats – Frank Zappa (1969) 
Crucially, cousin Christine was/is a few years older than me, and lives in the UK. In those days the UK was like Mars - it was impossible to imagine ever being there. She introduced me to this album via It Must Be A Camel (I had some later Zappa albums already but this just seemed too wacky for me in 1969).

12 Let It Bleed – The Rolling Stones (1969)
Ah, the Stones. In the sixties I was much taken with Get Off Of My Cloud on the radio (and Paint It Black). I loved those songs but it was The Beatles that won out over The Rolling Stones. When I started at Marbeck's, Roger educated me to the back catalogue items.

13 II – Led Zeppelin (1969)
I can't hear this without thinking of the Ramelton Road games room where I did my art and designed countless T shirts from silk screen stencils.

14 Highway 61 Revisited – Bob Dylan (1965)
It took until my university years to fully appreciate Dylan via Greg Knowles. Dylan just didn't touch my consciousness in any way during the sixties. I was too young and naive.

15 The Doors – The Doors (1967)

Like Dylan, I didn't know much about Jim Morrison or the Doors in the sixties. It took hearing Riders On The Storm on my mum's car radio, their The Mosquito single, and Apocalypse Now - all that and working at Marbecks - to really educate me to the splenders of The Doors.

16 Beatles For Sale – The Beatles (1964)
This was one of my first buys after Hey Jude.

17 Sweetheart of the Rodeo – The Byrds (1968)
Another band I didn't know until the seventies, although I must have heard their stuff on the radio.

18 Big Brother and the Holding Company – Cheap Thrills (1968)
And another. Working at Marbecks beefed up my collection hugely!

19 Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn and Jones Ltd – The Monkees (1967)
One of the 12 first albums in that picture above - this one came from watching their amazing television show, and hearing the hits on the radio throughout the sixties.

20 Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere – Neil Young (1969)

I got completely hooked on the extended Crosby, Byrds, Stills, Nash, Hollies, Young, Buffalo Springfield, Manassas, Crazy Horse universe in the seventies, largely thanks to Roger Marbeck's influence (much more on that in future posts).

Love and peace - Wozza