1968: a year the innocence died. It was, I’ve since learned, the year when the final of the classic Warner Brothers cartoons were made. No more Merrie Melodies, Looney Tunes, Speedy Gonzales or Daffy Duck. What’s Up Doc? I’ll bloody well tell you what’s up – who made that bloody stupid decision?
Calm, calm, calm.
Those were the staples of my childhood. It didn’t matter if I’d seen them a hundred times – the same with Tom & Jerry. As soon as the opening bars of the theme tune were heard, I was in front of them like a shot. Thankfully British TV stations repeated them throughout my youth and then VHS took over – I never was a Betamax kinda guy – leaving me free with my guilty secrets.
Forgot the remakes; I’ll be honest, they aren’t anything to do with the past, beyond trading in on a loose trade-in with originals. You can call it Baby Bugs, Looney Tunes Babies, all you want; it’s nothing more than cashing in.
I can feel my blood pressure rising as I’m typing.
1968. What a year. Actually, I don’t know if it was or not; I didn’t even place my memory in this particular year but I do remember falling out of the caravan door. It was pitched, before you ask. And no, there wasn’t a jealous sibling in sight.
Personally, I think I’d overdone it on the milk and rusk but no-one can quite verify that. Farley’s Rusks; there’s a parents’ guilty pleasure. The first time you buy them for your kids, you have to try one to see if your memory of them is as good as the reality. It is…
Anyway, today’s playlist is the one the younger me would have been guided toward were the older me to have any say in the matter.
As ever, if the playlist doesn’t show below, it can be opened in your browser here.
Tracklisting:
| Band | Song |
| Booker T. & the M.G.’s | Soul Limbo |
| Martha Reeves & The Vandellas | Nowhere To Run |
| Deep Purple | Hush |
| The Byrds | Tribal Gathering |
| The Zombies | Time Of The Season |
| Aretha Franklin | I Say a Little Prayer |
| Otis Redding | Nobody Knows You [When You’re Down And Out] |
| Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell | You’re All I Need To Get By |
| The Kinks | Last of the Steam Powered Trains |
| The Beatles | Helter Skelter |
| The International Submarine Band | Sum Up Broke |
| Buffalo Springfield | On The Way Home |
| Traffic | Pearly Queen |
| The Impressions | This Is My Country |
| Scott Walker | Jackie |
| Sly & The Family Stone | Dynamite |
| The Bonzo Dog Band | Can Blue Men Sing The Whites |
| Diana Ross & The Supremes | Love Child |
| Sam & Dave | Wrap It Up |
| The Box Tops | People Gonna Talk |
| Dillard & Clark | Out On The Side |
| The Herd | Miss Jones |
| The Who | Magic Bus |
| The Rolling Stones | Street Fighting Man |
| Eddie Floyd | Big Bird |
