PoP WRITING PROMPT

The Great 1964 Back To School Playlist

A 7-year-old who loved one of music’s greatest years

I’m confused. In some of the responses to this writing prompt on School Year Music, some US writers have referred to a mysterious expression — ‘The Freshman Year’.

I have no idea what this means as when you’re at school, you’re a boy, not a man. And in southeast England where I went to school, to be fresh is slang to mean to make sexually-charged innuendos to someone and I thought this was a family publication.

And does that also mean there’s a Freshwoman year? I would hope there’s also a sexually-charged innuendo year for women too as otherwise it’s not really fair, is it?

I could Google Freshman but there’s no point as I’ll never go to school again and if I did for some bizarre reason, it is unlikely to be in the USA so it’s a superfluous fact and my brain is unable to retain too much these days. I need the little memory space that remains to store the chord sequences to Promised Land and Thunder Road.

I suppose if there was such a thing as reincarnation I’d go back to school again in my new life but since it’s reincarnation, I wouldn’t remember I’d Googled Freshman in the previous life so there’s still no point.

And I probably wouldn’t be reincarnated in the USA but in England again. Or maybe France. Possibly Argentina. But then I’d be either un Homme Frais or un Hombre Fresco.

Or I might come back as a beetle so I wouldn’t be able to read at all or subscribe to Medium so the word Freshman would pass me by along with all language. I’d prefer to come back as a Beatle but that’s been done which brings me to my chosen school year of 1964 when these boys were at the top of the world.

I’ve chosen this year for my back-to-school playlist to avoid writing about being fresh in this family-friendly Medium publication because at 7 years old I thought babies were found at the bottom of the garden having been delivered there by a stork with a sling in its mouth.

There was, therefore, no chance of any sexual thought at all as I didn’t even know what it was.

So here are my choices not from a Fresh Man but from an Innocent Boy and it’s why I didn’t choose a year between 1971 to 1973 when I was, most definitely, a Fresh Youth.

Tell Me Why — The Beatles

In 1964, The Beatles released the greatest film the world has ever seen and one of the greatest albums of all time — A Hard Day’s Night. This album happens to be one of my joint favourite albums along with most of their other albums and about six Springsteen albums.

My dad took me to see the film when it came out despite being convinced The Beatles were the Devil’s chosen vanguard for the end of Western civilisation. The Rolling Stones came a little after and were the stormtroopers.

As kids, my mates and I stood on the school steps in 1964 belting out all the latest songs but mostly Beatles. I was John Lennon, the first of my music heroes.

Everyone knows the Hard Day’s Night title track and the other mega-indredibleicious single Can’t Buy Me Love so I’m going with a lesser-known song although the term lesser-known is relative when it comes to The Fabs. An album track like this would have been a mega-ginormous №1 for anyone else below their Messiah status which was everyone.

Bits And Pieces — The Dave Clark 5

Londoners DC5 were bigged up for a time by the UK press as rivals to the Messiahs. The press write those stupid things to sell newspapers.

DC5 were, however, pretty damn good and Bits and Pieces was one of the pretty damndest goodest of pretty damn good songs they released.

We used to stamp our feet and sing this one in the playground during the school breaks and between Beatles songs. I switched to being Mike Smith for this as he looked a bit like Paul McCartney and had a great voice.

No girls were allowed in our group though. I wasn’t fresh in 1964, remember?

Over You — Freddie and The Dreamers

Freddie and the Dreamers were bundled in with the Merseybeat sound of the sixties but actually came from Manchester, 35 miles east of Liverpool.

Their music was pretty good but Freddie, and to a lesser extent The Dreamers, were mad. Freddie’s stage act consisted of outrageous dance routines that bore little relation to the rhythm of the song.

And as a seven-year-old music lover, this was brilliant. Just watch the video for several seconds for Freddie to get into the swing. Wonderful.

I Only Want To Be With You — Dusty Springfield

Along with another British singer called Susan Maugham, I had a seven-year-old crush on Dusty. And she had a string of wonderful soulful hits and this was possibly the best of them all.

Maybe I was a bit more fresh than I thought at seven?

(I know it says 1963 on the video but I believe it was a big hit in 64. If not, I don’t care and it’s my list)

Call Up The Groups — The Barron Knights

When I was seven, I loved the Barron Knights. They did comedy impersonations of the popular bands of the day all bundled into a 4-minute single.

To be honest, it all sounds tame now. But in 1964, they were popular.

Especially with seven-year-olds.

It’s All Over Now — The Rolling Stones

If my dad thought my seven-year-old soul had been stolen by the Devil’s Vanguard otherwise called The Beatles, he was apoplectic when I started loving the Stones too. Clearly, his son was going straight to Hell.

I remember he had a chat with me about the dangers of these drug-addled long-haired layabouts who could barely play their instruments or speak the Queen’s English.

When I laughed, he shrugged and went back to reading the newspaper.

All Of The Day — The Kinks

One thing led to another and got worse. For my dad. He not only had to listen to BBC pop programmes and pirate radio stations blaring out Beatles and Stones songs, his son’s tastes got even worse.

The name The Kinks alluded to them being Freshmen, although I had no idea at the time as I was an Innocent Boy. My dad knew exactly what a kink meant but he’d given up on me by then.

He had two other children who were not taken by the Devil so 2 out of 3 ain’t bad.

I Feel Fine — The Beatles

The Beatles top and tail the eight songs from my Innocent Boy school year of 1964.

The Messiahs were moving on from their Mop Top songs into something more rocky and the riff to this one is one of the greatest in pop history even if they nicked a part of it from someone else.

I’d somehow managed to persuade my mum to allow me to tell the barber to give me a Beatle fringe by November 1964 when this one came out. I didn’t call it that of course when I was asking. Having long sides was a step too far for her so I just got the fringe. Better than nothing.

So just imagine me as that Innocent Boy standing legs apart like John Lennon, imaginary guitar high on my body, at St Margaret's Church of England Infants School playground, 25 miles east of London with my mates screeching I Want To Hold Your Hand and then singing the riff to this classic.

School Year Hits

1964 was a good year for classic songs and I couldn’t fit in The Hollies, The Supremes, Roy Orbison, Chuck Berry and so many more.

Thanks to Buddy Gott for the prompt and the first person to mention the mysterious Freshman thing although Paul Combs and others used it too in their School Hit articles.

What is a Freshman and should we even mention it in a family publication?

I might Google Freshwoman though.