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The Burning Spear - Throw Down Your Arms

OLD PA'S WEDNESDAY CLUB

VERA and NORMAN
THE OFFENDERS

 
THE BURNING SPEAR - Throw Down Your Arms (1977)
 
Vera was my Mother in Law and she was French and did not speak English, my problem was (and still is) I have a mental block when it comes to foreign languages. Well that is not entirely true, I can order a beer in over 20 different languages.
 
Bengali Eka handoiya, doya koray!
Bulgarian Edna beerra, molya!
Catalan Una cervesa, si us plau!
Cheyenne Nok hee-sevo-tamah-peh, mas-eh-met-ah-no!
Chinese Ching gay woh ee bay pee joh!  
 
I particularly like the the Chinese one, you could get into a lot of trouble there if you were not careful.

Vera, like my Dad Norman, did not seem to have any interest in music and I never heard the radio play music when they had it on. They both did not have any records and there was no facilities to play music.

One day I bought a Burning Spear album and was playing it when Vera suddenly got very animated and I worked out that she like the track which was playing, Throw Down Your Arms. It just happened to be one of my favourite reggae track ever and still is. Vera loved this track and I virtually had to put the track on repeat. I played the track many times in the future for her. Oddly enough I never found any other piece of music she was remotely interested in.

My Dad was the same except the first time he heard Albatross by Fleetwood Mac. He just loved it and asked me to get it for him. It was his one and only record.

Finally one little story about Vera. She was watch The Planet of the Apes series in the seventies. She did not understand it but she still liked to watch. It finished and the adverts came on and suddenly Vera piped up, I thought the programme had finished. She got confused with the Brooke Bond advert featuring the Chimps. 
 
I still like to think it was a mistake but I have a sneaky feeling she was playing me.. 

 
FLEETWOOD MAC - Albatross (1970)

PS, I featured this pic before, but it is the only one I have where they both feature.
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Comments

The Swede said…
I can kind of understand your Dad finding something to like in 'Albatross', as it's almost middle of the road compared to some of their rawer blues stuff, but Burning Spear? How very strange. I like the thought of Vera playing you. Perhaps she was a closet reggae fan all along and you never knew. Either way, if you're only going to like one tune in your life, 'Throw Down Your Arms' ain't a bad one to choose.
20 May 2015 at 13:36
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