Mother, yon lion's et Albert.............

This is a sepia saturday post.
  The  week's suggested themes are MUSIC : SINGERS : GRAMOPHONE : RECORDS.
I looked through my own old photos and struggled.....the best I could find was the photo below which  I took of the Canadian singers Kate & Anna McGarricle when they  played Liverpool Philharmonic Hall in 1975.
I got my first record player on my 6th birthday (1957):
 It was,even then, an antique.A big brass beast:a windup affair! You had to change the needle ever time you played a record!
Fortunately I was only given one 78 record to go with it.It was Stanley Holloway's monologue about a lad called "Albert" who goes on holiday to Blackpool with his Mum & Dad and gets eaten by a lion in the zoo.
were my mum&dad giving me a message...? (we went to Blackpool most summer holidays)
 Anyway.Listening to it again now, it's still quite funny.......Northern Humour... Albert & The Lion:lyrics

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Holloway 
Aged 11.My brother Zyg bought me my first 'proper' record player & my first LP.("The Buddy Holly Story") The first record I bought myself was "The Folk Blues of John Lee Hooker". I fell in love with Tupelo Blues........... Which was a bit 'hard-core' for a young Yorkshire lad who also quite liked the Monkees & Beatles..
*John Lee Hooker would have been 101 on the 22nd August 2018.(6 months older than my own Dad).Rest in Peace both XX*
john lee hooker – tupelo blues from directors guild on Vimeo.

I dont seem to have any other photos that relate to this week's theme.
I did find the above  in Hebden Bridge's Antique shop.Not a jolly crew...but they  do have an solitary instrument in view.
 The photo's  origin is French, I think.
They look like they have just spotted  a lion......?
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Comments

Kristin said…
I thought the family looked pretty cheery. Except maybe that one woman on the right whose knees hurt. There are definitely some stories in that picture.

We got a little record player (not wind up) when we were about 4 and 3. That would have been about 1950. One record was Burl Ives singing "The Moon Is the North Winds Cookie, it eats it day by day" that scared my 3 year old sister. Then there was "Hansel and Gretel". And a little yellow record that I cannot remember more about, just that it was bright yellow with a blue label.
02:07
tony said…
Kristin I must write about record labels & covers sometime.....
You know that old saw about "what were you doing when you heard that President Kennedy had been shot?".
Well , I remember exactly. I was sat in my Mum&Dad's Living Room in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
. Granada TV broke news from Dallas
I was looking at a new Rolling Stones single I had bought that day.
. I was loooking at the orange&white sleave:blue label.It's a pure visual memory.To this day, when I see pictures of Decca Records, I think "JFK"...........
02:28
Kurt said…
I was fortunate to see John Lee Hooker around 1987 at The Palms Playhouse in Davis, which held about 100 or so people.
14:25
Molly of Molly's Canopy said…
A wonderful post. I well remember my first portable record player, a carry-along affair with a click-shut case and white plastic handle. I also remember getting an shock when I played it on the basement floor, an inadvertent introduction to the hazards of electricity! Weren't those 78s great? I would play them over and over -- a gift from my grandparents and an early introduction to big bands and jazz.
16:05
tony said…
Kurt seeing J.L.H. must have been amazing....what a voice!
Molly Yea, 78's ruled the world ,at one time.....+ 'sounds like you 'went electric' even before Dylan!
13:01
smkelly8 said…
Great post. I remember Elvis Costello, punk and the old 78s. I wish I'd kept some of mine.
17:37
tony said…
Susan I remember breaking a few records, back in the day...!
18:19
Mike Brubaker said…
A swell post, Tony. Those days of hi-fi and record shops are sadly long gone now and I think "da youth" today are missing out on the physical musical talismans that old 78s, 45s, LPs represent. The streaming services hardly identify songs much less albums, band members, or info on the music. And covers are reduced to small thumb nail images. I've still got my record collection, though I admit to rarely playing them as my phonograph needs a new drive belt. But I only have to look at an album cover to hear the tracks, and even remember the scratches and skips.

The little girl in your photo has a mandolin which is an Italian instrument, specifically from Naples or Sicily, so I don't think they are French. As I listened and watched John Lee Hooker's Tupelo Blues, it resonated with your past stories on Hebden Bridge floods too.
17:23
tony said…
Cheers, Mike.Thats interesting info about the Mandolin ( there was no information written on the back of the photograph )
Thanks.
You know how Old Book Shops have a particular smell ? Well I remember an old record shop in my childhood (Haley Hill, Boothtown Halifax: "Evans's " by name) that was stacked high with dusty old 78's
I swear I remember them giving off their own sweet special aroma!
18:26
La Nightingail said…
So glad you included the story of The Lion & Albert. How funny. We had a couple of 78 records to go with the old windup Victrola. One of them was "Songs by Tom Lehrer". What a hoot! Most of our LPs range from the Doodletown Pipers to Dave Brubeck and everything in between including The Smothers Brothers and other comic recordings. My very first LP, purchased with babysitting money, was the score from the movie "The King & I" and I still have it! :)
19:28
tony said…
Fine Music nightingail !
23:32
Martin said…
Excellent post, Tony. I've got a lovely letter from Stanley Holloway, tucked away somewhere. The address, strangely is East Preston, West Sussex!
17:34
tony said…
Martin , you have a letter from Stanley Holloway! That even trumps my signed photo from Cilla I got in Blackpool in 1966 ! Listening to his stuff now, I'm surprised how good he still sounds ( he hasnt dated in the same way as ,say, Monty Python.)Yet he is way off the Cultural Radar these days... .Tis a shame.......{here:} is more Stanley!
17:55
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