Cathy MacDonald's weekly blog
Post categories: Greetings
| 08:00 UK time, Sunday, 31 October 2010
When I was at school, somewhere between O grade and Higher, the cool thing to do was to write song lyrics on the covers of your books - anyone who enjoyed music showed their devotion by scribbling, often mindless and incomprehensible words on their books and jotters. It was a tribal thing, it showed you belonged to a particular group - and we obviously thought we were too sophisticated for words. I copied huge chunks of Dylan, Dobie Gray and even Donovan - from "If You See her say Hello", to "Drift Away" to the "chilly hours and minutes of uncertainty" of Donovan's "Catch the Wind" we were like a new generation of poets, misunderstood by our teachers and moral guardians.
Half the stuff we penned made no literal sense but it showed the world that we were serious about our heroes - they were and and for our generation. The boys quoted AC/DC or the Stones - heavy metal was for them, while we clutched the softer romantic tones of Joni Mitchell or the McGarrigle Sisters. Funny how I still remember those verses long after forgetting and .
What made them so memorable was that we wallowed in the heartache and sheer suffering of unrequited love that they were writing about- it was as if they were writing for us. Pure nostalgia, but actually some of them were quite good. If you can remember which ones you did a cut and paste job on when you were at school, how about letting me know. I've given you a few to start off with - and if you want to hear them on the show, drop me a line or an email greetings@bbc.co.uk.
Comment number 1.
At 31st Oct 2010, Scotch Get wrote:School?
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