Catching up with the children
After a chance meeting in the Granada canteen, Michael Apted was commissioned to revisit the 14 children featured in the 7 Up documentary. The original was made in 1963 and broadcast in 1964, while this was made in 1970 and broadcast on December 15 of the same year. All 14 children took part, some more reluctantly than others, and clips of their seven year old selves answering questions help to frame the documentary. Given the age of the participants, and 14 is a very difficult age for all but the most fortunate, this was always likely to see them at their most guarded. However, I think it was absolutely vital for the future of the series. A 14 year gap would not have worked given the way that the children would bear little resemblance to their seven year old selves, but at 14 you have a fascinating glimpse of the child within and the adult to come. So what did I think watching this for the very first time?
7 plus Seven
The filming style is really interesting. We have gone from black and white to colour, but that colour is faded and gives the whole programme the air of a home movie. Gone are the scenes of school, play and family to be replaced by each of the 14 children on their own or in small groups, with an offscreen Michael Apted posing many of the same questions he did seven years earlier, and getting answers both similar and revealingly different.
For me, the star of this show was the most reluctant participant, Suzy. She makes it abundantly clear that she thinks the whole concept is a waste of time! Her eye rolls, impatient answers and undisguised frustration with Apted make her a real standard bearer of teenage irritation with the obtrusive older generation. For me, the best moment was when the family dog, playing in the garden of her father’s 4000 acre farm where she is being filmed, drags a dead rabbit out of the bushes. Suzy is almost completely unfazed, whereas Apted is clearly unsettled, and the reversal of roles is quite satisfying. You can tell that Suzy would rather be anywhere else and that she is doing this under sufferance, but that just makes her a counterpoint that the show needs.
Tony, who wanted to be a jockey at seven is on the way to achieving his ambition by being trained at a local professional stables and obviously eager to leave school behind. He is still confident, although the cheeky seven year old has faded to some extent, and he is fully focused on his chosen career. Interestingly, he is asked what he would do if he didn’t make it as a jockey and he already has a back up career of taxi driver in mind. He is asked the same questions as the other participants, and he answers them easily and confidently. I found myself urging him on as he clearly had ambition, determination and a real thirst for hard work.
Andrew, Charles and John are perhaps the most interesting to listen to five decades on. They are clearly set on the path to upper class success with two having gone to Charterhouse and one to Westminster. Somewhat dismissive of their younger selves, they have lost the more precocious edge they had at seven and developed what to modern eyes looks like a sense of entitlement within a world that perhaps exists as their stage. Their views on class, race and unions would definitely raise some eyebrows these days, but they were very much mainstream and reflective of their upbringing.
Jackie, Lynn and Sue, the three London girls seem to be just as tight knit as they were despite the fact that Lynn had made it to grammar school while the other two went to a comprehensive school. They are chatty, personable and, in their own way, as confident as the three upper class boys. However, and this is simply my own view, their confidence comes from supporting each other rather than competing with each other as Andrew, Charles and John seem to be. They often look to each other for agreement, but when they differ that seems to be just as supported by the other two. It’s a very nice example of that female friendship that seems to be a shield against the slings and arrows of life in general.
The other six boys are all interesting to listen to, but rarely rise above the expected in their answers. Perhaps Neil is the one whose responses were most revealing by the very fact of his nervous demeanour. I got the impression that it was deeper than appearing on camera, and more related to how he saw himself and his position in life. Paul and Symon who were at the same charity boarding school in 7 Up had moved to Australia and back home with his mother respectively. Nick, Peter and Bruce would have their times to shine in later episodes.
My Reaction
I have read a number of reviews from people who did not enjoy this instalment. In contrast, I found it fascinating and vital. Most of us, unless we have had particularly unpleasant teenage years, tend to look back at the age of 14 with rose coloured glasses. This programme lays bare the conflicts, difficulties and basic discomfort of a time when you are trying to find yourself as well as your place in society. Get past the faded colours and different viewpoints and you have a snapshot of what we all go through as teenagers.
What was 7 Up?
7 Up was a one off show produced by Granada Television as part of their World in Action documentary programme. In essence World in Action was the ITV equivalent of the BBC programme Panorama. However, it had a wider brief and frequently courted controversy in a way that it’s more staid counterpart would not. As well as this controversial edge, it was often much more innovative and took chances on new film makers and new ideas. One idea that made it to the screen was that of finding a group of seven year old children whose cohort would be likely to be running the country in the year 2000. Given that these children were seven in 1963, they would be 44 and at the peak of their careers by the end of that year. Well, that was one reason. The other was the often quoted, and variously attributed, adage ‘Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man’. Although girls were included in the 20 chosen children, it was very likely that the boys were the main focus in the minds of the documentary makers when it came to their future impact on the UK. In the end, 14 of the 20 children were chosen to be interviewed in more depth, 10 boys and 4 girls. Those 14 children were Bruce Balden, Jackie Bassett, Symon Basterfield, Andrew Brackfield, John Brisby, Peter Davies, Susan Davis, Charles Furneaux, Nicholas Hitchon, Neil Hughes, Lynn Johnson, Paul Kligerman, Suzanne Lusk and Tony Walker. They came from a range of backgrounds as the underlying aim was to examine the impact of class on the lives of this new generation. Accordingly, they chose working class boys and girls alongside upper class boys, but only one upper class girl interestingly, to get a snapshot of their lives. By the way, it’s interesting to note that a snapshot is all it was supposed to be, since at the time it was only ever seen as a one off programme. Michael Apted, the film maker involved with the project throughout its run, has gone on record as saying that the lack of girls was a mistake brought about by a lack of foresight regarding the impact of feminism would have. You need to give the documentary makers some leeway of course, as hardly anyone foresaw those societal changes. The UK was a very much less diverse country in 1963, so it’s perhaps reasonable to argue that in including Symon, the only child from a mixed ethnic background, they were being quite forward thinking in their own way. So, how does this programme look six decades on?
7 Up World in Action
I suppose the first thing that strikes you is the way that in London Zoo, where all the participants were treated to a day out, the children are just that, children. By looking at them, you can’t really tell which social background they come from, even if you can make a few educated guesses. There is a brief scene where a boy who doesn’t appear in the rest of the programme is shown throwing stones at one of the animals, and is told off by one of the other children. The telling off is caused by the fact that the boy throwing stones has transgressed against the social norms that we are, or should be, bound by.
The first scene after the day out shots shows the child who had been doing the telling off in his school classroom singing a song whose tune is instantly familiar, but whose words aren’t. It turns out that this is a class in a Pre-preparatory school where the 7 year olds are singing Waltzing Matilda in Latin! These 7 year olds can already conjugate Latin verbs from memory and are clearly expected to do so with ease. The children, all boys, are almost unnaturally well behaved. All of them are paying attention and showing total engagement in a subject I found difficult to master in secondary school at the age of 12. When we see the three chosen boys being interviewed, John, Andrew and Charles, they answer questions with ease, assurance and, to modern ears perhaps, a touch of coaching. For example, when they are asked what newspapers they read, their answers range from The Telegraph to Andrew’s response of the Financial Times! They also have suspiciously adult views about The Beatles who apparently should cut their hair and play less raucous music! Another scene shows a boy acting as a parade ground NCO instilling discipline into his seven year old compatriots as they practice military drill. These boys are clearly very privileged and they have opportunities that the lower class children would never be able to access. The other upper class participant, Suzy, is shown doing ballet and interviewed in her headmistress’ study where she answers questions quietly but with a seeming air of confidence.
The classroom and playground scenes in an East End school which Tony attends show the class and behaviour divide extremely clearly. Even in those days, it’s clear that a lot of the teacher’s job is crowd control as a clearly inattentive Tony has to be told multiple times to turn around. In the playground, tarmac rather than the grass of the pre-prep school, the girls play skipping games while the boys fight with each other to burn off some of their excess energy. Tony is far more comfortable in this environment and when he is asked what he wants to do when he leaves school he answers that he wants to be a jockey. The questions for Tony, Symon and the rest of the working class participants seem far less aspirational than those for the upper class children. This is emphasised when the three East London girls, Jackie, Lynn and Sue are asked how many children they think they are going to have.
The other participant that really stands out at this point is Nick who lives in a remote part of the Yorkshire Dales and walks four miles a day to attend school. His remoteness together with his age, at 6 the youngest participant, seems to give him a different perspective from the others. He is clearly quite isolated from other children and therefore, perhaps, more affected by his family and his surroundings given the lack of socialising cues available to the others.
My reaction
As anyone who follows me will know, I am fascinated by social history and popular culture in all its forms. The number of questions raised by 7 Up in terms of our progress, or otherwise, as a society will no doubt be reflected upon at length as I re-watch the other episodes in the series. Two things occurred to me as I was watching it. Firstly, how children in essence don’t really change that much. Yes, they have technology all around them and access to ideas and materials that the 7 Up cohort could never have dreamed of, but at heart they are no different from seven year olds today. Put the classroom scenes into colour and it would be quite easy to believe that you are watching a modern day classroom. Secondly, I reflected on the small amount of progress we made towards a more equal society in the 1970s and 80s, where social climbing was possible, and how even that progress seems to have been lost as the class system has rediscovered its rigidity. It is no doubt something I will return to before this series of posts finish.
For me at the age of 12, as for so many others, children and adults alike, there was only one place to be on a Sunday evening, and that was watching The Muppet Show on ITV. Although the Muppets have been with us since the 1960s, and remain with us to this day as cultural touchstones, it is difficult to overstate the impact that the show had on audiences in 1977. For a start, the anarchic behaviour was unlike anything we’d ever seen before, and the readiness for sometimes very very famous guests to join in with this anarchy, send themselves up and play second fiddle to the Muppets was unheard of at the time. The other element that made it so original was the breadth of cultural and musical influences from classical to rock via country and jazz, and all points in between. I broadened my musical tastes because of The Muppet Show in much the same way as I had with Mike Batt’s Wombles a couple of years earlier. The Muppet Show album was a very well received Christmas present in 1977, and I played it until I was word perfect. It hasn’t been out of its sleeve for perhaps 45 years, so how will it stand the test of time? Only one way to find out!
Side One
We start off with The Muppet Show Theme as all the TV shows did and instantly I was reminded of teatime in the late 70s. It’s amazing how this simple tune took me straight back to my lounge in 1977. I could see the furniture, the fire, the rug and the TV in my mind’s eye. The sheer variety of the songs is astonishing, starting with Mississippi Mud, a song from 1927 that was originally recorded by Bing Crosby a year later, as part of Irene Taylor and The Rhythm Boys. It was a jazz influenced tune, but the Muppets turned it in a hoe down with stamping feet and a country and western feel. Next we have perhaps the most familiar song on the album, Mah Na Mah Na, a song that genuinely needs no introduction. The antics of the increasingly uncertain soloist are great on the album, and it loses very little from the lack of pictures. That, by the way, is a running joke throughout the album, perhaps best epitomised as we hear The Great Gonzo eating a rubber tyre to the music of Flight of the Bumble Bee! Mr Bassman by the ever cool Floyd, from Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the house band, accompanied by the less cool gopher, Scooter is an absolute delight. Originally a hit for Johnny Cymbal in 1963 it is given fresh life by the Muppet treatment. Musically, it is superb with tight instrumentation that never overshadows the interplay between the two singers. Also, having two singers gave it an edge over the original because Cymbal provided both voices himself, whereas here we already know both characters well which adds a backstory to the song that works perfectly. We move from that to the first of two A A Milne inspired songs, Cottleston Pie, originally a poem recited by Winnie The Pooh, then set to music. Rowlf, the piano player gives the backstory to the song and then intersperses the lyrics with various asides such as
This is where the song changes key. It’s what we call modulation. That’s G Sharp minor.
Cottleston Pie The Muppet Show Album 1977
It’s the kind of detail that is just delightful and set the Muppets apart. Who else would have thought of introducing music theory into a song for children? In a similar vein to the Rubber Tyre earlier, Marvin Suggs and his Muppaphone playing Lady of Spain, perhaps relies on having seen the original show, so for those of you who haven’t here it is.
The next two songs, Pachalafaka and Lydia the Tattooed Lady definitely appeal on different levels depending on the age of the listener. For a start, the ‘Turkish’ song Pachalafaka originally recorded by Earl Brown and Henry Mancini in 1958 has undertones of desire not immediately apparent to the average child, featuring as it does a veiled harem girl, who is enticing a tourist. The somewhat suggestive lyrics and the reveal at the end when the harem girl turns out to be a man with a moustache definitely puts a different spin on the tale! Lydia the Tattooed Lady comes from the film At the Circus and was sung by Groucho Marx. Once again, the potential double entendres which passed me by definitely don’t 45 years on. What is so clever, though, is that knowing the cheekier side of the song doesn’t make it feel any different, because the twelve year old inside of me still reacts in a relatively innocent way.
The final song on Side 1 was a very successful single in the UK, featuring Kermit’s nephew, Robin, with the absolutely lovely Halfway Down the Stairs. Sung with sensitivity and wistfulness it is two minutes of absolute magic that takes you back to your childhood in the purest and most marvellous way. It is the perfect end to a side that gives you a whistle stop tour of styles which epitomise the old style variety shows.
Side Two
This side starts off with Dr Teeth and the Electric Mayhem playing Tenderly. The playing is, of course, anything but tender especially with Animal on drums! It’s an excellent musical joke, but, until I heard the Rosemary Clooney version many years later, I thought it was meant to sound like that! Next, I’m in Love with a Big Blue Frog, is perhaps the oddest song on the entire album, in a very competitive field. I didn’t know before today that the original version was sung by Peter, Paul and Mary, more famous for Puff the Magic Dragon. It contains some marvellous lyrics and is simply very funny throughout. Tit Willow, sung by Sam the Eagle, accompanied by Rowlf on vocals and piano comes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Mikado, and is a forlorn attempt by the highbrow bird to introduce some culture into the proceedings. It is sung completely straight in a way that I am sure the original writers would have appreciated. Veterinarian Hospital, a soap opera parody, may be the template for my sense of humour with its corny jokes and love of word play, something that my family and friends may not thank The Muppets for! It was replaced by Pigs in Space in subsequent series, an equally funny take on science fiction shows.
There follow two absolutely superb performances that show The Muppets’ ability to add something to a song just through their choice of performers. Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear sees Scooter and Fozzie team up for a song written by Randy Newman and recorded by Alan Price, formerly of The Animals. It’s a song that tells the story of a poor performer who gains favour from the rich and famous because of his act, an interesting reflection on the difficult path to success for those of limited means. Straight afterwards, Miss Piggy gets her solo song with the Bolero influenced, ‘What Now My Love?’, a standard written by Gilbert Becaud with the original French title of ‘Et Maintenant’ and recorded by Shirley Bassey, Sonny and Cher and Elvis Presley amongst others. None of them were as threatening as the spurned Miss Piggy though! In her version, you are left in no doubt that the man who abandoned her faces retribution in no uncertain terms!
In keeping with the variety bills of the old music hall that so clearly influence the show, we have a trio of tracks starting with Fozzie Bear, the failed comedian. We then move on to a song called Hugga Wugga which is sung by an aggressive alien who is constantly interrupted by other aliens singing other songs. Every time this happens, the Hugga Wugga monster blasts the other singer, but whatever he does, he cannot stop a small yellow alien singing You Are My Sunshine. It is completely weird and something only the Muppets could get away with. The final oddity is Wayne and Wanda, a very serious pair of musical performers singing Trees. A famous version by Paul Robeson lasts for two and a half minutes, but Wayne and Wanda only manage the first two lines before the tree is cut down and falls on Wayne!
Sax and Violence is a jazzy number with Zoot the saxophonist forced into the demeaning role of playing one note at a time. At the start of the song he says ‘Forgive me Charlie Parker wherever you are!’ but the song itself simply bounces out of the speakers. It’s brilliant and, musically speaking, a real highlight on the album. Finally, Being Green is the song that, above all others, articulates the feeling of not fitting in due to a characteristic you can’t help, and then turns it around to become a song that celebrates the difference that many others will pick on. It is a plea for tolerance that rings down the ages, and it makes the perfect end to the record.
Final Thoughts
It has been just as thought and emotion provoking to return to The Muppets as it was returning to Disney and The Wombles There is something about the music of your childhood that was, in many ways, aimed at children that takes us back as if in a time machine. I was having an awful time at secondary school and The Muppet Show album was definitely a safe haven for me. Even now, it serves the purpose of making me feel less cynical about things, if only for 45 minutes or so.
One of my favourite films from the 1970s is Melody (also known as SWALK on release in some countries). It stars Mark Lester and Jack Wild from Oliver and Tracy Hyde in her first film role. It tells the story of Daniel Latimer (Lester) who falls in love with Melody Perkins (Hyde), much to the bemusement and dismay of those around them. I got the soundtrack on CD, an import from Argentina, where the film was incredibly popular (as indeed it was in Japan), a number of years ago, but last year I hit the jackpot with a vinyl copy from a record shop in Bexhill, and as you know everything sounds better on vinyl! 😉😉 The soundtrack is absolutely central to the film, more so than usual, because the Bee Gees tracks, originally recorded in the 1960s by the group, informed the storyline and even the name of the titular character. In the film, the songs are as much a part of the charm of this underappreciated gem as the London locations of the 1970s, the authenticity of the grim school environment common at the time, and the acting of the children and adults alike.
Behind the scenes were Waris Hussain, the director, who took charge of the first Doctor Who episode and Henry VIII and his Six Wives amongst many others in a distinguished career, Alan Parker, the writer, who went on to direct Bugsy Malone, Fame, Midnight Express and Mississippi Burning amongst other films and David Puttnam, later the producer of Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express and The Mission. Whilst it was not a box office success in the UK, it gave Parker and Puttnam in particular a real start in the film industry. Wes Anderson, who loved the film as a child, said that Melody was the inspiration for Moonrise Kingdom. So, that’s the background of a film you really should catch if it is shown on TV, but now for the soundtrack.
Side 1
The album follows the film in terms of the running order, so the first song is the Beatles style In the Morning. It’s a gorgeous song that blends a lovely tune with deeply affecting lyrics, reflecting on the way that the days of childhood seem to last forever while your adult life seems to fly by. It is a reminder to make the most of your time. The second track is a rearranged instrumental version of the tune, as heard in the background of the film. Next we hear Melody Fair, the song which gave the film its name. Like the opening track it is a song about childhood and it’s simplicity and complications. It plays as we are introduced to Melody Perkins in a scene which starts the story of the film in earnest as she gets a goldfish which she frees to swim in a metal horse trough by the side of the road. It always makes me think of the restricted lives of so many people who can never really find enough room to stretch themselves. The rather lovely instrumental follows this. Spicks and Specks is a bouncy infectious piece of music that just seems to contain childhood high spirits throughout. Romance Theme in F is a classical style piano piece that makes the central relationship between Daniel and Melody timeless in its own way. It could come from a 1940s movie like Brief Encounter. The final track on Side One is Give Your Best, a song, initially with an old time music hall feel with the lyrics until the chorus which becomes unexpectedly darker. It’s a song that works beautifully within the context of the film, but which sounds a little out of place on this side of the album.
Side 2
At the time of this album, To Love Somebody was the best known of the songs on this soundtrack. It’s a powerful love song that is simply class personified. It proves that the Bee Gees were every bit as adept as Lennon and McCartney at writing a tune that makes you stop in your tracks. Working on it Night and Day is the song that the children dance to at the school disco. Sung by Barry Howard it’s OK but it doesn’t match up to the Bee Gees at their best. Now, my favourite song on the album and one of my favourite songs ever is the tear jerking First of May. Having had a girlfriend at primary school to whom I was devoted, I could really relate strongly to the lyrics. This is particularly true of the line ‘the day I kissed your cheek and you were gone’ as she left the school at the end of our second year together. It is a song for anyone who has ever been in love at any age. Three highly contrasting instrumentals follow, the First of May reprise, Seaside Banjo which plays on Daniel and Melody’s visit to the beach at Weymouth and then the knockabout comedy of Teachers Chase. Finally, the classic sound of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young with the instantly familiar Teach Your Children. It actually makes you realise how good the Bee Gees songs for the soundtrack are, because they are not overshadowed at all. It’s an album that is gorgeous in its own right, but so much more effective if you know the film. If you want a taster then you can find eight of the tracks on the Spotify playlist linked below. Happy listening.
My Posts
I set myself the target of four posts a month in my post Looking ahead to 2024 and wrote six. Those six blogs were
Five in the space of twelve days gave the month a solid start, and I covered three of my promised blog targets, The Wonder Years Re-View, A-Z of my Singles Collection and a vinyl review, so that was really good. In terms of views, I had 221, my best January yet. Even more satisfying, though, was the fact that for the first month ever I had at least one visitor to my blog every day of the month! The top five blogs in terms of visitors were https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2021/05/04/new-tricks-last-man-standing/ with 22 views
https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2024/01/02/the-a-girl-trilogy-by-jessica-taylor-bearman-book-reviews/ with 20 views
https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2024/01/13/relaxation/ with 17 views
https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2022/12/17/isla-by-isla-st-clair-re-play/ with 12 views and
https://davidgpearce205.wordpress.com/2021/05/02/new-tricks-the-queens-speech/ with 10 views
Not viewing numbers to compete with the blogging juggernauts, but a pleasing mark of progress with two new blogs and three blogs from 2022 in that Top 5. The New Tricks phenomenon never ceases to amaze me, as they are the gift that keeps giving, racking up views every month without fail.
Looking at the countries my readers came from, I was pleased to note a couple of new locations, namely Mexico and Guatemala. I would love to know how these far flung readers find my little blog! Wherever you come from, I appreciate every view, and if you want to like or comment on any of my posts, that is always greatly appreciated.
Happy reading and I’ll see you for my February blogs!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 