The Soundtrack of Our Lives
A Double Album in Prose
by Annie Christie
Genre: Drama
Swearwords: A couple of mild ones.
Description: For anyone who has ever got lost in music!
Swearwords: A couple of mild ones.
Description: For anyone who has ever got lost in music!
Disc One
Side One
Lost in Music
We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
No turnin' back
We're lost in music (Sister Sledge)
Side One
Lost in Music
We're lost in music
Caught in a trap
No turnin' back
We're lost in music (Sister Sledge)
Track Seven
Youth’s a mask but it don't last,
live it long and live it fast (Rod Stewart)
~ Don't Go Breaking My Heart, 1976 ~
Youth’s a mask but it don't last,
live it long and live it fast (Rod Stewart)
~ Don't Go Breaking My Heart, 1976 ~
In August we came back to school to Elton John and Kiki Dee singing Don’t go Breaking my Heart. The ugly rumours started that Elton was a poof – we didn’t know ‘gay’ in those days and we didn’t really know what a ‘poof’ was. It was a word like ‘knob’ that was used by boys who were trying to be big and show off. The rest of us were faintly embarrassed, faintly threatened by the words and didn’t even progress to thinking about the concepts.
We lived in another world. A teenage world. The world in which the thing that seemed to matter most was that Billy and Rachel were still an item. The rest of us were falling in and out of lust faster than the record turntables could spin. By the time of the Halloween disco 1976 they’d been going out for a year. She was sweet sixteen and he was fifteen. For the anniversary he’d bought her a necklace and she’d bought him an identity bracelet. It had his name engraved on the outer side and hers on the inner. It was the epitome of cool.
In those days he sported a Harrington and she wore wedge shoes just too high for school regulations. They both got away with it. To an extent. He had his dress blazer stashed in Scooby’s bag at all times and Scooby was happy to carry it around all day. I think Scooby was a bit like me – he just liked being close to Billy. Kids used to sing that Carpenters song at Scooby all the time. ‘oooh…oooh… close to you’ and he didn’t even care.
Never in the running for cool kid, I fell victim to a duffle-coat. My mum bought it on the big side that winter so that I knew I’d be wearing it till I left school and there was no chance I would ever be able to ‘stash’ it or ‘lose’ it. I prayed for warm weather when I could ditch it, even though my mum refused to buy me a ‘dress’ blazer and kept me in the one that smelled like wet dogs if there was the least rain. I knew then that I was destined to be one of life’s outsiders and that all I could do was try and stick like a limpet to the cool kids and try and live off their scraps. So that’s what I did. I was there – but in the background. I saw it all. I can’t really say I lived it all, but looking back my memory seems to place me more in the centre than I ever felt when it was happening.
The most significant thing about that autumn term, when we had just gone into S4 and Rachel was in S5, was The Italian Café. Doing eight O Grades, we didn’t really have free periods, but Rachel was doing Highers so she did. And where Rachel went, Billy followed. We’d ‘discovered’ the café before summer. Its one great feature, apart from the coffee, was the jukebox. While the school corridors were still echoing with Tina Charles, Thin Lizzy, Abba and all things Disco, the café had a much more eclectic mix of music. That’s where we ‘discovered’ Rod Stewart. They had The Killing of Georgie – Parts One and Two and Rachel played it constantly. At over six minutes long it was total value for money.
Funny, none of us really connected the song with homosexuality. The lyrics, and I can remember them exactly after all these years (even though I never spent as much time in the café as Billy and Rachel), that she loved were "Never wait or hesitate Get in kid, before it's too late, You may never get another chance, 'Cos youth’s a mask but it don't last, live it long and live it fast. We all wished we could live by those rules.
We lived our lives slowly and vicariously, always looking over our shoulders, always trying to keep up with the kids who were trying to keep up with us. Though I have to say I don’t think many kids were trying to keep up with me and Laura. We were all in thrall to Rachel. And Georgie was Rachel’s favourite song in autumn 1976. Billy, still more of a Bowie fan, used to reply by playing Starman.
If that failed he’d put on Don McLean The Day the Music Died which at least competed for length, though none of us knew anything about Buddy Holly. Rachel would then put on Fleetwood Mac. And that was the end of the competition. Though Stevie told Laura (in an unguarded moment) that it wasn’t the music Billy liked about Fleetwood Mac – it was Stevie Nicks. I was sworn not to tell. But I think Rachel knew. She certainly started to dress like her and her hair grew longer and wilder. Never mind Romeo and Juliet, we had Rod and Stevie in our midst. Because however hard he tried, Billy never looked like Bowie. And he tried. Not that we were supposed to notice.
So Billy and Rachel had this kind of juke box competition going on. It was a jokey type of thing but it was competition nevertheless. Sometimes, if we were there for the length of a period, they used to be up and down playing each song four or five times, blocking the jukebox for anyone else. No one thought it was selfish, we just thought it was funny. I don’t think Toni who ran the café was that impressed but still, as long as we kids were pumping coins into the machine and drinking his frothy coffee on a regular basis he didn’t complain.
I remember Billy getting a lot of stick because of his ‘Rod Stewart’ haircut. The rumour was that Rachel had made him go out and get it done. He swore blind it was a Bowie cut. Either way, it caused quite a stir in school because it wasn’t ‘regulation’. But nothing about Billy was regulation in 1976. There he was, just fifteen years of age, going out with the most popular girl in the year above. Natural blond hair in a school of dark haired kids, taller than average – the girls all loved him and the boys (at least those who didn’t want to kill him) all wanted to be him. It all blurs into one. Orchestra. Fencing. Skiing. Same old same old until September 76. When something happened. Something really happened. Not to me, of course.
That September, Billy and Rachel ran away. They started following the rules laid down by Rod and ignoring those set by their parents. I remember it was around the time that we had an English student who was trying to be ‘cool’ by setting us the Beatles She’s Leaving Home as a poetry crit. She never realised how lame and out of date she was. They didn’t speak to us. Rod and Georgie were speaking to us in 1976.
Now to say they ran away isn’t really true. It’s an adult version of a teenage action. It was never about running away. It was about getting lost in music. And they might have got away with it. They were teenagers, right, and teens are meant to push boundaries. They just pushed a bit too far… but we all knew what they were doing. We all envied them. We were ‘in’ on the game, if you like. Rachel had enlisted Laura and so of course Laura told me. Billy had Doobs as his alibi. That was his mistake. He could have picked worse, but only if he’d said he was staying with Scooby. In the end it was Doobs who cracked. But by then it was too late and the legends were born. I’m still proud that it wasn’t me who told, though.
I think Georgie had a lot to answer for. Beware the power of lyrics, folks. Anyway, here’s the story – bearing in mind that none of the rest of us were there so we don’t really know. On Friday September 17th Rachel wasn’t at school. Neither was Billy. The teachers didn’t clock the co-incidence, of course, but the rest of us did. The rumours went around like wildfire. Laura had told me what was planned. Billy and Rachel were off to London to see Queen at a free concert in Hyde Park on the Saturday. We’d just gone through that long hot summer when anything seemed possible. Billy had been earning money busking for tourists with his fiddle and Rachel had been working in a shoe shop. They’d saved up the train fares and off they went. They didn’t have a place to stay, they imagined they’d be able to crash in the park and then come straight home on a train on the Sunday. Billy had told his parents he was away on a fencing competition weekend run by Grant’s school. No one checked.
Rachel told hers she was staying with Laura. Neither set of parents suspected a thing. Rachel’s parents wanted to know why she wasn’t with Billy – she was always with Billy – and she told them he was away all weekend at a fencing competition. They bought it.
Discography: Want to sing along? Here are some YouTube links – sorry about attendant ads – sure you can find these all on your streaming music delivery platform (if you have such a thing!):
Elton John Don’t go Breaking My heart https://youtu.be/z0qW9P-uYfM
Rod Stewart The Killing of Georgie https://youtu.be/95zxtaKQBBc
The Carpenters Close to You https://youtu.be/6inwzOooXRU
David Bowie Starman https://youtu.be/sI66hcu9fIs
Don McLean American Pie https://youtu.be/RciM7P9K3FA
The Beatles She’s leaving home https://youtu.be/oAYiuFBqyLE
We lived in another world. A teenage world. The world in which the thing that seemed to matter most was that Billy and Rachel were still an item. The rest of us were falling in and out of lust faster than the record turntables could spin. By the time of the Halloween disco 1976 they’d been going out for a year. She was sweet sixteen and he was fifteen. For the anniversary he’d bought her a necklace and she’d bought him an identity bracelet. It had his name engraved on the outer side and hers on the inner. It was the epitome of cool.
In those days he sported a Harrington and she wore wedge shoes just too high for school regulations. They both got away with it. To an extent. He had his dress blazer stashed in Scooby’s bag at all times and Scooby was happy to carry it around all day. I think Scooby was a bit like me – he just liked being close to Billy. Kids used to sing that Carpenters song at Scooby all the time. ‘oooh…oooh… close to you’ and he didn’t even care.
Never in the running for cool kid, I fell victim to a duffle-coat. My mum bought it on the big side that winter so that I knew I’d be wearing it till I left school and there was no chance I would ever be able to ‘stash’ it or ‘lose’ it. I prayed for warm weather when I could ditch it, even though my mum refused to buy me a ‘dress’ blazer and kept me in the one that smelled like wet dogs if there was the least rain. I knew then that I was destined to be one of life’s outsiders and that all I could do was try and stick like a limpet to the cool kids and try and live off their scraps. So that’s what I did. I was there – but in the background. I saw it all. I can’t really say I lived it all, but looking back my memory seems to place me more in the centre than I ever felt when it was happening.
The most significant thing about that autumn term, when we had just gone into S4 and Rachel was in S5, was The Italian Café. Doing eight O Grades, we didn’t really have free periods, but Rachel was doing Highers so she did. And where Rachel went, Billy followed. We’d ‘discovered’ the café before summer. Its one great feature, apart from the coffee, was the jukebox. While the school corridors were still echoing with Tina Charles, Thin Lizzy, Abba and all things Disco, the café had a much more eclectic mix of music. That’s where we ‘discovered’ Rod Stewart. They had The Killing of Georgie – Parts One and Two and Rachel played it constantly. At over six minutes long it was total value for money.
Funny, none of us really connected the song with homosexuality. The lyrics, and I can remember them exactly after all these years (even though I never spent as much time in the café as Billy and Rachel), that she loved were "Never wait or hesitate Get in kid, before it's too late, You may never get another chance, 'Cos youth’s a mask but it don't last, live it long and live it fast. We all wished we could live by those rules.
We lived our lives slowly and vicariously, always looking over our shoulders, always trying to keep up with the kids who were trying to keep up with us. Though I have to say I don’t think many kids were trying to keep up with me and Laura. We were all in thrall to Rachel. And Georgie was Rachel’s favourite song in autumn 1976. Billy, still more of a Bowie fan, used to reply by playing Starman.
If that failed he’d put on Don McLean The Day the Music Died which at least competed for length, though none of us knew anything about Buddy Holly. Rachel would then put on Fleetwood Mac. And that was the end of the competition. Though Stevie told Laura (in an unguarded moment) that it wasn’t the music Billy liked about Fleetwood Mac – it was Stevie Nicks. I was sworn not to tell. But I think Rachel knew. She certainly started to dress like her and her hair grew longer and wilder. Never mind Romeo and Juliet, we had Rod and Stevie in our midst. Because however hard he tried, Billy never looked like Bowie. And he tried. Not that we were supposed to notice.
So Billy and Rachel had this kind of juke box competition going on. It was a jokey type of thing but it was competition nevertheless. Sometimes, if we were there for the length of a period, they used to be up and down playing each song four or five times, blocking the jukebox for anyone else. No one thought it was selfish, we just thought it was funny. I don’t think Toni who ran the café was that impressed but still, as long as we kids were pumping coins into the machine and drinking his frothy coffee on a regular basis he didn’t complain.
I remember Billy getting a lot of stick because of his ‘Rod Stewart’ haircut. The rumour was that Rachel had made him go out and get it done. He swore blind it was a Bowie cut. Either way, it caused quite a stir in school because it wasn’t ‘regulation’. But nothing about Billy was regulation in 1976. There he was, just fifteen years of age, going out with the most popular girl in the year above. Natural blond hair in a school of dark haired kids, taller than average – the girls all loved him and the boys (at least those who didn’t want to kill him) all wanted to be him. It all blurs into one. Orchestra. Fencing. Skiing. Same old same old until September 76. When something happened. Something really happened. Not to me, of course.
That September, Billy and Rachel ran away. They started following the rules laid down by Rod and ignoring those set by their parents. I remember it was around the time that we had an English student who was trying to be ‘cool’ by setting us the Beatles She’s Leaving Home as a poetry crit. She never realised how lame and out of date she was. They didn’t speak to us. Rod and Georgie were speaking to us in 1976.
Now to say they ran away isn’t really true. It’s an adult version of a teenage action. It was never about running away. It was about getting lost in music. And they might have got away with it. They were teenagers, right, and teens are meant to push boundaries. They just pushed a bit too far… but we all knew what they were doing. We all envied them. We were ‘in’ on the game, if you like. Rachel had enlisted Laura and so of course Laura told me. Billy had Doobs as his alibi. That was his mistake. He could have picked worse, but only if he’d said he was staying with Scooby. In the end it was Doobs who cracked. But by then it was too late and the legends were born. I’m still proud that it wasn’t me who told, though.
I think Georgie had a lot to answer for. Beware the power of lyrics, folks. Anyway, here’s the story – bearing in mind that none of the rest of us were there so we don’t really know. On Friday September 17th Rachel wasn’t at school. Neither was Billy. The teachers didn’t clock the co-incidence, of course, but the rest of us did. The rumours went around like wildfire. Laura had told me what was planned. Billy and Rachel were off to London to see Queen at a free concert in Hyde Park on the Saturday. We’d just gone through that long hot summer when anything seemed possible. Billy had been earning money busking for tourists with his fiddle and Rachel had been working in a shoe shop. They’d saved up the train fares and off they went. They didn’t have a place to stay, they imagined they’d be able to crash in the park and then come straight home on a train on the Sunday. Billy had told his parents he was away on a fencing competition weekend run by Grant’s school. No one checked.
Rachel told hers she was staying with Laura. Neither set of parents suspected a thing. Rachel’s parents wanted to know why she wasn’t with Billy – she was always with Billy – and she told them he was away all weekend at a fencing competition. They bought it.
Discography: Want to sing along? Here are some YouTube links – sorry about attendant ads – sure you can find these all on your streaming music delivery platform (if you have such a thing!):
Elton John Don’t go Breaking My heart https://youtu.be/z0qW9P-uYfM
Rod Stewart The Killing of Georgie https://youtu.be/95zxtaKQBBc
The Carpenters Close to You https://youtu.be/6inwzOooXRU
David Bowie Starman https://youtu.be/sI66hcu9fIs
Don McLean American Pie https://youtu.be/RciM7P9K3FA
The Beatles She’s leaving home https://youtu.be/oAYiuFBqyLE
About the Author
Annie Christie is a pretty ordinary person, except that she was born Annie Christie and then married a man called Christie and so is still called Christie despite having taken on her husband’s name. She sometimes wonders if she should have called herself Christie-Christie: but who would believe that?
Born near Drum of Wartle in Aberdeenshire, Annie moved as swiftly as possible to a place with a less bizarre name – Edinburgh – but the bizarreness chased her and she now lives with her husband Rab in rural Galloway, with a Kirkcudbrightshire postcode. (That's Cur coo bree shire to the uninitiated.) She is an active member of the Infinite Jigsaw Project.
The Soundtrack of Our Lives is Annie's fourth McSerial written for McStorytellers.
Born near Drum of Wartle in Aberdeenshire, Annie moved as swiftly as possible to a place with a less bizarre name – Edinburgh – but the bizarreness chased her and she now lives with her husband Rab in rural Galloway, with a Kirkcudbrightshire postcode. (That's Cur coo bree shire to the uninitiated.) She is an active member of the Infinite Jigsaw Project.
The Soundtrack of Our Lives is Annie's fourth McSerial written for McStorytellers.