How music was able to have an effect on the world

For me personally growing up with music from the 1960's and 70's made an enormous impact . It almost portrayed the image of the world around me .
I began to think about my own experiences and what music had said .
I remember going to Butler Street school and there was a song called Monday Monday by the Mamas The Papas that spoke to me in a person way about where I was at . Basically not wanting to go to school that Monday morning . Its strange the way some songs just kind of speak for you and the way you’re feeling . There was lots of stuff going on then like man landing on the moon .
There were these unique cars in the sixties , like the Mini , VW or Beetle car and then there was the Bubble Car , I used to see these around the streets of Ardoyne.
A school friend of mine Anthony McQuade asked me if I wanted to go to the Plaza Ballroom one Saturday afternoon and I was eager to go as I’d never been there before ., We both got dressed up for the dance . We headed doen down on the bus , him in a purple coloured shirt with a collar that was bigger than most and green bell bottom trousers . I was in faded denim jeans with a Ben Sherman shirt and shawed heels on my brogues . The two of us made our way along York Street . It must have been our lucky day , we got free Wrigley’s chewing gum from a machine and found money on the street . The dance floor in the Plaza was the shiniest floor I had ever seen in my life and as slippery as ice . I felt as if I had grown up all of a sudden .
The civil rights movement in Northern Ireland began to get inspiration form what was going on in America between blacks and whites . Certain radio stations began to play protest songs . The times really were changing on the doorstep of my hometown .
Then there was the fashions of the day . I recall in the 1960’s girls wearing mini or maxi skirts and boys with these paisley shirts and donkey fringe hairstyles . In the 1970’s fellas had long hair and they wore bell bottom jeans with denim jackets . .
.Music had changed in the seventies , It was as if someone had opened a window and a breath of fresh air flowed through . .
Not that I was there , but a part of me wanted to be there at those festivals and open air gigs . There was two in particular I recall . The first as in 1967 a festival called the Gathering Of The Tribes at the Golden Gate Park and in the summer of love in 1969 with the peace and music Woodstock festival .
Music had gone beyond where it had ever been before . Two of the songs that summed up that experience were San Francisco by Scott McKenzie and Stardust by Crosby Stills Nash and Young .
There was I with my head in the clouds , California Dreaming and thinking of love and peace when Belfast erupted into violence. Daily rioting and running battles between Catholics and protestants brought me back to earth very quickly .
Suddenly music for me hit a new level .From peace and love to panic and leave . My world was upside down and I had a notion to make a change in my life so I took up a job delivering milk before school for the Belfast Co-Op and asked Noel our local milkman if he needed a hand .I can still can see my first pay . I held up this crisp new ten shilling note to see the watermarks come through against the bright summer sun . I proudly walked up to Raffertys Shop and with it I purchased a small transistor radio with an ear phone . I bought a nine volt battery and walked proudly out of the shop . The first song I heard was Hey Jude and as I looked up I saw a small group of soldiers with their weapons drawn , sitting on top of Rafferty shop . The words from Hey Jude rung out in my ear , Take a sad song and make it better , they said a lot then to back then.
Everything that happened after that moment was revolved around the troubles in Northern Ireland . One of the bands from Woodstock , Ten Years After came to my little village and played on the roof of my school St Gabriels on the Crumlin Road .
It was their way of trying to bring a message of hope for the people of Northern Ireland . That day a massive crowd came for the concert .
Between bombs and bullets the music scene for me took on a new perspective . A big number then in Belfast was Children Of The Revolution by Marc Bolan and T-Rex . After the Beatles broke up Paul McCartney and Wings recorded a song called Give Ireland Back To The Irish , but it was banned from the airwaves in the UK . Other songs that were very popular then for us was In The Ghetto by Elvis Presley , Bits And Pieces with The Dave Clark Five and Catch The Wind by Donavan .
In 1972 my the situation in Belfast was out of control and it was then my parents decided to emigrate to Australia . With only two weeks to say goodbye to all my relations and friends ,a number of songs made in roads to where I was at .
Two songs that said it all back then for me were , I Can't Live (If Living Is Without You )by Harry Nilson and Bye Bye by Gilbert O'Sullivan .
Within two weeks we were gone and landed in Australia my family and I .
Music is still making a big impact in life and I can appreciate God's love for us and the world through music .
The End


By Paul McCann
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