Thursday 5 April 2012

The youth of innocence

It’s funny how life can take you on circular routes.  Little things that didn’t seem to have much meaning in one stage of your life can resurface in the future and take on greater importance.  It’s like when you hear a record from your childhood, decades later, and suddenly realise that you liked it all along, you just hadn’t appreciated that you would always appreciate it, if you see what I mean.  An example of that for me is ‘Days’ by the Kinks which was in the (admittedly rather paltry) family singles box around the year of its release, 1968.  I was only five and I loved it.  Played it constantly.  I only had a five-year-old’s appreciation of it, though, which is very shallow and instinctive, merely latching onto a small element of what it really had to offer – but it was enough.  I also liked the theme song for a ‘Cherry B’ advert (on flexi disc, remember them?), my ‘Pinky & Perky’ 45 and ‘How Much Is That Doggy In The Window’ on yellow vinyl….  but I have to say my taste for those has not endured as well as for ‘Days’, which I still love to this, ahem, day.

Another circular route I’ve been on has been in my career.  As a child I loved drawing, and I loved picture books.  I had no idea that many years later I’d be drawing for picture books myself.  It took a long while to get here, or even to realise that I wanted to get here, with several other unconnected side-trips en route.  Rather fittingly I still have some picture books from my own childhood and now I view them with new eyes.  I look at the techniques, the style, the composition, and I understand so much more than that five-year-old me did – and still love them.

Here are a few.  You can just tell, can’t you, that these were different times.  Thank you for the days…

Hmm...Mick, Keith, Ron or Charlie...?
From 'Myths From Many Lands' (1965)


...I'm not saying anything.
From 'Myths From Many Lands' (1965)


There's something Hockney-ish about this I reckon...
From 'Susan's Secret Garden' (early 1960s)


Perhaps more consideration should have been given to the order of the
words highlighted for reading practice at the top of the left hand page:
Police      found      sorry      policeman     crying
From 'Susan's Secret Garden' (early 1960s)


This is a gorgeous book - and I especially like the fab typeface.
From 'A Tale of Tails' (1965)



Well, I just love it.
From 'Oriental Tales' (1963)

And for some more lovely and far groovier 1960s children's book illustrations you may also want to check out this from the excellent Voices of East Anglia.



8 comments:

  1. Oooh - nice selection of nostalgic images. Yes, I agree, you can tell they were from different times - a different world really.

    The first song I remember really loving and looking forward to hearing over and over on Radio 1 was The Moves's 'Fire Brigrade' - Roy Wood fascinated me - I thought his hair was fantastic and one of the most outrageous things I'd ever seen at that point!

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    1. Thanks A. Yes 'Fire Brigade' is a great anthemic, perky song, isn't it, I can imagine little boys all over the land loving it (and singing along) just for the words too. So you never tried having a Roy Wood style barnet yourself, then? Not even in the '70s...? ;-)

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  2. So... maybe there were people warning us subliminaly about the Man even then...as for first records, mine was a rather psychedelically multi coloured vinyl copy of...The Yellow Rose of Texas/Big Rock Candy Mountain, nothing so classy as The Kinks - I blame my father for the cowboy songs, but only myself for loving the disgusting plastic disc more than the songs !

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    1. I think you can be forgiven the song choice... and who could resist a piece psychedelically multi-coloured of vinyl, it looks so good when it spins around! Coloured vinyl was very in, it seems - I think my 'Pinky & Perky' may have been pink, come to think of it.

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  3. Beach Boys-Concert and Curtis Mayfield-Back to the World are the first records I remember putting on myself and playing.

    What strikes me about these old illustrations...that didn't occur to me then...is how good they are. I see it now in some of my Boy's books. Some of it's garbage but in others the drawings are really sharp like these...and you're own work.

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    1. Ah, your early record choices sound pretty hip, and from what you've said about your Boy liking Bo Diddley it's obviously rubbed off on him!

      The standard of children's illustration today is a huge subject - there's some fantastic stuff as you say and then some really shoddy work too. Thanks for the nice words. I've had it levelled at me that some of my work is 'old-fashioned' - and that can be a problem in such a commercial field, it's not what they want. But when I look at the lovely work I see from my own childhood books I try and convince myself that maybe 'old-fashioned' is not really such a bad thing..?

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    2. Those were my parents records so...

      The real treat was Saturday Night Downtown by Candle Light Records...Clarence Carter, Archie Veil and Drells, etc. Once I dug that one out it was over.

      "Old Fashioned!". I say classic. So, while whatever it is they want today...they'll trash tomorrow and you'll still be lookin good.

      Lookin' good never goes out of style.

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    3. All you say sounds good to me! Thanks.

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