Why Lust And Me, Were No Teenagers In Love!

It seems to me that everyone seems to have a song from their teenage years that reminds them of a lost, innocent love. The song that was playing when you first met, or the song that caused you heartache when the romance was over.

I'm now hoping that none of the girls that I went out with, or had a fling with, ever reads this, but I don't. I would go as far as saying that, when I was a teenager, I would have told a girl anything she wanted to hear if it meant that she would sleep with me! I don't think that I was the only teenage boy in the whole world that thought like that! But whenever I 'fess' up to this, women really give me earache about it, saying what a horrible creep I must have been. Can't argue with that. But it doesn't change the way I felt at the time. The songs that the girls loved, from Donny Osmond, David Cassidy, or David Essex were not for young male consumption. I liked prog rock, you can't tell a girl that 'The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway' is our tune! So I usually plucked a song from the charts and told them a lie.

The reason I'm telling you this is because I have a sneaking suspicion that lots of girls felt the same way that I did. In the 'seventies, girls couldn't openly admit to loving sex and feeling that they needed it, this wasn't the done thing: there were names for girls like that back then. When I was a teenager, girls wouldn't ask a boy out like they do now. They played hard to get, but told their friends to let you know that they were interested.

There was a protocol to observe. A young man could only dream of meeting a girl who would have sex with him on the first date. First dates were for holding hands and kissing only! After a week or so you could touch a breast with clothes on, but you had to work up to getting inside the bra. The promise was enough to keep a young man interested. I didn't have much of an attention span, I'm afraid. I tried to get as many girlfriends as possible at the same time, to hedge my bets. I have since talked to women that did the same thing with lads that I did with girls. Why didn't I know them then?

Although there's lots of songs from those days that mean quite a lot to me, none of them is associated with a romance. But what does bring out the nostalgia in this old cynical heart is theme tunes to the TV shows we used to watch as kids. Thunderbirds and its iconic opening countdown. Stingray and 'Marina'. The Banana Splits, and the ultimate, Batman. The old 'sixties TV show of Batman was the thing that my mate Mick and myself waited for all week. I thought it was a serious thriller when I was an eight year old. I thought my father was a seriously sick bunny when he would often laugh at the predicaments that Batman found himself in. And who could forget 'Indestructible Captain Scarlet' and the Mysterons; this was really scary shit to an eight year old boy from Northern England! If I hear any of these theme tunes now it immediately takes me back to those days and makes me smile. There were other programs that I remember, but not the theme tunes. I wonder if anyone else remembers, ' Four Feather Falls, which I think was one of Gerry Anderson's first shows before Thunderbirds?

Our parents had the Saturday morning cinema, with shows like Tarzan, etc. We were the first generation to have TV. Each generation will have their own programmes. My son's generation loved the Ninja Turtles and the first Power Rangers. My granddaughter will no doubt wax lyrical over Peppa Pig and The Night Garden, which is one of her obsessions. When she hears these theme tunes, like the theme tunes from my past, she will be transported back in time to when she was young. That is the power of music: it can make you laugh, cry, think or just 'party down'! Once we have registered it as part of our lives it is with us for ever. We all have songs we shouldn't like but do. Mine's 'Matrimony' by Gilbert O' Sullivan, but whatever you do don't tell anyone!

My teenage years were not really about love for me, so the songs that I remember were more about being rebellious, Matrimony wasn't one of those songs, by the way! I like this song because it reminds me of one particular drunken night. You see, that's the power of music it has the ability to give you back a brief snapshot of your former self. There are of course songs which can reduce you to tears. Some that were favourites of people no longer here can have me in tears with just the opening bars!

Most of the women of my age remember songs because they had a crush on the singers but with the exception of Lynsey De Paul and Kate Bush, I can't remember any other female artists that I really fancied. I might have been a creep, but I wasn't a fool. I know that I would have had no chance with them, so why waste my time?

So when you've finished reading this, think back to your favourite tune, and hopefully in these austere times it may bring a smile to your face, as writing this has to mine.