Friday 30 July 2021

Tasker's post


Was going to do something different, but this is about something I've just watched.


CAN'T YOU HEAR MY HEARTBEAT


YouTube link: https://youtu.be/9keoxorV-ZI


On Sky Arts on Friday (UK Freeview 11), a brilliant 2009 documentary about Herman’s Hermits, the nineteen-sixties group many would now dismiss as forgettable and inconsequential.


Frontman Peter Noone, aged sixteen when they hit the big time, was given the brush off by the older Beatles and Rolling Stones as a performer of other people’s songs, and lectured by the opinionated Graham Nash for not using his popularity to further the causes of the common good. Yet they had a long stream of hits and were one of the most successful British bands of their era in the United States.


They were never going to produce a serious opus to influence the future of music. All they ever set out to do was to sing memorable hits. They did that so well. Their playing and harmonies were spot-on. It’s only when you’ve tried to play in a band yourself, it doesn’t matter what kind, that you begin to realise just how challenging that is.

8 comments:

  1. They generally were in the top forty. Now you've dealt me an earwig: I'm Henry the VIIIth, I am...

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  2. You reminded me to put "No milk today" on my grocery list, as a reminder to buy some.
    Today I have my "free day", the sun shines, might go to Nürnberg - feeling "I'm into Something Good".

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  3. He was so sweetly young, a reminder of days gone by in that grainy B/W video. Carefree days.

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  4. Along with many of my friends I loved Herman's Hermits, more than the Beatles or Stones. It wasn't done to admit it to everyone......would have made us look "square" to some! Even my mother approved of them!

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  5. Along with Freddie and the Dreamers, they weren’t my favourites but their music was part of my teenage years. XXXX

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  6. Thanks to Tom for posting my guest post and thanks to all who read and commented. I wouldn't have rated HH particularly well in the 60s and 70s, but the programme reminded me how memorable and singable their songs were, and on listening to them again, what good musicians they were. It was a truly uplifting documentary. I think all the original band members were in it. Peter Noone is now 73.

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  7. Sky Arts is a great channel dedicated to the arts including visual art, music, opera, documentaries, museums, classical, and art history and music history. I have paid for the channel for many years and now it is free to everyone. Thanks for the post Tasker and if some people discover Sky Arts as a result so much the better. I highly recommend it especially when all else fails in trying to find something to watch on tv.

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