Double A-Sided blog post - 'Fiction Fridays' / 'Music as Therapy'

This is a Double A-Sided meme blog post featuring 'Fiction Fridays' and 'Music as Therapy'.
 
Side A1 will feature a favourite book of mine that I read my kids and Side A2 is something that I've been meme-ing to do for ages (“ha ha! Did you see that?! He said 'meme-ing' instead of ‘meaning’ because they are both memes! This guy is brilliant!" "Thanks mum").
 
Before we get to the main event though ("get on with it!" "sorry, dad"), in true muso style, I'd firstly like to talk about 'Double A-Sides' as frankly it's not a term you hear much nowadays is it?!
 
And what were they all about anyway?! If there are any Music Execs reading (I very much doubt it!), I'd love to know.
 
Was it because each song wasn't strong enough to stand up on its own so it needed a back up? Was it to get more radio airtime - potentially on different stations if the songs were different styles? Was it because the Record Company was so indecisive that they thought ‘Sod it - let’s put them both out!’?
 
I would love to have been at a Record Company meeting years ago where someone piped up with "do you know what? I think we should make this a double A-sided single". Everyone probably nodded in agreement without questioning it (apart from Norman, the most junior member of staff present). "But why?" asked Norman, "Erm...'cause I said so. Now where’s my tea?!"
 
Right, I'm going to Google it and find out!

Oh, erm…”The practice was introduced by The Beatles (who are they when they’re at home?! ‘Fly by nights’!) in 1965 for their single ‘Day Tripper’ which appeared on the same single as ‘We can work it out’".

Okay, fair enough. I love The Beatles and they were ‘fairly’ successful but tell me ‘Wikipedia’, why did they do this?

“That’s a very good question, Simon” (blimey, ‘Wikipedia’ has turned into Nina from ‘Nina and the Neurons!’) “Well, occasionally double A-sided singles are released with each side targeting a different market – for example, Dolly Parton released double A-sides where one song was targeted to pop radio and the other side to country”.

Thanks Wikipedia.  I did sort of imply that above, don’t you read my blog? “No, I don’t. I think it’s rubbish”.
 
Okay, fair enough.  Right, moving swiftly on…
 
Side A1 - 'Fiction Fridays : The Magic Faraway Tree’

My choice for this week is ‘The Magic Faraway Tree’.  I never really knew about this series of books when I was little.  I was more into Enid Blyton’s ‘Castle of Adventure’ and ‘Secret Seven’ books instead so when my wife purchased this for O. I thought ‘great’ as it was completely new to me as well.

O. is really getting into older kids’ books now. We currently also have ‘Mary Poppins’, the first ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘The Folk of the Faraway Tree’ on the go at the moment but this is probably her favourite.

Even though the founders of Google state that the company name came about from a misspelling of googol, I like to think that it is really because they were read this when they were younger and were familiar with the ‘Google buns’ in it.

Anyway the opening paragraph (sorry @homedad, I’m breaking the rules here!) is - "Once upon a time there were three children, Joe, Beth and Frannie. They lived with their mother and father in a little cottage deep in the country. They had to help their parents both in the house and in the garden, as there was lots to do”.

Please note that musodad has never used this opening paragraph as an example to his children that they should help his wife and him out more around the home. Okay, I admit, I did do it once but Moon-Face made me.

 
Side A2 – ‘Music as Therapy’
 
As I mentioned earlier, ‘Music as Therapy’ is also a meme. I was tagged in this meme by the rather wonderful @SAHDandproud (cheers fella) and I’ve been really excited about doing it for weeks (24 days in fact – it’s been in my Twitter favourites for that long), I just haven’t had time.  But, here it is, finally!

‘Music as Therapy’ was originally thought up by @mammywoo. One evening, once her child was in bed, she ‘plugged herself into her music library and chose three songs that she had recently heard and enjoyed and felt touched by and copied down the lyrics that spoke to her’.

She tagged a number of bloggers in the post and it eventually got to me.  This was the brief to the other bloggers :

Pick 3 beautiful songs, 3 different bands and 3 sets of lyrics that touch you in any way you want to show.

Here are my 3 choices :

1.              “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys

This was our first dance song at our Wedding so it is obviously very dear to my heart.

I think the lyric ‘God only knows what I’d be without you’ says it all really.

Here’s the song on You Tube :

2.              “We all need love” by Tim Burgess

I first moved in with my wife in April 2003. Two days after we moved in together, due to a pre-planned holiday with my friends, I buggered off and left her alone in our new flat and went travelling around Scotland for a week in a camper van! I look back now and wonder what the hell I was thinking but, after almost 9 years, I think she has nearly forgiven me…

Anyway, we played the album ‘I Believe’ by Tim Burgess loads on that holiday and as we were making the long trip back to London on the last night the lyrics “I need to spend some time with you, my love” really hit home as I was missing her so much.

3 years later I returned to Scotland, with my wife this time, and asked her to marry me next to a waterfall near Loch Lomond. Thankfully she said “yes”. Great memories.

The song isn’t on You Tube but here’s a Spotify link if you use it and want to have a listen :

TIM BURGESS – WE ALL NEED LOVE

3.              “Wilder” by The Boo Radleys

I love the Boo Radleys, they are one of my favourite bands of all time and I can really relate to a lot of their lyrics.  The lyric I’ve chosen though is from this song. 

Sometimes it's all about the simple things in life and as long as you’ve got your family and friends, why should anything else matter?

The lyric I have chosen, which never fails to make my spine tingle, is “If I were much wiser, maybe I would realise that it’s not where you are, it’s who you’re with”.  Beautiful.

Here’s the song on You Tube :

So, that’s it.  Hope you enjoyed reading my Double A-Sided blog post as much as I enjoyed writing it.  To end though, I am going to tag 5 people - 2 dad bloggers, 2 mum bloggers and 1 soon-to-be music blogger who I know will like the ‘Music as Therapy’ meme and hopefully blog about their 3 songs.  Oh, and while you’re at it, give @homedad’s ‘Fiction Fridays’ a bash as well – details are here : Fiction Fridays

I am tagging :

2 dad bloggers – @himupnorth and @infantisaurus01

2 mum bloggers – @lisajarmin and @stressymummy 

The soon-to-be music blogger - @stevenswift