Ah, the memories!
Sparked this time by a soundtrack emailed by our daughter Ashley. She had heard a song on the radio as she drove to work at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
Her email said, “I thought you would enjoy this.” I did. It was the soundtrack from the ballet Spartacus: Adagio of Spartacus and Phyrgia by Aram Kachaturyan.
Now before those of you who know me start rolling your eyes, let me explain.
Kachaturyan’s great work was also the sound track for one of our favorite TV shows in the early seventies. The show was called the Onedin Line. It was about all the intrigues of a family-owned shipping company in the 1860s in Liverpool. It always opened with Spartacus playing in the background.
The Onedin Line was our Bonanza. We watched every moment of every episode. And the theme music stuck with me.
I wasn’t aware I was now cultured.
In later years I was trying to find the soundtrack to no avail. On a trip to Dundee I went in to a music shop in the Wellgate and asked if they had the soundtrack to the Onedin Line. The young man handed me a cassette with Spartacus written on it in a very flowery font and with Kachaturyan’s picture on the back.
I know I date myself with the word “cassette,” but I was sure that couldn’t be right because my TV show wasn’t anyway classical.
But the young man in the shop assured me it was the right one. And it was.
I think I eventually wore out that tape listening to the Onedin Line, becoming even more cultured as I went.
Thanks Ashley for the memories.