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Sunday, December 6, 2020

Alan Freeman Days

I had been listening to Alan Freeman Days on daily basis recently. The song sung by the late Robin Gibb was upbeat and the lyrics told a beautiful story of a bygone era. The three lines below were... captivating.

The magic would emerge
On Radio Luxembourg
That I heard back when I was younger

People listen to Spotify these days. At the very least, you can search and play the songs you'd like to hear on YouTube. We don't even really talk about downloading songs anymore as we're so used to streaming music now.  That's how advanced we are today.

Track #3: Alan Freeman Days.

What most of us would have taken for granted was non-existent back then. In the 50s, teenagers in UK would listen to Radio Luxembourg, the only station that played something new and exciting at that time: rock n' roll. Yes, it was Radio Luxembourg (and Alan Freeman was the deejay), because BBC didn't play this kind of music. Bad though the reception might be, it was through Radio Luxembourg that youngsters first heard of Chuck Berry, Little Richard and, of course, Elvis Presley.

It might be hard to imagine now, but it was a big deal. Prior to rock n' roll, what they had was the Great American Songbook. Stuff like Bye Bye Blackbird, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Moon River. Try listening to these songs and you'd know why rock n' roll mattered. The latter was wild and the singers looked hip (though this wasn't the case for Bill Haley, haha). Simply put, it was nothing like what they'd heard and seen before. 

The Beatles in Australia, 1964. 
Source: 
https://www.manningrivertimes.com.au/

Four out of so many listeners of Radio Luxembourg would become the Beatles. When John, Paul, George and Ringo came to Australia in 1964, they were so well received. Around 300 thousands people turned up to see them. Robin and his brothers were living in Australia at that time and the arrival of the Beatles was an eye-opener. It was like seeing the messiah and it reaffirmed what they always wanted to do: music.

Fast forward to the future, when Robin wrote and sang these lines, they meant a lot to fans like me:

And with Lennon and Bolan gone
And the music their memoriam
And the past is part of all our lives
And my brother Maurice is staying alive

Bolan was Marc Bolan, famous for a song called Get It On. Lennon was, of course, John Lennon. To hear Robin sang about him was very surreal. Just like many of us, Robin was a fan of John, too. Indeed the music was their memoriam. Long after he'd gone, his music was an everlasting legacy for us. Then finally Robin mentioned about his twin brother Maurice within the same sentence that used the phrase staying alive. If you were a Bee Gees fan, it would make you smile. It was bittersweet.


This then got me thinking about the guessing game I had a while ago with my highs school friends via our chat group. Funny how some of us couldn't remember the song titles from our time, but could guess correctly older songs such as Leaving on a Jet Plane. I reckon songs in the 80s and 90s were good, but those written in the 60s and 70s? They were meant to last forever.

If you never heard of Alan Freeman and Radio Luxembourg before, I hope you learnt something from the brief history above. Without people like him, we wouldn't have artists like the Beatles and the Bee Gees. Without them, we wouldn't have the old songs we know and love today. It would have been a very different world if we never had Alan Freeman Days in the 50s...



Alan Freeman Days

Belakangan ini saya hampir setiap hari mendengarkan lagu Alan Freeman Days. Lagu yang dinyanyikan mendiang Robin Gibb ini pas temponya dan liriknya bercerita tentang sebuah kisah di masa silam. Tiga baris berikut ini sungguh membuat saya menerawang kembali: 

The magic would emerge
On Radio Luxembourg
That I heard back when I was younger

Sekarang ini Spotify adalah cara paling mutakhir dalam mendengarkan lagu. Bila anda tidak menggunakan Spotify, anda masih bisa mencari dan memutar lagu favorit anda di YouTube. Zaman sekarang orang bahkan tidak lagi mengunduh lagu, sebab semua sudah terbiasa mendengarkan langsung lewat internet. 

Track #3: Alan Freeman Days.

Apa yang mungkin kita anggap lumrah ini sama sekali tidak terbayangkan dulu. Di tahun 50an, para remaja di Inggris sibuk menyetel radio untuk menangkap siaran Radio Luxembourg, satu-satunya stasiun yang menyiarkan sesuatu yang baru dan asyik pada masa itu: rock n' roll. Ya, Radio Luxembourg (dan Alan Freeman adalah DJ-nya), sebab BBC tidak memutar rock n' roll. Meski terkadang buruk sinyalnya, lewat Radio Luxembourg inilah para remaja pertama kali mendengarkan Chuck Berry, Little Richard dan tentu saja Elvis Presley.

Anda mungkin susah membayangkan betapa pentingnya hal ini. Sebagai informasi, sebelum rock n' roll, apa yang biasa diputar di radio adalah lagu-lagu the Great American Songbook, misalnya Bye Bye Blackbird, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Moon River. Anda coba dengarkan lagu-lagu ini dan anda bisa mengerti kenapa rock n' roll memiliki daya tarik tersendiri bagi remaja pada saat itu. Musiknya jelas lebih liar dan mantap untuk berjingkrak. Penyanyinya pun lebih muda dan menarik (walau tidak demikian halnya untuk Bill Haley, haha). Secara singkat, rock n' roll itu berbeda dengan apa yang pernah mereka dengar dan lihat sebelumnya. 

The Beatles di Australia, 1964. 
Sumber: https://www.manningrivertimes.com.au/

Empat dari begitu banyak pendengar Radio Luxembourg ini kelak menjadi the Beatles. Ketika John, Paul, George dan Ringo tur ke Australia di tahun 1964, mereka disambut sekitar 300 ribu penggemar yang tumpah-ruah di jalan. Robin, Barry dan Maurice saat itu tinggal di Australia dan kedatangan the Beatles membuka pandangan mereka. Rasanya seperti melihat mesias dan mereka pun menjadi yakin bahwa bermusik adalah jalan hidup mereka.  

Berpuluh-puluh tahun kemudian, ketika Robin menulis dan menyanyikan bait berikut ini, suaranya menyentuh hati penggemar seperti saya:

And with Lennon and Bolan gone
And the music their memoriam
And the past is part of all our lives
And my brother Maurice is staying alive

Bolan adalah Marc Bolan yang terkenal dengan lagu Get It On. Lennon tentu saja John Lennon. Ada kesan tersendiri saat mendengar Robin bernyanyi tentang John. Seperti halnya kita, Robin juga seorang penggemar. Benar katanya bahwa musik John adalah kenangan yang abadi tentang dirinya. Kemudian Robin bernyanyi tentang saudara kembarnya Maurice dalam kalimat yang juga menyertakan frase staying alive. Jika anda adalah penggemar Bee Gees, kesengajaan Robin ini akan membuat anda tersenyum.


Saya lantas teringat dengan permainan tebak lagu yang saya adakan beberapa waktu lalu di grup chat teman SMA. Lucu juga rasanya bahwa lagu-lagu dari generasi kita ternyata tidak diingat dengan baik judulnya. Yang lebih berkesan di ingatan teman-teman justru tembang lawas seperti Leaving on a Jet Plane. Lagu-lagu tahun 80an dan 90an memang bagus, tapi yang ditulis di dekade 60an dan 70an? Lagu-lagu ini akan bertahan selamanya.

Jika sebelum ini anda tidak tahu tentang Alan Freeman dan Radio Luxembourg, saya harap sejarah singkat di atas membuka wawasan anda. Tanpa orang seperti Alan, kita tidak akan memiliki musisi seperti the Beatles dan Bee Gees. Tanpa grup-grup musik ini, kita tidak akan mendengar lagu lama yang enak di telinga dan kita cintai. Akhir kata, dunia ini akan sangat berbeda jika bintang seperti Robin tidak pernah mengalami Alan Freeman Days di tahun 50an...


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