Occassionally I have the experience of reading a book which has a sort of internal sound track as I’m reading it and it has happened with the book which I’m reading at the moment. It’s The Long View by Elizabeth Jane Howard, and almost from the beginning I’ve been hearing Under My Thumb – as I read it, over and over again! I hope to finish the book tonight and write about it tomorrow sometime.

As I am the youngest in a large family I had a lot of teenage siblings who were into – The Beatles (girls) and The Rolling Stones (boys), when I was just a wee thing. So being a girly it was The Beatles for me and when I asked Jack – who did Under My Thumb? (why Google when you have a Jack to ask?) – he said The Rolling Stones of course! Well actually, being Jack he said The Strolling Bones, but I knew what he meant and I was gobsmacked, because I had always thought that it had been done by a Motown group.

Anyroad up – I got on to You Tube to see what was available and I couldn’t resist putting two on, the performances are 40 years apart and sadly the line ups are obviously quite different, and on that note, did you know that Brian Jones bought Cotchford Farm which had belonged to AA Milne who wrote most of the Winnie the Pooh books there? That was where Brian died.

Jack immediately said – oh Kathy McGowan, Ready, Steady, Go – well I can’t remember her at all, I’m one of the Top of the Pops generation. Have a look at the 1966 version, obviously they hadn’t got around to lassooing the crowd with a big rope to keep them under control. The guys are having a tough time holding them back.

This version is from 2006, what a difference 40 years makes. Keith looks as if he has just been switched off when they get to the end. It reminded me that I haven’t got around to reading his autobiography yet.

Anyway I just thought I would share with you what has been going around in my head for days now. Do you ever get invaded by songs or tunes whilst you are reading?