Black Owl


"Didn't know what time it was
the lights were low oh-oh,
I leaned back on my radio oh-oh."




It is always funny and a little bit sad to find old things at home.

We name this feeling "nostalgie".

I opened a small box and dicovered a lot of tapes. I recorded them when I was a teenager.

My parents get me old and they belong to the middle class. Nothing exceptionnal. But I had nothing to listen to music at home 'cause my father considered singers as lazy people who make noise.

Finally, my brother who was older and open minded, offered a radio-tape to me for Christmas in 1982. My parents considered I don't need money every weekend and preferred to give to me money only when I asked them. It wasn't a bad system but it was hard to save money to buy things like music tapes. I don't complain, I explain.

I belong to the "Let's Dance" generation and even if a lot of fans dislike this period 'cause it sounds "commercial" I must admit that I discovered David Bowie like that.

It is one of the positive aspects I suppose.

I was young and without money to buy "Let's Dance" tape... how I could I?

I had a lot of silly ideas like to steal it or to sing in a train to earn money... but I found the solution and even if my parents didn't pay the tape, they paid indirectly the phone!

Yes! I called a radio station every day to ask for Bowie songs. I wanted to recorded the whole album and I made a lot of dedications on the radio.

After a million of dedications, the man on the radio told me...

Radio Man: "How many times did you dedicate "Modern Love" today?"

Clownie: "Hmmm..... 15 times???"

Radio Man: "No! 20 times. I didn't know your grandmother liked this song so much!"

Clownie: "Well... in reality she is dead. I wanted to record it but it was the end of the tape and it didn't work. I had to do it again."

Radio Man: "What??? You try to record the album off the radio? It's crazy."

Clownie: "Yes I know. I must have "Modern Love" three times on the same tape but only the half of the song. And it's the same for the other songs... if I listen to my tape, I can hear pieces of the song and a special advertisement for buying a new Mercedes."

Radio Man: "It's horrible.... don't worry.... today you are lucky. You won the album "Let's Dance" and we will send it to you soon! Oh it's great!"

One week later, I received the album, I was very happy but.... the album was a vinyl. I had only a radio tape. Isn't it ironical?

Nowadays when I turn on my computer and when I see how many songs you can download on the Internet, I wonder if I am real?


Black Owl.
June 2003.