Vivek, one of my walking companions, who is originally from Mumbai, sometimes whistles happy Indian tunes as we walk along. Also, whenever he feels so inclined, he whistles with the aim of attracting bush turkeys along the path. His whistling makes me think back to my life back in Holland, many years ago, and to my friend, Bert, who also whistled.
In one of my earlier blog posts, published last year and titled “There is Music in the Air” (Post 2), I wrote about the “Zamagis”, a group of young friends, who met regularly in the sunroom of my parents’ house to make music together. Included in this group were my best friend, Bert, and my eldest sister, Ria. Bert and Ria later married and moved to Canada, where they lived for more than 60 years. Bert passed away in November 2022 and Ria followed him 2 months later. To honour their shared story, I wrote about them in “Memories of Ria” (Post 14) last October.
Bert’s instrument was the guitar but his main claim to fame was his ability to whistle beautiful tunes on his fingers. He did this very well and we, as well as everyone in the audience, thought he was a star! My memories of this special talent which he had have led me to recall yet another whistler, Roger Whittaker, whose music I have listened to and enjoyed for many years. Today’s story is all about him.
Roger Whittaker is someone whom I have always admired and identified with. He and people like my grandfather, Opa Piet, and the actor, comedian and writer Michael Palin, have been my personal heroes for a long time. I hope to write about Opa Piet at some future time and also about Michael Palin.
Roger Whitaker was, much like Bert and Vivek, a virtuoso whistler. He came to the attention of music lovers in 1967 by winning an annual song contest in Belgium, whistling the song, “Mexican Whistler”. He also had a beautiful baritone voice and he used it to sing gentle folk songs which became world famous. “The Last Farewell” (which I have used as the title of this story)is one of his most famous. I really like the lyrics of this song:
There’s a ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor
Tomorrow for old England she sails
Far away from your land of endless sunshine
To my land full of rainy skies and gales
And I shall be aboard that ship tomorrow
Though my heart is full of tears at this farewell
For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell
For you are beautiful, and I have loved you dearly
More dearly than the spoken word can tell
I heard there’s a wicked war a-blazing
And the taste of war I know so very well
Even now I see the foreign flag a-raising
Their guns on fire as we sail into Hell
I have no fear of death, it brings no sorrow
But how bitter will be this last farewell
For you are beautiful……….
Though death and darkness gather all about me
And my ship be torn apart upon the seas
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
In the heaving waves that brought me once to thee
And should I return home safe again to England
I shall watch the English mist roll through the dale
For you are beautiful………
“Durham Town”, “I don’t believe in It anymore” and “New World in the Morning” are other very well-known ones. I’ve read that Roger Whittaker sold more than 60 million records.
Maybe I have felt some connection with him because he was born in Nairobi in Kenya in 1936, exactly 1 month after I was born, and he died in France in September last year, aged 87. His parents were English and had moved to Kenya, where his father was murdered, and his mother was tortured by a gang and left for dead during the Mau Mau rebellion there.
Roger Whittaker called himself the “wandering minstrel” and that was who he was. I was drawn to his music because I just loved the melodies, his mellow voice and, of course, the lyrics. He released 25 albums in Germany and the Germans called him their “favourite Englishman”. His songs strongly reminded me of the war years.
During that war (World War II) we used to listen to the official radio programs transmitted via cable to our occupied country. The advantage of this system was that it was cheap. The disadvantage was that the system was completely controlled by the Germans. I remember the popular German “schlager” music, with its happy-go-lucky and catchy tunes and melodies. My father, although he did not love the Germans, still enjoyed this type of music and he continued to love it even after the war. Roger Whittaker’s German language songs are a bit like those songs, and, for me, they bring back many memories.
People like Vivek, Roger Whittaker and my friend Bert, who have entertained us with their singing and whistling, sound like happy people to me. Vivek is the only one still with us today and I am grateful that his presence, walking along the waterfront in Sandgate, made me remember some of the beautiful lyrics and melodies which I enjoyed so much in the past.
O.P.
P.S. Next Sunday’s blog post will be about a Crocodile Longtom, caught off the Shorncliffe pier, and about rock fishing and smoked eel.