John McKenna
speaker
61 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Jul 2026
last heard 13 Jul
John McKenna’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 1 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
A couple of the lads in school played guitar.
And as far as I could see, it was A, very easy, B, a lot handier to carry than a piano, and C, a magnet for girls.
And in the multiple choice that was my life as a 15-year-old, C was the oft-desired but seldom achieved answer to most things.
So, the guitar arrived and I discovered that not only could I not play it, I couldn't even tune it.
Eight months of cut fingers, attempted chord changes and total frustration reminded me of something I had taken five years to learn on a piano stool.
I can't, never could, and never will be able to really play an instrument.
By the time the summer holidays arrived, I was no further along the musical road than I had been the previous autumn.
But, and here's the important point, but there was now a girl on the scene.
Let me clarify, as far as I was concerned, she was on the scene.
The fact that she knew nothing about this was a minor matter.
She lived four doors up the road from us and I was anxious to make an impression on her.
We'll call her Kathleen, which is what her family called her too.
It seemed to me that music would be the language of love and that if she thought I could sing and play the guitar, she might consider going to the pictures with me or going for a walk or even talking to me.
I also knew that she passed my house most evenings on her way home from her summer job.
So the plan was hatched.
I had a Paul Simon album on which he sang one song with just a simple guitar backing.
And I, in my naivety and desperation, thought that if I sat outside the sitting room window, guitar in hand, with the record player hidden behind the curtain, and waited till I saw her turning the corner at the end of the road, reached in and put the needle in the groove, she'd be impressed by my singing and my playing as she passed.
And on that bright summer evening everything went to plan.
As Kathleen turned the corner, I slipped the needle onto the album.
Track two, Leaves That Are Green.
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