David Oke
Geelong, and Point Lonsdale Caravan Park, 1974
Oh I finally decide my future lies beyond the Yellow Brick Road
It would be unusual that an Elton John song could be viewed as a song of rebellion. Way back in 1974 that song, and that marvellous album of the same title, led me off in a direction differing to the path of my elders.
I grew up in a household that was musically set in Beethoven and other classical music, Gilbert and Sullivan, brass band records, male choral music and Methodist hymns.
Mum was a piano teacher who taught lessons after school in our lounge room to many private students. She was a well-known soprano and alto in the musical circles around Geelong, and conductor of our church choir. She was a child prodigy as a pianist and won awards at the Melbourne Town Hall for piano performance.
Mum conducting the Noble St church choir, 1978.
Dad was in the church choir too. He was virtually a founding member of the International Harvester Male Chorus. As England was famous for its brass bands in industry, the International Harvester Company, which produced agricultural machinery, had a male choir that performed a repertoire of songs