Taita Town from Tu Tangata by Piripi Whaanga Whanau

Like with most adolescents, music provided the feeling, some rich colours in my growing-up. Mum said music was always there in the background, when I was doing homework or other stuff around the house. We had no portable transistors. Later on at night we gathered round the radiogram to listen to radio serials like ‘Life with Dexter’ and ‘The Clithero Kid.’ I thought having your own radio receiver, like a friend’s Crystal Set in his bedroom, was really flash.
Pito in the Maori language means the end of something and refers to the belly button as the end of the navel cord. One is pronounced oone and means earth or in this case the sandy end of the Hutt Valley where Pito-one is located.
The English word, Petone, is a bastardisation of the Maori word).
I sang right back then in my Taita town days. I’m not sure if we even had a car radio when we finally did get a car. This was when I was eleven or twelve. By then I had learned that music could be carried in the head. Perhaps this lack of portability worked in my favour.

Tracklist

12.	Taita Town	3:15

Lyrics

“I remember Dexter Dutton, like I remember the Clithero Kid, faceless voices from my fifties childhood, I keep hid.
It all comes back so clearly now, the Hutt line from the train. It all comes back so dreary now,
Petone in the rain, we’d say Pet One for a game, but now it’s Pito-one in the rain.”
Taita Town 1998

Credits

from Tu Tangata, released August 19, 2014

License