Monday 18 March 2024

The hold that she had

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

She didn't live in a meadow by a pond - she lived in a first-floor flat, not far from The Cross Keys, but that's far less poetic. Notwithstanding that, she certainly touched me for a moment, an impossibly high number of years ago. I have often thought of the Jonbar point she and I pivoted around, a quarter of a century or so ago, and the cost of my naïve misunderstanding. What might have been? We shall never know. Probably best not to even think about it, not if I want to sleep at nights.

What I do know is that today is her birthday. She doesn't read this blog, or even know of its existence, which is all that enables me to write the previous paragraph, and post this song. Happy birthday.

Tip the author

Friday 15 March 2024

The Cavalier years

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

If I've got this right (and that's by no means certain, given the challenges of scheduling posts months in advance), this evening will see Comic Relief on the Beeb. Now, I know you're not allowed to say this, because it's all for charidee, but not all the comedy on offer this evening will be that funny. So here's a 15-minute CR special from 1988, can you believe, that still is. Stephen Fry's King Charles is particularly enjoyable...

Cromwell: The moment has arrived. Are you ready to meet your maker?
King Charles: Well, I'm always absolutely fascinated to meet people from all walks of life but, er, yes, particularly manufacturing industry.

It's just snappy, quotable line after snappy, quotable line...

"...your family's record in the department of cunning planning is about as impressive as Stumpy Oleg McNoleg's personal best in the Market Harborough marathon..."

"...I'm a busy man and I can't be bothered to punch you at the moment. Here is my fist. Kindly run towards it as fast as you can."

Tip the authorThey don't make them like this any more, sadly.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Amazing

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

On this day in 1969, Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman. The BBC's news coverage of the day reported that "hundreds of people gathered outside the Marylebone Register Office to catch a glimpse of the couple as they arrived" and that "a dozen policemen were on hand to fend off enthusiastic teenagers, many of whom were distraught that the last remaining bachelor Beatle was tying the knot". Apparently the ceremony was delayed because the best man, Paul's brother Mike, was late - he had been travelling from Birmingham where he had been performing with his band, The Scaffold, the night before, and his train was delayed. Plus ça change, right?

Paul and Linda's marriage certainly endured, unlike so many others in showbusiness. And he wrote this ...

Baby, I'm amazed at the way you love me all the time
And maybe I'm afraid of the way I love you
Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time
You hung me on a line
Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you

Tip the authorWhat an absolute cracker, still. But blimey, Paul, you're making the rest of us look bad - a bunch of flowers from the 24-hr garage doesn't really measure up, does it?

Thursday 7 March 2024

Karaoke time

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Do you have a karaoke stand-by? Something you can manage a passable rendition of, should a microphone be forcefully pressed into your reluctant hand? I once, drunkenly, attempted Roxanne by The Police but that was a mistake - Sting's voice is very high in the chorus. REM, Bowie and Morrissey have provided me with safer ground, at various times. One thing's for sure, I have never been drunk enough to attempt Daltrey vocal gymnastics like this:

Ah. There's nothing I don't love about that clip. Anyway, here's how Baba O'Riley should be performed live - a track which remains a career highpoint for The Who, in my humble.

Tip the author

Sunday 3 March 2024

Places to go, people to see

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

If all goes to plan, by the time this post goes live this will be the state of my travel map. At a meagre 31 countries it's getting there, but there's still so far to go. Lucky international travel is so cheap these days, eh? Oh, hang on, it's ruinously expensive. Sigh.

Travel map

Of the many countries I haven't been to and you have, which would you most recommend, and why?Tip the author

Wednesday 28 February 2024

Elevation

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

I've written many times before about the fine margins that often separate a song, or a band, from being great or being also-rans. But what elevates a song, and makes it special? Can it just be one thing?

Ian McCulloch and, by extension Echo and the Bunnymen, grew out of a fertile late-70s Liverpool scene that gave us plenty that made it (Julian Cope and Pete Wylie being two further examples) and plenty that didn't (... er, the fact that I don't have examples illustrates how they have been forgotten). So how thin is the dividing line between being good and being great? Between being transient and lingering in the memory?

Example, you say?

Well, there was a fair amount of guitar-led indie jangle in 1984, much of it confined to the Recycle Bin of the mental hard drive. But Seven Seas doesn't just linger on, it still sounds fantastic. Why? What elevates it? Well, there are some lovely guitar motifs running through it, it has a catchy melody and the artfully odd lyrics help (we've all kissed a tortoise shell, right?) But what really elevates this song, for me, not just above most of the guitar-led indie jangle of the day but also above other Bunnymen output is Ian's understated vocal ululation at the end of each verse (for example, at about 39 seconds in, below).

Tip the author1984 was a good year for music, and this is right up there with the best of it all. Probably my favourite Bunnymen track too. What's yours?

Thursday 22 February 2024

I wasn't really sure what was going on

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Mother of god, this blog is nineteen years old today. Cue an obvious song. The impact of this, and the accompanying video, on the teenage me is hard to overstate - when this came out, it looked and sounded so completely new and fresh. I even taped the video off the TV (probably Top of the Pops), so I could watch and rewatch it on grainy VHS. It was just so different. Ironic, then, that I post it to celebrate the birthday of something that is basically the same, week in, week out. Whatever. Paul Hardcastle's 19 might have dated a bit, but the video remains powerful.

Unlike this blog, 19 was a global smash, as shown by Wikipedia below. It even did well in the US, despite the subject matter. Or maybe because of.

Global chart positions for '19' by Paul Hardcastle

Tip the author

Tuesday 20 February 2024

Not so little now

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Like I need an excuse for a spot of Gene...

Tip the author

Wednesday 14 February 2024

Waving flags. Probably a white one.

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

Sea Power are playing quite near to me, tonight. They're touring to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the album Do You Like Rock Music? which, you might recall, I like so much it's on the Every Home Should Have One masterlist. So naturally I'm going to the gig, right?

Well, I might be, I might not. Because February 14th is not a great date for telling your significant other that you're off out to a gig on your own. "Don't wait up, see you in the morning," all of that ...

So in case I don't make it, this is Waving Flags from that album I boringly drone on about so very often. Put your arm around someone you love and enjoy.

Tip the author

Monday 12 February 2024

First, last

Disclaimer: this post was written in December 2023, and scheduled for future posting. Its contents may no longer be accurate or appropriate.

I wrote once before (twelve years ago, somehow) about my love of Pulp's album His'n'Hers. It may be an unfashionable view but I prefer it to Different Class, good though that also is. With His'n'Hers, Pulp were getting there but still not massive; they still felt like they belonged to "us" rather than "them". Take the song below, Do You Remember The First Time?, extracted from the album as a single and released in March 1994, whereupon it peaked at number 33 in the chart. A career best for the band, to that point, but hardly setting the world alight, which seems crazy in retrospect: were there really 32 better songs being bought at the time? I'll save you a click, Doop by Doop was #1 that week, which tells you all you need to know (sorry but I'm not linking to that on principle).

Pulp even had a cracking video, though it seems slightly odd now to see Jarvis without glasses.

Fun fact, that (the song, not the video) was produced by Ed Buller, perhaps most famous, at that point, for his knob-twiddling activities with Suede. Anyway, fourteen months after the magnificence of the above, Britpop anthem (© every lazy music journalist, 90s club-night promoter and compilation compiler, ever since) Common People soared to #2 in the charts, and something changed (see what I did there?) But I still remember the first time...

Tip the authorP.S. Another fun fact: Pulp, like The Who, never had a number one single: Common People was held off the top spot by that anodyne cover of Unchained Melody by Robson & Jerome, for crying out loud; almost as hard to believe, double A-side Sorted For E'z and Wizz/Mis-shapes entered the chart at #2 but was held off by Simply Red's Fairground. Chart injustices to rival Joe Dolce...)