I Wanna Be Adored - Part 3

• Late night parties in the Bedlam in Edinburgh always featured the Passenger (Iggy Pop), as well as Shipbuilding again.

 

• Simple Minds played a cracking gig at Edinburgh’s Coasters, a roller-disco that hosted serious bands at night; they were playing New Gold Dream.  Another gig at Coasters was Lloyd Cole & the Commotions: before Rattlesnakes was released, but they played it all, wonderful pop music.

 

• The record to change my life: I bought A Love Supreme cheap, in a sale in a record shop down the Royal Mile.  Playing it was a revelation: suddenly modern jazz seemed to make sense.  (Do I really need to say that it was by John Coltrane?  No, I didn’t think so.)

 

• I played the Waterboys’ In A Pagan Place incessantly whilst driving around the Scottish Highlands; the big sound suited the bleak, barren beauty of the landscape of the far north.

 

• Travelling to New Caledonia, two tunes stuck in my mind: Charlotte Street by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, and East of Eden by Big Country.  I climbed Mt Dzumac, chanting the theme and the drum break in Charlotte St.  (New Caledonia had a revolt whilst I was there; it is one of the three places in the world where I have had guns pointed at me.)

 

• The Waterboys’ the Whole of the Moon makes me think of an brief, passionate and fun affair I had; and Jewel/Duel (Propaganda) is the tune I used to walk to, hurrying to her flat across the Meadows.  Which was all a bit stupid really, since I was in a relationship with someone else at the time.

 

• So when the main relationship came to its inevitable end, I consoled myself with the Commotions’ Easy Pieces and the Jesus & Mary Chain’s surf-punk Psychocandy.  I can’t listen to Easy Pieces – it is a very blue record, lacking the uplifting spirit of Rattlesnakes.  Psychocandy, however, is timeless.

 

• In April 1988, I was visiting a friend in New York (why does D have no song of her own?); listening to one of the jazz stations, they mentioned Gil Evans’ memorial service at the jazz chapel on 52nd St.  Porgy and Bess was the only work of Evans’ I knew; I went along to the church anyhow – mostly hoping to catch a glimpse of Miles.  Instead, I listened to Gil’s Monday Night Orchestra producing a glorious sound, including Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Mingus’ tribute to the memory of Prez.  This mournful tune brings back memories of a foggy New York Easter, and discovering the brilliant sound of Gil Evans.

 

• Another girl told me that every time I listen to the First of a Million Kisses by Fairground Attraction, I would think of her.  Unfortunately, she was right.  So I haven’t listened to it since she dumped me.

 

• Back to Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, which also brings back memories of my father’s illness, of me walking through damp London streets, whistling the tune in the autumn rain.

 

• At my father’s memorial service, a quartet played Ellington’s In A Sentimental Mood; happy-sad.

 

• In a different mood: a couple of years later, walking along Belsize Avenue, the Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored blaring on my walkman.  Such noise!  Another candidate for the perfect pop song – just two and a half lines, but such powerful emotions.  Perfect.

 

• And similarly, walking through Brussels art deco streets, listening to Primal Scream’s Screamadelic.

 

• Now back in Edinburgh, Monk’s Bemsha Swing recalls a crowded gig at Henry’s Jazz Cellar by EST a few years ago, where they got the whole audience to sing a long; corny but wonderful.  (And they really are a superb band live – the more intimate setting the better.)

I think I am going to leave it there.  There are far, far too many songs.

Temptation - Part 2

So where was I?

• Maybe this doesn’t count, but I remember buying my first jazz LP at Garon’s Records in the covered market in Oxford.  I already had a few jazz LPs, given to me by my father, but the first one I bought myself was the Birth of the Cool (Miles Davis, or more precisely the Miles Davis – Gerry Mulligan Nonet).  I still have the LP; just recently I got the remastered CD, too.  It was pure fluke that my first jazz LP was such an auspicious purchase: I simply recognised Davis’ name.

 

• Dancing manically at C’s twenty first birthday party to Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart.

 

• On a trip to see friends in Cambridge and staying up all night playing Echo & the Bunnymen’s Over the Wall.

 

• Splitting up from C, I played Closer (Joy Division) obsessively; such cheerful music.  Thank god I didn’t have any Leonard Cohen.

 

• Shipbuilding (either version – Costello’s, or the original by Robert Wyatt) has me sitting in A and A's flat in Kingston Road with its pockmarked kitchen wall, watching TV news reports come back from the Falklands war; grateful the UK no longer had conscription.  How things have changed in the last twenty years.

 

• Temptation (New Order) takes me back to eights week in 1982; I bought it as a present for the girl with electric blue eyes.  I think I still have it, somewhere, so I guess I never gave it to her.  (There was no romance here.  Honest.)

I Wanna Be Adored - Part 3

• Late night parties in the Bedlam in Edinburgh always featured the Passenger (Iggy Pop), as well as Shipbuilding again.

 

• Simple Minds played a cracking gig at Edinburgh’s Coasters, a roller-disco that hosted serious bands at night; they were playing New Gold Dream.  Another gig at Coasters was Lloyd Cole & the Commotions: before Rattlesnakes was released, but they played it all, wonderful pop music.

 

• The record to change my life: I bought A Love Supreme cheap, in a sale in a record shop down the Royal Mile.  Playing it was a revelation: suddenly modern jazz seemed to make sense.  (Do I really need to say that it was by John Coltrane?  No, I didn’t think so.)

 

• I played the Waterboys’ In A Pagan Place incessantly whilst driving around the Scottish Highlands; the big sound suited the bleak, barren beauty of the landscape of the far north.

 

• Travelling to New Caledonia, two tunes stuck in my mind: Charlotte Street by Lloyd Cole & the Commotions, and East of Eden by Big Country.  I climbed Mt Dzumac, chanting the theme and the drum break in Charlotte St.  (New Caledonia had a revolt whilst I was there; it is one of the three places in the world where I have had guns pointed at me.)

 

• The Waterboys’ the Whole of the Moon makes me think of an brief, passionate and fun affair I had; and Jewel/Duel (Propaganda) is the tune I used to walk to, hurrying to her flat across the Meadows.  Which was all a bit stupid really, since I was in a relationship with someone else at the time.

 

• So when the main relationship came to its inevitable end, I consoled myself with the Commotions’ Easy Pieces and the Jesus & Mary Chain’s surf-punk Psychocandy.  I can’t listen to Easy Pieces – it is a very blue record, lacking the uplifting spirit of Rattlesnakes.  Psychocandy, however, is timeless.

 

• In April 1988, I was visiting a friend in New York (why does D have no song of her own?); listening to one of the jazz stations, they mentioned Gil Evans’ memorial service at the jazz chapel on 52nd St.  Porgy and Bess was the only work of Evans’ I knew; I went along to the church anyhow – mostly hoping to catch a glimpse of Miles.  Instead, I listened to Gil’s Monday Night Orchestra producing a glorious sound, including Goodbye Pork Pie Hat – Mingus’ tribute to the memory of Prez.  This mournful tune brings back memories of a foggy New York Easter, and discovering the brilliant sound of Gil Evans.

 

• Another girl told me that every time I listen to the First of a Million Kisses by Fairground Attraction, I would think of her.  Unfortunately, she was right.  So I haven’t listened to it since she dumped me.

 

• Back to Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, which also brings back memories of my father’s illness, of me walking through damp London streets, whistling the tune in the autumn rain.

 

• At my father’s memorial service, a quartet played Ellington’s In A Sentimental Mood; happy-sad.

 

• In a different mood: a couple of years later, walking along Belsize Avenue, the Stone Roses’ I Wanna Be Adored blaring on my walkman.  Such noise!  Another candidate for the perfect pop song – just two and a half lines, but such powerful emotions.  Perfect.

 

• And similarly, walking through Brussels art deco streets, listening to Primal Scream’s Screamadelic.

 

• Now back in Edinburgh, Monk’s Bemsha Swing recalls a crowded gig at Henry’s Jazz Cellar by EST a few years ago, where they got the whole audience to sing a long; corny but wonderful.  (And they really are a superb band live – the more intimate setting the better.)

I think I am going to leave it there.  There are far, far too many songs.

Temptation - Part 2

So where was I?

• Maybe this doesn’t count, but I remember buying my first jazz LP at Garon’s Records in the covered market in Oxford.  I already had a few jazz LPs, given to me by my father, but the first one I bought myself was the Birth of the Cool (Miles Davis, or more precisely the Miles Davis – Gerry Mulligan Nonet).  I still have the LP; just recently I got the remastered CD, too.  It was pure fluke that my first jazz LP was such an auspicious purchase: I simply recognised Davis’ name.

 

• Dancing manically at C’s twenty first birthday party to Joy Division’s Love Will Tear Us Apart.

 

• On a trip to see friends in Cambridge and staying up all night playing Echo & the Bunnymen’s Over the Wall.

 

• Splitting up from C, I played Closer (Joy Division) obsessively; such cheerful music.  Thank god I didn’t have any Leonard Cohen.

 

• Shipbuilding (either version – Costello’s, or the original by Robert Wyatt) has me sitting in A and A's flat in Kingston Road with its pockmarked kitchen wall, watching TV news reports come back from the Falklands war; grateful the UK no longer had conscription.  How things have changed in the last twenty years.

 

• Temptation (New Order) takes me back to eights week in 1982; I bought it as a present for the girl with electric blue eyes.  I think I still have it, somewhere, so I guess I never gave it to her.  (There was no romance here.  Honest.)

Another Girl, Another Planet - Part 1

One of the colleagues who got me interested in starting a blog has a post on his own blog (http://weblog.brunton.org.uk/), The Soundtrack to Your Life. This resonated with me. Another colleague managed to get me talking about former romances last week, and I think these things are inextricably linked: music can conjure up such rich emotions, located in a specific time and place. (What is also interesting are the people and places which don't have any soundtrack associated with them - these are the longer relationships, the longer stays - maybe because there are so many different tunes that no one bit of music fits.)

But I was surprised: instead of a list of former girlfriends associated with songs from my youth, most songs evoke memories of places or events, not the faces I expected.

I believe it is often the words in pop songs that determine the mood: the words tell you what to think and how to feel. Improvised music (read "jazz") and non-vocal classical evoke feelings through the notes, not the words; they are freer, and not so easily tied to people or place. (I don't really like voval jazz: there are too many poor jazz singers; and even someone like Ella can remove the the feeling from the words - just listen to her version of "Love for Sale", a happy-go-lucky snappy song; and then listen to the words. One exception to this must be Billie - a voice to draw tears.)

The list is long, too, so I will split it over three posts.

So here are some of the sounds which make up the soundtrack to my life.

• Another Girl, Another Planet (the Only Ones): the perfect post-punk power pop song (and a contender, with so many others, for the best song ever recorded...), this one evokes a specific night, a late night gig a ULU in perhaps September 1978 - the Only Ones in concert; and a wonderful gig it was. I'll get killed but I don't care about it. (The next day, I went down with pleurisy and was ill for several weeks.)

 

• Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel) and Walking on the Moon (the Police): 1978 and 19'79: in the afternoon with Cecilia, up in her bedroom; and walking back from her place from Muswell Hill to Hampstead, past Highgate Woods in the early summer mornings. 'Nuff said.

 

• Armed Forces (Elvis Costello and the Attractions): sitting around in a schoolmate's house, playing this, wondering what to do in 1978.

 

• America (Simon & Garfunkel): I don't have any S&G, and frankly don't like that kind of music much - but it can be evocative: watching the cars on the New Jersey turnpike, the beautiful Manhattan skyline across the river, trying to hitch-hike coast-to-coast across the States in July and August 1980 with Gerry.

 

• Similarly, I'm So Bored of the USA (the Clash) evokes a couple of days spent waiting for rides in Ohio; for one whole day, the only lift we got was in a police car, and that was five miles in the wrong direction. And the Clash - well, I have a lot of the Clash...

 

• And of course Route 66 (pick your own version - I was into the Count Bishops at the time), which was basically the route we took across the south west: Alburqurque; Flagstff, Arizona; over to LA, arriving to co-incide with the increasing body count of the Hollywood Strangler and an increase in paranoia. (I didn't like LA.)

(Oh my.  I was writing this yesterday, using an LJ client; and despite my clicking save every few minutes, the last version I can find has half of what I wrote missing.  Which means I’ll have to write it again.  But it will be different – could be better, could be worse.  Jeez!)

Another Girl, Another Planet - Part 1

One of the colleagues who got me interested in starting a blog has a post on his own blog (http://weblog.brunton.org.uk/), The Soundtrack to Your Life. This resonated with me. Another colleague managed to get me talking about former romances last week, and I think these things are inextricably linked: music can conjure up such rich emotions, located in a specific time and place. (What is also interesting are the people and places which don't have any soundtrack associated with them - these are the longer relationships, the longer stays - maybe because there are so many different tunes that no one bit of music fits.)

But I was surprised: instead of a list of former girlfriends associated with songs from my youth, most songs evoke memories of places or events, not the faces I expected.

I believe it is often the words in pop songs that determine the mood: the words tell you what to think and how to feel. Improvised music (read "jazz") and non-vocal classical evoke feelings through the notes, not the words; they are freer, and not so easily tied to people or place. (I don't really like voval jazz: there are too many poor jazz singers; and even someone like Ella can remove the the feeling from the words - just listen to her version of "Love for Sale", a happy-go-lucky snappy song; and then listen to the words. One exception to this must be Billie - a voice to draw tears.)

The list is long, too, so I will split it over three posts.

So here are some of the sounds which make up the soundtrack to my life.

• Another Girl, Another Planet (the Only Ones): the perfect post-punk power pop song (and a contender, with so many others, for the best song ever recorded...), this one evokes a specific night, a late night gig a ULU in perhaps September 1978 - the Only Ones in concert; and a wonderful gig it was. I'll get killed but I don't care about it. (The next day, I went down with pleurisy and was ill for several weeks.)

 

• Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel) and Walking on the Moon (the Police): 1978 and 19'79: in the afternoon with Cecilia, up in her bedroom; and walking back from her place from Muswell Hill to Hampstead, past Highgate Woods in the early summer mornings. 'Nuff said.

 

• Armed Forces (Elvis Costello and the Attractions): sitting around in a schoolmate's house, playing this, wondering what to do in 1978.

 

• America (Simon & Garfunkel): I don't have any S&G, and frankly don't like that kind of music much - but it can be evocative: watching the cars on the New Jersey turnpike, the beautiful Manhattan skyline across the river, trying to hitch-hike coast-to-coast across the States in July and August 1980 with Gerry.

 

• Similarly, I'm So Bored of the USA (the Clash) evokes a couple of days spent waiting for rides in Ohio; for one whole day, the only lift we got was in a police car, and that was five miles in the wrong direction. And the Clash - well, I have a lot of the Clash...

 

• And of course Route 66 (pick your own version - I was into the Count Bishops at the time), which was basically the route we took across the south west: Alburqurque; Flagstff, Arizona; over to LA, arriving to co-incide with the increasing body count of the Hollywood Strangler and an increase in paranoia. (I didn't like LA.)

(Oh my.  I was writing this yesterday, using an LJ client; and despite my clicking save every few minutes, the last version I can find has half of what I wrote missing.  Which means I’ll have to write it again.  But it will be different – could be better, could be worse.  Jeez!)

Hidden Talents

Saw this on f4f3... (I haven't worked out how to do links properly...)

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system. And while this may not seem big, it can be. It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

From http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourhiddentalentquiz/

Actually, reading it again, I think they may have got me down to a tee...

Hidden Talents

Saw this on f4f3... (I haven't worked out how to do links properly...)

Your Hidden Talent

You have the natural talent of rocking the boat, thwarting the system. And while this may not seem big, it can be. It's people like you who serve as the catalysts to major cultural changes. You're just a bit behind the scenes, so no one really notices.

What's Your Hidden Talent?

From http://www.blogthings.com/whatsyourhiddentalentquiz/

Actually, reading it again, I think they may have got me down to a tee...