Alongside the smart, snarling, sardonic Brit singers like Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson sits Graham Parker. He should be way more popular than he is; just a tremendous songwriter.
From the incredible album Squeezing Out Sparks, this is a blueprint for making a raw stripped down slow burn nightcrawl rocker. Its main point is the way a word like passion gets tossed around so cavalierly that people don't know what passion actually means or feels like. Parker said, "People are dull, aren't they? People aren't living to their max, or to anywhere near it. They're just drones or clones. Especially in England - they're just walking zombies. They believe what the TV tells them. They're just put in a direction and led there".
Mike "Prince Fatty" Pelanconi is a British record producer. He assembled a group of reggae greats to create the excellent album Survival of the Fattest. It is dub, rocksteady, roots all mixed together.
I still remember buying the album Hello, I Must Be Going! by Phil Collins. It was at Laury's Records in the Deerfield Commons, it was a Saturday morning, and I was out running errands with my Dad. By this time in 1983, I had heard a few other songs from it and decided I liked them as well. That same day, I also picked up Men At Work's Cargo (I liked Overkill and It's A Mistake), and Pink Floyd's The Final Cut (based solely on liking Now Now John).
I Don't Care Anymore is like the little brother of In The Air Tonight. It has that same keyboard backed shadowy atmosphere. Not as good but still a decent song. He was beginning to crank out the hits, well on his way to dominating the 80s. I never cared much for the stuff that came after, like Sussudio and One More Night and so on. But I remember being impressed when he started out playing Live Aid in London then flew the Concorde to Philly later in the day. The guy was everywhere.
These are words to live by and take comfort from. "Let perseverance be your guide!"
To the Rastafarians, their beliefs give them courage in the face of threats from Babylon. Let them come, for it's like they don't really exist. "Hear what I say when I say!"
Sweet harmonies, cool little trombone slides, percussion bouncing all around, brass punctuations, bible stories.
It's high time to get back into some good old 70s rock. This is kind of a lesser known track from Ten Years After. It appeared on the album Watt, but I have it on a compilation called Strange Pleasures: Further Sounds of the Decca Underground 1966-1975. It's got a great guitar solo, especially when the effects kick in around 2:03.
I chose to include it because of these other great classic rock songs I hear in it:
Dick Mills began working for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in 1958. He worked with Delia Derbyshire on the Doctor Who theme. He created many sound effects for the BBC.
Adagio has a lonely existential outer space quality, various sounds floating around and bumping into each other.
As I walk through this wicked world, I have found that light orchestral easy listening instrumental music can be very comforting. No hard edges, nothing shocking or discordant, just mellow flowing gentleness. A soft warm blanket that helps take my mind off the planetary suffering for a little while.
The Hollyridge Strings was a studio orchestra that made easy listening covers of popular songs. The main conductor and arranger was Stu Phillips, but Mort Garson and Perry Botkin Jr. were also involved.
Their version of Strawberry Fields Forever enhances the beauty and dreaminess of the original John Lennon composition. The saxophone that opens the first verse at 0:13 is almost too sultry, but the strings soon appear, along with the cool quiet little "chik" guitar and drums. The section from 0:42 - 1:07 is easy listening heaven, it oozes sweet aching romantic softness. It's all draped with reverb to give it that drifting through an empty shopping mall feeling.
Want more easy listening music? There is a great internet station called Instrumental Hits Radio. And you can find lots more Hollyridge Strings Beatles covers on youtube.
In honor of St Patrick's Day, here's my favorite Irish musician, the late great Phil Lynott, lead vocalist and bassist with Thin Lizzy.
His mother, Philomena, was Irish, and his father was Guyanese. His parents didn't stay together, and his single mother couldn't raise him by herself. He grew up in Dublin with his grandparents and his uncles, Peter and Timmy. Despite the social stigma in Ireland at the time regarding his mixed-race background, his grandparents provided a stable, loving home, often affectionately calling him their "little black baby". Although he grew up apart from his mother, they shared a deep and loving bond.
Life with his grandparents provided a deep connection to Ireland that he retained throughout his life and career, even as he achieved international fame. He spoke fondly of his childhood in Dublin, which served as a source of inspiration for his songwriting and storytelling. His friend and Thin Lizzy bandmate Scott Gorham said in 2013, "Phil was so proud of being Irish. No matter where he went in the world if we were talking to a journalist and they got something wrong about Ireland, he'd give the guy a history lesson. It meant a lot to him."
Roisin Dubh (Black Rose) A Rock Legend is a tribute to Ireland. It interweaves traditional tunes like ‘Shenandoah’ and ‘Danny Boy’ into the distinctive Thin Lizzy twin guitar sound. It also pays tribute to Irish mythological hero Cú Chulainn and indulges in a playful string of puns and wordplay, acknowledging iconic figures of the Emerald Isle. From W.B. Yeats and Oscar Wilde to Van Morrison and Brendan Behan, the lyrics showcase a clever homage to a host of Ireland’s cultural luminaries.
Lyrics by Phil Lynott and Gary Moore:
Tell me the legends of long ago When the kings and queens would dance in the realm of the Black Rose Play me the melodies I want to know So I can teach my children, oh
Pray tell me the story of young Cuchulainn How his eyes were dark his expression sullen And how he'd fight and always won And how they cried when he was fallen
Oh tell me the story of the Queen of this land And how her sons died at her own hand And how fools obey commands
Oh tell me the legends of long ago
Where the mountains of Mourne come down to the sea Will she no come back to me Will she no come back to me
Oh Shenandoah I hear you calling Far away you rolling river Roll down the mountain side On down on down go lassie go
Oh Tell me the legends of long ago When the kings and queens would dance in the realms of the Black Rose Play me the melodies so I might know And I can tell my children, oh
My Roisin Dubh is my one and only true love It was a joy that Joyce brought to me While William Butler waits And Oscar, he's going Wilde
Ah sure, Brendan where have you Behan? Looking for a girl with green eyes My dark Rosaleen is my only colleen That Georgie knows Best
But Van is the man Starvation once again Drinking whiskey in the jar-o Synge's Playboy of the Western World
As Shaw, Sean I was born and reared there Where the Mountains of Mourne come down to the sea Is such a long, long way from Tipperary
Yeah, what is that thing? It's a Bladderhorn, a creature created by Wayne Barlow, a sci-fi/fantasy artist extraordinaire.
Iannis Xenakis was an amazing guy. Remembered as a prolific avant-garde composer, there was so much more to him. There needs to be a movie.
This is just a section of the entire piece called Hibiki Hana Ma, which is around eighteen minutes. It was one of his electroacoustic pieces which was repeatedly played every day in the Tekkhokan (steel pavilion) during Expo ‘70 in Osaka. It's all kinds of bleeps and skids, rumbles and twitches, wood tocks and crackling papers. It's a big bowl of electronic soup, perhaps the Bladderhorn's favorite dish?
