She does New Order too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlxmyhNLwnU

I'm watching Absolute Beginners. Interesting mix of realism and staged choreographic/surreal scees.

Good cast too.

Patsy Kensit. I love a woman who gets there on talent and not obvious sex appeal.

I've finally overcome my Beatles obsession, and I feel fine.
The hilarious thing about the Imagine LP is that the first song is a hymn to love, and then it's How Do You Sleep? Feel the love, Paul?

David Bowie - Space Oddity

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYYRH4apXDo

The Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHYj2HVyMuU

(By far and away my favourite Bowie album - no one else agrees, fair enough)

Mark Eitzel - If You Have To Ask:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts5ttmDIdGY

And why Eitzel features in my Top 40 musical heroes of all time (and every single one is an amazing hero/heroine):

Johnny Mathis's Feet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cm1cMcenRyk

(I know it is the B CG but Eitzel spent some of his childhood in Southampton, UK : there's a song which references it "Take Courage" : for all of his ultra Americanism I see British in him. I don't think he would have been quite the same unique individual had he not had that British element in his upbringing. I've seen him live and he was outstanding each time)

And why his band American Music Club beats REM, Television, and others as the greatest US indie guitar band of all time. It don't get much more sophisticated than this. "Read" 'em and weep - with a kind of joy at their emotional brilliance:

At My Mercy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bofeUbgHzE

Outside This Bar - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=By01_mZGGvU

Blue and Grey Shirt - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9V86ueofNAk

Mom's TV - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hqo4LnlxTnE

Nightwatchman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNdr8TH-4I8

(Four of those are off "Engine", 1987, and it's one of "my" albums, totally underrated, but I could have selected a lot more)

I can feel a bit of dear Jackie coming on. Obviously I am in the mood for the true greats. God rest his soul This is another of my 40 musical heroes. Funny how quite a few of them are hardly known but, hey, I don't know much but I do know my music and can spot outstanding talent with my eyes closed:

Jackie Leven - The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuMcwfZjQGY

Classic Northern Diversions:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APNVVMp0AF0

Younger Jackie with Doll By Doll - Stripshow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwqjS_wvbyA

Another Man's Rain:

(Reign?)

Clever observers - ie me about one hour a week will notice that there is a reference to "If Not For You" - knowing what I know about his mind and output, it has to have been deliberate for it's subtle dovetailing in - which is typically totally ace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc3BF0RAk_4

Oh, there's a documentary, haven't seen this before : at root a cockney gypsy Geordie which is about as good as it gets. He's young here. It puts into context the hippydom of John St Field, the Doll By Doll era which NME at the height of the punk era dismissed as too rock and would you believe frighteningly violent, being beaten up. the brief drift into heroin and the friendship with Princess Diana and charitable contributions. I never saw him live but was devastated when he died. This was Britain's best ever chronicler of masculinity. He did it with huge sensitivity and honesty. He was a gift to us all.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFYvbxEOf0c:)

thankyou very much for bringing him to my attention.I'm a big fan of singer songwriters,Dylan,Young,Morrison,etc...

And constantly amazed by how much is new to me.

Quote: john tregorran @ 25th September 2019, 11:41 PM

thankyou very much for bringing him to my attention.I'm a big fan of singer songwriters,Dylan,Young,Morrison,etc...

And constantly amazed by how much is new to me.

View original

You are very, very, welcome John.

I recognise that some of my views, always delivered with meaning but some comedic tongue in cheek too, might be unpalatable to many but I mean well and that is all that any of us can do. It's always meant to be read in two ways because that is me. I am serious and try to be funny and I often can't actually separate the two. It's always a real me though, I don't invent. I love Morrison, Dylan, Young, Mitchell, Springsteen - these are my bread and butter along with much else - I would add Drake and Scott-Heron - but, no Leven was amazing. Really, really amazing. It's everything. The man. The words. The musical arrangements are often very unusual. I loved him. We say it so often but he shouldn't have gone as young as he did. I'm doing my two Gil songs now though in truth there are 30 plus. He was, after all, the black Dylan. While American, his Dad played for Celtic, dontcha know. One of Britain's earliest black footballers. Man Pieces. New Day Beginnings.

And kind thanks to you again.

Gil Scott-Heron:

Pieces of a Man - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNHefN6LW44

Beginnings (The First Minute of a New Day) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvHNmx41fo0

(The first is me and my late Nan, kind of; the second - I think you could link to Van's brilliant Haunts of Ancient Peace on the terribly underrated 1980 Common One though it is a different vibe but I waffle enough - we must do Michael Marra who was the Scottish Randy Newman. The first performance, not long before he died, is trad and not typical but it is the man and he was a lovely, truly gifted, individual, man ,And then the astonishing moment when no other than Leo Sayer covered his song Hamish. Never a hit. Nobody has heard of it. The words and the story behind its odd lyrics are great if typically idiosyncratic. Hamish was an iconic, eccentric, not wholly reliable goalkeeper for Dundee Utd. Only Marra could write a song about him. bring in Grace Kelly and sum up the mixed emotions of being a boy/young man with hopes and dreams. "Hamish stokes young men's dreams into a burning flame": what an absolutely brilliant summation of the gains and losses of dwindling hero worship in approaching adulthood. I will come back with more as the man was a genius:

Michael Marra - Green Grow the Rashes (trad):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-n-WIcj_M

Leo Sayer - Hamish (written by Michael Marra)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a79M9JodLrw

(Tannadice is the name of Dundee Utd's ground - it's warm but hard - and the Taylor Brothers Coal sign was a long term advert in its interior - Marra turns it into a romance : "as if Grace Kelly would come here - even if it was rumoured". Yet the dramatic twist is that, in fact, she was there. They were playing Monaco. She was spotted by that sign. Somehow for all of its competitive earthiness football always has involved romantic elements so he was so spot on. The presence of Kelly which no one could get their heads round symbolised its romanticism. In other news, Michael Jackson went to Exeter City)

thanks mate.
you are a veritable fount of knowledge

I do my best.

Michael Marra - All Will Be Well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqqgG5_T2eA

(This is one of the weirdest and warmest romantic lyrics of all time)

Frida Kahlo's Visit to the Taybridge Bar:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YWfExY4RAo

If Dundee Was Africa:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msgjE_ECtXI

And the one by Michael's kids and their mates which I do post a lot because it is a strong song which proves they are a chip off the old block - and the video is so tremendous in a simple but clever way it really should have won awards:

The Hazey Janes - If Ever There Is Gladness :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-biwFsTCE18

Mel and Kim have become animal rights activists. 'Respect-a-bull'.

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL WORLD

Van Morrison - Haunts of Ancient Peace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzESUBrbBRo

Jon Anderson - Days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz7ziWfPoHU

The Waterboys - Sustain:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oJiTkWPlM

Yusuf Islam - The First Cut Is The Deepest:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBccr-aLu4I

British Sea Power - From The Sea To The Land Beyond:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkqgs6555bs

Renaissance - Day of the Dreamer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBELR6Y5oFc

IT'S A FUNNY OLD WORLD

(World in both these cases refers to England in the United Kingdom and, I dunno, I'm probably there somewhere too)

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Johnny Appleseed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IbMiqIdeME

(This reminds me of being with my mates in London at the best of times : it could be my voice, eyes and incorporation)

Palma Violets - English Tongue:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GjMW2n4v9s

(I have been in this situation a few times - I'm drawn to it but what with it having modern unpredictabilities I'm also wary)

XTC - Green Man:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdmZwm_5occ

(In the spirit of climbing up Glasto Tor at midnight to see what's there which I did - I'm not going to say what was there)

Charlie Chaplin - The Kid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dT8g4l7HYl0

(My grandmother)

Black Grape - England's Irie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvuqgyKj5iM

(This clip ends abruptly without questions or analysis - it's fun and I like it : I saw them live : you could say it just gave up)

Lambchop - Up With People:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4PxY_RPBeM

(Love this video which features the corrupt and genuinely horrible bastard who saved lives by ending the Vietnam War : something which we didn't ever go into as Wilson kept us out of it but somehow it resonates in the weird current climate. There have only been five good/quite good Prime Ministers since 1945. He is a successful one - and comes in 5th.)

Apparently Ginger Baker is critically ill.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/26/iconic-cream-drummer-ginger-baker-critically-hospital-10810914/