Wednesday 19 February 2014

Are we not men ? ....... We are ......

D ....... E ....... V ....... O

Music likes are very much of a personal choice, but we soon learn what we like and what we don't like..... to be fair theres not much music I don't like.

For me music falls in to 4 categorgies :

Category 1.

Oh my word, what is this song ? .......

A song that takes you to a place beyond the physical capabilities of human life. It is near impossible to explain with words just how good the music is.

Last night I had a dream that I cannot last remember ever having since I was a young kid.

I always have had a furtive imagination [it pays to be a furt] and as a youngster I could make certain dreams happen in my sleep. Last night I had one of those dreams..... but I didn't mean it to happen*..... but it was the one where I have the ability to fly..... not fly as a bird or in a plane, but one where I could sort of levitate by the power of thought alone, and then travel just above roof top height...... It is a strange experience, and certainly not an out of body experience..... but when you wake in the morning... there is something quite ethereal...... well there is music that gives me the same experience.....

The Talk Talk album, Spirit of Eden is probably one of the best albums I own.... it makes your mind soar ...... you just become immersed in the music....

Paul Buchanan and the Blue Nile, are the same.... I have been fans of his/their music since the beginning of time. The out put was not prolific and most people I mention them to say...... who ? .... isn't that in Egypt ? Their first album .... Walk across the roof tops sucked me in.... There was no way back after that......


I have written it before about Paul Buchanan but should it be I am listening to music at the time of my demise, I hope it is Paul Buchanan/Blue Nile who takes me from this life and to the next....

There is also geoffrey gurrumul, not a bloody clue what he is singing but my my.....

How could I leave out of category 1...non other than my Elvis

Category 2.

Oh my word what is this song ? ...... I love this song....


But this time the music is just sublime, those who I put into this category [but not limited to] are probably Tom Baxter, Glen Hansard, James, David Byrne [lordy lordy I am sooo tempted to put him into category 1 though.... he is that good some of his music is not of human origin], there is the Bunnymen, Ian Mcnabb and the Icicle Works, U2, Eddy Vedder, Iggy, T-Rex, Elbow, Paul Weller, Bob Marley..... the list goes on ...... but category 2 would never be complete without god him self.... David Bowie ......

I am not big into religion ...... but we often hear about the second coming of christ, but yet it is never proven.... I think if David Bowie and David Beckham had a love child..... then without question .... in that child we would see the second coming of Christ.... the new messiah .......

I had previously suggested it would be the coolest kid ever.... but if Bowie wins the best british male award in tonight's Brit awards ... the love child gets up graded from cool to messiah.....

Here he is in his 6th decade of popular music .... up against the new kid on the block.... Jake Bugg... I loved Jakes first album.... but Jake if you are reading this [and I am not sure you are] sorry but my money is on Bowie....

Category 3.

Oh this is a nice enough song.
.... nice enough for me not to turn it off.... but not nice enough for it to appear on my iPod let alone song of the day ......

Category 4.

Christ / Son of Bowie & Beckham {delete as appropriate} this song is shite..... so shite you immediately turn it off.....



So my music choice today is prompted by the news on Monday of a death of a musician.

I am very lucky to have a brother 8 years older than me, because as a young boy, my older brother [by default] led me into a path of great music.... so by the time I was an angst ridden teenager [as opposed to the angst ridden middleager I am now] I knew what music I liked and what I didn't.....

I never was into hard core punk, but at the end of the 1970's there was some fantastic post punk music... the first time I heard Patti Smith... because the night.... wow... Blondie... Debbie Harry... you had me at Denis Denis....... Iggy Pop, Roxy Music, Lou Reed ..... and then there was the wild and the weird.... B52's...

Funny how music is ingrained in the memory..... B52's rock lobster.... February 1980 and we were en-route from Dubai to New Zealand, and after 2 weeks out from Dubai we were off the coast of Australia one saturday morning, so close to Perth we could receive a TV reception...[at sea that was a wonder back then... no Satellite TV then]... and who should come on the TV ? .... the B52's singing rock lobster.....

April 1979... I was at the missions to seaman in Plaistow, before traveling into central London, which would be the start of my career in shipping...... Stood next to a lad called Paul Donker listening to Sultans of Swing by Dire straits..... 35 years ago and yet every time I hear that song... that image of standing next to that lad who I have never seen since that day..... is as strong as it could be as if it were yesterday....

Missions to seaman for the uninitiated is a wonderful organisation... biased though I may be.... they provide a much appreciated care for any seafarer along way from home.

So in those formative years I learned to love all sorts of music.... so my reflection today is the news on Monday of the passing of Bob Casale aged 61 years old ...... never heard of him ? .......

God bless you Bob
thank you for the music
from a young man grown old

Whip it Bob
Shape it up Bob
Crack that whip





*{flying postscript: I think my flying dream last night might have been prompted by 3 days on my roof top, finishing the tiling of the new roof..... last night walking up the stairs and I waddled like john wayne..... I see now why I am not in to horse riding ......}