Book of Distributed Power and Tom Waits

 This piece of writing includes a spoiler in the first paragraph, although if you have read the book “Legacies” it is irrelevant and if you haven’t it is still worth reading.

I am currently reading what I believe is the first Repairman Jack novel and the second “Adversary Cycle” novel by F Paul Wilson. They are the same book “The Tomb” , and that got me thinking of what is the second Repairman Jack novel (not part of the “Adversary Cycle” ) “Legacies” which deals with the concept of distributed power.

Distributed power would enable us to power things over the whatever waves, the same way as we do with television , radio , mobile phones and wifi encept doing things with power. I still don’t really understand how we can transfer music or video in the form of wifi or radio signals to a device and it succeeds. As you transfer whatever space is taken up on the device , so whatever is filling up that space must come from somewhere but we cannot see it.

We know it comes from somewhere and it goes somewhere and when it’s delivered we can use it , so the concept works , but I really don’t know how.

The nearest I am aware of to distributed power are the pads that you can buy to charge enabled devices to charge without plugging in. I suppose we could get worried if the waves were full of electricity variants, getting us scared of being fried like the claims against 5G mobile phone signals.

Imagine a world where everything worked in that way , you wouldn’t need to fill up a car or charge a phone or computer. You wouldn’t have to pug anything in. As I typ this I amd listening to “Small Change” by Tom Waits , the DD player is plugged into a socket and takes power from the wiring in my house.

Imagine no wiring and no plugs , power always available and always on. That’s how we think of our utilities. We expect our water to flow, our lights to come on when we flick the switch , our phone to work when we want to make a call, but we still generally have to plug things in or fill them up to actually use them.

Taking this further, imagine a self filling kettle or meals ready on demand , how convenient would that world be. Would we use the extra time to improve ourselves or would we just watch television and drink beer and wine? 

The things we do in life do take effort and time , but I feel if I didn’t have to plug things in and charge my phone or fill up a car, my life would be a lot simpler and allow me to do more and improve myself even more.

So that’s essentially what I wanted to say in this piece and it woul dbe interesting to find out if people have any other examples of distributed power type scenarios and also reasons why we couldn’t have that at our fingertips.

Again listening to Tom Waits’ “Small Change” which seems to be straying into “American Gothic” territory on many songs. His voice and delivery is unmistakable and I am impressed with how hes persona progresses and changes over his albums sequence. I was very impressed with the “Under The Influence” documentary on Amazon Prime and am enjoying revisiting his first five albums  in the Asylum box set.

The opening song on “Small Change” is “Tom Traubert’s Blues” was covered by Rod Stewart and the opener on his debut album “Closing Time” “Ol’ 55” was covered by The Eagles so while his vocal style may not appeal to mos tastes , mainstream artists can see how good the songs of Tom Waits are.

Vocalising

 I do write quite a lot and when I post something on my blog it does really give me great pleasure when someone reads it and comments on it. People for some reason seldom leave comments on the actual posts, probably because they do require identification.

It would also be nice to be able to monetise my writing but people have to read it and then click and buy through the advertising around it, such as the Amazon music links you can see below in the actual blog post, but I’m not sure whether Google and Facebook steal the click throughs as they would have the technology to do that and would justify it because my blog is sitting on their platform.

Also over the years Amazon have put more and more caveats on sales, such as you get nothing for your own or purchase from people who have a connection to you, so if I buy a present for someone then they buy something through one of my links, I receive nothing. Also, it’s only the first purchase that I actually get anything, so I’ve probably made Jeff Bezos a fortune over the years.

Ten years back I was bringing in a hundred pounds a month from Amazon, HMV and many others, but with the rise of streaming and the demise of online physical music sales plus things like Shazam the end was determined for my Song of The Salesman site although I do maintain it is a very compact format on Facebook

Anyway recently I have seen various platforms that are meant to reward you with reads and contracts. One is Vocal that is on, but does not allow links or personal ads so you will have to visit my actual blog www.sevendaysin.co.uk to see the sort of stuff I recommend in ads. The other is Get Blogged that gives a fixed price for related blog posts but they need to be on specific subjects and I’ve not yet had any feedback.

I’m going to change my blogging method to create the document in Word then paste it into Vocal and my blog and then see how it progresses. It’s going to make it a bit more convoluted but we shall see if it generates any response and interactions.

One of the good things about producing the document using a word processor is that you can keep a constant tab on how many words you have written, which the blogging software does not.

So today has been bright and sunny and this morning I listened to the Lou Reizner production of The Who’s “Tommy” with the London Symphony Orchestra and various guests. I wasn’t impressed with Rod Stewart’s take on “Pinball Wizard” although the arrangement is excellent and Merry Clayton’s take on “The Acid Queen” is wonderful though possibly eclipsed by Tina Turner’s take on the same song in the Ken Russell film. I have listened to all the main versions of “Tommy” that I have on both digital format and on vinyl, and it still holds up in it’s best bits. There are a few awkward instances like Uncle Ernie and the Tommy’s Holiday Camp concept but there are a lot of fine musical sequences which make it an essential listen.

I am going to share Merry Clayton's take on "The Acid Queen" which I talked about above.

So now I want to see what happens when I paste this into my blog. It will probably keep the word font (I’ve used Ariel this time) but hopefully it will still be readable to everyone.

The other thing is because I intend to publish on Vocal my posts will be longer, but hopefully short enough for people to still want to read them. 

Parallel Reading

This year I was determined not to post so much, and although I am posting less than last year I am still posting. There are seldom two days between posts unless I am away for a weekend and don't take a laptop with me.

For the first time I am actually reading two books simultaneously , one on paper "The Great and Secret Show" (c 800 pages) and "Imajica" (c 1200 pages) on my Kindle Fire , both by Clive Barker , both excellent and getting through them at a reasonable pace which I don't normally do. These are rereads and though I know the overall story the detail has gone , so it's like I am reading a book I know I will like , which is always a good thing.

This morning on my walk I was listening to "Diamond Dogs" by David Bowie and I still think that "Rebel Rebel" is one of the greatest riffs ever because a) I can play it and b) it's probably the greatest Rolling Stones song that they never wrote or recorded.

I always go one about how brilliant Bowie is but yesterday I realised I have a particularly awful song by him from the covers album "Pin-Ups" . The rest of the album is great, the version of "Sorrow" is sublime and most of the others hit the spot , but "Shapes of Things" , the Yardbirds cover,  in which he sounds like he is impersonating one of his big influences Anthony Newley. The guitar solo is OK but it is really a sore thumb on a decent covers album

My reasons for disliking it it that the original is a great Yardbirds song , and Jeff Beck covered in with Rod Stewart as he had every right to do and that turned out fine .

Unfortunately for all other covers Nazareth threw the kitchen sink plus lots of phasing and heavy metal turning it into a perfect piece of prog metal , tagging on "Space Safari" giving us an excellent closer to their finest album "Rampant", so that's what we start June with.

Enjoyment

The first Rod Stewart album I bought was "Every Picture Tells A Story" and that was so good I wasn't sure about the follow up. I seem to remember the album and lead single "Maggie May" both topped the American and UK charts simultaneously in the days when you had to move product to actually get a chart placing.

The follow up "Never A Dull Moment" was possibly even better with some gorgeous songs and the excellent lead single "You Wear It Well" plus many others including "True Blue", "Lost Paraguayos" and a storming take on Sam Cooke's "Twistin' The Night Away" with a cracking drum break from , I assume , Kenny Jones. The Faces were always around for the early Rod outings.

Rod Stewart is one of the all time finest interpretive singers and he could write a good song himself.

His early albums contain some great songs and covers, check out "Gasoline Alley"

For the creative finale came with "Atlantic Crossing" which was when he hit paydirt, although he has still produced the odd gem. It is quite amusing when no one knows our favourite artists and we complain because they don't get the appropriate recognition, and then when they do it hit the big time we complain that they sold out. Let's face it we all do what suits us best.

So this brief Rod Stewart appreciation is topped by "You Wear It Well" and that's for everyone that does.

Violetsy - #Oktoberfest #14 - What Made Milwaukee Famous (made a loser out of me) - Rod Stewart

Though not specified in the title (and you can see I am clutching at straws here and not even half way through #Oktoberfest ) this is Rod Stewart covering a Jerry Lee Lewis country song  and referring to whisky (or is it whiskey or moonshine) but it's basically "any drink that's free".

The word Violetsy is completely meaningless and is a follow on from the Violency of the last post which is another made up word that at least had some relevance to the violence in the post , but this post contains no Violets.

I am just messing about because Strictly Come Dancing is on the TV and I am not a fan.

I am still suffering from this cold so intend to have an early night to see if I can see it off, but lots of people seem to be coming down with it, and it is really annoying at hanging around.

I don't know if it's age or medical conditions but I find it almost impossible to eat a full mean after about 8 PM . I think that is actually good for me but it's something I need to take into account of going forward. I could eat cereals and snacks later, but obviously they are much lighter, but definitely no full meals.

#AprilSongs #10 Wednesday Morning 3AM

It's looking cold out this morning, well it is April, and the weather is British. As it's Wednesday the #AprilSongs installment is "Wednesday Morning 3AM" the slightly subversive title track from Simon and Garfunkel's 1965 debut album. I  have always loved Simon and Garfunkel even though Paul Simon stole Martin Carthy's arrangement of "Scarborough Fair" and they produced a remarkable body of work, with Simon producing an amazing body of work after they split.

Art Garfunkel is a wonderful interpretive singer but reliant on other songwriters, but I suppose you could say the same of Rod Stewart.

I recently bought an ebook on how to get lots of readers for your blog and essentially it said don't write for yourself, write for a target audience so that may explain why my readers have dropped to single figures, as essentially it's a diary which features things that catch my attention. I'm not going to change and am quite happy that this blog enables me to go back and find things that I remember recording and sometimes find things that I forgot about recording. So it is doing the job that I want.

So off we go to work once more,

In A Broken Dream

It's strange how dreams can be vivid, seemingly keeping you engaged all night and then when you finally do wake up you are left with fragments, even though the dream itself captured your imagination. I had gone to sleep last night after watching some of this week's installment of "Black Lake" so that obviously had some bearing on the contents of my dream.

This is what I'm left with, two rooms, in a containment area and whenever the room is occupied or being used there is a green indicating light and whenever it's empty or not in use then there is a red indicating light. The dream had a hell of a lot more to it, but I am just left with these fragments, and by tomorrow they will be gone too. The fact I am writing this here means it actually won't be forgotten as such, but whenever I revisit this post or search on the Dreans label I will come across it in the future.

That obviously made me think of the record "In A Broken Dream" by the Australian group Python Lee Jackson featuring Rod Stewart on vocals and some of th emost amazing guitar work you will ever hear on a chart single. It was a one hit wonder, but once you hear it you will never forget it.

It's National π Week

As you can see I've reached for "π" in the Simon Singh book . Did you know there's a law in waiting in Indiana that defines "π" as 3.2 (Three Point Two see here) to make life simpler. I'm just waiting for the Republicans to draft this into law. The stupidity of many people in power never fails to flabbergast me, and they have such conviction that they are right with absolutely no evidence to back them up.

It's also National Pie Week in the UK. The thing is we've already had a Pie Day this year and at this rate we're always meant to be celebrating something and this week it's Pies. I remeber as a lad going to the back door of The Saddle Inn in  Lea and getting Meat and Potato Pie with peas and gravy, and it was lush and may explain why I am so porky these days.

Today I hit 18K in my steps so I think I might hit my target for March.

So really there's only one song that I can play and that's The Sutherland Brothers gorgeous song "The Pie". It is perfection introduced by a lovely acoustic guitar riff, and they wrote and performed the original of Rod Stewart's "Sailing", and I do prefer their version.

A Sight For Sore Eyes

When the opening notes on the solo piano start playing "Auld Lang Syne" you can be pretty certain that a Tom Waits song is on the way, and this came on the player today (I put it there so it's not magic like some people seem to attribute to iTunes, Dezzer and Spotify) and I have either forgotten it or not heard it before ... or maybe I have

... that melody playing I have heard before and then I realised it's the same as "In The Neighborhood", the song that hooked me on Tom Waits from the amazing "Swordfishtrombones". "A Sight For Sore Eyes" from "Foreign Affairs" predates "In The Neighborhood" by six years, but let's face it you're allowed to plagiarise or borrow from your own material.

I have been sharing quite a lot of Tom Waits recently and if you don't know his work you should really make the effort, you will be rewarded by one of the richest veins of songs by any writer, mined by Rod Stewart, Bruce Springsteen and The Eagles.

As he ages he does get further from the mainstream , but he was never really that mainstream, it's just that people with discerning taste appreciate the guy.

Anyway that's another gem I've shared with you and another post towards my #August50, and the sun is still shining very brightly.

No-one Sings XXXX Like XXXX

It's funny how reading a book can inspire you to write something. I'm still on "Tom Waits on Tom Waits" a part where he's disparaging, to say the least about covers of his songs ("Ol' 55" by The Eagles and "Heart of Saturday Night" by Jerry Jeff Walker. Then I started thinking about covers of songs and even why people start making music.

Everyone starts playing because they hear someone else, since the invention of radio that has been every westerners kick off for making music, and as radio spreads it will be everyone's starting point, if they are going to play, although records and TV are also other sources.

I remember an advertising line that said "No One Sings Dylan Like Dylan" , but lots of people covered Dylan and improved on the original, thing The Byrds' "Mr Tambourine Man", Manfred Mann;s numerous covers "Mighty Quinn" being a big hit, and when they transformed into Earthband they targeted Bruce Springsteen with "Spirits In The Night" and "Blinded By The Light" though still revisited Dylan with "Father of Day, Father of Night" , and then there is probably the best ever Dylan cover, Jimi Hendrix's "All Along The Watchtower".

I still love te Dylan originals, but it took me a long time to appreciate them, but all the songs above are improvements on the originals in my opinion, but I do believe no one can out do Tom Waits on a Tom Waits song. Rod Stewart did justice to "Tom Traubert's Blues" and "Downtown Train" and to some listeners they will be better that the originals. I like both but prefer the Waits versions.

Cpvers are generally how musicians and bands start before moving on to write their own stuff, which hopefully will be better than the stuff they were covering . The Beatles and The Rolling Stones started off with covers (and the last Rolling Stones album was all covers) , but that gives bands a good starting point.

Some bands are happy to continue doing that, and they usually find a appreciative audience for mainstream covers.

Anyway that's a lot on my opinion of covers, I will leave you with the Jimi Hendrix cover of  "All Along The Watchtower".

Good Night my friends.

Tom Waits at the Halfway Point - #ALifeInNumbers #30

Well this is just past the halfway point of #ALifeinNumbers and this is on of the prebooked slots with one of my favourite artists Tom Waits with "Sixteen Shells from a Thirty-Ought-Six" or "16 Shells from a 30.6" from the wonderfully named "SwordfishTrombones". If ever you think that the USA is down the drain Tom Waits is one of those people who restore your faith in the artistic brilliance that has come out of the States.

I found this great live take from The Tube in 1985 , absolute genius.

The first thing I heard by him was "In The Neighborhood" , still one of my favourite songs, his songs have been covered by lot's of popular artists such as The Eagles ("Ol' 55" which is penned in for number 55) and Rod Stewart ("Downtown Train" and "Tom Traubert's Blues [Waltzing Matilda]") and no doubt lots of other more mainstream artists.

Today is my friend Helen Morgan's birthday. Tomorrow is my friend Helen Morgan's birthday. I have two friends called Helen Morgan , one lives in Africa or New Zealand or somewhere, and one lives in Newcastle, their birthday's are one day apart.

Anyway I'll leave this as a short post, although Preston North End hammered Huddersfield last night so that's two of the top 4 dealt with , only Newcastle United (twice) and Norwich to deal with now and on paper we should be steamrollered. Dwight Gayle cost more than the whole Preston squad but we will see what the situation is in a fortnight.

Have a wonderful Thursday my friends, I am going to see GOAT tonight so going to have my mind blown. See you tomorrow.

256

I've just got to page 256 in Pete Townshend's autobiography "Who I Am" and again with my recent semi obsession with numbers he's just on about the story and completion on Quadrophenia , the lead single from that being 5:15 . 256 stick out because it's just the number two to the power eight , that is multiplied by itself eight times. If you do the same with one it's still one. One never changes, multiply it by itself or divide it by itself and it's still one. If you go up to 3 then the powers create much bigger numbers 2^8 = 256 but 3^8 is 6,561 , I doubt I will ever read a book with that many pages.

Yesterday the new Nick Cave album Skeleton Tree was released, and it's great that people are still producing things I want to hear, I love the new single and am sure I will love the album when it turns up.

The Vertigo Swirl In Action

I ordered a copy of Rod Stewart's Gasoline Alley album and Black Sabbath's Paranoid single as I wanted some vinyl with the original hypnotic Vertigo Swirl label. I do like the look of vinyl playing and the Vertigo Swirl does look good. I got a copy of Split Enz "History Never Repeats"  on laser etched vinyl which you can see here.

Anyway it's Saturday and I am going to get back to watching Casino Royale , which is enjoyable. You all have a great Saturday everybody.

I just found this unaccompanied performance by Rod, absolutely brilliant.

Sunday Evening And Happy

Despite the horrific weather in Cumbria , the end of my holiday has left me feeling good. I have experienced some things I never want to again , but grateful with the knowledge that I came through without wrecking the hire car or injuring anybody especially me and Fiona.

Today I saw my youngest daughter and her fiance who have moved to a new house , and it was wonderful having a catch up.

The last couple of nights I have slept like the proverbial log , only waking between eight and nine in the morning . I hope I don't sleep through the alarm.

Needled

Tomorrow I have a six month diabetic review , slightly worried because my blood sugars have rocketed despite no change to my eating or exercise, we shall see what comes out of it.

Still I feel good , I have my friends and am looking forward to whatever happens this week , which I am sure will be fine.






Rod Stewart's output was consistently excellent until after "Atlantic Crossing" but he still produces some corking songs like "She Makes Me Happy"   which does genuinely make me happy and that can't be a bad thing can it?

Go on , do something that makes you happy and spread the love darlings

You Can Make Me Sing , Dance or Anything ... #2 - 1958 - Catch A Falling Star

Yesterday had more than 100 people wish me a happy birthday via Facebook which made be feel nice.

It's quite amazing how much dross hits the charts , but I always loved this song , and wile never an avid Perry Como fan I still like this . I will never forget Bryan Ferry's riposte to interviewer who asked him his opinion on Cockney Rebel's Judy Teen , he said he preferred the Perry Como version.

In Stoker

This weekend will be spent in the Stoker Room in La Rosa in Whitby , which is my favourite hotel in the world bar none. I would love to hire it for a long weekend and fill it with my friends. The room does have a view across the river to the Abbey which I will be visiting also.

These posts are going to be by their nature heavy on video and light on the text. Some may even just be the video, but I wiull try and find something interesting to say.

Whitby is one of my total favourite places and no doubt I will be instagramming  .

I took the title of the Faces compilation that my lovely daughters bought me for my birthday because it is such a great feelgood sentiment and we need lots of those.

But my favourite take on it was the wonderful Anthony Moore.

Mandolins and Six

Just been amazed by the amount of rain today, so no need to water the garden then. Also had the lights replaced in the kitchen though the unit uses halogen and need to replace the with LEDs. Worked at hope and got through a lot more than I expected despite fighting with a network on a selective go slow. Anyway the weekend is here and hopefully I can relax a little.

John Peel playing Mandolin

I'm another year older in numbers but I'm still 15 in my head, looking for fun things to do and ways to enjoy myself. I need to learn more things to play , try a bit of composition on the old iPad maybe using the wonderful Garageband . Was messing about on the mandolin while waiting for files to load today , and just love how the mandolin sounds. I reckon I could compose a song with just two chords on the mandolin, just love how it sounds. Never forget John Peel miming with one with Rod Stewart doing Maggie May on Top of the Pops. Probably made that connection cos I'm listening to his son Tom Ravenscroft on the radio at the moment.

Anyway I feel remarkably relaxed, and ready for the weekend. Looking forward to lots of good things , having lots of fun , and having a great time . Hope you all have a great time too.

Music For Nothing

A short post this , just about downloading. There's some folk still think that they shouldn't pay for music they download , then complain if it ain't pristine or contains a virus when they get the

stuff off limewire or wherever. WE7 pays for downloads by advertising , so you can get free downloads , with no DRM , no virusses and the artist gets paid. This is a widget thing that should allow you to listen to People Get Ready by Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart:

However this has to rate as one of the worst albums of all time: It even has Chris Waddle and Glenn Hoddle's "Diamond Lights", I think you'd be better getting a Retro England Shirt from TOFFS!!



But they have a lot of good stuff should be supported in their efforts.