Showing posts with label Stone Roses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Stone Roses. Show all posts

Saturday 8 August 2020

Homework - #AnimalAugust #5


This week has been another working from home. Using Microsoft Teams means that you can contact people when they are at work so it's not a problem and you don't feel isolated.

This week has also allowed me to listen to a lot of CDs including some that are for sale on Discogs because I don't really play them all that much , although ironically my sale pile is the closest CD group to my CD player. The reason for this is that generally  I am finding 6Music a bit samey , although the DJ banter makes you feel you are with somebody and you do hear new music which is a great reason for listening to the radio.

The Cds I went through include "The Raven" by Lou Reed and the first Stone Roses album, plus a Fotheringay box set  (I am fairly eclectic which you know if you follow this blog, but that's only half a dozen people). Also for the #AnimalAugust we will go for a live take of "The Raven" by Lou Reed based on the writings of Edgar Allen Poe.

On the book front I have finished "Everville" and while it is an excellent book it left a lot of unanswered threads, possibly ripe for a third book of the series. I am now rereading "The Lost" by Jonathan Aycliffe which is a bit lighter than his normal stuff with some wry black humour similar to the recent BBC take on "Dracula".

The weather is good so enjoy your Saturday.

Wednesday 4 December 2019

Waterfall


It's strange how we often have an aversion for paying for things that we see as just there. I thought that about the seven pound entrance fee for the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, but this is some buildings and a lot of paths, four and a half miles of them, that is a hell of a lot of maintenance, and well worth every penny of the entrance fee.

I was impressed with the village of Ingleton , came to the Waterfalls Trail and walked past the closed cafe / gift shop then through the gateway which reminded me of the entrance to Jurassic Park (on a smaller scale and no dinosaurs)  and finally got to the entrance and paid my way and started on my way round.

Although it's only four and a half miles a lot of that paths are very rocky so you need to be careful and sure footed. Eventually you come to the first waterfall and it is worth the effort. You can see some of my video on Instagram here. Although I had plenty of time, the bus back was due at one, and the next one was at three so I was trying to move fast through the final part of the walk  but could have slipped easily and fell into the river, but kept on my feet and got the bus which was waiting at the stop.

If I'd missed the bus Ingleton was full of interesting places and may be due a future visit. Also it is heavily featured in the Michael Moorcock book "The Skrayling Tree".

So some appropriate music would be "Waterfall", at first I thought by the Stone Roses, then decided to go for the 10CC song, originally the "B" side of "Rubber Bullets" but later released in it's own right.

Sunday 28 April 2019

Connected Centurion


This is my hundredth post this year and in December 2011 I first did 100 posts in a year. You can get get an idea of how I have progressed / regressed / stayed the same by seeing what I posted here . I'm currently listening to a Stone Roses and influences playlist show presented by Tom Robinson and sent in my suggestion of "Halleluhwah" by Can from "Tago Mago" which "Fools Gold" has more than a similarity to.

Today I walked into town, I've completed my steps for the month, but thought I would walk in anyway as was a nice day. Before mobile devices things like this usually needed a decent amount of planning or assumptions, but now you are permanently connected to people and information almost anywhere that you are, especially in an occupied area.

So I will share "Halleluhwah" by Can so you can hear why I thought that was the Stone Roses although the actual bassline for "Fools Gold" was taken from "Know How" by "Young MC" which also sample "Theme From Shaft" by Isaac Hayes, which you can track down on Youtube or Amazon.

Hope your Sunday is going well

Wednesday 20 February 2019

Sing Hosanna, the Jazz Snobs are all going home


After giving up on "Second Coming " by The Stone Roses ("Love Spreads" is ok), I picked out "Some Call It Godcore" by Half Man Half Biscuit. My first thought was hey I've had this for so long and never listened to it, I don't know any of the songs, so wrong for someone who considers himself a Half Man Half Biscuit fan.

The opener "Sensitive Outsider" is excellent and seemed vaguely familiar , but I felt the over emphasised Jews / Jaws Harp detracted from the song though it does eventually fade. "Fretwork Homework" confirmed I had never listened to the album (Shame on Me, but I did buy it) and it is an excellent second song.

The "Faithlift" hit me, I thought I know this, so darkly funny and a brilliant refrain, in keeping with the vaguely religious parody cover and name, and yes I did know it and memories started to resurface. "Even Me With Steel Hearts" love to see a dog on the pitch, and yes I definitely know this wonderful album, it's just buried deeper that most others. Anyway you will know that the title of this post comes from the excellent "Faithlift" funny and barbed like most of Nigel's writing.

When you hear "(Seen by me mates coming out of a) Styx Gig" there is no doubt that this, while not a top division Half Man Half Biscuit album it's still excellent and better than The Stone Roses "Second Coming" though that's a bit Chalk and Baking Powder, the chalk does have lasting substance.

The finale monologue of "Tour Jacket (With eEtachable Sleeves)" is absolute top knotch Biscuitry, and in fact the album is (like all their stuff) brilliant and it is top disvision , maybe mid table Premiership sort of Watford or Leicester City, it cantains more than a few diamonds.

So that's my opinion of "Some Call It Godcore", well worth an extended revisit if you haven't listened to it recently.


Tuesday 19 February 2019

Baggy Metal


For the first time in years, if not ever, I have listened to "Second Coming" by The Stone Roses, and while it's not a terrible album, it smacks of self indulgence and really doesn't do anything for me. It is generally loud and very rocky with baggy rhythms and the production is excellent.

In some was it reminds of poodle rockers like REO Speedwagon , Journey and Toto, very polished but not really much substance. I think I used to like "Ten Storey Love Song" but now it just passes me by and the eleven minute opener takes an age to to get started with a lot of noise, but it is well produced. Listening to it I almost feel like a "dad" in my criticism of it.

I loved their first album, everything about it, as well as the associated singles and remixes, and I just never tire of it, even though "Fool's Gold" owes a huge amount to "Halleluia" from Can's "Tago Mago". So maybe it is just the heights of the first album mean that the second album could not possibly live up to it, and there is nothing to touch "Love Is The Law" by John Squire's Seahorses.

I don't normally like dissing things but it will be making space on my phone for something a bit more moresome, but who knows what....and I need to include "I Know Our Kid" by The Shirehorses cos .. well you know


Wednesday 6 February 2019

1812


This is post number 1812 and as such need to ibnclude the "1812 Overture (with Cannons)" by Tchaikovsky. Interestingly "Night of Fear" by The Move was based on the main "1812 Overture" riff.

It's almost a week since my last post and one of my #August50 posts came up in my feed where I did mange to post over 50 times in August 2018. I don't expect to do that this year, although I once saw a blog that had thousands on one line link posts each day. I am not too sure of what the point of that was.

I'm just back from another weekend in Whitby managing to scoff lots of fish and chips at the Magpie Cafe and picked up a pristine copy of Can's "Tago Mago" from the MIND charity shop. he album was also inspired by the occultist Aleister Crowley, which is reflected through the dark sound of the album as well as being named after Illa de Tagomago, an island which features in the Crowley legen, which was a surpise to me.

I was once listening to a compilation CD curated by John Lydon and walked in and was listening to something which I though was maybe a remix of The Stone Roses "Fool's Gold" , but it was, in fact "Halleluiah" by Can. I have seen numerous spellings but that's what it is on the vinyl album. I do have it on CD as well (40th Anniversary) but the vinyl copy is something well worth having, and, as I said, was a charity shop bargain.

There are a few places in Whitby to pick up Vinyl such as The Whitby Bookshop, but most places are aware of their worth.

So this is my first post in February, and we shall see how many I do this month. It's really just about noticing things and being bothered to write things down.


Friday 4 August 2017

Random Precision


Yesterday my rando play played three consecutive tracks from the Van Der Graaf album "Present" starting with the opener "Every Bloody Emperor" and finishing with "Nutter Alert", this was followed by a couple of Spirit songs thwn that awful Cream song then two Stone Roses songs. At first I thought it had slipped off random play but as I was walking and I like the album I was OK with it.

A couple of months ago I was talking with Juliet and Kirsty and about how people don't really understand the concept of "random". She had provided a "random" data sample, then the requester came back and said they wanted data from Area "A" , Area "B" , well each area they covered. Kirsty pointed out that that this wouldn't be a random sample if you started applying criteria.

Jordan Ellenberg point to an American Lottery result where the same numbers were selected two draws in a row. In a true random selection 1,2,3,4,5,6 is just as random and likely as any other. Ellenberg points out that the improbable is highly probable. The nature of random is that it may appear ordered, it's not, but our minds always try to order things, and see logical patterns, and we can see logical patterns where the probability is just complete randomness and even chaos (think reading tea leaves and the I-Ching which is basically throwing sticks. You can add divination by cards like Tarot (I do have two Tarot decks but they are just works of art), which again uses randomness to determine fact, which really is not a practical or logical path to go down.

Well we are at Friday , and the real Football season starts today whith Sunderland playing Derby and Nottingham Forest take on Millwall. It looks sunny, but it looked sunny yesterday. I will walk into work today and listen to more random music

Thursday 3 August 2017

Tom Waits,Cream Sours and Stone Roses



One of the great things about walking with music on random play is that you get to rediscover music you have forgotten, discover new music, and the odd time uncover some complete rubbish.

While Cream  were a great and groundbreaking band, with a plethora of great songs there were the odd rubbish ones ("Pressed Rat and Warthog" springs to mind, I 'm not sure if Pete Brown was responsible in part for this monstrosity) but today a horrendous almost scat jazz thing came on. I thought I'll give it time. I wish I hadn't. It's called "Hey Now Princess" and it's at the bottom of this post if you want to risk it.

Luckily that was followed by The Stone Roses' "Waterfall" which is one of my favourites of theirs, although there were a few of their songs , many of which sound like "I Wanna Be Adored" , but one came on called "The Foz" which I thought was actually Tom Waits , and then eventually I got a real Tom Waits song , the excellent "Singapore" and then I found an excellent youtube version soundtracking some "Pirates of The Caribbean footage.

So that's the second post today, and I did manage to hit 15K steps , and enjoy so reasonably healthy food as well,

Have a lovely night