Monday, 30 April 2018

Verushka


Today I walked ten miles, which is a long way for me, especially on the last day of the month. It was basically Helmsley to Riveaulx and back much of the way through fields containing horses and sheep, and up and down some fairly steep inclines, one of which was nearly a thousand feet (remember this was meant to be a leisurely walk not a hill walking expedition). You see some Instagram images here.

This means that I have maintained my rolling million steps every steps every three months for the last year. That's not that much , roughly 11K steps a day which is maybe four and a half miles. I have a friend who did ten times that so my effort is not really that impressive, but I will continue doing it this year, although I will have a couple of days in hospital for a liver biopsy so that may be a little obstacle, but easy to overcome.

Today I saw a man mowing a field with what looked like a lawn mower, very odd.

The word "Verushka" came into my mind, so I wondered what it was. It turns out it's an alternate / mis spelling of Veruschka von Lehndorff and actress who appeared in the Antonioni film "Blow-Up" which featured a cameo from The Yardbirds featuring Jeff Beck playing "Stroll On", and this came up in a BBC4 documentary on Beck on Friday night which you may be able to watch here, so that is maybe where Verushka came from.

So I will leave you with the Yardbirds for this last April 2018 post.




Sunday, 29 April 2018

Superstitions


It's weird how tradition and what you are told from childhood conditions you to accept superstitions. One Magpie for Sorrow, the number 13, walking under ladders are a few examples of this.

However I have just changed my perceptions in the last couple of months I love seeing Magpies and even a single one brings be joy, although there is no doubt they are bullies. A Bakers Dozen is thirteen and lets face it if you get thirteen items it's usually better than twelve if you want them. I still don't walk under ladders unless there's no other option and it's actually safe.

It looks like I'm going to make my steps for the month despite continually falling off the pace but am now in Yorkshire so should get some walking in

Anyway pleased that Preston are still in with a slight shout for the playoffs although that would relegate Burton who are on a run of three wins and fighting for their Championship lives.

Anyway we shall see what today brings, so I'll leave you with Beck,Bogert & Appices cover of Stevie Wonder's "Superstition".


Friday, 27 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #10 - IV (Mask/Security) - Peter Gabriel


Peter Gabriel's first four albums were effectively untitled concieved as a magazine format, but society always needs to identify and compartmentalise. This was his last album before hitting paydirt with "So" and the mood is dark, African influenced but more Burundi drums and desert woodwind than Paul Simon's "Graceland" jit.

From the opener "Rhythm of The Heat"  through to the single "Shock The Monkey" the abum is definitely dark and full of foreboding but highly listenable featiuring the Fairlight and avid Rhodes' crackling guitar. The album is mostly electronic and smapled with guests appearing on percussion and backing vocals.

The final three songs are more reflective but complemet the openening sequence perfectly.

This is the closer for my #TenAlbumsInTenDays but I will start another sequnce next Saturday as I had a second invite, but I will be on holiday with no computer access for a change , just like the pre millenium days.

There are so many albums that are worth listening to and this is another one of those. It is playing as I  pen this post, and is still as impressive now as when it was released in 1982,  thirty six years ago.

Thursday, 26 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #8 & #9 - Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy - Brian Eno


Dispepsi by Negativland was my #8 choice for #TenAlbumsInTenDays but I have already commented on it for my #LikeNoOther series here , and it really is an album worth investing some of your time in.

#9 is Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" his second album after falling out with Bryan Ferry and leaving Roxy Music after their excellent "For Your Pleasure". I've just realised that Ferry and Eno despite sharing a common first name spelt it differently.

The album breezes in with the beautiful "Burning Airlines Give You So Much More" and the songs on the first side of the album never drop in quality culminating in the closed groove ending of "THe Great Pretender" if you listen on vinyl. Side two opens with the proto punk of "Third Uncle" before lurching into the Portsmouth Sinfonia backed silliness of "Put A Straw Under Baby".

The album closes with the totally engrossing and beatiful title track almost making you feel as though you are climbing Tiger Mountain' I will leave you with that song to tempt you with.

This album was concieved using Oblique Strategies , a series of cue cards developed by Brian and Peter Schmidt, who also did the cover featuring four prints for a seris of 1500 lithographs. This is another of my favourite albums that I constantly revisit.

Sleep well my friends.

Tuesday, 24 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #7 - CSI Ambleside - Half Man Half Biscuit


Described by Andy Kershaw as England's greatest folk band and may John Peel said the describe the minutiae of everyday life every album holds gems to be discovered and this is no exception. If you want to sample to poetry of the lyrics check out the HMHB Lyric project here

The album opens with "Your Evening of Swing Has Been Cancelled" careering though incidents and accidents by way of detours and u-turns to hit the finale of "National Shite Day".

The cover feature the lovely Royal Oak in Ambleside who were unaware of their adornment of the sleeve when I first informed them of it. I'm am not sure if they were pleased about that, but both pub and album are wonderful artefacts of our times.

The thing is Half Man Half Biscuit have so many essential songs in their canon, anyone that you choose is something that you just never want it to finish. Lyrics like the following make you realise just how essential this band is:

And the christening party arsehole
Who hitherto had blurred
My conception of man as nature’s final word
Was fleeing from the lava
His satnav pleading thus:
“I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus”

So I will leave you with their opening salvo and get myself to bed.

 

Monday, 23 April 2018

In Loving Memory


This is difficult to write although in some ways it isn't . Today we all lost a wonderful personal friend who inspired us, loved us, made us laugh, made us feel included, made us feel wanted, fought injustice and was anything but average. Where he was Craig Puranen Wilson or she was Sheena Revolta we we always in wonderful company.

A fan of great music, grat films , great art, and well as a creator in most art genres. Most people have been far more eloquent than I but Craig and Sheena will always be with me, from the number of times I saw Women in Revolt to sharing coffee or a drink in town or watching trashy films you alway were part of the gang.

Craing and Sheena organised events that you wanted to go to and was instrumental in the resurrection of The Star And Shadow.

I'm sorry I can't speak but you will alway be an inspiration to us all on how life should be lived.

A BIG THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING CRAIG AND SHEENA.

We must keep all the thing that Sheen helped start such as Mondo Weirdo, the happenings , the gatherings keep going in the spirit of Sheena.

And this is my 100th Post this year, is that a coincidence.

Keep on keeping on

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #6 - Godbluff - Van Der Graaf Generator


When this album came out the NME reviewer said that there should be a way of playing it end to end without a break, the vinyl record had to be flipped half way through to continue listening. This was an understandable thought as that's how most classical pieces were concieved , to be played and listened to in their entirety.

This thing is at the time there were C90 cassettes and 8-Track tapes (the later just effectively played in an everlasting circle) so there was a way to listen to it. CD and Digital obviously made this a reality for the new format.

When they started although a rock group, guitars were way down the instrumentation list which was odd for such an aggressive sound but it was dominated by keyboards, brass , woodwind and bass pedals.

Godbluff is a very dark sounding album, almost threatening conjuring up images of dark threats in blasted landscapes and is still a regular listen for me. It is remakably coherent and often I get the songs mixed up as they are so similar in form without being boring, you just accept it for what it is.

I love most of their stuff but this along with "Pawn Hearts" are two of my most played of their albums. I found a live performance of the album so if you have forty or so minutes to spare you can see what I mean about the album.

Sunday, 22 April 2018

More Words


This is my fourth blog post today. I did my first gig review of the year on Spoongig here for the Shambolic KO afternoon , plus two entries in the #TenAlbumsInTenDays that I am doing , which will stretching to twenty days as I have received a second invite, so today I have actually written, for me, a lot of words.

Luckily yesterday I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, so I have probably incurred the ire and wrath of my male neighbours who live within earshot, as it may be pointed out that their lawns need mowing too.

Yesterday was Record Store Day 2018 but I just ended up getting a Sha Na Na LP on vinyl, "Rock and Roll Is Here To Stay" from Beyond Vinyl, but the rest of the shops in Newcastle were queued out the door so I thought I would catch up at those shops next week, though thatks to Mark and Kirsty they put me on to a new Vinyl Shop in Newcastle Vinyl Guru on the West Road. I also dropped by Empire Records the new branding of Long Play Cafe's vinyl sales and discussed among other things the Vertigo Swirl.

So I will leave you with some Sha Na Na from the album I bought yesterday, mainly for it's brilliant cover and the fact it was on the Kama Sutra label.

Sleep well and have a wonderful Monday.
 

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #5 - The Race For Space - Public Service Broadcasting


This was the first coherently themed Public Service Broadcasting album, they had put out "The War Room" EP, and this was their second album. "Inform, Educate, Entertain" is a mission statement for the band and you will probably learn something by listening to enything by this band.

There pasting of dialogue from films, and documentaries is similar to what happened in Spirit's "Future Games" and early Big Audio Dynamite albums although without the dialogue the e songs are just driving instrumentals (and rather excellent at that).

"The Race For Space" revisits both the Russian and American sides of the race that started in the 1950s, with dialogue from John F Kennedy and The Apollo program.

The band are probably one of the finest live experirences you can see today, and I amazed at J. Willgoose Esq.'s ability to tee up the sound samples wile playing guitar. Even the crowd banter is done via keyboard.

I have seen this band three times though they now tend to sell out gigs immediately so I am not sure if I will see them in a live situation again, but you never know. I've included a live take of "Go" at one of the gigs I saw the at , the 6Music Festival at The Sage in 2015, and I am somewhere in that crowd mass. An absolutely brilliant gig and part of a brilliant festival.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - The Book of Invasions - Horslips


I'd got into Horslips through "The Tain" an album based on a story from Irish mythology which Michael Moorcock had lifted from for his Corum section of the Eternal Champion series (which I must attempt to re read).

"The Book of Invasions" got a five start NME review but I was at the record shop on it's day of release and got it home and put it on. This had never happened before but that album was the only thing that was on my record player for two weeks.

There were flashes onf Thin Lizzy (who also were lovers of Irish Mythology) in there, as well as the Irish folk tunes mixed in with the mythology, maybe it just hit me at the right time, but it is on the player as I am writing this, and maybe it's a little under produced but every song that comes on you love listening too and also can't wait for the next one.

Like a good book or film , you don't want it to end. Almost every song is like that and definitely the album makes you feel like that.

It's an album where every song flows into the next one , the same as say "Dark Side of The Moon" by Pink Floyd, you don't skip songs on this.

I found a slideshow for the album which clocks in at forty minutes but it is difficult to choose one song from this essential part of the music I love

Saturday, 21 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #3 - Future Games (A Magical Kahauna Dream) - Spirit

Before the internet and email and mobil phones the was CB , Citizen's Band Radio. I'm not exactly sure what the attraction of this was for the average person but I know a few people who had CB Radio set ups.I could see a use for it for long distance lorry drivers and this was documented in the CW McCall song "Convoy".

This album opens with a track called "CB Talk" with Randy California descring the Spirit album. I had been majorly impressed by  "Spirit of '76" but this album took things to another level for me. The songs are excellent but are spliced with soundbites from Star Trek (this was just pre Star Wars), Science Fiction "B" Movies and The Muppet Show. There are a lot of interjections from "Jack Bond" the drummer Ed Cassidy's creation (he was also Randy California's father in law!)

It was like a movie for the ears, carried along by the excellent songs. California was favouribly compared with Jimi Hendrix but he was definitely his own man, but they still tackle Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" and deliver a creditable take although no one has ever touched the Hendrix version.

The songs are California sun influenced as well as being touched by certain other substances. THis album is my favourite all time album and when I first got it I was working shifts so would often drift off listening to this during the day.

Like all good albums you listen to it as a whole and ideally it should just be continously played, non stop.

I'm not sure if this was the first album where not musical dialogue was used an intefral part of the album,a concept later embraced by, among others, Big Audio Dynamite and Public Service Broadcasting.

Friday, 20 April 2018

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #2 - Eldorado - A Symphony By The Electric Light Orchestra


When Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood were in The Move they wanted to start a project that contined where The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever" had left off. That project became The Electric Light Orchestra and their early albums contained some amazing musical detours, but with a heavy reliance on the string section hence the "Orchestra".

Some of the early singles showed their versatility none more striking than the all out orchestral rock and roll arrangement of Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" being followed up by the perfect Philadelphia soul sound of "Showdown".

A switch of label from EMI's progressive arm Harvest to Warner Brothers (now Sony) for "On The Third Day" and then my second favourite album of all time "Eldorado".

I was a fan of the band an bought the single from the album the gorgeous "Can't Get It Out Of My Head" but was blown away by the full on string backed rock and roll of the 'B' Side "Illusions in 'G' Minor". That persuaded me to invest in the album with it's "Wizard of Oz" cover and it has remained a favourite ever since. The use of strings and choir organ / vox humana make for a most impressive sound for Jeff Lynne's excellent songs.

The string arrangements throughout the album are amazing particularly on "Poor Boy" but almost every song is a gem , and it is an album that you happily play from start to end. THis was followed by "Face The Music" before they finally hit paydirt with "A New World Record", but in my opinion this is their finest forty minutes and I still play this frequently.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #1 - Man In The Hills - Burning Spear


I'm quite surprised this is the first time I have mentioned Burning Spear on this blog.

My friend Denis Jackman nominated me to post #TenAlbumsInTenDays on Facebook. This is just ten albums that you still play, and to be quite honest good music should stay with you. Since starting walking and and especially since getting my Emopeak headphones I have been listening to a hell of a lot of music as it usually takes me forty minutes to an hour to walk to work which is time to listen to an album.

I'm not sure when I picked up on this, it was definitely early eighties and I think I got it from Rumbelows near Matthew Street in Liverpool when I was working an Littlewood. I may have heard him on John Peel or may have just liked the cover of the album, I was already into reggae from the sixties skinhead ska and then Bob Marley and Lee Perry, but when I put this album on it grabbed me from the first song (which is the title song).

The thing is if you buy the CD  you can get one that has "Dry and Heavy" also included, but I do enjoy playing ska and reggae on vinyl with the bass turned up. One you put a vinyl album on you tend to enjoy it more because the inherent push button laziness in us all makes us listen to the whole side before we turn the thing over or switch it off.

Tomorrow is Record Store Day so I will be out in Newcastle seeing what is available and seeing bands an whatever. Given the good weather it looks like a good weekend.

Have a great one




Thursday, 19 April 2018

Buick Smokestack


So we now have sun, is Spring really here? My day was immensely brightened up by unexpectedly meeting my friend Julie in reception today, so that was a big plus.

My walking has still been hit and miss but I am just about ahead of the game.

Recently I've revistited Bob Dylan's excellent "Highway 61 Revisited" and it is full af brilliant songs, but I was struck by the riff that drives "From A Buick Six" which reminded a hell of a lot of the riff behind Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightnin'". Bob Dylan is remakably scan on Youtube for older stuff so I settled on an excellent cover by Gary US Bonds, so you can listen and compare the two.

One thing I find strange is that the MP3 version of "Higway 61" in £7.99 but the CD (with free MP3 download) is £5.99! Work that one out, check the link below. Amazon's pricing is weird at times. The Howlin' Wolf MP3 is double the price of the CD.

I've also been nowminated for one of these ten albums in ten days on Facebook and I may actually do a post about each album tomorrow though by then I will be three days into it.

Anyway this is just a very very short post as I need to go and make my tea.

Enjoy your Thursday evening my friends.




Monday, 16 April 2018

Walking The Mean Eyed Cat


I woke up this morning actually wanting a lie in. It's been a busy weekend. We're over half way through April and I am only just keeping up my steps for my rolling three month Million Steps Challenge. This is something I took one my self that was inspired by the Diabetes.org challenge last year, but I've kept it going. The thing is with a challenge like this you may hit your day's steps but the following day you have to start again, but if you don't hit your target one day they you have to do more the next day if you want to make it up, so to take the pressure off I try to so more steps than neccessary each day so there is no pressure ti hit the daily steps as my target is 340K a month. The thing is this month I keep really slipping off teh pace for one reason or another, it started with bad weather at the start of the month then yesterday I went to Dunblane and back and as a result only did 6K steps, and am about 1K ahead of my required steps.

At the weekend Preston North End came back again to win after being behind against a Queens Park Rangers team who are on fire at home. Preston have won more points from losing positions this season that any other team, but of they reach the play offs it will be akin to a miracle but it still could happen given the final three weekes of matches in the Championship.  I feel my walking this month is like that, but I am determined to hit the 340K.

Last night I watched the Tom Cruise film "Oblivion" which was quite good, but unusual in that you never actually get to see an alien in the film and is clever in making you think that humans are aliens, it is worth a watch.

So today the weather is good and I intend to hit my step target.

Mean Eyed Cat Food
On Friday I had a Tortilla and Empanada at The Mean Eyed Cat which was rather excellent and I will be doing that again (you can see it on my Instagram Channel here) , and Fiona had said she thought it was a Johnny Cash song. I thought it was Billy Le Riley, but Fiona was right so that's the song I will leave you with. Some details here. While looking for the song on youtube I found this great cover by The Johnny Trouble Trio which I can't embed but you can watch here. Don't you love what you can find on the internet.






Have a good Monday.

Saturday, 14 April 2018

Sale of The Centipedes


I took the title from a line from "Sir Henry at Rawlinson End" the Vivian Stanshall film and monologue that first appeared as a John Peel sessions, well following the initial outing on The Bonzo Dog Band's "Let's Make Up And Be Friendly". It is full of very evocative images and lines and well worth delving into for fans of eccentric English Comedy and ebullient wordsmithery.

I've recently been having to go to bed as early as eight o'clock because I am feeling absolutely drained, I've no idea why and have als been soffering from intermittent back ache. A lot may be old age, but I do have a doctor's appontment scheduled in a week or so to maybe find out if anything is not completely in order.

Although I could include a litlle Vivian Stanshall there are links below to his work, so you can check him out there.

I've litsened to a couple of Oysterband compilation albums "Little Rock To Leipzig" and "Granite Years" and they are a band that revisit and rework their own songs as well as others, and I've often discovered other people's songs for the first time through The Oysterband. One such example is the achingly beautiful "Love Vigilantes" which is the opening New Order song from Low-Life. Both songs are great but I will just leave you with The Oysterband verson as you may already have heard The New Order one.

The chorus always gives me goosebumps, it's that affecting a song for me.

Sleep well.



Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Kerb Crawler


I've been listening to a couple of albums, one of which is Hawkwind's "Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music". "Kerb Crawler" was the lead single if I remember rightly and it's a great song song taking on creeps with their state of the art "extensions" cruising to pick up "ladies". It has some great sax playing but dates badly  as it lists ultra modern accessories such as FM Radio and 8-Track Stereo. Also the "stylish" white walled tyres sort of singled out the occupation of the vehicle's owner, not the sort of person you would want to spend time with.

It's strage that while Hawkwind's song emphasises the seedy side of cars , Bruce Springsteen's "Cadillac Ranch" from "The River"is a full blown nostalgia trip and the images brought up by the lines

"El Dorado Fins, Baby
White Walls and Skirts
Rides Just Like A
Little Bit of Heaven
Here On Earth"

are just fine by me. There's no doubt the Springsteen song is a nailed on classic, while the Hawkwind one is just a fun work out.

Going back to 8-Tracks, while they were sort of state of of the art I was unaware of actual recorders. It was great that they played on a continuous loop and if I remember there were sort of four "sides" on the wide tape, the playing head jumping to the next section at the appropriate juncture , each "side" having two channels hence the 8-Track.

OK it's time for bed now , sleep well.


Monday, 9 April 2018

Librarinth


Librarinth, a word that appeared in "The Liar", the debut novel by  by Stephen Fry (which I bought second hand years ago, but have never read) in a scene where a a course leader is semi admonishishing a student for plagiarism and effectively titling him with "The Liar" of the title. I don't knwo if Mt Fry made the word up or stole it from someone else, probably the latter, but it does completely describe how a lot of people's homes I know could end up , when the shelves are filled with books and then the books end up in piles spreading throughout the room, leaving the only way to traverse it and the corridors between the book built walls of the librarinth.

This week is looking incredibly packed and the wonderful song "Not So Manic Now" by Dubstar is just being played by John Hillcock on 6Music and that would be a good mantra for my week. Need to remember you can only do what can be done and then everything will get done. Though my first dilemma is do I walk into work or do I get the bus.? We shall see.

Anyway I will run off now and start my work week.

Thursday, 5 April 2018

Syrup

Mick Jagger playing guitar walking out of a tunnel into a  five foot deep sunken channel filled chest high with dark syrup (not treacle). That is the only detail I remember from a dream I had last night.

This morning there is no sign of snow or rain, though there is no cloud either so it's likely to be cold. A few cars look to be iced up.

Last night I was still tired but managed to finish watching "Ron Burgundy:Anchorman"  which I was ambivalent about as it demonstrated the total sexism of the past, but the sexists still came out of it fine. I also watched a short documentary on Ben Wheatley's "Free Fire" (which I have ready to watch) which stylishly is another seventies throwback with lots of guns, so looking forward to that.

My last post was about Big In Japan who are virtually impossible to find on digital media unless you are very rich though you can find their sparse vinyl ouput on Discogs here, but this are a band who's output needs resurrecting and reissuing properly similar to the recent Yachts  box set which incidentally features "Do The Chud" by The Chuddy Nuddies which was the other band and song on the Big In Japan eponymous initial single. There is always a connection.

The sun is up and will hopefully melt some of the ic.

So without more ado I will share another Yachts songthe excellent "Mantovani's Hits".

Have a most excellent Thursday everyone.

Wednesday, 4 April 2018

Big In Japan

The weather has been awful for walking, wind , rainy and cold meaning that an umbrella is not really a viable option. While April Fool's Day was fine, Monday and Tuesday were really not good, last night I ended up in bed at eight thirty and went straight to sleep.

However in my walking I have been listening to a hardly pristine bootleg called "Caged En Italia" by Big In Japan the Liverpool supergroup reading like a who's who of musical subversity including Bill Drummond, Budgie , Holly Johnson and lots more. My favourite song is from a John Peel session in 1979 called "Don't Bomb China Now" but I love the instrumental "Match of the Day" and it's vocal genesis "Space Walk" though a lot of this stuff is difficult to track down and sounds like a forth generation cassette recording, but I personally find it very enjoyable.

There is some of their stuff available digitally on various Liverpool based compilations and they are worth tracking down.

One of the problems is when you search you get handed teh songs by Alphaville and Guano Apes, that is not what you are looking for.

I've found the full Peel session for you to get some idea of what they were about.

Stay dry and enjoy.

Monday, 2 April 2018

Fry Television


"The Catcher In The Rye" is on the pile to go to the Charity shop, but since then have discussed it and Fiona pointed out that it was probably the genesis of the anti-hero. At one point the nover was the most censored and most read novel in the USA and probably the UK. See, despite me not liking the experience of reading it I am still writing about it and thinking about it and would recommend it to anyone who wants to stretch their mind a little.

At the time the novel was published (1951) there were children and there were adults, there was nothing in between and "Catcher In The Rye" addressed that. Today we still deem sixteen year olds not mature enough to vote but mature enough to get married, raise a family and shoot a gun. Then there was the Mark Chapman connection elucidated far better than I could here. Hopefully that puts a lid on it on this blog for me.

I wanted more fiction for my next book and noticed Stephen Fry's debut novel "The Liar" in my reading pile. I thought I had read it but ten pages in I don't recognise it at all so that will be my reading for the next week or so.

On my walks I have been listening to the first two Television albums "Marquee Moon" and "Adventure" and while they sound a little underproduced and rougher than I remember there is no doubt that music, particuarly the guitar play between Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd is well worth listening to. The songs mainly consist of basic rhyms driven by complex guitar motifs rather than chords.

The song "Marquee Moon" is ten minutes of mostl;y two simple chords allowing the guitars to weave the song on top of this construct plus the brilliant couplet:

"I remember how the darkness doubled
I remember lightning struck itself "

Conjusring up som amazing images. "Ain't That Nothin'" from "Adventure" at the time was one of my favourite guitar solos and when I heard it on John Peel that made me rush out and buy. The digital copies contain alternate takes and rough demos and are worth listening to. These albums are still must haves for any collection.

So enjoy your Easter Monday my friends.

Sunday, 1 April 2018

April Fool


I finished "The Catcher In The Rye" and will certainly say it will stick wuth me like a stay in hospital or being forced to watch a bad TV quiz show or soap. I am glad I read it and can now have an opinion on it. My opinion is that it is worth reading but don't expect to enjoy it, annoyance is the biggest feeling that I take from it.

I don't know if it has been made into a film or play, but I wouldn't bother with either. The titles comes as a result of kids sining lines from a Robbie Burns poem in a vers short interlude in the book implying that Holden Caulfield is some kind of potential threratening outsider but really he's nothing but an annoyance.

I lifted the following text from Esther Lombardi's blog ThoughtCo which you can read here

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The poem, "Comin Thro the Rye," by Robert Burns is probably best known because of Holden's misinterpretation of it in The Catcher in the Rye. He tells his fantasy to his sister, Phoebe (he's the "catcher in the rye," rescuing children). 

The reference in The Catcher in the Rye has prompted writers and scholars to take a look at the source. 

Here's the complete text of the poem.

Comin Thro the Rye 

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She draigl't a' her petticoattie
Comin thro' the rye.

Chorus:
Comin thro the rye, poor body,
Comin thro the rye,
She draigl't a'her petticoatie,
Comin thro the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,[r] Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warld ken?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If anyone wants my copy let me know or else it will be going to a charity shop.

It's a complete coincidence that I finished it on the moring of April Fool's Day where you are supposed to play pranks on people, which is fine as a kid but can get a bit grating in the adult worldd and some April Fool's jokes can be extremely tasteless indeed, so I suppose that falls into line with Holden Caulfield. The Wiki page is here where it mentians possible origins in Chaucer but various countries have equivalents.

Song wise this morning, because we have got onto Robbie Burns I will leave you with "A Man's A Man For A' That" by Five Hand Reel featuring Dick Gaughan who I think has one of the most distinctive voices in the world. I remember seeeing them perform this at Preston's Charter Theatre (The Guildhall's smaller performance space) in the early seventies, but I know that Eddi Reader also produced an album of Robbie Burns songs so there are links to all below this.

There is a site here that has all the robbie Burns stuff including "A Man's A Man For A' That" so hopefully I've left you a bit to think over.

A to think this si a result of me reading "Catcher in The Rye".

Don't be fooled and enjoy your Sunday