Darkness - #Oktoberfest #18 - Streams Of Whiskey - The Pogues

I know we're into Autumn because it's very dark when I wake, which does make more likely that I want to actually stay warm in bed. Why is it when you go to bed you often can't sleep (I always drop off within fifteen minutes, though that's sleeping too close to the edge of the bed) and I don't have a problem sleeping, but darkness does make it so much easier to sleep, shut your eyes and drift off to realms of Morpheus.

So #Oktoberfest continues and amazingly it's taken eighteen posts to introduce the first Pogues song , the excellent "Streams of Whiskey" from the "Red Roses For You" album, and is like almost Pogues songs, as soon as you hear it it moves either your body or soul or both. I found a libe take from Japan in 1988, and it's always great to see a band play their songs live, and while it may not always be a perfect mirror image  of the studio version (hopefully not) it always should add to the song. I think audiences can bring out the humanity of the band and it becomes a symbiotic process , yu need it all to get the best experience.

So the darkness is dispersing this Wednesday morning and it is time to leave for work (again).

Dis Pepsi Max - #Oktoberfest #17 - Drink It Up - Negativland

Yesterday I decided I had a motherlode for #Oktoberfest in the songs of Tom Waits, which is obviously true enough, but I don't think I've touched The Pogues, The Dubliners , Thin Lizzy and many others and I saw an ad for Coca Cola and this reminded me of one of my favourite albums ever "DisPepsi" by Negativland and fantastic discontruction of advertising and the Pepsi / Coke war. It is a bit difficult to track down now but it is available at the time of posting on Youtube here. An absolutely essential listen.

It's chock full of subversive tunes that are probably more relevant today that when it came out around 1990, still often played by me and I am listening to it as I type this, "Happy Hero" is so pertinent to Trump, Johnson and Michael Jackson.

The song I've chosen is "Drink It Up" which mainly refers to Pepsi but lists lots of other promoted beverages, but the whole album is an essential listen but I have never heard it on the radio on any station.

So what else?

The blog has hit 20K visits for this month and we are just approaching half way so it would seem it's very popular (with robots). I'm even getting the odd comment (though mostly advertising links) which I may or may not remove.

I have finished "The God Delusion" and is has hardened my attitude to religion significantly but it's time for another book now. I would still accept God if that God turned up and demonstrated that was actually what he was.

Time for Tea.

Walking Off The Walking Dead - #Oktoberfest #16 - Jockey Full Of Bourbon - Tom Waits

I've finally given up on The Walking Dead as it seems to have drifted too far from it's main concept. Yes it's post apocalyptic and things can go off it so many directions but I am still vaguely wondering what happened to Rick when he was spirited off in that unknown helicopter. I'm not that observant so I may have missed something and the latest series started and it was like I couldn't remember where I was in it and the zombies are just an embellishment rather than the result of what caused this situation. No doubt people will be able to enjoy it and I didn't stop watching because it was bad, but because it had run out for me.

One of the problems is there is some much excellent television and only a limited amount of time. There is nothing wrong with ending a series, I'm thinking "Game of Thrones" , "Black Sails" and "Breaking Bad" but I have now picked up "Vikings" and "Preacher" and with "His Dark Materials" on the way I think my television time is spoken for well into 2020.

For some reason I thought I could hit a record number of annual posts this months by instigating #Oktoberfest but I still have to post 43 more seventeen days to go , so three posts a day is not going to happen but I will likely complete it in November.

So the #Oktoberfest song today is "Jockey Full of Bourbon" by Tom Waits from "Raindogs", and it was Hannah Berry (Comic Laureate) on here Paperback Writers show on 6Music yesterday who played it and reminded that if I need songs about drink Tom Waits provides a rich vein to mine. I had been having problems trying to think of songs related to drink but I am sure I can hit another 15-20 by the end of the month.

It's a greyish Monday but go out and hit the world.

Vinyl Scrabble - #Oktoberfest #15 - Long Tall Glasses - Leo Sayer

Just a note that one of the things that has kept me on Facebook is playing Scrabble however I am not down to two people who will still play me. I know life gets in the way but feel that one day it may not be a reason to come onto Facebook. It's implied that people play lots of other games and I should challenge them but I gave up on Words With Friends when the number of pop ups before playing each game made it impossible (in my opinion for me) to play.

Today I am still not feeling 100% but I have listened to a whole lot of vinyl this morning including the whole of "Go" by Yamash'ta / Winwood / Shrieve  a stunning album veering from pure songs to spaced out sounds and I'm not sure who is responsible for what but an amazing journey . That was followed by sides for Lou Reizner's "Tommy" , Joy Division and a few reggae singles. Listening to something you can't program or skip actually becomes more relaxing and satisfying, because you are not thinking of cutting something out or wondering what's next.

#Oktoberfest is continued with another implied drink (wine) in the Long Tall Glasses. This is one of my favourite Leo Sayer songs and much prefer his earlier stuff almost reminding me of something in the style of almost Woody Guthrie. I found a live take in Sydney and I have a feeling this is not how you would expect to see Leo Sayer live, it is rather good.

Well think I will go and rest a little more on this rainy Sunday.

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.

Violency - #Oktoberfest #13 - White Lightning - Big Bopper

I was walking past a King Koby Barber Shop called "Brotherhood of Defiance" which had a load of baseball bats hanging on the wall, and I don't think they were there as sports items and I got thinking how we enjoy violence and violent characters in entertainment, but how close does that come to spilling into normal life. We see toys of Negan's Lucille (a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire) and how many guns , knives , machetes and chainsaws especially around Halloween. As a child I had loads of toy weapons and I've not become a murderer so maybe I am just getting a bit unnecessarily perturbed, and I suppose the toy "Lucille" the most worrying because  I wondered if it could be used and it would be very easy to make one. That was still one of the most traumatic scenes in "The Walking Dead" which I have finally decided to call time on.

BB King's guitar was called Lucille but that is a completely different story.

For the #Oktoberfest I am running low on potential drink songs but will go with the excellent Big Bopper cover of George Jones' "White Lightning". The Big Bopper (JP Richardson) was killed with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens when their plane went down in Iowa..

Fridaying - #Oktoberfest #12 - Malt and Barley Blues - Mcguinness Flint

For some people Friday at finishing time is the best part of the week, you have the night ahead, you don't have to get up tomorrow (or the day after) and work is suddenly a distant memory. However a lot of my friends have to work weekends and the concept of a weekend is gone for them, a horrible side effect of our 24/7 society. I do remember shops shutting for a half day on Wednesday and I think Saturday and everything was shut on Sunday. It didn't really cause a problem but now people expect everything on tap.

That should have really come from technological advancement, but it's just coming from people having to work whenever they are needed and the gig economy. There is a place for zero hours contracts but not as permanent jobs.

Ironic that the Sunday Day of Rest has it's recent existence due to the Catholic Church and this at a time when my tolerance for religion is very thin thanks to the arguments and facts presented by Richard Dawkins in "The God Delusion". Religion is like a signal flare in the hands of a child, it may be used to light the way but more often than not it does irreparable damage.

So because i am still run down and suffering from a cold I will leave you with "Malt and Barley Blues" the second single from McGuinness Flint (their first hit was "When I'm Dead And Gone" which would have been appropriate while talking religion), so enjoy this on your Friday night.

Dreams and Sleep - #Oktoberfest #11 - Everything Stops For Tea - Long John Baldry

Yesterday I was on an "away day" in Leeds and on the journeys to and from I watched a few excellent TED talks one of which (included below) by Matt Walker informed me that it's not a good idea to pull all nighters. Ideally you should have a consistent routine with around eight hours sleep as this actually helps the body recover by promoting the growth of !assassin cells" that eliminate lots of bad stuff in our bodies, while not sleeping does exactly the opposite. It last twenty minutes but is very interesting and worth taking your time over.

Because I am actually run down I went to bed about nine o'clock and slept though til 5:45 when the alarm went off and think I feel better for that, but it is always good to get a good nights sleep. There's a few snippets of the dream left including my boss asking what she was doing doing wrong , the answer being just sleep, there was a new locked SUV who's seats were covered with snow, and footprints leading to a brick wall where I was sure there was a door , and finally twenty pound notes had been taken out of circulation and ten pound notes had been replaced by eleven pound notes. I know it doesn't make sense but that's the nature of dreams.

The last item just reminded me of the imperial currency system. 12 pennies made a shilling , two shillings were a florin , five were a crown , for crowns made a pound but 21 shillings made a guinea and the guinea was often used for pricing although the guinea was like 5% more expensive than a pound so a 20 guinea item was a £21 item. Simple wasn't it.

So #Oktoberfest is continuing non alcoholic which Long John Baldry's odd take on Jack Buchanan's "Everything Stops For Tea". The album was produced by Rod Stewart and Elton John. Rod had been a member of Steampacket with Long John Baldry along with Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll.

It's Friday morning so time for work.

Sick Leave - - #Oktoberfest #10 - Java Blues - Rick Danko

We're going no alcoholic for today's #Oktoberfest with Rick Danko showing his versatility on "Java Blues". People often say they "need a drink" which is something I have never understood and it's usually alcohol or coffee when that phrase pops up. I have always drunk for my own pleasure and never needed drink to either wake me up or calm me down. Maybe I am just lucky or don't understand my own cravings.

I managed to find a live version of this song at The Band reunion concert in 1984.

Just a thing about having time off work for not feeling well, I am sure in my first twenty years I would have no qualms about ringing in and resting to ensure that I was fit in a day or two and fully functional. There was always someone to cover for me if I wasn't there.

These days it seems that's not really an option. I do see people off for illness but unless I am hosptalised I feel that I need to go into work because maybe 80% of what I do cannot be done by anyone else. While we all need to become more productive and work smarter, it used to be you were rewarded by pay rises and bonuses, but now it's you are allowed to keep your job and if you are not happy then leave. A sad situation and I actually work in a relatively decent environment with a great team.

The thing is I felt extremely run down with a sore throat yesterday but work was the priority, not getting better. I had an early night and feel a bit better today but need to get to Leeds today.

So have a great Thursday.

Armed - #Oktoberfest #9 - Tequila - Terrorvision

One of the things that reading "The God Delusion" does is arm you with plenty of logical constructs when someone comes at you with "... but The Bible says ..." . I actually do find Richard Dawkins ironically evangelical at times but given the power being wielded by Right Wing "Christians" and other religious extremists we are more than likely to find ourselves in that situation.

Don't get me wrong, a great deal of people find comfort in their religion and beliefs and do not force it on others and use it to force their will on others. It can also provide a life discipline, but for a lot of people going to church has been replaced by going to garden centres or going shopping.

Anyway here's the next #Oktoberfest song, and it was bound to come, we have "Tequila" by Bradford's Terrorvision. I originally spelt that as "Yequila" which is why I will never be able to touch type as I cannot trust what my fingers do.

A Meme - #Oktoberfest #8 - Escape (The Piña Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

I wasn't going to post this, but saw an amusing meme which referenced the song in the latest Donald Trump criminal activity. The problem is with Trump and Johnson we laugh at them when we should be jailing them, they are allowed to get away with murder literally and there are always people defending them often citing the law, But essentially this is a funny meme and the song to go with it.

"If you're big into Nazis and don't have half a brain

If you pay for sex from pornstars then try to bribe it away

I'm the putz that you looked for, 

Vote for me 'cause of hate"

No doubt I have the song somewhere in my collection on some compilation because it has appeared on many soundtracks, but for such a slab of cheese, divorced from the awful lyrics the tune is actually quite good. It did appear on the "Guardians of the Galaxy" soundtrack and is always part of standard 1970s fare often served up by local radio and wedding DJs (if they still exist, I recently saw one in Dalgety Bay so they are still around).

Sleep well, I am flagging now.

My God! - #Oktoberfest #7 - Spill The Wine - Eric Burdon & War

When I started "The God Delusion" it was Richard Dawkins stated aim to polarise my views towards the non existence of God. While my opinion on the existence of God (I'll believe in God if it turns up and does something genuinely miraculous to prove it's credentials, in my 62 years I've yet to see anything) has not changed Dawkins has pointed out the harm that religion has caused over time along with  singular and mass situations from child murder to genocidal wars plus slavery and misogyny as the norm.

Until th World Trade Centre was destroyed I was unaware that Islam and Christianity worshipped the same god, and as has been recently if there was one god there would be one religion. Dawkins book has made me considered my opinion of religion, as while for some people it does provide order and comfort, but for others it is a method of control and  division often used to implement abuse and harm.

Holy books were written by women and men to provide a way to implement their desired methods on people's way of life. I was also surprised to find out Mormon was as much a made up religion as Scientology ( a tax evasion by L Ron Hubbard) .

Ian Anderson on the cover of "Aqualung" in the text to "My God" put it perfectly.

"And In The beginning, Made Created God; and in the image of Man created he him"

Aqualung

So with that, I move on to #Oktoberfest and an appropriate piece would be "Spill The Wine" by Eric Burdon and War.

Have a good Monday everyone.

Newcastle to Whitby by Train - #Oktoberfest #6 - Gin Soaked boy - Tom Waits

I decided too to try Newcastle to Whitby by train as I hadn't done it before, didn't realise there was a direct train (26 stops) and a return fare for two was only thirty pounds. On the Friday going down the train stopped at Hartlepool because of a broken down freight train but Northern rail laid on a taxi to Whitby resulting in us getting there half an hour earlier than expected.

It's a scenic and long (timewise) route, but anyone can do it plus you get to the end and don't have to find a car park. You have to be selective in what you buy because you have to carry everything back, but the peace of mind that the relaxation gives you is so worth it. My next two holidays are by train and it really makes it more of a holiday for me. I know some will require a car but it is so pleasant when you can do it by bus or train.

I was surprised to come home to see that the blog had passed 300K visits, despite no posts since Friday.

So continuing #Oktoberfest we're hitting the Gin with Tom Waits' "Gin Soaked Boy" from "Swordfishtrombones" . My friends Peter and Jane run The Northumberland Gin Company so worth trying if you are a Gin connoisseur.

#Oktoberfest #5 - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer - George Thorogood

I am always confused by how slow office software is these days. We have Youtube and video streaming that processes and delivers  an enormous amount of information seamlessly , but you open an email application, word processing application and it's like you are wading through treacle. Apologists always use the excuse that "well it's doing a lot more than it used to". To paraphrase my inner Ron Swanson "Not An Excuse". It is running on very fast processors with unfeasibly large amounts of memory, so responses should be fast.

Incidentally I forgot to plug my Google Pixel phone in last night and this morning it's down to 27% , and the power consumption seems to have massively increased since the Android 10 upgrade, and apart from that I am not to sure what else has changed apart from the general fonts, and certain things don't work, such as I can't look at the video directory through the file manager. It's pointless complaining because everything is perfect when you actually do mention these things.

It's enough to make one turn to drink.... talking of which we have George Thorogood's take on Rudy Toombs' "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" which was first covered by Amos Milburn who will be appearing in this sequence as he recorded many drink related songs which has just reminded me of another one, so I might hit the fort posts in October that I have set myself.

Enjoy your Friday everyone.

#Oktoberfest #4 - Whiskey In The Jar - The King

I was not sure which version of this I was going to share, for me the definitive version in the Thin Lizzy one but for others it's The Dubliners and those may both reappear this month in the #Oktoberfest sequence but I found this live take of "Whisky In The Jar" by The King who covers songs by departed rock stars, and he usually delivers in spades with panache and an obvious sense of humour,

I started this this morning and know I need to finish this now, though I am feeling grotesquely lazy and unable to think of anything to add to this superb rendition. The next few days I can see me not posting anything , so now I am writing about my life as a failure as I can't even think of anything to blog about, although on the positive side although I can't think of anything to write I am still managing to fill up the page a bit.

It's also amazing how in depth these quite tiny posts seem to be when viewed on a mobile device while in your average browser it does look quite short.

I was wondering about whether it was "whisky" or "whiskey" and came upon this explanation:

"The Scots spell it whisky and the Irish spell it whiskey, with an extra 'e'. This difference in the spelling comes from the translations of the word from the Scottish and Irish Gaelic forms. Whiskey with the extra 'e' is also used when referring to American whiskies."

So the program got it wrong as the song is Irish in origin.

OK so I have done my 250 words, so this post is not too short after all and you have learned how to spell the subject of the drink in this post depending on where you are.

Tired Not Tired - #Oktoberfest #3 - Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee - Jerry Lee Lewis

I wasn't going to write anything today, I have to be up early tomorrow to pick up a parcel from The Post Office because they wont leave stuff with my neighbours and I am feeling tired, but my mind has decided to wake up, so my body is tired and my mind is wide awake. This seems to be happening more and more, I just wish my body was as jumping as my mind.

Well the #Oktoberfest song is "Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee" by Jerry Lee Lewis a favourite of my sadly missed rocker friend Chris and one of the many rock and roll classics he introduced me to. Jerry Lee Lewis AKA The Killer produced a hell of a lot of classics but obviously his hell raising tailed off in to middle of the road country and western and he was never afforded the musical rebirth that Rick Rubin helped Johnny Cash and Neil Diamond with.

Maybe that's not such a bad thing as Jerry Lee has a great back catalogue but I am sure Rick Rubin could have done something with this firecracker..

Yes another short post but we have a third drink related post.

#Oktoberfest #2 - Cool Water - Frankie Laine

This was the second song  that I wanted to include because it was one of things that my mum and dad played on their radiogram that I actually liked, a best of Frankie Laine that included the song "Cool Water". I liked it so much that I have a best of Frankie Laine CD somewhere in my collection and it's obviously on my digital network.

It's quite heartwarming that I could actually but a radiogram from RPM in Newcastle who have some excellent vintage players and who sorted my current player , which I absolutely love. I seem to get more from listening to vinyl that from listening digitally , although digital music is great when you are on the move.

It is my birthday today and a lot of people have wished me happy birthday on Facebook although I can't actually see everyone who has wished me but I would like to thank everyone. I also have good wishes from the people I see and will be having tea with my daughters tomorrow, so all is good.

I know this is an extremely short post but it was just to share this song and to kick off the #Oktoberfest project with , in this case , a non alcoholic drink.

Birthday - #Oktoberfest #1 - A Beer and A Cigarette - Terraplane

Last night I got my first Facebook birthday greeting from my friend Keith who moved to the Antipodes nearly twenty five years back although I got my first card on Saturday from my daughter Juliet, plus a phone call from my dad last night. I've not yet gone on to Facebook yet so no doubt there will be the odd greeting. In case you are wondering this is my 62nd birthday.

During the night it's been pouring down and about five am there was a very loud big vehicle that woke me up but didn't manage to see what it was.

I've slightly changed my walking targets , which are a rolling million steps every three months which works out at 340,000 steps a month or 11K a day. My new target is just something to aim for but to try and hit 400K steps a month but I will only hold myself to the 340K. The weather this morning is not conducive to walking.

I was thinking of for October having my own #Oktoberfest with the criteria being something to drink, but not necessarily alcoholic. I have my first two lined up, the first one being "A Beer and A Cigarette" by Terraplane from the Stiff collection "The Akron Compilation" (with it's scratch and sniff cover) which for years I thought was called "The Akron Complication" which to my knowledge has still never been issued digitally. I was introduced to it with The Bok went for a meeting with Rabid Records to sort out our first single (which never happened as they folded but the demos are here on Soundcloud) and the guy said it was the most outrageous song he had ever heard.

It's great and I used it to soundtrack what I thought would be the final night at The Free Trade in 2010 but the financial crash of 2008 meant that the flats never got built and the Free Trade is still going with it;s amazing views down the Tyne.

ALso I am going for another record number of posts in a year and if I do 40 this month (my record is 54 last August ) then I only need 17 before the end of the year, but we shall see how this goes because I may not want to post every day, but we shall see. At least this is a start.

Enjoy your wet Tuesday.