Water Wins Whatever

I've titled this thinking that it sounds like the name for a Brian Eno piece, as I am still reading the David Sheppard autobiography "On Some Faraway Beach" and I am going to add some Brian Eno CDs to my Discogs sale list, not because I don't like them , just because I have digital or vinyl copies and the CDs are probably never going to be played again, so it's time for someone else to enjoy or discover them. They're not up yet because I need to find the CDs first.

One of the results of having the roof leak is that often when I hear a regular noise I assume it's dripping water, that is a leak from somewhere. This happens quite often and the usual culprit is a ticking watch or a clock. Now I know this is something I am able to cope with but there people out there who this would drive to distraction, you almost start looking for things to be leaks.

Since I had the roof fixed properly by Responsive Roofing the situation has been perfect, but the worry is still in the back of your mind though it will disappear eventually I know. I spoken with lots of people who have come across leaks that they just can't track down, often influenced by wind, wind speed and direction. Water can be insidious, discovering ways through that builders did not even think possible, and remember water can wear away pretty robust stuff, look at  The Grand Canyon and so many gorges carved by water.

So to go with this I'm going the share "By This River" and tranquil piece by Brian Eno from his "Before and After Science" album.

Enjoy.

Exclamation Mark

Although I've rightly described David Sheppard's Brian Eno biography "On Some Faraway Beach" as like wading through treacle (I'm just over half way through, the book is also extremely readable. Almost every page throws up something I either didn't know or hadn't noticed.

The band Ultravox were originally called Ultravox! , a homage to the German band Neu! (originators of motorik, and heavy influencers of lots of bands) , the exclamation mark was dropped at some point , possibly when John Foxx left and Midge Ure joined. That was one thing I was unaware of.

During the Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite produced first album Brian Eno was invited to work with Bowie (who had recently been producing Iggy Pop) on his next album at the Château d’Hérouville where Elton John recorded "Honky Chateau" and the single "Honky Cat" was obviously a nod to this.

The thing is this album was "Low" , the first of the "Berlin Trilogy" and while Bowie , Eno and Iggy were between Berlin and the Château d’Hérouville I was unaware and always assumed that the album was fully formed in Berlin.

We will go with the finest song from the Ultravox! debut , "My Sex", it is disturbingly good , with John Foxx's monotone machine voice over a fragmented lush backing.

On The Tip Of My Finger

I wear contact lenses and quite often when putting them it, I drop them or cant find them in their container or hit other problems. Sometimes I think I have dropped one in the solution filled receptacle and come the following morning see that I messed and it's dried out next to the sink. Usually a dip into the solution revives them. Sometimes I find them on the floor, but if you drop them they can go anywhere, down the plughole, stick to your clothes or the side of the cabinet. Today I lost the contact lense for my right eye, I could find it anywhere, and eventually gave up then I got mt left eye lens and noticed the end of my finger was very shiny, the right lens had stuck to it so well that I couldn't see it at first.

Any non contact lens wearer, if you wear glasses or have good eyesight you never hit this problem, but as a contact lense wearer it's one of the many inconvenienced you experience , however these are worth the hassle as the benefits of wearing them against glasses are huge not least of which is they don't steam up when you come from the cold outside into a warm house (ship shops are terrible for that).

Anyway at the beginning of the month, to hit 366 posts for the year I calculated I needed to post 13 posts every 11 days. Actually it's 13 posts every ten days which is roughly four every three days and and today is the fifteenth and this is the twentieth post this month so I am just on track so can actually do it.

Continuing on with "On Some Faraway Beach" it put forward the premise that if a record label had a following, that following would investigate and maybe buy anything that that label produced, this had been true of Atlantic, and was true in the seventies of Island and Brian Eno's Obscure imprint. The only records I have on this are Gavin Bryars "Sinking of the Titanic" and "Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet", which was based on a homeless man's singing but features Tom Waits as well.

I also have Brian Eno's "Discreet Music" which features deconstructions of Pachelbel's "Canon" which I will share with you for this post, it's strangely relaxing and relaxingly strange, familiar but alien.

Splitting Ions In The Ether

I am 45% of the way through "On Some Faraway Beach" and we have reached Brian Eno's third solo album, although for some reason I thought it was going to be "Before and After Science" but it actually is "Another Green World", one of the two Brian Eno albums I own on vinyl although he is generally more digital artist, defining this as vertical music rather than the more standard horizontal format (beginning, next , next end).

It is full of great songs and instrumentals but I always loved "St Elmo's Fire" (not the John Parr AOR one which is not too bad) for it's lyrics especially the:

"..and we saw St Elmo's Fire

    Splitting Ions In The Ether"

And a stunning incendiary guitar solo from Bob Fripp follows that line, which many people regard as his finest recorded guitar solo. It does take some beating, have a listen as that is the song that I am sharing. Incidentally St Elmo's Fire is a weather phenomenon often seen by sailors as a positive omen.

This is definitely a very short post but is an excuse to share this wonderful song with you soundtracking a Felix The Cat cartoon.

Every Word

One of the reasons I am finding David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" slow going rather than hard going is as well as the small typeface and word cramming, I really do have to read every word because skimming immediately loses the sense of what you are reading. In the same way that the human eye / brain combination constructs your vision from limited input I often read books in the similar fashion, but this is definitely not an option with this one. It is engrossing and is continually throwing things up that I did't know about Brian Eno and therefore provides more music to share with you.

Essentially it is reminding me of things music that I love although I need to further investigate "The End" the album by Nico, but I was unaware how impressed Brian Eno was with Television, who's "Marquee Moon" is one of my many favourite albums , combining rock and free jazz stylings with Richard Lloyd's and Tom Verlaine's twin guitars intertwining into an amazing sonic tapestry. The thing is , if free jazz were this wonderful I would listen to a lot more of it.

The Label feature on this blog is still very slow, so I'm not sure what is happening there.

So I am going to share "Venus De Milo" from the album "Marquee Moon" by Television. I found a live version from 2016 and also a demo version from the seventies here.

Five Hours

That's how much sleep I had last night, you probably know why. I just hope I don't fall asleep at work today. Sleep is essential for recuperation, but I have a lot to do so it may be a day of lots of coffee. This will be a short post on a sort of appropriate day, Friday 13th , for what happened last night but we need to be positive, find ways forward and connect with people who matter to us and look out for people who need us and be there when we are needed.

Still on with David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" and we have reached Eno's involvement in Phil Manzanera's excellent debut solo album "Diamond Head" and the excellent "Miss Shapiro". This si a reason why one should continually read because sometimes you learn new things and sometimes you are reminded of things that you have either forgotten or that have just been pushed from the forefront of your mind.

The older you get, the more you experience, and therefore the more you learn, but your mind has to organise things and if you don't immediately need it, then it get's stored for future reference. Whether it then gets used or recalled is another matter but it is there and David Sheppard's book has reminded me this Friday and it means I can share it with you.

The Labels feature on Blogger keeps locking up, but there is an option to search by word so I will be a little careful with it. Maybe the blog is getting too big, over two thousand posts, imagine that was chapters in a book although chapters do last more than my average of 25o words.. People have suggested I turn this into a book, but that seems a bit pointless as you can just read it here, and also the point of writing this is to spark an idea for a book, although maybe then the writing of the blog is more important in my mind than writing the book. We shall see if it ever comes to fruition.

Whatever happens today have a good one and enjoy "Miss Shapiro" with me,

The True Wheel

This is the title of a song from Brian Eno's "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" which I am currently up to in David Sheppard's "On Some Faraway Beach" . Apparently Eno had a dream of people singing :

"We are the 801

We are the central shaft"

That was the name chosen for the superstar pick up band on his live album, which features a stunning take on Lennon and McCartney's "Tomorrow Never Knows". The 801 thing is documented in this post and you can listen to the song there too, I was going to include "The True Wheel" here but I will choose another song from what is and absolutely essential album.

This week my walking has not been up to par, I'm still ahead of where I need to be but haven't hit 11K steps since last Friday so I need to up my game on that.

Also I've been trying to write this post for two days, being beset by feeling absolutely drained and the blogging software continually locking up, which the label processing seems to cause.

Yesterday I caught a little of the Sky Sports Manchester City coverage by Shaun Goater. He is extremely well spoken with the same slightly unusual enunciation that a work colleague of mine has. I chatted with her today and asked her where she came from, because her and Shaun's accents were identical. She told me she had gone to the same school as him and they were both from Bermuda.

I'm going to include "The Great Pretender" the closing song from side one of the original vinyl album, which runs into an insectoid closed groove meaning that unless stoped the song never actually ends, as far as I know you can't to that with MP3 or CD.

"She was so impressed that she just surrendered"

An album you must own on vinyl for that reason alone.

Wading Through Treacle

That's how I feel reading "On Some Faraway Beach" the David Sheppard biography of Brian Eno. Two weeks in I'm only up to page 140 of 450. The thing is the writing is excellent and interesting and unskimmable, you want to read every word. Roxy Music were probably the band I was furthest into combining so many stylish elements visually, lyrically and musically. It's just the typeface and setting makes it difficult to read many pages at one sitting, but I do actually love it.

I am just passing Brian Eno's time with Roxy Music and flowing into "No Pussyfooting" which features two twenty minute drone pieces  "The Heavenly Music Corporation" and "Swastika Girls"  his wonderful album with Bob Frip and his first solo "song" album "Here Come The Warm Jets". One of the pieces on "No Pussyfooting was accidentally played backwards by John Peel and in the deluxe CD version you have that option as well as a half speed (so double length take.

So included a part of "The Heavenly Music Corporation" and I often listen to this to go to sleep to, no hooks, nothing that grabs your attention but , in my opinion, an amazing wash of sound.

Enjoy.

2HB

Humphrey Bogart is the only person I have ever seen who could light up a cigarette and still look cool. This might be an odd intro to a blog post but it is highly relevant as it's inspired by the book I am reading, "On Some Faraway Beach" the Brian Eno biography by David Sheppard.

It is just talking about the first Roxy Music album , and although the songs mostly follow the standard rock time 4/4 time format with solid rhythm (the longest vowel-less word I know) backing from Graham Simpson and Paul Thompson most of the songs don't contain standard choruses. I'd never really noticed it before but it is true , and if you have a copy listen to it and if you haven't got a copy get one.

The closing song on the album is Bryan Ferry's wonderful tribute to Bogart, "2HB" (nothing to do with pencils) but it is a great song and I just wanted to share that this frosty Monday morning.Ferry also did a solo version so I will share that, the song and the soundscapes and sentiments are so perfect.

"Here's looking at you kid 

Celebrate years 

Here's looking at you kid 

Wipe away tears 

Long time, since we're together 

Now I hope it's forever"

Temptation

Oscar Wilde famously said "I can resist anything but temptation" and I am definitely the same, and the latest one is that this is post 322, and another 44 posts means that for this year I will have averaged more than one post a day. While I hopefully put quality over quantity, I started the year slowly but it April I posted fifty times that's like four every three days, and in August 2018 I posted 54 times for my #August50 sequence, so although I have trashed a December sequence, I may come up with one because I don't think I'll get the chance to do this ever again because of may inherent extreme laziness. 44 posts in 35 days is most definitely doable, nut we shall see whether I do do it.

Reading "On Some Faraway Beach" by David Sheppard is difficult. The writing and subject matter is excellent but the text is so small and dense that when I look at it my my screams, well not quite screams but becomes avers to, but I start reading and then I want to keep reading. It's just each time I open the book the format tries to push me away. It mentions "Musique Concrète" and a precursor and influence on  some of Eno's output and this also is a perfect description for the effect the book seems to have on me. I was also surprised to find out that Brian Eno's surname is his family surname (though I knew of his brother Roger Eno) but it's a contraction of the word Huguenot so that's something else that I have learned.

I've decided to included "Deserts" by Edgar Varese which is mentioned as an example of Musique Concrète, it is challenging and in my opinion interesting, I'm listening to it as I finish this off. I do like pieces that grab my attention, but it would certainly clear the house at a party, but it's a piece I was unaware of til this morning and has piqued my mind to explore the genre further..

I would definitely give it a try but I know a lot of people will dismiss it as rubbish, but, in my opibion, the function of all art is to have an effect and this certainly does.

Start Again

Surprisingly this month is already the highest monthly hit rate for a month since I started and effectively this seemed to be kicked off my the demise of Google+ , because I looked for another way of sharing my posts and tried MeWe that doesn't really seem to have taken off but provides an easy way to copy the link post which I shared on Twitter. That then seemed to kick it off. Under google posts, generally a good visit count would be 100 , average about 50 but when Google+ went I was lucky to get 20. Facebook doesn't really seem to help although a few of my friends visit via that link.

Anyway after sharing on Twitter I was picked up by Feedburner and since then I have had more than a thousand visits a day, still very few comments, so maybe it's all robots, though I would love to see comments from friends. Yesterday I had 2,600 visits , that's more than one a minute which is impressive.

I finished "The Secret Commonwealth" by Philip Pullman and although I am a very slow reader I always have a book on the go, and while my last few books have been fiction, I have a lot of music biographies and commentaries still unread. I briefly considered "Tarantula" by Bob Dylan which I have read several times, and for me is an easy enjoyable read being a stream of consciousness based narrative by Dylan. I decided to take "On Some Faraway Beach" by David Sheppard , the biography of Brian Eno.

When I opened it I immediately baulked, 450 pages of of tiny unrelenting text, books like this really do initially put me off and need to be special to keep me on board. I'm on to chapter two so it is actually a goer and will be my book for the next few weeks.

Today I am also going back to contact lenses so that's another restart for me, and at the moment the lenses feel absolutely fine.

Looking out the window it's still dark grey and featureless, but every day is another day of potential to discover and do new things. The David Sheppard book opens with a quote from the brilliant Edward De Bono who's books and methods taught me a hell of a lot:

"“The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas. It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all. ”"

... and I suppose that just hooked me into the book. Many of the chapters are named after Brian Eno songs and pieces, so we will go with the creepily ominous  "The Great Pretender" from "Taking Tiger Mountain By Strategy" a truly wonderful album.

Enjoy your Monday, Make it special.