Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spirit. Show all posts

Sunday 18 October 2020

Alexis

The most important thing that happened this weekend is that I became a grandad to my grand daughter Alexis , mother , father and Alexis looking great, but due to social distancing not sure when I will see her in person , but thanks to modern communication methods I certainly don't feel cut off, and looking forward to seeing her grow up with her great mum , dad , aunt and Molly the dog plus great grand parents who are still enjoying their own lives and will be pleased to welcome  this new addition to the family.

People have asked if I object or feel old being a grandad , and it's just a special state of play , it's like getting older , these things happen , and all they are is a new experience. When I was a kid grandads were old geezers like the one Clive Dunn portrayed in that god awful song , but I fgo with that saying:

"You don't stop playing when you get old, You get old when you stop playing"

And I have never stopped playing and don't intend to, and I am sure that Alexis will be a major addition to family like. I've told my daughter and son-in-law to have faith in themselves to do the right thing, because bringing up a child can't be done by numbers.

So one song came to mind for this , and that's "Family" by Spirit from the album "Son Of Spirit" which is a short but very uplifting album full of songs I love and this is one of them , although not available to download.

Thursday 11 June 2020

I Now Have A Top Three


I am always positive, looking for positives in any situation. As I was make breakfast , porridge and coffee, I ran out of milk. This meant I had to go to my local shop to get more milk, but in the process added 600 steps to my daily sep count , which is always good.

Anyway back to the point of the post.

On my morning walk I decided to listen to "Dirty Computer" by Janelle Monae, which I was so impressed with that I posted this two years ago. and every time I listen I am floored by the album. It now joins "Future Games" by Spirit and "El Dorado" by The Electric Light Orchestra in my top three albums ever. I do like music and have eclectic taste and if I were to choose top artists it would probably be David Bowie and Bob Dylan.

I have included the Emotion Picture that contains most of the album , and is a great piece of science fiction music culminating in th ewonderful "Amercans" . The album has lost none of it's joy and power since I first heard it , and it's so good I never skip a song , similar to the other two albums in my top three.

It is an amazing , joyful and thought provoking piece of work and is always great to listen to and always lift my spirits.

This also shows that there is always great music being produced, and while often it's cited that the music you hear between the ages of 14 and 16 shapes your whole future tastes , I think that you have to keep an open mind and listen to everything.

Also you don't have to be yound to produce great music , age can educate you and I thing that Sparks are  still one of the most at the edge original band still going.

So keep a very open mind and let the good stuff flow into you.

Saturday 6 April 2019

#AprilSongs #6 Saturday Night Fish Fry


SIx days into this and this morning I'm on https://www.thechain.uk/The Chain with by suggestion to follow Bowie's "Warszawa", but today's choice for #AprilSongs is Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry".

I am not sure when I first discovered Louis Jordan, but was almost shocked when I heard "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" because the main riff (played in alternative versions by brass and piano) is the same note sequence as Chuck Berry's signature guitar riff. So Chuck didn't get it from Michael J Fox in "Back To The Future" but from Louis Jordan back in the forties. Musicians always "borrow" from others but it would be nice to see a little acknowledgement (Led Zeppelin I'm looking at you).

Also the brass section reminds me of Frank Zappa's take on  "Stairway To Heaven" (which was the subject of a copyright claim for it's similarity to Spirit's "Taurus") on "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life" where the brass section play the guitar solo perfectly.

So I need to shower before I get my phone call from 6Music.

Sunday 18 November 2018

Desert Island Discs


Today my friend Krista published her Desert Island Discs selection on Facebook here, and as such inspired me to do one. I thought I best read the concept of what it is, though I roughly knew it, but here's a definition:

"Each week a guest, called a 'castaway' during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices."

So that's basically what I'm going to follow, Krista had annotated hers with years and events but  maybe mine wont be that detailed, though hopefully it will provide you with a little insight into what makes me tick. Although this will be albums it is not necessarily my favourite album list, just albums that mean something to me and I wouldn't grow tired of. It also dates me fairly and squarely in the late sixties, early seventies but that's just the nature of the beast.

So here goes:


  1. Future Games by Spirit: Still my favourite album of all time and it's sort of a film for the ears featuring dialogue from Star Trek and Sci-Fi "B" Movies with some fine songs and plying. I still listen to it a lot and it still makes my mind fly.
  2. Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix Experience: An absolutely gorgeous cornucopia of blues, space rock and containing his take on Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" which must rate as the best cover version ever, a double album that again takes you places that you want to be.
  3. Live At San Quentin by Johnny Cash: My dad introduced me to Johnny Cash, and my friend Chris Waring reinforced that, although he was not deemed cool by my school contemporaries, though he is now. This is one of his live prison albums and just encapsulates the outlaw spirit that a lot of us would like to live.
  4. Stranded by Roxy Music: Always one of my favourite bands, and though this was the first without Brian Eno in contains what is probably their finest song "Mother of Pearl" and that is something that would have to be in my music collection.
  5. Quadrophenia by The Who: Their second concept album which actually makes a lot more sense than "Tommy" and contained a photo story book about Jimmy the Mod ending up on Brighton beach, which I spent time on when I was down there. Lots of unforgettable songs with motifs for each band member, each representing a facet of Jimmy's "quadrophenia".
  6. Blood on the tracks by Bob Dylan: There are lots of choices for Dylan but this has "Lily,Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts" one of my favourites story songs that I never tire of, and "If You See Her, Say Hello" which still makes me think about my split with my first girlfriend. The album was about Dylan's divorce so no surprise there.
  7. Scary Monsters and Super Creeps by David Bowie: Again not even my favourite Bowie album but a consistently excellent one with not a dud on there. Maybe tomorrow I would have chosen differently but I wouldn't complain if you put this album on.
  8. Li'l Beethoven by Sparks: This is just like a box of musical fireworks. Sparks always surprise and delight and bring a smile to your face and this is probably my favourite album of theirs.
Book:

Clive Barker's Imajica: A thousand pages of majick, adventure, magical creatures spanning five dimensions, and one of those books you just don't want to end, but it is always a delight to read again.

Luxury Item:

A Guitar: And maybe one day I can learn how to play, though just making noise on one is always very therapeutic for me.

So that is my Desert Island selection, tomorrow it may be different but I wouldn't complain if this was all I had on that Desert Island.



Friday 10 August 2018

A Million Bright Ambassadors of Morning


It's Friday Morning and the Transfer Window is shut. It's cloudy but the sun is fighting through. I really don't think the #August50 is a goer. while I've walked a long way today I've got an ache in my side and think th eweather is draining me again.

Yesterday I was hoping for a decent amount of posting but couldn't get the inspiration to write, and that's what I feel with this post, and if  I keep hitting a brick wall like this then I can't really do it.

I could possibly post a video or a link but I do like to write around 250 words to ensure that I am actually saying something. However there is not much I have to say.

Over the last couple days on my walks I have revisited my favourite ever album, "Future Games" by Spirit, and while it doesn't contain any of my favourite songs, even by Spirit, overall it is a brilliantly complete album, a veritable film for the ears.

That was followed by possibly my favourite Pink Floyd album, "Meddle" which does contain my favorite Pink Floyd song "Echoes" which takes up side two of the vinyl incarnation of the record. This was also used for a great part of the soundtrack to the 1973 Australian surf movie "Crystal Voyager". The title of the post is a line from "Echoes".

So I did manage to find something to write about, and the weekend is a little bit closer so things are now looking good.

Enjoy yoursef.

Sunday 22 April 2018

#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.

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.

Thursday 1 February 2018

February


I've vaguely wondered why February is so short. We have seven 31 day month , four 30 day months and February which has 28 days (29 in Leap Years). Surely we could have five 31 day months and seven 30 day months (February hitting 21 in a Leap Year). I was thinking maybe it's a sort of apology because people tend to be paid earlier in December and then Janauray seems an awfully long month although you don't get the small benefit of the four week February until March. Basically The Romans were to blame (what did they ever do for us?) and originally Februay was the last month of the year, but with various calendrical reorganizations January became the first month of the year (which is odd because the God Janus had a face at the front and back of his head so he could look backwards and forwards so you would expect that to be the first or last month of the year). Anyway here's some links about February:

Wiki
Why it is short

I recently found some John Niven books I was unaware of "Coma", "Old School:Roman" and "Enfant Terrible". "Old School:Roman" dropped through my letter box and I unwrapped it and looked inside and thought my eyes were not reading properly then realised it was a German edition. I checked the orlder (which had been desptched from Germany and the language is listed as German. C'est La Vie I thought, I'll find the English copy but every copy I found was German. John Niven is Scottish. I checked "Coma" - German. "Enfant Terrible" - French.  It turns out these are retitled versions of existing novels, "Coma" is "The Amateurs", "Old School:Roman" is "The Sunshine Cruise Company", "Enfant Terrible" is "Straight White Male". While "Enfant Terrible" is French it has found it;s way into the English language, but why have the German translations got English titles apart from to maybe catch people out.  Luckily I have German friends so it can find a good home but if I were German if I saw an English title I wouldn;t expect it to be a German language book.

Anyway the last of the bands that have covered "Happy" by The Rolling Stones and I'm going for Spirit's "Animal Zoo" from "The Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus" and classic album from Spirit in their first incarnation.

Enjoy the first day of February 2018, the last time it will ever happen my friends.

Tuesday 30 January 2018

Encouragement


One of the great thing in life is when people say what you are doing is good, that they enjoy it, that it makes things better, and that does give you a lift and makes you want to do more. In a work situation this encourages teamwork and working together. Outdie of work it makes you want to interact more and work with and help others. It can bring your life to another level.

You get the opposite, people looking to find faults, trip people up and cause trouble and mischief, the sort of people who are only satisfied when they and others are miserable. It's not enough to succeed, somebody else must fail.

Part of my job has always been to spot faults and errors and to fix them, the fix rather than blame culture is so much more positive. Also encouraging others gets the best out of them.

Social interation also helps in a work situation because if you talk about non work things, it becomes easier to share ideas and deal with problems.

I wrote this post because someone gave me some encouragement, it was unexpected, but it was appreciated.

Also yesterday I saw someone almost resorting to violence because of a small mistake in a shop, and the person behind the counter was being very helpful but the customer was having none of it and ended up being ejected, it would have taken five minutes to sort his situation but he wanted blood.

Anyway I thought I'd try and find a cover of one of my favourite all time songs "Happy" by The Rolling Stones, and listened to covers by Nils Lofgren, The Pointer Sisters and Spirit but for my mood all fall short of the Stones doing that song. However my next three posts will include songs by each of those bands.

Anyway it's Tuesday, it's still dark but dry so have a brilliant day.

Thursday 25 January 2018

Future Games


Yesterday I was listening to Spirit's "Future Games", my favourite album of all time. I mentioned it in a favourites post here. It was the first time I'd heard an album where sound snips from film and TV were woven into the fabric of the album. The songs a classic second stage Spirit with Randy California's etherial voice and guitar playing and Ed Cassidy's (Randy's father-in-law) guttural Jack Bond interjections, with effortless covers such as "All Along The Watchtower". Into this seemless tapestry are woven The Muppets, Star Trek and Science Fiction "B" Movie dialogue. The song I included gives you a feel for the album, and if you like that just buy the album. "Spirit of '76" has a similar feel to it though not quite as seamless but still brilliant.

It;s like a film for the ears. I'd often go to sleep listening to it after a shift as a computer operator when I got the chance. Though often I'd finish a night shift and my dad would ask me to just drive a wagon to a site and drop off some stuff, and I'd get there and they'd want me to some more stuff to another site going on til the end of the day and I soon be back on the computer night shift. As I was about 19 at the time I could take it.

Big Audio Dynamite were another band that used this process in their early albums successfully and their first two albums are brilliant, highly worth listening to.

Oh by the way Blue Oyster Cult's "Curse of The Hidden Mirror" is a class album if you can get hold of a copy, some of the lyrics a bit AOR but all the songs are brilliant.

Anyway it's time to set off for work, have a brilliant day everyone.

Sunday 24 September 2017

200 @ 2:00 AM


This is my 200th post this year and it's 2:00 AM although really I should have gone back to bed, though the fact that this is my second most prolific year so far and th efact that I've not really done anything in the middle of the night for a while made me think "Why Not?". It's two in the morning and this time next week it will be 2 AM in La Rosa in Whitby so I thought I would just get up and write a word or two.

My last two posts have been about two albums that I'd revisited for #Albumofthe Day and other things meant that I missed two albums that I'd been listening to, so I thought I would say a couple of words about both the ones that I'd missed and bring myself up to date on them. The response I got to David Bowie's "Blackstar" was very good, although it's amazing what a picture of David Bowie on your post can do for attracting a few more readers, but that is really the point of writing these these things , to remind me and my readers about great music that we may have forgotten about or just not heard.

The two albums I mised were:

  • Graham Parker & The Rumour: The Up Escalator - One of my favourite albums of his and his final one with The Rumour. Produced with Jimmy Iovine and featuring Bruce Springsteen as co writer and on backing vocals on "Endless Night"  this is just brilliant song after brilliant song from the opening riff of "No Holding Back" not dropping off through "Devil's Sidewalk" and "Stupefaction" until the final song of the original album "Love Without Greed". Another one that should really be in your collection.
  • Spirit: The Twelve Dreams of Doctor Sardonicus - A bona fide rock classic absolutely full of songs which you don't realise that you actually know very well. From the enigmatic cover and running order with titles like "Prelude", "Space Child" and "Street Worm" and if you have heard "Animal Zoo" or "Mr Skin" you will recognise them instantly or if not you will be captivated when you do hear them.
Anyway, given that I have two albums full of great songs to choose from, it is a difficult choice but you can either follow the links and listen to samples on Amazon or just find them on Youtube. I'm going to go for "No Holding Back" from "The Up Escalator" , then I am going back to bed.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

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

Sunday 9 October 2016

Bo Diddley's A Violin Player Now #ALifeInNumbers #12


For this one I was thinking of a cut from Spirit's classic "The Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus" , the title always intrigued me but but Spirit were never an "in" band in my teens for some reason. Eventually when I realised that I could listen to whatever I wanted I bought it and realised that I had been missing some amazing stuff , and in fact my all time favourite album "Future Games" is by them.

But I recalled a Bo Diddley instrumental called "Clock Strikes Twelve"  for it's great reverb drum sound , "I'm A Man" riff vibe and distinctly original guitar sound. Well no wonder that guitar sound is original because that guitar is, in fact, a violin. Did you know Bo Diddley played violin? Until reading up on the song I didn't , hardly an instrument you associate with blues or rock except as part of an orchestral backing.

I've always loved Bo Diddley's songs and playing and was amazed to find a band who you an see playing small venues , the wonderful Lord Rochester who play a lot of Bo Diddley songs , effect the rectangular guitar and are one of the best live bands you will see. They describe themselves as Scotland’s Top Rock n’ Roll combo? I wouldn't disagree. I've included a video I took of them at The Schooner a couple of years back playing "Layla".

I am enjoying writing this series because it does enable me to talk about my favourite music, although I know the coming weeks will be a lot harder, I do have a few mapped out ready to slot it , often classic by major artists, although I didn't think I could fit Thousand Yard Stare in then I saw the number 45 in one of their song titles so they will be on the list though that's 33 songs and posts away.

Anyway enjoy the rest of this summery sunny Sunday my friends, and enjoy "Clock Strikes 12", it's another song I love.


Wednesday 1 October 2014

This is Tomorrow ... Wishing You Were Here



This post is part challenge but part something I want to do. It's my birthday and usually you do something special on your birthday. I'm starting this at 6.10 am and will finish it tonight. The challenge as I said before is to write my best blog post ever, but how do you do that? Should it be short and punchy , should it be epic and informative? I know it will be somewhere in between as I have had some thoughts about it and now is the time where the words have got to flow from my fingers to produce this post. The thing is, it wont be edited, these are the words that are coming out, and this is actually part of what may be my best post ever, although you can always say that because if you check out my first posts, they were quite brief, and the observations of single points usually.

Today I tend to ramble a bit more, like today was my birthday and had a lovely surprise at work when my friends bought me a very nice cake which I managed to divide up using plastic knives (we really need to get real knives) , also I have had lots of messages from lovely friends around the world, and close to home, which gives a wonderful feeling that there is so much love and good will among the people I know. I always try to be positive and look for the good in things and today, and the past couple of weeks have made that extremely easy for me.

So what makes a good blog post, I've not written fiction, and reporting on something (like the awesome GOAT gig on Monday with my friends Jon and Julie is not a thing for something memorable, the gig itself was memorable but my scribblings could never really do it justice.

So what is left , well it's good to keep positive and throughout like there are often things that aren't people  that have an effect of you and are things that you want to share with others, and one of the best things in life is sharing things with people, because that get's you talking and helps with the initial lasting hooks and threads of friendships and relationships. It may be a place , an event, a book , a Tv program or a film. ALl of these thing we can all share in.

The sentiment at the top is from a Bryan Ferry song, not one of my favourites but a wonderful line, and sometimes you would just love people to be here with you but that cannot be because of where they are or what they are doing. It's not a bad thing and it is good to have that desire because it will get you out and get you socialising. So if you don't know these are a few of my favourite things:

BOOK:


Magical Imajica
Imajica by Clive Barker. It's fantasy, it's big, it's full of love, sex, magic , adventure and a huge circular multiverse and I never tire of it and love going back to revisit.

It has similarities with other books such as Lord of The Rings and His Dark Materials, both of which I love but this is my personal favourite and will hopefully be reading it again soon.




 

FILM:


My Favourite Film
True Romance by Tony Scott, with a Tarantino script and an A list cast of thousands, or it seems like that. You get romance, a mexican stand off, the ghost of Elvis , Dennis Hopper as a good guy, Gary Oldman as a white negro rasta drug dealer , a comic shop , Brad Pitt stoned on a couch and Patricia Arquette taking out James Gandolfini with a cistern top. And that's not the half of it , add a lovely theme from Hans Zimmer and a top soundtrack and you have a perfect film.








 

 

ALBUM:


Spirit of Adventure
Future Games by Spirit. Basically this is an aural film with vague Star Trek  and Muppets connections, going into trippy pschedelia but always lovely and perfect listening. The film snippets were later picked up by bands like Big Audio Dynamite , and I love them too , but the Spirit album is always with me and will always be my favourite.











So that's a few things that I like to give you a small insight into  me. I hope you found this interesting, but be positive and look forwrd to tomorrow because the always great things waiting round the corner, it's just sometimes you have to go and find them , and when you do it feels absolutely brilliant.

Thursday 8 January 2009

Walkin' The Dog : Animals We Have Seen

Just thought I'd post a bit of video and photos , including a cat in our garden , the dogs and lambs of Upton Snodsbury while we were staying in The Old Wool Loft (see here) as well as a couple of Geese. All soundtracked by Spirit's version of Rufus Thomas' "Walkin' The Dog" , a version of which you can download here: