Copping Out With The Electric Light Orchestra - - #ALifeInNumbers #38

When I'm tagging posts I am sometimes very surprised at the things I've written about. Going back I find some very short posts , maybe about twenty words. The thing is a blog is a diary and sometimes you may not have much to say but still want to record it for one reason or another. Here is my first ever post that states what I wanted to do with this blog and I think it's grown a bit since then and now each post gets around fifty hits which is nice (though I don't know how many are robots). I love it that a core of friends visit and so are reading my thoughts and putting me right when I need it.

Anyway we  hit number 38 and this is one of the many cop outs as Dave pointed out, but this one was decided fairly early on, and it's an amazing record, which I bought as soon as I heard it. The Electric Light Orchestra was conceived by Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood to continue where the Beatles left off after "Strawberry Fields" and "A Day In The Life" which was rock and popular music where the orchestra became and integral part of the piece.

The Electric Light Orchestra are responsible for what is still my second favourite album ever "El Dorado" and that was after Roy Wood had departed but prior to them hitting paydirt with "A New World Record" and "Out Of The Blue"

Anyway the song I've chosen is "10538 Overture"  because it does contain "38". It starts with that huge descending guitar arpeggio / riff  (lifted by Paul Weller for "Changing Man") then joined by the muscular string section (led by a hirsute Roy Wood on Cello if I remember rightly).  So you can enjoy this , because this is what the ELO were formed for, but I think they lost their way after "Face The Music" The video is from 1972, and the masks are very worrying given that I've been watching the current series of American Horror Story (My Roanoke Nightmare).

Anyway this month has seen the most posts I've ever done in one month and there's still three more days to go. So have a great Friday my friends, the weekend is almost here.

Beatifully Southern - #ALifeInNumbers #37

Unbelievably there were a few options for "37" including "37½" from Soft Machine "6" , "37 Hours" by Kristin Hersh and "We Do What We're Told (milgram's 37)s" from "So" by Peter Gabriel, but I decided to go for "Straight In At 37" by The Beautiful South as I have always loved their playfully subversive pleasantness.

I had a far better night last night than the night before , sleeping well but finally throwing off (well almost) this cold. For the first time in a long time time I had a smoothie which included frozen blueberries from Aldi , you can see me making it here. So I definitely think that helped along with the drugs.

Have a great Thursday everybody, the weekend is getting nearer.

Good Things Do Happen - #ALifeInNumbers #36

Today is a new day. After yesterday's traumas it's time to be positive once more, although there is The Walking Dead second installment next Monday and Preston play Newcastle again on Saturday, but at least they're on separate days and won't be after a day at work. I definitely need some comedy and music to lighten the mood and still have to write a review of the GOAT and Josefin Öhrn gig last week which was excellent, so that's what I need more of, though I am missing a Women In Revolt gig at the weekend , but c'est la vie.

Anyway number 36 in the series is the excellent "36 Hours" from The Bard of Salford, Dr John Cooper Clarke, the guy who helped bring poetry to punks in the 1970s and he is still doing it although he has done an album of covers with Hugh Cornwell here, which I am tempted by , just because it's a great pairing.

Anyway it's time for work and one of my favourite records has just come on the radio (6 Music of course) the beautiful "To Ohio" by The Low Anthem, which I will include because it is so lovely, then I found this collaboration with Emmylou Harris

See - Good Things Do Happen , you need to appreciate them.

Have a great day my friends

Everybody Must Get Stoned - #ALifeInNumbers #35

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Well today started out full of hope and tonight I feel totally crushed. While I was aware that the new opener for The Walking Dead was brutal, I still wasn't prepared for it . Then that was followed by Preston not putting up much resistance to Newcastle in a six nil defeat at St James' Park. Any Newcastle player's weekly wage is probably close to the value of the whole Preston squad but today was a particularly bad night at the office, not helped by a numpty screeching "send him off" at every Preston challenge and then "you're getting sacked in the morning" , though tomorrow is probably the repayment day on his Wonga loan.

Anyway  the song has to be Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" , with it's refrain of "Everybody Must Get Stoned" . Dylan used to be difficult to track down on Youtube but I found a copy.

It's time for bed now, so enjoy yourself, for me things can only get better as we have Newcastle at Deepdale on Saturday. This time we will turn up.

One Two Free Four - #ALifeInNumbers #34

A couple of years ago Pink Floyd took out a court injunction to stop albums being sold as individual songs. While I understand this for an artistic integrity point of view, when you are selling, the aim is to make money, and surely it is better to receive a pound or two for two songs that the buyer wants than lose ten pounds that would have been the cost of the album. They won the case but must have changed their minds because you can buy the songs individually now.

I do prefer putting and album on and listening to all of it , but digital music gave us the skip, repeat and program options  and these days there are people who cannot stay to the end on a three minute song. I remember watching an artist on X-Factor covering "Nights In White Satin"  by the Moody Blues which clocks in at 5 minutes , but the X-Factor version finished at well under three minutes. When I mentioned this to the person who cajoled me into watching it, they said "Yeah they do that with all the songs otherwise you'd get bored" which confirmed my preconceptions that X-Factor had nothing to do with music.

Anyway this was one of those songs that was penned in as soon as I thought of doing this. It's "Free Four" by Pink Floyd from "Obscured By Clouds" the soundtrack to La Vallee by Barbet Schroeder. No reason apart from I have always loved the song with it's slight acoustic riff underpinned my Rick Wright's menacing synthesizer, Roger Water's deceptively dark lyrics and some Dave Gilmour perfunctory heavy guitar.

So enjoy this, it's time to go off to work now. Have a brilliant Monday my friends.

In 78 Everyone Born In 45 will be 33⅓ - #ALifeInNumbers #33

Pure Pop

"In 78 Everyone Born In 45 will be 33⅓" was a very clever tagline for a Stiff Records compilation "A Bunch of Stiffs" . For  those who need an explanation singles play at 45 rpm and LPs play at 33⅓ rpm and the album was a compilation of singles released in 1978. That got me thinking again about numbers and measures, how inconsistent they are in certain areas . Imperial weight you have 16 ounces to a pound , 14 pounds in a stone, a hundredweight is 8 stone (112 pounds) , then a ton is twenty hundredweight.






For vinyl playing speeds we have 16 (usually for spoken word), 33⅓ for long playing albums , 45 rpm for singles and 78 rpm for singles prior to the seven inch and made out of shellac rather than the more durable vinyl.

I know it's #33 but I am choosing "33⅓" by Jesus and Mary Chain because every time I get the chance to include one of my favourite bands I will take the opportunity, and it gives you more decent music to listen to.

Thirty Two By The Back Door - #ALifeInNumbers #32

Colin Hodgkinson has always been one of my favourite bass players, and I first heard his cover of Robert Johnson's "32-20 Blues" when I discovered Back Door in the seventies . They didn't have a guitarist but Hodgkinson's bass playing mad up for that. This is a live performance and he still has it, probably the first time I have seen a solo blues piece played on the bass. Most of  Back Door's music was saxophone led underpinned by Hodgkinson's bass and are well worth checking out , they even covered "Dashing White Sergeant".

Anyway the weather outside looks grey and I have groceries to buy and friends to meet, so enjoy the rest of your Saturday my friends.