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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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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?

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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

March Final

It's after ten and this is my last post for March 2018. The weather has been miserable and I couldn't do that much walking although I hit my target for March.

I'm fifty page from completing "The Catcher In The Rye" by JD Salinger an have decided it is worth the effort of completing it, but it's a bit like cleaning gutters or unblocking a drain. It's not pleasant but has to be done. The protagonist is not pleasant. If he were in the UK today he would read the Daily Mail and vote Tory without being articulate eno0ugh to give a reason why. He always finds a reason to despise people especially if they are not well off. He himself is provided for by well to do parents that he is still, for want of a better word, a git. This book makes you think of how to deal with annoyances like Holden Caulfield, a privileged nobody who believes the world owes him whatever he wants. I haven't finished the book so I may be completely wrong in my evaluation, but if you take this book on don't expect to feel better after reading it.

Yesterd I took deliver of "Suffice To Say: The Complete Yachts Collection" on Cherry Red Records  masterminded by Henry Priestman the music behing The Christians. I've moaned that The Yachts had never appeared in digital format apart from the odd track on compilations, but now that has been rectified and I ordered it from the excellent Action Records in Preston, and it really is an excellent set.

It's funny that I was thinking twent quid for three CDs is expensive but it really isn't. In 1975 (I think) I was on the dole and my JSA was £3.25 a week (it was subsidised by undeclared lump work so I could actually live) . Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" came out  and was priced at £3.25. So if albums had kept in line with JSA we'd be paying £80 for an album.

So I will leave you with "Yachting Types" and you can buy the albums mentioned below.

To Infinity and Beyond

Today is Good Friday and it was a pleasantly good Friday (apart from Preston getting trashed 4-1 by Sheffield Wednesday) but wandering around the Clayton Street / West Road Intersection I noticed what looked like a Vinyl display in what was Blue Moon. I wasn't mistaken, and it turnes out there is a new vinyl emporium in town called Beyond Vinyl.

Essentially it's a Vinyl shop which will do coffee , cake and paninis and will have a performance space as well, plud of course a lot of class vinyl.

I spoke with the guys in there and touched on the laser etched holograms on the Star Wars soundtrack (which you can see here) and they told me the first laser etched hologram was on a White Stripes album.

Actually it was Jack White's "Lazaretto" and you can see the Angel hologram here but it still bends my mind to think how you could possibly even think about putting that into play let alone actually doing it. Added to that the vinyl album has some weird hidden tracks built in that play at 33rpm , 45 rpm and 78 rpm, but even though I have ordered a copy it's just for the hologram as I alread have the CD of the album. You can see the effect here.

Beyond Vinyl is a new brilliant space for music in Newcastle as well as meeting up . It is similar in concept to the absolutely excellent Long Play Cafe in The Grainger Market (and Quayside) and Pop Recs in Sunderland and I am looking forward to dropping in quite a lot as it is round the corned from where I work and close to Kazbat's Den if you fancy extending your wardrobe.

I've found an excellent live take of "Just One Drink" from "Lazaretto"  to share with you as you read. Sleep well.