5AM Sunday Morning

This is ridiculous. I should be asleep. My body is tired, my brain is tired but my mind is wide awake. So I wasn't sure what to do, so like always when I am not sure what to do, I thought I would come an blog about it. It is could that I can do this and know that I am compos mentis enough to string a few words together, but it is a bit of a pain when I just want to sleep.

I had been dreaming and was in a queue at Boots for some tissues in possibly Leeds, and the serving person was chatting with other servers and trying to serve others before me so I decided to go elsewhere and vaguely remember some huge indoor area like a market or mall  before waking again and deciding to maybe read a bit. I've finished "The White Wolf's Son" by Michael Moorcock and enjoyed the all over the the place swirl of the writing, making for a thoroughly enjoyable read with lots of flashbacks to earlier themes as well as referencing the a area of North Yorkshire where I enjoy going for a relaxing holiday.

I has a slideshow of my last two holidays in Settle and am using the photographs as my computer wallpaper and every one gives me a lift, it is a wonderfully relaxing place. You can see most of the photographs here if you are logged into Facebook.

I'm now starting "How To Be Right: … in a world gone wrong" by James O'Brien which addresses the situation in post brexit-vote / Trump UK via encounters with callers on his radio show. Some of the people he interviews are polarised by the media and unfortunately I hear these sort of things every day, but it is a great read to provide an insight into what is happening in society today. That reminds me of this excellent TED talk by Carol Cadwalladr about Facebook's involvement in allowing untruths about the EU to be spread to push the Brexit agenda.

The music I've chosen for this is the excellent piece of social commentary from the latest Specials album "Embarrassed By You" and I was surprised to see the "Stereotypical" collection which is sitting not two feet from where I am typing going for £225 on Amazon, but as I always say, it's only worth that if you have a buyer.

So enjoy your Bank Holiday Sunday everybody.

May The Fourth .... Be With You ..... Star Wars Day

Today is a very sunny May 4th to start the Bank Holiday Weekend. Peter Mayhew who played Chewbacca died this week aged 74, he was 7'3" and played Chewbacca in all th elive action Star Wars films.

May blogging is a lot more leisurely, this being my second May post in four days. The song I'm going to play is "Take It Easy On Me" by Irish band A House, just because it came on The Chain just as I started to write this, and it's just one of those moments when one of those great records you had forgotten about comes on the radio (This time RadMac on 6Music)

So today is going to be a mowing the lawn and posting things day, assuming that the weather holds but we shall see how that goes.

I know this is a very short post as I can't really think of anything more to say at the moment so will leave you with A House, and have a good weekend.

#LikeNoOther #10 Bitches Brew - Miles Davis

The least couple of days I've been walking in I thought I would listen to "The Essential Miles Davis" , I didn't last long ( too jazz club / lounge jazz)  and then I switched to "Bitches Brew", which I was sure I had enjoyed when I listend in the past.

I was not wrong.

While a lot of this sounds like free jazz improvisations it's like wandering in a swirling waterpool of sound, the first piece "Pharoah's Dance" (written by Joe Zawinul of Weather Report) clocking in at over twenty minutes although because you are so lost in the sound it is over before you know it. You cannot dance to this, and most people would probably switch off after a minute or two, but I find it absorbing and while hardly being a jazz afficianodo (prefer rockier type stuff as opposed to purist stuff and I tend to hate "smooth", "lounge2 or jazz club type stuff.

The title track is even better though mainly anchored on a seven note bass motiff  which for the most part uses only three actual notes, though the bassist does vary this after about twenty minutes while still maintaining the rhythm. "Bitches Brew" clocks in at almost half an hour but again for me seems to fly by.

"Spanish Key" and "john McLaughlin" (I assume named after the Yorkshire Jazz guitarist who plays on the album)  "MIles Runs The Voodoo Down" and "Sanctuary" (a Wayne Shorter or Weather Report piece) comprise the second vinyl disc or the original release and while lacking the full intensity of the first two sides is just more excellent quality.

Even though you may not like jazz or challenging music this is something you should try at least once. It is exceptional.

The wiki entry is here with details of personel for each piece, and the bands are big, so it's no wonder that the sound is so rich and listenable.

#AprilSongs #30 Everything's Tuesday

I'm surprised I've got through the #AprilSongs sequence with every song having the relevant day in the title. So sor the final #AprilSongs post I give you "Everything's Tuesday" by Chairmen of the Board, a Holland Dozier Holland composition which stands up with their best. I had thought of other more prominent songs like The Rolling Stones "Ruby Tuesday", Cat Stevens "Tuesday's Dead" and Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Tuesday's Gone", but plumped for this to share with you.

This is my 50th post this month, so I've hit that target and also my 1900th post overall. I've had 180,000 page views so that's an average of 90 views per post all though some have had no views while others have had over a thousand. Timewise that works out at 40 visits a day, although recently it has sort of ramped up (271 yesterday)  but that's nearly 2 an hour which is not too shabby over 12 years.

So on this foggy morning enjoy this classic slice of soul and feel free to trawl back through the blog and even buy some of the linked products (I know it's Amazon but they have effectively killed off all the online competition and provide a simple sharing interface).

Have a superb Tuesday everybody.

Dawn Chorus

The last couple of days I have wolen to the Dawn Chorus, I think I noticed it because I did a surver that asked if I woke to birdsong , traffic noise or something else, and went on further to ask whether I ever heard birdsong in any other situation.

I used to live in Shieldfield and there was a yard behind hit that was lit 24/7 and the birds used to sing all night long so you went to sleep to birdsong and woke up to it.

Part of the reason I'm waking to it it that all the upstairs windows in the house are open so, the double glazing doesn't block out the sound, but it is a pleasant , natural noise to wake up to, although my alarm is also set to birdsong so there is quite a lot of it in mt life.

I have about five bird feeders in my garden, and they do seem a little spoilt, as they do devour the seed at a rapid rate, but as it's coming summer I will let them fend for themselves for longer periods as I am sure they can find many other food sources.

Today is the last day of April, I have hit my step target , and I will follow this post by a shower then my final #AprilSongs post. I will include fifty minutes of the Dawn Chorus from the Chilterns though obviously mine is in Fenham, though you can also hear what seems to be traffic in the background, but it's still relaxing.

In A Parallel Universe

Well I was in bed before nine, but have woken with a dry cough, so I thought I'd post another piece just before midnight. I'm having a Morrison's Solero equivalent that is soothing the dryness and hopefully I can get back to sleep, but I am feeling refreshed after my sleep.

I thought I'd try and read more of the excellent, if swirling, "White Wolf's Son" while listening to the Hawkwind compilation "Parallel Universe" and I started with CD3 which opens with the band's take on "Ejection" which was from Bob Calvert's "Captain Lockheed and The Starfighters" album and I first heard as I walked into a record shop in Preston Guildhall as the opening jet sound crossed the shop very loudly, needless to say I bought it immediately.

I switched my side light on remembering it's only an energy saving bulb , not LED to it took a while to hit full brightness and I read while regressing to my teenage years as "Urban Guerilla" (also covered by Primal Scream) followed, which I think had a radio ban, so another that I bought immediately, and possibly still maybe you won't hear on mainstream radio, then we have selections from the sublime "Hall of The Mountain Grill" album culminating in a live take of Lemmy's "The Watcher".

I will share "Urban Guerilla" with you because it is rather good pop / rock and am now going to listen to CD1 which concentrates on their first two albums and takes me even further back, where I remember paying £1.50 for a copy of "Hurry On Sundown" b/w "Mirror of Illusion" on a Liberty Records single from a guy at a youth club I used to go to. They were the opening and closing tracks from their excellent trippy debut album.

OK it is time to hit the sack once more, it is a school night so to speak.

After The Late Show .....

I'm considering going to bed now (just after eight). Obviously there are times when I'm wide awake but others where I feel I'm wrecked, although compus mentis enough to pen a few words. Part of this is also the attempt to hit fifty posts this month, which I didn't set out to do , but the fact I got another #TenAlbumsInTenDays nomination meant that combined with #AprilSongs (which finishes tomorrow) meant that I posted a few more selections than I expected to.

Wreckless Eric has just been on Marc Riley's 6Music show talking about working with Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick and I remember buying the "Live at Budokan" on yellow vinyl in 1978, and because this am slightly tempted by getting it again. I'm quite surprised that I've never mentioned Wreckless Eric on this blog as I have been a fan since I first heard him in 1977, although I suppose I've rectified that now.

So who do I soundtrack this with?

Well at Budokan they covered The Move's finest rock and roll moment "California Man" which is a little more metal than The Move's version but an excellent band playing an excellent song for you to enjoy.

Maybe it's bed time.