Spoonful

Some days things just hit me and make me want to to write about it and my friend,an avid Moody Blues fan, on Instagram shared a picture of a clear vinyl copy of "Moanin' At Midnight" by Hownlin' Wolf. Earlier this year I had linked Howlin' Wolf with The Moody Blues which was a coincidence here and in 2014 wrote about the origins of the song "Smokestack Lightnin'" here. so the disc certainly piqued my interest and I will now investigate further.

Howlin'

The clear vinyl version looks wonderful, though I'm not sure if the wolf in on the vinyl or is seen though the vinyl, but I do like the design.

Another of Howlin' Wolf's songs is "Spoonful" (written by Willie Dixon) , a brilliant loping riff that I first heard on my friend Harry Clark's "Best of Cream" album as a teenager. I listened to my vinyl copy which I picked up from Beyond Vinyl.

This is my third post today so I am a little worded out, although I need extra posts if I am to hit 366 posts this year which is possible. This is post 339 so after this I need to post 27 times in 23 days which seems to be getting further away from me, but I won't let that happen.

So I'm going to share Howlin' Wolf's "Spoonful" although my favourite take is by Cream from the live "Wheels of Fire" album, but this post is all Howlin' Wolf.

Bay Uke Grainger Christmas

Today I was in the Grainger Market and hears a Christmas Ukulele band finishing off "Let It Snow" , and they sounded quite good but I'd missed that and was expecting them to break into another similarly veined song, but no, they went into one of my favourites "I'm The Urban Spaceman" and did an very jolly version which you can see above (sorry it's phone portrait and not landscape but the sound is good.

They started with Dean Martin and were going to continue with "Rockin' Round The Christmas Tree" and asked me to join in their choir but I had to do a few things but totally enjoyed this pleasant interlude.

Bay Uke are on Facebook here where you can join their group, if you have a Ukulele I am sure that they will welcome you.

Incidentally "I'm The Urban Spaceman" was produced for The Bonzo Dog Band by Paul McCartney under the pseudonym Apollo C. Vermouth.

As I said this is a very short post to record a lovely interlude in my Sunday morning.

The Weight

One of the reasons I write this blog is as a diary, another is when something happens or grabs my attention that I can , however tenuously, link to a song that I can then share with my readers and listeners, maybe I should try a podcast too, though I'm not sure that the sound of my voice will enamour everyone, an ex boss once told me he couldn't understand a word I said!

Anyway I don't eat healthily, I dislike regimentation intensely (diets, exercise - especially gyms) so obviously I am destined as I age to just get fatter and fatter. I do see some people, and they may have a lot of issues, but I think "didn't you at some point realise you were getting fat". I know damned well I could easily be 30 stone if I didn't constantly say no to certain temptations, although as Oscar Wilde said "I can resist anything but temptation", so I suppose I do think about what I eat at times.

For the second time after a week away in Settle I have lost a kilogram bringing me down to 96.75 Kg  (see here on Instagram) that's fifteen stone three pounds in imperial measure. I remember maybe being 13 stone in the late seventies so I have been a lot lighter. The thing is on holiday you normally over eat and indulge and there was fish and chips, big breakfasts , curries , potato salads and a Terry's Chocolate Orange all part of my culinary intake.

So as this has been on about my portliness and weight, I'm going to share the song "The Weight" by The Band, which was pencilled for inclusion in the "Easy Rider" soundtrack, but the producer either had a falling out with The Band and went for a cover of the song by a band called Smith, I've chosen a live take with The Staples Singlers from the Martin Scorsese directed "The Last Waltz", an awesome concert film, well worth watching.

It's a cold sunny Sunday so have a great day everybody.

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.

Twelve Inches

This week I bought three 12" vinyl singles from Skipton Sound Bar. I don't need any more vinyl but one was a blue vinyl take on Ron Grainer's "Doctor Who" theme by Mankind, which you can see here, but I have never heard, and listening on Youtube sounds remarkably sanitised and weedy, The original given to us by Delia Derbyshire in the sixties wipes the floor with it.

I am going to listen to it once I get home but have a feeling it will be dispatched to a trade in The original and subsequent series reboots are all excellent but the Mankind version is so sanitised that it would be rejected by an elevator music soundtrack.

While the Blue Pearl and Shamen records are both excellent it looks like Mankind is the dud, but that's just one of the ways to discover new sounds, you've got to take a chance, and the Blue Pearl one was worth the gamble.

I'm also pleased that the blog is going to hit the 400K visits before today is out, and my hope was that I would hit that before New Year's Eve, seems I've hit it over three weeks to spare.

So this is just a post to record the Mankind single and the visit to The Skipton Sound Bar before my return tomorrow.

What To Say

Sometimes you just have nothing to say, although that's not quite true, because if you say you have nothing to say then you are actually saying something. I am quite aware I have set myself a target and need to average eleven posts every nine days to hit, so it's hardly an impossible task, like say the Twelve Labours of Hercules.

Today is a particularly grey day and after yesterdays wonderful waterfall walk which was great countryside and chatting with some great people as I walked, often overtaking them, then lagging behind them as I took video and photographs.

Today I lunched with my dad at The Talbot and had turkey and pigs in blankets pie (here on Instagram) and learned about him "avoiding" National Service by going down the mines, sort of avoiding being run over by a car by diving under a train. We were talking about lift mechanisms and he said that the lift wasn't lowered , it just dropped and scared the hell out of him until he got used to it. That would have really done my head in.

Another thing was a comment by a Royal Mail manager who said if you want a job doing get Michael Singleton to do it. It's funny that a number of people I work with say they ask me do do things because they know it gets done quickly. So we obviously have a few common traits.

So what music should I choose for this one, on Tuesday at Skipton Sound Bar I bought a few 12" singles , one was "Naked In The Rain" by Blue Pearl. For some reason the song or band meant something to me, maybe it was one my girls liked but when I played it I didn't recognise it, but it is rather good electro dance, so definitely worth sharing with you, in the M-People / toned down KLF universe.

Waterfall

It's strange how we often have an aversion for paying for things that we see as just there. I thought that about the seven pound entrance fee for the Ingleton Waterfalls Trail, but this is some buildings and a lot of paths, four and a half miles of them, that is a hell of a lot of maintenance, and well worth every penny of the entrance fee.

I was impressed with the village of Ingleton , came to the Waterfalls Trail and walked past the closed cafe / gift shop then through the gateway which reminded me of the entrance to Jurassic Park (on a smaller scale and no dinosaurs)  and finally got to the entrance and paid my way and started on my way round.

Although it's only four and a half miles a lot of that paths are very rocky so you need to be careful and sure footed. Eventually you come to the first waterfall and it is worth the effort. You can see some of my video on Instagram here. Although I had plenty of time, the bus back was due at one, and the next one was at three so I was trying to move fast through the final part of the walk  but could have slipped easily and fell into the river, but kept on my feet and got the bus which was waiting at the stop.

If I'd missed the bus Ingleton was full of interesting places and may be due a future visit. Also it is heavily featured in the Michael Moorcock book "The Skrayling Tree".

So some appropriate music would be "Waterfall", at first I thought by the Stone Roses, then decided to go for the 10CC song, originally the "B" side of "Rubber Bullets" but later released in it's own right.