This is post number 2332 , so a numerical palindrome, there will be a few of these coming up (every 110 posts) and there's also post number 2345 to look forward to before the end of the year hopefully.
I've done virtually no writing or anything really this week. It's been a purely relaxing week, which I travelled by train plus a lift from Northallerton to Thirsk. This week has been lying in , watching TV and walking a reasonable amount of steps each day.
Thirsk is a relaxing place to be with lots of places to eat , drink and also lots of walks , especially along Cod Beck the waterway that runs through the place. I was particularly impressed with The Red Bear (the pigeons seem to love the roof) and Bianco's , a nominally Italian restaurant, but it offers so much more, and there's always about ten other things on their menu that you fancy trying.
Like many other similar places the only places you can buy music is the charity shops and Tesco. Although I think my vinyl collection is complete , I picked up a copy of my favourite classical piece "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff, which I will share with you for this post.
Ray Manzarek of The Doors also made an album of the piece although I have still yet to hear it, but can be listened to here.
As I have said, this week is pure relaxation so the two hundred words in this post will have to do. As I have said, not sure how many people read this these days, as my follower count is just six, but it works for me as a diary.
There are thirty steps from the entrance hall to the top of the house, it's slightly different living in three storeys. This is a total relaxation holiday , with no plans to do anything major, to lie in and enjoy the surroundings.
These days with so much available via smart networks you can come on holiday with a bare minimum of stuff, though I have a DVD of "The Terror" which I still haven't finished. Inherent laziness means that we want to watch and listen to things after a few button presses, so messing with physical media becomes a huge inconvenience when it really isn't.
Today I watched series on Channel 5 on Lost Railways which was very fascinating but required me to do nothing. I have the options of Netflix , various hubs, plus the laptop I am writing this on means that I won't be short of entertainment.
So I think "Sleeping With The TV On" by The Dictators would be an appropriate tune, although I have shared it before, it's a great song.
I am now 63 and will be reminded of that every time I see a Stagecoach 63 bus, which is not something that overly bothers me.
One of my birthday presents was a vinyl copy of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" mainly for the excellent Jim Fitzpatrick cut out cover, which the reissued version is done as a single sleeve rather than the original gatefold , clevely using the inner sleeve for the band breakout image.
Although most people will pick up on the single "The Boys Are Back In Town" , it is nowhere near the best song on the album, but is a great demonstration of Phil Lynott's talking vocal style , where the vocls seem completely add odds with the music lines , and sing like that while also playing bass shows prodigious talent.
The album crashes in with the title track which does have one of the most faux-pas of an opening line ever:
"Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak,
Somewhere in this town"
Could it be a the jail maybe?
As that screeches to a siren filled finale , we are treated to three quieter but no less impressive songs "Angel From The Coast" , "Running Back" and the gorgeous "Romeo and The Lonely Girl" with stunning guitar work from Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham. The side finishes with the robust "Warriors" , and side two opens with "The Boys Are Back In Town" which is classic Thin Lizzy.
"Fight or Fall" is contemplative but probably the least memorable song on the album , but it is in very impressive company, "Cowboy Song" contains some great lyrics and and a memorable descending riff , just making you want the song to never end.
The finale is "Emerald" taking on Irish mythology and culminating in a stunning guitar duel between Gorham and Robertson underpinned by Lynott's bass and Brian Downey's drums.
The album was probably only beaten by "Live and Dangerous", but for me stands as their greatest studio album, though I also like "Black Rose" very much, and their albums alway produce some stand out songs.
On my afternoon walk yesterday I was listening to "Stranded" the third Roxy Music album, and my Emopeak headphones ran out of power. It is slightly annoying that you get about four announcements that you have low power then the shut off. I only need one warning telling me the power is about to go off.
Anyway "Stranded" is another brilliant Roxy Miusic album and does contain their finest ever song "Mother Of Pearl" with two sections that are a universe apart but do fit together, almost worthy of th edeparted Brian Eno. The album opens with their firs album based single "Street Life" , complete with debutant Eddie jobson's violin solo, followed by the mellower "Just Like You", then the slightly off kilter "Amazona" with lots of guitar effects before closing with the overlong religious "Psalm" closing a satisfying first side. The second side opens with the powerful "Serenade" slipping into the awesome "Song For Europe" preparing you for the magnum opus "Mother of Pearl"before slipping out quietly with "Sunset".
If anyone wer to put this forward as the greatest Roxy Music album I couldn't argue with them, although my preference is for "For Your Pleasure.
I was shocked my the number of buses I saw on my morning walk, and as approach my 63rd birthday I'm gonna be reminded of my age my the number 63 Stagecoach bus that goes up Netherby Drive every twenty minutes.
So for the #FruitfulSeptember I am not going with another Roxy Music song, but with "Cherry Oh Baby" by Eric Donaldson that was covered by UB40 on their first "Labour of Love" album.
The weather is now bright sunshine, so enjoy the rest of the day.
On my recent walks I have been listening to a lot of Roxy Music. Today my music player on my Google Pixel 2XL stopped working so I applied another , it sounded fine but it was listing songs on albums in alphabetical order with the option of shuffling. Songs are meant to be in the album order , but so many apps default to alphabetical order, which is plain stupid. It's ok if you are looking at all the songs on a device but not within an album. There is no option to sort by album song number, but luckily the file date sorted them into the correct order.
Anyway back to the point of the post, I've decided that "For Your Pleasure" is Roxy Music's best album. The have made a lot of great albums, and "Stranded" , "Country Life" and the debut are close behind , plus "Avalon" is an amazing soundscape and the rest of the albums have their highpoints but "For Your Pleasure" everything just falls into place.
The cover features Amanda Lear , a jaguar and Ferry as a chauffeur , Ferry being the only band member to feature on the outer cover although they are all on the inner one.
Originally a vinyl release (which I have as well as the CD) , listening now it's in two distinct parts with the strident opener "Do The Strand" sounding contrived but excellent followed by "Beauty Queen" with the superb instrumental break going into "Strictly Confidential" introverted and sullen, before "Editions of You" closes the first part but not the side.
That falls to "In Every Dreamhome A Heartache" one of the creepiest songs to ever hit the mainstream, and it delivers in spades , close the side with swirling guitars and leaving the listener at least a little unnerved.
Side Two opens with "The Bogus Man" with the band almost in Can / Bertolt Brecht territory , and this was the direction Brian Eno wanted the band to go in , although he acknowledged it was Bryan Ferry's vision and band. This goes into "Grey Lagoons" (also known as "The Bogus Man Part Two") which is grand rock and roll with a stunning Andy Mackay saxophone solo before the grand finale of the title track complete with Eno piano treatment and the hypnotic fade.
Although this is their finest album , their finest song is the wonderful "Mother of Pearl" on "Stranded" the follow up the "For Your Pleasure" with Eno replaced by Eddie Jobson from Curved Air.
So that's two posts today, obviously influenced by my afternoon walk, but what to do about #FruitfulSeptember ? Roxy Music have no fruit related songs, or so I thought. Then I found this:
So we hit Roxy Music's fourth album "Country Life" for "Prairie Rose" , another great song.
Basically their first four studio albums, and the first live album "Viva" are all essential , after that they are a little patchy but with some gems in there. The albums below are the essential ones plus an excellent compilation that contains most of the first four albums plus rarities.
They last few days the weather has been very grey. It's not been the most uplifting. Added to that I thhink I have torn a shoulder muscle or trapped a nerve in my right arm , when you get arm pain's at my age you start thinking heart attack so it's hit the medical box for aspirin. Mt right arm is improving and I haven't lost the use of my hand at all , or been in so much pain that I had to go to casualty. Part of it is that I don't feel like writing or walking, and my monthly target is in danger , but after I post this , I so intend to go out for a walk, maybe up Cow Hill to take some pictures.
Looking out of the window the sky is a uniform grey although it is not as cold as yesterday.
I am thoroughly enjoying "Spear Of Destiny" by Daniel Easterman , which , location wise, has a lot in common with "The Lost" that he wrote as Jonathan Aycliffe. I know that I've read "Spear of Destiny" but I only remember the start of the book, but my rubbish memory means that I can reread books and rewatch films and thoroughly re enjoy them.
While working I am listening to a lot of CDs one of which is the 15 disc Bruce Springsteen Soundstage box. It's only radio broadcast quality but is still a great listen, but just doing one gig at a time , there are five gigs with three discs for each one.
This morning's vinyl was "Who Will Save The World" by The Groundhogs and "Bandstand" by Family both of which I bought for the cover art, but are great albums to listen to in their own right.
So for #FruitfulSeptember I was wondering whether a coconut was a fruit and came upon this vague definition:
"Botanically speaking, a coconut is a fibrous one-seeded drupe, also known as a dry drupe. However, when using loose definitions, the coconut can be all three: a fruit, a nut, and a seed."
So I think I can go with a coconut as a fruit , which means I can go for PM Dawn's excellent "Fantasia's Confidential Ghetto: 1999/Once In A Lifetime/Coconut" which has a finale of Harry Nilsson's "Coconut" which has appeared in so many films and a truly great song, and PM Dawn manage to marry it up with Prince and the Talking Heads. The song is on the "Jesus Wept" album which does not seem to be digitally available on Amazon.
I know it's only Tuesday but this working week I have been awoken on both days by the alarm. The thing I take from this is that I must be getting a decent night's sleep, although I have been dreaming a lot but can't remember what happened in my dreamscape.
Today I took delivery of "Who Will Save The World? The Mighty Groundhogs" which I bought from Discogs because of the excellent comic book are album cover by The Nefarious Neal Adams. who also did a lot of superhero comics , especially Batman. I heard that Adams came up with the story and the band based the album on that. You can see what I think on my Instagram channelhere. I featured them in the music for my last post, so today we need someone different.
I started wondering if a pumpkin was vegetable or a fruit and found this, so it's ok to have pumpkin for #FruitfulSeptember
"A pumpkin, from a botanist's perspective, is a fruit because it's a product of the seed-bearing structure of flowering plants. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the edible portion of plants such as leaves, stems, roots, bulbs, flowers, and tubers"
I wanted to reshare "Tonight, Tonight" by the Smashing Pumpkins from "Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness" because of the awesome video, and the fact that it is a great song
