Monday, April 03, 2006
What did you do Sunday evening?
Me, I paid to see an 80-year old man play music and talk about his friends, family, likes and dislikes. The fact that the man in question was B.B. King made it a pretty special evening! It's astonishing to me that his voice seems as powerful now as it always has, even if his knees are giving way. And that guitar playing… I've never seen anyone make a guitar talk like BB can. For me, it was a special evening. Thank you, BB.
I can't remember when I got interested in blues music but it was at least 25 years ago. I still haven't worked out what it is about blues (music based on tribal songs of African slaves forcibly taken from their homes and sold into slavery) that appeals to a working class white boy from South Wales but appeal it does! I suspect it's the honesty. This is music that comes directly from the heart and sounds like it does. I suspect you could say the same about any music but very often the sentiment is wrapped up in fancy words and allusions. I struggle with most poetry for the same reason. Blues is direct and that really appeals to me. I try to use a direct approach in everything I do, sometimes to my detriment as many people like you to stroke their egos, not give it to them straight. But hey, take me as I am or don't take me at all. I've got this far without caring too much what other people think of me. I suspect I can make it the rest of the way in the same vein.
I can't remember when I got interested in blues music but it was at least 25 years ago. I still haven't worked out what it is about blues (music based on tribal songs of African slaves forcibly taken from their homes and sold into slavery) that appeals to a working class white boy from South Wales but appeal it does! I suspect it's the honesty. This is music that comes directly from the heart and sounds like it does. I suspect you could say the same about any music but very often the sentiment is wrapped up in fancy words and allusions. I struggle with most poetry for the same reason. Blues is direct and that really appeals to me. I try to use a direct approach in everything I do, sometimes to my detriment as many people like you to stroke their egos, not give it to them straight. But hey, take me as I am or don't take me at all. I've got this far without caring too much what other people think of me. I suspect I can make it the rest of the way in the same vein.
Friday, October 29, 2004
John Peel 1939 - 2004
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
What Donne neglected to mention was that some deaths diminish more than others. A prime example of this was the sad news on Tuesday that John Peel had died.
I wouldn't call myself a lifelong fan but John Peel has been there all of my life. I remember, as a young teenager, listening to his late night programme on Radio 1 whilst I was tucked up in bed, supposedly sleeping. The radio was turned down to the lowest level and held tightly against my ear so that my parents didn't know what I was doing. Peel's monotone growl would lull me to sleep, although his choice of music sometimes woke me up!
My musical tastes rarely agreed with his, but he always made you step back and evaluate why you liked certain types of music. He also never seemed to compromise himself – his music programmes were for himself and if you happened to come along for the ride, that was up to you. He never pandered to popular taste. He was his own man, an individual in a sea of faceless, nameless copycat 'me-too' men. For these things alone, he deserves respect.
I say our tastes rarely coincided but the truth is, he was way ahead of me. Stuff he was playing before anyone else later became the background music to my generation and a lot of it is now considered classic – 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones being a prime example.
As we both got older and he migrated to Radio 4, he became a bigger part of my life, with 'Home Truths'. His style and approach to life was perfectly suited to taking nominally dull subjects and dull people and finding the humour and the humanity in them.
He had become a much-loved institution and the shock of his loss is tremendous. God bless you, John, you will be sorely missed.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
What Donne neglected to mention was that some deaths diminish more than others. A prime example of this was the sad news on Tuesday that John Peel had died.
I wouldn't call myself a lifelong fan but John Peel has been there all of my life. I remember, as a young teenager, listening to his late night programme on Radio 1 whilst I was tucked up in bed, supposedly sleeping. The radio was turned down to the lowest level and held tightly against my ear so that my parents didn't know what I was doing. Peel's monotone growl would lull me to sleep, although his choice of music sometimes woke me up!
My musical tastes rarely agreed with his, but he always made you step back and evaluate why you liked certain types of music. He also never seemed to compromise himself – his music programmes were for himself and if you happened to come along for the ride, that was up to you. He never pandered to popular taste. He was his own man, an individual in a sea of faceless, nameless copycat 'me-too' men. For these things alone, he deserves respect.
I say our tastes rarely coincided but the truth is, he was way ahead of me. Stuff he was playing before anyone else later became the background music to my generation and a lot of it is now considered classic – 'Teenage Kicks' by The Undertones being a prime example.
As we both got older and he migrated to Radio 4, he became a bigger part of my life, with 'Home Truths'. His style and approach to life was perfectly suited to taking nominally dull subjects and dull people and finding the humour and the humanity in them.
He had become a much-loved institution and the shock of his loss is tremendous. God bless you, John, you will be sorely missed.
Friday, October 15, 2004
Musing the First
Having heard a lot about blogs, and read a few, I thought I'd give it a go. Here I am in Poland, on business, for the second time. The first was 11 years ago. Somewhat bizarrely (as I didn't book it on either occasion), I'm staying in the same hotel. The only change I can see is that they've tarted up the bar and taken out the tarts!
On the occasion of my first visit, I innocently wandered into the bar with a colleague for an after-dinner drink. Only after we had got our vodkas, did I realise that the bar was wall-to-wall prostitutes! My colleague did not realise this. He engaged in conversation with a women who he later admitted he thought was "a middle manager for the Polish equivalent of Marks and Spencer."
She exchanged the odd puzzled glance with me, as her answers to his questions still failed to give the game away. The penny only dropped when he asked what she did for a living and she advised him that she was working now.
Exit one embarrassed Englishman and one amused and embarrassed, in equal parts, Welshman.
On that note, see you later.
On the occasion of my first visit, I innocently wandered into the bar with a colleague for an after-dinner drink. Only after we had got our vodkas, did I realise that the bar was wall-to-wall prostitutes! My colleague did not realise this. He engaged in conversation with a women who he later admitted he thought was "a middle manager for the Polish equivalent of Marks and Spencer."
She exchanged the odd puzzled glance with me, as her answers to his questions still failed to give the game away. The penny only dropped when he asked what she did for a living and she advised him that she was working now.
Exit one embarrassed Englishman and one amused and embarrassed, in equal parts, Welshman.
On that note, see you later.
