No Hangovers In Heaven - Simon Linsteadt

 

Mrs Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter

 

 

And the writer of the words and the music.

Trevor Peacock.

1931 - 2021.

Observatory Crest

 I've just been watching the film "La La Land". The night scene where Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling drive up to the Griffith Observatory..., reminded me of something.

Same Observatory.

'Observatory Crest' - from the album 'Bluejeans & Moonbeams'. (1974).

by Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band.

Marine Girls - A Place in the Sun

Working the remote this evening, I happened upon a BBC Four programme..., 

More Punk and New Wave Compiled .

At the time, I was reasonably aware of what was around, but both this song, and the band...., new to me.  As yet another Covid-19 lockdown gathers pace, a bit of cheer.....

Imagine a sunny holiday

A parasolled cafe

Corner table for two
And that is me and you

 

Barefoot by the shore
A drink with ice and two straws
Sun in the cloudless sky
You wave as the girls go by

 

Take a boat out for a while
You row and I lie back in style
We'll reach the other side, you say
But we never get halfway

 

When the evening comes around
We'll stroll through a lamp-lit little town
Miles and miles from home
Happy to be on our own

Nothing I would rather do
All I want is a place in the sun, and you
Nothing I would rather do
All I want is a place in the sun, and you… 

The Sound of Silence - Simon and Garfunkel

At home, on the radio, I listen mostly to R6 Music. In my car, I hardly ever listen to my own music.  I'll listen to BBC R4, and when that tends towards the tedious, I'll switch over to R3 for some culture. But mostly.., I just drive.

However, when Covid-19 got going, I felt the urge to listen to some stuff.  Pulled out a long unplayed CD.  This track I first heard, as a teen,  when I went to see the 1967 film 'The Graduate'.

Originally released in 1964 on the album 'Wednesday Morning 3am', the whole album was a commercial failure.  Simon and Garfunkel split up and went their separate ways, Paul Simon to England. A couple of years later, radio stations picked up a remixed version of  the song, and it rose in the charts.  At this, Simon returned to the US to make a new album with Garfunkel.

Simon's recall of the day Sound of Silence reached No 1.

".... I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents' house. Artie was living at his parents' house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer [on the radio] said, "Number one, Simon & Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon & Garfunkel, they must be having a great time." Because there we were on a street corner, in my car in Queens, smoking a joint. We didn't know what to do with ourselves.... "

Here's the original version...

Something Dreamy Spacy.

Barack Obama - On Woke Culture

"I get a sense among certain young people on social media that the way of making change is to be as judgemental as possible about other people. If I tweet or hashtag about how you didn't do something right or used the wrong verb, then I can sit back and feel pretty good about myself because 'Man did you see how woke I was? I called you out!' But if all you're doing is casting stones, you are probably not going to get that far. The world is messy. There are ambiguities. People who do really good stuff have flaws."

The Definitive Halloween Song

The Model - Performed by Triology

All Along The Watchtower - Bob Dylan ( The Original Version )

The most famous version of this song is, of course, that by Jimi Hendrix. I was long unaware that Dylan had written it. When I did hear the original, I preferred it. The spare production allows the lyrics to come through. The steady, relentless drum beat becomes the sound of galloping hooves. 

The song is not just a protest song, of its time...., nor particularly rooted in folk song traditions. The influences are said to come from biblical scriptures.
[ Isaiah, Ch 21, verses 5–9 ]

"There must be some kind of way out of here,"
Said the joker to the thief
"There's too much confusion
I can't get no relief.
Businessmen, they drink my wine
Plowmen dig my earth
None of them along the line
Know what any of it is worth."

"No reason to get excited,"
The thief, he kindly spoke.
"There are many here among us
Who feel that life is but a joke.
But you and I, we've been through that
And this is not our fate
So let us not talk falsely now
The hour is getting late."

Zoe Rahman Trio

Found this..



.

Vote For Me - The Specials

From their new album....

If we vote for you, do you promise
To be upright, decent and honest
To have our best interest at heart
You understand why we don't believe you
You're way too easy to see through
Not the best places to start.......

The saga of Brexit.

Well, I hope Parliament sorts itself out very soon.  

Otherwise...., it's going to be fish, carrots, potatoes and broccoli for dinner every night.
Mutton, turnips and kale also likely to feature heavily. We're going to be the slimmest, fittest and most miserable nation in the Western hemisphere. 

The Life of Your Lonely Heart

Latter Day English Folk Song.....

Unusual to hear a folk song in the form of a waltz. About and for England. But with everyone else dragged in to England's mess. I voted to Remain, and I shall again.  However, many of those people who voted Remain just think in terms of their easy access to Europe, holidays, etc.., work.., which has become almost casual.   

They're not interested in, for example, the jobs-decimated fishing communities in Scotland, or the strawberry fields of Hampshire that disappeared when industrial strawberries flooded in from Europe. And the fields then built over by property developers.

Where I live, in Somerset, some strawberries are still grown locally. I can barely afford to buy them. They're for well heeled locals, and tourists on their way past the roadside fruit stalls.

Of the farmers' market in the local square of Axbridge, I once asked a neighbour..... 

"Do you buy anything there ?"..

He replied... " What, you mean the farmers market for rich people ?". 

Something gone wrong when local people cannot participate in the local economy.

And something gone wrong when food banks are the norm. 

-----------------------------------------------------------

If you're leaving please still say goodbye

And if you are leaving can you leave me

My silver jubilee mug

My old flag

My dark woods

My sunrise

If you’re leaving can you please say goodbye
And if you are leaving can you leave your number
I’ll pack my case
And get in a cab
And wave you goodbye

I drive in the early hours down to the sea
I stand on the beach where the storms amplify
All the voices that I care for
And the ghosts I hold sacred

Walking On Thin Ice

Yoko Ono wrote Walking on Thin Ice". She and John Lennon finished the recording of the song on December 8, 1980. Lennon played lead guitar. On their return from the recording studio to their home, Lennon was murdered. He was clutching a tape of a final mix when he was shot.

The song was released in 1981. 

Here at the Meltdown Festival at the South Bank in 2013.  With Siouxsie Sioux . And with Sean Lennon, in white suit, on bass guitar. Earl Slick played rhythm guitar on the original recording. Here he is on lead guitar.

Walking on thin ice
I'm paying the price
For throwing the dice in the air
Why must we learn it the hard way
And play the game of life with your heart ?

SS Great Britain

Almost 50 years ago my family lived in Watchet, on the coast of West Somerset. I remember watching on TV as a tug towed this up the Bristol Channel on a huge pontoon. 8000 miles from the Falklands, where it had lain since it's last voyage in 1886.


Anyway, to Bristol last Sunday. Big surprise was the entrance fee. 1 Adult £16.50. I coughed up after making known my opinion of the cost.

As I wandered round, peeking into the various cabins, and compartments, a thought occurred, about current politics...,

Is the...

about to go down the..........

?

I also noticed that that the number of cabins, and bunks didn't seem to add up to the ship's official capacity of 360 passengers. There just didn't seem to be enough accommodation. However, soon I came across this scene near the front ( the bow ), and perhaps this hints at how the steerage passengers were accommodated. They tied them down ?

Afterwards, on my way out, I spoke with the person to whom I'd complained about the cost.
I retracted some of what I'd said, as overall I'd enjoyed the visit.
About £12 would have been more acceptable to me.

[ Besides, I didn't want to sound like I was turning into Victor Meldrew. ]

Football

Croatia 2 - 1 England

I'm Scottish, and tend not to bother much with football south of the border. So, about every 20 minutes, I'd switch on the TV to check the scoreline.

Photo, and accompanying comment, from Pie and Bovril, the Scottish Football discussion forum.

" As if things couldn't get any worse, Bono has arrived."

The Cure ...

LOVESONG

Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am home again
Whenever I'm alone with you
 You make me feel like I am whole again

Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am young again
Whenever I'm alone with you
You make me feel like I am fun again



And, inspired by the film.. 'Aristocats'....

Martha and The Muffins - Echo Beach ..., 1980 becomes 2010

Always loved this song. Memories of wandering along a beach with a girlfriend, near Portmarnock, Ireland.

... On a silent summer evening
The sky's alive with light
Building in the distance
Surrealistic sight.....