“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius. “Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.” Henry…
Finger Pointing Songs: part 4. Indie Sulkers. Or, The Ballad Of The Binned: The Razorcuts, Felt & The Stone Roses.
“I never took much, I never asked for your crutch, Now don’t ask for mine.” Bob Dylan, 4th Time Around lyric. “Know thyself,” Luke 4:23. The Bible, innit? It’s good advice, know thyself. I suppose it’s a bit bleak in a way and I’ve already talked about Goethe’s glib response to it but I suppose…
Finger Pointing Songs: part 3. The Rolling Stones. Or, Wife Beating Man.
The shadow that Bob Dylan cast over the sixties wasn’t only long and broad, it was dark and cold. Once he’d broken through, any number of scruffy young ‘poets’ came out of the woodwork and started telling it like it was. Social justice songs were back on the agenda but that was before his performance…
Finger Pointing Songs: part 2. The Kinks. Or, A Respecter Calls. Or, It’s A Shame About Ray.
“Pity is easy, but it’s difficult to care,” Ray Davies. I like things to make sense and generally, to me at least, they don’t. I look for logic and I look for rationality in everyday life and, when I can’t find much, I can get a bit maudlin. So, what I’m doing here – realistically…
Finger Pointing Songs: part 1. Like A Rolling Stone. Or, Bob Villain?
The idea that there are only about – depending on who you believe – three, five, seven or however many basic story plots that have ever existed is always being bandied about. Reductionism isn’t difficult – I don’t know why they don’t go further and say that there’s only one: somebody does something. The same…
I’m Sticking With Lou. Or, Velvet Common Ground.
The Velvet Underground can’t have invented everything. Even though sometimes it seems a bit like they did. They can’t have because they only started putting records out in 1967 and, by that time, The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band had been released and The Beatles had already invented everything. Well, not everything maybe,…
It’s Only Baroque & Roll But I Like It. Or, I Want You, Bach. A Top Ten.
“If ever there’s an obscene noise to be made on an instrument, it’s going to come out of a guitar… That’s why I like it… The disgusting stink of a too-loud electric guitar: now that’s my idea of good time.” Frank Zappa An Introduction to Baroque n Roll. First things first, I hate Frank Zappa…
