“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it he knows too little.”—Mark Twain. “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated?” Johnny Rotten, announcing the break up of The Sex Pistols. My name’s Middlerabbit, I’m 48 and I’m a pessimist. Not because Mark Twain told me…
Ill-Advised Rocking Out #4: Land Of 1,000 Dances – The Walker Brothers.
When Scott Walker died earlier this year I wrote a post about his first four solo albums because, even though I don’t like everything on them, what I do like, I like an awful lot. In that post, I also talked about a couple of Walker Brothers singles: The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore…
Ill-Advised Rocking Out #3: Does Your Mother Know? ABBA.
Sometimes it seems like the world can’t make up its mind about what to do with ABBA. At least, there’s no consensus. From kitsch, Scandinavian eurotrash to teutonic laser guided Stormtroopers of melancholy, the opinions differ widely. I appreciate that even with things like The Beatles, you get some attention seekers who pretend that they’re…
Ill-Advised Rocking Out #2: We’ve Got A Groovey Thing Goin’ – Simon & Garfunkel.
I have written about a Simon & Garfunkel record previously (The Only Living Boy In New York) and, unusually for the waffle I vomit out onto the internet’s already overflowing sick bucket, it was read quite widely. I wouldn’t go so far as to describe it as popular though because even though a lot…
Fear And Loathing Is Contagious. Or, I Was A Teenage Beowulf (n.b: I wasn’t).
“Can I see anothers woe, And not be in sorrow too. Can I see anothers grief, And not seek for kind relief.” – On Anothers Sorrow” William Blake, Songs of Innocence and of Experience “Are you, uh, experienced?” Jimi Hendrix, Are You Experienced? “We are facing an existential crisis… and we should also…
Ill-Advised Rocking Out #1 I Dig Rock ‘n’ Roll Music – Peter, Paul & Mary.
Ill Advised Rocking Out I’m not going to cop out and try to tell anybody that my enjoyment of any of these records I’m going to write about is ironic in some sort of postmodern cocking-a-snook-at-the-squares way because the fact is, I really enjoy crappy attempts by non-Rock ‘n’ Rollers to demonstrate that, even though…
Nacht Yacht Rock #5 $1000 Wedding – Gram Parsons
I’ve already mentioned that I started writing these posts about songs that turned out to not constitute Yacht Rock before I realised what Yacht Rock was and that I didn’t like Yacht Rock – well, hardly any. I thought Yacht Rock just meant MOR Country & Western records. Where I got that idea, I don’t…
Nacht Yacht Rock #4 Lyin’ Eyes – The Eagles.
. 4. The Eagles – Lyin’ Eyes. The records I’ve been writing about all appear on a playlist I’ve made on my phone that I’ve been listening to as I go on my daily walk. I put it together because I realised that I have quite a lot of MOR schlock on it and,…
Nacht Yacht Rock #3 Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love To Town) – Roger Miller.
Roger Miller – Ruby (Don’t Take Your Love To Town). Tragically, there’s only audio of this record on YouTube – I’ve never seen Roger Miller on film or live so I only have photographs of him. I don’t know how he moved or how he sang and that might be for the best because I…
Nacht Yacht Rock #2 I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues – Elton John.
Elton John – I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues. I remember this when it was first out. I wasn’t buying records by that point and wouldn’t have bought this even if I was, even though I really liked it. I still like it – in fact I think it’s fab, but that…
