Showing posts with label Neil Young. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neil Young. Show all posts

Monday 2 November 2020

Into The Devil's Country

Finally , nearly halfway through "Coldheart Canyon" we get to properly find out what "The Devil's Country" is about. It's been a great read getting there , covering lots of stuff I had forgotten about ,but now I am there. I probably won't tell you what happens but I do recommend the book.

This incidentally coincides with my first time in the office (just to clear my locker so they can rearrange floors) since lockdown began. I just emptied my locker and was in and out in less than ten minutes, ironically coming back home to actually start work.

I did walk into work and saw some amazing skies , and the moon was also very clear, the days are getting shorted and it is dark by five pm so my walking my be curtailed although today and yesterday have been fine. The problem is when I work in the office I always go out for a lunchtime walk , but at home I just tend to work through.

Today's listening has been the first official live Bruce Springsteen plus his first two studio albums , which has been another rather good listening day , with some great songs, and this time no repeats.

So music wise we'll go for "Devil's Sidewalk" by Graham Parker , although Neil Young also has a song with the sleep well and the dark nights draw in people.

Tuesday 21 July 2020

Apple Venus


Although I am doing a minor cull of my CD collection on my Discogs Store over the last week , while working from home , I have started playing CDs again. Part of the reason is that 6Music during the day is ranging from bland to techno with not much in between. Playing CDs means that I can choose what I want to play.

The main criteria in that the CD is to hand.

This morning I kicked off with "On The Beach" by Neil Young , then 40 minutes later I picked up "The Apple Box" by XTC . This is a box and booklet with the albums "Apple Venus" and "Wasp Star" with accompanying demos albums "Homespun" and "Homegrown" . I wasn't sure that four CDs was a listening option , but I listened all the way through , the albums then the demos , and basically that was an excellent day's listening.

I will share "Stupidly Happy" from "Wasp Star" with you , like many XTC songs , it is highly infectious and uplifting.

Having easily listened through this , I am now eying my other boxes for my music while I work this week such as Public Image's "Metal Box" , "Box of Pearls" by Janis Joplin and "Anthologia" by John Cooper Clarke , this week will be a personal treasure rediscovery.

Wednesday 27 March 2019

Pocahontas, Podcasts and Cassettes


Pocahontas you ask. Why? You ask. It's been in my head today, the Neil Young song, possibly a result of me reading Michael Moorcock's "The Skrayling Tree" and the song from the acoustic side one of "Rust Never Sleeps" has been running through my head, and I think I may try and record a take of it and put it on Soundcloud, it is a truly beautiful song from a wonderful album. I am listening to it as I write this and it is still as fresh today as when I first heard it.

I'm also waiting for my new vintage record player to be delivered by my friend Marek from RPM, and wondering what I should play first on it, I only have "Rust Never Sleeps" on digital format, but who knows, that may change.

I've also started listening to "How To Burn A Million Quid" the sort of story of the KLF and it is quite entertaining although it does stop me listening to albums, but that is the nature of interaction, it takes time to do things. I was talking today about the record played and we were talking cassettes which I said were a thing of their time, but you had to put the time in to make a mix tape, whereas sharing playlists as most do today can be done in seconds and it loses the personal touch.

As a teenager I remember making takes and physically splicing them to make music and compilations, there is absolutely no way I could do that today, I'm just not dextrous enough. I have the ideas but not the abilty, and digital often looks easier but always throws some problem in your way.

So I will publish and see what happens next.....


Saturday 24 February 2018

Hitting It With Words


Two albums I've listened to over that past couple of days are Bob Dylan's "Bringin' It All Back Home" and "Blonde on Blonde". "Blonded on Blonde" is a double album (ie seventy or eighty minutes of music) and opens with the almost comedy stomp of "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35" with it's infection refrain of "Everybody must get stoned" tagged onto a rousing list song, that is followed by a stardard folk blues of "Pledging My Time" not making the most promising or auspicious introduction of what is an all time classic album.

However the next four songs are killers and make you realise that you have something special (follow the link to find out what they are) before a slight lull with "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat" which desreves including if only for title (which contains two hyphenated words) but this also fits in with the introductory duo of songs.

This seems an odd way of telling you about an album only metioning the non classic (in my opinion) songs,  we then have another four songs , before a duo that are still good , precursors to the eleven minutes of "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" the albums tour-de-force , and I have finally mentioned one of the must listen to songs.

"Blond on Blonde" is a band album but "Bringin' It All Back Home" is mostly solo acoustic baring the intro of "Subterranean Homesic Blues" , and when I started listening to it I was thinking "How the hell does he remember those words?"

Some of the imagery in the songs is stunning especially in the quartet starting with "Bob Dylans's 115th Dream" which is based surreally on Herman Melville's "Moby Dick" though Ahab becomes A-Rab , but some ear catch lyrics for me are in "The Gates of Eden" although the abum is littered with them:

Of war and peace the truth just twists
Its curfew gull just glides
Upon four-legged forest clouds
The cowboy angel rides
With his candle lit into the sun
Though its glow is waxed in black
All except when 'neath the trees of Eden

The lamppost stands with folded arms
Its iron claws attached
To curbs 'neath holes where babies wail
Though it shadows metal badge
All and all can only fall
With a crashing but meaningless blow
No sound ever comes from the Gates of Eden

Absolutely stunning for me and there is lots more where that came from. The most interesting version I could find on Youtubewas a live take with Neil Young , and you cannot complain about Neil Young and Bob Dylan being onstage performing an awesome song.

Monday 27 November 2017

.... And The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway


My old Bluetooth headphones went the distance and I bought these Emopeak foldable headphones . I am pleasantly surprised at the quality improvement from my previous phones and have been listening to quite a lot of good music. They are a lot bigger than my previous set so don't easily drop into a pocket, but the benefits are worth the inconvenience.

I must say also I am a little annoyed that the blog software no longer does auto highlighting of potentially mis spelled words , so I apologies for spelling and grammar mistakes that appear to be slipping through more frequently these days. The is a spell check button, but that doesn't give the option to add words to the dictionary. I would have though a blog linked dictionary would have been a simple obvious addition.

On Saturday for the first time in ages we went round to Nicolle and Ian's and had a wonderful time (time just flew) and Ian has a small portable Bose Bluetooth speaker which delivers astonishing sound for it's sise and we were treated to an evening of Neil Young songs , familiar and new to me as well as a live version of Nick Cave's "The Mercy Seat" which had featured in the last episode of "Peaky Blinders".

One of the albums I revisited was "The Lamb Lies Down Down On Broadway" by Genesis. It was a double album and very often that is just a sign of self indulgence, but at the the time it was the peak of teh Genesis / Peter Gabriel years. The outside of the cover consisted of half a dozen images related to the libretto , on a white background. Insode was the story (you can find a detaled annotation here) which even on a 12" vinyl album consisted of a lot of small print , based on a dream sequence from Peter Grabriel starting on Broadway and about two brother Rael and John, Rael trying to continually save John and losing himself in the process.

Listening to the ninety minues of music I was surprised how coherent it actually is with lots of stand out songs and instrumental sequences and the lyrics standing up remarkably well for a concept album. I was lucky enough to see it live on stage performed by Canadian band The Musical Box at Newcastle City Hall using the original stage set. I found a live performance of "Back In New York City" by an Italian tribute band called Garden Wall that is definitely worth a watch.

The album is definitely worth going back to, and has lost not of it's wonder for me.

With that it's Monday morning, and time for work. Have a great day everybody.

Monday 20 March 2017

Over The Line


Today's sixteen thousand steps finished this step challenge. Overall that's about eighty miles walked in two weeks, that's here to Whitby, so I know I could walk to Whitby if I actually wanted to. It's definitely brought out a bit of my obsessive side, that is the desire to do the job , hit the goal and succeed.

I'm not in a hurry to do another, but I am minded to hit ten thousand daily, but we will see how that goes. The weekend coming up will be an opportunity to rest, or maybe do something else.

I thought I'd just do a short post, it's Monday night, and that's the first day of the week over with. Tomorrow starts with a 7:10 doctors appointment, then sorting the fence and decking repairs before another day at work, lunch with a friend, wishing my daughter happy birthday and eventually landing back home without the target of fifteen thousand steps to hit.

So I'll leave you with Neil Young singing "Walk On". My voice has been likened to Neil Young's and I love everything about the guy so for me that's a compliment, for Neil Young maybe not.

Enjoy your Monday night my friends.


Friday 13 January 2017

Friday 13th ... You Better Run, Rum, Run


 I really wanted to write something positive about the number thirteen. The thing is humans are conditions by society, parents , whatever to believe in superstitions. Single magpies, black cats , and lot's more.

I was thinking along the lines of a baker's dozen where an extra loaf was thrown in, in case one was not up to scratch.

There's a lot of reasons given why thirteen is bad, such as Judas being the thirteenth one at the Last Supper. But surely Jesus was the odd one out as he wasn't an apostle. We have twelve calendar months , but thirteen lunar months and the word lunatic is derived from Luna and the phases of the moon that brings out a change in certain people , not always for the better.

If you search the internet for "Lucky 13" you will come across albums by Bert Jansch and Neil Young although nothing about why 13 should be considered lucky.

Today is also Friday which is not deemed good for travel and combining it with 13 you have not a great omen for travel. Also it snowed today, so making it more likely that drivers would have an accident. Friday the 13th is also the name of a horror film series (here) and also it's the title of albums by The Damned, The Misfits and The Stranglers.

The song I will give you is "Run,Run,Run" , the opening track from "A Quick One" by The Whoabout all those reasonless supertitions, which I am sure you will identify with. Time for bed now, sleep well

Friday 13 September 2013

Fighting With My Left Hand:It's Alright Ma ... It's Only Severe Nerve Damage


...which may sound negative , but on fact it's actually very positive. The human body has a remarkable ability to just mend itself, in fact your body is continually repairing itself and you don't actually realise it. I learned that from my first brush with ITP when Juliet and Kirsty were around 4 and 2 and I was really frightened that I wouldn't see the grow up. When I was shaving and cut myself , the bleeding didn't stop , so I had to let a beard grow! Don't think the girls remember , but they were amused by it , that was around 1986.

Well I recorded me messing about on the bass, and I am trying to play some proper chords on the acoustic guitar. Electric is not an option to youtube unless I think of an instrumental to do. The thinkg is I still can't get Garageband to export a composition to iTunes, but I can record video as you can see above. The song is an extremely simple Neil Young composition "Love Is A Rose". Now this isn't about showing off or anything , it's just that a couple of months ago I couldn't hold a plate or turn a key with my left hand, now , with difficulty I can master a basic "G" chord. I've just used G,A and D and missed out the fancy bits , but I my hand is very slowly getting better.

So all in all things are improving , and the future is looking bright 


Sunday 3 March 2013

TED is just Brilliant


Just started watcheing TED talks , which is essentially the spreading of good ideas. I know most people will be too busy watching soaps and reality / Lowest Commom Demonitor TV to take any notice of using TED to expand their mental horizons , but it is both educational and entertaining and long may it run. That's why I chose the Neil Young / Stephen Stills song. Well worth a visit you will find something that takes your interest and YOU WILL learn something

This is the mission statement lifted from their web site:

"TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference on the West Coast each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TED Talks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize."

Here is a typical TED talk:

Wednesday 1 February 2012

Signs of Age


On Monday (30th January 2012) Leonard Cohen released his new LP "Old Ideas" .. Leonard Cohen is 80 and just about to take up smoking again , really he can do what he wants . The voice is getting deeper , and often the songs are almost spoken , but he's well aware of his vocal limitions , skitting them in one of his compositions "The Man With The Golden Voice". BBC6 Radio 6 made it album of the week last week , and I'm just wondering how far it will permeate into the mainstream with most people's exposure to the man limited to Alexandra Burke's wobbly lipped bleating of "Hallelujah".

Thi sgot me to thinking of some signs of age , we only get old when we give up enjoying life and having fun , but certain things happen which shouldnt happen in your 20s:

  • That lovely young thing at the bar is your friend's offspring
  • You go into a record shop and you think you have everything worth buying
  • If you hurt yourself it takes longer to heal
  • Your children's friends have children
  • You know the speed a record plays at
I'm going to add to this list , but while my years are increasing I still act and feel as though I'm 15! I've just remembered this appropriate Neil Young song!