Layer 524 . . . Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball, Angry Patriotism, Optimism, Rocking, Protesting, Jingoism and Taking Care of Our Own

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This piece is an appreciation of a man whose music is brilliant, and whose art stands alongside the best ever to come out of America, alongside that of Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen and Neil Young. His stage shows are still the most dynamic of all time - right up there with the Stones and the Who at their very best. The fact that he's willing and able to follow in the footsteps of the great blue-collar and overtly political songwriters of the past - Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger - is the icing on this particular cake. He's also steeped in the blues and can sing and play the blues as well as the great black songwriters and performers. He also happens to have a sense of perspective as well as a sense of humour.

Bruce Springsteen: 'What was done to my country was un-American'

The Boss explains why there is a critical, questioning and angry patriotism at the heart of his new album Wrecking Ball

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/17/bruce-springsteen-wrecking-ball?

by Fiachra Gibbons

At a Paris press conference on Thursday night, Bruce Springsteen was asked whether he was advocating an armed uprising in America. He laughed at the idea, but that the question was even posed at all gives you some idea of the fury of his new album Wrecking Ball.

Indeed, it is as angry a cry from the belly of a wounded America as has been heard since the dustbowl and Woody Guthrie, a thundering blow of New Jersey pig iron down on the heads of Wall Street and all who have sold his country down the swanny. Springsteen has gone to the great American canon for ammunition, borrowing from folk, civil war anthems, Irish rebel songs and gospel. The result is a howl of pain and disbelief as visceral as anything he has ever produced, that segues into a search for redemption: "Hold tight to your anger/ And don't fall to your fears … Bring on your wrecking ball."

"I have spent my life judging the distance between American reality and the American dream," Springsteen told the conference, where the album was aired for the first time. It was written, he claimed, not just out of fury but out of patriotism, a patriotism traduced.

"What was done to our country was wrong and unpatriotic and un-American and nobody has been held to account," he later told the Guardian. "There is a real patriotism underneath the best of my music but it is a critical, questioning and often angry patriotism."

The tone is set from the start with . . . We Take Care of Our Own – a Born in the USA for our times –  sung with mocking irony through clenched teeth by a heart that still wants it to be true. "From the shotgun shack to the Superdome/ There ain't no help, the cavalry stayed home." It is a typical Springsteen appeal to a common decency beyond the civil war he sees sapping America.

"Pessimism and optimism are slammed up against each other in my records, the tension between them is where it's all at, it's what lights the fire."

Springsteen, 62, says he is not afraid of how the album will be received in election-year America: "The temper has changed. And people on the streets did it. Occupy Wall Street changed the national conversation – the Tea Party had set it for a while. The first three years of Obama were under them.

"Previous to Occupy Wall Street, there was no push back at all saying this was outrageous – a basic theft that struck at the heart of what America was about, a complete disregard for the American sense of history and community … In Easy Money the guy is going out to kill and rob, just like the robbery spree that has occurred at the top of the pyramid – he's imitating the guys on Wall Street. An enormous fault line cracked the American system right open whose repercussion we are only starting to be feel.

"Nobody had talked about income inequality in America for decades – apart from John Edwards – but no one was listening. But now you have Newt Gingrich talking about 'vulture capitalism' – Newt Gingrich! – that would not have happened without Occupy Wall Street."

You tend get a better class of comment on Bruce features:

kjeeThis a 62 year old musician saying these things.. and all power to him.Can we have a few more 23 year old musicians saying these things as well?

RonnieWouldBruuuuuce!!!Springsteen fucking rules.

BeazleThe greatest American white live act there has ever been and one hell of a genuinely caring guy.

6ofclubsThe boss, not only a great artist, but a great man in general standing up for everything that is decent and just in the world.He is what I would like to think is a true American Partiot.The man is a hero for many differant generations.

ChristinuvielWhat an utter legend! By far the best live act I've seen, and someone whose music is full of intelligence, passion and talent. It's always worth listening to what Bruce has to say, and as others have pointed out, his is true patriotism, wanting what will really help the people of your country and others. Look forward to hearing this album in its entirety, though it will be sad to hear Big Man Clarence's sax for the last time on it.

DontCallMeShirleyCan't wait for this album.The Boss is at his best when he goes political. Still hasn't lost anything, even at 62. I actually felt a little deflated coming out of his concert a while back - I knew that no matter who I would see play live in my lifetime, nothing could ever top that.

stfcbobResponse to kjee, As kjee says why haven`t we got dozens of angry bands/artists making songs like this ?Bruce Springsteen is a legend.

gingerjonI'm going to join the sycophantic parade ... Springsteen is angrier, better informed, more erudite and altogether rockier than artists forty years his junior.

cryddaThe greatest live performer rock has ever known and one of its best song writers.Long may he keep on rocking and protesting.

mmmmbeerThese kind of songs speak to me and for me and I don't care who trolls. Ry Cooder has recently released a similar polemic (Pull Up Some Dust) and it all adds to the groundswell.

Bruce Springsteen is not afraid to use the 'p' word (patriotism) either and I think he's right to do so. Patriotism is exactly about 'taking care of our own' and it's patriotic to care for your citizens. It's the antithesis of patriotism to grab as much wealth as you can, to lobby, bribe and intimidate your way to riches and wave a flag as you secrete your wealth offshore. Here in Britain we are less comfortable with outward shows of patriotism - Samuel Johnson refers - but maybe it's about time we took the flag away from the fascists and gave it to the Occupy group.

nattybumpoSpringsteen has always been political and his message has never been needed more. With muppets like Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich running to be President; his voice could help The USA to escape from the perils of the new type of Reaganomics they offer.It's a shame we can't overturn the moral vacuum we now have in this country with someone of his stature. Someone who could articulate in verse the election lies of "The NHS Is Safe In My Hands"; or "Let's Fuck Over The Disabled"!In fact many Government policies would make excellent song lyrics; all we need now is for someone to add a decent tune.........

jamesdarWhy is it the guys protesting against the effect of the Bush years are the older ones (Springsteen, Neil Young on Living with War)? What happened to rock and pop for rebellious youth?

fortyrunnerSpringsteen is the single most consistent artist for nearly 40 years.
The Stones, The Who, Dylan, McCartney etc had a golden period of maybe 10-15 years. Springsteen has continued to knock out amazing material in a variety of genres and his passion is still as strong.e is also the best live performer I have ever seen - amazing stuff.

aylestoneboy1Why isn't there a British musician saying these things about the horrific state that this country is in? A minority government destroying the NHS and rejigging the educational system with limited opposition. The welfare state is being killed off.

This is a country where clearly the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Culturally Sir Julian Fellowes and Etonian actors dominate. Adele complains about paying tax.

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Jingoism is no answer to England's ebbing power

From the EU to football and the Falklands, England must abandon its memories of empire to survive in a changing world

by Billy Bragg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/17/jingoism-england-ebbing-power

Jingo is the default reaction of the English ruling class when they feel their interests are under threat. Unsure about our true position in a changing world, they hold on to the union flag like a comfort blanket, wrapping themselves in it to enhance their sense of importance.

While the Scots seem confident about their future, a Little Englander mentality is in danger of taking hold south of the border, in which every external challenge is perceived as a threat.

The rattling of the old jingoistic sword is a sure sign that the English ruling class feels its power ebbing away, torn between a European super-state, the aspirations of the Celtic fringe and demographic changes within England itself. Whether the English can awake from their long dream of empire and use this opportunity to renew their sense of identity remains to be seen.

Unless and until we throw off our imperial pretensions and begin to relate to our neighbours as equals, joining with them in creating new networks of active devolution and shared sovereignty, we English are in danger of becoming an insular people, jealously guarding the right to make our own laws while increasingly unable to control our destiny.

1111 comments on this piece so far.

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Layer 437 . . . Peter Green, Great Music, Fleetwood Mac, Shivers Down The Spine, and Hands Off Our Libraries

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There was a bizarre piece in the Guardian today about the break-up of the White Stripes.

 http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/feb/05/white-stripes-remembered

There was an outpouring of grief this week when the White Stripes announced they were to split.

Grief???

As far as I can see, Jack White is a talented and creative musician, a very good guitarist, and a lover of the blues - whereas the White Stripes was a very poor vehicle for expressing his ideas and his work. The image of Meg, the world's worst drummer, sitting around drinking whiskey and chatting whilst Jack was next door being creative just about says it all. Good musicians need to work with people of equal talent. And that red and white thing of theirs was always a nonsense.

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According to BB King, a man who knows better than anyone about music and the blues, there's only one guitarist who's ever sent shivers down his spine.

John Mayall, the grandaddy of British blues, said our man was a better guitarist than Eric Clapton, the man he'd replaced in Mayall's Bluesbreakers.

Carlos Santana still has a kind of reverence for him.

Peter Green is the man.

Last night BBC4 re-broadcast their documentary about Peter Green - his origins, his life and times, and his troubles. It's one of the best music documentaries I've ever seen. Possibly even the best.

Only Peter Green could, or would, put together a blues band that featured not one but three lead guitarists, plus the best rock/blues rhythm section of all time - Mick Fleetwood and John McVie. He'd met Mick and John during their time together with Mayall's Bluesbreakers. "Peter loved rhythm, and percussion."

He'd asked Jeremy Spencer to join his band because Jeremy was 'the first guitarist who'd put a smile on his face since Jimi Hendrix'. You can hear him at his best on "Oh Well" - a real spine tingler of a track. As are Peter's original 'Black Magic Woman', and of course 'The Supernatural', which Peter recorded whilst he was with the Bluesbreakers.

Peter spoke in the programme about his 'love of thinking', and how mescaline gave him 'pure spiritual thoughts'.

At some point, some time after the band had become rich and famous, Peter figured they had made more than enough money. He wanted the band to just buy a big house where they could all just live together and play the blues. The rest of their money they could give away to charities for famine relief.

"Then Play On" was an album I couldn't stop playing when it first came out. A faultless piece of soulful and rocking  blues from start to finish. 'Rattlesnake Shake' - especially the extended version - has to be a desert island disc.

Danny Kirwan, the third of the trio of lead guitarists, blew his brains out with some bad acid on exactly the same day as Peter Green. One bad day in Germany.

I'm not the only one who felt genuine grief when I found out about Peter Green's mental disintegration, and how he'd had his brain even more damaged by electric shock 'treatment'.

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Hands off our libraries

This Saturday sees a national day of protest against 400 planned library closures. The Isle of Wight stands to lose more than most – a staggering nine out of 11 – and resistance there is mounting

by Jon Henley

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/feb/03/hands-off-our-libraries

Along with a staggering nine out of the Isle of Wight's 11 libraries – and 400-plus more across the country – Ventnor library is, however, currently under threat of closure. Oxfordshire could lose 20 out of 43, Brent six out of 12, Buckinghamshire up to 14, Dorset up to 20 out of 34, Gloucestershire up to 18, North Yorks 24 out of 42, Somerset 11 out of 34, Wiltshire up to 10.

Faced with the need for brutal budget cuts, many councils have settled on their library services as a good way of making them. Steve Beynon, chief executive of the Conservative-led Isle of Wight council, makes its financial position plain: overall spending has to come down by £17.8m in the first year. The council's not sparing itself: around £12m will come from "what you might broadly call management and infrastructure efficiency savings". But of the remainder, £500,000 is going to have to come out of the library service in the first year, £750,000 thereafter.

They can't believe libraries are being treated like this. "My mother-in-law is 95," says Christine Benson. "She has taken four books out of the library every week, all her life. How can I be expected to abandon that principle? How can we even be considering this in a civilised country?" Sue Morgan is equally impassioned. "Libraries are incredibly important," she says. "They're the gateway to literacy. In a library, you can say to children: have whatever you like! You can pick up a book that will change your life. But you can also make mistakes in a library; pick up something you don't enjoy and it doesn't matter. You can't do that on Amazon."

Under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act, councils are obliged to run "comprehensive and efficient" services: is the Isle of Wight really doing that, if these plans go ahead?

Paul Richardson, a genial professor, rails that on an island with a large number of retired people, a higher-than-average unemployment rate and a child literacy problem, the council's proposals "will hit hardest those who most need, and use, libraries". If the current plans go ahead, he says, the council may be "failing to fulfil its statutory responsibilities. It would certainly be drastically reducing the access of a substantial proportion of the island's population – and especially the young, the old and the least well off – to reading for pleasure, information and instruction. And it would equally be reducing access to connectivity."

"This isn't just misconceived, it's a tragedy." 

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Layer 358 . . . Great Guitarists, Carlos Santana, Milagro, Awakening, Humanism and Spiritual Intelligence

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Further reflections on the best guitarists of all time have led to some additions to Layer 357's shortlist. Alongside Hendrix, Clapton, Santana and Dave Gilmour we should have Peter Green, BB King, JJ Cale, Frank Zappa, Neil Young and Jimmy Page. These are all individuals whose body of work, and in particular whose improvised live performances, bring incredible and indescribeable pleasure to human senses, soul and spirit.

These musicians don't just paint in colour - their work ranges from deepest, darkest blues to dazzling silvers & golds. They are also masters of rhythm, raunch, and soulful reflection. Tracks like The Supernatural, Voodoo Chile, Machine Gun, Rattlesnake Shake, Comfortably Numb, Smooth, Jingo, Layla, Stairway to Heaven, Change Your Mind, Down By The River, Peaches En Regalia, Son of Mr Green Genes, Willie The Pimp and All Along The Watchtower are masterpieces and supernovae whose light will continue to shine in the darkness from now to eternity.

David Gilmour and Neil Young are numbers 82 and 83 respectively in Rolling Stone's list of 100 greatest guitarists, which is a complete joke. Just take a look at some of the plonkers who are higher on the list. Ridiculous.

This commentary on the so-called top 100 is pretty good, though posted in 2003 -
http://www.listology.com/story/rolling-stone-100-greatest-guitarists

Consider "45 Frank Zappa - Should be in the top 10. Insane at 45. Half the guys above him couldn't play his stuff with a year of practice."

Peter Green at 38 is nonsense. So is Mark Knopfler at 28.

I like this comment - "17 - Jack White of the White Stripes - I have no idea why he is on the list at all let alone this high."

Carlos Santana is 15th on this list, one place below Jeff Beck, which is also crazy. Beck is a good technical player and has done some good stuff - but he's not in the top flight.

How to explain the complete absence from this list of JJ Cale? I heard him play at the old Hammersmith Odeon and he was superb. Tracks like "Momma Don't" when extended on stage are brilliant.

BB King deserves to be at No 3 - just above Clapton. BB's recorded work is superb, but I'd no idea how incredible he is as a blues improvisor until I heard him play live with his band at the Royal Festival Hall a few years ago. The man totally rocked the joint.

Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards and Ron Wood are all great rhythm guitarists who can also play a mean lead guitar. Probably in a class of their own - semi-attached to the top flight

Just outside of the top flight, I think, are Chuck Berry, Mark Knopfler, Mike Bloomfield, Steve Stills, Les Paul, Buddy Guy, Pete Townshend, Steve Cropper, Bo Diddley, The Edge, Ry Cooder and Nils Lofgren.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rats

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As for Carlos Santana and his band at the O2 - they were amazingly amazing, stunningly stunning.

The thing about Santana, the band, is that they've never been in any sense a one man band.

Take the rhythm section - a thundering bass guitar and THREE percussionists beating out mighty and complex rhythms on kit drums, congas, timbales, etc. Plus a rhythm guitar.

There's always been a brilliant player of the Hammond B3 in the band to give depth to the sound and also play thrilling solos. Carlos has now added a horn section, and the trumpet and trombone players also add blasts of musical complexity as well as play some great solos.

The two vocalists back one another up and sing superbly well individually, as well as contribute to the rhythm section with various shakers and rattles.

That's 10 people on stage creating an incredibly complex and dynamic soundscape before Carlos plays even a single note.

The power, precision, subtlety and flow of his guitar playing is a wonder to behold. He's a unique performer playing a unique style of music. What's more, he's no sad-ass ageing rocker cranking out greatest hits in a pale imitation of his glory days. Such are the improvements in sound systems, musical instruments and amplification/effects devices over the years that the band now sounds better than ever as it blasts out timeless classics like Jingo, Evil Ways, Soul Sacrifice, Black Magic Woman and Jungle Strut. Listening to these tracks on home hi fi or MP3 player can't begin to match the experience of the band in full flow in an arena where the acoustics and amplification do full justice to the brilliance of the performers.

  All photos (c) oxzenpics

It's not just a rock n roll show either. Carlos is fully aware that the magic of his music plus the performance of the band make a Santana concert an experience that's spiritual and emotional as well as sensual and physical.

As the man says in the concert programme - "My deepest desire is that each and every one of you lives life to the fullest of your true spiritual potential." Which is rather different from the usual star-performer platitudes about "realising dreams" and "becoming anything you want to be if you work hard enough at your dreams" blah blah.

What else does it say in the programme?

"For more than four decades - from Santana's earliest days as a groundbreaking Afro-Latin-blues-rock-fusion outfit in San Francisco - Carlos has been the visionary force behind artistry that transcends musical genres and generational, cultural and geographical boundaries.

With a dedication to humanitarian outreach and social activism that parallels his lifelong relationship with music, Carlos Santana is as much an exemplary world citizen as a global musical icon.

As profound as his artistic legacy is Carlos' dedication to humanitarian work. His Milagro Foundation . . . has granted more than four million dollars to non-prifit programs supporting under-served children and youth in the areas of the arts, education and health. Milagro means "miracle" and the image of children as divine miracles of light and hope - gifts to our lives - is the inspiration behind its name."

Written in a large font inside the programme are various slogans and exhortations:

THE SPIRIT IS FOR THE HIGHEST GOOD OF ALL.

CLEVERNESS DIVIDES. INTELLIGENCE INCLUDES.

LET THE MUSIC SET YOU FREE.

YOUR INNER PURPOSE IS TO AWAKEN.

On the last page is printed -

It's one thing to believe in miracles. It's another to make them happen.
We invite you to join us in educating and serving children throughout the world.

http://www.milagrofoundation.org/

http://www.santana.com/ - browse whilst listening to a playback of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".
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Layer 335 . . . Tom Jones, Soul, Blues, Praise, Blame, Glam and Glitter

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Tom Jones was always a great soul and gospel singer, and now he seems to be increasingly turning to the blues and boogie. It also seems his new album has been rubbished by the head honchos at his new label. They had apparently signed him in the expectation that he'd crank out more Sex Bombs and maybe another Delilah. Ha!

On Jones' 70th birthday, 7 June 2010, the single "Burning Hell", a cover of the John Lee Hooker classic, from the forthcoming Praise & Blame album, was released. In July 2010 it was reported, however, that David Sharpe, vice-president of Island Records (to whom Jones had moved, from EMI, for £1.5m in October 2009), had emailed colleagues demanding that they "pull back this project immediately or get my money back" and asking if the record had been "a sick joke". Jones later attacked Sharpe and revealed that he was furious about the leaked email. - Wikipedia

First track on "Praise and Blame" is Dylan's sublime "What Good Am I?", which is about a million miles away from the green, green grass of home. Or Las Vegas. Lyrics here:
http://www.bobdylan.com/#/songs/what-good-am-i

Performance on 'Later' here -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFs_glRugzE

One of Yentob's 'Imagine' documentaries was shown recently, featuring Tom J, obviously as a tie-in for the release of the new album. He really came across as a very decent and likeable guy, and very honest. If it's still available on iPlayer it's worth watching.

This is a decent page about Tom - http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=1787:imagine-tom-jones-what-good-am-i?-tv-review&Itemid=30

Also on this site is a brilliant video of Tom duetting with the amazing Janis Joplin - a song called Raise Your Hand - an Eddie Floyd and Steve Cropper soul classic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ib2b4BOZIQ&feature=player_embedded

The sheer joy on the faces of both of them as they belt out the song makes you realise all over again what an incredible loss it was to the planet when Janis died. She's never been equalled as a blues and soul singer.

Janis singing it on her own (with her band) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TDw8v1Gi1E

Incidentally there's an interesting version of Talking Heads' excellent 'Burning Down The House' by Tom Jones with The Cardigans available on Spotify.

"I'm just an ordinary guy
Burning down the house."

And did anyone know that Tom recorded an entire album with Jools Holland in 2004? Boogie Woogie! Some nice Hammond playing on this. Track 1 is terrific - "Life's Too Short". Listen here:
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=zjhJHjNj80o&feature=related

http://www.tomjones.com/

Also on Spotify I came across an album Tom made in 2002 called 'Mr Jones'. First track is a very funky thing called 'Tom Jones International', which is credited to Tom and Wyclef Jean. Practically hip-hop.
'Younger Days' is also a great piece of funk, with brilliant drums and bass.
"I was young and rowdy
Now I'm old and rowdy."
Way to go, Tom.
 

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Tony Palmer's an interesting guy. His excellent 17-part documentary "All You Need Is Love, a history of popular music", is being re-broadcast nightly by Sky Arts.

http://www.tonypalmer.org/Tony_Palmer_biography.htm

Last night's episode, Glitter Rock, focused on the bands and singers that emerged in the early 70's, sandwiched between the eras of 60's Hard Rock and Punk. Lester Bangs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lester_Bangs) laid into it with relish, calling the music slick, shallow, superficial and deeply depressing. Also vacuous, bland, ignorant, stupid, mindless, drab, dumb and self-indulgent frippery. And you can't say fairer than that.

He also pointed out that this music had no intellectual energy whatsoever - it had nothing to say of any interest. Which is generally very true, and in contrast to the traditions in jazz, blues and rock, where emotional honesty and honesty about the state of the world was taken for granted. As was great musicianship.

Glitter and glam were pure escapism - shiny and dumb. It was hard to see how it could appeal to a teenager with even half a brain, but easy to see how retards of any age could get off on it. Its only goals and values were fame and riches.

Stupid clothes, stupid hairdos, ridiculous attitudes. Nothing countercultural or rebellious whatsoever. Vacuous materialism - like the rest of society, only taken to extremes.

Music for escapism, 100% style, packaging and presentation; 0% content.

As Ian Anderson said in the programme, rock isn't meant to be a professional, organised branch of show business. Though Pop is.

So-called Glitter Rock was strictly for kids who were looking for self-aggrandisement, seeing it as a business, and not a calling, or an artform.

Bryan Ferry couldn't even hold a tune. His use of pin-ups and glamour girls on his album covers certainly had nothing to do with art and everything to do with blatant eye-catching packaging. Art has something to do with the communication of feelings and the revelation of truths.

None of the individuals in the bands that peaked in the early '70's had any soul, any authenticity, any truth to reveal. T Rex? Gary Glitter? Alice Cooper? Kiss?

Bowie said on the programme that he'd started out as a jazz sax player, but wasn't much good at it. Therefore he'd gone into pop and rock, which he could 'fake' (his word) quite easily. Theatricality and showmanship came very easily.

Elton John and Bowie were maybe the most interesting of the glam rockers, in that they were extremely good at what they did, and actually recorded the odd exceptional track. You could possibly same the same of Roxy Music. Unfortunately these people were all posers and fakers, to use Bowie's word. They had much more in common with Gary Glitter than, say, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, BB King, the Stones, Doors, Neil Young, etc.

Did Glam and Glitter have any durability and quality? Would anyone pay to see it performed now? Maybe if you were an adolescent in the '70's and felt like wallowing in nostalgia for stuff you thought at the time was pretty exciting. After all, a reformed Roxy did a show in Victoria Park about 10 days ago, and it seems plenty of people paid to watch.

http://www.gigwise.com/news/54847/Roxy-Music-Grace-Jones-To-Headline-Lovebox-Festival-2010

Roxy Music: as decadent as ever, they noodled their way beautifully through a bunch of slowies, before ending on an intoxicating blast of Virginia Plane, Let’s Stick Together and Love is the Drug. A band once described as 'the triumph of artifice’ proved they were the perfect headliners for a crowd of East End peacocks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/music-festivals/7897968/Lovebox-festival-Victoria-Park-review.html
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Layer 310 . . . Bogdanovich, Petty, Dylan, What's Up Doc?, Wake Up Time and Running Down A Dream

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You spend your life dreaming, running 'round in a trance
You hang out forever and still miss the dance
And if you get lucky, you might find someone
To help you get over the pain that will come
Yeah, you were so cool back in high school, what happened?
You were so sure not to have your spirits dampened . . .

- Tom Petty, Wake Up Time

I was talking with my daughter last week about a feature film called "What's Up Doc?", which we used to watch on our video, time after time, howling with laughter. It's one of the best comedies ever.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_Up,_Doc%3F_%28film%29

The film was directed by Peter Bogdanovich. Last night BBC4 cleared its schedule for a showing of a monster documentary made by Bogdanovich in 2007 - 4 hours of pure engaging magic, with never a dull moment for lovers of great rock music. It's a real tribute to the art of a great documentary maker that the film engages on so many levels, telling a heartwarming story of a great musician, singer and composer - Tom Petty.

Prior to watching this film I hadn't fully realised what a great band the Heartbreakers have been from the very beginning - a group of terrific musicians, and a kind of family and not just a group of performers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runnin%27_Down_A_Dream_%28film%29

I hadn't realised, either, that Tom and the band had hit the really big time in Britain before they were even known in America. Following that first amazing tour here, to promote their first album, they went home and went back to being struggling musos, trying hard to get radio stations to even play their music.

It's a measure of Tom's genius that later in his career he worked regularly with and made records with some of the true greats of rock music - Bob Dylan, George Harrison and Roy Orbison. The Travelling Wilburys seemed to come together almost by magic, and Tom made a major contribution to the band's songwriting and performing.

Tom's interest in music seemed to really take off when, as a kid, he was introduced to Elvis Presley by a relative who was working on one of the King's films. However, it was after seeing The Beatles performing on television - a startling experience according to him - that his world changed forever and he was convinced he would spend his life writing songs and performing in a band.

In the course of the film TP spoke with great clarity and intelligence, and without a shred of ego or pretention, about his life and times, and of course about his passion for music. He was as determined to make great records with a great sound and great songs as he was to put on great live shows.

Another measure of the greatness of Tom and the Heartbreakers is the fact that Dylan chose them to be his "backing" band for a world tour. Dylan's never going to play with musicians who are anything but the best, but it was interesting to listen to the guys in the band being interviewed about the way in which Dylan always stretches his band to the furthest limits by constantly playing in different keys, with different tempos, and improvising with the arrangements within his songs. With the Heartbreakers he knew he could do whatever he wanted and the band would always be paying attention and be able to respond and improvise and go with him.

At the conclusion of the film Tom says, "Everybody used to care. Now they don't care."

Tom still cares.

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Check out Ballad of a Thin Man - with Dylan hugely enjoying himself, and some great drumming and guitar soloing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPwyBcRnQow

Knocking on Heaven's Door - Dylan a master of the harmonica: notice the way he signals to the others he's enjoying the blast and he's going to extend the opening harp solo -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNdeKThOljo&NR=1

An extended live version of Refugee, with great Hammond and guitars -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fxzviZmdSk&feature=related


Well, if he gets lucky, a boy finds a girl
To help him to shoulder the pain in this world
And if you follow your feelings
And you follow your dreams
You might find the forest there in the trees
Yeah, you'll be alright, it's just gonna take time, but now
Who could have seen you'd be so hard to please somehow . . .

................................................

Dylan
http://www.new-pony.com/timeline.html

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What's Up Doc?

"Utterly hilarious is the best short description for "What's Up Doc?" This seldom-discussed, nearly forgotten hommage to screwball comedy is one of the most consistently funny, inspired, brilliantly realized ever made. There are no weak spots. Even if you are not a Streisand fan, it must be admitted that she has a gift for comedy (and she only stops the action once, to sing for five minutes). Ryan O'Neil is a perfect foil as an uptight college professor completely bamboozled by Streisand. Smaller roles are humourously portrayed by the likes of Austin Pendelton, Kenneth Mars and Mabel Albertson.

But, for those who love this movie, the real star of the show is MADELINE KAHN, as the all-time great comic character of Eunice Burns. Who can forget Eunice forcing her way into the hotel banquet hall, swinging her purse as a weapon? Or poor Eunice cowering on her hotel room bed, asking "what more can they do to me?"

Director Bogdanovich's version of the car chase which closes the film is so tremendously funny and entertaining that the viewer is sorry to see it end.

A richly comic feast."
- by mackjay
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069495/usercomments

"What's Up Doc is one of six movies I use to offset ANY bad mood. I have seen it countless times and still can't keep the suitcases straight.

This film is full of visual humor and one liners; Madeline Kahn screaming and taking on all comers while dragging the doorkeeper across the ballroom floor; the hotel crook using his "charm" to drop Mrs. Van Hoskins in her tracks; Eunice hiding in the bathroom because snakes "live in deathly fear of tile"; the promise of Howard conducting an avalanche in A Flat.

My only regret about this movie is that it began endless failed efforts by television and movie makers to replicate the chase through San Francisco. No one has. That sequence is the best example of humor, timing, backdrop, and action, of the chase genre. It has never been equalled by either serious or comedic directors.

Little mentioned in these reviews are Kenneth Mars and Austin Pendelton, two fantastic character actors who are the emeralds surrounding the diamonds of Streisand and O'Neal in the glorious setting of this jewel.

Thank goodness no one in What's Up Doc knows the meaning of the word "propriety!".

- by annmason1

"A zany, riotous slapstick comedy that lives up to what it purports to be...a zany, riotous slapstick comedy! Silly, simple and superficial . . . `What's Up, Doc?' is pure, unadulterated fun. Bugs Bunny should be proud.

Saluting its classic screwball predecessors, this innocent send-up has all the joy, style and panache one could ask for . . . Director Peter Bogdanovich, (who also wrote the story and co-produced) was at his zenith when he made this in 1972. Thirty years later, I've yet to see anything comparable to it.

Proving before her she had a nose for comedy (she was a hoot in `The Owl and the Pussycat'), Streisand outdoes herself here. She wisely (and generously) defers to the director and, in return, churns out her most engaging performance yet as a wacky, accident-prone, highly determined gal who creates utter chaos out of confusion while striving to win the guy. She proves once and for all she is a funny, FUNNY girl, her quicksilver timing a joy to behold. And, as a bonus, she sings!

`What's Up, Doc' is a refreshing reminder that laughter is still the best medicine. Th...Th...That's all, folks!"

- by Gary Brumbergh

"Not only in my top three favourites of all time, but most definitely the funniest hour and a half ever registered on celluloid. I first saw it in 1974 - I was nine - and instantly fell under the spell.

Streisand delivers like a sniper and actually looks sexy and desirable, O'Neal does his bespectacled Iowa music professor with all the dizziness of sex on legs that he was, and the cast generally glide through two separate crescendos of stupid situations, fuelled by dialogue in break neck speed, each more hilarious than the previous, all inexorably slipping into general uproar and mayhem at every turn.

This is a true comedy classic that hasn't lost any of it's breeziness, funk, sexiness and freshness with years. Dumb, twisted and invigorating all at once it's a true gem. Watch it and feel your I.Q. drop, and get hooked by all means. Or miss at your own peril."

- by Oggz

"I think this film is the funniest movie I have ever seen. No matter how many times I see it, I always find surprisingly fresh and completely hilarious. Barbra Streisand's performance is the centerpiece of the whole film. She simply glows with warmth, sexiness, and humor. There isn't a moment when we don't find her completely believable. Ryan O'Neal adds a great physical presence and is gloriously restrained. The film also contains some great supporting turns from Ken Mars, Liam Dunn, and especially Madeline Kahn, who nearly steals the movie in her film debut."

- by MAX80

......................................................

Nick Clegg has this piece in today's Guardian:

Don't take offence at our coalition. Its aims are liberal

A Lib-Con deal was the only responsible choice. And our shared aim is to build a fairer society by a radical dispersal of power

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/may/14/nick-clegg-coalition-aims-are-liberal?

It's helpful that Clegg's bothering to give us an update on his thinking, but Oxzen took issue with his concluding words:

    And from our different traditions we can pursue one simple, shared aim: this will be the government that re-empowers the British people.

Such a shallow and glib slogan - they can empower but they can't re-empower since the powerless have never had any real power. Without PR the concept is meaningless anyway. In Britain it's the major parties and the cliques who control them, and over-mighty governments and prime ministers, that have power. Money = power. I'll believe in decentralisation and power to the people if and when I see it.

There are, however, six good reasons for Clegg to have joined in a coalition with the Tories:

1) Too many Labour MPs made it clear they wanted no part of a coalition.
2) Too many Labour MPs made it clear they will never support PR.
3) New Labour needed to be kicked out - as a punishment for being a lousy government, and also for the party to re-think what it's about, under new leadership.
4) Britain needs a progressive and not a regressive Tory party, and with the help and the constraints of the LibDems Cameron has a chance of bringing this about.
5) Several things done by Labour need to be undone, and several things not done now badly need to be done.
6) There needs to be a demonstration that a coalition government can work effectively in Britain as a whole, just as it has in Scotland and elsewhere. Under a fair voting system coalition governments are both inevitable and desirable. Government by 'big tent' parties using whipping systems in the name of party 'discipline' both stifles debate and fudges issues.

One overwhelmingly bad reason for the LibDems to join with the Tories is to assist them in slashing spending on front-line public services, creating further unnecessary unemployment, and putting us into a deeper and more prolonged recession - all in the name of rapid repayment of debt and appeasing 'the markets'. Nick Clegg says nothing about this in this column. Since the rate of debt repayment was such a major issue in this election Clegg can't stay quiet about it in the name of 'collective responsibility'. We need to know what Clegg and Cable are now advocating, even if, or especially if, they continue to disagree with Osborne and his fellow slashers. I'm sure we're grown up enough to accept that they were simply outvoted in cabinet, if this is the case. It's all very well showing TV pictures of happy smiling faces around the cabinet table - we need to know what they're saying and who's arguing for what. Coalition is all very well - but it has to be done in an open and transparent manner, if it's to have credibility, legitimacy and public support.
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Layer 45 Voices, Time and the Floyd

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This is a double blog, as I won’t have time to write one tomorrow.

Wonderful Radio 4 today featured a writer, a novelist, I’ve never heard of - Kate Mosse. The interviewer mentioned that Kate has created a very good website, on which she has a whole section of advice for writers.

http://www.mosselabyrinth.co.uk/advice/intro.asp

He website also has very interesting interactive section, like a blog, where she shares what she’s doing as a writer whilst she’s actually working on a novel - the idea being that she gets feedback from a certain section of her readership as she’s writing her next novel, which affects the way she’s writing it.

This is pretty much what I’ve been saying to friends about my enthusiasm for blogging - if everyone comments on everyone else’s blog it really helps to generate new ideas, helps to refine your previous writing, etc. The interactivity is crucial.

I guess in years gone by when people had no telephones, let alone email, if they wanted to share their thoughts and their lives with good friends then they pretty much had to write letters - lots of them. These days we can just publish blogs - letting the whole world know what we’re thinking and doing, or just letting a select readership have access to our journals, and giving them a means of instantly feeding back.

I have several good friends who are good writers, though most of them have yet to officially publish anything. Some of them annoy the living daylights out of me because they are so talented and such good writers, and yet they make little or no time in their busy lives for blogging or writing a journal, or whatever.

They all recognise that the process of putting their thoughts into writing is incredibly enriching, like a meditation. And yet they don’t have the drive or the energy to do it, at least not regularly. Or maybe they don’t think it’s worth the effort, or maybe they have misgivings about sharing their innermost thoughts and feelings, and don’t see the point of keeping a journal that’s pretty much for their eyes only.

I’m now fascinated by the thought that the thing we might miss the most about somebody we don’t see frequently is their voice - meaning their unique perception, their take on the world, their way of expressing themselves, their sense of humour, their original thinking, and so on.

And the more I think about this the more I feel angry that our schools don’t recognise that this is the most important thing we can do for children - to help them realise that they have an individual voice, an individual take on the world, a unique perception, which they need to recognise and learn how to express to the full.

It’s all very well learning to enjoy the individual voices of great writers, through reading them as often as possible. But children usually take in an implicit message that only the voices of published writers are interesting and important and valid - i.e. their own voice is extremely unimportant and invalid. In fact they don’t even understand the concept of having an individual voice.

I remember coming across Harold Rosen’s efforts to address this issue back in the seventies, through his work as a secondary school teacher and researcher. And subsequently his son Michael’s continuation of this work, especially in books like Did I Hear You Write?

I remember my own time as a teacher, returning from a day’s outing with my class, and hearing them ask the dreaded question, “Do we have to write about it?” Well no, they didn’t. It took me only a few minutes to scribe on the board their recollections of the actual events of the day. What was the point of 25 - 30 children all writing a useless list of “We did this, and we did that; we went there, and we saw this, and we had our packed lunch . . . “

All that I asked of them, in return for a brilliant day visiting exciting new places, was to write down their individual impressions of their experiences. What was interesting? What was exciting? Funny? Scary? Puzzling? And then, having written their individual thoughts and feelings, their responses and their conclusions, they loved listening to one another read out their pieces. Lots of appreciation and laughter. Which then inspired another burst of writing - “Oh yes! I’d forgotten about that! That’s what I thought as well! I need to write about that!”

They soon learnt that what’s important in the process of learning is not so much recording the facts as recording their individual take on the facts, which is as true for a science experiment or the discovery of a new maths concept, as it is for a geography or history or art or geology field trip.

Being able to examine and reflect on our own unique and individual thoughts is a vital part of living and learning - about ourselves and about life in general.

It’s a waste of time being an individual human being unless we enjoy our individual humanity, and the individuality of others. Unfortunately our school system doesn’t care for developing children as individuals, and certainly not as individual writers, and it claims it has no time to do so, as it rushes each day to cover the ‘curriculum’ and prepare for tests.

A cracked record? Moi?

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Time and the Floyd.

Last night was Pink Floyd night on BBC4. A whole evening of brilliant TV, and music, and without a single advert. Pure magic.

The story of the Floyd is a fascinating one. There are so many elements that make their story so unusual. They were a unique band to begin with, thanks to Syd Barrett. I hadn’t fully appreciated what a strange, wonderful, courageous, charismatic and brilliant human being he was in those early days, before he lost his mind. I hadn’t realized either how much his talented peers had loved him, and how much they had missed him, both personally and musically, after he’d gone off with the fairies.

His whole spirit was unique, iconoclastic, anarchistic. And the band therefore didn’t give a damn about fashion and trends and commercialism. Sure, they wanted recognition and appreciation, but not as individual egos. It was all about the music, and what they had to say about life, the universe and everything.

I remember well their early days - the incredible live shows they performed just after “Arnold Layne” - coming into the mod haven of Coventry Locarno on the back of their chart hit, and playing unbelievable spaced out music that was nothing like Arnold Layne and nothing like anything anyone had ever heard; playing in semi darkness, with a liquid light show projected over the entire stage.

The audience wasn’t stoned, as such, but it sure felt that way. I guess people either loved it or hated it. Either you got it or you didn’t. I guess quite a few of my mod mates might have been unhappy that it wasn’t an evening of Arnold Layne type ditties, and headed off to the bar. I didn’t really notice anyone else. I was too wrapped up in the music and the performance. These guys were the house band of the incomparably trendy and freaky UFO Club, for chrissakes. Not that I’d ever smoked a joint, let alone taken LSD.

Arnold Layne, though untypical, was itself a great song. I still have a pristine 45 rpm copy of it. Such wry humour, such a strange thing to write a song about. Someone’s strange hobby. Collecting clothes. Moon shine, washing line. A see-through mirror. "He dug it". Lyrics and a tune you could never forget.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/p/pink_floyd/arnold_layne.html

That was the beginning of a lifelong fascination and appreciation, right through to my current enjoyment of David Gilmour’s ‘On An Island’, and his band’s brilliant performances of ‘High Hopes’ and ‘Comfortably Numb’ on the DVD. Nobody else plays and sings like that. The Floyd completely stole the show when they invited Roger Waters back to perform at Live8 in Hyde Park in 2005. Which would have happened with or without Waters.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/06/30/bmfloyd30.xml

Their very early stuff, though immature and relatively amateurish, on account of them being non-musicians (apart from Rick Wright), was totally original, totally off the wall. They maintain, perhaps a little tongue in cheek, that they weren't good enough as musicians to copy or imitate what other bands were doing, so they didn't. Following Syd's example they weren’t afraid to experiment, and improvise, and jam. Their gigs were all about improvisation and jamming. Nobody had ever seen or heard anything like it. And this was before Dave Gilmour joined the band.

By the time I saw them in Manchester in 1969, at a college gig, they were on their way to becoming megastars, and Gilmour was a well-established member. The light show was projected all along one side of the hall by now, as well as all over the stage area. They had well and truly mastered their instruments, and the stage was filled with their gear - a huge drum kit, amps, speaker units, even kettle drums and a gong.

Their catalogue of tracks by now included Astronomy Domine; Careful With That Axe, Eugene; Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun; and A Saucerful of Secrets. All of which are immortalized on the great live album recorded at that Manchester College of Commerce gig in June 1969 - Ummagumma.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ummagumma

Coincidentally I was also at the first ever live performance of Floyd's Atom Heart Mother at the legendary Bath Festival in Shepton Mallet in 1970, but that’s another story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_Festival_of_Blues_and_Progressive_Music_1970

I also remember standing in the amphitheatre in Pompeii in the mid ‘80s and picturing the Floyd playing there, performing the amazing track Echoes from their album ‘Meddle‘, in Live At Pompeii. They showed clips from that last night on the TV, including shots of them strolling around the rim of Vesuvius, which is indeed an amazing experience. Awesome!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Floyd:_Live_at_Pompeii

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2hFZ8KnsSo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sein6WnbY0

You can get a flavour of the film from the comment on the youtube video, posted by StripeyElephant - "Holy fuck this is the best thing I've ever seen."

My own favourite part of it is the middle section, where the camera tracks slowly around huge menacing black stacks of speakers - studying an unbroken black wall of speaker units, with protruding horn units looking like military grenade launchers, about to lob sonic bombs around the deserted amphitheatre. Roger Waters' bass thunders and throbs its incessant pulse

Dugh ga buh ba - ba dum
Dugh ga buh ba - ba dum
Dugh ga buh ba - ba dum
Dugh ga buh ba - ba dum

followed and accompanied by Gilmour's howling, wailing, pleading guitar; soaring and wrenching your spirit, demanding you go with it to some otherworldly place in his emotional universe, accompanied by Rick Wright's vibrating rotating wail of electronic organ and Dave Mason's precision drumming and splashing smashing cymbals. I still find electrifying the moment when Gilmour first cuts into the bass drone with the nastiest bluesiest most jagged chord imaginable, whipped into some previously unknown sonic dimension by his incredible mass of electronic gadgets and effects.

(There may be little point playing this video unless you're able to pump it through a good sub-woofer setup or some good headphones)

You may like to know that, according to an old book of mine about guitar players, Gilmour used to use (pre digital and Midi) an effects board consisting of a Dallas Arbiter Fuzz Face, an MXR Phase 100, a Dynacomp noise gate, a Uni-Vibe, a Pete Cornish Custom Fuzz, a Jim Dunlop Cry Baby, and three sweep pedals. "This new state of the art board had sophisticated revolutionary switching capabilities - each effect could be individually by-passed or configured in any sequence, and there were three outputs for various amps." On the other hand, this may be too much information.

The centrepiece of last night’s broadcast was a documentary about the making of Dark Side of the Moon, which is now seen as their magnum opus, and which they are quite rightly extraordinarily proud of.

It was so interesting to find out that it was made in the Abbey Road studios, pre-computers and digital recording, and the sonic effects were all done on an early sequencer and using tape loops set up on banks of reel to reel tape players. Of course! And of course nobody else had ever tried to work in this way. Nobody else was so experimental and innovative.

Roger Waters’ lyrics might now be viewed as typically ‘angry young mannish’ (as he does himself), but he was able to encapsulate perfectly in words what so many of us were feeling in the aftermath of post-60’s disillusionment - feeling about materialism, about the rat race, about the lack of sanity in the world, about militarism, about mortality, about religion, and about ‘hanging on in quiet desperation’. Lyrics that were not wordy, lyrics that were economical and evocative and precise.

The programme told the story of how Clare Torry came to perform her incredible improvised wordless vocal over Rick Wright's brilliant ‘The Great Gig In The Sky’. They described how their old mate Dick Parry was invited to play his wonderful sax pieces on ‘Us and Them’ and ‘Money’. They also told the story of how the strange rambling voices and the manic laughter were specially recorded for the album.

I first heard Dark Side of the Moon lying beside a log fire in a darkened room in the house of a VSO teacher in Northern Nigeria in 1973. In the context of the time, and having just a week ago emerged from the Heart of Darkness, so to speak - from the jungles and rivers of Zaire and Central Africa - it was an unforgettable and mind-blowing experience.

Just listening to some new music on some good quality hi-fi would in itself have been mind blowing after all the time I'd been without it, after all those weeks of traveling across the Serengeti, through the mountains of Rwanda, and along the mud roads of the central African rainy season. Coming into contact with the Dark Side in those circumstances was a breathtaking sonic culture shock and mind-fuck of the first magnitude.

Dave Gilmour says in the documentary that he only wishes that he’d been able to have the experience of hearing the album for the first time, from start to finish, completely ‘out of the blue’. Well Dave, I can tell you, listening to it in its entirety in the stoned darkness of an African evening in front of a flickering log fire was spine-tinglingly overwhelming and incredible. And for that, many thanks.

It says something for the quality of the documentary and the strange brilliance of the band and their music that even my son, no lover of rock or the sixties or psychedelia, sat with me and watched it all through, even though he was dog tired after a double shift at work. There’s hope for him yet! He’s a wonderful young man, but has a lot to learn about music, which, by the way, he seems to have stopped listening to. He’s reached a hiatus. The day he plays and enjoys one of my precious vinyl albums on my turntable I’ll know he’s getting fully on message and fully on track.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398868/

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Having just re-listened to 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene', I'm still amazed by the insane power of Roger Waters' diabolical screaming, and recall vividly the effect of it during live shows. Thrilling, scary and and somehow liberating. I didn't realise at the time that you were allowed to be so full-on crazy and anarchic in public - so utterly emotionally over the top. If you were standing close to the stage it was as disturbing and disorienting as witnessing The Who smashing their instruments.

Sure, it was wild and anarchic and pointless and childish, perhaps. But then isn't this what art is supposed to be about, at least some of the time? Delving into our innermost darkest thoughts and feelings, and expressing them, in words, images, colour, movement and sound. As I say, a kind of liberation.

It's interesting that Michelangelo Antonioni was so determined to have this track in 'Zabriski Point', and I well remember what a controversial movie that was when it was first released.

And going back to Romeo and Juliet (see Layer 31) there an interesting image in Romeo's response to being told "From Verona thou art banished" -

"There is no world without Verona walls,
But purgatory, torture, hell itself.
Hence banished is banish'd from the world,
And world's exile is death; then 'banished'
Is death misterm'd. Calling death 'banished,'
Thou cutt'st my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.

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One final thought, Let Pink Floyd be an inspiration to all fledgling musicians and writers - don't be put off your desire to be creative and expressive by a lack of technical training and know-how. Don't worry about not being able to do what others can do. Do your own thing, create in your own way using whatever skills and abilities you have, and enjoy whatever you do. Be original and then you can't be judged by conventional standards. Start a new genre of your own perhaps. And the more you do it the better you'll become.
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Layer 12 Buddhi, Can You Spare A Dime? Who's Missing?

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Today - on Radio 4

Thought for the Day

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sachs.

Passover - the Exodus.

Children have suffered badly in the modern world. They suffer the effects of an appalling rise in depressive illness, drug and alcohol abuse, eating disorders, and other stress-related syndromes among the young. There are more than 3 million children who live in poverty in Britain, even in this age of affluence.

There’s another kind of child poverty - emotional and psychological, says JS. Children need their parents’ time more than they need money. They need their parents’ attention more than they need computer screens and video games. They need values and a sense of identity more than mobile phones and credit cards.

The average child spends 35 hours a week looking at a screen, but only 35 minutes a week talking to their father. Those that value lifeless things eventually become lifeless. Only civilisations and cultures that cherish the young, stay young.

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I’d go further than the Chief Rabbi and say that since children spend so many hours per week in schools, it’s crucial that schools are the place where they get quality time and attention.
They need positive interaction with adults and children alike, opportunities for communication and collaboration, and an atmosphere of caring and trust. They need all these things far more than they need sitting passively in silence, attention focused on the teacher at the front, desperately being drilled towards better test results.

Emotional deprivation and abuse goes on in too many schools, mainly because of the corrosive effects of pressure for higher test scores. The curriculum and the ability to perform in tests are now all that matters. Those who suggest we should be ‘child-centred’ are regarded as dinosaurs and idiots, if not actual loonies.

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Enemies of Mankind

Tyranny, poverty, disease and war are the 4 common enemies of mankind, according to the late John F Kennedy. G. Brown is calling on Americans to remember these words and engage with these enemies. Meanwhile, 30% of children in Britain are officially living below the poverty line, whilst the richest and fattest in our society have got richer and fatter under his economic policies. More on happiness and inequality below. And don’t even mention the war.

Brown wants the US to lead the ‘remaking’ of global institutions - the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, etc. Brown at least seems to recognise that tackling the causes of poverty, disease, tyranny, anger and resentment is more important than and more effective than trying to contain and deal with their effects.

America, however, according to informed opinion, cares not a fig for the impoverished and the wretched of the earth and will continue to use its incredible wealth and power mainly and essentially to fight its ‘war on terror’ and combat its declared enemies, principally Islamists and leftists. No time or money there for greater equality and fairness in the world. What we have is ours. I got mine. I’m keeping it. I may have stolen and embezzled a lot of it in the first place, but I’m planning to grab a whole lot more of it whenever and wherever I can. So fuck you.

Remember - world illiteracy could be eliminated for the cost of two weeks’ operations by American forces and ‘contractors’ in Iraq.

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Happy Go Lucky

Mike Leigh’s new film, released today, is called Happy Go Lucky. Primary school teacher Poppy refuses to let herself be unhappy. She’s fulfilled, centred, focused, non-materialistic, anti-miserablist, serious and sensible, caring for others and determined to make life better for others. Where does resilience come from in certain individuals? Upbringing, family circumstances, attitude? Luck? Genes? Schools and parenting? Mike, in his interview, was clearly not sure, and as an artist he probably doesn’t even aspire to certainty, isn’t interested in analysis or the ‘science’ of happiness, as such.

Professor Richard Layard has made ‘happiness’ an academic study. I’m about to start reading his book on happiness which is subtitled Lessons From A New Science. He says the three keys to happiness and resilience are 1) caring for others - not just living for yourself, 2) seeing the glass as half full, 3) living within a ‘trusting society’ - eg Scandinavia, where progressive social and economic policies have contributed to a sense of social solidarity and collegiality, where differences in earnings and wealth have been for decades kept within a much narrower band than in the UK and the USA, thanks to progressive tax and redistribution policies.

He’s particularly concerned about schools - the wellbeing and happiness of children - and creating programmes (of cognitive behaviour therapy?) to build resilience, enjoyment of life and better behaviour. We especially need sympathetic treatment of disadvantaged and challenging children, he says.

And so say all of us.

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Amazing Journey - The Story of The Who (BBC4)

Two hours of pure joy. Watched it on D’s bass-rich TV, with the clean, digital sound also pumped through the sound system in the sitting room. Great crashing waves of sound - thumping and pounding drums, throbbing bass; scolding, scowling, scalding, howling, screaming and wailing lead guitar. Just like it sounded live back in the Sixties - immediate, raw, dynamic, thrilling . . . and quite shocking and scary.

Before The Who nobody actually frightened an audience, but back then we were innocent and unprepared for a bunch of unpredictable maniacs who thought nothing of smashing guitars, bashing in and toppling speaker stacks, scattering drum kits and hurling microphone stands.

If you were a working class lad who felt exactly what they were feeling and understood what they were saying (Bam bam bam bam . . . bam bam bam bam - People try to put us down! - talking ‘bout my g-g-g-generation!!!!) you absolutely loved it - after taking a few seconds to adjust to the initial shock of what you were witnessing. If you were a middle class mid-teens girl just out there having fun, or waiting for your heart-throb Herman and the wretched Hermits to come on as top of the bill - you covered your ears and ran for the safety of the back of the hall.

They revelled in their own power and fury, and if you happened to be standing next to the stage, up close and personal, you were likely to be flattened and blown away by the loudest, baddest and most anarchic experience of your tender young life.

Interesting to go back to the very beginning of the band, the accidental way they came together, the energy, the personality clashes, and their collective love of soul and blues. Mods weren’t into pop - we loved Tamla, soul and blues. The Who synthesised all of that, made it their own, and cranked it back out again with a full-on rock sensibility. They ROCKED!

But The Who were more than that. They were experimental, they took risks, and they were highly original. And “so much more powerful than anyone else”, says the Edge. And there’s a man who should know.

Noel Gallagher said some very acute and some very moving things about the right of Sixties bands to continue to perform, to tour, to keep on rocking. He’s always interesting to listen to when being interviewed because he’s such an intelligent observer and student of what’s gone on through the history of rock, and he speaks with wit, passion, precision and absolute conviction. Easy to see why Russell Brand considers him a mate.

John Entwhistle died of a heart attack whilst on tour at the age of 57. He was a unique musician. Nobody ever played a bass guitar in a manner so arresting (whilst being so still and minimalistic in his movements on stage), so outstanding, so inventive, so technically and dynamically perfect. He was the only trained musician in the band and he played bass like it was a lead instrument. That’s why they only needed, they only had room for, two guitars in the band. There was barely space for Townshend to perform in, let alone another rhythm instrument. In any case they didn’t have and didn’t need rhythm. They rocked.

Townshend and Daltrey both spoke with real love and affection for John, and for Keith Moon, who was a tragic figure in many ways, but whose drumming powered the band from the back of the stage with an awe-inspiring cacophony. He too was irreplaceable, which basically means that all three of the instrumentalists in the band were original and had a talent that touched on genius.

Townshend, the ex art student, was without a doubt a stunningly original and powerful artist. He peaked early, it’s true, and didn’t write very much of real quality either musically or lyrically after he fell into pretension and ego-tripping with Tommy, the first so-called rock opera (yuk!), which was one of the most over-rated albums ever. Belatedly he seems to have recognised that with the odd exception (Won't Get Fooled Again) his early stuff was by far the best, and so now he’s happy to be still performing those great, original songs from the Sixties. No shame in that at all.

It’s fairer to say that the first hour or so of this documentary was pure joy, rather than all of it, as it contained the best of the music and described the band’s joyful growth and development into a world-wide phenomenon. The second hour, the story of The Who’s decline and descent into musical mediocrity and craziness, together with the deaths of two of its members, was quite sad and disturbing, though still fascinating and insightful.

Seeing them back together again playing live at Wembley Arena with Sue in 1996, from a sitting/standing area quite close to the stage, was utterly brilliant. Zak Starkey, Son of Ringo, was on drums and was excellent - very powerful and reminiscent of the great Keith. Roger sang really well, and Pete windmilled away as effectively and enthusiastically as ever. And of course Steady Eddie, Johnny the Bass, drove it all with massive vibrations that jiggled and twanged every fibre in your body for every second of the show. You left with your ears ringing, your brain spinning and your whole body vibrating. And a great big grin on your face. The smile of the Buddha.

I doubt if I’ll ever see them again. Or the like of them. Last year’s show, back at the Wembley cattle shed, only this time with my good friend N, the only black guy in a sea of white, just wasn’t the same. I’d spoiled it anyway by seeing a ‘preview’ on TV. (They did virtually the same set at Glastonbury, just a couple of weeks before Wembley, including having the same fairly naff videos on a huge screen behind them.) Hence no surprises and no thrills. Also - we were too far away.

About as far away as I was when I saw them at Charlton football stadium in the Seventies - the last open air gig I went to? The last tour before their 1996 reunion? A gathering of bad vibes, violent throwing of half-full beer cans by drunken twats, and typical stadium-show crush, tedium and hassle. A nasty business that for me signalled the end of the dream, drew a line under any hope there ever was for a peaceful revolution through love and togetherness. By then all the mods and the hippies had disappeared anyway, leaving only a detritus of long-haired echos of something that used to be genuinely rebellious, idealistic, peace-loving, beautiful, stylish, dynamic and original.

So then there were two. Two men who nowadays love and respect one another, and have fun when they get together. Two men who as The Who have been through it all. But it just isn’t the same. RIP Keith and John.

Noel G suggested that if you could translate the amazing bass figures that John did in My Generation into words then he should have them for his epitaph on his gravestone. Bam bam bam bam, bam bam bam bam - tuddly dum, duddly dum, dum dum dum. Brilliant.

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And to think I was meaning to write something about economics and the credit crunch. But fuck it. Why don’t they all just f-f-f-f-f-fade away?
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