And then John said "Dig this, for here's Paul, whistling Clarabella..." and a little girl who loved the Beatles thought that was a good idea.
Music, movies and the other things that make the world go round,
Another from the 100 Awesome Musical Things series, still from 2012... As it happens, I've posted more recently about this particular music video,but I'll include this for completeness now.
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I had a bit of a break as you might have noticed... I also started writing Post 8 around the Sgt Pepper movie but it was so abysmal (the film more than the post itself) that I had to abandon it... and I don't think it's very nice to tear it to shreds in the immediate aftermath of the death of one of its stars... so anyway...
From 2010, I find this hilarious and sad by turns... almost all of this is still true, seven years later... I've intentionally not edited as I might some items. It felt like something I should leave as-is, like some kind of painful, stream of consciousness word vomit....
It's funny how things work sometimes. When I was a child, my favourite band name ever was 'The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band'. My dad liked them and used the name as a punchline and such every now and then. It sounded like the name of a really madcap, awesome group.
I wrote this in 2012, and I only vaguely remember the exact circumstances behind the writing but the images? Still seared in my head.
~~~2012~~~
Just something I've been thinking about for various reasons.
The narrow, empty rural road stretched and faded into the mountains of the far distance. I squared my shoulders, pulled my jacket closer to me and took the first step.
OK, I know that as far as the New Blog is concerned, the next part of 100 Awesome Things should be numbered Six, not Thirty-Six.
Except, of course, parts Six-Thirty-Five already exist and they're scheduled to post over the next couple of months.
This couldn't wait. Why?
Today, there's a new soul in the world to whom a part of my heart belongs. Today, one of my dearest friends was delivered of a healthy baby girl. Anyway, I'll get back to that...
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In the 1970s, when rock music, private golf clubs and the Church had similar admissions criteria for membership (must be a dude, even if you're a total arsehole), there were a few women who made a place for themselves in the world of rock music.
Most of those women made it by getting up on stage, and you know them already. There weren't many women who were able to take positions of power or influence behind the scenes.
One woman who did was Rosalie Trombley, of whom I do not know a great deal, but I do know that her work as music director for one of Canada's most important radio stations influenced the content of radio across Canada and the US, and from there the charts and music itself.
Power and influence? She's the reason "Bennie and the Jets" became a hit, and so she's the reason for that bit in 27 Dresses. Bob Seger wrote a song about her, which a little band from Ireland then covered live...
When I started writing the story that would become Walking in the Shadowlands, the main female character was immediately named Rosalie Cochran. Rosalie, for the song; Cochran for Eddie.
In time, I discovered that I had named a fictional rock music pioneer after a real one, which was the kind of awesome universe glue that I enjoy.
The lyrics wot Seger wrote can be taken super-literally - Rosalie Trombley did have 'the tower', hence the stations' broadcast power. On the other hand, it's a story about a girl who loves music.
The Rosalie I wrote was devoted to the power of music, for better or worse. She was a bit imperious and bossy, but she had a heart the size of Jupiter. She was smart and empathetic. She was defiantly independent, unapologetic for who she was and endlessly, but not unquestioningly loyal.
The Rosalie I wrote lived an extraordinary life.
So, I hope you'll forgive me hijacking the 100 Awesome Things, because today, there's a new soul in the world. Shiny, new and full of potential...
Every so often, something so marvellous happens that the scars upon one's heart are eased a little. Today is such a day.
There is a new Rosalie in the world today, and I hope her life will be as extraordinary as that fictional Rosalie's... and then far surpass it. I will do what's in my power to help make that happen.
More 100 Awesome Musical Thingsand oh, this reminds me how much I miss seeing Craig Ferguson every evening.... ~~~wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey ... stuff is rarely more appropriate than now~~~ I pondered what to post today... and after spending most of the evening catching up with The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson, I thought to post one of his musical openings.
In 2014, when I was struggling a great deal with writer's block, I asked my friends for some short story writing prompts. * This was from a friend called Kevin: "Both the angry sea we sailed upon, and the quiet lake we swam through... were the colour of her lovely eyes”. This is barely and only a little inspired by this.
Another day, another piece from the archive, another piece about misogyny, the patriarchy and this time, it's more about
As ever, I've tried to keep the editing to a minimum, but do forgive me for the need to improve at least a little bit... Toxic masculinity has gained more prominence as a concept since 2010, so this might seem rather quaint.
Several things recently have turned my mind to the notion of The Real Man. One of these was a conversation with someone at work which basically went along these lines:
In 2012, I started writing a series over on Livejournal called '100 Awesome Things...' based on a suggestion by someone over there. My chosen theme was 100 Awesome Musical Things To Be Found On YouTube.
I didn't reach 100 while I was there, despite starting some time ago, so I'll post the archive set and
then keep going - I WILL finish this!
The Allman Brothers Band, "Statesboro Blues", Live at Fillmore East, 1971.
It's a cover of a Blind Willie McTell song and was heavily influenced by the Taj Mahal version a few years earlier (Trivia: This version was on the sampler album The Rock Machine Turns You On). Duane Allman was a greatly influential guitarist and this is probably considered the definitive version of the song (not including the original maybe). Sometimes last week, I had been researching something for my novel as to which Old Blues Classic my fictional band would cover in a particular scene. It came down to either "Smokestack Lightning" by Howlin' Wolf or McTell's "Statesboro Blues". I thought about it, rediscovered this Allman Brothers cover and realised that there is no way that another guitarist in almost the same year would set himself up against Duane at his best. My fictional boy JD Twain is a fantastic guitarist. He's certainly the equal of Clapton and Gallagher and Allman, but this is Duane at the very, very top of his game and there's no touching that.
Then by quirk of fate, on Friday there was a great documentary was on BBC Four the other day about Southern Rock concentrating of course on the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd. Naturally, this song was featured prominently. This week isn't the first time I'd heard it of course, but maybe it's the first time I listened. The Allman Brothers have always been in the periphery of my rock and roll consciousness. I respected them but that was as far as it went. For whatever reason, it's gotten to me now. Maybe I was just waiting til I was ready for it.
As Charlie Daniels (of The Devil Went Down To Georgia fame) said on the documentary: 'I don't care what color you are, or what creed you are, if you hear Duane Allman play the opening bars of Statesboro Blues - and maybe that's not your music, maybe you like Beethoven ... if you listen to that and that don't move you, then you don't need to be listening to music. You need to be doing something else. Go play golf or something. If that don't touch you, there's something wrong with your heart.'
Clarenote 2017: This was written in one raging blast at around the time I was finally beginning to understand feminism beyond 'I believe in equal rights therefore I am a feminist'. I was honoured when Melissa at Shakesville read it and posted there as a follow up. I'm not as angry I am differently angry now. I might not write exactly as I did in 2009, in no small part because of the brilliant conversations this sparked on my blog and at Shakesville... I was on stage sometimes in 2009. Since then, I've learnt to just seize the fraking stage, make it my own and care about nobody else's opinion. That matters. To my friends certain relief, I've gotten better at spacing out my Facebook shares. And no, the person who made the comment is no longer a friend. So, have some timey-wimey wavey lines as we head back in time, to when I was merely beginning to understand that Rory Gallagher had taken residence in my soul and wasn't going anywhere... As always, I've tried to keep edits to a minimum... and I'm sorta sorrynotsorry for some of the language. If that's what you really take offence to, you may not be paying attention, but fair warning, it's there.
I have a habit. An irritating habit. I like to share YouTube videos on Facebook on even the smallest pretext. This leads to me basically spamming my own FB profile with videos each time I stop there. So far, I've managed to refrain from sharing The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson every time I burst out laughing.
Lately, I've been profile-spamming with Rory Gallagher videos every so often. Or rather, every time I go to YouTube in search of a Rory video. I'm in the mid-period stage of New Obsession, and it's just as well that YouTube wasn't around when I went through the same with The Beatles, or with Led Zeppelin or with Thin Lizzy or with The Doors, or with Dean Martin.
Amongst the videos I posted the other day was this:
