What is a melody, and why are good ones so hard to write?... In The Guardian Clive James writes: It could be said that Adele is Mama Cass born again, but she needs a song to match her voice. I have listened several times to her smash hit, Hello. I was hoping that the shapely beauty ... Read More...
Pop/Rock/Jazz/Folk
I’m always amazed that some people are content to live in places other than Bristol. Eejits. My dear friend Martin, for instance, has to come all the way from Cardiff (a poor imitation of Bristol with added delusions of Welsh grandeur, of all things) to get a decent night out ... Read More...
Nige recalls some vintage songs banned by the BBC - including some, like a ditty by Cliff Edwards - with good reason... Rattling around in my head, for reasons unknown, was one of Cole Porter's less famous songs, The Physician. This witty - and very catchy - commentary on scientific reductionism ... Read More...
A musical treat for you today, as The Dabbler presents Dear Bonkers Maisie, music by OutaSpaceman, lyrics by Frank Key... I have long believed that what the world lacks is a lovely romantic song about lead poisoning, so in the end I had to write one myself. Dear Bonkers Maisie, thou art ... Read More...
‘Let’s all get up and dance to a song that was a hit before your mother was born’, I suggested, and so we did, C and E and I, holding hands in a circle, to that one and Penny Lane and Baby, You’re a Rich Man. This is the sort ... Read More...
I saw Stephen Fry’s anti-God rant and felt a burst of sympathy for the man. His stance - being very angry with something that he believes nonexistent - is a nonsensical one which usually means the angry person is really angry with Christians, either for being so stupid as to worship an evil ... Read More...
In which Nick Cave describes a Kylie Minogue pop hit as 'a harrowing portrait of humanity not dissimilar to that of the Old Testament Psalms'... While writing a piece for sofa.com about the album The Boatman’s Call by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, I came across this quite stupendous lecture ... Read More...
In which Gaw writes in praise of a song you're heartily sick of by now... At this stage of the proceedings to ask you to pay some attention to a Christmas song is about as palatable a proposition as asking you to polish off another box of sickly chocs. However, I ... Read More...
Today, horror fiction and groovy ska music combine in a tale about Toots and his missing Maytals... Toots clattered up to the post office counter, sore perplexed. “Hello Toots, what can I do for you today?” said the friendly postmaster. “I am sore perplexed,” said Toots, “I have lost my Maytals.” The postmaster was ... Read More...
Today would be the 89th birthday of comic actor Charlie Drake. But did you know he once appeared alongside Peter Gabriel, Sandy Denny, Robert Fripp and Phil Collins in one of the weirdest prog rock line-ups ever?... Born on this day in 1925 was the diminutive comic Charlie Drake, who was, ... Read More...