Missa Luba

Saturday: It is still freezing; my wee pond has been frozen over for days. I hope my shubunkins are ok, I think they will be, they go right to the bottom of the pond when it freezes, it has happened before. I had some good news and some bad news today. The good news is that I get my first jab of COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. Maybe, fingers crossed we will get out of this mess before too long. The bad news is that my team Peterborough United are not playing today. The pitch at Blackpool is frozen, so the game is postponed. Let’s hope Posh can hang on to 3^rd place even without playing. Following my Jackie Leven post yesterday where I said I could not see a Van Morrison connection with Jackie, a fan contacted me and said that Jackie recorded a great live version of Van’s Slim Slow Slider. I found it on youtube and agree that it is excellent. I shared it to this blog page if you want to hear it. Also, I discovered that Jackie made an album called Jackie Leven Says which is obviously a Van’ism. Not only that, but Jackie also recorded with novelist Ian Rankin who we know is a huge Van fan. I might investigate this further.

At the moment on this cold afternoon, I am listening to a CD called Missa Luba by Les Troubadours Du Roi Bauduoin. It is a Congolese Mass which was recorded in 1958, but not released in the UK until 1964. It was composed by a Belgian Franciscan friar called Father Guido Haazen. I have owned the vinyl album for years but cannot play that because I haven’t got a turntable. I saw the CD on eBay for £2.99 postage free, so I bought it. I first became aware of this recording in the 1970s when one track called Sanctus was featured in a film directed by Lindsey Anderson called If. I thought it was wonderful. I wonder if this was the start of what we now call World Music. I hope the original musicians and choir were rewarded for their great music and not just exploited like a lot of African people living under European colonial rule.

I can’t think of anything else to say today. The weather is supposed to get a bit warmer tomorrow. That might mean rain, but if it doesn’t rain I might go for a walk. I have been cooped up too long. See you later.

Slim Slow Slider (live) Jackie Leven

Defending Ancient Springs by Jackie Leven.

Friday afternoon, sitting in my kitchen as sunlight streams through the window, giving the illusion of warmth. I am listening to a CD which arrived yesterday called Defending Ancient Springs by Jackie Leven. I was reminded of Jackie Leven last week when I saw his name on the Village Pump Festival memorial when I was out on a walk. I had heard people speak highly of him and he had been compared to Van Morrison. I decided to order an album and I thought it would give me something to write about and keep my brain working during this lock-down. When I looked at his discography, I did not know which album to get, so I ordered this one from the year 2000 because I liked the name. The CD has an attractive booklet packed with information. The cover is a photo of the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. I had never heard of her, but I have just been reading about her life. She lived through the Russian revolution and committed suicide in 1941 during the Stalin era and is now thought of as one of the greatest Russian poets. It shows Jackie Leven was well read.

The music turned out to be nothing like I expected. I thought it would be a kind of simple folkie, acoustic type sound, but no, it is a very complex album featuring a whole assortment of instruments and sounds. The opening track even surprised me because it is a cover of the Righteous Brothers classic You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling. It is a duet with David Thomas from the band Pere Ubu. David Thomas makes quite a large contribution to this album. Most of the album was recorded in Bethesda in North Wales, which is an area I know quite well from my college days. I like this version, but I do not know why he recorded it because nothing will ever top the Righteous Brothers original. Perhaps they just did it for fun and there is nothing wrong with that. Single Father is an upbeat song with a sad message. It is about a broken relationship and coming to terms with not seeing your children. Paris Blues is just what it says, with some very bluesy tasteful guitar. The imagery in some of the lyrics evoked the vibe of Somewhere Down The Crazy River to me. David Thomas is featured again. There are some witty plays on words, such as ‘one horse lonesome sleigh’. It ends with Jackie reciting a stanza of a poem by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. One of two poets translated by Robert Bly on this album. Jackie obviously liked poetry and it is quite educational for me looking them up.

Village Pump Memorial.

The title track Defending Ancient Springs is next, and he thanks the English poet Kathleen Raine for the inspiration for this song. It is a song about returning to your roots. It begins with the industrial sounds of heavy engineering. I assume Jackie came from an area which grew out of the industrial revolution. The industrial sounds are joined by heavy drumming and crashing guitars. There is another poem by Jun Ramon Jiminez. It is a powerful track. The Working Man’s Love Song by contrast is a simpler affair. It is quite a poignant song about how things will get better….but not today. Listening to it today reminded me of this pandemic we are having to endure, in the hope that things will get better. I Saw My Love Walk Into Clouds is possibly my favourite song after three listens. It is a simple touching love song with exquisite guitar and violin playing. Hand Is Pale With Holy Kisses is adapted from a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva. The words have a desolate feel despite the religious imagery. We can only guess at what Russian people had to endure in those days.

Your Winter Days is another song with lots of snow in the lyrics, which all adds to the feeling of underlying melancholy pervading the album. The Keys To The Forest I found to be one of the most melodic songs on offer. I like it a lot. It almost has the air of an old Scottish or Irish folk ballad, along the lines of Danny Boy or something like that. The song starts as a song of lost love beside the Firth Of Clyde but ends with some harrowing lyrics which suggest it might be from the view of a soldier in World War 1. The final track Morbid Sky isn’t written by Jackie Leven, it is by David Thomas & Keith Moline and features The Pale Orchestra. The arrangement is like avant garde jazz or something that Captain Beefheart might have dreamed up. I quite like it, but do not understand it. Listening to the whole album I have not seen a Van Morrison connection, except there is a line in this track which says, ‘Them days, I feel like a motherless child’. I have now heard the album three times. I am glad I bought it because I have enjoyed listening to it. I think it will grow on me.  Jackie Leven died in 2011, so I wish I had seen him play in concert while he was alive. However, I have a suspicion that hardcore Jackie Leven fans might not consider this album one of his greatest. It would be nice if they let me know which ones they recommend.

Love On The Dole.

Deborah Kerr.

Because of spending most of yesterday in bed I was wide awake at midnight. Flicking around the channels for something worth watching I stumbled across an old black and white film that I enjoyed immensely called Love On The Dole, a British film made in 1941. It was based on a novel of the same name by Walter Greenwood. Set in Salford during the depression of the 1930s it portrays the poverty that people lived in, even when they had jobs, and things got even worse with unemployment. Unemployment benefits were cut even more by being means tested. People were at the mercy of pawnbrokers and other unscrupulous characters.

The only name I recognised in the credits was Deborah Kerr who was only nineteen when she played the lead role of Sally. I thought she was brilliant and for a Scottish actress her Lancashire accent was perfect. When her fiancée is killed during a demonstration, she falls into the hands of a local bookie to save her family from destitution. There is some humour to lighten the depressing story, which is provided by a coven of old ladies who meet up to drink gin, hold seances, and read tea leaves. One of them was Irish, I am always curious about the Irish, so I looked her up on Wikipedia to find out more. The actress’s name was Maire O’Neill and her story I found fascinating. She was born in 1886 and has a place in theatre history because in 1907 at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin she was the first person to play the role of Pegeen Mike Flaherty in John Millington Synge’s masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World. She was engaged to Synge, but tragically he died of cancer in 1909 before they could wed. Synge wrote the plays The Playboy of the Western World and Deirdre of the Sorrows for her. She appeared in many films up to 1953 including Alfred Hitchcock's film version of Seán O'Casey's play Juno and the Paycock.

Maire O'Neill.

I will not tell you any more about the film in case you want to watch it yourself. It was not only the north of England that was grim in the 1930s, but it was also all over the world. The problem of unemployment was solved by organising the second World War. I think, by writing Love On The Dole the author Walter Greenwood who himself left school at age 13, was appealing for a better, fairer world when the war was over. I think it is no surprise that the people rejected the past in the election of 1944 and the Labour government had a landslide victory and established the NHS, the Welfare State, equal education opportunities and housing fit for people to live in. I am sure this film played some part in that.

I would like to end by wishing a very happy 89^th birthday to Dennis Skinner, one of the few politicians left in Britain with any integrity.

Dennis Skinner.

At My Age.

Monday: I never left the house today, apart from feeding the birds. It is much too cold. I noticed the clouds were going in the opposite direction today and not lazily drifting by, but urgently beating westward. It has not snowed in my neck of the woods yet though. It might do tomorrow. Wednesday is forecast to be sunny, but cold. That is the day I have penciled in to hopefully go for a walk. I thought I ought to try and achieve something today, so after I did 20 minutes Qigong exercises, I cleaned the kitchen floor. It was mucky from me walking mud in from the garden. If I do a little bit every day, I will soon get this place tidy. I have only got four rooms after all. While I was doing that I listened to an album, At My Age by Nick Lowe which is great in an Americana, Country sort of way. I cannot remember playing it before. I think a friend gave it to me and I forgot about it. I have a few Nick Lowe albums; I think Dig My Mood is my favourite. Nick is great live; I have seen him several times at Glastonbury where he is a regular on the Acoustic Stage. After that I was listening to a compilation of Irish themed music CD that a friend Birgit from Berlin made for me one St Patrick’s Day. It included Bob Dylan singing One Irish Rover by Van Morrison.

It will be time for the BBC News shortly. Monday night is my favourite TV night with University Challenge, Mastermind and Only Connect. By the way, I only watched a few minutes of the Superbowl last night. I got bored because they have about two minutes of action and then the pundits talk about it for a few minutes before it starts again. I watched some Eckhart Tolle videos on Youtube instead. I cannot think of anything else. See you tomorrow.

 

The Eternal Kansas City

Sunday evening: I cannot think of anything to write about today because I have not done anything. I thought of going for a walk, but when I went in my tiny garden to feed the birds it was freezing cold and also windy, so that knocked that idea on the head. My team Peterborough United won 2-0 yesterday. I decided to celebrate and went to Tesco and bought some cider. I drank all four cans last night and fell asleep in the chair and woke up at 4.00 in the morning. I think that is why I did not feel very motivated today. I went back to bed this afternoon for a couple of hours because it is nice and warm up there. When I got up again, I watched a documentary about Johnny Cash which was quite good. I especially enjoyed the part with him and Bob Dylan. You could see the mutual respect.  

I will never forget the only occasion that I saw Johnny Cash which was at Glastonbury in 1994. The Bishop of Bath and Wells was watching from the side of the stage. Johnny said that the bishop had shown him around all the sacred places. I wonder if they went up the Tor. I found out last night that Eckhart Tolle lived in Glastonbury for a while and climbed up the Tor every day for 100 days. It is the Superbowl tonight, starting in about 2 hours’ time. I might watch it as I will be still awake. I do not really care who wins though. I might support the Kansas City team as there is a Van Morrison song called The Eternal Kansas City. Anyway, see you tomorrow.