The Waxies Dargle - Sweeney's Men 2012

Remembering Shane.

Shane & Van.

Tonight, I feel that I should say a few words about the passing of Shane MacGowan who died today. Although I knew he had been ill for a long time it was still a shock to hear that he has gone. It has been a sad year for Irish music with Shane’s close friend and collaborator Sinead O’Connor also dying this year. They were both rebels against the authority and hypocrisy of the establishment, as well as being brilliant singer-songwriters. On the news and on social media people have seemed to focus on Shane’s ‘notoriety’, alcoholism, and lifestyle. I would rather he was remembered for being one of the greatest songwriters of his generation which is how his friend Nick Cave described him. Shane wrote the best Christmas song of all time in my opinion which is Fairy Tale Of New York (See video below). 

Shane & Bruce.

It is totally different to any other Christmas song because it tells the truth about what Christmas is really like for many people, poverty, loneliness and broken relationships. Many people only know Shane from that song, but he has left a legacy of dozens of great songs. His fans included the likes of Johnny Depp, Christy Moore and Bruce Springsteen. Van Morrison invited Shane to sing with him at the Brit Awards in 1994. He singlehandedly created a new genre of music by combining punk rock with Irish folk music, added poetic meaningful lyrics and made something totally unique. He was a genius. His huge influence can be seen in such acts as Flogging Molly, The Dropkick Murphys, The Mary Wallopers, Fontaines D.C., Lankum, Damian Dempsey, Lisa O'Neill and many more. When people complain about his ‘lifestyle’ they forget that it was his lifestyle that was the source of his inspiration. He wrote about the denizens of the dark streets of London with an eye as sharp as Charles Dickens. It was what he witnessed and wrote about. You could criticise other great writers like Dylan Thomas or Brendan Behan for the same reason, but I know they couldn’t have achieved such great art without their chosen lifestyle. 

Johnny & Shane.

I think I only saw Shane three times. The best times were at Glastonbury in the 80s when The Pogues were at their peak. The sheer exuberance of their music was something to behold, and the audiences used to go wild. Live performance was definitely their forte. I’m sure many music fans have been looking back today with happy memories of seeing The Pogues. I’d also like to pay a tribute to Shane’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke. Shane was a lucky man to have found such a devoted wife who looked after him to the end. Despite what the critics may say Shane had a life that was well lived. He won’t be forgotten.

Shane & Sinead.

R.I.P. Shane MacGowan

King Crimson - I Talk To The Wind

It Was Sixty Years Ago Today.

These days sometimes I can barely remember what I did yesterday, but I can still vividly remember the events of sixty years ago today, November 22 1963. I had just turned twelve years old and was in my first year at the Kings School, Peterborough. My main interests at the time were pop music and sports, especially football. That week Gerry & The Pacemakers were number 1 in the charts with You’ll Never Walk Alone. The Beatles were number 2 with She Loves You. Other great songs in the charts that week were by The Searchers, The Ronettes, Roy Orbison, Billy J Kramer, Chuck Berry, The Crystals, and Trini Lopez. Peter, Paul & Mary had just entered the charts with Blowing In The Wind written by an almost unknown in Britain singer called Bob Dylan. School had finished for the week, it was a Friday, so I was looking forward my team Peterborough playing Brentford the next day. We had only got a TV in our house in 1960, and colour TV was still five years away, so my memories of that fateful evening are in black and white. In Britain in those days you had a choice of only two channels BBC or ITV. We were gathered around the telly in the living room watching the Tonight programme on BBC presented by Cliff Michelmore and then switched to ITV to watch a popular quiz show called Take Your Pick hosted by Michael Miles. Towards the end of the show the transmission was interrupted by a NEWSFLASH which said that news was coming in that President Kennedy had been shot and injured in Dallas Texas. It was a huge shock. We switched back to BBC to see if there was any more news. On the screen was just a globe going round and round… and then a voice said, “It has just been announced that the President has died”. It was chilling news. I think all scheduled programmes apart from News were cancelled for the rest of the evening. 

My dad had been on the afternoon/evening shift at Perkins, and when he got home he was really upset about the news. My parents were Irish and catholic, so as you can imagine with President Kennedy’s background being of Irish descent and being the first catholic President he was extremely popular in our household. Being so young and having such an attractive wife as Jackie Kennedy also added to his charisma. Just a few months earlier he had made a very successful state visit to Ireland which my parents had followed with great interest. Later that evening we heard that Lee Harvey Oswald had been arrested for the slaying of JFK. First thing the next morning I ran up to Wrights the newsagents on Oundle Road and bought the Daily Mirror which was the popular newspaper for working class Labour Party supporting people like us. The Headline on the front page just said KENNEDY ASSASSINATED. The whole paper, even the back page was covered in the almost unbelievable news. Two famous writers, Aldous Huxley and C.S. Lewis both died on the same day, but that news barely got a mention in the papers. 

That Saturday evening the BBC showed the first episode of Doctor Who which was to be extremely popular with young viewers especially when The Daleks were introduced. That show is still going sixty years later. Another interesting fact is that Lee Harvey Oswald was paraded before the press in a midnight press conference. A young British disc jockey called John Ravenscroft who was working on a Dallas radio station bluffed his way into the press conference by claiming to be a newspaper reporter from England. Apparently, he can be seen in the TV pictures, but I have never spotted him. He later returned to England, got a job on pirate radio, changed his name to John Peel and became one of the most influential figures in British music. Another person who used his connections to the local police to attend that press conference was a local strip club owner who also had connections to mobsters named Jack Ruby, who the following day filmed live on television shot Lee Harvey Oswald.

There were many other events in the 1960s and 70s that have stayed in my mind to this day. Cassius Clay against all the odds beating Sonny Liston to become World Heavyweight Champion and changing his name to Muhammad Ali, England winning the World Cup, the killings of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon, the deaths at the Munich Olympics, and the death of Elvis Presley to name but a few. However, no news has ever shocked me more than the tragic event that shook the world on November 22 1963.

Scattershot by Bernie Taupin

Due to the weather I won’t be going out today. However, the rain has given me the chance to finish reading a wonderful book which my friend Colleen kindly sent me recently. It is called Scattershot, a memoir by Bernie Taupin. Colleen said the writing is brilliant, and she is correct. Bernie is a great storyteller and has a way with words that shouldn’t be surprising as he is one of the most successful lyricists of the past fifty years. You don’t even have to be a huge fan of Elton John to enjoy this book because Bernie is a name dropper extraordinaire and so the book is littered with anecdotes about the famous musicians, writers, artists, sportspeople and public figures that crossed Bernie’s path along the way. Bernie was born in a small village in Lincolnshire in 1950. In the book he recounts at the age of sixteen seeing Otis Redding at the Boston Gliderdrome in Lincolnshire. That struck a personal note for me because that was a popular venue for music fans from my hometown of Peterborough. At the age of seventeen he answered an advert in a music paper for new songwriters and was teamed up with Elton John. They made their first album together Empty Sky in 1969 and Bernie says it was no Astral Weeks but it wasn’t bad, which shows that he has high regard for Van Morrison’s work. On pages 78/79 he recounts an hilarious meeting with Van where Van does impressions of the characters from a popular radio show called The Goons which showed a side to Van which most people don’t get to see.

One thing that comes over very clearly in the book is Bernie’s love for all things American. This was apparent from an early age when he discovered music by the likes of Marty Robbins. He moved to America permanently in the mid-1970s and totally soaked himself in the culture. Even his terminology is very American. He refers to ‘gas stations’ whereas we would say ‘petrol stations’. He has a great love of American Football and the western lifestyle, eventually buying a ranch and immersing himself in things like rodeos and bull riding. Bernie is very critical of people like Rod Stewart who move to America and pretend they are still in England. This is a huge read of 400 pages, so I’ll just pick out a few little things that I particularly liked in the book. I didn’t realise, or had forgotten that Bernie produced an album which I have always thought is very underrated which is American Gothic by David Ackles. Like me, Bernie also thinks that Dory Previn is a great singer-songwriter who deserved much more attention. I think he much preferred meeting Dory to meeting her nemesis Mia Farrow who stole away her husband Andre Previn. From a young age Bernie had a great love of literature and poetry which obviously seeped into his songwriting. He reveals how he got the title for Candle In The Wind from a book by Alexander Solzenitsyn. He got the idea for the song from watching the film The Misfits and the original inspiration was Montgomery Clift, but then he realised that Marilyn Monroe was probably a more commercial idea. Rocket Man came about through reading The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury. Because of his love of books one of his most memorable encounters was an accidental meeting in a London hotel with one of his favourite writers Grahame Greene. He is full of praise for Leonard Cohen who he describes as the master who has no lyrical equal, a poet whereas all others are merely lyricists.

There are many hilarious stories in the book. Bernie recalls an evening in a restaurant with Salvadore Dali and his wife. During the evening Dali drew a picture on a napkin using anything that was to hand and gave it to Bernie who proudly took it back to his hotel. The next day to his horror he returned to his room to find the napkin had been laundered and no trace of Dali’s work of art remained. How surreal!. In another funny tale he recounts how he and Kris Kristofferson had to prop a drunken John Prine up on a stool for an appearance on The Old Grey Whistle Test. There are also drunken encounters with the likes of Oliver Reed and his friend Alice Cooper. Bernie also remembers being in a restaurant with a pregnant Kate McGarrigle and her husband Loudan Wainwright. They were wondering what to call their future son and Bernie says it was he who suggested the name Rufus. There is also a sad encounter between Brian Wilson and John Lennon. I found Bernie's recollections of his parents last days particularly moving. I could go on and on, but I don’t want to ruin it for you if you want to read it yourself. I must say that I found it one of the most well written, informative, funny, moving, intelligent and honest music autobiographies I have ever read. Highly recommended.

An Evening With Natalie Merchant In Bath

 

Natalie and her excellent band came on stage promptly at 8.00. I didn’t catch any of the names of the group, but there was a piano player who also played accordion, a drums & percussion, bass, a guitar player, and a wonderful string quartet. I didn’t write down a setlist because I’m not an expert on Natalie’s music by any means. I think she only performed four songs that I was already familiar with. I wish I had bought her latest album Keep Your Courage which contained the majority of the songs performed last night. The experts will have to forgive any mistakes because I bet I have forgotten some songs or got the titles wrong. I have guessed at some titles based on snatches of lyrics I can remember.  Anyway, Natalie looked great when she arrived on stage dressed in a kind of purple and pink garb.

I believe the opening song is called Lulu and is a tribute to a silent film star called Louise Brooks (1906-1985). When she isn’t singing Natalie swirls around the stage like a gypsy dancer round a campfire. Natalie told the audience that the next song Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience she adapted from a poem by a Cornish poet Charles Causley. The title sounds very William Blake to me, but I just looked up Charles Causley and the poem. It is a children’s poem about growing up and lost innocence. Very educational and shows that Natalie is very well read. She said that she recorded the song with Irish folk band Lunasa who were in the audience tonight. 

I recognised The Worst Thing from her Motherland album which I acquired recently. The title track from that album is one of my favourite songs of hers. I videoed it and you can see it below. It was the song which brought Natalie back into my orbit when Christy Moore recorded his own version. The Man in the Wilderness is another adapted children’s poem from her Leave Your Sleep album. Narcissus comes from her latest album which I must get. I noticed that they were selling signed vinyl copies of it on the merchandise stall, but I don’t collect vinyl. I should mention that Natalie was joined on stage for several songs by another singer called Mayteana Morales who is also a wonderful singer. I think she sang on Ladybird, Come On Aphrodite, Break Your Heart, and also Wonder which I recognised from the Tigerlily album. Then Natalie said it was time for an intermission which made me wonder just how long this concert would last because they had already played for 90 minutes which is the usual length of time of an entire Van Morrison concert. Anyway, I went outside for some fresh Bath air.

Mayteana Morales

When Natalie returned for the second set she had changed her attire. The second half got off to a bad start because her microphone wasn’t working. She didn’t get upset about it though and the crew soon sorted it out. Frozen Charlotte opened this half of the show, followed by Ophelia and Giving Up Everything. During Ophelia Natalie wandered off stage and left the string quartet playing the beautiful arrangement with the piano player. It was like being at a chamber music recital. Natalie then returned and introduced all the musicians, but I regretfully didn’t write down their names because they all deserved a mention, especially the pianist who composed the arrangement. A highlight of the evening for me was when Natalie started talking about Jack Kerouac and I thought to myself, “Brilliant, she’s going to sing Hey Jack Kerouac”. She didn’t though because she talked about the female figures of the Beat Generation who don’t usually be mentioned such as Jack’s girlfriend Joyce Johnson who wrote the book Minor Characters. Natalie also recounted meeting Allen Ginsberg and squirming with embarrassment because she had written in the song ‘Allen baby, why so jaded?’, but he didn’t care, and they became great friends. Natalie wrote King Of May as a tribute to Allen and last night she read an extract from his poem of that name. Allen was actually crowned King of May in Prague in 1965. (See photo). 

Allen Ginsberg, King of May.

The next song was My Beloved Wife another of the few songs I recognised during the evening. After that song Natalie gave a lady in the front row a copy of her signed album. Lucky lady, I bet Natalie has done that at all the shows on this tour. This was followed by The Feast of St Valentine and Natalie said she had spent a couple of hours looking around Bath Abbey and reading all the words written on memorials in there. I’m pleased she got a chance to see some of the beautiful city of Bath. Then disaster struck! I looked at my phone and it was 10.25 already. I had to leave because my train was at 10.33. I think I missed at least 20 minutes of the show, probably some of the best songs as well. I ran to the station and just managed to catch the train which was packed with drunken youngsters who had been in the Saturday night pubs of Bath. Luckily I bumped into an old friend Jean who had been to see a play at the Theatre Royal, so I had some company on the way home. When I got home I uploaded my video which took ages on my slow computer. I had taken some photos as well, but most were blurry and unusable. Anyway, despite leaving the show before the end I really enjoyed it. Probably the best concert I have seen since Patti Smith at the same venue a couple of years ago. Thank you very much to Natalie Merchant and her wonderful band of musicians. THE END.