Van Morrison - Belfast Movie - Soundtrack

The Trackless Woods

Today, because of the terrible events in Ukraine I was wondering if I had any books or music by Ukrainian people. I remembered that I had a book of poetry by Anna Akhmatova and an album by Iris Dement based on Anna's poems. I am listening to the album now and I thought I would dust off a story I wrote about Anna exactly three years ago.

 .....................Do not despair, because Spring is on the way. I ventured outside today.  While I was out there, I was pleased to see the clematis is in bloom. It is raining now, and I am in the relative warmth of my kitchen. I have just put the oven on to heat the place up a bit. I’m listening to The Trackless Woods by Iris DeMent. I discovered Iris about 20 years ago when Mike Harding played her a lot on his radio show. The first time I ever saw Kate Rusby she sang Our Town and said Iris was her favourite singer. I bought Infamous Angel which is still one of my favourite albums, later In My Life and Sing The Delta when it came out in 2012. 

About three years ago I bought The Trackless Woods. On this album Iris has put music to the poems of the Ukrainian poet Anna Akhmatova which were translated into English by Babette Deutsch and Lyn Coffin. Iris and her husband Greg Brown adopted a five-year-old Russian girl in 2005 which is why I think Iris must have taken an interest in Russian poetry. Anna Akhmatova was born at Bolshoy Fontan, a resort suburb of the Black Sea port of Odessa in 1889. Her father Andrey Antonovich Gorenko was a Ukrainian naval engineer, and her mother Inna Erazmovna Stogova was a descendant from the Russian nobility of Kyiv, which is where Anna studied law at University before moving to St Petersburg to study literature and become a poet. 

Anna died in 1966 after a terribly difficult life, living through two world wars and the tyranny of the Stalinist purges. Her first husband was executed, and her common law second husband died in the Gulags. Her son spent many years there as well, and his only crime was being the son of his parents. She herself was declared ‘An enemy of the state’. I notice Trump has used that term in recent years, this is how fascism begins. This treatment meant that she was barred from the Writers Union which resulted in her having no income and left dependent on the kindness of friends. Many of her friends were executed or sent into exile. She could have left Russia, but she chose to stay and be a witness to what was happening to her country.

When I first got the album, I thought I ought to buy a book of Anna Akhmatova's poetry to read in order to understand her better. I found a second-hand ex-library hardback copy of Way Of All The Earth translated by D.M Thomas published in 1979. I have to confess that I haven’t read all of it yet.

The album isn’t a bit like Iris's early recordings. It is a more mature piano based sound without the Country influences.  I like it though. Iris kept photos of Anna on her piano probably to inspire her while composing the melodies. The piano is very much to the fore. Iris is accompanied by Richard Bennett and Leo Kottke. I couldn’t possibly talk you through every track because the real beauty is in the words and everybody would have their own interpretation of those. Iris’s voice is wonderful though and to me perfectly suits the melancholy of the poems. 

Iris DeMent.

I have put a video on this blog page of  Anna reciting her poem called The Muse. This rare recording from the early 1960s is included on Iris's album.

Anna Akhmatova - The Muse.

A Salty Dog by Procol Harum.

I was sorry to hear recently that Gary Brooker of Procol Harum had passed away aged 76. However, I was never really a big fan of Procol Harum, When A Whiter Shade Of Pale became a huge world-wide hit in 1967 I got tired of hearing it, and I thought the follow-up single Homburg was more of the same only not so good. I don’t think I had previously ever bought a record by Procol Harum. The news of Gary’s death did bring back one good memory. About fifty years ago I had this friend in Peterborough who used to have parties at his house whenever his parents went away. A gang of us used to go round there for all night sessions. It was great fun. We raided the drinks cabinet and mixed-up strange drinks which my mate for some reason called Bloody Johnny Allertons. That wasn’t the only weird thing we consumed either. I heard some strange music at those events, Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band was always a favourite choice, along with Doctor John The Night Tripper, Pink Floyd, Genesis and other prog rock sounds. Early in the morning when people chilled out a bit, I heard an album by Procol Harum that I actually liked, which was A Salty Dog. I don’t think I heard that album again in all the intervening years until the news of Gary’s death prompted me to look on eBay for a copy which arrived a few days ago.

A Salty Dog was originally released in June 1969. The CD which popped through my letterbox is a 2009 40^th anniversary reissue which also contains six excellent bonus tracks. I have played it a few times now and think it is great. A nice escapism from the news from Ukraine. The cover design is humorous and brilliant, a pastiche of the Players Navy Cut cigarette packets that UK people of a certain age will remember. That reminds me of something else from those crazy nights in the old days. In the middle of the night, we would always head in a gang to a garage or newsagents to get cigarettes from the machine outside. You don’t see cigarette machines any more do you. Anyway, I’m getting off the point. 

This album has a very seafaring feel to it, although I don’t think it was designed to be a concept album. The sound of seagulls begins the title song A Salty Dog, ‘All hands on deck, We’ve run afloat, I heard the captain say’, are the stream of consciousness type lyrics on a nautical theme by Keith Reid who wrote most of the words on this album. I suppose the partnership of Gary Brooker on piano, writing the music to Keith Reid’s lyrics is very similar to Elton John’s partnership with Bernie Taupin. There is heavy drumming by BJ Wilson on this track and quasi classical arrangements by Gary. The sounds of gulls bring this brilliant song to a close. I would say it is my favourite Procol Harum song.  The Milk Of Human Kindness features the guitar of Robin Trower who would later have a successful solo career. The other dominant sound is Gary’s Steinway Grand piano. My CD also has a stripped back ‘raw’ version of this track. Too Much Between Us has a much more delicate sound which shows that Robin Trower had a flair for acoustic as well as electric guitar. The Devil Came From Kansas was inspired by Gary’s admiration for Randy Newman and grew out of sessions at Garth Hudson’s house with members of The Band and Van Morrison’s band. I wonder if Van was there?

Boredom is one of my favourite songs here. It is up tempo, catchy, quirky and fun, featuring instruments such as marimba played by Matthew Fisher, and recorder. Ken Scott was the engineer on this album, and I think you can feel his influence. I think he also worked on David Bowie’s Hunky Dory album that I talked about recently. There is a lot of chatter going on in the background which reminds me of Give Booze A Chance by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Juicy John Pink is a great twelve bar blues with Robin Trower’s guitar and harmonica. It was inspired by Robin being a huge fan of Muddy Waters. There is a great variety of genres of music influences on this album from Blues to classical. Matthew Fisher is the vocalist on Wreck Of The Hesperus. Procol Harum were the first rock band to play live with a full orchestra. A lot of people think it was Deep Purple.  

Gary’s piano playing on All This And More impressed George Harrison so much he asked Gary to play on his All Things Must Pass album. George knew Gary from the days when Gary’s first group The Paramount’s supported The Beatles. Crucifixion Lane is a great blues song with Robin Trower on vocals. Pilgrim’s Progress is one of the best vocal performances on the album by Gary. You can detect an influence of the early Bee Gees in the vocal delivery. The six bonus tracks are also excellent and include four songs recorded live on tour in the USA. I’m glad I bought this album which I suspect is Gary Brooker’s finest hour.