Rough sea- Aldeburgh beach

 

This photograph of of waves breaking on the beach at Aldeburgh was taken on a winters day. A faster shutter speed would have frozen the breaking waves more but the hint of blur in the spray helps foster the impression of movement. Like the poem 'Liminal', also posted on the blog, it celebrates the ever-changing borderline between sea and land. It captures something ephemeral; the scene changed even in the seconds after the shutter clicked. 

What it can't capture is the sound of the sea on the shingle. A video would do that but not capture the moment in time- you can't have everything. 

Liminal

 

On the map so defined; a solid line of ink that says;

this side land, that side sea.

But I know better. I know the nuance and subtlety

Of this no-man’s land, where each side advances and retreats.

Not just each day, as the moon drags the immense weight of ocean

first one way then the other. But in longer measures of time, where

land becomes submerged here, but builds a further promontory there.

Measurable in a single lifetime, or incremental over aeons.

I may leave an ephemeral mark by drawing in the sand,

sometimes staying long enough to see it washed away.

 It’s temporary nature whispers;’ all things must end’.

But because it doesn’t really exist, can’t really be defined, only

glimpsed and held in memory, this foreshore wields a powerful magic.

 It’s my special place, where nothing else matters, only the present

matters; the sound of the sea, the salt tang in the air, the cry of gulls,

The crunch of shingle under my feet. Only here,

 in this transcendent space, I truly feel alive.

1975; a year in Rock Albums

 

In my previous post I looked at the chart singles of 1975. I acknowledged that there was a lightweight component to the hits of that year. This was in part a product of the fact that the dominant form at this point was not the single but the album. When you look at 1975 from an album perspective there is no room for doubt; it was a vintage musical year. Just take a look at these artists and albums; Bruce Springsteen- Born to Run, Bob Dylan- Blood on the Tracks, 10cc- Original Soundtrack, Elton John- Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboys, Queen- Night at the Opera, Joan Baez, Diamonds and Dust, Rush- Fly by Night, The Eagles- One of These Nights, Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here, Led Zeppelin- Physical Graffitti, Patti Smith- Horses, David Bowie- Young Americans, Parliament- Mothership Connection and Paul Simon- Still crazy after all these years.

What that list has in common with the singles successes is diversity and eclecticism. Folk, Heavy Metal, Funk, Country Rock, Progressive music, Philly style soul and, in Springsteen and 10cc, music that defied obvious pigeon-holing.

With these, as well as other albums and artists, there are a number of themes emerging, including a willingness to experiment and artistic self-confidence.

Experimentation

We are all familiar with the chameleon like nature of David Bowie’s image and music. Even so, Young Americans was an abrupt hand-brake turn from the hard rock of Diamond Dogs and before that Ziggy Stardust. It sprang from Bowie’s discovery of the Disco scene, which he described as the folk music of the great cities, welling up from the streets rather than imposed from above. It bears a relationship to Parliaments Mothership Connection, a weighty slab of industrial funk powered by George Clinton, with bass, horns and syncopated drums up in the mix.

Surprisingly, Bowie was not the only established act to be influenced by funk. Led Zeppelin’s offering for this year was Physical Grafitti. It includes Kashmir, cited by band members as the archetypical Zeppelin song, which bears the influence of Arab music. But also on Grafitti is Trampled Underfoot, which is powered by a driving funk rhythm, all springy bass and supple guitar licks. It is all a long way from the pure Blues wail of You Shook me or Dazed and Confused.

Experimentation of a different kind can be heard on Original Soundtrack. 10cc had built themselves a solid following through a series of hit singles, ranging from sixties pastiche (Oh Donna) semi-humorous storytelling (Rubber Bullets, the Dean and I) to conventional rock (Wall street shuffle). With Original Soundtrack they were playing with a number of ideas, one of which was the concept album. As the title suggests, film history was on their minds, especially Film Noir. ‘one night in Paris, is like a year in any other place’ these lyrics were allied to subtle musical tones that harked back to the past.

Also on the album was a song that transcended anything the band had done before; I’m not in Love. This song, with its lush production, including a string section, marked their emergence as mature talents. The lyricism on this song is remarkable. The narrator makes a series of statements claiming that he doesn’t have any feelings for the object of his attention, which cumulatively build up to leave the listener in doubt that, actually, he is head over heels in love with her. Like the best songs, it doesn’t belong to the era it was made in, but is timeless, never going out of fashion. (By contrast, Life is a Minestrone, which harks back to songs such as the Dean and I, feels out of place on this album, being the last glimpse of their previous horizons).

Artistic Self-confidence

A number of established artists released albums that demonstrated their musicality, their lyricism and their willingness to plough their own furrow. Paul Simon, for instance, with Still Crazy after all these years, moved even further from his folk roots and towards a world music sound. Joan Baez, another folkie, came up with Diamonds and Rust. The title track of that album shows a mature woman expressing herself emotionally and musically with total confidence.

Perhaps the most confident disc of all was Night at the Opera, Queen’s move into the big league. Their hard rock sound had already been infiltrated on Sheer Heart Attack by songs like Killer Queen, lyrically clever and musically subtle. On Night at the Opera this process went so much further. You’re my Best Friend, for instance was entirely keyboard led, whilst 39 could have been a Lindisfarne song. The culmination of this of course is Bohemian Rhapsody, a swaggering tour de force that broke the rules and defied pigeon-holing. The band famously stuck to their guns when the record label baulked at releasing it as a single and were triumphantly proved right.

Close behind Night at the Opera was Wish You were Here, Pink Floyd’s follow up to Dark side of the Moon. This was a record that made no concessions to any-one, the record company, the radio stations or even the audience. It was the band doing what they wanted and demanding acceptance. The result was music that, like most of Floyd’s output since Dark Side, really doesn’t belong to a year or an era. Shine On You Crazy Diamond was the concept album track on steroids, whilst the title track was played at the Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2012 by an up and coming musician called Ed Sheeran (It did his career no harm at all).

So this year, that was merely a dip, a pause between greatness, a time of decline, has given us some enduring music by a wide range of artists. As I said at the outset, eclecticism is the hallmark of 1975. And no artist or album personifies the true worth of this year more than Bruce Springsteen and Born to Run. His third album saw Bruce refine the sound of the East Street Band, making it at once sparser and more epic, with nods to the past (the Duane Eddy guitar on Born to Run), great storytelling (Meeting Across The River, Jungleland) and a masterclass in lyricism (Thunder Road), that managed to be a concept album, (as Springsteen expresses it, imagine the action in the songs playing out over the course of a single day) a glimpse of the future and an appeal to romance and freedom.

Of course, I’m biased. I was fourteen in ’75; at that age music tends to burn its way into your mind and make you feel things you’ve never felt before; rebellion, desire, anticipation, a sense of possibility and growing awareness of your independence from your parents. Still, objectively, I feel I have made my case. Feel free to comment and disagree……..

 Joan Baez: Diamonds and Rust Diamonds and Rust

David Bowie: Young Americans Young Americans

10CC: Original Soundtrack- I'm not in love: I'm not in love

Led Zeppelin: Trampled Underfoot: Trampled Underfoot

Bruce Springsteen: Thunder Road: Thunder Road

Pink Floyd: Have a cigar

 

There’s a hint of Escher about Citagazze…..

 

 

The opening episodes of series two of His Dark Materials have taken us to Citagazze, a place that exists in a reality separate to that of both Lyra and Will. People have commented on how it looks like Mont St Michel off the coast of Normandy and having viewed that isle from the beach I can only agree. But once we get into the streets of Citagazze the feel is definitely Mediterranean. I would go further and say Italianate. The winding streets, the coloured houses, the  architecture, all speak of Italy. 

So what’s this about Escher? Most people are familiar with M.C. Escher’s lino and woodcuts prints depicting impossible scenes. The worlds in these books are written examples of these, things impossible in our world that nonetheless are totally believable in context. The credits of His Dark Materials explicitly seem to reference the link, with Will and Lyra walking on opposed staircases that are somehow linked. This image mirrors those of Escher, where faceless men move up and down the same stairwell in opposite planes and directions, as shown above.

His visual representations of unreality are entirely congruent with the multiple realities of His Dark materials. But there is another link too. Escher spent time in Italy as a young man and made pictures of the landscape. A particular favourite of mine, Castrovalva, is relatively naturalistic, although it already shows signs of  the move away from straight depiction of reality. Other pictures show a town overlooking the sea, and another on a hill, that call Citagazze to mind. This, remember, is the city in the sky that Lord Asriel glimpses through a rent in the Aurora Borealis. 

Later in his career, Escher began depicting metamorphic images. One of these shows a man running down steps who gradually morphs into an abstract shape.  There are definite echoes here of the stairs of Citagazze, or perhaps I should say, the stairs echo Escher, to be chronologically accurate.  In any case, the bringing to mind of M.C. Escher does no harm to the viewers perception of this town being a place where the doors of normality have, to say the least, been knocked  ajar.  

The Popular music of 1975

 

Popular music, like many other aspects of the arts, is subject to myths and misconceptions. Perhaps its greatest myth is the myth of punk. This goes like this. After the explosion of creativity in the sixties and early seventies, the decade slid into a slow decline into mediocrity from which it was rescued by the volcanic eruption of punk. Like all myths, there is a kernel of fact which cannot be dismissed out of hand. I begin therefore by admitting that there were some grounds for criticism in 1975.

Firstly, I concede, the novelty single. There are no less than eleven of these in the top 100 best-selling singles of 1975; the highest, at number 3, being Whispering Grass by Windsor Davis and Don Estelle, stars of the hit show It aint half hot mum. Other (dis)honourable mentions go to Jasper Carrott (Funky Moped), Billy Connolly (DIVORCE) and the Goodies (Funky Gibbon). Whilst it is easy to decry these and other songs, they added to the gaiety of the nation and were part of the mix of some of the most diverse lists of songs ever in the chart.

Secondly, with some reservations, I concede the dance craze songs. From Van McCoys The Hustle, Kenny’s The Bump, and Hamilton Bohannon’s Disco Stomp to the re-released Let’s Twist Again by Chubby Checker, these may have lacked musical depth but they were dance floor fillers and shifted a lot of units. I would class them as twinkling stars in 1975’s constellation of music.  

Thirdly, the lightweights- songs of no great musical quality that haven’t stood the test of time. I would include the output of bands like Mud, Showaddywaddy and the Rubettes, all bands I enjoyed as a teenager before moving on more challenging fare. All good clean fun but with a tendency to undercut their own credibility with their outfits and their larking around.

From here on in, though, it gets more difficult to be critical. My teenage self may have sympathy with the view that many of the acts of these years were getting too old, a deficiency that punk very effectively rectified. Many of these were also from genres other than pop; and yet, and yet, just listing their songs, so many of them have stood the test of time. There’s Glen Campbell with Rhinestone Cowboy, Art Garfunkel with I only have eyes for you, Frankie Valli with my eyes adored you and even Billy Jo Spears with Blanket on the ground, all songs you’ll still hear on many a radio station.

The year had its share of big hitters too, none bigger than Bohemian Rhapsody, Sailing and Space Oddity (do I need to list the artists? Really?) But there was a lot else going on that merits a mention. In this top 100 you can see early signs of the rise of Reggae as a force. Susan Cadogan’s intense Hurts So Good, Johnny Nash’s Tears On My Pillow and John Holt with his version of Help Me Make It Through The Night were harbingers of things to come. Alongside them was a late flowering of pure soul that has left us with songs to make your heart ache with joy. The Chi-lites Have you seen her with its spoken intro, Gladys Knight and the Pips You’re The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me and The Way We Were, The Stylistics I Can’t Give You Anything But My Love and Sing Baby Sing, each one smoother than melted chocolate.

Still not convinced? Then let me offer three songs from 1975 that have echoed down the years and are still wildly popular. For this was the year of Gloria Gaynor’s I will survive, and furthermore of Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel’s Come up and see me make me smile, together with Roxy Music’s Love is the Drug. Surely these three would be worth the price of admission? So that’s 1975 in terms of the best sellers. But of course there is more to music than hit singles………..but that’s for another post.

Cockney Rebel: come up and see me

Susan Cadogan: Hurts so good

Stylistics: Sing Baby Sing

Chi-Lites: Have you seen her?

1975- time for a re-appraisal?

 

In a previous post I took an in-depth look at Al Stewart’s 1976 hit, Year of the Cat. Researching this had me thinking about the music and culture of the mid-seventies, including the year 1975. This in turn has led me to writing this article, an evaluation of 1975, a year I remember, but through the prism of being a teenager.

Over the years I have come to feel that 1975 is often damned with faint praise, or no praise at all. Somehow, despite its initial advantage of being the mid-year of the decade, it suffers by comparison with the years immediately preceding and following it. Take the weather. The spring of 1975 was slow to warm up and although the summer had its moments, it was soon eclipsed by 1976. The long hot summer of ’76 has passed into legend- soaring temperatures allied to a failure to rain at all from June to the August Bank holiday, capped with plagues of insects.

Then there is Sport. 1974 was a World Cup year and ‘76 an Olympic year whilst ‘77 produced a British winner at Wimbledon. By contrast, ’75 seems low key, despite Arthur Ashe winning Wimbledon.

Musically, the emerging iconoclasts of the Punk scene did what all revolutionaries do; trashed what had preceded them to justify why their emergence was essential. They had the music of 1975 firmly in their sights.

But-has the time come to look again at ’75? Might there a chance to rehabilitate its reputation and celebrate its achievements? I mentioned seeing it first time around through a teenage prism. Might my adult self bring to light new insights and a deeper appreciation of a year that helped to shape me? Over the course of several posts, I plan to find out, sharing my insights with you. So strap yourself in and set the De Lorean to reach 88 mph as we travel back in time……………..firstly to consider music, then in subsequent posts to look at Football, films and finally politics. Follow the links below to read more...............

The Popular music of 1975

1975: A year in Rock Albums

Trees in Autumn; Somerset

This image of trees in Autumn was taken in the grounds of a Hotel in Somerset some years ago. It represents the end of the display of Autumn colour; two or three weeks later these trees would have been bare. Even so, many of the leaves are already on the ground. It is a nice example of Perspective, but also manages to offer both vertical and horizontal eye-lines; the vertical tree trunks contrasting with horizontal shadows on the ground. 

Like many people, I love Autumn, not least for the way it demands you seize the day. A fine day in Autumn has to be enjoyed. The experience has a degree of poignancy in it because you know it may the last one before winter sets in. Also like many people I too have my favourite Autumn quotes: 

' When the white Eagle of the North is flying overhead, and the reds, browns and golds of Autumn lie in the gutter, dead' that's from the Moody Blues. 

'It was my thirtieth year to heaven, stood there then in the summer noon

Though the town below stood leaved with October blood', that's Dylan Thomas

Through Autumn's golden gown we used to kick our way, 

You always loved this time of year, that's from Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds

Ah! the gold and the red and the sighing of leaves in the Autumn in Taur-na-neldor, That's Treebeard in the Lord of the Rings.

So anyway, this image is for you. Remember, Spring will come again! 

 

Series Two of 'His Dark Materials' is coming!

 

 

With the second series of ‘His Dark Materials’ about to air, now seems a good time for a little refresher on series one, and to remind ourselves where we are up to and what is coming next. In a previous post (A suitable Boy) I discussed the demands on a TV adaptation that brings a national treasure book to the screen. These included making the story comprehensible to viewers who had not read the book, balanced with the need to avoid outrage from those who had.

When it comes to ‘His Dark Materials’ there is a further complication; the still fresh in the memory film version starring Daniel Craig and Nichole Kidman. Like the film of the first Eragon book, The Golden Compass has failed to be followed up by subsequent parts. The Golden Compass is not without its merits; it is visually stunning in places and is reasonably faithful to the book. But the consensus was that it didn’t quite do its material justice, whilst the A list status of its stars somehow prevented them being wholly convincing. This applies to Jim Carter as John Faa as well as Craig and Kidman.

An eight part series seemed to offer scope to tell the story in more depth, whilst the ever evolving capacity of CGI to bring the fantastic to life would enable Lyra’s world to be convincingly portrayed. So how did it measure up? To begin with, let’s make a point about structure. Series one, though covering the action of Northern Lights, also included some events described in The Subtle Knife, thus introducing us to Will Parry as well as Lyra Silvertongue, as well as antagonists such as Lord Boreal. This sets up the second series and allows for a swift meeting of Will and Lyra on the third world of Citagazze. It did mean however, that viewers needed to pay attention and retain information in order to follow the plot.

Secondly, a word on character portrayal. As compared to the film, there is a grittiness to characterisation that is all to the good. As Mrs Coulter, Ruth Wilson exudes quite as much menace as glamour, whilst James McEvoy as Asriel does a good job of portraying the moral ambiguity that is central to the character. James Cosmo brings a vulnerability to the role of Farder Coram that helps you forget that he is also the Lord Commander of the Nights Watch in Game of Thrones. Another character who is as much Anti as Hero is Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, the Texan Aeronaut. The Gyptians too have suitably rough edges to them.

The story arc of the trilogy is from the relatively straightforward good v evil premise of Northern Lights to the increasingly convoluted and moral maze-like existentialism of first the Subtle Knife and then The Amber Spyglass. The reader is invited to question the motivations of not just the obvious bad guys (The Magisterium) but also of Lyra’s parents and even Lyra herself. It will be interesting to see how the viewer is engaged with the same ambiguities in series two.

At its simplest, you could describe the books as coming of age novels. In this context, both Lyra and Will have a lot of growing up ahead of them. Lyra gradually realises that her supporters from earlier adventures are ageing and that she has to rely on herself in the last analysis, whilst Will has to deal with cruel disappointment which I won’t go into here. I think that Dafne Keen is going to grow into the Lyra role in series two. Initially in series one she was restrained and less charismatic than you might have expected, but she gradually came into her own and I think she is going to be spectacular in this series, as is Amir Wilson as Will. We glimpsed his calm but tenacious personality in series one but he is going to go through the fires in this next stage of the story, to the extent that he even upstages Lyra. At the same time, the metaphysical elements of the story are gradually going to eclipse the quest style narrative of series one.

For me, the unexpected star of the first series was Ariyon Bakare as the dangerous Lord Boreal. He is the flip side of the coin that is Lord Ariel; clever, competent, and clearly operating to an agenda of his own that he keeps from his nominal allies. Bakare has a presence that attracts as much as it repels and allows the viewer to see that the ‘other side’ who are opposed to Lyra have their own, to them, perfectly justifiable motivations.

In summary, I approve of the first series and am very much looking forward to the second. If you enjoyed this brief review then take a look at the other Pullman reviews on the blog. In any event, feel free to leave a comment.