Travellers get a bad press, mostly because, as with most prejudice, there is a lack of understanding between two different cultures. By Travellers here I mean gypsies, Romanies, Roma, Irish Travellers, rather than back packers or tourists. People who for generations have led a nomadic existence, living on the road, following seasonal work and weather. Round here a lot of travellers came for the strawberry picking. A lot of them stayed, forming a community based around a particular road, Botany Bay Road.
It is wrong to attribute negative values to a whole group of people; is it equally wrong to attribute positive values to an ethnic group? Because I'd like to say that a visit to a nearby cemetery shows how much they honour their dead, their humour and their vibrancy. Especially when compared with the more traditional graves alongside.
Ernest sounds a hoot.
The graves are very personal, reflecting religious beliefs, traditional values and modern preoccupations. They are well tended, kept clean and planted with fresh flowers, wine bottles and other tributes.
see that my grave is kept clean, Blind Lemon Jefferson
On the 1st January 1953 Hank Williams died in the back of a Cadillac on the way to another show.
I'll never get out of this world alive, Hank Williams
Tim Hardin recorded this tribute to Hank Williams. There's a couple of linesthat kind of sum up the whole reason for songwriters - I didn't know you... But I've been to places you've been
Black Sheep Boy, Tim Hardin 65, Michael Weston King
Michael Weston King recorded this tribute to Tim Hardin.
Lost Highway, Townes van Zandt
Another great songwriter influenced by Hank Williams was Townes van Zandt, listen to his version of Lost Highway here. On January 1st 1997, on the anniversary of Hank's passing Townes van Zandt died.
Riding the Range, Townes van Zandt & the Calvins
Townes looked back to the great songwriters that inspired him but also recorded this song written by Michael Weston King.
Lay me down, Waiting around to Die, Michael Weston King
Marie, Michael Weston King with Jackie Leven
This cover of Townes van Zandt's song Marie performed by Michael Weston King and Jackie Leven was recorded at QE2 Activity Centre in 2007.
Townes at the Borderline, Jackie Leven and Michael Cosgrave
A version of that song (Marie) was included on the album Riding the Range - the songs of Townes van Zandt. It also included Townes at the Borderline by Jackie Leven.
Heart in my Soul, Jackie Leven
Jackie died in November 2011. Here he is performing the David Childers song Heart in my Soul. Following his death Michael Weston King reworked the song.
Main Travelled Roads, Michael Weston King and Deborah Greenwood
Finally here is Michael Weston King with Deborah Greenwood performing Jackie Leven's Main Travelled Roads at Beverley Folk Festival 2013. Today is Deborah's birthday. Circle of life.
Is there an implication that a bunch of people actually liked a bona fide cult classic? I’m not sure anyone else ever heard this. But here’s a disc that in that parallel universe would have been a smash – Big Tears by Concrete Bulletproof Invisible. CBI were actually Doll by Doll with Glen Matlock on bass. Wikipedia says:
Doll by Doll were a London based rock band formed by Jackie Leven in 1975. They came to prominence during the New Wave period but were largely ignored by the music press of the time – their emotional, psychedelic-tinged music was judged out of step with other bands of the time.
The original line up was Jackie Leven – vocals and guitar, Jo Shaw – vocals and guitar, Robin Spreafico – vocals and bass, and David Macintosh – vocals and percussion. This line up only recorded one studio album Remember before Spreafico was replaced by Tony Waite (1958–2003). In this configuration they released the albums Gypsy Blood (produced by John Sinclair) and the eponymous third album, Doll By Doll, before the band split up.
At the time of final LP Grand Passion, only Leven was left of the original line-up, joined by Helen Turner (vocals and keyboards) and Tom Norden (vocals, guitar and bass) with a number of guest musicians, including David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Mark Fletcher (bass) and Chris Clarke (drums) played with the group live. Doll By Doll finally fell apart in 1983, though Leven, Shaw and Macintosh plus ex-Sex Pistol Glen Matlock, released a single Big Tears under the name “Concrete Bulletproof Invisible” in 1988. Leven became a prolific solo artist, releasing a series of albums featuring more folk orientated material.
In 1983 Jackie (from the Kingdom of Fife) had been mugged and half strangled leading to him losing his voice for a time and giving up singing all together. There were no more Doll by Doll albums and nothing else from Jackie until the mid 1990s when he started to release a string of albums which gave him a genuine cult following. But this one single did sneak out.
Big Tears was a Matlock song, on the b-side was Braid on my Shoulder, written by Leven. These are a cracking pair of songs with all the punch of Matlock’s best powerpunk swagger and Jackie’s still powerful voice. There was a UK 12″ version which added Good Thing and a US 12″ with Love Kills. this was Concrete Bulletproof Invisible’s only record but the name was used as the title of a John Foxx instrumental (the song is credited to Foxx/Leven).
Jackie Leven had a chequered career often on the verge of greater success, never quite grasping it. Sometimes it seemed like deliberate sabotage on his part. In 2000 or thereabouts he settled in the Hampshire village of Botley, just opposite the pub, often popping out for a pint (usually with a vodka in it) or to tour Germany or Norway. A friendship with crime author Ian Rankin led to Rankin naming his last two novels after Leven lyrics. He died in November 2011 six weeks after releasing one of his best albums (Wayside Shrines). One day a song of his will be used in a car advert and suddenly everyone will love him.
If you visit the very excellent music blog thenewvinylvillain.wordpress.com today you'll find this contribution to a series of Cult Classics from the "non musical blog" The Corn Poppy.
There have been a couple of times in my life when I've had what Rab C Nesbitt called an "out of anorak experience". This is not quite as life affecting as a near death out of body experience. It's more a feeling of How did I get here? How did the course of events conspire for me to be right here, right now with this going on? You still have that feeling of being an observer of your own life.
One of these experiences involved the legendary Country Joe MacDonald. Here's the classic Fixing to Die rag. I would have used the Woodstock version but this is a family show.
Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag, Country Joe and the Fish
Long story short: a bunch of young people with learning disabilities had helped to build a boat. This was in the summer following the Boxing Day tsunami of 2004. The tsunami had wiped out much of the Sri Lankan fishing fleet and I knew a man who wanted to do something about it. He had a project to get 100 or more flat pack fishing boats to Sri Lanka. The flat packs would be prepared by asylum seekers but he wanted one made up to send out to show what the finished product should look like. I said hey, we could do that.
So I assembled a top team of people who had never done anything like this before and we built a boat.
Everyone pitched in, measuring, cutting, hammering, screwing, glueing, carrying, painting. Three and a half days later we had an Oru.
There were a number of reasons to carry out this project. One was to make a small, but practical, contribution to the people of Sri Lanka who had suffered as a result of the tsunami.
There were a couple of other things. One was to teach some really useful practical work skills and life skills to a group of young adults with learning disabilities. Another was to say Look world, look what we can do. We can make a contribution. Tell the world, tell the local paper, tell our parents, tell our friends, our brothers and sisters. We made a boat, what did you do?
With the boat ready - and test driven - ahead of schedule we were ready for a Big Launch. Country Joe was playing at a music festival locally so I sent him an email. Told him what we were doing, asked him if he'd come along and launch our boat.
Got an email back saying he would be there. Didn't hurt that his driver was (legendary) spoons player, music promoter and all round good guy, John Roberts.
So we gathered by the river.
And there he was. He played a couple of songs and then it was time for a symbolic naming ceremony. We had chosen the name Trinity. One of our number, Patrick, started to sing "Take me home, Country Joe, take me home, to the place I belong . . ."
We gave Country Joe a bottle of Canada Dry to break over the bow. Seemed a good idea. I (that's me in Echo & the Bunnymen tshirt) said to the legendary Country Joe MacDonald "I tried to drink Canada dry once. Got as far as Toronto." Boom boom. He just looked at me and said "I'm a recovering alcoholic too." And that was when I had my out of anorak experience.
Thanks to Country Joe, John Roberts and especially the QE2activitycentre Transitions group 2005.
Once upon a time, a long time ago, artists didn't use perspective. In the beginning the most important thing or person in the picture was the biggest. It made sense to order people and objects - as Wikipedia has it - hierarchically according to their spiritual or thematic importance, not their distance from the viewer. We have got used to seeing pictures with the perspective right - but it doesn't have to be. Perspective only works for that one person, for that one moment - and hey, all that is is a photograph. So the picture above could show Captain Scott and some of his team (Capt Oates on the left) at the South Pole. But someone standing a little further away, maybe at a slightly different angle, sees something different. He can see Amundsen and his Norwegian party reached the Pole first.
. . . and I may be some time, thenewcornpoppy
When you are standing in front of a building, say a church, merrily painting it, so you can sell your pictures in the Arches by the Square Tower on a Sunday afternoon, it makes sense to follow the convention of perspective. But. If you are trying to paint the Field of the Cloth of Gold you really don't want to be standing in one place. You really don't want just one perspective. It is bigger than that. There is more going on. It doesn't all happen at once. You would need to be omnipresent to see everything. And you're not. But the artist can be. The artist can choose to order not only people and objects but also the timeline of events. Omni-chuffing-potent.
fishing boats 7, thenewcornpoppy
There are no facts, only interpretations
Nietsche
fishing boats 11, thenewcornpoppy
Every day one should at least hear one little song, read one good poem, see one fine painting and -- if at all possible -- speak a few sensible words.
Goethe
two brothers, thenewcornpoppy
It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?
Asimov
Shallid, the twinkling of an eye, thenewcornpoppy
It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.
