Clocks Go Back



So I have that extra hour to walk around Loch Lomond

A Snapshot

Librarians love labels & classifying stuff.

Why do I keep crawling back to what for me was a golden age for music? I would have described this as the years 1967-69, but over time I am moving the goalposts on this one: starting earlier to account for the many interesting psychedelic & garage rock bands in the usa & finishing later to allow for the growth & sustainability of what was tagged at the time as ‘progressive music’.

The latter has been forgotten as the name for that genre although it was described as such by the prime movers of the age such as John Peel & Pete Drummond.

Note that this genre had nothing to do with the insipid prog rock of later years…..e.g. Genesis & later Pink Floyd that caused the punk rebellion.

Does this form of music stand the test of time? In this humble writer’s opinion, yes indeed.

As I write this I am listening to East of Eden’s ‘Snafu’ & they can be forgiven for their ‘hit’ single that diminishes their underground status, ‘Jig-a-jig’ as the rest of their output was so inventive.

I am currently re-visiting much of this period as the download option is becoming a lifechoice….e.g…If, Graham Bond, Chocolate Watch Band, Strawberry Alarm Clock, West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band, Beat of the Earth, Accolade, Pete brown & Piblokto, Third Ear band, Affinity, Gracious, Comus, Jan Dukes de Grey, Family……………..

To Hell & Back

I watched a bbc documentary on David MacLeod, the Scottish extreme climber from Dumbarton. Last summer, I regretted missing his talk during the West Dunbartonshire Literature Festival. My colleagues told me how great his description of climbing Dumbarton rock had been.

I listened to some of the Celtic vs Benfica game prior to this documentary & then my inlaws told me they could get the 2^nd half on their tv. I zoomed across the road to see the 2^nd half shambles. I wish I had not bothered.

By the way, I just recently got a copy of the 'Gasoline' compilation, a constant companion, that I still have on vinyl....it still sounds terrific!

grandpa
















grandma

Between the Loch, the River & the Canal

Keeping to the old Celtic obsessions with water: Walking along the canal now offers many challenging sites. The old bargemen would turn in their watery graves to see how much has changed. There is no respect now for the canal that is full of shopping trolleys & Buckfast bottles.

Young girls perhaps 10 years old gather under the bridges with their boyfriends. At least they did try & hide their bottles of lethal cider from my eyes. Others line the banks of the canal to drink. What has gone wrong? Is there no hope? No childhood for these kids who think it is smart to get drunk?

I am remided of the book I am reading by Patrick MacGill ‘Children of the Dead End’: a harrowing tale of the Irish navvies conditions working throughout Scotland.

dad mum


Fado Score Again!


Sometimes it is well worth getting the pipe & slippers early & getting a seat in front on the tv on a friday night. This week was such an occasion. When I knew the programme was about 'Fado', I thought OK the boay has scored some serious goals fer his country, he is worth a whole documentary on BBC 4.


Instead of th usual James Mc Fadden adulation, I was treated to an informative documentary on the Portuguese genre with superb intelligent input from today's star Mariza, but who with the utmost humility gave her praise to Amelia ,who, to be fair, does have Mariza's sound.

They Landed in a Field Near You, Too?



I dunno maybe it is a trick of the light, the overwhelming silence or just too much life at a young age, but I get an odd feeling, when I am over at the back of 'The Whangie', the same kind of hair standing on the back of my neck I got at the stones above on Machrie Moor, Arran.


Perhaps I am too sensitive, but I mention in a previous post about reading patterns in the landscape. Over the 'Whangie', I am on Machrie Moor again.

Its Jazz, Nice






Another British jazz legend bites the dust: Mike Osborne (R.I.P) and another Mike (Gibbs) turns 70.



It is tragic that the golden age of British jazz is so sadly neglected, largely undocumented. It is small wonder, that Stan Tracy & the rest legged it to Europe.

To be fair, it must be said, who was listening in that era of the fab 4, the beat boom & then the blues boom & then psychedelia. The smart jazzer, without the habits, stuck to their jazz cigarettes & sneaked into the shadows of the blues boom or onto the superb jazz rock scene.

The Road Less Travelled

Although I have travelled to obscure corners of the world, sometimes you can get more from your immediate surroundings.

I remember coming back from the Himalayas & being just as impressed going through the Rest & Be Thankful Pass to Invereray.

It is merely a difference in scale. The proportions e.g. mountains vs valley are there. I could see echoes of the Khyber Pass although I did not have to check the windscreen for bullet holes.

Even when I survey the landscape around me, I draw parallels with areas from the desert in Saudi Arabia that I walked. Is it the shape of the land, the contours? I don’t know. If you imagine rock & sand instead of green grass: its there.

I have always enjoyed getting lost, sometimes this can induce conflict or annoyance (or terror?) in others, if you do not know me or don’t have faith in my ability to get back.

Last week my wife & I went out for our usual Sunday drive & passed by Killearn & Balfron & ended up in such a beautiful stretch of road, that I remember being on last, when our Canadians relatives were here. I love that bit that drops you down onto the Drymen – Stirling road from Balfron. It has such beautiful views of the hills (even now the wind farms near Stirling). However, I totally agree, I should ensure that there is enough diesel in the car!

Another journey with the elder son around the Killearn turnoff, led us to explore a new landscape & a strange one for me. We found ourselves on a tarmac road that did not appear to have a purpose.

At a gate, there was a burned out car, was this an omen? Anyway throwing caution to the wind, we decided to leave the car there & get out for a walk. It was a bright evening although the sun was dipping below the horizon.

We headed on up the tarmac road that seemed to go on forever. There was some wonderful views of Loch Lomond & the hills around, there was even a rainbow & unfortunately there was some rain in its path.

We found some weird abandoned debris around e.g. plastic pipes almost covered by vegetation, & also this huge, concrete & steel bridge, that seemed haphazardly dumped over a small stream. I mean there was absolutely no logical reason for 1) the tarmac road & 2) this massive feat of bridge engineering. Is it military? It certainly looked that way. Has it been here since the war? Which war?

There was other odd folly’s in the immediate vicinity, but they have escaped my memory at the moment. I felt I was in the middle of an ‘X File’!

Could this bridge have been here since the Burncrooks reservoir was built? The area around that loch has been another new venture for me. A recent exploration with the younger son also asked more questions than it answered.

I knew from memory, that a railway was built to bring workers & materials up to this spot. I was looking for evidence of the railway & the route taken, e.g. bits of ‘clinker’, straight lines in the landscape. I was so impressed at the formation of the stone walls, stone floors……….etc all mined from local quarries? & put in place by hand, no cement? Such another huge feat of engineering!

Krautrock vs Krautprog

If like me you are rather late to the Krautrock genre, perhaps this may cause you confusion.

There are some decent written guides out there. I can certainly recommend Julian Cope’s ‘Krautrocksampler’ & although it seems sadly out of print at the moment, appears to be available on line if you search for it!

The genre is rather wider than I expected.

To Jude the Obscure

So what if they outnumber us 10 to 1 on the battlefield. We can cope easily with odds like those. We have accepted these figures before & triumphed.

St Jude, patron saint of lost causes you have helped us in times of urgent need against the ’auld enemy’, just do us another favour against ’the azzuri’. I know the clinking of the rosary is louder in Rome than in Glasgow, but give your help to the underdog, the downtrodden, the most deserving & let us get to the Euro finals.

I don’t want us to drop out of this competition with ‘georgia on my Mind’.

P.S. apologies if the sexist photos of jb annoys anyone, I just love her!

Kowalski

Last night I watched the Springboks romp home with the Rugby World Cup. What a sweet victory it was.

I told Kowalski I would be supporting his team last Friday & he said, why & that I was British & thus I should be supporting England. I think he was at the wind up. I reinforced the fact that he was very much mistaken & pointed to my flag flying within sight of the library window.

Friday night I like to relax to the gardening programmes, followed by the music programmes on bbc4 & maybe a bit of the Transatlantic Sessions with Aly Bain & Katriona McKay thrown in.

Recently there has been a new series of ‘Rebus’ with ‘Stotti’ @ 9 p.m. on STV. Last week it starred Cara Kelly, a friend & my colleague’s sister.

I sat down @ 9 p.m. & couldn’t believe my eyes & ears. Instead of STV showing ‘Rebus’ we got some documentary lasting 12 hours about how great the England rugby squad is, how great their country was, how they always win everything & how the Scots are the scum of the earth!

I rest my case your honour.

I Married a Juvenile Delinquent Zombie Freak from Outer Space with a Reefer Habit!

I have always been attracted to the B movie exploitation & the shock horror values of the 50s & all the styles & values that surround the surf guitar genre.

Quentin Tarentino has dressed it up so well in his movies, so it was inevitable that there would be a rising interest in this sound. I also found myself listening to Meiko Kaji the other day. So surf guitar music had become ‘cool’. Not to be left behind & a bit ‘ultracool’ myself, I have dipped one big toe into the water.

It is surprising how much there is out there. If like me you are a bit of a novice, you could start by checking out the ‘Eek the Cat’ & ‘Twilight Zone’ blogs.

Keeping it Real for the Over 50s

In the autumn half light, a little dazed by recent results by the Scottish football side, I find myself obsessed by 2 main strands.

Going back to that Road to Damascus moment during ‘Broken Flowers’ on Arran & realising how smart this Ethiopian jazz really was, I have been listening to the huge 22+ cds in the Ethiopiques series.

Just for a break in this challenging collection, I have been re-living the greatness that was Pentangle. The 4 cd collection ‘Time Has Come’ gets played end to end until, yes you guessed right, it was time to get down to some more ‘Ethiopiques’.

Note to self: get outside more!

Of Time, Religion, Death, Free Jazz & the Rebirth of Scottish Football

I feel very odd these days. I am in the midst of a cult or a culture of death.

My father-in-law has recently died & my wife, her 2 sisters & my mother-in-law are now frequent visitors to graveyards. I would admit that this obsession troubles me a little, but if it offers succour or comfort, then so be it.

This brings to mind the Mexican Day of the Dead or the Mardi Gras. I admit I read both the Egyptian & the Tibetan Books of the Dead in my troubled teens. Why then if there no Scottish or Celtic Book of the Dead? I would suggest that there was but it disappeared or was suppressed during the dark ages or the struggle for religious superiority during the Reformation.

This would make sense as Celtic culture has many similarities with others around the globe, even although we tend to think that communication & travel was minimal in the past.

Clyde Delta:

The Celtic river theme permeates our culture. It affects where I live & where I now work, where my father & grandfather worked.

Perhaps I was unaware of why I was so fond of the Grateful Dead, Schubert’s ‘Death & the Maiden, Tony McPhee’s ‘Oh Death’ & John Fahey’s track titles that showed a familiarity with Celtic mythology?

Time:

As the weather changes, I am now getting close to that awkward period, when I have to try & explain to others, what I really do not understand myself: why do the clocks move back this month?

I will have to justify this time shift to students from Arabia & Kazakhstan. I still don’t get it in my 54^th year!

Should I compare it to ‘free jazz’? Don’t try to understand it, just go where it takes you. This is harking back to that river theme.

I am now in a situation, thanks to an unhealthy obsession with our recent download culture, gaining access to a wide range of ‘free jazz’. Much of this output is thanks to the work of Thursto Moore of Sonic Youth with his writings & releases.

Where was I? Oh yes. What an extraordinary week it has been for the return of Scottish Football to the world stage. Celtic, Rangers & Aberdeen doing their utmost to suggest that this little country isolated at the edge of the Celtic world should have its own independence. This would mean we could do whatever we liked with our clocks & control our own destiny & time.

Thinking again of Micky Palin’s new series, I am amazed at how these forgotten Eastern European countries are now marvellously unique & independent & proud of it.

Shock & Awe

This is how I felt after watching a documentary on Edwyn Collins, who has survived 2 massive brain haemorrhages.

Shocked at the radical change in his cicumstances, but this is tempered by my sheer awe & respect for him with his fight back into health.

His wife has helped him so much & there was a lot of love shown in the documentary.

I thought about Robert Wyatt as I watched this & how he has produced his best work since his accident.

Edwyn’s voice is still off the mark, but the drive that created Orange Juice & his other masterpieces like 94’s ‘A Girl like You’ will no doubt push him on to continue with his recovery & his work.

Get Your Freak On

At 4.20 a.m. on a weekday morning & you think that life cannot get crazier than this & suddenly you get the urge to play that unknown Godz lp ‘Contact High’ & then you are off on one of Owsley’s best.

How come I had not heard this before? Absolute madness from start to finish. Like nothing I have heard before. As original as 2 of my favourites: Tranquility Bass ‘Let the Freak Flag Fly’ or The Beat of the Earth self titled album. It is on a par with; United States of America’s self titled album, Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies, David Peel & the Lower East Side, Tom Rapp & Pearls before Swine.

It sounds as if it was recorded in a shed in the woods in the middle of Saigon, with the napalm burning outside & the last of the acid has just kicked in.

Short Term Memory Aids for the Over 50s

Finally I managed to get a copy of Joe Cocker’s ‘Mad dogs & Englishmen’. I don’t know why it was so difficult? Has it been deleted all these years?

Anyway it is such a terrific album. It is one of those pointers in my life that brings its own baggage. This is not a bad thing as it transports me back to a happy time & place in my life. Yesterday being Sunday put it all into perspective for me.

The birds singing in the trees an autumn sun, up to my mate, Dennis mcCue’s house in Hawthorn Street, him on the bass & me playing guitar & him saying wait until you hear this Joe Cocker lp. So every time I hear that album, I think of those wonderful Sunday afternoons, where everything was possible & we had all the time in the world.

George Harrison’s ‘All Things Must Pass’ does something similar. This time I am taken far away onto Colva beach in Goa in 1973. I just slept on the beach, but a neighbour had a beach hut & he used to play this lp non-stop. Some people might find this a chore, but I loved that album so much, it was pure delight.

Essential TV Viewing for the Over 50s

Mickey Palin can be a bit insipid at times. His new series on Eastern Europe has been slagged off in some newspapers. However this writer is really enjoying it. The best scene by far & the strangest, was the Turkish wrestling festival.

All the particpants were covered in olive oil (every inch of their body!) & wore only buffalo hide pants & then they fumble, fondle, grab & slide off each other, even grabbing each other’s buttocks to try & put their opponent on the ground.

There is something so wrong about this event.

5 minutes later & the action steps up a gear & you are watching 2 camels wrestling. I know first hand, as my young brother often went to Turkey to participate in wrestling bouts, that it is a national sport, but there should be some limits.

The Turkish section was just after total Balkan gypsy madness. I am fond of the whole Balkan music scene, so I enjoyed this too.

I am deeply engrossed & I find it enthralling.

As a postscript, can I state that while writing this at 4.48 a.m on Monday morning, I am listening to Bobby Callender’s ‘The Way’ from 1972 (I have his first lp to catch up on as well) & it’s a crazy mad mental lost classic of the psychedelic variety.