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.

Lonely Planet Guide to World Music for the Over 50s

Avoid over-production at all costs. Don’t be sucked in by the sheer volume of World Music out there. This just means there is a lot of rubbish produced & over-hyped.

There is the odd exception to this latter rule. The Buena Vista Social Club was everything & more than the hype led you to believe.

Don’t be afraid to dig deeper or go back even further. Remember a lot of World Music was around before Womad/Womex & the Peter Gabriel/Eno/David Byrne axis.

On a purely personal level, the areas of specific interest to me: includes the superb ‘Sublime Frequencies’ label output by the Bishop Brothers of Sun City Girls, especially the ‘Cambodian Cassette Archives’.

On African music I would suggest you keep it really real & discount anything produced in Paris. Also I would add that acoustic instruments are better than electric, unless of course we are discussing Fela Kuti or King Sunny Ade or that astonishing Ethiopiques series.

The corners of this diminishing planet that provide the best world music are:

· Tibet/Mongolia

· Brazil/cuba/Columbia

· Bali/Indonesia/cambodia

· North africa

Rough Guide to the Workplace for the Over 50s

Why cant we afford to retire at 50. I for one would be extremely busy doing the things I don’t have time to do just now as work keeps getting in the way!

Remember, (if your faculties are starting to go already: write this down in caps!), we work to live we do not, & should not, live to work.

Lonely Planet Guide to Mobile Phones for the Over 50s

Learn to use one, it could save your life or someone else’s life. It doesn’t have to be the latest kit, with cameras/mp3s …etc, but consider that it could be used by the emergency services as a tracking device to find you if anything ever went ‘pear shaped’.

In this increasingly hostile & crazy world you know this makes sense need I mention 11 September?

Essential Guide to Death for the Over 50s

As you hit 50 you realise that the list of dead people that were a part of your earlier life, has suddenly taken an exponential growth.

Even if you discount the usual ones that died tragically young & are always in the news like: Hendrix/Joplin/Morrison/..etc

But I get upset when the dying are aged like Leary/Ginsberg/Zawinul….etc………

What is important is that Death is not the End………..it’s just a new beginning…………

0 - 1

Although I had to listen to the match on the radio, something incredibly special happened tonight in Paris.

A little, proud, crazy nation from the 'group of death' & against all the odds & against the best players in the world, reminded us of what it was like to be Scottish & brought all those wonderful memories flooding back , Archie Gemmell included.


Time to pause for reflection.

Rough Guide to Outdoor Festivals & Synthetic Drugs for the Over 50s



Don't be stupid! Avoid at all cots.

Essential Guide to Extreme Sports for the Over 50s



Don't be stupid! Avoid at all costs.

Rough Guide to the Wireless for the Over 50s

Do you need access to decent radio now that John Peel has gone? To be perfectly frank, Peel’s usefulness for me ended around 72, although I still loved him as a person, who stuck by his principles.

I spent many years in radio wilderness, after having grown up on ‘Top Gear’ & ‘The Perfumed Garden’ & I finally got back to radio through Radio 3 for jazz & classical.

Nowadays the net has created podcasts on everything & the BBC has that superb ‘listen again’ option & in essence it’s a minefield without a googlemap.

As I am running out of time to listen to what I want to hear, I have had to limit my choices. I pick up Gilles Peterson’ Radio 1 show, ‘Jazz on 3’ & naturally the ‘Freak Zone’ on Radio 6. This is all I have time for in a week. If not, I would listen to Resonance FM ( I especially miss ‘Mixing It’ dropped from Radio 3 & now on Resonance FM

Love Liza Reprise



Oh now I remember another reason why I loved that film so much. I have just got a hold of the soundtrack & yes it was by Jim O'Rourke so I am off on a Jim O'Rourke thingie just now. As he has been so prolific I have a wide range of titles to re-listen to.

Joe Zawinul R.I.P.

Big Hills & Wee Men


Or was it Wee Men & Big Hills? Seeing Mr Keith in his usual gaming pose, reminded me that I need to get out more!

I recently read a book by Peter Kemp who lived a stone's throw from the above address, where he describes his life in Govan & the Clyde Shipyards & then his ramblers in the hills.

Its not a poetically brilliant book, but it is written with passion as he tells of his completion of the Munroes with some very local, colourful characters.

Death by Bongos

If like me you can never have enough bongos, beards or sandals, you might enjoy some of these interesting grooves.

I seem to be going through one of those peculiar phases in which you find yourself as you approach your mid fifties.

I was a late discoverer of Mandrill & I am enjoying catching up with their albums. Last year I was overwhelmed by Exuma a mental, Mexican psychedelic band lost in the realms of voodoo.

As I write this I am grooving to Chaino – Africana & Beyond & this is a seriously bongo-ed voodoo fest. Don’t listen to it with the lights out.

Still Lazy After All These Years


Probems at work. Friends & In-laws getting seriously ill.
Walking on eggshells & feeling like a man carrying a drop of rain on a vine leaf during a thunderstorm.

The lack of a decent summer & Kenny Miller leaving Celtic, Its all too much to handle as I am getting old & grumpy!

But hey always look on the bright side of life. I just got my hands on Loudon Wainwright III Album II that I have on scratchy vinyl. Brings back memories.

Listening to Heron's 1st & 2nd lps on repeat & they cheer me up.

Is Love's 'da Capo' better than 'Forever Changes'? It matters not a jot! They are both stone cold classics that should be played every day.