Magic And Loss

We'd been remembering John, and I was remembering Dad, who died in May and would have been 90 yesterday; all these years and I never realised he shared a birthday with Roy Lichtenstein (to the day), Sylvia Plath and Dylan Thomas. Many thoughts of not going gentle into that good night, therefore. And then I wake from a post-lunch snooze and turn on the internets and hear about Lou.

Well, that was one I didn't expect. It always seemed like Lou would outlive us all.

And we've probably all got an opinion on him, and he hated to be pinned down. He was a curmudgeonly misanthrope, he was a romantic; he was a dark literato, he was a waspish doo-wop fan; he was an ex pop hack, he was an avant gardeist; he was New York City tough, he was a fucked up nice Jewish boy from the suburbs; he was a conceptualist, he was a three chord guitar player with his bullshit detector tuned.

He was REAL (maaan); he invented himself (in true Warhol style).

You pass through arrogance, you pass through hurt
You pass through an ever present past
And it's best not to wait for luck to save you
Pass through the fire to the light

He was Lou.

There's a bit of magic in everything
And then some loss to even things out

Lou Reed - 'Magic And Loss - The Summation' (1992)

Friday Reggae # 40 (Keeping It Peel)

Thanks for everything John, but especially the reggae x

Steel Pulse - 'Drug Squad' (Peel session) (1980)

Steel Pulse - 'Sunshine And Shining' (Peel session) (1980)

Steel Pulse - 'Nyabinghi' (Peel session) (1980)

[respect to the original taper]

Friday Reggae # 39

Why aren't there groups with ace names like Tommy McCook & The Supersonics any more? Eh?

The Jamaicans - 'Ba Ba Boom' (1967)

Yeah Baby

Make mine a large one, fnarr.

This is a groove.


Lou Donaldson - 'Who's Making Love?' (1969)

Notes & Tones

Miles Davis - 'Moon Dreams' (1950)

a davyh vinyl rip, with crackles.

This blog is now seven years old.

'Thanks for dropping by, it'd be stupidly lonely here without you' x

Hats Off

As if seeing Young Marble Giants after a mere 33 years on Sunday were not enough, I am off to catch Roy Harper at the Royal Festival Hall later this month courtesy my good friend Dr.Al, who was nifty in picking up tickets as soon as they went on sale. All the reviews I have read of his new album (and all the things I have heard from it) have been very, very good indeed, so I'm looking forward to it mucho.

Incidentally, so taken was I by the Union Chapel on Sunday (my first visit...I tried to see Goldfrapp there a few years back but it was several times over sold-out) that I looked up a bit about its history. According to Wikipedia, past church organists there have included John Henry Gauntlett, Ebenezer Prout, Fountain Meen and John Hooker.

That is the finest list of fantastic names I have seen in a good while.

Here's some (new) Roy.

Roy Harper - 'Time Is Temporary' (2013)