CHAPTER 2 OF MY NEW NOVEL

INSIDERS CHAPTER 2 : THAT OLD LUMINOUS LOOK AGAIN “What did we learn before our source was shut down?” Smiddy knew from the chilling tone of Elfin’s voice that she would not brook any prevarication in his response. He thought, as he had often thought before, that hers was probably the most inappropriate name for … Read more

SEPTEMBER SONGS

It’s the wrong month, November, but I was walking our dog Ginny in Oakfrith Wood (near #Urchfont, #Wiltshire) recently and the autumn leaves were falling all around me, and were also scattered beautifully all over the ground, so I found myself walking along singing … “The leaves of brown came tumbling down, remember?Last September, in … Read more

Listicle 2 : Racism in Popular Music

In today’s world we have become conscious of the extent to which racism is prevalent at all levels of society, and that racism motivates political agendas, and that institutions including major corporations and even the police routinely practice racially discriminatory policies. This is, of course, despite many laws being passed to try to curb racist … Read more

I Guess It Doesn’t Matter Any More

This is by way of a continuation of/variation on my previous post entitled “Are song lyrics poetry? Or are they philosophy?” It has often been said that pop song lyrics are like poetry, sometimes even that they are poetry. I considered for a while that maybe song lyrics would replace poetry in the hearts and … Read more

Get Rhythm! Guitar ads of 1934.

I forget precisely when but some years ago I picked up, for a few pennies, a bound collection of editions of Rhythm magazine published between October 1934 and September 1935. In perfect condition, they make for fascinating reading, not least for the naked, unvarnished racism of the magazine’s journalistic content. It’s enlightening to see the … Read more

It Happened On A Train – The Listicle

  One of the joys of having created a vast, searchable music database (www.musicdayz.com) is that I can use it (and you can too) to quickly collect together information about specific topics and how they relate to music. The following list of Train-related music facts was put together simply by me entering the word ‘train’ … Read more

Are song lyrics poetry? Or are they philosophy?

I first remember people positing that song lyrics, at least some of them, could be considered as poetry, back in the 1960s. People like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen had started taking song lyrics so far beyond the dance-romance, moon-June cliches of traditional pop that it was a valid question. Three books have been published … Read more