Cinderloo
(Dawley Riots)

Music

I started listening to music as soon as I became aware of it. A 50 shilling transistor radio and Radio Caroline were formative: to this day The Turtle's Elenore is one of my favourites: though these days, I can appreciate the splendidly ironic:-

'Elenore, I really think you're swell,
and you really do me well,
you're my pride 'n' joy et cetera'

(Subsequent gigging with late, great Frank Zappa did little to enhance their popularity but loads for credibility. They also sang backing vocals for T. Rex - most notably on the fab Seagull Woman.)

When I was 12 I found a Saturday job in the record dept of a department store. They must have been pretty pleased - I spent everything I earned in that shop at 10% employee discount: at the time the markup was about 80%. So I was effectively paying them to work there. Anyway, thanks to one chap who came in about once a month and wanted to listen to listen to a piece of classical music on the shop turntable (booths?, listening stations? oh, c'mon.) I acquired a basic appreciation of classical music. OK, his tastes weren't mine but at least I learned to give it a try.

So the music links...

Blue Nile
Music to fall into (or out of) love by... I've done both several times.

Michael Chapman
Enhanced by a bottle of wine (or two) said the musician himself. I never knew Hull was in the Mississippi Delta. Also, he's written a very good semi-autobiography - Firewater Dreams.

Peter Hammill
Hey, this guy gained me an English A-Level by virtue of an half-assed essay on his lyrics. An essay, thankfully, long-lost. Doesn't mean he's not worth listening to, though. Magnificent, difficult, inconsistent, crass... You'll find opinions here... for what it's worth Still Life is magnificent. (Except for the first track which I still think is predictable tat.) There's a plethora of sites and among the best are Sofa Sound (the official site) and Van der Graaf Generator. There's a whole bunch of others ...

Roy Harper
If you say 'who he?' then you have seriously missed-out. There's the official site www.royharper.com (wonder what he thinks about being a dot com!) and Stormcock.

King Crimson
Memorably described as "prog-rock pond scum, set to bum you out". Can't say fairer than that, I suppose. There's the official DGM site and the incredible (whichever way you look at it) Elephant Talk... And then there's Prince Rupert Awakes.

Rutles
A truly seminal band. Barry Wom's hairstyle inspired a generation. And who can forget classics like Ouch or Doubleback Alley? If ever a comeback was needed...

Somatics
Amazing. There's hope for music yet... (I'd actually mention The Guillemots as well, but everyone knows about them anyway!)

Jimmy Webb
A craftsman. At one time in the late-60s allegedly the highest paid songwriter in the world. Remembered for songs like Up, Up and Away and Macarthur Park. Park has perhaps both the silliest and most poignant lyrics in a single song:-

pressed in love's hot, fevered iron
like a striped pair of pants

which was followed, a bit later by:-

I will take my life into my hands and I will use it
I will win the worship in their eyes and I will lose it
I will have the things that I desire
And my passion flow like rivers through the sky
And after all the loves of my life
I'll be thinking of you

Glen Campbell helped to make Webb's reputation with his interpretations of Galveston and Wichita Lineman. You can't help but think that Campbell, who was a supporter of the Vietnam War, had no idea what Galveston was about..

Galveston, oh Galveston
I am so afraid of dying
For I wipe the tear she's crying
She was twenty-one
When I left Galveston

Suggest trying out 'Ten Easy Pieces' - though if they're easy I don't want to know difficult - a kind of Jimmy Webb Unplugged.