THREE SHORT SCENES
1.
Very straight-looking not-so-young woman wearing nun's shoes ("if the shoe fits, it's ugly") walks into a bar, oops, I mean a very hip record shop on Oxford Street. The aforementioned person is - let's say - me. I look around and everyone has stepped straight out of "Run Lola Run" or some other film where young people are groovy. And there's me - the slime that crawled in from off the street, and the piano player almost stops playing. I ignore the nervous eyes ("omigosh - someone from the suburbs")and march straight over to Pop/Rock and under "M" find the Magnetic Fields' "69 Love Songs". Thanks to james and the blue cat the day would have been ruined if I hadn't found it. I take the TRIPLE CD (there really are 69 songs on it!) to the counter. The sales assistant's face lights up.
"This is THE BEST ALBUM ever made" she enthuses, brushing back a wisp of green hair, and the rest of the staff look over and nod appreciatively. Suddenly, I know how it is to be cool. It's cool.
Now the CD is MINE - hua hua huaaaaa!
I'm enjoying disk one a lot so far. Haven't listened to the other two because:
2.
Col is a gentleman. And I don't mean that he knows how to play the banjo and chooses not to. I actuallly don't know if he can play banjo. Col is a gentleman because has lent me (in two batches) the new CD releases of Elvis Costello's back catalogue. They all come with a bonus CD containing outtakes, demo and acoustic of the songs as well as witty writings by EC on the making of the album and the inclusion of the extra tracks. A goldfield!
When I heard that Col had gone out and bought the CDs I suggested he and Katherine come around for dinner one night. Col knew better. He knew that I would be counting the minutes until the guests had gone so that I could give the CDs and liner notes my undivided attention. So he has just lent them to me! This makes him a gentleman!
The most impressive one so far has been "Goodbye Cruel World". I've always found that album impossible to listen to. Talk about a wall of sound - this is more like a plastic egg-carton of sound. To hear the songs in their pared down form is just fantastic. They are wonderful and well-crafted songs and it could well be giving "Brutal Youth" a run for its money as my favourite EC album. The stand-out track for me is an earlier version of "The Comedians", later recorded by Roy Orbison with different words. It's a perfect song for the Big O. But the original is pretty bloody good too. So I'm thinking of arranging a version for Touchwood.
This will keep the adrenalin up in the lead-up to the Cobargo Folk Festival in a few weeks (will we be able to learn it in time?!) and also distract Louise away from wanting us to do "I Am the Walrus".
Sounds like a plan.
3.
In the final stages of preparing to record with Blindman's Holiday. We're very very close - only three more sleeps before we start! We stood in the double doorway into the big room at Q Studios and sang out to the back wall. What a sound! Crystal clear and so warm. I'm enjoying the lead up a lot. Everyone is very open to new ideas and trying stuff out. Greg White who is producing the album is enthusiastic and full of ideas about how it could work. We're all keen to get some low instruments in there. After all, an instrument can never be too low. We'e toying with the idea of bringing in a double bass and bass clarinet (intersting aside: did you know that Eric Dolphy died at just 36 years of age from a diabetic coma?). Exciting days ahead.
