DIARY - Meanwhile back in the year One....
Date: 2005-12-19 18:18:42
Author: Pat Kent
"Did you ever se the faces of the children they get so excited, waking up on Christmas morning...."
I love music, and I find that I miss listening to it so much these days, I just don't get the time or I'm too busy working, but the whole concept of everyone having a personal soundtrack to their life is a great notion to have.
There are just so many good and great songs to remember things by. The whole adolescent thing growing up through the Blues boom in the late sixties, the end of the Beatles, Glam rock/ Prog rock, I even liked a few punk bands as well, and before that witnessing Beatlemania and the whole shift from culture to counter-culture.
Buying magazines like OZ and IT with my mates and trying to get "hip". Walking up and down Carnaby Street and Kings Road on a Saturday afternoon, when you weren't supposed to be anywhere further away from the flat than the end of the street.
The lyrics to songs were probably the things that struck me first. I love the music as well but there are so many lines that stay with me up to this day, that remind me of something special, good or bad.
My favourite bands were The Who and Jethro Tull, Two very distinct and different bands. I got into The Who quite early on in my adolescence, only surrendering them up when my younger brother became a committed fan. I then diverted my attention onto Tull, although I've never lost my love of The Who, still probably the greatest Rock and Roll band in the world. You can take the Stones and Zeppelin in my view and dump them, nothing come close to the energy of a Who gig. And�.if you felt you were a marginalised and isolated kid, without a voice, who better to turn your feelings into tangible comment than Pete Townshend. A gawky looking bloke, who you wouldn't give the time of day to, until he got up there and along with some of the most dynamic guitar playing you could ever imagine seeing spoke of a whole range of emotions and feelings that, I'm sure, many kids, felt at that time but couldn't vocalise.
If you're too young to know what the original band were like live, do everything within your powers and abilities to catch film footage of them, if you want to see how a Rock Show should be, go catch them whenever you can, they still play live, and you will not fail to be impressed by two 60 year old blokes playing some of the best music ever written.
If you've never heard of them at all, find someone who�s old enough to have some Who stuff to put some of their tracks on your i-Pod for you. If you get a chance listen to:
My Generation;
Tattoo [Very under-rated and for me quite personal];
I can't explain [The opening chords of still leave hairs standing on my neck when I hear it and it's the best gig opener ever in my book.];
Anyway, anywhere, anyhow [For me, ironically, for reasons that have nothing to do with the song] Substitute;
Amazing Journey/Sparks;
Summertime Blues;
Pure and easy;
Baba O'Reilly;
Won't get fooled again;
Anything, if not all of Quadrophenia.[In my book the best "concept�" album ever written];
Red, blue and grey;
Slip kid.
I guarantee that you won't fail to be impressed, and might even wish that you grew up being able to experience this sort of talent and quality in music nowadays.
Tull are a different kettle of fish completely. Their music didn't quite have the power chord punch and angst ridden edginess, opting more for frills than spills. But their 1970's stage shows were something else to behold. Unfortunately Tull's leader Ian Anderson doesn't seem to have had the foresight of the Who's Townshend, who ensured that the Who history and musical legacy had been fully documented in both audio and visual terms, and so virtually nothing exists, or has been made available, which testifies to Tull's showmanship.
Tull's music switched between heavy and complex group pieces and simple solo acoustic tunes, often with those changes happening mid-song at breakneck speed. Tull still tour, but sadly have become a bit of a low-key cabaret act these days, playing endless greatest hits tours. I still love the band but couple the lacksidaisical touring attitude with Anderson's failing voice and you have a superb legacy of music that is undervalued which is continually being undermined by Anderson himself.
However, many argue that Anderson's loss of vocal range is made up by his increasing skill and professionalism in playing the instrument of his choice and fame, the flute. It is amazing how in both men, Anderson and Townshend, we have two 60 year olds, who were renowned at the start of their careers for having a really rough edge to their playing as well as the overall sound, and yet, 40 years on they have both become virtuoso's of their respective instruments. Townshend is light years away from simply being the power chord playing, pose striking rhythm guitarist to something special in the world of rock guitarists. Anderson has moved away from long haired, dishevelled tramp, via multi millionaire ex-fish farming businessman moving now further into the world of more classically based music, dropping his excellent acoustic guitar playing and breathy flute, for what seems more "James Galway" inspired directions.
Again, if you get a chance try and listen to some of their stuff, a wide mix of rock, folk, jazz, and in later year's eastern influenced sounds and motifs, but again its worth a listen even if only to complete an education in musical history. You mught even like it enough to let it be part of that soundtrack for your life.....
My Tull recommendations:
Stormy Monday;
Back to the family;
Son;
Mother Goose;
Wind up;
Just trying to be;
Wond'ring Again;
Life's a long song;
Thick as a Brick [ALL 45 MINUTES OF IT!];
Skating away on the thin ice of a new day;
Two fingers;
Minstrel in the Gallery [album version];
Baker Street Muse;
Quizz Kid;
Strip Cartoon;
Cup of Wonder;
Dark ages;
Nobody�s Car;
Jump Start;
Mountain Men;
Ears of tin;
Gold tipped boots, black jacket and tie.
Go on give them a try, you know that you're really sick to the back teeth of all the Christmas sing-alongs hits, Brussel sprouts and mince pies, a bit of good old loud rock is what you need to get the arteries cleared out before 2006 knocks on the door and welcomes you with whoever is going to be billed as the new James Blunt.
I opened with a few words of Pete Townshend's, so I'll close in the words of Ian Anderson...
"Hey Santa, pass us that bottle will ya..."
Pat Kent
© Pat Kent 2005 - All rights reserved. Pat Kent exercises his right to be identified as the author.