The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

Seamus Heaney, Van Morrison – from Bellaghy to Belfast

by 25 Comments

Blue Boy on Two of the greatest artists to come out of Northern Ireland – different, but with much in common

I was born and brought up in Northern Ireland, growing up in idyllic suburbia in North Down. From our lounge window you could see across Belfast Lough to Carrickfergus Castle on the other side. We lived there until I was thirteen, returning briefly for a few months two years later, before we finally moved away and settled in England.

I was fifteen when we came to England. Happy enough, we settled in well. But I had been taken from where I grew up, and I found that my identification with Northern Ireland was all the stronger in exile than it had been when I lived there. I loved literature and I loved music, and if you were a writer or musician from Ireland – North and South – you had my attention before I had even read or heard any of your work. James Joyce, WB Yeats, Flann O’Brien, Joyce Cary. Horslips, Rory Gallagher, the Chieftains.

And above all – then, and now – Seamus Heaney and Van Morrison.

They were born either side of the Second World » Continue Reading.

64 reasons to celebrate Paul McCartney

by 39 Comments

As we await the new album, here’s an article which has been getting a lot of posting with approval on Twitter and Facebook. I think it overclaims here and there, but it’s still a very good and entertaining championing of Macca’s brilliance. His argument about how the narrative of John as the edgy genius and Paul as the safe middle of the road entertainer was established is persuasive. It’s interesting though how things have changed. Increasingly it seems to me that Paul’s reputation has risen (fairly in my view) and John’s (unfairly) has fallen. Fact is, the miracle and uniqueness of the Beatles is that it had not one but two pop geniuses in the one band.

https://ianleslie.substack.com/p/64-reasons-to-celebrate-paul-mccartney

The Real Thing documentary

by 13 Comments

Possibly at the same time that @Chrisf was watching the Boomtown Rats documentary I was watching one on the BBC iplayer about The Real Thing – ‘Everything; the The Real Thing Story’. Even if 70s soul and disco isn’t your thing (and it’s not mine) I recommend this. I really hadn’t appreciated how unusual it was at the time to have a British all black band, never mind one from Liverpool. The film tells the story well about their upbringing in Toxteth, their sudden elevation to teen heartthrobs via THAT single; and their attempt to tell their own story in self written songs in the excellent 4 from 8 album – which of course bombed.

But what makes it is the three surviving members who, unusually for these kind of films, show not a shred of ‘what might have been’ bitterness – they seem happy with what they’ve had and generous to pretty much everyone they’ve encountered along the way. Highly recommended.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lj5v

Happy birthday to the Belfast Cowboy

by 38 Comments

Van Morrison is 75 today. But is he resting and enjoying a well earned retirement? Oh no. Instead the old curmudgeon is one of the few artists of his stature preparing to do some live gigs, whilst also taking a pot shot on his website at the ‘pseudo science’ informing the continuing lockdown. Rave on Van!

But no matter – what a career he’s had; what music he’s created. Truly one of the greats.

Anyone who cares to post some more videos of the great man please do; he seems to have eased up on getting everything on the internet taken down and there is plenty out there. Here he is with the superb Donal Lunny.

Ken Robinson RIP

by 14 Comments

I was really sad to hear today that Sir Ken Robinson has died, at 70, of cancer. A working class lad from Liverpool who done good, Robinson was a hugely influential academic on education policy, teaching and advising governments around the world. He was revered in the arts world for his insistence that creative and cultural education was as important as maths and science.

If that makes him sound like a po-faced liberal lefty, well he was probably guilty of two of those. But he was also one of the funniest performers I have ever seen on any stage. He was a keynote speaker at a conference I was at once. When he came on he was faced with a thousand jaundiced delegates wondering when they could get out to their first pint of the evening. 45 minutes later he had a standing ovation.

If he is known at all outside the world of cultural and educational policy it’s probably for his Ted Talk, which was – and remains – the most viewed ever. Here it is. If you haven’t seen it it’s worth quarter of an hour of your time.

https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity?utm_campaign=tedspread&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=tedcomshare

The Chronological Bob

by 73 Comments

Sometime back @junior-wells drew our attention to a Spotify playlist with all of Bob Dylan’s recorded material available for streaming, in chronological order of recording date. Well, since then, I have been working my way through it, so you don’t have to it. I admit it’s not exactly a lockdown challenge to rival, for example, reading all of Proust’s ‘A la Recherche du Temps Perdu’. But it’s kept me busy and given me much enjoyment, and I have some observations to make. You may or may not agree with them. Please do let me know. I will make them in the thread below.

Doing Bob chronologically. You got the time, I got the playlist

Greatest Irish albums ever

by 26 Comments

Turns out other people do lists too. The Irish Times are just trying to wind me up with this one though, aren’t they?* No Horslips? No Rory? No Them? No Chieftains? ( I know they describe it as contemporary music, but Planxty made it so I think the Chieftains could). Moondance chosen ahead of any of half a dozen better Van albums. Astral Weeks just at 11, with some record I’ve never heard of at Number One?

Any other views?

* rhetorical question – I know that the point of these things is precisely to annoy everyone.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/50-best-irish-albums-of-all-time-in-order-1.4295696

Afterword Best Albums of the 21st Century – the results

by 125 Comments

Just counting them up now – coming soon!

May take me a bit of time. 96 of us voted for no less than 620 albums – that’s an average of over 6 unique choices each. So consensus is thin on the ground. A few albums clearly stand out however, although it has still been possible to get into the Top 10 with just 5 votes.

Will try to post later this evening.

The Afterword Lockdown Poll Part 3 – The 21st Century

by 339 Comments

After Dai’s and Craig’s sterling efforts with the all time greatest albums, and then 80s/90s albums, it falls to me to bring this triumvirate to a triumphant and exhausted close. So, the challenge now, is to name your top ten albums released since 1 January 2000. Personally in thinking about this I found it harder than either of the previous two – not because there isn’t enough good stuff there. Quite the contrary. So many riches to pick from, but few of them as hard wired into my consciousness as ‘all time favourites’. So I think this is going to be a very diverse list which should remind us all of some fantastic records we may have forgotten about.

Dai’s Rules still apply:

1) Post 10 albums ONLY 2) Place them in order 1 to 10. Number 1 will be allocated 10 points down to 1 pt in 10th place. 3) If you post more than 10 only the first 10 will be counted. 4) If you don’t post a preference in the 10 then each will be allocated 5 pts 5) Post exactly like this : Number – Album – Artist e.g. 1 – Dare – The Human League » Continue Reading.

Wheelbarrow valves

by 20 Comments

This afternoon I had to blow up the tyre on our wheelbarrow. As I struggled to put the sodding pump onto the inaccessible fucking valve I felt a sharp stab of nostalgia, nay a veritable Proustian rush, as I recalled this thread, surely a contender for what in Afterword post terms is known, I believe, in these acronym-filled times, as the GOAT.

ATM (really): right-angle valve adaptor for wheelbarrow wheel?

Peter Frampton

by 18 Comments

I know THAT song of course. But otherwise Peter Frampton and his music have pretty much passed me by. However there is a lovely interview with him in this month’s Mojo. He comes across as a thoroughly decent cove.Not falsely modest, but grateful for the success he’s had. Aware but not bitter about the times he’s been ripped off. Uniformly generous about those he’s encountered along the way; Steve Marriott, David Bowie, his larger than life former manager Dee Anthony. And now philosophical and positive about the incurable and rare degenerative disease he has. It’s lovely and heartwarming stuff.

The one real downer is that the interview was done to promote a tour he should be doing right now, which was likely to be his last ever given his condition. I really hope he gets a chance to do it later this year instead, or in 2021 before it’s too late.

Folk on Foot Front Room Festival

by 10 Comments

13/04/2020

This may be of interest to those of a folky bent. The excellent Folk on Foot podcast is streaming a virtual festival on Easter Monday with artist like Bella Hardy, Julie Fowlis, Jon Boden, Martin Simpson and Karine Polwart all performing thirty minute sets form their front rooms. It’s a great line up. They are fundraising as well, and splitting the proceeds equally between the artists and the charity Help Musicians UK.

These performers have all been on the podcast and have been uniformly excellent, so it should be a good one

Richard Thompson and lots more live-streams

by 11 Comments

Following on from the recommendations already posted for online gigs from Elvis Costello and Neil Young, Richard Thompson is one of this growing list of artists doing free live stream gigs – this Sunday at 9pm.

Laura Marling is doing live guitar lessons on Instagram.

The Berlin Philharmonic has made its archive of live streams available for free.

The National Theatre is doing weekly streams on Thursday evenings of past productions.

Any other good ones that might be of interest to discerning Afterworders?

https://facebook.com/events/s/richard-thompson-on-facebook-l/228570725011671/?ti=icl

Your live A to Z

by 134 Comments

This appears to be all over Facebook, but why not do it here. An A to Z of a live act you’ve seen, with one for each letter. Strictly surname or band name only.

Here’s mine. Not having seen XTC or X-ray Specs, I have one letter missing:

Joan Armatrading Bjork Civil Wars Bob Dylan Eurythmics Fairport Convention Rory Gallagher Horslips Iron and Wine Tom Jones BB King Daniel Lanois Laura Marling Randy Newman Ozark Mountain Daredevils Gretchen Peters Q Tips Josh Rouse Simple Minds The Temptations UB40 Villagers Papa Wemba Yes Zutons

Comfort Music

by 47 Comments

It’s a complete shitstorm. Our health, our jobs and livelihood, our way of life – it’s all being blown to the winds, at least temporarily and maybe longer and more terminally. And the sheer uncertainty of what’s coming next is exhausting.

In times like this, music can help. I put an old playlist of favourite songs on shuffle today, and this came up first. It’s brilliant, of course. Paul Simon’s bittersweet melody and typically economic lyrics; his beautifully phrased vocals; the arrangement, Michael Brecker’s sax break.

And, yes it worked. I felt just a little bit buoyed up. Partly because it’s a comfort blanket – I’ve known and loved this song and the album it’s from since it came out and it’s seen me through some good times. And partly because all the time there are people on the planet who have the creativity and skill to make something like this, you have to think we still have a fighting chance.

If you’d like to post some examples of music that you turn to at times like this, please be my guest. God knows, we’re going to need all the help we can get.

Van Morrison Three Chords and the Truth

by 56 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Van Morrison may be 74 but there is little sign of his slowing up. This is his fifth album in just over three years and his third this decade of all new material. There is a mellow laid back feel to this one – reminiscent at times of ‘Magic Time’. The arrangements are simple understated guitar, piano, organ, drums and bass. Morrison’s voice is in remarkable shape. He doesn’t extend it much – the days of ‘Listen to the Lion’ or ‘Summertime in England’ are perhaps behind him – but that control and expressiveness are still there, particularly on tracks like ‘Dark Night of the Soul’ and ‘You Don’t Understand’.

Some of Van’s old themes are here, present and correct, belying the mellowness of the sound. ‘Fame Will Eat the Soul’ (with vocal guesting by Righteous Brother Bill Medley) revisits his obviously genuine horror at the corrosive power of celebrity. ‘You Don’t Understand’ is the darkest song on the album, a slow brooding blues which is Van at his most misanthropic and paranoid. ‘Nobody in Charge’ is an enjoyable pop at politicians ‘waffling endlessly’ and ‘getting paid too much for screwing up’. Which is » Continue Reading.

Now that’s what I call an obituary…

by 28 Comments

Normally you have to read very carefully between the lines of an obituary to get any sense that the subject may have been anything less than a combination of William Shakespeare, Mahatma Gandhi and Judi Dench. But Richard Evans’ obit of historian Norman Stone in The Guardian today is as joyous a hatchet job as Max Hastings piece on (the still with us) Boris Johnson already posted here on the blog. Do read; it gets better and better as it goes on.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/25/norman-stone-obituary

63 Up

by 38 Comments

What does it sound like?:

I guess most people know the setup. In 1963 ITV took 14 seven year old English children from various backgrounds and decided to follow their lives, returning to them every seven years and see how they were getting on. In doing so they would explore the extent to which class and background influenced how they turned out, and the extent to which our DNA means the person we are is already there in the seven year old child.

Remarkably, 56 years later, eleven of them are still taking part – two declined this time, and one sadly died five years ago.I don’t know if I have a particular empathy with the participants because I am just one year younger than them. The life changes they’ve been through I’ve been through at the same time, not to mention the hairstyles, the fashions, and the widening girths. But I find it immensely moving televison.

The answer to the influence of background and DNA, is, of course, ‘quite a lot’ in both cases. But the programme also quietly subverts lazy assumptions, not least in the way many of the working class kids have turned out – the » Continue Reading.

Mike Hart Bleeds

by 18 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Until a couple of weeks ago I had never near of Mike Hart. But I was listening to an old Mojo free CD which had been gathering dust unplayed, featuring music from Liverpool artists, and a track by him just leaped out of the speakers. I checked out the album it’s from, and I can’t stop listening to it.

Mike Hart was part of Liverpool music through the 60s. He initially fronted Merseybeat band The Roadrunners, and was then part of Adrian Henri’s music and poetry group The Liverpool Scene. He was signed by John Peel’s Dandelion label and released two solo albums, of which Mike Hart Bleeds was the first, coming out in 1969. Sadly, neither did anything, and Hart, who seems to have had a massive self destruct button, descended into alcoholism. He died in an Edinburgh nursing home three years ago.

Mike Hart bleeds is an classic archetypal 1960s Folk/pop singer-songwriter record; it reminds me of near contemporaries like Ralph McTell, Harvey Andrews or Rab Noakes. For better or worse, Dylan’s shadow inevitably looms large, particularly the Dylan of Bringing it Back Home. Disbelief Blues is either an outrageous rip-off or » Continue Reading.

Bill Wyman ranks The Beatles

by 35 Comments

Someone called Bill Wyman has ranked all the Beatles songs; see the link at the bottom of this post. Turns out its not THAT Bill Wyman, but an American critic who shares the name. He clearly likes a list – is he perchance an Afterworder?

Some right old nonsense in here, it has to be said. I think we can all agree that Good Day Sunshine isn’t the very worst track recorded by The Beatles. I doubt even he thinks that.

https://www.vulture.com/2017/06/all-213-beatles-songs-ranked-from-worst-to-best.html

So how has 2018 been for you?

by 79 Comments

For the last ten years @Hannah has popped up in late December to ask us all how the year has been for each of us. Sadly she hasn’t been around the site for a while so I guess she won’t be asking it this year. So allow me to step in and ask for your reflections on 2018. And what are your hopes and plans for 2019?

And if Hannah and some of the others who have been away happen to pick this up, it would be lovely to hear from you – your voices here are missed.

So where do we go now?

by 80 Comments

What a shambles. A deal to leave the EU no one likes. A shower of utter shits who willed this thing all bailing out and looking after their own careers. A PM who inherited (her choice, so sympathy can only go so far) an impossible task and who at least is sticking to it, and showing a sense of duty, but clearly can’t deliver. An opposition who is adopting a tactic to keep shtum and let the Tories destroy themselves which makes electoral sense but is hardly an honourable position.

So where now? If the deal gets overturned in Parliament as it surely will, will May hang around and take the view that given Parliament cannot sort this, the only alternative is a second referendum? Is this all a masterly long game in which she anticipates that second vote leads to a vote to Remain, and the whole thiing goes away?

Whatever happens surely history is going to judge Johnson, Gove, Rees Mogg et al very very harshly. I can thing of few examples of such utterly venal self interest in British politics.

Pop protest

by 10 Comments

Ed Vulliamy has written today in The Observer in praise of Taylor Swift for expressing explicit political views in favour of the Democrats, of LGBTQ rights, and against what she describes as ‘the systemic racism we still see in this country’. These might seem unexceptionable views to express, but Vulliamy’s points are that, firstly, she has a lot to lose with her middle America appeal, and, in particular, that such an explicit political stance from a pop star is pretty rare these days, compared to the late sixties/early seventies.

He has a go at a number of stars for their political silence. I don’t agree with that – I have never felt that musicians should be obliged to speak up politically, any more than they should be beaten up when they do so. But he has a point, doesn’t he, about the relative political tameness of major pop stars these days? Or are there in fact plenty of current examples out there? My sense is that there is plenty of political songwriting going on, but that its a different kind of politics – of gender, identity and behaviour rather than geo-political protest. Recent examples welcome.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/13/taylor-swift-joan-baez-how-musicians-found-a-political-voice