The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Let’s talk about James Blunt again

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I know some of you follow him on Twitter. Me too. He’s funny. Today some chap tweeted him: “My first tweet, downloaded twitter just to message you this your bruce springsteen cover on radio 2. Think ive listened over 100times, outstanding doesnt cover it. Better than original. New fan.” To which JB replied: “Blocked” (But he didn’t really block him. He followed him. Classy touch.)

Unfortunately the cover of Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark is pretty horrible.

Dutch website might interest some

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I just recently came across this Dutch website that I’m really enjoying. The story behind some great songs from the artist themselves is particularly interesting. RLJ on Chuckie E’s In Love, Plastic Bertrand on Ca Plane Pour Moi, Roger Hodgson on The Logical Song, Hugh Cornwall on Golden Brown, Paul Roberts on Driver’s Seat, etc etc.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGKyMnysQu0riPsQ_UyDjLw

Pete Doherty interview

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From interviews, I quite like the fella. And I like some of his choons. Yeah, he’s a junkie, a drug glorifier even, and all negative opinions on that are absolutely 100% valid. Still I like him though. He comes over as charming and sweet and vulnerable. Anyway, he’s got a new outfit, the Puta Madres, a new album and is doing the sales rounds. Interviews in today’s The Guardian and this video interview in NME:

Pete Doherty: “Smack and prison are subjects I’ll sit and talk about all day”

https://www.nme.com/news/music/pete-doherty-drugs-prison-marc-blanco-interview-2019-2481182

Brexit petition

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UK friends, please sign and share if you agree. Brexiteers are saying “When it reaches 17 million we’ll talk”. (I’m not usually an online petition believer, but no reason why it shouldn’t.)

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/241584

Ranking Spielberg

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I’ve been having a bit of a Spielberg-fest recently. Re-watching some of his old films. It got me wondering how his films are rated by the internet. A search of “Spielberg ranked” gave loads of sites. Rolling Stone, Time Out, Esquire, The Independent, etc. Most I disagreed strongly with. Outraged, I was! But what really struck me was the large variation in lists. Films that made top ten in some lists were near bottom in others. So I thought, I’ll ask the AW what the correct order is.

A couple of Spotify recommendations

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A couple of Spotify recommendations that might or might not interest the Massive. 1. Mishka’s 2009 album ‘Above The Bones’ has finally gone on Spotify today. A great reggae album. The “unplugged” version, ‘Guy With A Guitar’, is excellent too (and also on Spotify). 2. (Potentially, I suspect, more of interest) – Were the good and bad people of The Afterword aware that Martin Stephenson had recorded an acoustic version of his masterpiece, ‘Boat To Bolivia’? I certainly wasn’t til today. It’s called ‘Bolivia’, it’s on Spotify, and it’s pretty darn fab.

Sick Of The Flicks

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As a “companion piece” to Bingo Little’s Pick Of The Flicks thread, in much the same way as The God Delusion is a companion piece to The Bible, I’d like to propose a thread dedicated to your worst cinematic experiences of the year. I don’t so much mean “I hated it, can’t see why everyone else liked it” heated debates, but more those films that you would unreservedly tell everyone not to waste their time and money on, in the certain knowledge that anyone would be wasting their time and money. Our very own Golden Raspberries, if you like. So which movies represented -to use a way-too-common IMDB reviewers’ clichè- “two hours of your life that you’ll never get back”?

It’s just the normal noises in here

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Here’s a little something that probably won’t interest anyone: you know that bit at the start of Tom Petty’s Even The Losers where a female voice says “It’s just the normal noises in here”? Well, if you look on the interweb, the voice is generally considered to be that of Mike Campbell’s wife, Marcie. Warren Zanes’ biography of Petty confirms this, saying it was taken from a home recording when Campbell thought their washing machine was broken. But this week Australian rocker and Jessie’s girl Rick Springfield was a guest on Jonesy’s Jukebox and he claims matter-of-factly that the voice is his wife’s, as she was a 16-year-old answering phones at Sound City at the time. (9.15 into the broadcast). So there you go.

I did warn you it wouldn’t interest you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-UZbACrAKw

Springsteen – Freedom Cadence

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I just watched a film called Thank You For Your Service. I won’t write a review cos I’m a lazy feck, but it was ok. Not bad, not great. The based-on-true story of some soldiers who went a bit doolally after coming back from Iraq. Anyways, my favourite thing about it was Springsteen’s take on a standard army marching song that’s used in the end credits. Best thing he’s done for a long time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbhCPcM-Q8o