The Afterword

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Foxy Norwegian duo ponder ancient stones

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Hilarious stuff! Norweian duo Ylis performed this song on telly here last night.

My expectations had not been high. They were the ones responsible for that viral YouTube sensation: The Fox. If you have kids you’ve probably had that inflicted on you one hundred times. This is far better.

But it got me thinking. What other songs are there are about ancient ruins and arcane, timeless mysteries?

Atlantis, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Nazca Lines, corn circles, Macchu Picchu etc etc

Any good tunes you can think of?

Fabulous folk fiddlng from Skenet

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There’s nothing more exhilarating than some joyous fiddling and so this track by young folk rock band Skenet really hit the spot for me. They’ve just released their debut album, Allting rullar (Everything rolls? everything flows?), and you can give it a listen on Spotify.

A Swedish band that I really must try to catch live.

If this doesn’t get Mr Cheshire Cat donning his clogs and waving his hanky, I don’t know what will.

Long after they were famous

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Here’s a companion thread to Eddie’s Before they were famous.

Which artists have you seen a while after their moment in the spotlight?

I was lucky enough to catch the late, great Swedish jazz singer Monica Zetterlund at the Fasching jazz club here. By then she was sitting in a wheelchair and a shadow of her former self. But there were moments of beauty when I could really understand I was in the presence of greatness.

Then by contrast there was Arthur Lee on a sunny Saturday afternoon at the Roskilde festival a few years back with an enormous band doing fabulous versions of songs from Forever Changes. And there were Danish teenagers dancing to the music whose parents probably weren’t born in his heyday. Uplifting!

Your experiences please of life after the limelight.

Warner Bothers

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Our book circle have just been reading Alan Warner’s excellent The Deadman’s Pedal. Tonight, we’re off to the pub to discuss it over a pint or two of heavy.

It’s set in the 1970s and, as in other Warner novels, music plays quite an important role. The protagonist, Simon, makes friends with the wealthy, gauche, bohemian Alex from the posh house through their mutual enthusiasm for the Floyd, Hendrix etc.

Simon really fancies Alex’s very foxy sister, Varie, and In one scene he invites her home and she looks through his albums. (Nowadays she’d just look at his Spotify playlists): She find one she likes the look of but it is never named.

“The cover …was a photograph of robed figures worshipping at dawn, their silhouettes showing through the gaps in Stonehenge.” The centrefold has ” inner, psychedelic illustrations of sacred hearts, eyes in pyramids, bursting stars, Egyptian gods galore.”

“The first side is just awful” according to Simon.

Does this record actually exist? Or did Warner just invent the details?

Any ageing hippies among you who can help out with this?

Zen and the Art of …filling a student bookcase

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Moose, mentioned enjoying that cult work of philosophical fiction, Robert M Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance over on the One Book Wonder thread. I liked it too and what memories that book brought back! Back in the day there was no student room that did not boast a copy.

A Swedish friend was recently surprised that I did not know Boris Vian’s L’ecume des jours. Back in his inter-railing days, no rucksack was without it.

What other works of cult fiction come to mind? And how well have they stood the test of time?

John Fowles’s The Magus and Hesse’s Steppenwolf for example.

Along of course with Dark Side of the Moon, Tubular Bills.

Ants in their artistic pants!

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Being the long term road manager for Mick and Keef must be a doddle. It’s just a question of where in the set they’ll play Jumping Jack Flash and when to set off the fireworks and inflate the gigantic penis.

How different it must be working for someone like David Byrne. He’s always got a new project on. And very wonderful some of have been too, like the wonderful shows with St Vincent. If ever a live album should be released …….

Doing the One Hit Album thread made me think about those musicians who are constantly trying out new combinations and pushing the envelope.

So here’s a thread to celebrate them. The ones who can get no satisfaction from playing with the same combo year in, year out.

One book wonders?

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I suspect that Afterword bookworms are in a huff.

We’ve had one album wonders and one film wonders . But what about those writers who only produced one magnificent novel?

Here’s your chance to share those neglected masterpieces with us!

As ever, the rules are fairly elastic. If a writer’s publishers have dug up a piece of juvenilia to publish long after the masterpiece, that still counts.

I’m bagsying A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole. Punblished in 1980, 11 years after his suicide.

What one book wnders are on your shelves?

Ruth and Martin’s Album Club

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A friend sent me the link to this rather wonderful site.

A very simple idea. Each week, a guest writer who has never heard a classic album is asked to listen to it three times and then write a review.

http://ramalbumclub.com/

I suspect the AW will love it, not least because the album reviewed this week is the HJHM’s Help.

One film wonders

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Your turn now, cinephiles!

The One Album Wonder thread unearthed many a fine forgotten LP. 85 songs on the Spotify playlist and new contributions still coming in.

Now I would like the “hive mind of the Afterword” to the cinema.

I’d like to know about your favourite films which were a one-off in some way. The only time where a particular person directed, acted, wrote the screenplay did the soundtrack music etc.

Let’s be open-minded here. If, for example, an actor had a small role in another film, that doesn’t disqualify the movie you want to mention.

Let’s kick off with the only film that Charles Laughton directed: the magnificent Night of the Hunter.

Badger King commented on the last thread that he is something of a champion of the underdog. The Afterword is too, in my humble opinion

Here’s a chance for some cinematic underdogs to be Best in Show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5AKK_om1VU

One for the girls from the girls!

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Today is International Women’s Day.

in honour of this, please let’s have a favourite song by a female artist.

(A bit difficult I know, but I know you all like a challenge.)

I’ll kick off with Rosie Thomas and a gem of a song that’s a great favourite here in Kärrtorp.

Elis Regina, the Blue Peter Elephant and the Invisible Girls:Totally Tubetastic!

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The remarkable thing one finds on YouTube, especially when you’re not looking for them!

A few days ago I stumbled across a TV show clip of Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls. Today, to my delight, while looking for a track from one of my favourite Brazilian albums, Aquarela de Brazil, I found some clips of Elis Regina and Toots Thielemans performing live together. And then of course there’s the Blue Peter elephant having a poo.

What unexpected treasures have you found lately?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lMEozMLOF0

One album wonders?

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This morning I listened to Mary Margaret O’Hara for the first time in yonks. She still sounds wonderful.

One remarkable album, Miss America in 1988, and that’s pretty much it.

So my question to you is: which other bands or artists made one amazing album and then just vanished?

I’ll be fairly easy going about my definition of one album here. Someone like Linda Perhacs who made one LP and then vanished into obscurity for a very, very long time belongs here. Also musicians who then formed other bands are also welcome.

DuCo01 is a whizz in this area. He’s constantly discovering lost masterpieces.

This song belongs to P F Sloan. And he’s come to collect it!

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That girl with the golden voice, Rumer, is my pop star of the week.

I saw her at KGB here in Stockholm last night. Spellbinding. A set of pipes that leaves me gob-smacked.

What’s more, when I went up to the merch table and thanked her for a great show and apologised that I had no cash with me to buy a CD she gave me one. (A CD, Moose!). The kindness of pop stars! I was very chuffed.

She did several covers: Darryl Oates’s I can’t go for that, Todd Rundgren’s Love is the answer and Jimmy Webb’s P F Sloan. She explained that when she recorded the Webb song she had no idea that P F was still doing music. Since then she’s met him and he’s a really remarkable bloke.

That of course got me Googling and I discovered this very bizarre clip. Rumer singing that song and the great man wandering on to the stage and singing along.

Which of course got me thinking: are there any other examples of a person being sung about actually making a cameo in this way?

Imagine Bananarama doing Robert De Niro’s waiting and the Hollywood superstar walking in from » Continue Reading.

Is it a geezer or a girl? Androgynous voices

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Probably because Sweden is already staring to talk about Eurovision (not much happens here in the winter except the occasional Moose popping out of the forest looking for a snack), I got to thinking about Conchita Wurst. Yeah, that bad!

I then started to ponder about androgynous voices.

Which singers have you heard on the radio or elsewhere where you were uncertain whether it was a man or a woman? Or have there been any other occasions when you were surprised to discover the gender of an artist?

I’m not think about how an artist dresses although there might be a connection. A lumberjack wearing lipstick and mascara is probably not androgynous. Nor necessarily is a girl in a three piece suit.

Please try and think outside the box. The more unlikely your suggestions as to voices that hover in the no man’s land between male and female, the more interesting this will be.

I’ll kick off with a rather extraordinary chap from Brazil Ney Matogrosso. Chap in the broadest sense of the word.

Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät for ESC! Finand has gone its own way once again!

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I was delighted to read that Finland has chosen PKN to represent them in Eurovision. It may be a small country but it has an uncanny ability to go its own idiosyncratic way. I was delighted when Lordi gave Finland its first every ESC victory. Now I have something new to smile about.

They’ve gone for a middle-aged punk band with disabilities. How un-show-biz can you get? They hope “to raise awareness of people with learning disabilities – and “have a fucking good time” along the way.” A commendable mission statement.

I know that Eurovision is one big, ridiculous circus and has little to do with music as we know it here on the AW. But I’d like to think that these four both ordinary and unordinary Finnish chaps can liven it up and do some good along the way.

I confess a vested interest. We have a Down Syndrome daughter and something like this sends a message to her, her pals and kids with disabilities all over Europe: the world is full of all kinds of possibilities that you never even dreamt of.

I will of course encourage her to go into atonal jazz or form a prog » Continue Reading.

The Beeb knows best?

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An article in The Independent tells how the world famous sequence of Sir David playing with a gorilla family almost never got broadcast. BBC producers thought it was too trivial. Fun but not sufficiently scientific.

A public service broadcaster has a difficult task to provide the best programming for the populace. It’s not surprising that a patrician mentality develops. Lord Reith seems to have had no doubts as to knowing what the great British public should be listening to.

Any other stories about how a broadcaster got it horribly wrong or wonderfully?

My son adores Sir Dave and I told him this story.

“Those gorillas were really intelligent creatures. They knew he was a celebrity. Get in the frame with Attenborough and you are bound to be on Telly.”

Yeah, right.

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/gorillas-nearly-missed-bbc-producers-didnt-want-to-broadcast-sir-david-attenboroughs-famed-rwandan-encounter-10077729.html

Radio is anything but gaga

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So many choices for the modern radio listener! Here in Sweden we have a wonderful web radio channel called P2 Värld. No presenter, just a day full of wonderfully varied music with an emphasis on roots, World Music, Americana, jazz blues and folk. Paradise!

And you can listen to it all over the world.

http://sverigesradio.se/sida/default.aspx?programid=2619

And there’s a site so you can find out what the track you just listened to was.

Here’s a cracker they just played by Souad Massi.

Babette revisited: one for the cinephiles

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I’ve recently joined the film club at our local cinema and this week we were treated to Gabriel Axel’s Babette’s Feast from 1987. A wonderful Danish film which in its restraint, lack of melodrama and gentle humour reminded me of several modern classics from Denmark such as Italian for beginners. Have Danish films always been like this?

One aspect of the film jarred though: the use of an omniscient narrator. “Show don’t tell” I thought to myself. I thought of Vicky Cristina Barcelona where the narrator was even more obtrusive.

In films as in novels, there can be two kinds of narrators. A first person narrator: either the central character or someone else who appears in the film. Taxi Driver for example. This usually works rather well as one gets an insight into the character.

There’s also the omniscient, God-like narrator, as in Babette as in Vicky Cristina. Far less likely to work in my opinion.

The Big Lebowski offered an interesting variation on this. The disembodied voice we’ve been hearing throughout the film actually makes an appearance as a character of sorts at the end of the film.

AW Cinephiles, I’d like to hear about other films which » Continue Reading.

The season of the which?

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The big movie here in Sweden at the moment is The Circle about a group of Swedish teenage witches. I mentioned it previously over at the FB Terrapin Hut. Benny Andersson both produced and did the music. Mrs KFD, who does not enjoy horror movies, has seen it and it got a big thumbs up.

So, of course, I was interested to read this piece about the rise of witchcraft among young feminists.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/24/witch-symbol-feminist-power-azealia-banks

It sounds a bit wacky but it’s an interesting sign of the times and shouldn’t just be laughed off. Stop that sniggering at the back there!

Two questions.

Has witchcraft made an appearance here on the AW? Anybody noticed dried toads lying around? Graffiti of broomsticks in the loos? Naked lasses dancing round toadstools at midnight?

And now of course, I’d like to know: Which is your favourite witch?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lic7iLWwC18

Maura Guerrera

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A Facebook pal in Brittany suggested I gave Ms Guerrera here a listen. I can do better than that. I can post her on the AW, thus ensuring international stardom.

I have a soft spot for the kind of small, tightly packed folk club where this was filmed. Full of serious young men stroking their goatees or serious older men scratching their bald heads and knocking back the local cider.

I’m not sheepish about my enthusiasm for Aardman!

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I confess! I do like to get down with the kids.

But yesterday I felt that perhaps I’d gone a bit too far. There I was enthusiastically waiting to see a film at our local cinema. Reflexen. And almost all the rest of the audience was about three years old. All already fans of Shaun the Sheep. No doubt about it! Aardman appeal to all ages.

I’ve been a fan of Wallace and Gromit for many years and I was doubtful that Aardman could ever top that. How wrong I was, The Shaun the Sheep TV show is a very witty gem. But would it succeed in the transition to the big screen? I needn’t have worried. It’s a delight from beginning to end.

We saw the Penguins from Madagascar film recently and really enjoyed it. But by contrast with Shaun, it is very bombastic. My favourite sheep doesn’t save the planet from imminent destruction from a super-villain. Aardman’s charm is that they use such sparse resources to weave their magic. Also, there is scarcely a word of dialogue. The film makers derive much inspiration from the masters of the silent film I suspect.

The three-year- olds enjoyed the » Continue Reading.

Hot from the chazzas of Ipanema

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Difficult not to be fascinated by a re-issue that’s got a story behind it.

Mojo just gave 5 stars to this 1958 Brazilian album, Tam… Tam Tam..! which was originally the soundtrack of a very successful theatre production which toured the world. DJ Giles Peterson was desperate to get his hands on a copy of the original vinyl as you can see by the Youtube clip. He’s the sort of avid collector who has doubtless spent many an hour in the chazzas of Rio.

Going on TV and saying you are desperate to get hold of an album is perhaps not such a brilliant tactic. Once the word got out that he was interested, the price went through the ceiling.

And now we can all listen to this landmark recording on Spotify.

But it took some hard work in the studio before it was ready for release.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/1169982-jose-prates-miecio-askanasy-tam-tam-tam

Brazilian music conquered the world in the early 60s thanks largely to smash hit The Girl from Ipanema. Strangely I have little memory of my home town of Pinner being conquered. I was too busy trying to get hold hold of the latest release by singing piglets, Pinky and Perky.

Any other » Continue Reading.

The return of Sofie, Queen of Sweaters

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The magnificent Ms Gråbøl was on the Skavlan talk show last night. (She was speaking in Danish but mercifully there were Swedish subtitles.)

We are already big fans and she managed to further consolidate her status as one of the most intelligent thoughtful actresses of our time. Nice sense of humour too.

She talked at some length and with great honesty about her year struggling against breast cancer. She pulled no punches and was frank about how difficult it was to be brave and heroic and accept help from other people. It was a great relief for her to be part of an ensemble when filming Fortitude. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/life-after-the-killing-sofie-grbl-is-set-to-star-in-new-sky-atlantic-drama-fortitude-9966023.html

I’ve posted a clip from her first movie. You all speak fluent Danish, eh?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79IEpkjmy1Y

While we were twiddling our thumbs

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over there on FB, we had a thread with songs about waiting.

And what a remarkable variety of tunes we got. Thanks to everyone who contributed.

spotify:user:kaisfatdad:playlist:3fJVFsQdD50QaP8hz1wyPp

Anything that we forgot?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOmZimH00oo