The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Jim Carter: Lonnie Donegan and Me

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“Lonnie had opened the door and a whole generation rushed though”: Jim Carter (that’s Downton Abbey’s butler “Carson” to you and me).

“A lot of us got out of the factory thanks to Lonnie”: Ringo Starr

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Before the Beatles, there were really only two men in Britain who could truly be called giants in the field of popular music. They were Hank Marvin and Lonnie Donegan. You may think that’s a rather glib statement, ignoring as it does all the great musicians and producers who were toiling away in the pop, jazz and folk worlds. But in terms of longevity and the influence they had on what was to follow, I do believe that before 1962 no two names were more important in British pop music than Hank and Lonnie.

Now read on….

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The Return Of The Son Of 1001 Albums etc.

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Now where was I? Oh yes… “The Blueprint” by Jay-Z. For the first couple of tracks I was wondering “When’s it going to start?”. Somewhere in the next one it did start, eventually. The tempo of the entire album seems to be a sort of slow shuffle. Some nice musical ideas throughout, but basically it’s this geezer going on and on about how f***ing great he is despite the hardships and troubles of his life. A too-long (well over an hour) borefest in my opinion. I nodded off for a while about 2/3 of the way in and don’t think I missed very much. “Blunderbuss” by Jack White shows his versatility in that just about every song is different from the others. All original compositions apart from one cover, too. The playing is exemplary, the material not quite there I feel, and I’m not sure I like his voice much when he’s singing in the higher registers. A good but not great one. I don’t feel a need to own this. “Bone Machine” by Tom Waits. I was surprised to discover I didn’t have this and was unfamiliar with nearly all of it. Some pretty extreme examples of what has » Continue Reading.