Looking back at my music lexicon so far, it’s pretty obvious that I’m a child of my time – more specifically from about the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies.That isn’t an apology: I suspect that most people’s musical tastes are largely defined by their formative years. Lucky me. As we reach the letter ‘K’, however, while…
When people say to me ‘you couldn’t make it up’ I can only agree. Imagination is not my strong point, which is why today’s instalment of WordPress’ ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ poses something of a challenge: “Fictional Elevator. You’re stuck in an elevator with an intriguing stranger. Write this scene.” You lost me at…
This week, Helen wants a song with a name in the title. No shortage of them, that’s for sure, but to give everyone a rest from the Grateful Dead (‘Althea’, ‘Bertha’, ‘Cassidy’, ‘Corinna’, ‘Loose Lucy’ et al) here’s a very early (1967) single by one of the greatest – and certainly the loudest – rock…
Is it me* or is WordPress getting a bit personal, not to say voyeuristic, with this latest instalment of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’: “Feed your senses. Write down the first sight, sound, smell and sensation you experienced on waking up today. Pick the one you’re most drawn to and write. (For a bigger challenge,…
“All I know, I could not leave her there” It’s been a few weeks since the Grateful Dead featured in Song Lyric Sunday, but this week’s theme of ‘flowers’ provides a good opportunity to redress that. Both words and music of this sweet little song were written by Jerry Garcia’s long-term collaborator, Robert Hunter. Oh…
The first time I heard (or even heard of) Janis Joplin was on the BBC’s classical music station, Radio 3. Back in 1968, it also brodcast ball-by-ball cricket commentary on England test matches. It being the school holidays and I being a bit of a nerd, I was planning to score the upcoming test match…
First of all, many congratulations and best wishes to Helen from This Thing Called Life One Word At A Time on her marriage yesterday (which, quite unrelatedly, was also my 65th birthday). Appropriately, the theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday is precious metal or stones. This song is not about love in the romantic…
Pessimist or optimist? Who cares? Apart, that is, from the good folks at WordPress, where today’s instalment of ‘365 Days of Writing Prompts’ poses the familiar question: ‘The glass? Is the glass half-full or half-empty?’ A true pedant (who? moi?) could deconstruct this interesting philosophical question for hours on end. Assuming that there really is…
“There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.” – Robert Ingersoll This week, Helen is looking for a song that deals with ‘consequences’, whether good or bad. As she rightly points out, lots of songs are, in one way or another, about some consequence of an earlier action, as any…
The letter ‘I’ isn’t exactly awash with possibilities for a Music Lexicon – unless you genuinely are/were a fan of INXS, which I’m not/wasn’t. Fortunately though, for me there was one standout candidate to fill this particular vacancy – The Incredible String Band. ‘Psychedelic folk’ is a fair enough shorthand description of the Incredibles, so…
the only deadhead in the hameau 