It’s hot. It is close to midnight but it’s still as hot as an English summer day. I am not yet drunk but I am well on the way there. I have travelled nearly 2,500 miles to be there and we are in a street full of youthful people and lined with bars. One of the kamackis is trying to entice us in and this song comes on. I am lost in the perfection of the moment, contemplating the joy of it all. Just happy to be in that moment and not thinking or worrying about anything. A moment of nirvana.
Then the kamacki tugs me arm and asks if I like REM. I would have thought my swaying to the music would have given it away, but that was the moment broken.
(Dave and John in Bar Street, Kos Town)
Rewind six months and I was totally unaware of REM. When Losing My Religion was released I was prompted to listen to them, but started with their first album Murmur. Murmur is very different from Out Of Time, separated by ten years and a lot of experience. Stuart at Compact Music was ready each week with the next album from the band.
I love their first eight albums unreservedly, even the third “difficult” album Fables of the Reconstruction. How can you not like an album with tracks like Driver 8 or Maps and Legends? The vocals are hard to hear distinctly, but the interpretation of what Michael Stipe is saying is part of the fun.
Their first five albums were for IRS, an independent label (and their first recording – the EP Chronic Town is also stunning and an essential part of their catalogue). Even tracks like The One I Love are not what people think – it is a searing response to the end of a relationship. Another favourite track from the late 80s is Cuyahoga, about the First Nations (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1701 ).
They moved to Warner Brothers and commercial success arrived with the album Green. Highlights include Orange Crush, about the use of agent orange defoliant in Vietnam (that also had long term impact on the health of the Vietnamese). World Leader Pretend is about rich people treating the world like Monopoly (similar to a comic strip by Phil Elliott, I always wondered if they had read that or it was just a case of cultural coincidence).
After Out of Time 1992 saw the release of the follow up album Automatic For the People. Drive and Everybody Hurts are the most famous tracks, which I think are the weakest on that outing. Man On the Moon (about Andy Kaufman wrestling Jerry Lawler) and The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (with elements of The Lion Sleeps Tonight) are the best singles. Ignoreland is a searing indictment of the Reagan era attitude to the poor. It ends with Find the River and Nightswimming, far better than the two more famous tracks.
(Man on the Moon video)
It would be hard for any band to keep up that success rate and REM changed to a much more rock direction with Monster. There was still one more great album – New Adventures in H-Fi to come, but after Bill Berry left they were not quite the same, but there were still beautiful tracks like Imitation of Life.
Losing My Religion is the easy choice – it is so famous. In some ways I would like to choose Texarkana from the same album as it is quite gorgeous and more people should hear it, but the memories associate with Losing My Religion make it one of my favourite songs ever.
In my head I can always go back to that moment in Bar Street. I’m still young and it is that sweet spot in time that was called the end of history, where the world looked like it was growing up.
Losing My Religion
Playlist:
Gardening At Night
Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)
Wolves, Lower
Radio Free Europe
Pilgrimage
West of the Fields
Shaking Through
Talk About the Passion
Harborcoat
Seven Chinese Brothers
Pretty Persuasion
(Don’t Go Back to)Rockville
Feeling Gravity’s Pull
Maps and Legends
Driver 8
Kohoutek
Cant Get There From Here
Wendell Gee
Fall On Me
Cuyahoga
Hyena
What If We Give It Away?
Swan Swan H
Superman
Finest Worksong
Exhuming McCarthy
It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
I am not usually affected when famous people die. It is sad if it is someone whose work you admire, especially if they die when they are young (Kurt Cobain https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1855 , John Lennon https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/617 or Bob Marley https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1677 to name a few). I really hate the hysterical outpouring of grief for someone people have never known, typified by the death of Diana, a Sloane Ranger who was so rich and privileged due to marrying a Prince that her charity work was actually her job, yet she gets kudos for doing that as the Princess of Hearts.
I was surprised to be so devastated by the death of one particular musician. Not only was he one of the most important figures in music of the last 50 years, he was only 69 and still producing quality material. His last album, released just two days before his death, was his best for years and acclaimed as a classic.
David Bowie.
I would love to say that one of his classic tracks was the first I heard, but it wasn’t. It was The Laughing Gnome, a novelty track that he made in the sixties. It was often played on the weekend radio show Junior Choice. I also heard Space Oddity quite a bit (I assume as it was re-released in 1975).
That track was hard to square with the next track I remember – Sound and Vision from Bowie’s great album Low. Recorded in Berlin (which he made such an iconic place for other bands https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2281 ) it had marked Bowie’s latest shift in style to electronic music. Our family believed the chorus of “Blue, blue, electric blue” was “Moo, moo, electric moo”. Nowhere to find written lyrics in those day.
In 1980 I was not au fait with the music press and just reacted to songs that I heard on the radio. Ashes to Ashes was released and it was even more surprising when I saw the video on TV. Not only did the song lyrics refer to the Major Tom character from Space Oddity but he was in the video. The video was very artistic and included future New Romantic icon Steve Strange from Visage.
(Strange on the left and Bowie as Pierrot)
Bowie was one of the inspirations of the New Romantic movement (along with Roxy Music https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1694 ). The Scary Monsters album preceded the rise of the New Romantics (at least as a commercial force) and is ahead of the game with a far more guitar sound than the synth pop groups would have.
I was not as impressed with the follow up, Lets Dance. It was insanely popular and the title track was huge (and noticeably absent from my playlist below). Bowie collaborated with Nile Rodgers, the amazingly talented member of Chic to produce a very different sound, for him. But this was not him leading as he had done for over a decade. My favourite track was Chinagirl, which had been written for Iggy Pop ten years earlier.
(Chinagirl)
The rest of the decade saw declining returns, culminating in Bowie forming Tin Machine, as he had never been in a group before.
The nineties saw his record label start a process of remastering and reissuing his albums on a monthly basis, including extra tracks. Young Americans had the two tracks restored that had been bumped for the John Lennon collaborations (and they were far better than those tracks). It was a pleasure each month to get an accelerated trip through Bowie’s career. The characters of Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane and The Thin White Duke, the plastic soul of Young Americans, then the Berlin trilogy of Low, Heroes and The Lodger. He was ahead of the game for so long.
(Ziggy Stardust)
In 1982 I had to babysit my younger siblings, so I was allowed to have a video rented and I asked for Bowie’s mid-70s science fiction vehicle – The Man Who Fell To Earth. I asked because it was Bowie, I did not realise that it was a pretty adult film (with graphic nudity) and there was a discussion of whether I should be allowed to watch it. I am glad I did – it is a powerful film, though depressing like much of the science fiction from before Star Wars (Silent Running and Rollerball are other examples).
(The Man Who Fell To Earth)
After Tin Machine Bowie climbed again. His albums got better and he produced important music right up until his death.
It is a shame that he was not at the 2012 Olympics opening ceremony to perform Heroes when the British team came out – that was an amazing night (and I am biased as my daughter Chantelle was part of the opening parade with one of the teams as a cauldron bearer). Maybe it was better for him to stay cool.
(Blackstar)
A titan of modern music, the world is a worse place without him.
I still think this is quite unlike anything else that I have ever heard and just beats out 1984 as my favourite Bowie track.
I am counting the JAMs, The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu and the K Foundation as one group here. It was going to be about how they withdrew all their music at the height of their success in a Great Garbo move, then they bloody go and release it again on streaming services after nearly 30 years!
Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (or Rockman Rock and King Boy D as their music personas were known) initially released sample heavy hip hop but got into trouble as they had not cleared the rights – especially for The Dancing Queen sample on the The Queen and I. They had to destroy all the copies of their first album – a version without samples barely ran 25 minutes.
Their first public taste of glory was to promote their book How To Have a Number One Single they wrote the track Doctorin’ the TARDIS. Using a Gary Glitter riff, a Sweet riff, samples of Harry Enfield and a vocoder, it was supposedly their car, Ford Timelord, that was the creative genius. A lot of Who fans hated it – I like the mash up ethic.
(Performing as The Timelords – Rockman Rock and K Boy D)
Dance music became the thing in the late 80s but I was too busy studying and working until Madchester’s music made an impression on me (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2305 ). Pure dance music was not my thing until I saw the KLF video for 3am Eternal. It was a Saturday – I had woken with a hangover, eaten a cooked breakfast and played badminton with Dave before returning home to flake out. The video was on a lunch time show and the start – with the rattling machine guns and the quote, “this is radio freedom” got my attention.
I like the follow up even more – Last Train to Trancentral (live from the Lost Continent) – there are dozens of versions of every track by the KLF – I have at least 25 of this one. The follow up, Justified and Ancient on the album The White Room is an ethereal song. When it was released as a single it was rerecorded in the Stadium House style with vocals by Tammy Wynette (though the longer Make Mine a 99 version is as good).
Their videos are crazy in a good way.
There was a new version of What Time is Love? For the American market with far more guitars and vocals from Glenn Lord (formerly of Deep Purple https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/1271 ) and a single under the name of the JAMs, It’s Grim Up North, before a performance at the Brits, with Extreme Noise Terror doing a death metal version of 3am Eternal. That was it – they quit the business and deleted all their music.
They burnt a million pounds as an artistic statement. In 1997 they released Fuck the Millennium under the name of the K Foundation. But that was it.
(3am Eternal – Top Mix)
(The KLF’s farewell performance at the 1992 Brit Awards, with Extreme Noise Terror. Bill Drummond with the gun)
On holiday in 1991 the KLF pulled me into the dance music scene, then there was Biz Nizz (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/68 ). I fell in love with Tracks like Nomad’s I Wanna Give You Devotion, Dirty Cash by The Adventures of Stevie V and Ride On Time by Black Box.
I tried to pick up all the KLF singles and albums when I got home. Their Chill Out album is my favourite to listen to when I cannot sleep. 45 minutes of ambient music and travel noise. I was glad I did as it was just months later when it was all deleted.
The rapping is by Ricardo da Force, who also featured on N Trance singles. He passed away in 2013 at the age of just 46. Rest in Paradise – an underrated part of 90s music.
The KLF got me to appreciate a whole new form of music. They changed my mindset in that holiday where I learnt so much about life from my mates.
Funny story. I took the opening seconds of Last Train to Trancentral and made a text alert out of it. Standing in a queue in a post office it went off – “OK everybody lie down on the floor and keep calm.” It caused a moment of panic with the pensioners in front of me. I changed the tone.
Last Train to Trancentral
Playlist:
All You Need Is Love (original version)
The Queen and I (original version)
Whitney Joins the Jams
Downtown
Burn the Bastards
Doctorin’ the TARDIS (12 inch version)
Kylie Said To Jason (Full Length version)
Chill Out
What Time is Love? (Live from Trancentral)
The Church of the KLF
No More Rain
3AM Eternal (Live at the SSL)
Last Train to Trancentral (Live From the Lost Continent)
Justified and Ancient (Stand by the Jams)
America (What Time is Love) (Uncensored full length version)
A lot of British people are bemused by how Donald Trump won in 2016 and the Republicans remain a strong force in the USA, despite getting less votes than the Democrats. I suggest that they look closer to home for an electoral system that does not work.
Britain’s political system is totally broken. Only two countries in Europe still operate the first past the post system for elections – the UK and that bastion of democracy – Belarus.
In a previous post (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2213 ) I pointed out how The Queen failed in her one challenge as Head of State. Long followed democratic norms are no longer followed by parties – arguably started by Tony Blair, in many cases Parliament has become irrelevant.
When was the last time the UK government won a majority of the votes (coalitions aside)? 1935. Since then only the Conservative/ Liberal coalition of 2010 and the Lib/ Lab pact during the 1976-79 Parliaments have actually had a majority of the electorate voting for them.
Some tables below on elections since 1931. In yellow are the party (or parties) forming a government. No party is highlighted in the first election of 1974 as no majority government was formed (for the sake of not getting bogged down it only covers the elections, not the effects of by elections, which affected the Parliaments of 1964 and the second 1974 election). The 2017 government is a minority as it never had a coalition with the DUP.
These are the seats each party won in each election
Seats won
CON
LAB
LD
PC/SNP
Other
Total
Majority
1931
522
52
36
0
5
615
215
1935
429
154
21
0
11
615
122
1945
210
393
12
0
25
640
73
1950
298
315
9
0
3
625
3
1951
321
295
6
0
3
625
9
1955
345
277
6
0
2
630
30
1959
365
258
6
0
1
630
50
1964
304
317
9
0
0
630
2
1966
253
364
12
0
1
630
49
1970
330
288
6
1
5
630
15
1974
Feb
297
301
14
9
14
635
1974
Oct
277
319
13
14
12
635
2
1979
339
269
11
4
12
635
22
1983
397
209
23
4
17
650
72
1987
376
229
22
6
17
650
51
1992
336
271
20
7
17
651
11
1997
165
418
46
10
20
659
89
2001
166
412
52
9
20
659
83
2005
198
355
62
9
22
646
32
2010
306
258
57
9
20
650
38
2015
330
232
8
59
21
650
5
2017
317
262
12
39
20
650
-8
2019
365
202
11
52
20
650
40
This is the share of the vote. Not only was 1935 the last single party government to get a majority, the ability to get overwhelming majorities on shares of the vote under 45% has skyrocketed since 1979.
Share of vote (%)
CON
LAB
LD
PC/SNP
Other
Total
1931
60.7%
30.9%
7.0%
0.1%
1.3%
100%
1935
53.3%
38.0%
6.7%
0.1%
1.9%
100%
1945
39.6%
48.0%
9.0%
0.2%
3.2%
100%
1950
43.4%
46.1%
9.1%
0.1%
1.3%
100%
1951
48.0%
48.8%
2.6%
0.1%
0.6%
100%
1955
49.7%
46.4%
2.7%
0.2%
1.0%
100%
1959
49.4%
43.8%
5.9%
0.4%
0.6%
100%
1964
43.4%
44.1%
11.2%
0.5%
0.8%
100%
1966
41.9%
48.0%
8.5%
0.7%
0.9%
100%
1970
46.4%
43.1%
7.5%
1.7%
1.4%
100%
1974
Feb
37.9%
37.2%
19.3%
2.6%
3.1%
100%
1974
Oct
35.8%
39.3%
18.3%
3.4%
3.1%
100%
1979
43.9%
36.9%
13.8%
2.0%
3.3%
100%
1983
42.4%
27.6%
25.4%
1.5%
3.1%
100%
1987
42.3%
30.8%
22.6%
1.7%
2.6%
100%
1992
41.9%
34.4%
17.8%
2.3%
3.5%
100%
1997
30.7%
43.2%
16.8%
2.5%
6.8%
100%
2001
31.6%
40.7%
18.3%
2.5%
6.9%
100%
2005
32.4%
35.2%
22.0%
2.2%
8.2%
100%
2010
36.1%
29.0%
23.0%
2.2%
9.7%
100%
2015
36.8%
30.4%
7.9%
5.3%
19.5%
100%
2017
42.3%
40.0%
7.4%
3.5%
6.8%
100%
2019
43.6%
32.1%
11.5%
4.4%
8.4%
100%
If seats were won based on the percentage vote the seats would look like this:
Seats based on % share
CON
LAB
LD
PC/SNP
Other
Total
Majority
1931
373
190
43
1
8
615
66
1935
328
234
41
1
12
615
20
1945
253
307
58
1
20
640
-13
1950
271
288
57
1
8
625
-24
1951
300
305
16
0
4
625
-13
1955
313
292
17
1
6
630
-2
1959
311
276
37
2
4
630
-4
1964
273
278
71
3
5
630
-37
1966
264
303
54
4
5
630
-12
1970
292
271
47
11
9
630
-23
1974
241
236
123
16
19
635
1974
228
249
116
22
20
635
-68
1979
279
235
88
13
21
635
-39
1983
276
179
165
10
20
650
-49
1987
275
200
147
11
17
650
-50
1992
273
224
116
15
23
651
-53
1997
202
285
110
16
45
659
-45
2001
208
268
120
17
46
659
-61
2005
209
227
142
14
53
646
-96
2010
234
188
150
14
63
650
59
2015
239
198
51
35
127
650
-86
2017
275
260
48
23
44
650
-50
2019
284
208
75
28
55
650
-41
The 2010 Parliament would not be an outlier – it would be the norm.
Finally the winners and losers in this mismatch. Positives are winners, negatives are losers.
Difference
CON
LAB
LD
PC/SNP
Other
1931
149
-138
-7
-1
-3
1935
101
-80
-20
-1
-1
1945
-43
86
-46
-1
5
1950
27
27
-48
-1
-5
1951
21
-10
-10
-0
-1
1955
32
-15
-11
-1
-4
1959
54
-18
-31
-2
-3
1964
31
39
-62
-3
-5
1966
-11
61
-42
-4
-4
1970
38
17
-41
-10
-4
1974
56
65
-109
-7
-5
1974
49
70
-103
-8
-8
1979
60
34
-77
-9
-9
1983
121
30
-142
-6
-3
1987
101
29
-125
-5
-0
1992
63
47
-96
-8
-6
1997
-37
133
-64
-6
-25
2001
-42
144
-68
-8
-26
2005
-11
128
-80
-5
-31
2010
72
70
-93
-5
-43
2015
91
34
-43
24
-106
2017
42
2
-36
16
-24
2019
81
-6
-64
24
-35
Total
1,044
748
-1,418
-27
-346
The Liberals/ LibDems (and their voters) have historically lost, though more recently UKIP and the Greens have been victims too.
I understand that people may not have voted the same ways in protest with a different system. It still appears to me that I have lived in a minority run country for all but 5 years of my life.
The other great unfairness of the system is not all votes are equal. Live in a constituency with a huge majority for one side and your vote is useless (in Brightlingsea or Newham the corpse of Jimmy Saville (deceased UK celebrity, unmasked after his death as a massive paedophile and sexual abuser) could run as the candidate for Tories or Labour respectively and win).
There needs to be change.
Constitution
The UK needs a written constitution. All the bits and pieces and accepted norms are no barrier to charlatans and demagogues. I do not want to be taken to war again by a Prime Minister in thrall to an idiot from Texas. It would define the roles of the legislature, judiciary, Cabinet and the roles in there. A series of moderated meetings of statistically selected members of the public would bring debate and decide on this – moderated by an independent panel. This has been done in many other countries.
I would get rid of the monarchy, but we could keep a ceremonial one if people really wanted it, whatever we need a head of state. The argument against this would be that they are a political figure. I suggest a Head of State in charge of enforcing the Constitution. Their only roles would be to ensure that the other parts of the system follow the rules. They could override the Prime Minister in constitutional matters.
There would be a supreme court in charge of legislation under the constitution. It would not be political and membership would not be open to anyone who had served in the upper or lower house. Appointment would be based on interviews and their performance in the judiciary, not in the power of the Constitutional Head or the Prime Minister.
The behaviour of individual MPs and Senators would be monitored and enforced by a Committee for standards under the constitutional head.
There would be a strict code of misconduct. Lying to either house, briefing the media before Parliament, misuse of public funds, etc. would be offences that would have them removed from either House.
The Upper House
The USA manages on an upper chamber of 100, yet the UK has over 800 Lords and Ladies, 93 of whom are still hereditary. I would suggest an upper chamber of 99 based on the same system as the European elections were with constituencies, with numbers scaled up.
London
11
South West England
8
South East England
14
East of England
9
West Midlands
10
East Midlands
7
North West England
11
North East England
4
Yorkshire and the Humber
8
Wales
5
Scotland
8
Northern Ireland
4
The upper chamber would act as a check on the Lower House and act as a buffer against illegal activities, prior to the Constitutional Head. There would be no question of them not being able to act as they see now as unelected members.
Terms would be six years with a third of members (roughly) being elected every two years.
The Lower House
Lovers of first past the post say that any PR will remove the link to constituencies. This is totally rubbish. If there was a house of 401 MPs then 300 could have constituencies and the others be top ups. Alternatively like the upper house there could be regional groups that elect up to ten MPs and they would be assigned a smaller area within that to be responsible for surgeries, etc.
The Lower House would have a sensible working schedule, that does not include late night sitting. Voting and attendance remotely would be allowed for representatives, especially those from constituencies far from London.
There would be coalition government – I think there would be a Corbynite Left, a Centre Left, the Lib Dems, a One Nation Tory party and an ERG type party, plus regional parties and the Greens. Good. I Have no love for UKIP, but all those voters had no parliamentary voice. There would also be no mileage in appeasing extremists as the more moderate would have alternative parties to go to. Some people do not want coalitions – ignoring the fact that we already have them – within the two main parties where the deals are made behind closed doors and a change of leader can bring a total change of direction.
The current state of devolution means that Scottish and Welsh MPs can vote on matters that do not affect their constituents. This may affect how governing coalitions are made up, but fundamentally the principle of having a say on what does not affect you is unfair.
MPs and Senators
The reduction in the number of representatives would mean that salaries would be higher. This may annoy some people but I want the best, smartest people to be running the country. I would then ban any external jobs. These are full time jobs, not part time exercises where they can be topped up with directorships etc. Any shareholdings would have to be placed in a blind trust, run by a genuinely independent group of trustees (possibly a body set up to do it). Salary rises would be linked to a weighted average of public sector workers.
Conversely MPs and senators would not be allowed to use private medicine or private schools. Anyone running these services for the public has to be users of them. This may be seen as unfair but people do not have to run for office. Bars and restaurants in Parliament would no longer be subsidised.
MPs and Senators from outside London would have accommodation in London. Several blocks of flats would be built and furnished (with security) so there would be no expenses scandals for flipping.
Any expenses would have to be supported by receipts, unlike the current situation where they can have £500 without a receipt.
Rather than office allowances each MP or Senator would have an office provided with a set number of workers. These would be employed centrally and subject to proper recruitment processes, rather than the current situation where family members are disproportionately employed.
In order to better reflect society each party would not be able to have more representatives (percentage wise) than the proportion of the general population that attended public schools. Lists would have to reflect the general diversity of the UK population.
I would not allow just anyone to be elected. Recent statements from ministers and MPs have shown a devastating lack of knowledge (like Dominic Raab not knowing a lot of trade goes through Dover or Priti Patel and Liz Truss in general). I would introduce exams that would have to be passed to stand for election. There would be supplementary papers to qualify to be eligible for roles as Ministers or select committee chairs.
I would also have term limits for representative roles. I suggest no one would be able to remain as an elected representative member for more than 23 years (or the end of the Parliament that their 25th year falls in).
Another Jim Steinman produced track (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2242 ). A soaring, crashing epic of a track by the Sisters of Mercy, Three albums with three different line ups, the only links being Andrew Eldritch and the drum machine Doktor Avalanche. The best album is their third, Vision Thing, with tracks like Doctor Jeep – a reflection of the Reagan years. This is from their second album, Floodland, when it soars (like on this track and Dominion/Mother Russia) it is unbeatable, on other tracks it is less good.
The title is so apposite for the main part of this entry.
It is Alan Moore time again. This time it was his use of lyrics by Jimi Hendrix in his Watchmen series that inspired me to listen to Hendrix’s work. At the time Watchmen was unusual – a prestige format limited series with no adverts. Alan Moore was already being acclaimed as one of the greatest writers the medium had ever seen and, in many ways, this is his definitive work. It is on the New York Times list of 100 most important novels of the 20th century (yes it was published episodically, but so was Dickens). The most important thing was that Moore chose to things in the format that could not be done in other media. I recently reread the Absolute Edition and I had, not forgotten exactly, but had taken its excellence for granted. It has not aged.
If you do not know the story it is set in an alternative 1985 where Richard Nixon is still President. The reason for this is that there is one true superhuman in the world (there are a lot of people in costumes, but none of the others have actual powers). Dr Manhattan has phenomenal powers to rearrange reality, as well as seeing time totally differently so he exists across his whole lifespan at the same time. Effectively a weapon of mass destruction that let America win the Vietnam War easily.
The story starts with the murder of one of the non-powered costumes heroes – The Comedian. The investigation leads the heroes on a journey that illustrates the history of that world. There were also end papers, such as extracts from books, providing more background. Plus, it is intercut with a pirate story that a character in the comic is reading.
The story leads to two characters –Nite Owl and Rorschach – crashing in Antarctica and getting on little scooters for the last bit of their journey. So, the line over this was “Two riders were approaching”.
(The riders approach)
In the film version they use the same music for the scene, but has the two characters walking rather than riding. Kind of a strange decision.
(The walkers approach)
The film actually follows the comic incredibly closely, almost like it has been used for storyboarding (if you have the director’s cut it includes the pirate story too). The only innovation is the potted history of the alternate world shown during the opening credits. It is incredibly important for people to watch this and if you have friends and family who ignore the credits rewind them and make them watch. There is a lot to process.
Whether or not you think this slavish adaption works or not (even though the ending is changed a bit) depends on whether you think that the film creators would have improved it. Given Hollywood’s treatment of Moore’s other works like V For Vendetta, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell it would seem to me that this slavish approach was better.
I had known about Hendrix before this, by reputation and an album cover (remember pre-Internet it was harder to find out who or what things were). One Saturday in Colchester in 1983 I was idly waiting for the meeting time with the rest of the family to go home in a record shop in Long Wyre Street (gone for over 30 years). It was a gloomy independent store, but it had thriving business due to a rumour that purchases there counted towards the singles and album charts.
I was leafing through the albums and got to J (record stores even then were filing by first name, which annoyed me). I saw Hendrix’s albums, first Axis: Bold as Love and then Electric Ladyland which shocked me.
(The cover of Electric Ladyland)
This was not the kind of album cover that I was used to and I was surprised it was just in the record bins like any other. Album covers had always given the opportunity for a statement – whether artistic or to shock (not that the two are mutually exclusive). The size of a vinyl album made this a thing. The move to CDs meant cover art was always going to be less striking due to the size, but it took a long time for bands to appreciate that. The sad consequence has meant far less interesting covers.
I am not usually a fan of cover versions, far too many are just bland and uninspired copies of the original. Bob Dylan does seem to be the exception as many artists have done vibrant, original version of his songs (like the Byrds’ Mr Tambourine Man). This is a majestic version of All Along the Watchtower. Hendrix’s awesome guitar playing allied to the lyrics makes a song of rare power, plus it has the most stunning opening I can imagine..
I hated school dinners at primary school. There always seemed to be a lot of beetroot and steamed green vegetables. The dinner ladies (now called midday supervisors) made you eat everything on your plate. So I went home for lunch as it was such a short walk away (less than 5 minutes). This meant that I would sit with Mum and watch the news on television. I remember that it always closed with a note of how the stock market was moving (the top 30 stocks, not the later FTSE 100).
The biggest news story always seemed to be Vietnam, and the success or failure of the American military presence. I did not understand the total significance of this at the time, or the wider cultural impact that it would have on the American psyche. Their eventual failure to defeat by what was considered to be a ragtag communist army and being forced to abandon Saigon in chaos was a lasting image for a nine year old. (I followed all the big news stories of the first half of the seventies like this).
The effects of this in the media were already there with films like MASH (ostensibly about the Korean police action, as it was euphemistically dubbed) and then the TV spin off that ran for 11 years; later The Deer Hunter, Coming Home and into the eighties more films such as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.
Music was a strong part of the anti-Vietnam war protest movement. One song I love was written by Jimmy Webb. It is actually about a soldier from Galveston (a sea town on the Gulf of Mexico) who is going off to fight in the American Civil War, he is singing about the woman he left and his hometown while he voices his fears of dying.
The most famous version of this is by Glenn Campbell. Campbell is one of the best guitarists ever, but seemed destined for a life of peer recognition but not stardom. Born in the south, a son of a sharecropper with many siblings his family were dirt poor, but he made it out through his music. He tried to make it big in Nashville, but it did not happen for him, so he moved to Los Angeles. There he was part of the famous Wrecking Crew band of session musicians that performed on many, many hit records (Brian Wilson would use them to record the Beach Boys’ songs while the band were touring). He finally achieved success as a solo artist even getting his own TV show in the late sixties and early seventies.
Campbell was a staunch Republican (despite claiming to be a Democrat in the hippie era he was a Democrat who voted Republican and later played at a lot of Republican rallies) and changed the pro pacifist lyric of “put down my guns” to “clean my guns” as he was well aware what the song was really about. The original lyrics are better but no one else can match Campbell’s arrangement or vocals.
As it is set in the Civil War, but the link is not strongly stated, the song actually acts as a very strong anti-war message irrespective of the conflict.
Despite the song’s meaning it has increased tourism for Galveston. No such thing as negative publicity.
Campbell was not a big songwriter and whilst I enjoy a lot of his work there are five that really stand out (see below).
I am going to bring up Alan Moore twice in the top ten, his tacit endorsement of artist through his work made it acceptable for me to like them, even if they were too old to be normally acceptable to a teenager in the early 80s. Stephen Doubtfire had tried to persuade me that the Rolling Stones were actually a really good group and not a bunch of “old men” cashing in on their past glories (to be fair to me songs like Angie or It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It) in the 70s were strong evidence for my opinion).
In an early issue of Warrior there is a scene in V For Vendetta (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/103 ) where the titular V is dealing with the heads of the fascist regime who were responsible for crimes against humanity. The Bishop had requested an underage prostitute, but V had sent his protégé Evie (who was older, but was dressed to look younger). As V arrives he quotes The Rolling Stones’ Sympathy For The Devil.
(V takes out another criminal)
I could not argue with Alan Moore, plus I had picked up a cheap second hand copy of Philip Norman’s book The Stones. Almost all covering their history in the 60s, I read it listening to Rolled Gold and learnt a heck of a lot about events that were less than 20 years past, but to me seemed like ancient history.
It really was no more than bits of the vibrant 60s UK music scene and it seemed like a different world, where groups freely mixed and were so easily accessible.
I also learnt about the Altamont Festival in the USA. A free festival where the Stones hired the Hells Angels to provide security. It ended in disaster with Angels killing one of the audience and the Stones fleeing in an overcrowded helicopter – the beginning of the end of the sixties dream.
There were also the more salacious details of the amount of groupies that the band slept with (an age before AIDs and HIV) as well as the raid on Stargrove, where the Police waited for George Harrison to leave, as they were not ready to go after a Beatle, for drugs. Marianne Faithful (then Jagger’s girlfriend) was allegedly pleasuring herself with a mars bar in the living room. Apocryphal or not the story is part of the legend now.
The Stones were the Yin to the Beatles’ Yang (though never quite as successful) – the bad boy rebels, rather than the lovable moptop scousers. In reality both groups behaved pretty much as badly as each other.
The Stones had a staggering performance as a singles band in the 60s, not just in success but in quality. They could not match the Beatles for their albums though. Attempts to emulate Sergeant Pepper led to At Their Satanic Majesties Request, which was not an artistic success (though does include some good tracks). If you ever want to try a Stones studio album the best one is Let It Bleed from the late sixties (not a wordplay response to The Beatles’ Let It Be as it was released a year earlier).
The Stones were another band with a lousy recording contract and had to start again in the seventies, decamping to France due to tax liabilities. Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main Street and Goat’s Head Soup show a band who were not quite as good as they once were.
Keeping guitarists was a problem like Spinal Tap’s problems with drummers (and if you have not see the film This is Spinal Tap you really should, it is hilarious). After Brian Jones died mysteriously in his swimming pool, Mick Taylor joined, became an addict and quit before Ronnie Wood joined, though he was a salaried employee for years after it looked like he was a full band member. Jagger is notoriously careful with money.
In the eighties there was a last tussle with controversy when their single Undercover (of the Night) about the disappeared people in South American dictatorships had its video banned due to the scene of an execution. Luckily there was a cleaned up version ready to go when the furore had garnered enough publicity. Bassist Bill Wyman also turned out to have a penchant for underage girls, which today would have had him in prison.
The band continued touring into their seventies, making huge money but slowly shredding their reputation.
At their peak they were a really incredible band and the late sixties had a run of songs that seem almost apocalyptic. Sympathy For the Devil, Jumping Jack Flash, Street Fighting Man and this, my favourite.
Gimme Shelter
Playlist:
Come On
Carol
I Wanna Be Your Man
Little Red Rooster
It’s All Over Now
Time is On My Side
The Last Time
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Get Off My Cloud
As Tears Go By
Lady Jane
Paint It Black
Mother’s Little Helper
19th Nervous Breakdown
Under My Thumb
Out of Time
Yesterday’s Papers
She’s A Rainbow
Let’s Spend the Night Together
Ruby Tuesday
Have You Seen Your Mother Baby, Standing in the Shadows?
Aztec Camera are ok – I had liked Walk Out To Winter and Oblivious, but they are the last entry on the list that will not have a playlist. This was a collaboration between them and Mick Jones (the first of two entries on the list for Jones, so one of his groups will appear later on, making him the only person in the top 10 twice).
This song is 30 years old, but so much of it still applies today.
Jock’s got a vote in Parochia
10 long years and he’s still got her
Paying tax and doing stir
Worry about it later
Scotland never voted for Thatcher – indeed the Conservative share of the vote was destroyed under her and has never recovered (The Borders used to be a Tory stronghold). Not only that she used it for the pilot of the Poll Tax – a regressive replacement for the Rates (replaced by the Council Tax). It was not popular across the whole UK.
And the wind blows hot and the wind blows cold
But it blows us good so we’ve been told
Music’s food ’til the art-biz folds
Let them all eat culture
The Tories never like the Arts as most artists skew left. Support was cut under Thatcher and during lockdown support for artists was right at the bottom of the list of priorities. When negotiating Brexit the Tories turned down the opportunity for music artists to tour under a concession, so not needing paperwork for every country.
The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning, Britain
This sums up how I feel about the UK. People want to believe in British exceptionalism and that the Empire was a good thing. It was not. It is a legacy of oppression, exploitation and torture. Nothing to be proud of at all – unless you do not give a shit about other people.
20 years and a loaded gun
Funerals, fear and the war ain’t won
Paddy’s still a figure of fun
It lightens up the danger
Corporal sneers at a Catholic boy
And he eyes his gun like a rich man’s toy
He’s killing more than Celtic joy
Death is not a stranger
There is no glory in what happened in Northern Ireland for either side. There were terrorist attacks but there is also no doubt that British soldiers were responsible for some terrible events there too. Whether you think the crimes of one side or another were justifies depends on what your political views are.
This was one of the areas that had seen progress since 1990, with the Good Friday Agreement and power sharing. Sadly Brexit has put a spanner in the works. I predict either a return to disruption or a united Ireland.
Taffy’s time’s gonna come one day
It’s a loud sweet voice and it won’t give way
A house is not a holiday
Your sons are leaving home, Neil
(Second homes were burnt by Welsh activists)
The resentment in Wales at the time was directed at English owners of second homes pricing locals out of the job market. The loss of traditional industries was forcing young people to leave for southern England. Investment has improved that situation a bit. Neil was Neil Kinnock then leader of Labour.
In the hills and the valleys and far away
You can hear the song of democracy
The echo of eternity
With a Rak-a-Rak-a feel
The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning, Britain
From the Tyne to where to the Thames does flow
My English brothers and sisters know
It’s not a case of where you go
It’s race and creed and colour
From the police cell to the deep dark grave
On the underground’s just a stop away
Don’t be too black, don’t be too gay
Just get a little duller
1990 was still a time of rampant homophobia, especially as AIDs was seemingly the way that the human race may be destroyed. While levels of racism had declined, they were still far worse than today when it is still unacceptable. Levels of police discrimination against minorities remain a source of shame – as well as people who think protests against that are the problem.
But in this green and pleasant land
Where I make my home I make my stand
Make it cool just to be a man
A uniform’s a traitor
Love is international
And if you stand or if you fall
Just let them know you gave your all
Worry about it later
The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning, Britain
The past is steeped in shame
But tomorrow’s fair game
For a life that’s fit for living
Good morning, Britain
And that is how I see Britain today – it’s past is mostly shameful and unacknowledged but with a chance for a brighter future. A country of hope, diversity, inclusion and support. A country of dignity and treating people in the UK and abroad well. The irony of the lyric is that the cities and not the green parts of the UK are the tolerant, open, liberal places.
I think the chances have got a lot less in recent years. The racists, the nationalists, the rich and the ignorant have gained more sway.
People who say that if we do not like their narrow, jingoistic, isolated, mono-cultural and tell us to leave – we will not. The vision of a tolerant, internationalistic, compassionate multi-cultural UK will continue to be fought for.
For a life that’s fit for living be a decent human being and stand up to racists, bigots, sexists, homophobes and the rest at all times. If you don’t you are the problem too.
It is hard to imagine how big Blondie were. Coming out of the punk clubs of New York they assimilated musical influences, even managing to make lasting tracks from a disco influence. Debbie Harry was the sex symbol of choice for those just a touch older than I am (my friend Nigel, who is six years older, is still smitten by her). The rumours that she had been a prostitute and her obvious drug habit (she once appeared on the children’s show Swap Shop so high on cocaine even as 13 years olds we noticed) only added to her appeal to that demographic.
Hertfordshire Scouts had purchased the disused Lochearnhead station to have a place that could be used for camps in the beautiful scenery of Scotland. It had to be rationed and each scout troop got to go there no more than once in four years. This was sold to us as the pinnacle of scout camping.
It was a hell of a journey. There were about 60 boys and then 15-20 adults in one form or another to get there. The lucky ones got to go on a coach. The unlucky ones (including the patrol leaders, like me) got to go in an overcrowded minibus or sitting on top of the equipment in the back of our ancient lorry.
It was an overnight journey and profoundly unpleasant. We got there at around 6am. The tradition was for the breakfast to be provided for new arrivals by the departing troop. In our case there was a girl guide unit there and after this terrible night we got a miserable small plate of bacon and baked beans. Barely enough for a ten year old, let alone ravenous teenage boys. I was even made to stand up and thank them for it (a duty I got way more times than was equitable – presumably as I was trusted not to go off piste), the words choked in my mouth.
Yet this horrible journey and breakfast was nothing compared to what was coming.
(Two views of the loch today)
The six days we had there were split into two days on the water, two one day hikes and a two day hike (overnight). The latter was what my patrol, and one other with us, did first. As I have said in the other posts on scouts was that our kit was not modern and it was heavy. We had to carry food and drink with us, as well as any other supplies we needed.
We were dropped off in a minibus and hiked up a mountain, led by one of the Venture Scouts (the over 16 branch of the movement), none of the adult scouters came. The mist and rain came down and we got hopelessly lost. Soaked to the skin we could not find where we were meant to camp so a spot was chosen that looked relatively flat.
Everything was wet. We were soaked to the skin, the tents were wet inside and there was no way to get dry. I am not sure lighting a fire would have been possible but the matches were wet too – the ultimate scout no-no. One of the basics in the Scouts was that you keep the matches dry. Our dinner after this terrible day was club chocolate bars with dates and cream cheese straight from the tube squirted in your mouth.
Crammed into tents, with water leaking in and our sleeping bags wet we had a miserable night – we had camped on a kind of marsh and we were very slowly sinking as the night went on). The morning was no better. We had what little cold food was left and went downhill to find a road and a telephone box. At this stage my Assistant Patrol Leader, Gale found some dry matches in his rucksack, despite claiming non-stop the night before that he did not have matches – I am surprised that he was not beaten up.
We were rescued and taken back to camp. The good thing was that there were showers there. The bad thing was that hot water was limited so you got one shower in the week, so this was ours gone. The scouters worked miracles to get our kit dry for that evening.
(The disused station)
The only benefit to our adventure was that we had missed Sunday night’s dinner at the station. The sausages had been transported up in the lorry with someone sitting on them. The body heat had turned some of them bad and there was a Russian roulette of severe stomach upsets.
The upshot of this was that when we got home I complained that the cost of the trip was unfair, as those in the coach had paid the same as those in the lorry and minibus. George Foley (all that round curmudgeon and a man who thought any development after 1920was taboo) was very unpleasant to me, saying that I wanted luxury and next time they would arrange a Rolls Royce for me. I was not prepared to step back, I was thoroughly fed up with older people treating me like I was nobody – plenty of adults would barge teenagers aside in shops saying that they should be served first at that stage of the 80s) so I told them that was it and I was out of the Scouts if that was his attitude.
Like the Boomtown Rats their success fell away sharply when after the Autoamerican album (with its risible singles The Tide is High and Rapture). There was one more album, The Hunter, which was better, but did not return them to the heights of their success. Chris Stein became very ill and Debbie Harry cared for him pretty much full time, the band breaking up.
Blondie proved their longevity by coming back in 1999 with a number one single – Maria. It was a worthy addition to their legacy. This is one of the singles from their golden run from 1979-81.
It might be hard to believe but there was a time when Bruce Springsteen was not only unknown in the UK, but even a lot of the people who had heard of him were quite dismissive. In the UK he had minor hits from The River album that I heard on evening radio, they even grazed the lower edges of the charts. The title track is one of the saddest songs if you listen to the words (even better is the version on Live 75-85 with Springsteen’s story about almost being drafted at the start). The follow up was a four-track recording made in his home – Nebraska. Not calculated to win over new fans, yet now widely perceived as one of his best (credit to Paul Gambaccini who predicted that in 1982). The track that I like best is Highway Patrolman about a pair of brothers – one a cop and one a ne’er do well; bad brother kills someone in a bar fight and his brother chases him across the county, before pulling over and letting him go.
The big breakthrough in the UK came with the Born in the USA album while I was at university, even then it was largely dismissed. It was assumed by casual listeners that I knew that the title track was a piece of praise for the USA (which under Reagan was broadly despised across campuses, especially as the Republicans appropriated the songs for their rallies until Springsteen intervened, pointing out it was about how badly Vietnam veterans were treated). I repeatedly played it when people came round to the huge sitting room Gary and I had in year two at university. Springsteen is not over fond of it as it is a mix of songs that failed to make the cut on Nebraska and a few new ones, yet it was his biggest success. I think that he is unfair – it is a great example of what became known as Heartland Rock.
Oddly the song No Surrender has very similar lyrical themes to yesterday’s Summer of 69. A song about those childhood friendships and how they were simpler and clearer.
Luckily the record library at university allowed me to explore his back catalogue with The River and Born To Run. The latter’s title track remains one of his defining tracks after 35 years, but the album as a whole is a classic with other memorable tracks like Thunder Road and Jungleland. None of my friends were convinced by his genius, but I feel this justifies that I can count myself as an early Springsteen adopter.
Springsteen had reached the position of global superstar and the follow up did not come until 1987 as he toured the world (a very young Courtney Cox can be seen in the “live” video for Dancing in the Dark). This followup was one of the earliest CDs I bought whilst I was working on an audit job in Felixstowe. Springsteen had married the model Julianne Phillips (because that is what stars did – the married models, like Billie Joel and Christie Brinkley), but it had not been successful and he was already having an affair with backing singer Patti Scialfa and divorce was on the way. The album, Tunnel of Love, is about that failure and is a far less bombastic album than its predecessor, but its mature themes repay close listening to the lyrics (like all of his albums).
He divorced Phillips and married Patti Scialfa but there was no new material until 1992. Like Guns ‘n’ Roses (https://wordpress.com/post/fivemilesout.home.blog/2314 ) he released two albums at the same time. Unlike what was, effectively, a double album from the Gunners these were very different. Human Touch had been recorded piecemeal and needed one more track. Springsteen went into the studio and came out with the whole Lucky Town album. Musically and thematically it is as strong as any release that he has ever made. It ends with the haunting My Beautiful Reward, it would have been a fitting career end for a lesser artist.
Springsteen continued making music – the title track to the film Philadelphia (whatever its flaws now it was the earliest big film to deal sympathetically with the Aids crisis) and a series of solid albums with and without the E Street Band.
David Jenson had a feature on his evening radio show in the early 80s called three of the best. He would play three tracks by an artist (not those that had had big chart success) to highlight their talents. For Springsteen one of the tracks he picked was from the fourth album, Darkness On the Edge of Town. This had come three years after his US breakthrough with Born to Run as he extracted himself from a terrible management contract that prevented him recording. It was probably not the album the record company were looking for as it is quite dark, despite the surface jauntiness of tracks like Badlands.
Jenson played Candy’s Room, not a track non-fans would have heard. It starts very slowly and then accelerates to a pulse pounding speed, ending in less than three minutes. It has three very different styles in less that the first eighty seconds – it is like an epic in miniature.
Five Miles Out 