YOU CAN GO BACK

 I just finished watching the three part 'documentary' GET BACK as remastered and brilliantly edited by Peter Jackson. Old Pete likes to do things in three parts and it works well for him.

The material he used was nearly a hundred hours of film footage and 150 hours of audio recording from the LET IT BE film exercise and he deconstructed, edited and reconstructed it over four years to create a great piece of work.

I never watched the original LET IT BE film and, by all accounts it was dire and, although using actual footage and recordings  never managed to capture the spirit of the LET IT BE project.

It does take a bit of perseverance to get into this series - The Old Girl gave up half way through Part One. There's a lot of silly dialogue (multi-conversations), disjointed singing and playing and the whole thing seems a bit chaotic.

A lot of this was perhaps due to them talking and planning the pending album and concert in the cavernous Twickenham film studio where they were obviously uncomfortable. When they moved to their newly set-up Apple studio things improved considerably.

Even at Twickenham though, halfway through Part One (after The Old Girl gave up on it) something magic happened. The fragments of lyrics, chords and ideas for various songs - sometimes all jumbled together - started to take shape and a hint at the songs that came out on the LET IT BE and ABBEY ROAD albums emerged.

These guys were filmed creating their songs (of course they each would have worked on them individually, at home, overnight) in a pressure cooker environment having set themselves a deadline of 3 or 4 weeks from start to finish. The creative process was very interesting.

Some outtakes for me were:

• The obvious chemistry between Lennon and McCartney as a creative duo.
• The wit and vitality of Lennon as he was seen to be enjoying himself and only closed down when that fucking nut Yoko Ono was close.
• The brilliance of McCartney who had a reasonably clear vision of the songs before they developed and the direction of the albums, the film and the concert they were to go in even though these all developed organically.
• The lack of self-confidence of Harrison who seemed overwhelmed by Lennon and McCartney's creativity and who at times didn't seem to want to be there.
• The lack of contribution by Ringo other than his obvious musical intuition and ability to create the essential rhythms.
• The brilliance of Billy Preston whose contribution - unrehearsed and impromptu was pivotal in gelling a couple of the songs that were stalled - sort of like a catalyst in the same way he did later for The Rolling Stones.

I particularly liked how the rooftop concert was a late idea put forward by one of the production team after other more prosaic concepts were abandoned and the delight that McCartney showed when the idea was first put to him. Lennon also embraced the idea but Harrison was initially against it. Ringo I think didn't care either way. This to me underscored the project which was groundbreaking and the great way that, organically (again - I'm sounding like Robert and his bloody Socrates) the songs, the albums, the rooftop concert and the film 50 years later took shape. Early in Part One, one of them, McCartney or Lennon prophetically mused what people 50 years in the future would think of the project and how would they look. It was certainly groundbreaking and a brave thing to do made all the better by the fact that it wasn't contrived as these things would more cynically be done today. The vitality was captured well on film - and I'm sure that Jackson had a lot to do with this in his selection, editing and remastering.

This is a great bit of musical and cultural history packaged up by a home-grown master.

GET BACK - 2021 mix

PETER'S BLUES*

* Well, Richard's really.

I scribbled down some blues lyrics and Richard used some of them  to make a little blues song.

PETER'S BLUES

I wish I had his talent.

Thanks Richard. 

HELP!

HELP!

I need somebody
(Help!) not just anybody
(Help!) you know I need someone

Help!

I need someone who can write music. You know, that stuff that bends the ears, sometimes favourably and sometimes annoyingly.

I just want someone who can put 'blues' musical notes to my words without getting me into trouble with the estates of famous blues composers (and their lawyers).

I penned this today and would like to perform it soon:

🎶  "I've got the lockdown blue--ee-eeo- blues

Since Covid  came to stay

No-one comes to see me

They're keeping well away

Golf's a distant memor - emor - y

Tennis's a long way away

I can't go for a kayak

Out in my beautiful way

I've had the vaccin - aayo - ations

I do my bit and pray

The little bastards bit me

I was deaf for a day

I've got the lockdown blue--ee-eeo- blues

Since Covid  came to stay

No-one comes to see me

They're keeping well away."  🎶

And there could be some more verses.

Hey! Just ask.

My musical mentor Sue suggested accompanying this on violin but I'm just not sure. She said it would be OK but when I asked her about whether I should use Clara Petacci strings or the Eva Braun ones with the golden edges she seemed a bit confused.

 

AND THEN THERE WERE FOUR

 I did promise to bring you news of important developments in the music world.

I did! Just go back through the posts and check it.

Anyway, I'm sorry but there hasn't been much going on ever since the 1970s but I did get a snippet today of something that might turn out to be momentous.

Or not.

On a very (very) obscure blog titled ROB THE SKINNER (or something like that) I stumbled across this:

Richard (of RBB) that well known paranoiac, having had a history of being sacked from his older brother's bands is obviously concerned that said older brother is starting up the Prowse Brothers band (PBs) and hasn't informed him. I mean, a band like the Prowse Brothers needs a double bass player and a violin player and maybe a trumpet player .....Oh, I see. One of the younger brothers can play all three of those, often at the same time.

Oh well. Maybe Richard can collect the tickets at the door or something.

PAIN IN MY HEART

 PAIN IN MY HEART - OTIS REDDING

For the last fortnight I've been experiencing sharp pains in my heart - or, I guess, in my upper chest.

At first I wasn't bothered apart from doing a Google search on 'pain in my heart' and, obviously seeing the link to the Otis Redding song above. All the 'medical' information I found discussed radial pain that extends down the arm as related to cardiac  problems. The pain was intermittent but quite sharp and would happen two or three times a day. Yesterday morning, after another one I decided to call the doctors. I thought that it was better to be certain and that, if in a months time I had a heart attack and they asked me if I had noticed any early symptoms I'd be embarrassed to have to admit that I'd ignored them. The practice had a 2.30 slot for an appointment which I took.

At the doctors I discussed the problem and they did an ECG procedure, linking me to a monitor via wires to my arms, chest and feet. The result confirmed the AF (Atrial Fibrillation) that I suffer from but shed no light on anything else to suggest a myocardial infarction. They said that a specialised blood test would be necessary and I would have to get that done at the Emergency Department at the hospital. It was about 4PM at this stage and I asked if I should go there next week. They said that I had to go to the ED immediately and gave me a letter to take with me.

At the hospital, in the ED waiting room there were dozens of people and a big sign on the wall said "RED ALERT - EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT IS OPERATING AT MAXIMUM CAPACITY AVERAGE WAIT TIME 2-3 HOURS". I checked in with the triage nurse, showed her the letter and said that I was told to come there for a blood test. She initially suggested that the blood test place was upstairs but when she asked me why I was wanting it I said that it was due to a suspected heart attack. Bingo! She immediately set things in motion and I was whisked away out back and a consulting room was found (amongst all of the bustle). A blood sample was taken and I was left for half an hour for this to be analysed. In the room there were two bed sections separated by a screen. At one stage a young woman was brought in along with her boyfriend/partner. I saw her as she was brought into the room. She looked to be about twenty. I couldn't help overhearing the reason that she was there and might relate this in a later post but Robert will be shocked.

After the results of the blood test came in I was taken to another room and rigged up for an ECG. They took another blood sample and this time left the blood catheter (?) in my arm as a third sample would be needed in an hour. I was in the ED  for 3 hours all up. During this time three helicopter loads of accident and other emergency victims were brought through. It was manic but controlled with the occasional call like - "We've got a guy bleeding out over here!" I felt like a fraudster lying where I was, feeling no pain and in much better nick than the others there. In the waiting room before and after I was dealt with there were of course the odd drongo who was just trying it on - wasting the staff's time but generally all the cases seemed legitimate.

I was amazed at the courteous, helpful and very professional manner of the staff - reception, administration, nurses, aides and doctors - and how regardless of the business and the stress, nothing seemed to faze them. I made a point of showing gratitude and, on leaving, going to reception and thanking the triage nurse and the admin person. They do a hell of a good job.

The tests came back showing that I hadn't had a myocardial infarction (heart attack) event in the last couple of weeks but they told me that I'd done the right thing in getting tested given my history of heart problems.

The written report goes in to quite some detail but what amuses me - and which I'll incorporate into the heading of my blog is this:

 

"Alert, conversant, speaking full sentences"

 

 

BASSIC INSTINCT

 Richard (of RBB), that old plucker from Wellington has mentioned a few times in his blog posts (no doubt you missed these - very few people don't) that he's been preoccupied recently with practising his bass playing.

Here:

"It's very cold in Nuova Lazio and has been for ages. I've spent the last few days doing quite a bit of practice on both the double bass and the violin."

Here:

"I've done two hours of double bass practice.

Off to do more now - some will be on violin."

          And here (he does go on a bit:

Unfortunately we at Richard's Bass Bag* have been busy with some music projects. We do obviously apologize (sic) to our readers for the shit you've been getting from these other blogs lately. Look, you'd all be better off reading a book. We'll try to post more regularly in future.

That's all very well but this obsession with  bass can lead to missing the important things that are right in front of him. See HERE

 

"SOFTLY, IN THE DUSK, A WOMAN IS SINGING TO ME; TAKING ME BACK DOWN THE VISTA OF YEARS ....." *

 *   From 'Piano' poem by D.H. Lawrence.

Yesterday I heard the song 'Sailor' sung by Petula Clark.

SAILOR - PETULA CLARK

This immediately took me back to my childhood. Clark's version of this song was released in 1961 and was a massive hit. I was born in August 1952 so was about 8 or 9 when I first heard it. I guess my mother must have turned the radio up every time that it was played. She listened to 2ZB and dad listened to 2YA (the forerunner of the National Programme which I tune in to nowadays). 

We never had any Elvis Presley or Rock and Roll music playing back then. When the 'radiogram' was used to play records (78 rpms) it was likely to be Louis Armstrong, The Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, American Country and Western or light classical.

The radio songs that I remember and that still have resonance for me were ones like Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas' (1942), Harry Simeone Chorale's version of The Little Drummer Boy' (1959), Pete Seeger's version of 'Goodnight Irene' (1959) and Patti Page's version of 'The Tennessee Waltz' (1951).

It's pretty lame stuff compared to the music I later listened to but I still get a thrill hearing The Little Drummer Boy' (frowned on nowadays by the PC Brigade) and hearing 'Sailor' was a real treat.