"I HAVE A VAST EXPERIENCE OF LISTENING TO MUSIC AND AM A BIT OF AN EXPERT"

Richard reported this in his latest blog post about his daughter's engagement party:

A lady in the room told us that she had a vast experience of listening to music and sort of implied that she was a bit of an expert.

OK, I think I know what she meant but it does sound a bit silly like saying " I'm very experienced in drinking so I guess I'm like a winemaker".

I listen to a lot of music but I don't consider myself an expert. I don't concentrate on one type of music and tend to leap about a bit (not literally as dancing isn't one of my things) in my listening. I have catholic tastes in this regard which is the only bit of catholicism I'll admit to.

Eeeew! Tastes funny.

I never managed to learn to play a musical instrument having unsuccessfully given piano, bagpipes and guitar a go. I guess, like in most endeavours in my life this was attributable to laziness rather than any inability to appreciate music and nice sounds.

I don't know why some musicians get a bit uppity about how non musicians appreciate music (I'm not saying that Richard does). After all, if there were only musicians in this world and no non-musician audiences the whole thing would be a mess. The musicians would be forever arguing amongst themselves on how the other guy messed up his double note and choked on his hemidemisemiquaver.

Generally non musicians who like music can easily recognise rhythm, melody, harmony and timbre and at least hear dynamics, texture, and form without knowing all of the technical minituae behind them.

 

HEART AND SOUL

 Yes, getting old sucks but it's not all bad. One of the great things about , well, living to a greater if not a GREAT age is in having a much bigger memory cache (as long as it doesn't suffer a malfunction). Older people have so much more stuff to sort, reflect on and, hopefully enjoy when remembering all of the things that they have seen, heard, tasted, touched and smelled in their life. Add to this the general experience in reading, loving, (hating), learning and living that can, and should provide material for some pretty nice memories.

Tonight, while doing essential stuff on my laptop (blogging) the TV was on and I heard in the background the music from an advertisement on TVONE. It was the excellent Heart and Soul song by the Narcs (1984). The ad (I didn't take notice what they were advertising) didn't use The Narcs version, instead using some studio cover group but it was still good. It was evocative and took me back - way back to 1984.*

I moved from Wellington in 1981 to live in Auckland and forged a career there. In 1984 I had just been promoted to manage the, arguably, best retail wine and spirit operation in Auckland - Macindoes which featured strongly in magazines like Metro and newspapers of the time (pre internet and social media). I had left Wellington with a broken heart and was lonely but at the time (1982 to 1988) had really nice casual relationships with some wonderful women before meeting the true love of my life, The Old Girl in 1988. In 1984 I was 'seeing' Miranda from Wellington and Jenny, Deborah and Carole in Auckland. 

1981 was memorable also because that was the year that Richard and Shelley married. I attended their wedding in Wellington. Richard may remember that - the fact that I attended the wedding. At his age now, he probably forgets the wedding date and gets into trouble at home with Shelley on anniversaries.

But. I digress. The song Heart and Soul hit the spot with me at that time in my life and did so again tonight.

HEART AND SOUL - THE NARCS

You took me heart and soul
Over and over
You took me heart and soul
You took me heart and soul
Over and over
You took me heart and soul

Still works.

* Yes, yes, I know The Curmudgeon wrote a quick post on this a few years ago but it does show that we (I) are consistent. The Narcs - Heart and Soul

 

"WATCH OUT, MUSIC IS A POWERFUL FORCE"

 

Richard wrote an interesting comment on a recent post of The Cultured Curmudgeon:

I kind of like that and wonder if the song he refers to is 'I'm Not In Love'.

I wrote about this song a while ago on this post: 10 CC

It was written by Graham Gouldman, a prolific songwriter of many hits by not only 10 CC but for The Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits and others.

I've mentioned before the excellent recordings on YouTube of Gouldman, Neil Finn and Roddy Frame performing acoustic versions some of their own songs and helping each other with the chorus. This is well worth a watch in its entirety but here is Graham Gouldman performing his "I'm Not In Love".

(Robert, you can look away now).

I'M NOT IN LOVE - GRAHAM GOULDMAN

"I TOLD YOU I WAS ILL"

 

For readers of Spike Milligan's wartime autobiography series you will find this interesting

THE BILL HALL TRIO

The Bill Hall Trio was a band that Milligan played in in the last days of the war and for a couple of years afterwards and features strongly in books five through seven. The band was made up of Bill Hall (violin), Johnny Mulgrew (double bass) and Spike Milligan (guitar). They met through the Combined Services Entertainment programme during World War II and the trio continued in the original line-up until 1948 when Milligan left to pursue his solo career (music and comedy). 

THE PROWSE BROTHERS UPDATE

 

I recently received news of The Prowse Brothers - the Wellington fusion band (jazz,/bluegrass/country/pop/ukulele) - which has, over the last decade, performed to sell-out concerts at the Petone Blues Club. It seems that the 'boys' have no plans for future gigs and may in fact disband.

Contrary to popular knowledge, Chris Prowse, the 'leader' of the band is NOT the band's founder.

The founder, in fact (according to him) is younger brother Richard Prowse who came up with the idea , organised the band's formation and hassled his four brothers to practise and perform.

Well done that man!*

I had the pleasure to see the band perform on two occasions at Petone and thoroughly enjoyed it. The eclectic repertoire of original compositions from at least three of the members and a sprinkling of good old classics kept the audience entertained for what seemed like hours on end.

They will be missed unless they reform, perhaps under a new name.

I discovered an interesting 'parallel' band that Richard (and Chris) could investigate and borrow some ideas from:

5 NEAT GUYS

Remember- everything can be reinvented.

* Father McCann - General Science teacher.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

 PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER - PATTI SMITH

YES, THIS 1990 RECORDING OF PATTI SMITH AND HER HUSBAND FRED 'SONIC' SMITH HAS A RENEWED RESONANCE TODAY DUE TO THE USA 2020 ELECTIONS.

(Sorry about the capitals - I didn't notice that they were still on as I typed that.)

Fred was the love of her life and, after he died at an early age she wrote and performed some beautiful songs in memory of him. Nice that.

This post isn't about Mr and Mrs Smith's political prophesy, it's about old Fred's nickname - 'Sonic'.

I like it.

Maybe Richard and Robert could adopt nicknames  to highlight that they are musicians.

Richard 'C2-C4' Prowse

Robert 'Vibrant' Prowse.

What do you think?

"I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MUSIC. IN MY LINE YOU DON'T HAVE TO" - Elvis Presley

 They call me the Music Curmudgeon* but I must admit I don't know a lot about music - not in the academic or technical sense anyway. I am one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean muse or, if you like  "Ooo, Ah lahk a nice tuune, 'yer forced too!"

MONTY PYTHON - CHEESE SHOP

I used to keep a fairly good collection of music in LP and CD form but in recent years I've given in to technology advancements and now access music via YouTube or other digital providers. The sound fidelity isn't as good as when played through a decent system but then, my hearing certainly isn't what it used to be so it doesn't matter. I get enjoyment listening to favourite jazz, opera, classical, rock, blues and 'pop' music without over-analysing (yes, that word does include the word 'anal' in it) it. I leave that to others.

In our blogging community there a  a couple of jokers (to be honest they are the only two others in the community) who know a bit about music and frequently use up all the space in their blog posts on it.

SOME OLD MUSIC GUY

SOME OTHER OLD MUSIC GUY

I skim-read these in case there is something of more interest than for example Paganini's fingering technique and am often disappointed. I convince myself that, in Richard's blog, this is justified as, after all it is titled "RICHARD'S BASS BAG" but, for the life of me I don't know why Robert bangs on so much about it given that he calls his blog "ROBERT THE APATHETIC SINNER".

I'll leave this to them though which usually ends up in a big scrap which is always interesting.

* Actually I just made up that name.