OLD FOLKS BOOGIE

Your Music Curmudgeon has been keeping his ear close to the ground and has discovered that a once famous in Wellington folk circles band The Prowse Brothers has got together to practise, which might indicate some future public performances.

The Prowse Brothers

This is exciting news for generally entertainment strapped New Zealanders post COVID with still restricted travel and performance limitations for some bands ...... hold up! I've just been informed that the picture our research department provided above is actually of brothers David Prowse and Bob Prowse who are actors. Sorry about that. Here's a picture of the musician Prowse Brothers.

The Prowse Brothers

The second one helpfully has "The Prowse Brothers" written on it so the bloody research department couldn't cock things up again. Sheesh! 

The boys might need to get another studio shot done though as they've all aged quite a bit since this vanity photograph was taken.

Maybe this Uriah Heep album cover can give them some ideas.

Anyway, I for one am looking forward to some new concerts with maybe some new songs.

Here are some suggestions for song titles:

• When I Was Sixty-Four
• I Remember it (I think)
• The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena) is now my wife
• Arthritis Blues
• Can't Find My Way Home
• The Thrill's Long Gone
• I'd Rather Not Go Blind
• Now That You've Gone
• Three Times A Night (I'm talkin' about peeing)
• Sore Bones Blues
• No Sugar Blues
• Trouble In Mind
• Pants on Backwards Blues
• You Can Say That Again (really, say it again I can't hear you)

I hope that this helps.

WHAT YOU WANT - WHAT YOU REALLY REALLY WANT

Robert the apathetic sanctimonious sinner, toilet cleaner, threatener of eternal damnation, music snob and whatever (the title was too long to copy and paste from his blog) posted about Madonna With The Big Boobies ...... sorry, that was from 'Allo 'Allo! I think ..... I meant Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (which also sounds a bit salacious) in his latest post. The 'statement' from his Lady rang some bells with me as it sounded like song lyrics I've heard.

 

I did a Google search and yes, I had heard a song with similar lyrics. It's Wannabe by the odious Spice Girls. You can make your mind up here in the video playing the song and displaying the lyrics and showing the Spice Girls to be vacuous and irresponsible bimbos (see how they treat the beggar on the street and the family in the car).

Here's an outtake of their lyrics:

If you want my future, forget my past
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now don't go wasting my precious time ......

If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is
Oh, what do you think about that?
Now you know how I feel
Say you can handle my love, are you for real?

 

Now, with Robert's, or Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal's lyrics - they could be stretched out into a song to the music of 'Wannabe'.

If you want me to be your mother
And if you want to become my son

Ask to see a Catholic priest

And then my job is done

Ha ha ha ha ha
Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
(So tell me what you want, what you really, really want)
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
(So tell me what you want, what you really, really want)
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna convert you ah

I appreciate that Richard the blogger of fewer titles than Robert will consider this post a 'filler'. All I will say to that is:

BIG LOG

I've mentioned before how we are all guilty of mishearing song titles or lyrics and blithely going on singing the error to ourselves or others. Some examples for me are:

• "Goodbye groovy Tuesday" instead of Goodbye Ruby Tuesday.
• "Loosely in the sky with Simon" instead of Lucy in the sky with diamonds.
• "These ants are my friends, they’re blowin’ in the wind" instead of The answer my friend is blowin' in the wind.
• " I skipped the light then dangled" instead of we skipped the light fandango.
• "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" instead of Scuse me while I kiss the sky.

I referred to these in an earlier post: FOUND IT

On Saturday night we had a family gathering at my sister's holiday place a few bays away. It was the birthday celebration of one of my nieces and all three were there with their parents, their spouses and friends so a good evening was had.

Thanks to modern technology Spotify was used to access music from the internet and various favourites were called for. One niece professed a liking for Led Zeppelin and Robert Plant's songs. We obviously discussed the two excellent albums that he and Alison Krauss collaborated on. Hey! I just happen to have a link to a post I wrote on this: TINY DESK

Anyway I then asked her if she was familiar with the excellent Robert Plant song Big Log. This brought guffaws from everyone referring to the scatological connection of that. I wound them up by saying that American freeways are very long with few stops so  having "a big log by the freeway" isn't an unusual thing.

I sung to them:

I love a big log by the freeway
You have to while the cars fly by
And the tail lights dissolve in the coming of night
Because there are no rest-stops for your plight. 

The real lyrics, as you musical cognoscenti know are:

My love is in league with the freeway
Its passion will rise as the cities fly by
And the tail lights dissolve in the coming of night
And the questions and thousands take flight

We didn't access the song to play so I couldn't  prove either my adaptation or the real lyrics. My brother in law was adamant that the title of the song was Big Leg which the others all thought was more likely and I was relegated to the position of 'silly old uncle' which I guess comes with the territory of old age.

I did get some satisfaction on Sunday morning though - early as I was up watching the Rugby World Cup match - of finding Big Log, copying the link and texting it to all and sundry. Result! Big Log, not 'Big Leg'!

Anyway, here's BIG LOG for you:

OK - IT'S A FILLER*

 

This clip is from the 1961 film of the same name.

I saw this in Wellington when it was released probably in early 1962. I was 9 years old going on 10. It was the first 'teenage' film I ever saw and was quite different from the other fare I was used to - westerns, war films, comedies and adventure series.

I saw it at the Rivoli -  in Riddiford Street on the other side of the road and a bit north of Wellington Hospital. The other picture theatre in Newtown was The Ascot on the corner of Riddiford Street and Constable Street. The Rivoli was closer for me as I used to walk down the Hall Street zigzag to get there.

* But, admit it, it's better than silly parables.

ANGRY

 

"Angry"


Don't get angry with me, I never caused you no pain
I won't be angry with you, but I can't see straight

It hasn't rained in a month, the river's run dry
We haven't made love, and I wanna know why
Why you angry with me?
Why you angry?

Please just forget about me, cancel out my name
Please never write to me, I love you just the same
I hear a melody ringing in my brain
Just keep the memories, don't have to be ashamed

Don't get angry with me, I'm in a desperate state
I'm not angry with you, don't you spit in my face

The wolf's at the door with the teeth and the claws
My mouth's getting sore, I can't take anymore
Why you angry with me?
Why you angry?

Voices keep echoing, calling out my name
Hear the rain keep beating on my window pane
I hear a melody ringing in my brain
You can keep the memories, don't have to be ashamed
Don't get angry with me

Angry
Angry

Angry, don't be angry with me, if we go separate ways
Angry, yeah, don't be angry with me, let's go out in a blaze

Angry, don't be angry with me, don't you spit in my face
Angry, don't be angry with me, don't get, don't get

Angry, don't be angry with me
I'm still taking the pills, and I'm off to Brazil
Angry, don't be angry with me

Angry (Please), don't be angry with me
Come on
Angry, don't be angry with me

Mmm .... what's old Mick trying to tell us here?

His eyesight and bodily functions are failing? The Viagra isn't working? His fillings are falling out? He has tinnitus  (I hear a melody ringing in my brain)?

It's called old age Mick and, at nearly 80 so you should be experiencing symptoms like these.

Robert would say, "don't be angry, just forgive" or some Christian stuff like that but as a big rock and roll star you and the Stones don't have to listen to crap like that.

What you do instead is put out a new (last?) album that, on listening to the one track that I was able to on-line 'Angry' sounds a lot like all the other stuff - which I like - that you've put out over a phenomenal 60 year career.

That's OK and I'm interested in hearing the other tracks in anticipation that at least one will match the classics like "Can't you hear me knocking', 'Midnight Mile', 'Angie', 'Paint it black', 'Love in Vain', 'You can't always get what you want' etc.

What I didn't like is the silly video featuring a skanky Las Vegas pole-dancer type woman who's young enough to be your great-granddaughter, writhing about dangerously atop a moving car. Pathetic!

SALVATION AND REDEMPTION - NOT JUST THE DOMAIN OF RELIGION

I'm aware that I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. This hasn't been because I haven't been listening to and appreciating music in the catholic manner that I've adopted for most of my life.

By 'catholic' I don't mean this ... 

.... although I do love listening to Gregorian chants and various Latin hymns, but I mean 'catholic' in the dictionary meaning, not the catechismal one.

I like a wide range of music with appreciation being fluid through time and place. Every now and then I discover new music or rediscover 'old' music that has been meaningful to me and, guess what - it usually still is.

This evening, when searching for something else, I found Steve Marriott's (Small Faces) 'Afterglow Of Your Love' song (1968) which he wrote as a tribute to his wife Jenny Rylance. It's a beautiful song of time, place and sentiment and no doubt will have resonance with everyone who has a pulse.

For me, it immediately brought back time and place which, in 1968, was secondary school in the 5th form (5P) in the prefabs that were just behind (to the west) the science lab block. Readers of this and connected blogs will be aware that the writer of Richard (of RBB), a kind of music blog, got all confused about the locations of the various pre-fab classrooms around the science block. The 3P and 3G classrooms were to the east of the block and not beneath it. Beneath it was an open space and, no surprises here, a couple of staircases that provide access to the two science classrooms above.

Anyway, I digress.

I was a great fan of Small Faces then and still am although I hardly listen to the music now. When I do I'm always pleasantly surprised at and rewarded by the great lyrics and song structures. Inspired by listening to 'Afterglow Of Your Love' I then quickly found this, 'The Autumn Stone,' (1968) another Steve Marriott composition.

It's another lovely and lyrical love song like 'Afterglow' and you can read into it Marriott's infatuation with Jenny Rylance.

"I was nowhere
Till you changed my mind
Love is sent through being good to you
Then you were somewhere
Somewhere hard to find
Only what you always were, it's true
I'm looking for an open door
Where I can sit, and play in peace with you
Tomorrow changes
Fields of green today
Yesterday is dead, but not my memory
We were strangers
And then you came to stay
The sweetest spring dawn morning sings to me
So now I've found a living sound
That moves, that breathes and then makes love to me"

In 1968 and 1969 I was infatuated with a girl, Tina, and the song 'struck a chord' with me.

Ten years later I was infatuated with a woman and the song and the lyrics again fitted perfectly.

"I was nowhere

Till you changed my mind"

Twenty years later when I met The Old Girl the song and lyrics were again a match as fresh as if they'd been just written. Time and place and sentiment. Long may these things last.

'TELEVISION' AT 'HOME'

 I've been listening to music during the day - on the laptop through headphones because The Old Girl was working. I mostly accessed YouTube and searched for favourites and rediscovered lots of good stuff.

Here's a clip of Television's 'Marquee Moon' which has great guitar work and a nifty bass line. Maybe Robert has never listened to this. I'm interested in his opinion.

I also found on YouTube a copy of the 'lost' live recording of Bonnie Raitt, Lowell George, and others at Ultrasonic Studios New York in 1972. This made for interesting listening with the highlight being Raitt performing Steve Winwood's 'Can't Find My Way Home. There are 'tidier' versions out there that she's sung but this one just shines.

Note: This is not a filler post it is just sharing something nice OK?