..from Scotland, with a connection to Margaret Atwood.
Even rocks melt in the sun
Comments closed
Category: music
Today’s image offers a closer look at part of the rock-face which was featured in episode 7 of this sequence.
Comments closed
…is an arresting, humorous/sinister/beautiful composition by Carla Bley. (for more, see footnote at bottom of this post)
Probably, Carla was inspired by some fellow Americans – Venus Flytraps.
Possibly, she had in mind the spectacular pitcher plants that lurk in Asian jungles.
However, the hottest spot for carnivorous plants is somewhere Carla has never ventured – Western Australia’s southwest corner, where more than 25% of “our” planet’s flowering carnivore species live, exclusively.
Many have exquisitely delicate flowers and look like they wouldn’t hurt a fly.
Comments closed
According to the people who were already here for many thousands of years before “European settlement”, southwest Western Australia has six seasons.
Each is determined by what is actually happening, rather than by a calendar’s fixed dates.
Currently, in and around Perth, it is very evidently Djilba – the first of two “Spring” seasons.
One Comment
This post includes my favourite cover of a wistful, very famous Johnny Cash song, and a singular version of a less famous, more urgent song, authored by Stuart Adamson.
Both are “live” performances.
Darrell Scott is their American singer-guitarist, Danny Thompson their English double bassist.
And that’s not all…
Comments closed
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken on recent walks on local streets and footpaths.
The lovely, spacious musical bonus comes from the northern hemisphere…
One Comment
Did I stumble upon his/their avatar in a Tibetan Plateau marketplace?
Peter Lewis’s essay is an amusing and perceptive look at “Scotty”and Billy, as fellow “masters of pastiche”.
Morrison doesn’t even pretend to try to build his own coherent body of work. It’s not that he can’t come up with a tune. Far from it, there is a ditty for every occasion. It’s just that it’s not leading us anywhere.
Comments closed
Arguably the quintessential nostalgic song, I’ll Be Seeing You was composed in 1938. (music by Sammy Fain, words by Irving Kahal)
That year it was inserted into a Broadway musical…which flopped.
The song, however, became a “standard”, covered by countless singers…and not a few instrumentalists.
It was a #1 hit for Bing Crosby in 1944.
Frank Sinatra recorded it more than once.
Even Eric Clapton did so, in 2016.
The most celebrated recording – Billie Holiday’s 1944 version – is the one which reached Mars in 2018, as the conclusion to NASA’s final transmission to its Explorer rover.
However, the most “out of this world” version to reach this Earthling’s ears is a “live” and exploratory instrumental trio treatment, delivered in “the city of fallen angels”, in June 2016.
Comments closed
…as chosen by other famous musos.
In most cases, the article will take you directly to Dylan’s performance of the relevant song.
Would Mick Jagger make an interesting choice?
What about Gillian Welch, Tom Jones, Marianne Faithful, Billy Bragg or Judy Collins?
Would some/none/all have anything interesting to say about his or her choice?
One Comment