Hello-ween or no weenie, Hello last day of October

Music soothes the sausage, er savage beast.

OK so it's fortunate that I have found a few moments to write something here on the Sonic Explorer blog. I never seem to have any shortage of ideas but there's always a shortage of time. How to keep the beat and stay in time? That question is at the heart of music, and I guess if one can't do it then music may not be the right occupation for you. It's certainly not for me. That, of course doesn't stop me from liking music and blogging about it.

Why would anyone find what I write about music to be interesting?

This blog represents, in some bizarre stretch of imagination, meandering as it will, the thoughtless recollections of a lost soul seeking more and more interesting ways of getting lost, the musical diary of someone who was there during the melting pot of ideas that eventually became what we experience as the broad gamut of music today. I don't regret one moment of it.

Since I am a music affectionado approaching my sixties it's apt that I be blogging about the 60s ... well to some small extent, but the 60s DID have a very big influence on my life by exposing me to the fact that there actually were musicians that could create music that I could not only enjoy but be willing to spend my meagre pennies to procure. Yes, it was pennies in those days. Australia's decimal currency was introduced on the 14th February 1966. I remember getting into trouble as an apprentice because I sneaked off from work, over to the pay office to be the first of the apprentices to be paid in dollars.

So where did all my Musical Gluttony begin?

I guess my earliest recollections of music would be the pedal steel slide guitar that accompanied the opening strains of the Country and Western show on the radio back about 1954. Indeed, if what I heard was the usual radio offering, there wasn't much around in those days. I suspect that it had more to do with the boring personalities that chose the playlists for Radio 2WL rather than a lack of good music as I've become aware of so much amazing Jazz and Blues that WAS available back then, just not on our local radio station.

Rock 'n' sausage Roll

However, we did hear some nice stuff, Jim Reeves (I think) sang "He's got the Whole World in His Hands" and we had Red River Rock, plus good ole Johhny Cash (yeah, I listened to Johnny, AND ELVIS before they were superstars) and then came Roy Orbison with "Workin' for the Man", not to mention Brian Henderson who hosted Bandstand every Saturday night on the little black and white telly-vision and there was another Sat nite TV programme called Rock Around the Clock, named after Bill Hayley and the Comets' #1 hit.

Rock 'n' Roll was king and creativity was about to flex its collective muscle. Those were the days of greasy hair, motorcycles, surf music, and Johhny O'Keefe, the Wild One as he was known, a kind of a prototype Johhny Farnam, Australia's number one son who was idolised and loved by all.

Have Mersey on my soul music

Then as time progressed and transistor radios became popular in the 60s bringing with it the freedom to explore other radio stations at the time of the advent of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, The Hollies (Graeme Nash's first popular band), etc, our exposure to this wonderful, rather ephemeral (not solid like paintings) addictive thing began to work it's way into my "cold cold heart" as the whole Brittish pop sound known as the Mersey beat which ranged from almost anything goes to the same old boring stuff and seemed to encompass anything from a skinny Bob Dylan singing "The Times they are A-Changin'" accompanied only by his six string guitar and possibly recorded live with little to no actual production whatsoever, all the way through the protest songs of Gerry Rafferty with the New Christie Minstrels, and Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction", Lusty Dusty Springfield, Petula Clarke (Downtown), Freddie and the Dreamers song about a mouse that lived in a windmill, to Frank Zappa with his irreverent expose of society's corrupt and useless values. My Gawd, that was all one sentence.

You could buy five middies of beer for under one dollar and Saturday night at the local dance hall meant being entertained by musos whose goal in life seemed to be to master every number by the Shadows (Cliff Richard's backing band who were a big event in their own right) and some were adventurous enough to mimic Yardbirds' tunes (Eric Clapton's big break after playing blues with John Mayall) and ... Them, who's lead singer is today's well known Van Morrison.

All this set the scene for the amazing 1970s ... which heralded the utter explosion of incredible creativity known as Rock music, much of which had little to do with rock per se.

No doubt about about it, the 60s and 70s were an amazing era to be exploring music.

We won't be going back to the second half of the 20th century for the moment but no doubt at some stage we will hack our way through the overgrown jungles of the resting places of the origins of today's music extravaganza. Today I leave you with an interesting little video that crept out of hiding and caught me by surprise on the Russian version of YouTube called RUTube.

This is freaky, cool, and an insight into the creativity that both abounds and surrounds us. The explosive universe of music has reached out beyond its big bang.

I don't know what this is called but I call it ... Broken Language after something my Gurudeva used to mention. Whatever it's called it's UberCute.



Bless all souls
cha
terrence

Introductiona

Utviklingssang

As an affectionado of almost all types of music, and yes, I have heard some rap music that I enjoyed, if I ever come across it again I'll post it here, but all digressions aside, YouTube has become a fave haunt for exploring the kind of music I would normally never make contact with from within the confines of my limited circles.

Don't be forgetting that I am a Hare Krishna devotee, so many of my more "inspired" associates would perhaps view music as something akin to evil, indulgence, or just plain old beneath them.

Personally, with the emphasis on personal, I feel a deep emotional empathy with many musicians via their musical expression; an empathy which has led me to an inclination toward musical direction (I'm not much of a musician myself) wherein I feel that given the right chemistry I can be of value to a musician who may not be content with his work, and if we are sensitive persons, and can't we all be just so self critical when it comes to our own creativity, a second opinion often is the required tonic.

Happy smiley faces

When the planets align in such a way as to permit one to contribute to another's expression, so much joy is manifest to hear the result and to see the happy smiles of performers and audiences. No other reward is necessary.

Mostly though, the ocean of creativity that surrounds us needs no input from me, nor perhaps from anyone.

Thus is the case with Carla Bley. For today's post I have chosen her duet with bassist Steve Swallow entitled Utviklingssang which is made all the more real as the visuals are merely black and white slides of still images which enhance rather than detract from the listening experience.

I absolutely adore the way they seamlessly take the lead from each other, and to avoid raving at length about Carla's flawless piano, we'll mention that Steve gets into some cool licks that clearly demonstrate that the modern electric bass is much more than just a support instrument.

As good as it gets

This piece is perfect for me to commence my music blog as, as far as I am concerned, this is about as good as it gets, ultra professional yet filled with feeling. [Did anyone notice that the word as appeared three times within the span of four words in the previous sentence? Peculiarly interesting.]

Please enjoy Utviklingssang ...




Bless all souls
cha
terrence