Category: Facebook

The American in Americana

When asked these days, as I was just last weekend, what kind if music I’m into generally, I often say “Americana”. And by that I always meant just about any blues-based rock, tempered by a more recent education of the breadth of what that can mean during our 3 years stint in the southern US. Anything  from folk, blue-grass, country, blues and on up … eventually to heavier rock / metal / punk / grunge whatever the fashion. The distinguishing feature is then always a matter of quality of the people, the playing, and of course the songs themselves – intelligent wit always helps, but the beat goes on.

RIP Levon Helm.

The sole American in the mostly Canadian The Band responsible for originating the Americana term. It’s the drummer’s voice on The Weight – as opposed to front-man Robbie Robertson who wrote it – a favourite, and one of the few such songs I can make a passable stab at on the guitar.

The Weight

I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head
“Hey, mister, can you tell me where a man might find a bed?”
He just grinned and shook my hand, “no” was all he said

Take a load off, Annie
Take a load for free
Take a load off, Annie
And (and) (and) you put the load right on me
(You put the load right on me)

I picked up my bag, I went lookin’ for a place to hide
When I saw Carmen and the Devil walkin’ side by side
I said, “Hey, Carmen, come on let’s go downtown”
She said, “I gotta go but my friend can stick around”

(chorus)

Go down, Miss Moses, there’s nothin’ you can say
It’s just ol’ Luke and Luke’s waitin’ on the Judgment Day
“Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Anna Lee?”
He said, “Do me a favor, son, won’tcha stay and keep Anna Lee company?”

(chorus)

Crazy Chester followed me and he caught me in the fog
He said, “I will fix your rack if you’ll take Jack, my dog”
I said, “Wait a minute, Chester, you know I’m a peaceful man”
He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can”

(chorus)

Catch a cannon ball now to take me down the line
My bag is sinkin’ low and I do believe it’s time
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one
Who sent me here with her regards for everyone

(chorus)

(Sad I know, but I did once pull into the Nazareth in question, on the strength of the lyric – with opportunity presented by several working visits to Bethlehem / Allentown … where the chain is picked-up by Springsteen’s lyric. More Americana.

Ah yes, of course, … (a recent Christmas present) …

“At the end of the documentary It Might Get Loud Jack White, Jimmy Page and The Edge play The Weight acoustically while The Edge and White swap vocals”.)

Devo Max – Jocko Homo

I could have posted this the instant it occurred to me yesterday – but now after BBC R4 Today playing a clip of Devo and interviewing Gerry Casale this morning #Devo is UK trending all over twitter this morning.

I’ve posted before how Devo’s first UK gig at the Roundhouse Sunday 30th April 1978 was part of my best ever day of live music. I have Devo on vinyl and replaced as MP3 in the last couple of years, since they became active again recently – playing them now of course. Put Akron, Ohio on the map (after car tyres, and before Chrissie Hynde, that is).

Anyway, what I was going to post was a suggestion on devolution – Yes, let’s have better local government arrangements, let’s get more federal – let’s redraw the Scottish border at (say) Watford Gap so more of us benefit – or maybe draw it around the M25 and leave London inside as the UK’s “Capital Territory”. (And incidentally, as a government politician, Salmond knocks spots off the current shambles in Westminster. Win-Win.)

Now that would be “Devo Max”?

Jocko Homo – Are we not men?

They tell us that we can’t go free,
To control our own destiny.
I say it’s all  hypocrisy.
Are we not Scots? We’re Devo Max.
Are we not Welsh? D-E-Vo Max.

Surreal that “Jocko” fits the context 34 years after the fact. Also intriguing that the originally degenerate de-evolution of “Devo” could become aligned with devolution – a reversal of civilisation’s trend to bigger global / corporate to smaller local / human arrangements. Maybe it’s not humans that are devo, but society – in a positive way. Weird that a rhyming political sound-bite can “create” what lay latent. I swear I’ve had this thought before, but never thought to write it.

Florence Falls Foul of Facebook

Back when this occurred – back in July 2010 – it was a bug with Facebook, that if you clicked on an item to see what was actually there, you were credited with a “Like” even if you were disgusted with what you found. I think it’s fixed.

Hopefully Sunderland City Councillor Florence Anderson or her defence has the nous. She’s already suspended. Bloody politics.

Better than the Real Thing?

Interesting how much creativity and ingenuity goes into the promo film simulation in advance of a project like this one – sponsored by Red Bull it seems. The real thing can’t fail to disappoint in comparison?

Apart from the development and testing programme for civilian spacesuits, what is the point?

We Didn’t Start the Fire

Latest from Sam Harris – on two levels – “The Fireplace Delusion“. On one level the emotional response of rational people to a long accepted aspect of life. Second, an analogy for how those of faith respond to scientific arguments against their faith.

I do like wood fires, we actually have them in the home now. The living fire, the warm focal point, the smell of “natural” wood. Yep, I get your point Sam.

But my response is not “fist-clenching” for the reasons you assume Sam.

Rationally, as an engineer and scientist, I doubt your science – I could research your references for a deeper view – but for now: Smelling wood and wood smoke is way different to inhaling concentrated smoke – yes anyone failing to combust completely to H2O and CO2 – making smoke, needs to take care both locally and environmentally who gets to breathe what concentrations of smoke unnecessarily – whether cigarettes or wood or coal or maladjusted diesel engines, whatever. Tobacco, coal and oil are as “natural” as wood. Concentrated, and continuous smoke is bad. Dilute and fleeting less so. The WHO numbers of premature deaths, beg many questions on what a premature death is, and on the consequences of alternative deaths, through causes of cold and disease. Need to see some balance in a complex set of causes and effects – on the whole history of humanity since the discovery of fire. But anyway, let’s assume your scientific summary is right.

As an atheist, the fist-clenching aspect is the treating of humans as physical bodies, prone to biological life or death, as if there were no social goods or costs, no intellectual goods or costs involved in our interconnected life stories. The scientific arrogance is breathtaking in believing a few (hundreds, thousands of?) scientific case studies of the physical and biological explains all we need to know. Balance is relevant across not only quantifiable scientific effects and values, but across all levels of value.

I actually like Sam’s philosophy – here his something rather than nothing interview with Larry Kraus – but the scientism is fist-clenching.

Science didn’t start the fire.

What about the fireside value of story-telling for example.