DADDY PLUGS IN

or

ROLLING BACK THE YEARS

I always forget. It always takes me by surprise. The first bass notes take me unawares and wake the snake...the kundalini straightens my spine, pimples my skin, tickles the adrenal into hyper-production, plugs me into something more than mains and takes over the string pulling function of my brain. I dance. Even sitting down.

Maybe I work too much...maybe whenever I'm home, the Frog is sleeping and my 150 watt speakers are a no-no...maybe it's 'cos I finally got around to buying a pair of headphones for the beast and can finally access all my mp3s mid-blog...but just how is it possible to forget just how much I love, really love, music?

Anyway, the soundtrack to a Saturday night's blogging.

Limp Bizkit - Getcha Groove On
The Smiths - Every Day Is Like Sunday
David Bowie - Fame
John Martyn - Sweet Certain Surprise
Boss Hogg - Itchy & Scratchy
Miles Davis & Thelonius Monk - Blue Monk (Live)
Gregory Isaacs - Night Nurse
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Captain Beefheart - Dachau Blues
Salif Keita - Yamore
Stereo MCs - Connected
Peter Gabriel - Red Rain
Talking Heads - And She Was
Sandy Rogers - Fool for Love

Any of the above can be requested by leaving e-mail addy in the comments except Salif Keita which is a monster of a file and even though I've squeezed the pips out of it and tried to send it to Jess on occasions too numerous to mention, it always comes bouncing back to sender.

Monk's playing now...such floppy fingers and yet such a sureness of touch...oooh, bass solo...be right back.

Wow, I'm breathless, astounded.

Boss Hogg!!!!

"Ooooooooooooooooooooooo, you've made me suffer" LOVE IT!!!!

"I'll keep you sedated
give you what you want
paint you pretty pictures..."

Oh, Gregory, you have such a honeyed voice. And such a way with words.

Tell her, "Try your best just to make it quick.
Woman, tend to the sick."
'Cos there must be something she can do.
This heart is broken in two.

Tell her it's a case of emergency.
There's a patient by the name of Gregory.

Night nurse, only you alone can quench this here thirst.
My night nurse, oh gosh!
Oh, the pain is getting worse.

I don't wanna see no doc.
I need attendance from my nurse around the clock.
'Cos there's no prescription for me.
She's the one, the only remedy.

Night nurse, only you alone can quench this here thirst.
My night nurse.
Oh, the pain is getting worse.
I hurt my love and I'm sure...no doctor can cure.

I think it's the "oh gosh!" that does it for me. Perfect!

Come on, Salif, do your stuff. Oh boy, it's gone straight to the tear ducts. Love, loss, happiness and a indistinct keyboard viewed through a watery cornea. One of the best songs ever written. Ever.

"Aye yaye yayuh"...oooh, funky!

"Something ain't right" You are kidding.

Funny how one's first heroes are either musicians or football players, isn't it? Or is it?

With the hormonal conflagration that is adolescence, is it really any wonder that something so primal as music can affect us beyond all reason?

"Heroes fall into the ground
like hell's magnet pulls me down
down on my knees
I try to please" (reference: 10 points)

Heroes fall, and heroes change but some stand the test of time even if we do view them now in a different light. My first live concert was Genesis' Foxtrot tour in maybe 1973 or 4 and I love Gabriel as much now as I did then. I was there for the Ziggy Stardust tour, Steve's grandmother queued up to get us two tickets at Sheffield City Hall...I loved you Steve, rest in peace and minimalism, old friend...and I like his music just as much today.

I guess they started to appeal to me by virtue of their very difference, their unconventionality and yet, when I come to review my musical favourites today, I find that they all have in common that self same unconformity that appealed to me all those years ago. Do we really change that much at base? Or maybe that unconformity has morphed into diversity...an appreciation of anything that has the spark of originality and makes that all important connection, a live feed into the neural network to make me feel more alive, plugged via something more vital than the intellect into something older than all of us, something...well, primal.

Oh well, if music be the food of love, play on, my friends...play on. Oh, yes.