“The only love affair I have ever had was with music.” – Maurice Ravel
Hello all
As some of you may know I am a bit of a Specials fan, it’s that old saying, you never forget your first, and as The Specials – The Specials was my first, it has a special place in my heart. I am also going to see them in September. Well, this week they announced a new album, “Protest Songs –1924 -2012” with the following statement.
The beginning of 2020 saw us all together making a reggae record before we each fell ill with COVID 19 and had to put the album on ice.
During the first lockdown, the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis radiated shockwaves of protest and debate around the world. So when we were able to meet again over the summer, Terry suggested that we make a different kind of record as a response to recent events.
2020 was the year of protest, wasn’t it?
When we finally got back together in May 2021, we hadn’t played for a year and a half so to all be playing in a room together at the same time was an absolute joy. It was a big deal.
The urge to rail against what is wrong with the world and suggest how it could be better is as old as song, and The Specials have a history of protesting and fighting for justice and equality.
Later on, during the week, they realised two songs from the album, “Freedom Highway” & “Everybody Knows”, was going to sit on the fence with this one, but I can’t help myself, from what I have heard so far, these two songs have not got what the French call “je ne sais quoi”, and they don’t compare to The Staple Singers or Leonard Cohen originals. These songs will need a lot of watering if they are going to grow on me!
Now onto a lighter note, I read this great story from Dave Wakeling from The Beat this week, about when Saxa met David Bowie.
“David Bowie walks into our dressing room caravan, dressed in a short tuxedo, and asks if everything is alright, do we need anything? Saxa says, ‘Come with me sonny bwoy’, puts his arm around Bowie’s shoulder and walks him to the fridge, which he opens.
‘Look in dere, you see any Red Stripe sonny bwoy?’ asks Saxa.
‘No Saxa, you’re right, there is none’, says David Bowie.
Bowie leaves, comes back 15 minutes later with 2 six packs of Red Stripe; Saxa is thrilled! Bowie leaves, and Saxa says, ‘Nice young man dat, who him to come in our dressing room asking like dat?’
I say, ‘Thats David Bowie, Saxa’
Saxa says ‘Bloodclaaat, a me a thought he was a waiter…!’”.
I have not had a lot of time for writing this week, but I have had some time for listening, and the week started off with me asking the question Did Coldplay play it safe with their third album? Coldplay – X&Y .
I then moved onto one of my all-time favourite reggae singers Gregory Isaacs with his album Cool Ruler, this album was just a joy to listen to again.
The postman has been busy with deliveries to my house, Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell, Stereo MC’s – Paradise, and Garbage – Version 2.0.
On my way home from work on Friday I popped into Sounds of the Suburbs and picked up a copy of Roachford – Roachford, then I had to quickly rush home and get ready for Guildford and Sounds of the Suburbs 5th anniversary show.
What a great night we had at Sounds of the Suburbs 5th anniversary show, with 4 great bands Public Service Announcement, The Aim, Plague UK, and The Members. My first time at The Holroyd ARMS, what a great venue and a great crowd. Here is one from the Aim from the night.
Of causes the Member done The Sound of the Suburbs, for those who don’t know it, here it is.
I could not help myself, Tony has been raving about Plague UK for a while now, and I was impressed with their set, I ended up buying Plague UK – Nothing For Nothing album, here is a little taster.
Thanks, Tony for a great night, and here to another 5 years.
Saturday had a little drive with the wife, and I decided to listen to something a little calmer, the wife is not really into punk, so I decided on a bit of Tracy Chapman – Tracy Chapman.
Talking of punk, I never really got The Sex Pistols and sort of avoided ” Never Mind the Bollocks”, but I read a review this week by 2 Loud 2 Old Music who admitted to never been a fan of punk, but wrote this interesting review, You Picked It! – The Sex Pistols – ‘Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols’ – Album Review, which may change my mind, I actually voted for The Wallflowers – ‘Exit Wounds’for me. This month I have gone with Dr. John, ‘GRIS-Gris’ to see if it takes him out of his comfort zone as it did me.
Steve for the Deaf shared some of his thoughts on R.E.M. – Murmur in Catapult – R.E.M., where he has a playlist of easy R.E.M. tracks titled R.E.M.S.L.E.E.P which he drifts off too. I suggested he adds the song “Pilgrimage” to it. Most unlike me he has even got me liking a Motörhead song in his post Born to Raise Hell, the older I am getting the louder it’s getting, maybe I need a playlist to help me drift off too.
Stay safe all, and have a good week.
Oh, I have been listening to this on my daily commute.
I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.
