Home On The Strange

One of the reasons my posts have been so sparse, besides the fact that that's how everyone starts out (or so I'm told) is that I haven't been able to log into Blogspot from my home computer. I think I know why now and it is a really dumb reason. I think I was trying to log onto Boozytunes@Blogger.com and not Boozytunes@Blogspot.com.
I will test that theory today.
Another reason (and I wanted to keep this on the QT, so to speak, but what the hell) is that, at the moment, I've been a very scattered person. Like the woman in the television spot whose mind keeps changing channels and she has no control over it. Yes folks, I've a touch of the ol' ADD. Or is it ADHD? I can never keep those straight.
That was a joke.
Just the last line, not the whole ADD thing. In addition to that mental nugget I also suffer from depression (suprise, suprise! a music fan who suffers from depression) and I'm also one of those folk who believes firmly in male menopause. I know at the outset of this whole thing I mentioned somewhere that I was a bit of a geeser. Anyway, I feel a whole lot different now at 48 than I did at 42 or 32 or 22 or 28 or 38 or... you get the idea.
However this is not the place for that kind of melancholy, so I will begin another blog to discuss those issues for anyone who is interested. I will probably only mention this again at this site when I have come up with the name, the site etc... for the blues blog and not write of it again here because I want to stick to the tunes at this site.
Besides, I'm in good company with the depression thing: Ray Davies, John Lennon, Pete Townshend, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln. The list goes on.

Could a Copper Catch a Crooked Coffin Maker

Could a copper catch a crooked coffin maker, could a copper comprehend?
That a crooked coffin maker's just an undertaker who undertakes to be your friend.
Some lyrics from another fellow from Tyneside. The late, great Alan Hull of Lindisfarne. That's Lindisfarne the band not Saint Aidens Holy Island off the Northeast English coast.
I am perhaps using the Tynesider epithet a bit liberally but I think it applies to the ISB, which is where I am segueing from if you can remember back that far. I don't believe it appropriate to designate all Scotsmen as Tynesiders, but surely Glaswegians and perhaps even those from Edinburgh are close enough to the border to be fitted with the moniker. What the hell? I'm a Yank. I can get away with it.
Allright, sod it! Alan Hull is definately a Tynesider but the Incredibles are simply Scottish.
Anyway, if you're a fan of good solid mid-tempo rock infused with British Isle flavour created by the use of fiddles, banjos, mandolins and squeeze boxes of all descriptions, then chances are you'd enjoy Lindisfarnes first two or three Lps.
Like John Lennon, Alan Hull had a real knack for Lewis Carrol-like wordplay wedded to melodies whose beauty kind of creeps up on you over repeated listenings as opposed to grabbing
you by the heartstrings at first hearing. His most popular song Lady Eleanore from the album Nicely Out Of Tune sounds as fresh today as it did in 1971 and would stand up easily to anything put out by Coldplay, Travis or Star Sailor, who, to my ears, are the descedants of bands like Lindidfarne, with the Fairport Convention/Steeleye Span influence tuned way down but not altogether missing.
I'll cut to the recommendations. Nicely Out Of Tune and The Fog On The Tyne (from which the lyrics that begin this post were nicked) the first two LPs by Lindisfarne are highly recommended as are Alan Hull's first solo LP Pipe Dreams and the It's Jack The Lad Lp by the band of the same name, a Lindisfarne spinoff band. In fact, as good as the first two Lindisfarne Lps are, I think I would steer you in the direction of Pipe Dreams and It's Jack The Lad first, although however you get it, you must find a copy of Lady Eleanor. It is easily one of the most beautiful songs in the entire rock and roll (in all its permutations) canon. Right up there with Waterloo Sunset by the Kinks. Yes, it's THAT good.
Ta Ta for now.

Problems Still

I'm getting very frustrated as I have not yet been able to clear the redundant post and when I click on the "edit" button I go to an area that does not list my posts in chronological order, which is what used to happen.
Now I'm deposited somewhere that says NO POSTS FOUND. Although my blog is still there and intact. Something is screwy with the edit button or the edit area and I've yet to get to the bottom of it. I've emailed Blogger support, unfortunately whatever answer they sent is on my home computer and I am currently at work. I'll have to print out their troubleshooting suggestions and bring them with me next time.
As long as we're kind of stuck, I'll stick with the subject of the Incredible String Band. There are a few discs which I could heartily recommend without too much fear of peopl getting pissed off at me. Keep in mind, this site is meant for the musically adventurous (are there any of us left?) and also for those who have an appreciation for melody, composition and experimentation. And I don't really mean crazy experimentation like the Residents or Sun Ra and his Arkestra, so most of you should feel safe with these picks.
Oh yes, and you must enjoy music from the 60's 70's and 80's. But not the run of the mill stuff, mind you.
Okay, more ISB recommendations. There is their final studio disc Hard Rope and Silken Twine, one side of which is a single composition (all by Mike Heron, I believe) which in and of itself covers a fairly large gamut of musical... I'll say influences rather than styles. Ostensibly it tells the story of a merchant seaman who loses his love to a more affluent suitor in ancient Greece circa 400 B.C. give or take a century or two. It opens with Robin Williamson working out a nice figure on the Oud, a lute like instrument indigenous to North Africa. Sounds a bit like a bass mandolin or a mandola to more exact. Then, in come the flutes and pan pipes and were off to the chariot races.
Side two consists of 5 songs, one excellent ballad entitled Glancing Love penned by the late comer (at least as a song writer, he'd been with the troupe as a Dancer for some years) Malcolm LeMaistre. Shucks! Just when it get interesting I have to go.