I Can Feel The Heat Closing In

 

Just over two weeks ago the famous crime writer Elmore Leonard passed away. I have been a fan of his writing since I was a teenager and have already read over 30 of his books. I must admit that his death started me thinking a little more on the kind of books I like to read and my favourite authors over the years.

I suppose Crime Fiction has been the most popular subject of my reading experience. When I was younger I managed to read many of the so-called modern classics, (Slaughterhouse Five, Catch 22, To Kill A Mockingbird, Concrete Island, Tropic Of Cancer, The Great Gatsby, Tropic Of Capricorn, The Unbearable Lightness Of Being, The Catcher In The Rye, The Outsider, Brave New World, The Naked Lunch. On The Road, In Cold Blood) this list could go on and on but I’m sure you get the picture of my adolescent reading material. Then I moved onto Crime novels especially Mr Leonard’s then came George Pelecanos, James Lee Burke, Daniel Woodrell, Jim Thompson, James M.Cain, James Crumley.

I expect you have noticed that they are all American writers and this fixation stayed with me as I then read everything by Charles Bukowski, Paul Auster, Pete Dexter, Raymond Carver, Harry Crews and Tim Gautreaux.

When it comes to British authors I lean towards, Magnus Mills, Jake Arnott and David Peace. Generally I have a pile of at least six books to be read and I am in the process of beginning on the Jo Nesbo Harry Hole detective series as I have read a few of Henning  Mankell’s Wallander books  and Scandinavian Noir is very popular these days.

 

My favourite book is probably Bukowski’s ‘Post Office’, the best series of books was definitely ‘Games Of Thrones’ and my current read is ‘Yellow Birds’ a book written about the Iraq War.

 

Enjoy

Gil Scot-Heron and Brian Jackson - Ain't No Such Thing As Superman

Glen Campbell - Galveston

The Coral - Pass It On

Medicine Head - One and One is One

Warren Zevon - Boom Boom Mancini

Straw Man Red Sun River Gold

The whole world has been concerned about debt for quite awhile now since the financial crash in 2008/9 and if you read a daily newspaper or watch any news programme on TV then there is always an article or some coverage of the state of the Euro, the Dollar, Sterling, Mortgage rates or the crisis in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Ireland etc.

On a personal level I try to avoid debt at all costs. I try never to be overdrawn, always pay off my outstanding amount on my modest collection of two credit cards and even actually try to save some money for my retirement, which in my case can’t arrive soon enough. I do understand that many people are suffering with all the benefit cuts, unemployment and the minuscule increases too most people’s wages. I am quite lucky that my pay generally increases every year, but that is only through Union negotiation because if it was left to the management of my company they would give me nothing at all. Union’s generally have a bad press and admittedly I do not agree with everything they try to do but overall I would not be in a workplace and not join the Union if there was one in situ.

Unfortunately this financial crisis has not hit the top level that governs and makes decisions that affect our daily purse; they often own mega-companies are chief executives, board members and are the higher ranks in our financial services. These people earn far too much and do not distribute their wealth, talent, benevolence to the benefit of the people they just continue to exploit the system which they have created in their favour to make more money. I would like to ask this question of these types of individuals, when do your large amounts of money become irrelevant ? you surely cannot spend it all, and it must get to a point where it becomes meaningless.

We are currently run by a bunch of toffs from Eton, who have never worked in a Greggs, a call centre, a mine, driven a bus, removed your bins, sat in an office in front of a pc for seven hours a day week in week out etc etc. Yet these Tory toffs are making decisions that have no consequence to them at all. I am at Socialist at heart and despise them all but when it comes to voting again I expect I will not vote because there is no political party that represents my general view of the world and our society.

As per normal I started one topic and moved into another.

As an old Labour supporter  I say to Ed Milliband sort it out mate or Labour are as doomed as the Liberals who sold themselves down the river when they made their coalition deal with these devil’s.

Enjoy  

Ha Ha Tonka - Problem Solver

The Black Lillies - The Arrow

Dr. John - Kingdom Of Izzness

Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band - Harry Irene

Two Days Til' Tomorrow

Today let’s talk about music, as this is mainly a music blog.

 

When I was younger I travelled a lot more especially to the South of the United States of America. I was always into music so through my travels I would buy albums, cassettes, cd’s and try to get to as many gigs as I could. I remember seeing Evan Johns and The H-Bombs at the Antone’s blues club in Austin, Texas sometime around 1986. My mate Paul and I were going to see Omar & The Howlers and Evan Johns was the support act, he was a giant of a man and his band really rocked so as an obsessive collector I had to go out and buy all the H-Bomb albums I could get my hands on. I have five or six albums but none beats his 1986 effort “Rollin’ Through The Night” on the Alternative Tentacles record label.

 

A few years later I was back in the states in New Orleans attending the wedding of my friend Yvette and I was loitering in a few dusty old second-hand record shops when the Schramms “Walk To Delphi” album caught my eye, I now can’t remember whether I had heard of the band before because the leader of the band Dave Schramm had been an early member of  Yo La Tengo but I bought the album and I have always had a soft spot for the LP especially the title track. Bucket Of Brains magazine review said it was ‘a record with a heart of gold, classic Americana’. I still have the review as I cut it out and put it in the record sleeve. I paid $6.50 for it back in 1992.

 

 Last but not in any way least ladies and gentlemen I give you the MC5. I was playing these tracks yesterday and I decided that these two tracks certainly get my vote as the best ever band introduction thanks to their manager and White Panther party activist John Sinclair the band then go straight into two of the best heavy guitar riff’s you can ever hear. Recorded live at the Grande Ballroom, Detroit over two night in 1969 the MC5’s “Kick Out The Jams” is a classic of it’s kind and should be higher than 294 in Rolling Stone’s greatest of all time list.

 

 

 Enjoy

Evan Johns and The H-Bombs - Rollin' Through The Night

The Schramms - Walk To Delphi

MC5 - Ramblin' Rose - Kick Out The Jams

If You Want Loyalty Buy A Dog

Modern Times = Loyalty cards

How many of this annoying little pieces of stamped cardboard do we need ?

I was struck by this thought again today whilst shopping with my dear wife in a local farm shop.

We go there occasionally maybe once every couple of months, I generally buy some beer and we buy fresh produce, we never spend more than fifteen quid and every time we get to the till the polite assistant always asks us for our loyalty card, which of course we don’t have. They have now given us a form to complete on at least three occasions but we cannot be bothered because basically how many of these little cards do we actually need in our wallets and purses at any one time ?

Nearly every coffee shop, supermarket, retail chain, farm shop, petrol station has a loyalty card, they all ask you, they want us to have them but you just can’t have them all plus what do you actually get back for your so-called loyalty ?

Some points, discounts, money off, yes all of these apparently but if they didn’t have these cards would anybody really care, I don’t think so. As a very young lad I remember collecting Green Shield stamps and filling up books and books to take them along to the store to get a new kettle or tea tray or something else usually accompanied by my mum or my old gran because it seemed to be a very non-male environment and like everything of that era in the 60’s and 70’s it died away and now people want to collect air miles or discounts to Alton Towers or get a free tea towel.

 

What’s the point……………….

 

RIP J.J CALE

 

Enjoy

J.J Cale - If You're Ever In Oklahoma

Leon Russell and the Shelter People - Home Sweet Oklahoma

Bonnie Bramlett - Atlanta Georgia

The Beat Farmers - Texas Heat

Jepp - Las Vegas

A Thousand Gigs Ago Part 2

Well, tonight on a whim I did a bit of Internet crate digging and confirmed that my first gig was a tour date on Johnny Winter's 1974 European Tour and I now remember the support group were British rock band  Nutz. The date was Saturday 26th October 1974. I was thirteen years old and went with my Dad and this was all because I bought Johnny's 'Still Alive & Well' LP in 1973.

 

Memories...

 

http://www.vinylrecords.ch/winter/Timeline/winter_timeline_1974.html

Otis Redding - I've Got Dreams To Remember

A Thousand Gigs Ago

 

Everyone has regrets in their lifetime, some are pretty major ones I’m sure but for now I want to mention one of my more annoying regrets. As a big music fan I am also a collector of certain stuff (or in a posh sense some memorabilia if you will).

I used to have a collection of concert tickets going way back to my first proper gig in the mid-seventies, ‘Johnny Winter And – Live At The New Victoria Theatre, London’, I don’t think the place exists today but I know I was there and can still prove it. So I always kept my tickets, torn stubs, wrist bands etc from gigs and festivals but about a year before I moved away from London I stuck them all on a bedroom wall alongside my collection of gig posters and at the time I wasn’t too bothered but now about 15 years later I would like to have them in my possession again but alas I know they were painted over by the tenants who moved in after I left the premises so that's a no go on that one…

 BUT… I did manage to keep the Johnny Winter ticket stub and as you can see it’s now on display on the internet alongside a creased ticket of one of my favourite R&B bands from the eighties ‘The Inmates’ and also alongside these is the napkin I have kept when many years ago my parents spotted Paul Jones eating in the same Indian Restaurant as we all were in Paddington, London and asked him to autograph said napkin and it’s still here today!.

Plus I can’t believe it only cost £1.50 to see Johnny Winter, how times have changed.

RIP T-Model Ford

 

Enjoy

T-Model Ford - Chicken Headed Man

Oblivians - Call The Police

Johnny Winter - Still Alive And Well

The Inmates - Mr. Unreliable

Augie Meyers - You Ain't Rollin' Your Roll Rite

Your Revolution Is Over....The Bums Lost !!!

Certain events this week seem to have all come together for me to form this thought 'The Ignorant are Ignorant of their Ignorance' basically. I hope that makes sense in a week where a checkout assistant refused to serve a customer because she was on her mobile but the supermarket went and apologised to the customer and offered vouchers for her upset. Certain callers to a radio show felt that they had a right to speak on their mobile at a checkout because quote 'the staff work for me' apparently !!

I then found out that it was a more or less the norm these days for people to use their mobiles in libraries and of course we all know the abusers who still use their mobiles whilst driving their vehicles and those that have conversations out loud on public transport but this is not just about ignorance it is also about respect for an individual and the property of that individual.

In my case this week I have had to walk out of my parents house to 'have a go' at two youths who pulled up in a car in her road a leafy suburban cul-de-sac so that one of them could relieve himself against a lamppost in full view of their house and many of the neighbours if they happened to be watching, of course they thought they were not doing anything wrong but I was having none of it and gave them my personal point of view in no uncertain terms, then yesterday some neighbours that back onto our property were out in their yard and this morning my wife found an empty coke can lying in our garden obviously thrown over the wall into ours, I immediately returned the said item

this morning back to the home it came from. I will not be disrespected especially by the Ignorant so there !!!

Plus I would promote the checkout girl to manager and then still could put a ban on phones at the checkout in her store permanently so let the fightback against Ignorance begin.

 

 

On a more musical note I was sad to hear of the passing of Bobby 'Blue' Bland, he always had one of my favourite singing voices and should have been much better known in his lifetime, also this week I was privileged to see JJ Grey & Mofro live for the first time.. what a band and what a frontman JJ is, he is superb, so check them out for the best soul, blues, funk, rock, Florida Swamp sound around in fact it's really Mofro !!

 

 

"A BIG SIXER"

JJ Grey And Mofro - Hide And Seek

JJ Grey And Mofro - Country Ghetto

Bobby Blue Bland - Ain't No Love In The Heart Of The City

Bobby Blue Bland - Road Of Brokenhearted Men

Estelline - Save Us From Our Ignorance

U.S Ape - Ignorance Is Bliss