Forever Young

So someone has copied Lady Gaga Born This Way for me.  I know I know - it's not strictly above board - well not at all above board, but as I probably wouldn't have bought the CD myself, I'm not actually doing any body out of any royalties.

I'd like to say I really enjoy today's chart music but apart from one or two tracks I don't care for it.  I try to listen though from time to time just to keep my ear in.  I have a fear of getting behind the times.  I come across people, many who are a good few years younger than me, who don't have a mobile phone or don't use the internet and even one or two people who don't use a credit card and I can't believe they admit to this.  Why would you want to live in the middle ages?

I have wrinkles, aches, pains and my hair is going grey but I try to keep my brain up to date. It's getting increasingly difficult.  Nowadays my head is so full when one bit of info goes in another has to leave to make way.

Anyway I do computers, smart phones, MP3 players etc so I think I'm keeping up quite well but... Lady Gaga?  I don't have any track listings - any info at all - so just put the CD in and off we went. Well I'd like to be able to tell you that I love the album but I'm not sure if I really do. It's OK but I wonder if I am forcing myself to listen because I don't want to feel old.

I knew Clarence was playing on one of the tracks - didn't know which one. There is one song though I have played a good few times - yep really love this one.  Surprise surprise it has saxophone on it and yes there's the Big Man.  Here it is from The American Idol finale

  

Back to more usual stuff. On Friday we, along with a few hundred other middle aged music lovers, went to see Nils Logfren in Bradford.  It was more or less that same show we saw last year, and although I enjoyed it more this time, I don't think we would have gone if we had realised we had seen it before.  I recognised more of the songs this time but as I have mentioned before I'm not so keen on long guitar solos.  This is a problem when you go to see Nils because most of the audience are waiting for ... the long guitar solos!

Of course he did Because The Night but I'm a bit bored with this at the moment.  A request for If I Should Fall Behind was a surprise.  This is one of the songs that Mike would like to hear live.  Well he's heard it now but I expect this isn't exactly what he meant.



Next up for us John Mellencamp in July then Bryan Adams later in the year.  Well gotta do something when Bruce isn't touring.

Had we not booked for Nils we may have mortgaged the house and bought two tickets for Rod Stewart at Elland Road.  I understand they were expensive seats, but as we could have walked there, we'd have saved on transport costs.  I've seen Rod before and have a soft spot for him because he was my first credible music hero back in the early seventies. By credible I mean he wasn't a teen idol.  He was a well respected musician until he 'sold out' and moved to America.

Mentioning Rod reminds me that I was going to talk about Bob Dylan the other week.  Rod does some great covers of Dylan songs on his early albums.  I'm not a huge Dylan fan - I like a lot of his well known songs but don't know any of the more obscure stuff.  I hear he's very charismatic on stage but I can't imagine it myself.

Anyway Bob was 60 the other week and Radio 2 did a series of programmes about him.  I'm sure I've seen pieces in the past suggesting Bob doesn't like Bruce.  Perhaps some of it stems from this Travelling Wilburys' song which Dylan wrote and is obviously a piss take of Bruce.



It makes me smile, actually, and I can imagine Bruce having a little chuckle when he heard it.

Bruce has done many a Dylan cover and there is a great blog here with some links to some of them.

Chimes of Freedom is a favourite of mine.  I heard the Bruce version first - didn't even know it was a Dylan song at the time.







And finally this week a blog from a non Bruce fanatic.  I found it an interesting read - somebody who admires our man but not necessarily for his music.

Although the writer doesn't realise it I think there are many many of us who admire Bruce for his integrity, his work ethic and his power to inspire us in a way that isn't necessarily just about the music.

Well I Got This Guitar

By the time I was 19 I had moved away from home but still returned every weekend to go out with my school friends to the local disco.

Around about this time my sister in law - Irene - and I decided we wanted to learn to play the acoustic guitar.  My first guitar had been bought many years before with Green Shield Stamps.  For those of you who are too young to remember, these were the equivalent of today's Tesco Reward card and the like.  In the olden days you were given stamps which you stuck in a book.  Along with this you had a catalogue, out of which you chose gifts, which were bought with the stamps.  I can't imagine how many books my mum and dad had to fill to buy a guitar but it must have been at least a sack full.  I don't know how old I was but my hand was too small to reach around the neck and the guitar soon ended up in the garage damp, warped and unplayable.  Not quite Bruce's guitar story but then he has a lot more determination than I will ever have.



Anyway I had my second guitar by the time my brother - Ian - rather rashly agreed to teach us.  He and Irene lived just down the road from my mum so my guitar travelled back and forth with me each weekend.

In a previous blog I mentioned how Ian had taught himself to play and told you how proud we all were of him.  I would watch his fingers form the chords and pluck the strings and itched to be able to do it myself. You will often find me at gigs concentrating on the guitarist's hands - yes ladies even at a Springsteen gig but then I watch his hands a lot because I love the way he does that kind of pointy thing and the way he conducts the band.  I digress but it gives me an excuse to include this



Ian is a teacher - not a guitar teacher but teaching is teaching I suppose - unless your wife and sister are the (rather unruly) pupils. We each had an exercise book in which we wrote the words and the chord changes for the songs we learnt.  'Sloop John B' was the first.  I also remember 'Singing The Blues' 'The Streets of Toledo' and a song which I am ashamed to say I didn't know at the time but which has since become a favourite - Roy Orbison's 'In Dreams'.

Now I can't sing!  I mean I really can't sing!!  I trill along to the radio and CDs all the time.  Mike remarks with much surprise if I am in tune but mostly he just asks me, not always jokingly, to be quiet.  My best mate Jacquie, who is a great singer, admitted in a truthful moment that my singing is really out of tune but at least I will never turn up on X Factor with false hope.

I sound OK to me but even I have to confess that my 'Born To Run' is awful.  My 'In Dreams' was bad too and therein lies the rub.  When you are strumming chords nobody knows what you are playing unless you sing the melody.  In my case nobody knows what I'm playing even when I do sing along!

Irene really wanted to play Bob Dylan: specifically a song called 'Visions Of Johanna'.  I had to buy Blonde on Blonde to learn it but because of this I gained an appreciation of Dylan which had escaped me before.  I assume Ian simplified the arrangement for us and removed the difficult chords and we could do a passable version in the end.

I am ashamed to say our lessons were short lived.  Frustration set in and that guitar went the same way as the first.

The grounding was there, though, and many years later when I decided to try again I could still play those first few chords.  Must be like riding a bike - you never forget.  I decided to make a concerted effort about ten years ago.  I bought a new guitar and new how to play book, worked up some nice hard skin on my finger ends and, although I say so myself, I progressed a little.

Mike bought his own guitar and together we could manage a few tunes.  'Blowing in the Wind' was our party piece and I could do a passable strum along of 'The River'.  

I didn't crack it then and haven't played for ages although we still have the guitars hanging on the wall.

The dream hasn't died though so one day when we are all at some get together I hope to be able to whip out my guitar and lead a sing-a-long!


Now other snippets:-

Firstly -  Tim Rice has been presenting a Radio 2 show in which he looks at the music of each of the American States.  This week: New Jersey.  All the usual suspects were mentioned - Franki Valli, Frank Sinatra, Bon Jovi.  Had to wait until about three quarters through to get Bruce.  They played 'Tougher Than The Rest' - a good choice I thought.  Didn't get the impression Tim is a fan but he couldn't do a piece about musicians from NJ without mentioning him.

I was surprised to hear a song from Mary Chapin Carpenter.  I mention this especially for Elaine who isn't a fan of the country music genre.  Mary is one of my faves and I didn't know she was from NJ.  She has covered 'Dancing In The Dark' but luckily for you I couldn't find a YouTube clip.  There's this audio clip though.  I have to say not sure myself - a bit dreary maybe.

Secondly - I browse around the internet all the time hunting out stuff for this blog.  News is hard to find some weeks so clutching at straws comes to mind with this house for sale here?   I don't know why Springsteen Avenue is odd.  We name streets and even airports after people all the time.  We live near Asquith Avenue named after the Prime Minister but I don't think of him when I see the street.   Perhaps it's because Springsteen brings such a strong, immediate image to mind that it's hard to picture it as a bit of tarmac and some houses.

And finally kind of back to where we started with gifts  What a fab Christmas Present.  Thing is, as many of you know, I love my handy crafts - hmmmmm - do I feel a quilt coming on?