The Days Of Vinyl

If you're a serious hifi fan, you'll eschew digital renditions of musical classics - whether Beethoven or Woody Guthrie - in favour of classic vinyl recordings.

My earliest records were vinyl records. LPs (Long Play): 33⅓, EPs (Extended Play): 45 and Singles: 78 revolutions per minute - rpm. 12 inch, 10 inch, 7 inch.

Remember?

Anyway, I am now a vinyl. An old 78.

Who's in my lift?

Tony (my friend of whom you will be aware) responds to discussions of political personalities (we have much such discourse) with a question about a lift: "who would I like to spend time with in a lift which has broken down?" [that "who" should probably technically be "whom"; maybe even "with whom would I like to" ...but it sounds so ugly and persnickety]. I generally play along with the game: Donald Trump NO, Boris Johnson YES, Prince William NO, Ed Sheeran YES, Greta Thunberg NO, Andy Murray YES. Those are mine, not Tony's.

We learned yesterday that Abba are releasing a new album, Yeh! Here's the second track:

I hope it makes Asda Radio in time for my breakfast on Saturday.

So here is the lift question for you guys: With whom would you most like to share a lift for ten minutes - the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Oasis or Abba? Let me know, with reasons.

Charlie Watts or Abba?

More Asda Radio trivia. Calmly and quietly eating my breakfast today, reading the paper, minding my own business, I was assaulted by the Rolling Stones shouting at me. Maybe the compiler of today's playlist was celebrating the life of Charlie Watts, the Stones' drummer who died yesterday at the age of 80. Is it disrespectful to question that he died 'peacefully'? That seems very un-Stones. Respect intended.

Later I was cheered up by Abba. I tapped my feet and cheered up.

None of this stopped me trawling some book ideas from various articles and comment pieces in today's Times. I share with Son #2 a love of books and, to an extent, the same kinds of books. We often jointly purchase books that we can share in hard copy, which is cheaper than each of us buying a Kindle edition. It's probably not very good for climate change but excellent for our minds. Today I found these, which may be purchased in the near future:

Fixing Failed States: A Framework for Rebuilding a Fractured World by Ashraf Ghani [this is the Afghan President who fled the country last week but I'm not holding that against him; he could be someone who has an informed view of these issues]

Red Knight: The Unauthorised Biography of Sir Keir Starmer by Michael Ashcroft [Conservative party donor and ex Deputy Chairman, tax exile who previously invested in Watford Football Club, saving them from going into administration; I'm not holding any of that against him because he researches and writes well]

Friday is the New Saturday: How a Four-day Working Week Will Save the Economy by Pedro Gomes [never heard of him but I'm not holding that against him]

Sharing options available for any who wish to join Dan and me!

Anyway, today is a big day for three friends. All of us active or retired croquet players

who used to meet once a month for a pub lunch. Our aim was to visit a different pub each month, particularly those none of us had previously frequented. Not always possible but we did it for 108 months from June 2009. Tony is 90, new hip, still occasional croquet player; Ian I think 75, heart implant of some kind, possibly retired player (I'll ask him today); I am Nigel, 77, sore knees, definitely retired player. We haven't met for almost exactly a year for obvious reasons but today will patronise the Britannia Inn in St Austell, which has lots of outdoor tables and decent food and drink.

Clustering

My Word of the Week is ... clustering. This came up in an article I read, actually from a year ago, about the economic benefits of clustering as an argument for encouraging office workers to return to the office rather than continuing to work from home. Ed Glaeser is the chairman of the Harvard economics department and he has written extensively about clustering, mostly to do with technological development and entrepreneurship of organisations, for instance in Silicon Valley.There is a lot of research on clustering in this context but I'd say the application of the theory to the benefits of interactive working, brainstorming and mutual motivation in offices are unproven, although in some situations seemingly obvious. And perhaps need to be measured against any benefits of working from home.

I read a definition of clustering:

The task of dividing the population or data points into a number of groups such that data points in the same groups are more similar to other data points in the same group than those in other groups.

OK. Mm. [thinking about that]

When I entered the last few of my teenage years, I wanted to be a mathematician. Looking back, I can surmise that I thought working with abstract concepts and numbers was more my thing than working with people. At the time, I believed that the cleverest people in the world were mathematicians - Pythagoras, Newton, Einstein, Turing - and I wanted to be one of them. Turned out I either wasn't clever enough or I came to think that data points were not as cool as I thought. It didn't stop me, by serendipitous opportunity, becoming a computer programmer.

Much has been written on the supposed connections between mathematics and music, so I suppose it was natural that I should gravitate to the latter, and more so that I would come to appreciate and admire the music of Schönberg and Webern and their development of dodecaphonic music, based on the twelve-tone technique, in the early twentieth century. Serialism takes the twelve notes of the chromatic scale in an order particular to the composition and makes versions of this sequence - inverted, reversed, transposed, etc. - the basis of the piece. The fact that the twelve notes are theoretically equal makes the harmonic outcome of the work different from earlier music, where notes such as the first, fourth and fifth of the major or minor scale are predominant.

If you are a fan of Mozart, Abba or Miles Davis, you may not enjoy listening to serialist music.

One of the most significant books I read about congruence between maths and music is Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game. It's a futuristic book which suggests that education prioritising the two subjects, studying them alongside each other, provides a perfect synthesis of arts and science. Check it out!

Anyway, I'm not going back to the office cluster anytime soon. Let's check out some Webern:

It's actually rather soothing.

Breakfast Music

I was quietly eating my breakfast in Asda and was disturbed by frenetic music being pumped through the store's speakers. It's Asda Radio, which plays continuously. Generally, whilst wandering the shopping aisles and filling my trolley, I don't notice the music. Sitting still, even though reading my newspaper, the music is intrusive.

Why do supermarkets play music? I read one article claiming that stores played "calming music" during the first lockdown; remember the loo roll wars? I'd bet that (a) they didn't analyse the outcomes and (b) it made no difference. Apparently one branch of Morrisons played Roy Orbison’s ‘Anything You Want' at the time; particularly clumsy.

A retail consultancy LS Retail gave "7 reasons why you should play music in your store":

1. Create and differentiate your brand

Are you a carefree, laid back brand? Do you run family-friendly stores with a warm atmosphere? Are you edgy, vibrant and energetic? The tempo, loudness, style of the music you play can help communicate your brand’s personality to customers.

2. Build the right atmosphere

Analyze your store's ambiance, what kind of atmosphere do you want to establish? You could for example create a playful space with high-key pop music, or use slow rhythms to build a relaxed, pensive environment. [ideal for breakfast, I'd say]

3. Create a private space

By masking the sounds of voices and movements, background music helps create a personal space for customers, giving them privacy as they walk around the store, browse the products and make comments to friends or family. [and have breakfast]

4. Set the shoppers’ pace

Studies show that the speed, rhythm and volume of in-store music affects the pace of customer flow through the store. When calm music is playing at a low volume, people tend to wander around the aisles slowly; on the other hand, when energetic, loud songs are playing, people tend to accelerate their pace through the store. Interestingly, the pace of customer flow doesn’t appear to affect sales. [so why are you doing it, exactly?]

5. Shorten waiting times

Music can affect people’s perception of time. A long queue will feel shorter if there is good [?] music playing in the background.

6. Encourage people to shop

Research shows that music can influence what shoppers choose and how much they buy. A 2005 study revealed that people tend to spend more on impulse buys when pleasant music is playing. [I can understand that; punk rock might make the customers run away quickly]

7. Increase productivity

In-store music is not only for the customers, employees and managers benefit from it too. An effective music strategy can be a great tool to boost staff morale, concentration and productivity. In a 2013 research by DJS, 77% of businesses agreed that their staff is more productive when music is playing.

I'll leave you to reflect on this and whether that's a load of old ............

Also this morning and on the same subject, I received the following email from Ipswich Town Football Club:

We've created a page where supporters can vote on the walkout music, the pre kick-off track and the song played when Town score

The options are as follows:

Walkout music

Faithless - Insomnia
Arcade Fire - Wake Up
Lux Aeterna
Kanye West - All Of The Lights
Blur - Song 2

Pre kick-off music

Singing The Blues
Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
The Beatles - Hey Jude

Goal music

The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Kungs Vs. Cookin' On 3 Burners - This Girl

Under each section there is also an "OTHER" option, so you can let us know a track suggestion if it is not on our list.

This is definitely in my playground; I've blogged about it before. Let's consider the rationales.

Walkout music - this is for the players, to set the tone of their play right from the start: slow, methodical, patient possession-based buildup or gung-ho attack? I'm pretty sure the fans want the latter, the coach probably the former. I created a Spotify playlist with all the suggested options and here are my opinions:

Faithless - Insomnia: this is from a genre I call "dull rap", not wild or shouty, no effect on the players.
Arcade Fire - Wake Up: much more like it, strong rhythm, however the vocals too passive IMO.
Lux Aeterna: this seems like a misprint.
Kanye West - All Of The Lights: driving rhythm, mixture of modern pop and rap, it's quite possible this would drive my team on, if there's nothing better.
Blur - Song 2: oh yes, this is the one!. Lots of screaming drive. We'll be two goals up after ten minutes. Wait, won't the opposition be stimulated by this too? Mm...

Pre kick-off music: this is just to keep the fans happy while they're waiting for the match to start.

Singing The Blues: this is the classic Guy Mitchell/Tommy Steele 60s song but I'm assuming this is the version sung by the Ipswich Town squad of the Terry Butcher "Golden Era" (FA Cup winners 1978). Forget the rest, this has to get the vote.
Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline: ugh.
The Beatles - Hey Jude: not the Fab Four's best

[On reflection after re-reading the email, this might be the track played as the teams are lining up, awaiting the ref's whistle but I'm still going for option 1]

Goal music

Not relevant, rarely necessary. I'll put Barry Manilow's "Miracle" in the OTHER box:

It's a miracle
A true blue spectacle
The miracle come true
We're together, baby
I was going crazy
Till the miracle came through

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

I'm unsure what I think about attempts to re-engineer the past. Statues, such as those of Cecil Rhodes. I wonder whether Rhodes would have been a fan of The Clash.

... if you want me off your back
Well, come on and let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

I generally approach these apparently binary issues with a touch of cynicism. I doubt they are simple matters. In the case of Rhodes, it may boil down to what a statue is for. Things change; the culture of a nation changes, as do the values of humankind. Statues don't; they are either there or not (ask Saddam Hussein). Perhaps statues should be temporary, with a limited lifespan. He's no longer interesting; let's put her up instead for the next year or so. Made of some cheap material to facilitate that. Or holograms, with a coded time limit; you wake up one morning and discover that David Lloyd George is no longer in Parliament Square Garden. "Oh, we switched him off; his time was up; Madonna will be there next week."

I know virtually nothing about Cecil Rhodes so am unwilling to venture an opinion of his suitability for deification in concrete. I can consider the arguments on both sides: leaving the statue standing is a necessary reminder of how we, the British, condoned genocide vs removing the statue means we no longer share those imperial values and should not appear to celebrate them. Both arguments seem to me flimsy, sounding a bit Orwellian. I suppose I think statues coagulate the past and I am much more interested in the future.

I rather think Rhodes would have echoed The Clash:

If I go there will be trouble
And if I stay it will be double
So ya gotta let me know
Should I stay or should I go?

Salò

Salò is an Italian town which was for a short while Mussolini's capital in exile. Situated on the banks of Lake Garda, it is 142 km from Venice and has a population of around 52,000. So Folkestone-by-the-lake. For reference.

If the town is famous for anything reputable - which is debatable - it could be for the musical instrument maker Gasparo da Salò, one of the first violin makers. Here's Katha Zinn telling you about that:

I came across Salò in a book by Martin Cruz Smith, The Girl From Venice. It's my kind of book with my kind of hero: a fisherman, a peasant I guess you'd say, giving the appearance of being uneducated but smart as a whip, a shrewd observer. An outsider who relishes that status, not a materialistic bone in his body, flawed but comfortable in his singularity.

It's a novel set in 1945 as the Second World War comes to a conclusion and Mussolini's Italian Social Republic, a German puppet state, is crumbling before our eyes. It begins in Venice, where the descriptions of the Lagoon and the life of the fishermen are vivid. Our hero Cenzo rescues a young Jewish girl from the waters of the lagoon and learns her story of escape from the Germans. Cenzo sets out to find a way to get her out of Italy and the story moves to Salò, where his brother Giorgio is a film star and a Nazi collaborator.

The characters we meet include a Swiss film director, an Argentinian consul's wife and a friend of Mussolini's mistress. They are well painted and the writing is good.

The Germans are leaving town, Mussolini is disappearing, various groups of partisans are ready to battle each other for the soul of Italy...will Cenko be able to find a safe way out for Giulia?

I often read trashy spy and crimes novels but this is a league above that. Easy to read, difficult to put down. And an introduction to Salò.

Quintuple meter

Those of you who, like me, were children of the 60s, will remember Dave Brubeck's Take Five:

Quintuple meter - usually 5/4 or 5/8 time - is surprisingly common in music of all ages.

The First Delphic Hymn, by Athenaeus (2nd century BC) is in the quintuple Cretic meter:

Twenty one centuries later, here's the German baritone Hermann Prey singing Carl Loewe's 1844 ballad Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter in 5/4 time:

Tchaikovsky's Pathetique Symphony (no. 6) also has the main theme of the second movement in 5/4:

I really like this piece of Hindemith - Ludus Tonalis: Fugue in G (1942).It's a jolly 5/8.

I know you youngsters will want something more attuned to your tastes, so here's Taylor Swift in 5/4 mode:

Got a favourite out of these? Let me know.

Seven of...

... Eight. Or Four: music in 7/8 or 7/4 time.

🀍 Here is an example from Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird:

🀖 And the 4th movement of Bartok's Concerto For Orchestra:

🀟 7/8 in jazz: Don Ellis - Beat Me Daddy 7 To The Bar:

🂷 Bulgarian folk music often uses septuple meter, as in this rachenitsa:

It can be either 3-2-2 or 2-2-3. I'll leave you to work out which that is!

🂧 This Misra Capu is a clear 3-2-2:

🃇 Fancy a bit of Doctor Who?

🃗 We can't finish without some Pink Floyd - Money:

I was going to segue to Seven of Nine from Star Trek Voyager but this music proved too interesting. Another day...but here's a little taster!

London Grammar

In my continual search for music I don't know, I came across this.

London Grammar are [maybe that should be "is"? Band is definitely a singular entity, but "are" flows better] apparently an electro pop band. I don't know what that is, which isn't surprising for a 77 year old (me not them). I quite like this track; the vocal has a bit of the Joni Mitchell inflexion. Not very electro, I'd say. Less keen on the video, which is a bit weird.

The song is from 2013 but could have been written for lockdown and its effects on young people.

Maybe I'm wasting my young years
Don't you know that it's only fear
I wouldn't worry, you have all your life
I've heard it takes some time to get it right

Oldsters like me need to be less focussed on the effects of lockdown on ourselves. I don't think enough about what it is like to have been a five year old, or a teenager, this last year. Education stalled, social isolation, daily living in a family bubble with no outlet, the prospect of "wasting my young years". I know this isn't what the song is about, but it could be.

Tell me if you like the song. Or click "interesting". Or something else.

When the year ends in one

Remember Chas & Dave? You'd have to be of a certain age. Purveyors of a musical style called rockney - cockney rock. You can imagine. In the late 70s and early 80s. According to Mr W Pedia "their major breakthrough being "Gertcha" in 1979, which peaked at No. 20 in the UK Singles Chart". So not rock royalty.

Anyway, they are perhaps best known for their football music. As supporters of Tottenham Hotspur, they were the backing musicians on When the Year Ends in One, a single featuring the Spurs football team, celebrating their success in winning the 1991 FA Cup, which reached number 44 in the charts:

It was nineteen hundred and one when Tot'nam first got there
They were in the final, it was a grand affair
Sheffield United scored a goal but finished runners up
Cameron, Smith and Brown scored three as Spurs took home the Cup

It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
They first won the Cup when the century begun
It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
So this is the year for Spurs

Then in nineteen twenty one again was Tot'nam's year
Jinkin' Jimmy Dimmock scored the winner 'ere
Wolver'ampton Wanderers never scored at all
Spurs 'ad won the Cup again by playin' good football

It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
They first won the Cup when the century begun
It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
So this is the year for Spurs

In the sixty one Cup Final, first time on Wembley turf
Damn near proved to ev'ryone they were the best team on Earth
They won the Wembley final, and they were the first to do
the Double, 'cos they ended up League Champions too

It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
They first won the Cup when the century begun
It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
So this is the year for Spurs

Now it's nineteen ninety one but let us not forget
ten years ago, who won the Cup in eighty one, you bet
It was Tot'nam 'otspur, when Ossie's dream come true
Now it's nineteen ninety one the Spurs know what to do

It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
They first won the Cup when the century begun
It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
So this is the year for Spurs

Altogether now,

It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
They first won the Cup when the century begun
It's lucky for Spurs when the year ends in one
So this is the year for Spurs

Now there are some flaws in this notion. Tottenham also won the Cup in 1962, 1967 and 1982. And they didn't win it in a number of "ending in one" years, including most recently 2001 and 2011. But nothing will stop their fans living in hope every ten years. So I invite all my readers to sing along with Chas & Dave at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ddjdlqf7vo&ab_channel=sunderlandspur

Art it's not, but it's a jolly song.

UPDATE: I tried embedding the video; hope it works:

Spurs start their campaign to win the 2021 FA Cup on 10 January, away to the lowest ranked team left in the tournament - Marine, a Merseyside club that currently plays in the Northern Premier League Division One North West. I think that's six leagues below Tottenham. Will it be the year ending in one, or January ending in the biggest shock of all time?

I feel a Zoom singalong comin' on...

The Boys are Back in Town

As Thin Lizzy sang:

Guess who just got back today
Them wild-eyed boys that had been away
Haven't changed, hadn't much to say
But, man, I still think them cats are crazy

In this case, the boys were 22 young men, four officials and numerous coaching and support staff. Most importantly, two thousand football fans.

Last night's match at the Emirates Stadium in North London between home club Arsenal and visitors Rapid Vienna marked the first post lockdown match involving a Premier League team. London is in Tier 2 and so 2,000 fans were allowed in. Fully socially distanced and ultra-cautious monitoring.

The teams ran out to the strains of Thin Lizzy's song. The fans cheered, booed when necessary (when Vienna scored a goal) and their rabid influence caused Arsenal to be well, most unlike Arsenal recently, scoring four goals.

On Sunday the Gunners move across London to Tottenham for their next match. While Arsenal were hammering Rapid last night, Spurs struggled to a 3-3 draw against a different Austrian team LASK, in the historic city of Linz. Their most recent, and iconic signing, Welshman Gareth Bale, on loan from Real Madrid, suffered the ignominy of being substituted by .....no, not Harry Kane, not new striker Vinicius.... journeyman trundler Serge Aurier. Spurs will have their own 2,000 fans to help but Arsenal fans in front of our TVs will be singing the latest epic I have penned:

Gareth Bale
You've gone all stale
Nothing is sorrier
Than giving way to Aurier

I don't think Thin Lizzy still perform so I'll have to get someone else to record it.

Sing loud, fellow Gunners fans!

Here they come!

I became interested in what music is played in football stadiums when their team comes onto the pitch for a match. Why do they make the choice?

I was watching a match at the Emirates Stadium involving the home team Arsenal. They came out to London Calling by The Clash. It's a fairly tepid punk rock song, starting:

London calling to the faraway towns
Now war is declared and battle come down

Presumably whoever chose it saw the forthcoming match as a war. Sheffield United was the faraway town. Maybe it worked - Arsenal won - but my recent experience of Arsenal players is that they see a game of football more of a stroll in the park than a war.

They used to run out to Motorhead's The Game. This is more like it, throbbing heavy metal - if the players aren't up for it after this, they never will be.

It's time to play the game
Time to play the game! Hahaha
It's all about the game and how you play it.
All about control and if you can take it.

Probably the most recognisable of team entry music is Liverpool's You'll Never Walk Alone by Gerry and the Pacemakers. Frankly I don't see how the team could be inspired by this dreary song.

Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown

There is a lot of wind and rain in Liverpool though so maybe the players are being encouraged to revel in the stormy weather. Not so effective in May, perhaps.

What about West Ham? They come out to:

I'm forever blowing bubbles,
Pretty bubbles in the air,
They fly so high,
Nearly reach the sky,
Then like my dreams,
They fade and die.

Seriously? You think this will encourage your guys? I guess West Ham fans would find the last two lines pretty indicative of the last few seasons.

Manchester City enter to the 1934 song Blue Moon.

Blue Moon, Blue Moon, Blue Moon
Moon, moon, moon, Blue Moon
Moon, moon, moon, Blue Moon

And you complain when your players start the match sleepy?

I guess some fans just like to have a sing song, which you can easily do to Blue Moon or Bubbles, or an emotional wallowing with Walk Alone, but not so much with Motorhead.

The Machine Stops

A world in which all humans live underground. Each person in their own bubble. a small room where everything happens for them.The central character of the story gives lectures to remotely located students and "attends" lectures herself. Remotely communicating with her son and others.

A prescient parable of our pandemically-challenged times? Perhaps but, astonishingly, The Machine Stops is a short story by E. M. Forster, written in...1909.

As well as communication, feeding, sleeping, air conditioning and other necessary aspects of daily life are controlled by the Machine. A world-wide inter-connected, all-embracing functional controller.

Technology innovation in 1909 consisted of bakelite, cellophane, lipstick and disposable razor blades. Although Alexander Graham Bell had developed the telephone 30 years earlier it wasn't until the 1930s that phones in homes became a thing; Forster may have had some awareness of the device in 1909 but probably no experience. So how could he have imagined the world of Skype, the Internet, Zoom and WhatsApp? Amazing.

This is not the fantasy fiction of The Time Machine or The Invisible Man (no offence Herbert George Wells; I have enjoyed your books immensely) but rather science/technology/sociology fiction.

Nor is this Orwell's 1984 control freakery; citizens of this story are allowed, but not encouraged, to do certain things such as travel. So it's not about fascism or demagoguery. It is essentially about the dangers of technological development and the inexorable trend towards machine control. The Machine is clearly a benign object to the world's citizens; some of them even begin to worship it:

"The Machine", they exclaimed, "feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition; the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine."

The Machine is doing a great job for the citizens of Earth. It supplies all their bodily and spiritual needs.

Until. It. Breaks. Down.

The. Machine Stops.

In my never-satisfied search for more knowledge, I came across a 2016 album of the same name by the space-rock band Hawkwind. There is an introductory narrative track All hail The Machine, with a background of weird machiney and spacey sounds:

The Machine feeds us & clothes us & houses us

Through the Machine, we speak to one another, in it we have our being

The Machine is the friend of ideas & the enemy of superstition

The Machine is omnipotent, eternal

Blessed is The Machine

Blessed is The Machine

All this talk is as if a god made the machine

But you must remember that men made The Machine

Great men but men all the same

The Machine is much but it is not everything

There is something like you on the screen but you are not seen

There is something that sounds like you but you are not heard

In time, because of The Machine, there will come a generation that has got beyond facts

Beyond impressions

A generation absolutely colourless

A generation seraphically free from the taint of personality

All hail The Machine!

All hail The Machine!

At last on track 2 (The Machine) we get music!

Oh to reach the surface once again

And feel the sun

I thought a later track Living on Earth might give some of E. M. Forster enlightenment but sadly the lyrics - and the music - typify the album's deterioration into the mundane (Maybe that's a metaphor for The Machine Stops).

I didn't know, no one told me of this

That living on Earth is no life of bliss

Those halcyon days when time slips away

Our love won't exist

I'm sorry Hawkwind, you don't make it onto my Spotify favourites list but it was good to know you.

Flagpole sitta

Flagpole Sitta is a song by an American band Harvey Danger. In all honesty, it's not a great song. And I'm not enamoured with their sound but I came across a quote from the song:

...if you're bored then you're boring

I've definitely been bored at times over the last four months - no pub, no coffee shop, no full English breakfast, no grandkids - and that's why I started blogging. So that I would be less bored. Am I therefore boring? I worry about that now, although there is certainly a case for saying that the lyrics of rock songs are often ridiculous (rather like opera, now I come to think of it) and shouldn't be taken seriously.

But I take everything I come across seriously so I thought I'd explore literature of various kinds to see what others had to say about boredom.

Before that, I should tell you - because you are fellow explorers and will insist on knowing - that Harvey Danger were an alternative rock band. I don't know what that means; their music sounds punkish to me but there are (younger) members of my family who would know better than I. Flagpole Sitta was used as the theme tune for a British sitcom called Peep Show. Never heard of that either. But, as with everything, you can check out this song on YouTube.

OK, that's out of the way, added to my knowledge of life, the universe and everything but almost certainly never to be revisited. Although one day it might be useful in a pub quiz.

[Ed: NIgel, so far you are demonstrating exactly Harvey's point]

The American novelist Zelda Fitzgerald gives us this:

“She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn't boring.”

Which actually is not dissimilar to Harvey's line.

The comedian Louis C. K. tells us:

“I’m bored’ is a useless thing to say. I mean, you live in a great, big, vast world that you’ve seen none percent of. Even the inside of your own mind is endless; it goes on forever, inwardly, do you understand? The fact that you’re alive is amazing, so you don’t get to say ‘I’m bored.”

OK C. K., I'm sorry I said it. Forgive.

Another American novelist Maria Semple has a rather worrying take on it:

“That's right,' she told the girls. 'You are bored. And I'm going to let you in on a little secret about life. You think it's boring now? Well, it only gets more boring."

Albert Camus is also in negative mode:

“The truth is that everyone is bored, and devotes himself to cultivating habits.”

But I'm going to finish on a positive note, from Susan Cain:

“...I also believe that introversion is my greatest strength. I have such a strong inner life that I’m never bored and only occasionally lonely. No matter what mayhem is happening around me, I know I can always turn inward.”

Ah now, that's definitely me. Always seeking the inner truths. And you, dear reader, if you've got this far in this ramble, you are definitely not boring.

Harvey, you're wrong.

What's your plan for tomorrow...

...is the first line of a song Take Back The Power by a band called The Interrupters. One of the great joys of blogging, at least my style of it, is expanding your own knowledge and, hopefully, that of your readers. I came across this song as the theme music for a Sky Documentaries' show "Hillary", about Hillary Rodham Clinton, as she calls herself. The first lines of the song are an apt introduction to the subject of the documentary:

What's your plan for tomorrow

Are you a leader or will you follow

Are you a fighter or will you cower

It's our time take back the power

I have never heard of The Interrupters. It turns out they a ska punk band. I have absolutely no idea what that means but it bears investigation, even sounds fun. I certainly enjoy the song and add it to a Spotify playlist. It has drive, energy, noise and raises the heart beat. 

I learn that ska punk is a "fusion genre that mixes ska music and punk rock. So says Wikipedia but I reckon even I could have figured that out. I still have to find out what ska music is and it turns to be of Jamaican origin, pre reggae. It has a walking bass line (I know what that is from listening to Oscar Peterson in my youth) with accents on the off beats (as you get with reggae). And lots more that I won't burden you with - check it out if you want to know more or, better, listen to the song.

Anyway, the documentary is fascinating. I have one episode of the four to go but I get the gist. Does it tell me more about Hillary Clinton than I already know? Yes, it does. As far as I can judge, it is a fair assessment of her life and work. Like all of us, and particularly people in positions of power, there are good things and bad. Successes and failures.  I didn't have any preconceptions (well not too many) about her going into the programme and I think I have a sense of when I am being "had", of a biased product placement. I don't think that was the case. It is true that the majority of those interviewed were well disposed towards her but that's because these were the people who knew her well, so I accept that. It's definitely not hagiography.

There is a great deal of face to face interviews with her. The questions are more like prompts, because she seems like she relishes getting everything out there, feels the need to explain herself, and you only need to prompt her about an episode in her life and she's off, streams of consciousness. Can I tell whether she is telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth? No, but could I with most politicians?

The song's chorus is:

We don't need to run and hide

We won't be pushed off to the side

I think that sums Hillary Clinton up. If you can find it, it's worth watching. 

Lockdown serendipity

Music is therapeutic and the discovery of new (to me) music, and re-discovering old favourites, has been a boon during my self-isolation.

I was watching an episode of the Star Trek-lite TV show The Orville and heard the lead character playing a song whilst piloting a small spacecraft - a shuttle really. His dark matter cartographer co-pilot (who later turns out to be an undercover Krill soldier - don't ask) asked what is was and he explained it was Billy Joel. I think it was She's Always A Woman.

I really enjoyed the clip and I decided to investigate Billy Joel on Spotify. I don't recall ever having heard a Billy Joel song and it was a revelation to listen to Piano Man, such a refreshing, cheerful and foot-tapping number. It is now a staple of my listening, if I need to cheer myself up, or to stop myself worrying about viruses, the R number and how to keep safe whilst meeting a friend.

I often come across music I didn't know as a result of reading an article, hearing music in TV shows or seeing a Spotify recommendation (even in TV adverts!), and I eagerly add those I enjoy most to one of my playlists. One of my all-time favourites is the rendering of O Holy Night by Trombone Shorty (Troy Andrews playing amazing trumpet riffs) and his pals in a Christmas episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, as a post-Katrina tribute to New Orleans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etflv7R6NKA

This burst of musical exploration has reminded me that I have rather lapsed in listening to music. So a lot of my lockdown listening has been re-uniting myself with old favourites. They all have emotional effects which enable me to keep balanced.

The calming murmurings of the Adagietto from Mahler's 5th symphony, the sheer elation and majesty of the climax of the same composer's Resurrection symphony and Anne Hathaway's immensely moving I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables all offer me something which I need. John Lennon's anarchic ramblings in Imagine give me hope.

I am an emotional person and music can really affect me, often by its simplicity, but deeply powerful music such as Mahler symphonies or Wagner operas offer panoramic pictures of life itself which remind me of my own life and, even in these difficult times, how blessed I have been and how much I still have to look forward to.

Opera trivia

OK, so who wrote the most operas? Which is the longest opera? What is my favourite opera?

There are many who believe that opera is the supreme musical and theatrical art form - gesamptkunstwerk, as the Germans say. Wagner was certainly of the opinion that opera should be more than just the "monstrosities" of Grand Opera and Bel Canto, with its emphasis on bravura singing and "meaningless plots". Take that, Guiseppe Verdi! Although for meaningless plots try watching Richard's final opera, Parsifal.

Wagner was certainly a competitor for the longest opera, Die Meistersinger von Nűrnberg coming in at over 5 hours. Of course, some might consider his Ring cycle (18 hours) of four operas as really one gigantic work.

But Wagner was a mere novice in comparison with 20th century composers. Karlheinz Stockhausen composed his Licht cycle of 7 operas, subtitled Die sieben Tage der Woche (The Seven Days of the Week), totalling 29 hours. Suffice to say, not many performances have occurred. But the winner is...

Robert Wilson's The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin, listed by Guinness World Records as the longest single opera ever performed, at 15 hours and 15 minutes. My guess is that, at this very moment, there is an American composer trapped in a White House basement, tapping away at his keyboard and writing "Trump - the Opera", coming in at 15 hours and 16 minutes, enabling our hero to say "I am the longest. The very longest. So long." (and I think we can all echo those last two words)

Who composed the most operas? Many would cite Donizetti at 75. But the Austrian Wenzel Müller (1767-1835) apparently wrote 166. There's one for the pub quiz.

Verdi's La Traviata, definitely not on Wagner's Spotify playlist, was cited by OperaBase in 2016 as being the most performed opera, with 4,190 to that point. A distant second was the opera most people would guess at for the title was Mozart's Magic Flute, with a mere 3,310. Karlheinz, you have no chance...

My favourite opera? It has to be Wagner. I enjoy the pre-Ring and post-Ring operas (to be fair, they are a bit intermingled so don't pick me up on chronology) more than the Ring itself. I absolutely love the music of Parsifal but the plot is drivel. So it has to be Tristan und Isolde.

Thanks for reading; feel free to share your favourites in the Comments.

Symphony trivia

Ever since Beethoven write 9 symphonies, that has been the benchmark for many later composers.

Of course, before then symphonies were two a penny - Haydn wrote 104 (or so; some say 106, but there are 104 numbered ones); that's 3 a year between 1759 (no. 1) and 1795 (no. 104). One can only imagine Beethoven in 1824, after finishing his 9th, thinking "only another 95 to go..."

Plenty of 9ers then followed - Dvorak, Bruckner, Mahler, Vaughan Williams come to mind easily.  Schubert completed 7, numbered 1-6 and 9, with an unfinished no. 8. No. 7 exists in draft and part orchestration. There are various unfinished symphonies, which well-meaning musicians "finished". Nice work if you can get it.

There is (or probably was) the "Curse of the Ninth" superstition, that a composer would die after writing nine symphonies. It didn't stop Dmitri Shostakovitch powering through to 15.

Wagner wrote one symphony and then gave up; writing operas was easier. If you switch off the vocals they sound like symphonies.

People like Brahms (4), Mendelssohn (5), Tchaikovsky (6), Elgar (2), Copland (3) and Sibelius (7) were a little more discerning - or maybe scared of the curse.

Berlioz wrote 4 but gave them names rather than numbers.

Schoenberg wrote 2 chamber symphonies but then decided he only needed 12 notes for the rest of his output.

Spotify

I often wonder whether I'm getting good value from my £9.99 pm Spotify subscription. I listen to so little music but I do so, like everything else, in fits and starts.

Maybe I should have symphonic nights as well as my movie nights.

I am a fan of Mahler's symphonies and could easily binge listen to them in sequence. I am definitely interested in Bruckner's symphonies. I'm pretty sure I haven't heard them all but I couldn't say which I have.

I could list the tracks on my Spotify playlists but that would be very embarrassing. On the other hand....

OK, this is playlist Nigel1:

* I Dreamed A Dream from Les Miserables (film version) - Anne Hathaway

* Send in the Clowns from Stephen Sindheim's A Little Night Music - Judy Collins

* I Have A Dream from Mamma Mia - Amanda Seyfried

(Oh my goodness, this really IS embarrassing - but if you blog you probably have to be prepared to be embarrassed)

* Mr. Blue Sky - Electric Light Orchestra
(that's more like it)

* A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Annie Lennox

* Baba Yetu - The Soweto Gospel Choir
(that will get you all Googling)

* Imagine  - John Lennon

* Pinball Wizard - The Who

* Nessun Dorma - Luciano Pavarotti

* We Are The Champions - Queen

* Dido's Lament "When I am Laid In Earth" (Purcell) - Sally Stapleton

* Adagietto from Mahler's 5th Symphony - Valery Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra

* Adagio for Strings (Samuel Barber) - Leonard Bernstein, New York Philharmonic

* All I Do Is Dream Of You - Faultline

* Fanfare for the Common Man - Aaron Copland, London Symphony Orchestra

 * Lacrimosa from Requiem (Mozart) - Stephen Cleobury, Academy Of Ancient Music

* Summertime from Porgy and Bess - Miles Davis

That's quite eclectic, now I think about it. Pretty sure Trevor will chastise me for listening on my Amazon Alexa but that's what I am doing now as a I write this.

I also have more stuff in my Spotify library: Bach, Wagner, Wynton Marsalis, Ariana Grande, Prokofiev and of course more Mahler. So maybe a tenner a month is OK for value.

I enjoyed writing this, re-listening to previous choices and now thinking about new playlists. Thank you for reading!