Midnight Voices 
The discussion forum for fans of Pete Atkin and Clive James,
their works and collaborators on stage, TV, disc and in print.
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Date: Sat, 06 Dec 97 14:38:03 GMT
From: "Michael J. Cross" <email address>
Subject: MV488: Advertising
It looks like my .sig has generated at least one sale at last:
> > "Beware of the Beautiful Stranger/Driving Through Mythical America"
> > by Pete Atkin & Clive James, CD reissue 11/97 on See For Miles
> > For more info on all PA/CJ releases, see http://www.rwt.co.uk/pa.htm
>
> excellent news ! one of the few artists I'll repurchase everything vinyl
> on CD so as to play it in the office... advertising on Usenet does
> work :-)
all the best,
--
Michael J. Cross BSFA Magazine Index at http://www.mjckeh.demon.co.uk
"Beware of the Beautiful Stranger/Driving Through Mythical America"
by Pete Atkin & Clive James, CD reissue 11/97 on See For Miles
For more info on all PA/CJ releases, see http://www.rwt.co.uk/pa.htm
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 07 Dec 1997 14:11:15 +0000
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV489: News
Hi y'all!
Quiet again these last few days. Perhaps Mel's got you all reading poetry
instead of wasting time at your computers...
We welcome new Voices Richard Barrett, Bob Kingsley, Roy Brown, David
Gibson, KE Filter and David Kennedy to our group, bringing membership to
the magic 100. Check out Bob's and Roy's initial remarks (and a whole lot
more) on our Website comments page:
http://www.rwt.co.uk/pacommnt.htm
Recent additions to the site:
http://www.rwt.co.uk/cjremv.htm (Clive's post to MV)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/pachrono.htm (Pete's chronology -- lots of links)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/a4c.htm (Sunrise chords -- thanks Ian Chippett)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/a7c.htm (The Luck of the Draw -- Pete Atkin)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/c1c.htm (Between Us ... -- Ian Sorensen)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/aut0001.htm (Song Titles Cross-Reference -- Mike Cross)
http://www.rwt.co.uk/jc.htm (Julie's chronology filling out)
We also have a brand new lyric annotation from John Harris, for 'Driving
Through Mythical America', but I haven't uploaded this yet as I'm awaiting
his comments on a few small additions I've made. Also, can anyone remind me
in *which* Bogart movie he (Bogart, not John) said "Even the dead can talk"?
Your orders for the Monyash CD and videocassette are coming through
steadily if slowly. To date (Sunday) we've had MV orders for 20 double CDs
and 9 videotapes -- that's half the expected total CD demand and about a
third of the orders expected for the video. The first batch of CDs will be
sent out this coming Wednesday (we're just awaiting artwork detail for the
inlay cards) and the PAL videos at the end of the week.
Further to my notes on overseas ordering and air mail (MVs 463, 469), MV
Richard Ross has very kindly offered to handle credit card orders for us,
from those outside the EC only so he doesn't have to charge VAT. I quote
from Richard's message:
>If people (overseas *only* please) want to phone, fax or email their
>credit card (Visa/Mastercard only) info, together with cardholder's
>name and billing address to me, I'll clear the funds and pass them on
>to Monyash Festival.
>
>Phone (office hours) <phone number>
>Fax <fax number>
>e-mail: <email address>
This should mean a significant saving in time and cost, compared with
airmailing a bank draft to us. I just hope we're not too late with this
offer. We should add the usual warnings about e-mailing credit card info,
although Richard has taken orders from several of his own customers that
way without problems, and doesn't think we should see e-mail via the net as
any less secure than telephoning.
Listen out for Pete and Clive in interview with Steve Wright on R2,
December 27th. Anyone catch Doctor Rock's show on Radio York yesterday,
where Pete was interviewed live through the miracle of POTS? And Clive gave
the cause a plug last Wednesday, taking to Johnny Walker sitting in for
John Dunn (no, not John Donne!) on R2. Pete just visted (incognito) HMV and
Virgin in the West End and asked about the SFM CD. "Not in stock, but if it
were it would be filed under Easy Listening". Oh Dear. Pete suspects they
all draw on the same database.
I can add my praise to the comments here re Magpie. I ordered (three weeks
ago now) 5 copies from them by phone Monday and they arrived the same
Thursday. Contrast the local (Sheffield) Virgin, who took almost 3 weeks
from ordering to getting my 5 copies into stock.
One thing in SFM's favour is they won't rush to delete the album. So
there's still time for late publicity to boost sales. But how to promote it
to a stock item, and into the mainstream pop/rock racks, I just don't know.
Bye fer now!
Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 23:43:29 +0000
From: Ian Sorensen <email address>
Subject: MV490: Tesco Tex
About 5 years after Live Libel was released I found out that "Lonesome
Levis Lane" was modelled on a country singer called "Blue Jean Roads" (or
maybe Blue Gene Rhodes - never saw it in print). But who, if anyone, was
the inspiration for Tesco Tex? I know it can't be Disco Tex (and his
Sexolettes) as they were a different genre and some years later.
Ian
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 08:53:15 EST
Subject: MV491 Re: MV489: News
Re promoting CD into mainstream:
CJ said he was willing to do press interviews but was reluctant to have the
agenda expanded beyond the subject in the way the taboids do.....in that case,
why does someone not approach Record Collector on our behalf and offer to set
up an interview - their only interest is in the music, and it would not only
reach out to the sort of people who might be interested, but it might also
change the attitude of some of those repsonsible for listings, caterorization
etc since one assumes most record shop managers would read such a publication.
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 14:02:37 +0000
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV492 Re: MV490: Tesco Tex
In message <email address>,
Midnight Voices <email address> writes
>Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 23:43:29 +0000
>To: Midnight Voices <email address>
>From: Ian Sorensen <email address>
>Subject: Tesco Tex
>
>About 5 years after Live Libel was released I found out that "Lonesome
>Levis Lane" was modelled on a country singer called "Blue Jean Roads" (or
>maybe Blue Gene Rhodes - never saw it in print). But who, if anyone, was
>the inspiration for Tesco Tex? I know it can't be Disco Tex (and his
>Sexolettes) as they were a different genre and some years later.
>
I've always assumed it was Wally Whyton....
Hands up all those who think Live Libel should have been live, BTW.
I'm new here, BTW. Great place to be. Now, if I can just get over the
odium of having had the chance to buy 'The Party's Moving On' at the
time, and *not* doing it...
Moderator, please excise the following if they've come up before. I'm
still synching with the list...
A film Pete Atkin wasn't in.... 'Theatre of Blood' with Vincent Price
and Diana Rigg. But you have to look quite hard to realise it's Diana
under the red hair....
Great Lyric Lament - The Original Honky Tonk Train
Shouldn't it either be:
"a surfeit of rhymes ending in 'an'"
or
"a shortage of rhymes ending in 'oiler'" ? :-)
I suppose Odham's Junior Encyclopaedia is outmoded now, compared with
Encarta (sigh).
I can't land in a plane at night, without 'Prince of Aquitaine' running
through my head...I've always taken the allusion to be that, on a plane,
you are treated like a prince. And then you fetch up in dirty, blighted,
decaying London where 'kids with ancient faces are waiting for a hit'.
Hence the Prince and the ruined tower. But I'm sure its meanings are
many-levelled......
Apropos of bullet-headed Australians, I thought it was Dame Edna Everage
(aka Barry Humphries) who talked about Kerry Packer and the stocking
mask, not Clive. "and when you meet him, possums, don't try to pull the
stocking mask off his face. It's not polite, and, anyway, there isn't
one".
Memories (i)
Pete, at the end of a gig, mock-ruefully, handing me BoTBS as the prize
in the folk-club raffle - "Great - the one person who was probably going
to buy it anyway". (But I know he sold a few that night)
--
Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number>
Affirm Ltd Email : <email address>
<postal 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
address> know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
From: RGIBSONESQ <email address>
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 22:40:50 EST
Subject: MV493 Re: MV418: New CD
Fran,
I have also imported two copies of the CD to the "New World", around 3 days
before you, 1 copy for me and 1 hopefully to use to spread the word. My
local CD store owner is a Richard Thompson fan and I hope will be open to PA.
Perhaps we can generate some US interest and sales.
Regards
Richard
==============================================================================
From: "Bob Kingsley" <email address>
Subject: MV494: Reflections...
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 11:28:27 -0000
Greetings, fellow group members. This is marvellous - the first mailing list to
which I feel I can contribute something that might actually be of interest to
others. In fact, after a couple of years of being net-connected, the PA web site
is the first one that, to my way of thinking, justifies my terrifyingly huge
phone bill. I would never have thought to do a search for Pete - but for catching
an interview with Clive James on Radio Two the other day, when he mentioned with
some amazement that there was a web site dedicated to the music he helped to
create. Having found it, I've now achieved some small measure of Nirvana.
Never having contributed before, I thought a quick flick through my background
by way of introduction would help break the ice. I'm forty-two, live in Dorset
and am a professional voice-over artist. Once upon a time I was a radio presenter
too, but the commercial stations' predilection for treating their listeners as
morons who won't listen to anything other than a few "safe" current hits and a
back catalogue of about 1,000 "golden oldies" finally got the better of me and I
chose to let them get on with it before I went utterly insane.
But, oh, for those heady days when I was a younger man and things weren't so
tightly controlled! There *was* a time when I could play pretty much what I liked,
and featured on my personal list of favourites were several PA songs. The cities
of Bradford and Exeter have both had the benefit of the occasional PA track on my
shows on Pennine (as was - now it's the Pulse) and DevonAir (now Gemini), but as
this was in the early eighties I doubt there are many who heard me then who still
remember the name of the artist who sang that catchy little song - "you know,"
they'll say, "the one that was about a bloke being the master of the rebels, or
something" - apart from the odd PA fan, of course. Before that, during the
seventies, the patients at Whipps Cross Hospital in east London and, later,
Hackney Hospital a few miles away, also got an earful of Pete.
I was twenty-four years old when I got my first proper radio job in April 1979.
That was at Pennine. I was a copywriter in the Commercial Production department
when serendipity intervened and I was offered a chance to host the weekend
breakfast show. Everyone was trying to sound like Roger Scott in those days, all
smooth and in control, but I favoured what I thought at the time was the Kenny
Everett method - just go in there with a basketful of LPs and let things happen.
It was some time before the penny dropped and I realised that dear Ken, like all
the best performers who make what they do sound and look so easy, was actually
prepared to the nth degree. Still, I had immense fun and learnt a lot. And the
listeners didn't seem to mind having to endure the dross of my poor attempts at
creating my own "Captain Kremmen" - called, imaginatively enough, "Captain
Wireless" - in order to get to the occasional nugget of music.
I really miss our cuddly Ken. When I played the RealAudio clips featuring Ken on
the PA web site, I felt a lump in my throat and my eyes welled up. It took me back
with a jolt to those innocent radio times. How I now regret throwing away the
hours of Ken I had on reel-to-reel tape - all those seventies Radio One shows with
Crisp the butler, Groovy Gran, Basement Bill et al. My God, I used to be able to
quote Ken's sketches like others did with the Monthy Python stuff!
Ken: "Hi Gran! How're you today?"
Gran: "Well, I'm feeling all weak."
Ken: "Really? How long have you felt like that?"
Gran: "...All week!"
Or:
Ken: "Time for an oldie, I think ...(screams at top of his voice) BIIILLLL!!"
Sfx: Door opens
Bill: "Good morning to you, sir. And may I say what a pleasure and a privilege it is
to be working with such a wireless wizard as yourself, sir."
Ken: "Thanks, Bill. Er - would you mind touching your forelocks when you speak to me?"
Bill: "...I'm touchin' 'em, sir."
Ken: "...No, your FORElocks, you fool!"
Quick exit into another wonderfully obscure song, like Richard Barnes' "Take To The
Country", or maybe something more well-known such as Bread's "London Bridge."
Happy days. If anyone's got some classic Ken on tape, which could be transferred onto
cassette or DAT, I would love to hear from them.
I met Pete Atkin once, at Hackney Hospital Radio. This would have been in the mid-
seventies. My memory of the event is rather hazy now, but after a couple of hours of
trivial questions from a studio packed with wide-eyed teenage would-be DJs hanging on
his every word, I remember he invited me and a colleague to a small east-end theatre
somewhere, to watch a play he had written and in which he featured in a minor role.
I forget the name of it now, but I remember it was set in a session recording studio,
and Pete's part seemed to consist mainly of sitting in a swivel chair, his feet up on
the mixing desk, reading a newspaper. I think he had one line! We thoroughly enjoyed
it. Anyone remember the name of the play?
Julie Covington also popped in one evening and brightened our dim and dismal studio
with her shining personality. She also lived locally at the time and also stayed for
much longer than we had any right to expect. We all, of course, fell in love with her.
All my PA stuff is on vinyl and despite having my own home studio, I have no way to
play them! (Everyfink's digital these days, innit?) My cheapo domestic hi-fi turntable
has a spindle that's just a fraction off-centre which can make listening to LPs an
aggravating experience. The news that there's a CD re-issue of Pete's first two albums
comes as a terrific surprise. My order's going in today!
There I must end. I sense your eyes glazing over. Thanks to Steve Birkill for keeping
the dream alive. Season's greetings to all.
Bob Kingsley
Personal mail: <email address>
<http://homepages.enterprise.net/webvox/>
WebVox mail: <mailto:webvox@enterprise.net>webvox@enterprise.net
VOICE-OVERS!
TV * RADIO * COMMERCIAL * CORPORATE * WEB
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 15:44:25 -0700 (MST)
From: orange<email address>
Subject: MV495 Re: MV489: News
"This should mean a significant saving in time and cost, compared with
airmailing a bank draft to us. I just hope we're not too late with this
offer. We should add the usual warnings about e-mailing credit card info,
although Richard has taken orders from several of his own customers that
way without problems, and doesn't think we should see e-mail via the net as
any less secure than telephoning. "
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve....too late! My cheque for 33 pounds (who are you trying to kid with
the 16.99 instead of 17.00 con) is on it's way, for the CD + NTSC(or
whatever you call the N. American format) video.
Jeff Moss
==============================================================================
From: RGIBSONESQ <email address>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 19:44:47 EST
Subject: MV496 Re: MV480; MV473: Magpie Direct
My experience with Magpie was also good. Prompt delivery, to a UK address,
and so far no problems. But no catalogue and I liked Billy Cotton Bandshow,
that Russ conway was a wizard tickling the ivories.
Regards
Richard Gibson
==============================================================================
From: RGIBSONESQ <email address>
Date: Tue, 9 Dec 1997 20:59:43 EST
Subject: MV497 Re: MV495; MV489: News
After coming back to the Voices after a long break (due to a change of
computer) I am amazed at, and impressed by, the depth of analysis of PA's
work. I had always found his style intimate, as if he were performing just
for me. Even the more upbeat songs maintained than personal touch. A stroll
through the Cambridge Footlights Review website showed what good company Pete
was in during his time at Cambridge and how many of his contemporaries became
icons of entertainment or so significantly influenced our culture through
their production of entertainment. I believe that if Pete's (and Clive's)
work is examined in the context of their contemporaries it is easy to see how
the marriage of an essentially classical education to a growing freedom of
expression produced the creativity and imagination of that time.
Also, a plug for Clive. I found his autobiographical books to be very
enjoyable. Unlike most people who read them I, like the rest of the Voices,
had the benefit of knowing Clive through PA's lyrics. I found many
connections between his life and the lyrics, but more, I found the books to be
honest. He didn't hide his pretensions, or early unrealistic ambitions. He
didn't make excuses for the bad judgements he made nor did he try to "rebuild"
his past to support his current fame and fortune. His recently expressed
integrity on wanting to promote PA as much as honestly and pragmatically
possible demonstrates to me that he is resisting destructive influences of
power. I can't always agree with his choice of subject matter, nor his
opinion, but his easy, slightly pompous style is always a joy.
All for now.
Regards
Richard
p.s. Steve, my CD order will be on to way to you ASAP.
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 09:32:59 +0000
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV498: Prince of Aquitaine
Re: m.powell<email address>
>I was interested in David's 'Prince as drug smuggler' interpretation.
>Mike has always inclined to this theory, and I've always opposed it on
>the grounds of the Quest references. I suppose the other element which
>backs it is the kids with ancient faces who are praying for a hit.
More 'no, not a smuggler'.....
A smuggler wouldn't be flying home 'in the clear'. Not before he got
through Customs, anyway.
The 'thrill of fear' is that feeling you get when the flaps come out,
and you realise for the first time that the plane really is just sitting
on a column of air; then your viscera telegraph that fall (towards
England), as your eyes merely register the runway coming up to meet you.
As it's 'usual', this must be a frequent flyer...
The 'spoilers' don't actually 'send you sliding down the drain' BTW;
quite the reverse in fact. At landing speeds, if the flaps *didn't* come
out for added lift, the plane would stall and augur in in a big way. The
plane slows, so it needs the flaps for added lift; it's not that the
flaps slow the plane.
The sugar is sugar. On the plane, they bring you coffee; you don't take
sugar, but you toy idly with the sachet, pocket it almost without
thinking. Later, somewhat to your surprise, you find it there.
Two hundred cigarettes is the maximum duty free allowance. Could have
had a litre of spirits too, but no mention of this. Perhaps the airline
ran low?
Yes, he observes the junkies, praying for a hit. (In an earlier posting,
I had this, incorrectly, as 'waiting'. If he was a smuggler, I think it
would have been.) But he has nothing for them, any more than he has
anything (see above, re low spirits) for the meths drinkers.
'I have brought them all the plunder of the international jets - an
envelope of sugar and two hundred cigarettes' is offered ironically, as
a pitiful response to the righteous needs he sees all around him. I
never read it as indicating an actual physical transfer of goods...
Clive did later take other authorial voices - the mafia boss in ISTJ -
but POA is a bit early I think.
--
Roy Brown
'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 14:29:54 +0000
From: Stephen Payne <email address>
Subject: MV499: chords and egos
Yet another thank you from me for all the chord transcriptions that have
been posted. Even someone as musically illiterate as I can agree with all
the Voices who've sung the praises of Pete's chord sequences: one way it is
revealed is just how interesting many of the guitar pieces sound even with
very simple strum patterns.
I have a question for Ian Chippett (who's due some of the above thanks)-
where did you "see" the chords for Hypertension Kid? The chords on the
website is credited to you - are they the right ones or the ones you used
to play to your bedroom mirror?
Ian also asked for some discussion of My Egoist. I love this song too, and
had always thought of it as one of the easer lyrics to understand - simply
an extended metaphor of relationship/state-of-mind = garden. Perhaps the
most curious thing about the song is the title phrase (wonder if it's
another borrowing?). It captures rather cleverly that kind of paradoxical
tenderness/bitterness. As does the music - something about the yearning
way the melody goes up at the end of each verse?
S
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 11 Dec 1997 22:19:47 -0800
From: m.powell<email address>
Subject: MV500 Re: MV498: Prince of Aquitaine
> Re: m.powell<email address>
>
> >I was interested in David's 'Prince as drug smuggler' interpretation.
> >Mike has always inclined to this theory, and I've always opposed it on
> >the grounds of the Quest references. I suppose the other element which
> >backs it is the kids with ancient faces who are praying for a hit.
>
> More 'no, not a smuggler'.....
Mel assures me that I once thought that there was a drugs smuggler theme
to this song. I must have consumed too much of something since then
since I can't remember how long ago this theory might have held sway in
my early attempts to interpret the lyrics...if ever...
I suppose I might have assumed an exceedingly devious subtext which
involved the smuggler having to deliver his load to a reseller;
reflecting on the subtle images of meaningless wealth involved in the
act of importing his secretive but deadly cargo; and then being wracked
with guilt as he spent the rest of the evening visiting the ultimate
victims of his job and being able to offer them nothing for free except
"An envelope of sugar and two hundred cigarettes".
This supports one of two theories.
a) Overactive imagination
b) The lyrics can suggest possibly too many tenuous interpretations
but as I have proposed before one of the main purposes of this
discussion group must surely be to bat around various different ideas
and end up with a definitive view on these superb songs. In the course
of this we can all have a lot of fun and risk being wrong at the same
time with no lasting effect. I wish I could do this at work.
Mike Powell
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 00:52:40 +0000
From: Ian Sorensen <email address>
Subject: MV501 Re: MV499: chords and egos
In MV 499 Stephen Payne returned to my favourite topic of chords (me being
the other Ian, not the Ian he refers to in his posting - perhaps I should
change my name to Ian 2 as Ian Chippett has seniority in the group).
I've been quite caught up with Pete's music again since joining the Voices
and this has led to me playing along with some of the songs that I remember
being defeated by when I first heard them 20 years ago. Now I find them
pretty straightforward and I've been trying to work out why. I don't feel
as if I've become a better musician, especially as I haven't been out
gigging for a decade,so there must be another explanation. One thought
occurs that now I have an electronic keyboard I can tune it to the slightly
off key speed of my record player and play along in the same slightly off
key! The combination of the old upright piano at my parent's and a wonky
Garrard SP25 deck never made it easy to learn a tune back in the 70s.
However, I think the key to my current success is that Pete's music no
longer sounds strange to my ear. "20 years of Atkin tend to get into your
skin".
I play by ear and what attracted me to the music at first was the fact that
my ear couldn't automatically translate what it heard into movement for the
fingers. Now it can. I guess Pete Atkin has rewired my brain. Do you say
thank you when that happens?
A closing thought: there's a slight but considerable danger that this will
be MV500. So I'd just like to say what an honour it is to be halfway to a
thousand postings, most of which have been fascinating to read (OK, not
the ones about transmitters - sorry Steve).
Ian Sorensen
==============================================================================
From: "Norman, Neil" <email address>
Subject: MV502: CD news
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 08:35:08 -0000
When it became known that the PA CD could be obtained from Magpie, I
rather perversely decided to use another Mail Order company I have
used on a number of occasions, namely Track Records of York.
I thought this would be a good test of availability and it might
stimulate another outlet to stock the CD, (Track also have an
excellent shop in York). I phoned last Saturday to place my order, but
was disappointed to find that they did not have stock, "but could
order it ".
OK, lets I went with that, perhaps they might order more than one copy
for stock. I was delighted to find that it arrived yesterday
(Thursday!), at £11.99, postage free.
I suppose the real test would be to order another copy to check if
it's now stocked.
For your information they are at 01904 629022.
Regards
Neil Norman
(NOT the Marketing Manager for Track Records)
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 1997 14:25:15 +0000
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV503: Stop Press: TV plug this weekend
Clive plugs Pete, the songs, the CD and perhaps even the Website on the
Mariella Frostrup show, 11 a.m. Sunday 14.12.97, Channel 5.
For those out of terrestrial range of this otherwise superfluous channel, I
would recommend the satellite relay on Astra Transponder 63 (10.92075 GHz).
And the big time looms: the SFM CD has been sighted in the Rock and Pop
racks at Swan and Edgar -- oops -- Tower Records, Piccadilly Circus.
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 1997 00:44:40 -0800
From: m.powell<email address>
Subject: MV504: MV 421, 448: A belated reply
A belated hello (and reply)
Unlike some of the Voices who were in at the start, I've fought shy of
saying who I am and why I like what I like of Pete's and Clive's,
preferring to let the arguments do it for me. Now that Clive has
encouraged me by letting me know I'm on the right track at least some of
the time, I think it's time to introduce and explain myself.
Jeremy's guess at 'just a scholarly amateur' is spot on; 'scholarly'
because I have an M.A. and an M.Phil. in English literature, both from
the University of St. Andrews (so it was nice to recognise the red gown
in Gael's bedside photo in The Remake); 'amateur' because having
acquired the tools to do the job of literary criticism, I never managed
to pull off the difficult trick of getting paid for it. Presumably the
taxpayer shelled out for the venture in the hope that I would transmit
my enthusiasm to a new generation of eager students. I certainly
wanted to, but funnily enough there was little demand for graduates
entering the Thatcherite economic boom to be equipped with a detailed
knowledge of Shakespeare and his forebears.
Fortunately I found another way of making a living by reading and
explaining things in Public Relations, which I'm teaching now on the
B.A. course at Leeds Metropolitan University. The route from doing PR
to teaching it took in three years of theatre marketing, which amongst
other things taught me the sound of the beginner's call and exactly how
much harsh commercialism lurks beneath the pleasant-sounding idea of
marketing the arts. 'The Practical Man' is not an exaggeration, it's
practically a documentary.
Which leaves the other meaning of 'amateur': someone who does what they
do because they love it. To me, spending time searching for the exact
meaning of a text which is important to you *is* a labour of love. It's
sometimes even been envisaged as an act of love, as in Brilliant
Creatures when Charlotte Windhover, after her first night with David
Bentley, feels like a neglected literary work which has finally received
the degree of attention it deserves from a serious critic - and in AS
Byatt's Possession, where the entire novel is based on this metaphor.
When you love a person, you want to know and to understand everything
about him/her: the same is true of a literary text.
Considered in this light, most rock songs work on the level of a
one-night stand: you briefly find them stirring in a fairly basic way,
and a few years later you can't think what you ever saw in them.
Sometimes you're even embarrassed by their poverty of thought and
expression: "I am shamed throughout my nature to have loved so slight a
thing". (Tennyson wasn't consigning his record collection to the Oxfam
shop as well as supplying a bit of Care-Charmer Sleep but he might as
well have been.)
If it was a woman who, after 20 years, continued to haunt and fascinate
you, still evading your attempts to understand her completely, she'd be
up there with the enchantresses of all time, along with Cleopatra. "Age
cannot wither her, nor custom stale/Her infinite variety." How has a
collection of songs managed to do just that to all of us?
My guess is that the loved one - or the text - manages to keep you
guessing, and this can only happen if there's more to her/it than first
meets the eye. The secret is depth; the multiple layers of meaning
that lead us on.
As one of the Voices has said before, what makes a classic work is its
capacity to offer a basis for re-interpretation by all times and
cultures. This is what Shakespeare does. A friend's 11-year old
daughter is currently obsessed by the new film version of Romeo and
Juliet: although it uses the original text, it's the coolest thing
she's ever seen.
Part of the magic is that practically every scene is open to a whole
range of interpretations. Shakespeare achieved this partly by the use of
a language full of allusions, partly by drawing on the literary heritage
available to him at the time. I think it was Pete who pointed out that
Shakespeare rarely came up with an original plot: he got them from all
over the place - from histories, poems, early novellas and even from
earlier plays. Having read most of the plays he got them from, I'm
certain that Shakespeare's special ability was to make the most
implausible plots psychologically credible. Somehow he had a clearer
insight than most people of his time into what it means to be human (if
you don't believe me, the quickest way in is via the later Sonnets), and
whatever he used inevitably benefited from the transition.
It goes without saying that I think the songs are classics in the same
way. I believe they'll be around for many years to come, offering as
many interpretations and performances of both words and music as there
are listeners and new performers. Each of us has a different field of
experience to bring to them, ranging from English Lit. to the technical
side of TV and radio, and every interpretation adds to the big picture.
The briefer the text, the harder it is to build in the layers of meaning
you need to get the full message across. TS Eliot thought he'd found
the solution. If you're working within the tradition of the literature
which has gone before, you can assume that your readers will know most
of it. Just as a single click with the pointer on the blue underlined
bit here on the Internet calls up a whole new field of knowledge, he
thought that with a single quotation you could call up the whole work of
literature from the reader's memory and add the strength, atmosphere and
meaning of the entire play/novel/religious work to your poem.
Unfortunately it didn't quite work that way, with the result that TSE
had to supply his own annotations for The Waste Land to assist readers
who didn't get all the references.
This leads neatly to the topic of Clive's literary references. Let me
put my cards on the table here. If I had thought for a minute that
identifying the sources would have diminished either his reputation or
one listener's enjoyment rather than enhancing both, I'd have kept them
to myself. But to be rational - which I always try to be - who's going
to be disappointed? Only those of us who think that literary creativity
somehow comes spontaneously from sheer quivering genius. I've been
lucky enough to have been given the means to conclude that it comes from
perspiration rather than inspiration: a thorough knowledge of what's
gone before and a craftsman's willingness to work hard to create beauty
within the arbitrary frameworks of music and metre (although the clearer
insight into what it means to be human is essential as well.) Surely
this should increase rather than decrease our respect for whoever can
achieve it?
For me, the references add to the lyrics on several different levels.
There's the personal level, the different things they mean for each
listener. Sometimes they work on the level of universal symbols which
Jung explained: the Ruined Tower probably evokes as many associations
as Yeats' Tower with the winding stair. There's the level of
associations brought in by the source text, if you're familiar with it.
After that, there's pure admiration for the broad frame of cultural
reference you've been drawn into. And then - for me at least - there's
the list of further reading. This is because, although I think I know
English literature reasonably well, the song lyrics and Clive's other
works have mapped the paths out into other literatures. Not being adept
in other languages, I first read Madam Bovary and Le Rouge et Le Noir
because they merited a passing reference. Now they're usually at the
front of the bookshelves. I've had a go at Dante, but I guess I'll need
a more inviting translation than the Victorian one I've tried so far.
The way is made easier by the thrill of the occasional moment of
recognition and the feeling that someone you know has been there
already: rather like reading a second-hand book with marginal notes
from someone who knew what they were doing.
Which brings me to Clive's e-mail, which appropriately raises more
questions than it answers. So A King at Nightfall did come from TS
Eliot - but where did TSE find him? I'm going to have to find another
edition with annotations. Each level opens up another: 'the screen
behind the screen behind the screen . . . ' and so the process of
leading on and out, or education in its purest sense, continues.
Having started writing about the songs, I'm not going to stop. I don't
expect to be right every time, or for everyone to agree, but that's not
what this is about. An essay, after all, is literally a try-out of
ideas: ready to be shot down by somone who knows better or just airily
discarded when a better thought occurs.
The result I'm hoping for from all these discussions is that by bringing
our collective fields of experience together, the Midnight Voices can
eventually provide a full set of annotated lyrics to assist the next
generation of fans, (who are already on their way judging by several
Voices' observations.) The technology of the Website is the perfect way
to bring the layers of encoded meaning which seem to have evaded many of
Clive's original audience to the next in line. I bet if TS Eliot were
alive today, he'd insist on being published on CD-Rom. My one
reservation is that some of the material about on the Internet outside
this site is of uncertain provenance, i.e. no references so you just
can't judge how sound it is. So far, I've been careless about this too
but as of now, I promise that my contributions will be as carefully
referenced as if they were being posted off to the OUP.
I've gone on far too long, but before I sign off for now, some thanks
are due. To Steve: thank you for giving all of us a forum for these
ideas which have been without a local habitation for so long. (If you
ever think I'm going on a bit, imagine the relief of having someone to
talk to about all this after so many years, apart from Mike who got me
hooked in the first place.) And to Pete and Clive, should they see
this: sincere thanks for 20 years of instruction and delight.
Mel Powell
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