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From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 03:30:21 EDT
Subject: MV932 Re : MV923; MV886: Buxton Concert / Top 20
Thanks, John, for your Top Twenty of which I only took the first 10. Yours was
the first vote for Biro just after I wrote saying no-one had voted for it.
I, for one, would love to read CJ's articles about Rock Lyrics.
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 04:19:14 EDT
Subject: MV933 Re : MV930: Top Ten
Thanks, Martin.
If, as Steve suggests, two of the songs you voted for are indeed the same one,
I gave 7 points to "What am I supposed to do" 2 points to your Number Ten
choice and I point to "I need new words" (Tongue-tied) which was the first of
your also-rans.
Just to be clear, I'm working on the principle that only songs sung by Pete
can be considered. Thus, I accept "The Beautiful Changes" which is on Monyash
but not "The Magic Wasn't There." I've never heard "What am I supposed to do"
so if it's a JC song, let me know and out it goes! On the other hand, I will
accept votes for "Friendly Island Song" which is a duet on Monyash.
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 04:19:18 EDT
Subject: MV934: Top Ten Monday morning
Here's the latest:
1. Girl On A Train 70pts
2. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 67pts
3. Faded Mansion On The Hill 65pts
4. Perfect Moments 64pts
5. Thief In The Night 63pts
6. Thirty Year Man 55pts
7. Hypertension Kid 51pts
8. History And Geography 39pts
9. Payday Evenings 37pts
10. Ballad Of An Upstairs Window 32pts
Bubbling under:
Flowers And The Wine
The Double Agent
We have nearly 60 different songs on the list now so we might even have, when
all the votes are, in a Top 50!
Ian C
==============================================================================
Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 11:27:28 +0000
From: Edmund Chattoe <email address>
Subject: MV935: Lurk Mode Off
Dear All,
This is in the nature of a Sunday morning mystical experience for me ...
01. The Last Hill ...
02. Shadow And The Widower
03. Rainwheels
04. Canoe
05. Thief In The Night
06. Touch Has A Memory
07. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger
08. Where Have They All Gone?
09. Search And Destroy
10. Black Funk Rex [I know, I'm sorry ...]
I'm impressed at how quickly the "new" songs from Monyash have made it onto
this list. History and Geography is bubbling under somewhere there too.
Mind you, so are Ballad Of An Upstairs Window and Little Sammy Speedball!
ATB,
Edmund
=======================================================================
Discover PHILIP JEAYS, easily the best singer you haven't heard of yet
http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ec/jeays.html. There's lots of MUSIC
FOR SALE at http://www.soc.surrey.ac.uk/~scs1ec/forsale.html. "I'm in
love with everyone who knows it's hard to build a way of seeing", Momus
=======================================================================
==============================================================================
From: Mark Roberts <email address>
Subject: MV936: Top Ten
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:24:24 +0100
Here is my selection,
1) Practical Man
2) Hypertension Kid
3) Thief in the Night
4) Where have they all gone ?
5) Girl on a train
6) An array of passionate lovers
7) Rain wheels
8) Canoe
9) Carnations on the roof
10) Sunlight gate
Regards to all,
Mark Roberts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mondex International Limited
47-53 Cannon Street, London EC4M 5SQ
England
Registered No: 3122085, England
Telephone No: <phone number>
Web Site: http://www.mondex.com
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:39:43 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV937: RealAudio downloads
I note some of you have been trying to download the new RA files, rather
than simply play them on line. Sorry you've had no luck -- the reason for
those 404s is to do with the directory pointed to by the "pnm://" URLs on
the RWT server. The Demon ones are awkward too, for a different reason.
In the re-hash (work in progress) of the discography, I'm placing 'play'
and 'download' buttons against each song available, so they'll link to the
appropriate address each time. Till then, you enthusiasts can access those
on the RWT site in subdirectory 'real' rather than the 'rwt' you've been
trying. So The Architect (for instance) is played from
http://www.rwt.co.uk/architec.ram , which links to
pnm://www.rwt.co.uk/rwt/architec.ra , but should be downloadable from
http://www.rwt.co.uk/real/architec.ra .
If none of that makes any sense then it doesn't apply to you, trust me |8-)
Re Gerry's MV918: Greetings Pop Pickers:
The legal position of audio quotes on the Web is I think not fully tested.
I understand most private sites work fingers-crossed on the principle of
'if the rights owner objects I'll remove it', which I believe is fair.
After all, the quote is providing publicity for the artist and his work,
rather than exploiting it. I know we have a few legal professionals among
our number, and I suspect if asked their advice would have to be 'don't do
it, it's infringement of copyright'. For my part, though I'm working with
the blessing of PA and CJ, they're not in a position to grant permission,
this residing with the rights owner who has inherited the IPR from Essex
Music, Warner's, BMG, Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and I know not all. Lyrics and
articles too we're quoting against the strict letter of the law, though
heaven knows in the right spirit ... My suggestion (entre nous) would be,
if it's short, RA quality and non-commercial, just go ahead. This shouldn't
be taken in any way as an endorsement of those sites which offer full MP3
quality downloads of commercial records -- that surely constitutes piracy
and theft.
I think this all applies equally to the song or the recording. Will these
be your own renditions? If so you should get a fair bit of interest from
the MVs!
-- Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 10:26:17 GMT
From: <email address> (Dr Jeremy Walton. Tel: <phone number>)
Subject: MV938 Re: MV895: My Top Ten
Hi there,
Good to see this idea being taken up - I think I mentioned it in one of
my first posts last year as something that had absorbed a lot of time
and energy on the Richard Thompson mailing list, and suggested it in
here as something that might yield a modicum of amusement and punch-ups.
Which doesn't give my list any more authority of course...
1. Payday evening
2. Secret drinker
3. Senior citizens
4. The Prince of Acquitaine
5. Touch has a memory
6. History and geography
7. Tongue-tied
8. The flowers and the wine
9. Canoe
10. Sunrise
Then again, we could also think about a bottom (say) 3. I realise this
may be sacriligeous to many MV's, and will cause problems where songs
appear on both lists, but - what the hell, we're all critical animals
with high standards. (Actually, I'd originally thought of suggesting a
bottom 5, but could only come up with three that got on my nerves.)
And so, for what it's worth, here are my least favourites, in increasing
order of disenchantment:
1. The wall of death
2. A king at nightfall
3. Have you got a biro I can borrow?
(though to be fair to the last named, it's only the version on BOTBS
that I can't stand - the shuffle arrangement that kicks off Live at
Monyash improves it greatly. IMHO, of course).
Cheers,
Jeremy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jeremy Walton <email address> |
| The Numerical Algorithms Group Ltd, Oxford, UK Tel: <phone number> |
| Fax: <fax number> |
| IRIS Explorer Center URL: http://www.nag.co.uk/Welcome_IEC.html |
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==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 12:00:07 +0000
From: Stephen Payne <email address>
Subject: MV939: Friendly Desert Island Pete
Don't I remember from the sleeve of Master of the Revels that that
compiliation was chosen by votes from friends? I wonder how the other
compilations were decided upon? Did Pete and/or Clive choose? And I
wonder if our final list will look pretty like the Master of the Revels
set?
Actually, doesn't it look as though Master of the Revels itself will be
missing? Speaking for myself, I couldn't find room on my friendly desert
island for the songs like this or Wristwatch for a Drummer or Screen Freak
or Be Careful.... which I find merely brilliant. There are many more than
ten that are additionally deeply moving in one way or another.
1. The faded mansion on the hill
2. Tongue-tied
3. You can't expect to be remembered
4. Care-charmer sleep
5. The shadow and the widower
6. The girl on the train
7. Laughing boy
8. The double agent
9. The flowers and the wine
10. Senior citizens
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 08:03:54 -0400
From: David Gritten <email address>
Subject: MV940: Top 10 list
Here's my Top 10 list. I just spent the weekend celebrating my new status
as a Fifty Year Man, so I'm a little the worse for wear -- but right now,
Monday morning, this list looks credible.
1. Thirty Year Man
2. No Dice
3. Faded Mansion on the Hill
4. Secret Drinker
5. The Hollow and the Fluted Night
6. Perfect Moments
7. The Last Hill That Shows You All The Valley
8. Carnations on the Roof
9. Thief in the Night
10. Between Us There Is Nothing
Best, David Gritten
==============================================================================
From: B & J Cotterill <email address>
Subject: MV941: top ten
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 07:46:00 +0100
Well, here goes:
History and Geography
Senior Citizens
Thirty Year Man
Payday Evening
Secret Drinker
No Dice
Sunlight Gate
Canoe
Search and Destroy
Session Man's Blues
But there are at least ten more I could have included...and I also might
well make a different list on a different day. It was also very hard to
put them in order - they are really ALL number one. In fact I had written
down 22 titles before I started weeding out; they included Honky Tonk
train, Rain wheels and Sammy Speedball. I'm sure there are going to be
others that occur to me when this is posted and I'll think however could I
have left that one out!
best wishes
Jenny (A17 - 20 at Buxton - me, Brian, Doug & Oliver)
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 16:14:32 EDT
Subject: MV942 Re : MV938; MV895: My Top Ten
A Bottom Three, Jeremy, should be possible but only from the albums which have
actually been recorded, I think, and will be probably computible from this
exercise when all the votes are in.. For example, Wall Of Death is doing well
with No Votes, like Honky Tonk Train and Nothing Left To Say which is
UNBELIEVABLE!!! Surely a collective oubli?
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 16:14:35 EDT
Subject: MV943: Top Ten Latest Next Update Tuesday evening
Thanks for the continuing flood of contributions. Here's the latest:
1. Faded Mansion On The Hill 83pts
2. Girl On The Train 81pts
3. Thief In The Night 79pts
4. Thirty Year Man 73pts
5. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 71pts
6. Perfect Moments 69pts
7. Hypertension Kid 60pts
8. History And Geography 54pts
Payday Evenings 54pts
10. Senior Citizens 42pts
Notes:
1. At last Senior Citizen gets a look in. The list is starting to look
definitive as things start to even themselves out.
2. Still zero votes for Frangipanni, Luck Of The Draw, Honky Tonk Night Train
Blues, Wall Of Death, My Egoist, Our Lady Lowness, National Steel, Nothing
Left To Say, Time And Time Again, Little Sammy Speedball and most of Live
Libel.
3. It's interesting to note that none of the singles have made a mark on our
Top Ten. Bad commercial judgement by the record companies?
Next posting tomorrow evening!
Ian C
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 22:41:59 +0100
From: Gerald Smith <email address>
Subject: MV944 Re: MV937: RealAudio downloads
>From: S J Birkill <email address>
>Subject: RealAudio downloads
>Re Gerry's MV918: Greetings Pop Pickers:
>
[snip]
>
>Will these be your own renditions?
>
Hmmm...now, there's a thought!! (No, Folks,we don't wanna hear it, most
sincerely..!!)
>
>If so you should get a fair bit of interest from the MVs!
>
Reaction maybe, but interest?!...
>I note some of you have been trying to download the new RA files, rather
>than simply play them on line.
Steve - Can you help me here? I've got Real Publisher 5.0, which I've
used to upload stuff to my website. Publisher creates RM. type files, not RA,
(although the quality is the same, and plays just as it should on my RA player
(version 5.0)
Trouble is, people with older versions of RA seem unable to open my RM
files, and Publisher will not create RA files, even though they are saved as such.
Do you know if there is a way round this?
Gerry Smith
Gerald Smith's Homepage :
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gerald.smith/index.htm
==============================================================================
From: "David Turner" <email address>
Subject: MV945 Re: Digest: Midnight Voices week 34 (MV884-931)
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 23:04:02 +0100
The Voting from Row A Seats 21 & 22
1. Perfect Moments
2. Tonight your Love Is Over
3. Tenderfoot
4. Sunlight Gate
5. Payday Evening
6. Tongue-Tied
7. Carnations on the Roof
8. Rain-Wheels
9. The Faded Mansion On the Hill
10. Flowers and the Wine (Val Doonican!? - can't imagine it)
20 would have been so much easier, as Ian suggested, but then again I would
probably still have been anguishing about what I had to leave out.
==============================================================================
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 23:25:57 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV946 Re: MV927 Top one!
>So, come on Carole, Alexis and Pete (Smith) let's have the next nine!
>
No I don't play these games. Although I must confess that my "Top One"
nomination was born of a misreading of
>If everyone votes for his or her Top 20 PA songs it might spark off
>some interesting reactions in the singular!
As a bit of light relief, how about some opinions on the PA songs (or
lines or phrases) that irritate, annoy or cause mental anguish?
My starters for x, where x is a positive integer, but not ten:
Practical Man: In particular, "As if the car was a turtle dreaming" but
most of the rest as well.
The Original ..... Blues: all of it, but especially the bit where PA
admits he's stuck for a rhyme.
Biro
Where have They All Gone/Master of the Revels: which I see as two parts
of the same song
No Dice: a great,GREAT song ruined by the refrain "yesterday was oh so
long ago". No it wasn't.
Faded Mansion: "that mind-constricting thick weight stays" so clumsy,
shows the lengths people will go to to maintain what seemed like a good
rhyme scheme when it started. fabulous apart from that.
Girl On the Train: tune ripped off from Al Stewart's Love Chronicles.
Still it's nice to be told several times that Clive's heard of Verlaine!
Come on people, don't tell me you all think that every PA song is
perfect!
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
From: "John Schwiller" <email address>
Subject: MV947: Top Ten
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 02:41:57 +0100
Sorry none from the parody album or the Monyash CD (not got) but otherwise
a sprinkling.
I think what started the affair for me was the clarinet on BOTBS (Fontana
copy) - as a failed clarinetist. I remember Stuart Henry playing it on
Saturday mornings and somewhere have a tape of him later announcing the PA
gig I ran in Nottingham - we sold out and turned away 150.
At which I foolishly displayed all the album covers - never to be seen again.
I also tried to get CJ to the gig to no avail.
Here's my list for what it's worth :
1 Thief in the Night
2 Thirty Year Man
3 National Steel
4 Master of the Revels
5 Touch Has a Memory
6 Lady of a Day
7 Between Us There is Nothing
8 Girl on the Train
9 Carnations on the Roof
10 The Faded Mansion on the Hill
John Schwiller
==============================================================================
From: Richard Corfield <email address>
Subject: MV948 Re: MV946; MV927 Top one!
Date: 28 Apr 1998 08:11:32 +0100
>Practical Man: In particular, "As if the car was a turtle dreaming" but
>most of the rest as well.
Are you kidding? This is one of my most favourite lines
from the entire opus of songs...
That line has always conjured up a perfect picture for me: I
can see that sleek chassis heading up the Cromwell Road;
the sodium light reflections sliding easily over it's turtle
shaped body, while inside the agent smokes his Balkan Sobrany
(?spelling) and calculates his percentage...
For years I've been labouring to get a jag JUST so I can
have the personalised number plate
TURTLE
Best regards,
Richard Corfield
==============================================================================
From: Mark Roberts <email address>
Subject: MV949 RE: MV945 Re: Digest: Midnight Voices week 34 (MV884-931)
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 09:26:32 +0100
>10. Flowers and the Wine (Val Doonican!? - can't imagine it)
>
>> Unfortunately......I can !!!
Regards,
>Mark Roberts
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mondex International Limited
47-53 Cannon Street, London EC4M 5SQ
England
Registered No: 3122085, England
Telephone No: <phone number>
Web Site: http://www.mondex.com
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 05:27:12 EDT
Subject: MV950 Re: MV946; MV927 Top one!
While musing on my top 20, and prompted by Pete Smith's savage attack on
Clive's lyrics, I was prompted to reveal a long-held dislike of the line in
Girl on a Train wher he uses the phrase "Obsolete Verlaine".
It may be pedantic but can literature, ven the most old-fashioned, ever
become obsolete?
And just in case anyone thinks I'm carping I do have an alternative: why not
"arcane Verlaine"?
Rob King
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 10:49:11 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV951 Re: MV944; MV937: RealAudio downloads
Gerry Smith (MV944) writes:
>
>Steve - Can you help me here? I've got Real Publisher 5.0, which I've
>used to upload stuff to my website. Publisher creates RM. type files,
>not RA, (although the quality is the same, and plays just as it should
>on my RA player (version 5.0)
>
>Trouble is, people with older versions of RA seem unable to open my RM
>files, and Publisher will not create RA files, even though they are saved
>as such.
>
>Do you know if there is a way round this?
>
Hi Gerry,
I would suggest using the RA3 audio-only encoder, which is still available
from the RealMedia site, and makes .ra files compatible with versions 3, 4
and 5 of the Player. I've not used Real Publisher, but presumably it will
upload files created by other programs -- it must do, to handle HTML. Or
use a separate FTP prog to upload the .ra -- does ukonline let you do that?
You'll have to write your own (.ram) metafile, but that's a matter of moments.
The encoder is at http://www.real.com/products/creation/realaudio.html
or if you wish I can email you the Win95/NT/Pentium/28.8 version 3.1 (844 kb).
Regards
Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:18:08 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV952 Re: MV948, MV950: Turtles and Verlaine
Richard: My image is equally vivid but from the inside of the dark shell,
with the city lights streaming past the low windows.
Rob: Surely it's not Clive himself but the literature student persona on
his day out who, particularly when in the presence of unimagined beauty,
consigns Verlaine to obsolescence?
-- Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:47:15 +0000
From: Stephen Payne <email address>
Subject: MV953: Complaints
Info for Pete (Smith):
If you trawl the MV archive you'll see that there have already been a few
suggestions for most irritating lines. I can remember someone hating "it
tells true and it aint no bummer" and someone else hating the whole of "I
see the joker", I think. Oh yeah, and someone took exception to "a slight
but considerable danger" and/or "do you think I was born in a manger"?
There were others I'm sure, but I can't remember them all - yesterday IS so
long ago. (Even more so if you are a frozen eskimo or a drowned marine or
have been up all night trying to get a song lyric together.)
I'd like to hear Al Stewart's Love Chronicles.
S
==============================================================================
From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV954 RE: MV946; MV927 Top one!
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 08:15:58 -0400
>From: Pete Smith <email address>
>Subject: MV927 Top one!
>Still it's nice to be told several times that Clive's heard of Verlaine!
That isn't necessarily good news for Verlaine fans, viz.
"a two-faced vicious phony like Verlaine"
- from "An Instrument to measure Spring with", collected in
the Metropolitan Critic.
Dave Jones
Obsolete in Rochester NY.
==============================================================================
From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV955 RE: MV950; MV946; MV927 Top one!
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 08:34:45 -0400
>From: Elphinking <email address>
>Subject: Re: MV946 Re: MV927 Top one!
>While musing on my top 20, and prompted by Pete Smith's savage attack on
>Clive's lyrics, I was prompted to reveal a long-held dislike of the line in
>Girl on a Train wher he uses the phrase "Obsolete Verlaine".
>It may be pedantic but can literature, ven the most old-fashioned, ever
>become obsolete?
I've never read Verlaine myself, but I have read that he was part of the
Commedia Dell'arte fad of the late 19th cent. In this the characters of
Harlequin, Columbine, Pierrot etc. were used as archetypes underlying
the characters in stage plays, poems etc. At some point they would
be unmasked and the rest of the performance would take place 'in
character', so to speak. At the time some thought it was the end of
theatre as an art form. In a sense they were right, as the theatre of
spectacle and artifice gave way to the 'natural' theatre of the 20th cent.
The fad, of course, passed on, and nobody (except Michael Moorcock)
has any interest in the theatre of archetypes these days. So Verlaine
really is obsolete.
Dave Jones
In the Condition of Muzak in Rochester NY.
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:07:01 +0100
From: Alexis Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV956 Re: MV922: Rapping
Its definitely a thought... I'm not sure if Pete has the dreadlocks for it though!
Alexis Birkill.
Midnight Voices wrote:
> From: cjb<email address>
> Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 21:38:20 +0000
> Subject: Rapping
>
> > The rapping of knuckles was felt in Derbyshire!
>
> Rapping? How about a rap version of Ballad of An Upstairs Window -
> now there's an idea, a particularly stupid one I'd have to admit.. What d'ya
> think Alexis? (that being your top one)
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 18:30:59 +0100
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV957: Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
>From: Elphinking <email address>
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 05:27:12 EDT
>Subject: Re: MV946 Re: MV927 Top one!
>
>While musing on my top 20, and prompted by Pete Smith's savage attack on
>Clive's lyrics, I was prompted to reveal a long-held dislike of the line in
>Girl on a Train wher he uses the phrase "Obsolete Verlaine".
>It may be pedantic but can literature, ven the most old-fashioned, ever
>become obsolete?
This is a literary device called 'the unreliable narrator'. It is hard
to carry off; the authorial voice must tell the listener that the
narrator's judgement is in fact somewhat suspect, while clearly
indicating that the narrator himself is blissfully unaware of this fact.
The classic extended example of this is, perhaps, Mr Pooter in George
and Weedon Grossmiths' 'Diary of a Nobody'.
In the case here, the 'leading young poetic hope of the whole planet
Earth' (or should that be 'Outh'?) is letting his lust and frustration
overcome his good sense of literary judgement, as he clearly wishes to
supplant the one who he presumptiously calls the 'obsolete Monsieur
Verlaine' as the object of the girl's attentions. And, but only as an
afterthought, perhaps as a poet as well.
'Girl on a Train' should be compared and contrasted with Judy Garland's
'Trolley Song', of course, in which there is little or no introspection,
and the opportunity is *not* missed.
NB I, of course, am a narrator here.... :-))
--
Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number>
Affirm Ltd Email : <email address>
<postal address> 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:18:29 EDT
Subject: MV958: Val Doonican at Buxton
I think Val Doonican's name on the bill would certainly fill any empty seats
at Buxton and would provide a link with a new audience for PA, more MOR-
oriented. So if Julie Covington can't be there, maybe Pete could do a duet
with Val of Flowers and the Wine. "Anudder noight Oi've bin..."
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:18:36 EDT
Subject: MV959: Verlaine
One tenuous link between Verlaine and CJ is that their words were used for
songs by musicians of the time who never managed to obtain the same level of
fame as their "lyricists." I mean of course PA and the great Gabriel Fauré.
Apart from his Requiem, your Frenchman in the street would be unable to name
anything else composed by him or even recognise his name while Verlaine, while
obsolete in the sense of being dated, is still well-known for maybe the wrong
reasons. (Not unlike CJ though not the same wrong reasons!)
Pushing the dubious comparison for all it's worth, we could admit to a
resemblance between PA and Fauré who had a small, select, fanatical following
(like us) for a music which is all subtlety and nuance, very discreet and
quietly revolutionary.Try, for example, "Prison" with words by Verlaine which
goes all over the harmonic spectrum without apparent effort. He did get a
State funeral as I recall so there's hope yet! 8-))
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:18:34 EDT
Subject: MV960: Top Ten Tuesday Night
More thanks for your contributions. Pontificating again, I've unilaterally
decided to set a deadline of Thursday evening for your entries because I
suspect we won't see any significant differences from now on and the current
Top Ten is beginning to detach itself from the rest of the field. So here
goes:
I. Thief In The Night 89pts
2. Faded Mansion On The Hill 86pts
3. Girl On A Train 84pts
4. Thirty Year Man 82pts
5. Perfect Moments 79pts
6. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 71pts
7. Hypertension Kid 60pts
Payday Evenings 60pts
9. History And Geography 54pts
10.Senior Citizens 42pts
Notes:
1. Not one song from "Secret Drinker." In fact the song from that album with
the most votes is the title track with a mere 29pts. And Live Libel's best
showing is "Errant Knight" with a measly 11pts.
2. At last a vote for "National Steel" but not for "Nothing Left To Say." Any
ideas why?
Last orders, please!
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: DangerDon <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:19:13 EDT
Subject: MV961: Monsieur Verlaine
Sorry to be pedantic but 'arcane Verlaine' doesn't scan whereas 'obsolete'
with its three syllables does, and say what you like about Clive's lyrics, in
scansion terms they're preety faultless (cf Bernie ' What's metre?' Taupin).
But since we're on duff lines, could I nominate "...In a Mayfair club they
call the Early Quitter" from The hypertension kid?
And finally, if we vote for a bottom three of PA songs, is it 1) that's the
worst, or 3)?
What larks,
Don
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:19:58 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV962 Re: MV950 "Savage Attack"
> prompted by Pete Smith's savage attack on
>Clive's lyrics
Don't get me wrong, I love Clive's lyrics. A lot of you have the
advantage of me in that you are familiar with the full catalog, I only
*really* know Mythical America, to which I've been happily listening
since 1972. Now that I have the CD re-issue I'm getting to know
Beautiful Stranger, but the songs are so dense (not in the stupid
sense!) that it may well take 20+ years to get on equal terms with them.
I feel that by this time I've earned the right to comment on some of the
phrases or lines which don't sit easily with the rest, and which jump
out every time I play the songs. The better the song, the greater the
effect of a duff line.
For example, "No Dice", apart from the refrain, is about as good as a
song can get. *But* the line "And what thing reached me first, bears or
the weather, I just don't know" is as irritating as a piece of food
stuck in a tooth.
In my opinion.
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:44:55 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV963 Re: MV948; MV946; MV927 Top one!
>>Practical Man: In particular, "As if the car was a turtle dreaming" but
>>most of the rest as well.
>
>Are you kidding? This is one of my most favourite lines
>from the entire opus of songs...
>
Nope, sorry, it's lost on me.
Too much bad acid at Woodstock.
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
From: "Martin Nail" <email address>
Subject: MV964 Re: MV931; MV930: Top Ten
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 23:58:05 +0100
> Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 00:58:45 +0100
> From: S J Birkill <email address>
> Subject: Re: MV930: Top Ten
>
> Hang on, Martin ...
>
> Surely "I used to see him far too often" and "What am I supposed to do"
> count as two votes for the same song!
Yes of course you're right, Steve. Comes of doing things in a hurry, and
going straight from a scribbled list of candidate songs on a sheet of paper
to the email I sent. Sorry. I still think it's brilliant example of how
to create a wonderful song out of a string of cliches.
Martin
<email address>
Internet resources on English folk and traditional music:
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/martin.nail/Folkmus.htm
==============================================================================
From: Pete Atkin
Subject: MV965: Man walking toward the music
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 00:15:36 +0100
Dear All
I keep reading the postings and meaning to make a note to reply to all sorts
of things and then forgetting, so apologies for seeming dim and distant and
even rude. The real reason I've not posted directly before is that I felt
from the outset that this is your deal and I simply didn't want to intrude
or inhibit the discussion by making you feel I was constantly looking over
your shoulder. Which I am, of course, anyway. But then you knew that
anyway, so what the hell? Besides, it's always much more fun to watch you
come to your own conclusions, often ones, I'm delighted to say, which I'd
never have come to myself.
So to catch up a bit (and do please give me a nudge if there's something you
asked ages ago and which I could easily answer directly but haven't):
MV874 - Hi Richard - yes, that's the one, that's Morgan as was. I'm
assuming the present studio is on the RH corner as you face into Maybury
Gardens. That was the original Morgan - 2 studios (whuich I imagine are
still basically there) and a bar. they later built studio 3 across the road
(where Yes made Tobographic Oceans). Morgan was started by, I think, Barry
Morgan (the drummer - Blue Mink etc), Leon Calvert, and someone else. It
had a fair old vogue in the 70s and quite a few well known and successful
albums were done there - early Rod Stewarts, Cat Stevens, Harry Nilsson,
Kinks, certainly around the time I was there. I recorded almost exclusively
in the mornings and afternoons, though - practically down time.
MV885 - Cary, yes that was my little bro on drums. He still lives in
Cambridge (he's a precision engineer) and he still drums, most recently for
an outfit playing sixties soul.
I think all of the sleeve designs were company in-house jobs. The big stars
would often insist on their own design people, so the design staffers had to
make do with lower order artistes who weren't in much of a position to
argue. We did our best to keep tabs on what was happening and to try to
keep things moderately appropriate, but not always very successfully.
Sometimes they went along with a general idea and then screwed it up (I
thought) with a poorly chosen typeface or something. But it was very much
our idea to get Wally Fawkes to draw us for Live Libel. (The two private
LPs were just stick-on labels executed by YT)
MV902 - Ian, my top ten would take far too long to explain and account for.
Besides, I never listen to my own stuff for enjoyment (do you pop into the
office for a little relaxing filing of a Sunday afternoon?). I can only
ever hear what I think I meant to do. Either that or I get disproportionate
enjoyment from just one tiny detail here and there - usually nothing to do
with anything I can take credit for. But reading all of yours is truly
fascinating, for more different reasons than I can go into. It does give me
great incidental pleasure to see songs getting an occasional mention which I
always tend to assume have slipped by the general attention. Nanci
Griffith always says there's one song on every album that never gets
mentioned in the reviews and that never gets played on the radio and that no
one ever asks for, and that's usually her favourite. I know what she means.
I feel quite fond and protective of my waifs and strays. Sometimes (perhaps
usually) there's good reason why a song hasn't clicked, and that's because I
did something wrong. From time to time I can try to put that right, by
changing how I do it, usually rhythmically, as those of you who've been to
gigs in the past year or so will know. (Whether that actually improves
anything, though, who knows?)
Strangely (it seems to me), these odd, unexpected mentions sometimes prompt
me into thinking seriously about performing some of them - in some cases it
would be for the first time live. Similar to the reason I always welcome
requests - it's as if I need confirmation that at least one person actually
wants to hear something in particular. I always play around with my
songlist until the last minute, maybe deciding definitely on only the first
three or four things and then changing my mind on the hoof. The prospect of
Buxton raises new kinds of problems - striking a proper balance between all
of you lot who know everything better than I do myself and what may well be
a fair-sized chunk of audience who've come out of curiosity and interest in
Clive's name and who we'd like to proselytise and who may know nothing at
all. In the end, though, I probably always end up doing the things I
simply most fancy doing, for whatever reason. But maybe the final MV Top
Ten should be definites this time around?
MV939 - Yes, Stephen, the MOTR selection was arrived at via a poll of
friends and (ahem) fans (including at least one MV). I can't remember
exactly how I did it, but I'm pretty sure it was simply one song-one vote
(i.e. no ordered listing) and I think I may have exercised a casting vote at
the bottom end of the list. But, no, I don't still have the list
MV946 - Thanks, Pete, for stopping the whole thing becoming unbearably
sycophantic and embarrassing. Quite right. But even I would have to argue
about how far in the past yesterday was. And I can prove that we wrote Girl
on the Train in August 1968, when I'm quite certain I'd neither heard nor
heard of Al Stewart - and Love Chronicles (I found out) came out in 1969....
The guy who runs the Eastbourne Folk Club (where I've agreed to play on
August 4th - historic sort-of-anniversary of the Atkin/Birkills first
meeting) told me the SFM CD is listed on the Blackmail (I think) site? with
an erroneous mention of Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon? Anyone
know anything about it?
No more news yet about the next CD, I'm afraid. You'll be the first to
know. Almost.
==============================================================================
From: "John Schwiller" <email address>
Subject: MV966 Re: MV956 Rapping
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 00:40:23 +0100
Alexis Birkill wrote
>
>Its definitely a thought... I'm not sure if Pete has the dreadlocks for it
>though!
>
Wahl I'd have thought given his longevity in the biz that a brindled
crew-cut would now be in order..
John S
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 20:45:12 EDT
Subject: MV967 Re: MV948; MV946; MV927 Top one!
Sobranie
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 20:53:25 EDT
Subject: MV968 Re: MV957: Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
Well, I still think if Clive had thought of arcane Verlaine he would have used
it instead of obsolete........I'd love to know if the great man agrees!!
==============================================================================
From: RGIBSONESQ <email address>
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 22:20:40 EDT
Subject: MV969: Top Ten
And here's my contribution...
1. BOTBS
2. Girl on the train
3. Sessionman's Blues
4. Flowers and the Wine
5. Wristwatch for a drummer
6. National Steel
7. I see the Joker
8. Screen Freak
9. Perfect Moments
10. Thirty year man
Regards
Richard Gibson
"hoping to be in Buxton - frequent flyer miles permitting"
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 08:16:04 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV970 Re: MV965: Man walking toward the music
Pete Atkin writes:
>the MOTR selection was arrived at via a poll of
>friends and (ahem) fans (including at least one MV)
"Particular thanks to the following friends and neighbours who bear the
collective responsibility for the choice of tracks on this album: Tony
Anderson, Malcolm Andrew, Mike Arnold, Dave Bondy, Brian Cotterill, Simon
Crocker, Trevor Dann, Mike Draper, Dave Driver, Dave Gelly, David Gritten,
Clive James, Prue James, Dave Laing, Alan Manton, Sean O'Rourke, Mike Flood
Page, Roger Quested, Jonathan Sale, Bob Tatham, Dee Tatham, Christine
Westcott and Nick Westcott.
"They each contributed their list of what they thought should be included
and these songs here are the 14 that received the most mentions. As happens
in most democratic processes, of course, the overall result does not
correspond exactly to any one person's choice and they are therefore freed
from individual responsibility."
Three Voices, by my reckoning.
Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 17:34:45 +0800
From: John Fuery <email address>
Subject: MV971: TOP TEN
Here- for what they're worth - are my ten favourites from PA's
criminally neglected
canon -
1) Between Us There Is Nothing
2) Carnations On The Roof
3) The Girl With The Pearl Driller's Hands
4) Senior Citizens
5) An Array of Passionate Lovers
6) 30 Year Man
7) National Steel
8) Canoe
9) Time and Time Again
10) Rider To The World's End
Yours from recession hit Asia
John Fuery
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 06:20:21 EDT
Subject: MV972: Top Six albums
It's not very scientific but I've counted all the votes for each album except
Monyash and the compilations which gives a top Six as follows:
1.Driving Through Mythical America 386pts
2.A King At Nightfall 299pts
3.Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 284 or 266pts
4.Road Of Silk 282pts
5.Secret Drinker 127pts
6.Live Libel 48pts
Notes:
1. The two different marks for BOTBS depend on whether you count the version
with Touch Has A Memory(284) or Be Careful(266)
2. Nobody expected Live Libel to do well but how to account for the feeble
showing of Secret Drinker? This was one of the worst-selling albums, I admit,
but I would have thought all the Voices would have heard it. It's as good as
its predecessor in my book (certainly more well-balanced) and the title track
and Nothing Left To Say are as good as the best songs on Road Of Silk.
3. The Top Ten Stinkers appear to be:
1. Frangipanni Was Her Flower
Luck Of The Draw
The Original Original Honky Tonk Night Train Blues
The Wall Of Death
Our Lady Lowness
My Egoist
Nothing Left To Say
Time And Time Again
Little Sammy Speedball (All 0 pts)
10.Have You Got A Biro? 1pt
Definitive Judgement Day tomorrow evening.
Anymore for anymore?
Ian C
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 12:02:14 +0100
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV973 Re: MV962; MV950 "Savage Attack"
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:19:58 +0100
>From: Pete Smith <email address>
>Subject: MV950 "Savage Attack"
>
<Snip>
>
>For example, "No Dice", apart from the refrain, is about as good as a
>song can get. *But* the line "And what thing reached me first, bears or
>the weather, I just don't know" is as irritating as a piece of food
>stuck in a tooth.
Why?
I quite like this line, with its long-range rhyme echoing 'leather'.
We agree on the meaning I take it - that the Eskimo doesn't know how he
died, and it could have been either marauding polar bears, or the
freezing cold?
Is it that you don't like thing (singular) with bears (plural)?
--
Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number>
Affirm Ltd Email : <email address>
<postal address> 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 12:37:54 +0100
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV974 Re: MV968; MV957: Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
>From: Elphinking <email address>
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 20:53:25 EDT
>Subject: Re: MV957: Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
>
>Well, I still think if Clive had thought of arcane Verlaine he would
>have used it instead of obsolete........I'd love to know if the great
>man agrees!!
>
Well....
'She was reading a book, taking in every word the man wrote
While there in the margin she made the occasional note'
and
'Ploughing steadily onwards through obsolete Monsieur Verlaine'
both indicate the girl as getting to grips with him quite readily. So if
he was 'arcane', this would make her *very* high-powered indeed (we
presume she was reading him in the original French as it is); doubly
unapproachable.
The narrator wants to *supplant* Verlaine, so words like 'obsolete,
obsolescent, out-moded, old-fashioned, superseded' are what Clive might
have looked at using. To call Verlaine 'Arcane, obscure, difficult'
etc., might just rebound against the narrator.
Anyway, I suspect it's only Verlaine because it rhymes with 'train'.
And so it would have been him on a 'plane' as well.... but who, I
wonder, would the poet she was reading have been if he had encountered
her on some other form of transport?
--
Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number>
Affirm Ltd Email : <email address>
<postal address> 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
From: <email address>
Subject: MV975: Desert Island Discs plus 2
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 13:44:05 +0100
Sorry for the delay in my Top Ten, I've been on holiday (80+ MV
messages waiting for me!)
1. Girl on a Train
2. Thief in the night
3. Sunlight Gate
4. BOTBS
5. Perfect Moments
6. Senior Citizens
7. I see the Joker
8. The man who walked towards the music
9. Rain/Wheels
10. All I ever did
Although I have all the albums on vinyl, I only play the re-issue and
compilation CDs apart for my personal compilation tape I made 15 years
ago. This probably causes me to forget some lost treasures on the
vinyl (and reminds me to get my record deck fixed!)
Girl on the Train just edges Thief in the night, as it was the first
PA song I heard, and came at a time when I was making a lot of lonely
train journeys, finding myself in the position of the narrator on
numerous occasions (although I never did read M. Verlaine, obsolete or
not)
I had to vote for "All I ever did", if only to give a credit to a PA
lyric.
On the subject of least favorite songs, Master of the Revels wins by
miles for me disliking as I do the words, tune and arrangement, what a
pity then that it appears to be PA's most "media friendly" track.
Got my front row circle tickets,
See you there
Neil Norman
----------
==============================================================================
From: Richard Corfield <email address>
Subject: MV976 Re: MV965: Man walking toward the music
Date: 29 Apr 1998 13:59:46 +0100
>and do please give me a nudge if there's something you
>asked ages ago and which I could easily answer directly but haven't):
Pete,
I sent a posting to the MV's recently about the seventh
album. On the Monyash video you mention that
you might still record it. I was just wondering if you
have made any further plans in this direction?
Kind regards,
Richard Corfield
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 15:41:23 +0100
From: Roy Brown <email address>
Subject: MV977: Top Ten
Here's my Top Ten, lest I miss the cut.
1 The Faded Mansion on the Hill
2 Driving Through Mythical America
3 Tonight Your Love is Over
4 Prince of Acquitaine
5 Rider to the World's End
6 No Dice
7 The Flowers and the Wine
8 Canoe
9 I Need New Words
10 Rain/Wheels
Looks like 'Faded Mansion' might carry it; was anybody else thinking
"Well, it's *my* favourite, but I don't know if it would be anybody
elses"?
This is the song that I asked Clive James if he would elucidate on all
those years ago; though flattered, he seemed worried that its delicate
structure might not support a weighty analysis, and politely declined.
Or maybe the time wasn't right.
In the light of its popularity, might we beg Clive for some more
background to it now? Pretty please?
--
Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number>
Affirm Ltd Email : <email address>
<postal address> 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not
know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.'
==============================================================================
From: John Allen Robinson <email address>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 18:10:24 -0230 (NDT)
Subject: MV978: Top five from a newbie
Well,
Delurking to give my top picks. I would have disqualified myself on the basis
of limited knowledge, but seeing those updates posted every few days, with
some of my favourites missing, was too much to resist. I'm a bona fide
counter example to Ian's comment that "all the Voices would have heard
[Secret Drinker]". I haven't heard anything except the Monyash CDs and the
Real Audio clips. I'm a new fan, with all the ignorance that implies -- one
of that select band of Midnight Voices who'd never heard of Pete Atkin
before stumbling on Steve's web site (looking for Julie Covington). Here
in the wild east of Canada it isn't easy to pick up second hand records of
British legends from the 70s. So my five choices (a limitation reflecting
my knowledge of the repertoire) have nothing to do with the original albums.
Reviewing the discography, I see, surprisingly, that most of them aren't on
the original albums.
1. History and Geography
Gorgeously textured chords under a meandering melody for bleak, beautiful
words. I'm ashamed to admit I get impatient during the instrumental verse,
but the poetry so dominates the song. Still, it's the music that makes
those angel faces flame. A wonderful meld.
I didn't always feel that way. On first hearing I thought the first
line awkward, the rest of the first verse over-cliched, and the whole song
maudlin. And that word "kit" - what a misjudgement! Second time through
I decided the words were really pretty clever (including "kit"). By the
third time the music had got to me, and I'd forgiven the words enough to
think them perfect.
As I listened to this last night, my wife commented that I looked like I
was crying into a beer, so I guess it is maudlin after all. :)
2. Canoe
The first Atkin music I heard, and I was captivated. As with several of the
songs, the first hearing is different from all that follow. Later, you have
the memory of a strange, bewildering experience during the third verse,
replayed in the light of knowing how it all fits together. (To be honest I
have no idea how it all fits together -- it's audacious, mindjarring and
marvelous.)
3. Payday evening
My favourite of Pete and Clive's many streetwise downers.
4. The original original honky-tonk night train blues
I'm not just including this to lift it off the duds list. As a sometime
amateur performer I know how valuable silly crowd pleasers are. Not that
this is silly. I learned a lot. Besides, what song that mentions aorta can be
bad? (In some sort of bizarre free association -- I suppose the word shunt has
to do with trains -- I mentally formed the words "shunt aorta" and was
irrelevantly reminded of this masterpiece of lyrical syntax from 10cc:
"In the eyes of the Dean his daughter was doing what she shouldn'ta oughta".
The mind is a strange and wonderful thing.)
5. Search and destroy
A song tantalizingly on the edge of something I'm unable to remember.
I've submitted a paper for a conference in Bristol just before the Buxton
concert. If it's accepted, I'm coming over and I'll be there. Notification
of acceptance is 10 May, so don't you MV people take all the best seats
before then!
John Robinson
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 21:59:31 +0100
From: Alexis Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV979: Entire Top 10! WOW!
OK, I've finally got all my top 10 sorted out... Number 1 has already been
submitted, so don't count it again.
1. Ballad of an upstairs window
2. Canoe
3. The original original honky-tonk night train blues
4. Wristwatch for a drummer (the Omega Incathingy)
5. Girl on the Train
6. Wall of Death
7. Beware of the Beautiful Stranger
8. Hypertension Kid
9. Have you got a Biro I can borrow?
10. I see the joker
Alexis Birkill
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:19:40
From: Richard Ross <email address>
Subject: MV980: Top 10
It's an almost impossible task isn't it? I know for a fact that when this
message comes back via the list I'll have changed the order, but as of now
it's:
1: Faded mansion on the hill
2: Perfect moments
3: Payday evenings
4: History and Geography
5: Sessionman's Blues
6: Thirty year man
7: Screen Freak
8: National Steel
9: The Prince of Acquitaine
10: Rider to the World's End
Nos 5 and 6 are freely interchangeable but I decided for the sake of Ian's
calculations not to make them 5= :-)
Bubbling under:
Tonight your love is over
Honky Tonk Train (yes! I like steam trains you see and the words are
ingenious...)
Canoe
.... and another half a dozen at least
Joint bottom (Both of these have always irritated me for some reason):
I see the Joker
Wristwatch for a drummer
Cheers
Richard
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Richard Ross, BSc, PhD, LRPS
Hemel Hempstead,
England
RH Designs - Innovative Electronics for the Darkroom
* http://www.nildram.co.uk/rhdesign *
* mailto:<email address> *
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:35:04 +0100
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV981: Top Ten
What with kids, builders and electioneering for the Lib Dems I almost missed
the avalanche of MVs over the last few days and panicked when I realised
that tomorrow is the deadline. So the attached selection is a bit rushed but
nevertheless ...
1. Thirty Year Man
2. Tonight Your Love is Over
3. Thief in the Night
4. Secret Drinker
5. Faded Mansion
6. Payday Evening
7. King at Nightfall
8. Between us there is Nothing
9. BOBTS
10. Honky Tonk Train
Three from AKAN and I only just missed out All the Dead were Strangers and
Screen Freak. Honky Tonk Train is a nostalgic choice as I used to play it
incessantly on my guitar. Ballad of an Upstairs Window nearly made it for
the same reason, and Errant Knight was a live highlight though in my opinion
it doesn't work desperately well on album.
Excluding Julie songs is mean. Winter Kept Us Warm, The Beautiful Changes
and For Instance would all have made my top ten otherwise (though god knows
what I would have dropped to make room!).
I've got into Canoe and History and Geography from the Monyash album, but
it'll take another few years before they usurp these others in my affection.
Maybe if we get a new album with a fuller arrangement for them ....
Here's to the final tally.
Leslie
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:40:34 +0100
From: Gerald Smith <email address>
Subject: MV982 Re: MV951; MV944; MV937: RealAudio downloads
>
>I would suggest using the RA3 audio-only encoder, which is still available
>from the RealMedia site, and makes .ra files compatible with versions 3, 4
>and 5 of the Player.
>
>The encoder is at http://www.real.com/products/creation/realaudio.html
>or if you wish I can email you the Win95/NT/Pentium/28.8 version 3.1
>(844 kb).
>
Steve
Many thanks for your kind offer. I took your advice and downloaded
version three of the
Real encoder, and have now replaced the rm. files on my site with ra. files.
I have put ra. quality versions of BOTBS and Girl on the Train in the Music
Links section of my site along with a big plug for MV.
Regards to all
Gerry Smith
Gerald Smith's Homepage :
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/gerald.smith/index.htm
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:45:59 +0100
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV983 Re: MV965: Man walking toward the music
At 07:50 29/04/98 +0100, you wrote:
>From: Pete Atkin
>The guy who runs the Eastbourne Folk Club (where I've agreed to play on
>August 4th - historic sort-of-anniversary of the Atkin/Birkills first
>meeting)
Hey, this is news! Nothing on the website about it. Are there other
pre-Buxton gigs planned? I asked a friend but he can't make Buxton (Sept
20th's actually a jewish holyday so apart from secular jews like Gill and I
our co-religionists wouldn't be able to come).
Leslie
PS (relating back to an earlier MV) I don't 'get' the Turtle resonance either!
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:53:14 +0100
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV984: Love Chronicles
I'm feeling kinda prolific tonight.
Girl on a Train sound like Love Chronicles? No way! The melody is only
slightly remininscent, but Al Stewart makes his sound like a dirge (and it
lasts an album-side!). It suited bedsitterland in 1969 but unlike GOAT (!)
it's badly dated and I can't bear to listen to the album today.
Sorry Al, but in longevity-terms you're not a patch on Pete. Maybe back in
the year of the cat but not now!
Leslie
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 17:57:54 EDT
Subject: MV985 Re : MV965: Man walking toward the music
Pete says there are some songs he has never performed live. Would he like to
tell us which ones and why? Were they last-minute album fillers (difficult to
believe) or stuff he didn't feel too sure about (in which case why not try
them out in public first?) Or perhaps too difficult to bring off in concert
(but he used to do Black Funk Rex!) for technical reasons? Or, maybe, over the
head of the public (like My Egoist or Nothing Left To Say, both 0 votewinners
in the top 10)?
Ian C
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:06:40 +0100
From: mike walters <email address>
Subject: MV986
Last minute, as always, but slipping in under the wire, here are the
votes from the Stockport jury...
1. Faded Mansion...
2. Canoe
3. History and Geography
4. The Last Hill...
5. Payday Evening
6. Between us There is Nothing
7. An Array of Passionate Lovers
8. Road of Silk
9. Touch Has a Memory (well, I like it)
10. Carnations on the Roof
Incidentally, I'm not particularly surprised that there's not much
representation from 'Secret Drinker'. I think in terms of overall sound
and mood it's probably the most coherent and consistent of Pete's
albums, but for me none of the songs quite carries the punch of the very
best songs on the previous records. Still, 'Tenderfoot', 'I See the
Joker' and 'Secret Drinker' would all be in my bubbling under section,
along with about 90% of PA's other recorded output.
Oh, and you really wouldn't want to hear Al Stewart's 'Love Chronicles'.
Life's too short.
--
Mike Walters
==============================================================================
From: "lynn sheppard" <email address>
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:55:22 +0000
Subject: MV987: My life in a Top 10!
Evening all. Having just returned from holiday i thought i had
better get this in before the deadline! These are purely emotional
choices!
1. Between us there is nothing.
2. Tonight your love is over.
3. Frangipanni was her flower.
4. Sunrise.
5. A king at nightfall
6. The flowers and the wine.
7. All I ever did.
8. The hollow and the fluted night.
9. Nothing left to say.
10. Beware of the beautiful stranger.
As you can see, I cry in my beer (or mineral water now, alas!) a
lot too!
Lynn Sheppard xx
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:46:50 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV988 Re: MV959: Verlaine
>From: IChippett <email address>
>Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:18:36 EDT
>Subject: Verlaine
>
>One tenuous link between Verlaine and CJ is that their words were used for
>songs by musicians of the time who never managed to obtain the same level of
>fame as their "lyricists." I mean of course PA and the great Gabriel Fauré.
Oh dear, and I thought he was talking about Tom Verlaine of Television.
Was this Faure bloke the bass player?
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 23:57:38 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV989 Re: MV984: Love Chronicles
>From: Leslie Moss <email address>
>Subject: Love Chronicles
>
>Girl on a Train sound like Love Chronicles? No way! The melody is only
>slightly remininscent, but Al Stewart makes his sound like a dirge (and it
>lasts an album-side!). It suited bedsitterland in 1969 but unlike GOAT (!)
>it's badly dated and I can't bear to listen to the album today.
>
>Sorry Al, but in longevity-terms you're not a patch on Pete. Maybe back in
>the year of the cat but not now!
Well.. after finding myself dragging Love Chronicles into the debate in
the heat of the moment, I then went and played it for the first time in
years. And you're absolutely right.
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 00:11:32 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV990 Re: MV965: Man walking toward the music
>And I can prove that we wrote Girl
>on the Train in August 1968, when I'm quite certain I'd neither heard nor
>heard of Al Stewart - and Love Chronicles (I found out) came out in 1969....
>
The songs for Love Chronicles were written during 1968, recording
started in January 1969, so there's a faint possibility.... no, I
believe you, the resemblance was very thin anyway. It's a tribute to the
freshnesh and originality of the melodies that there are so few, if any,
instances of "that reminds me of xxxxx". I have a theory that it's
something to do with how hard it is to find a harmony line for the songs
without being dragged back to the main melody. I'm sure there are
experts out there who can analyse this for us.
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 00:26:12 +0100
From: Pete Smith <email address>
Subject: MV991 Re: MV965: Man walking toward the music
>The guy who runs the Eastbourne Folk Club (where I've agreed to play on
>August 4th - historic sort-of-anniversary of the Atkin/Birkills first
>meeting) told me the SFM CD is listed on the Blackmail (I think) site? with
>an erroneous mention of Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon? Anyone
>know anything about it?
>
http://www.blackmail.co.uk is a very good online record shop specialising in
re-releases of masterpieces from our collective past. I've ordered (and
received) stuff from them and the service is excellent, free catalogue
with first order, 10% discount for orders over £30, prices are
reasonable and include p&p. I don't work for them by the way!
This is the relevant entry:
PETE ATKIN
BEWARE OF THE BEAUTIFUL STRANGER/DRIVING THROUGH (sic)
First and second albums dating from 1970 and 1971 from this guitar and
piano playing pop singer with a folk tinge who's lyrics were written for
him by Clive James now a famous journalist and broadcaster. The single
'Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon' is tacked on at the end for
good measure.
The Master Of The Revels/Sunrise/Have You Got A Biro I Can
Borrow/Frangipanni Was Her Flower/Touch Has A Memory/The Rider To The
Worlds End/The Luck Of The Draw/The Original Honky Tonk Night Train
Blues/Girl On The Train. Plus 17 more.
--
Pete Smith
==============================================================================
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 22:59:12 +0100
From: Ian Sorensen <email address>
Subject: MV992 Re: MV974 Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
Roy Brown wrote the following:
>Anyway, I suspect it's only Verlaine because it rhymes with 'train'.
>And so it would have been him on a 'plane' as well.... but who, I
>wonder, would the poet she was reading have been if he had encountered
>her on some other form of transport?
If driving a car, Walter de la Mare?
Or perhaps John Betjamin in a hot air balloon!
Either way, she'd be better with Verlaine.
Ian Sorensen
==============================================================================
From: "Paul C Reid" <email address>
Subject: MV993: Top 10
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 00:44:13 +0100
To beat the deadline here is my rushed Top 10. Note the bias towards Road
of Silk and Secret Drinker which are my two favourite albums.
1. Little Sammy Speedball
2. Tongue Tied
3. Touch Has a Memory (private release version)
4. Have You Got a Biro I Can Borrow?
5. My Egoist
6. Senior Citizens
7. Sessionman's Blues
8. The Flowers and the Wine
9. The Man Who Walked Towards the Music
10. Perfect Moments
Sorry no room for National Steel, Beware of the Beautiful Stranger, You
Can't Expect to be Remembered, Secret Drinker, Rain Wheels and many more.
Ask me again next week and there might be.
See you at Buxton, if not before. Any more gigs in the North of England?
PAUL C. REID
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 07:24:45 GMT
From: <email address> (Michael J. Cross)
Subject: MV994: Top Ten
Hi All,
Here goes:
1. Girl on a Train
2. The Faded Mansion ...
3. A King at Nightfall
4. 30 Year Man
5. Sessionman's Blues
6. The Flowers and the Wine
7. The Last Hill ...
8. I See the Joker
9. Sunlight Gate
10. Lady of a Day
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
==============================================================================
From: Mark Roberts <email address>
Subject: MV995 RE: MV986
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:33:46 +0100
>Oh, and you really wouldn't want to hear Al Stewart's 'Love Chronicles'.
>Life's too short.
>
>--
>Mike Walters
Now just hold a minute......
I have got all the Al Stewart albums and I think I can say quite
definetly that Love Chronicles is a load of self indulgent twaddle. :-).
Cheers,
Mark Roberts.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mondex International Limited
47-53 Cannon Street, London EC4M 5SQ
England
Registered No: 3122085, England
Telephone No: <phone number>
Web Site: http://www.mondex.com
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:30:05 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV996: Eastbourne (Re: MV983)
>
>>The guy who runs the Eastbourne Folk Club (where I've agreed to play on
>>August 4th - historic sort-of-anniversary of the Atkin/Birkills first
>>meeting)
>
>Hey, this is news! Nothing on the website about it. Are there other
>pre-Buxton gigs planned?
>
>Leslie
Sorry Leslie, Pete told us about Eastbourne just a week ago, and I hadn't
got around to doing a post to MV about it, let alone updating the news
section on the Website. Of course the idea of MV is that you hear about it
first here :-)
For anyone who missed Pete's message, he's playing the Eastbourne Folk Club
http://www.brighton.co.uk/listings/folk/folk1.htm#eastbourne at The Crown
http://www.pavilion.co.uk/veastbourne/catering/crown.html
on Wednesday August 5th, almost the anniversary of his 1996 appearance
http://www.rwt.co.uk/eastbrne.htm.
It's a small venue (so I'm not sure how they'll cope with 100+ MVs) but an
opportunity for those in the south of England, and those orthodox Jews
among us, to see Pete before the weekend of Rosh Hashanah.
Pete would like to line up one or two more gigs before then, but no news yet.
-- Steve
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 04:44:58 -0400
From: Chris Harris <email address>
Subject: MV997: LAST MINUTE TOP TEN
Wait for me - wait for me!
O.K, I know time's running out so here - in reverse order - (let's milk
this for all it's worth)
are my votes,'
10 Sessionman's blues
9 Sunlight gate
8 Errant night
7 You can't expect to be remembered
6 Perfect mements
5 Sunrise
4 Ballad of upstairs window
3 Canoe
2 Girl on a train
and finally ----tra aaa----
1 BOTBS
No time (or need) to explain - it's all down to the record's we have and
know mixed up with personal taste and history anyway.
How about a RA "webcast" (?) of Buxton - I believe they do it for
baseball but don't know enough about how it works to know the practicalities
of broadcasting on the web.
Cheers,
Chris
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 10:13:27 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV998: Eastbourne: an inconsistency (Re: MV996; MV983)
Having just rechecked MV996, I see I've contradicted myself re the date.
Reading from Pete's message to Carole, 22.04.98, I quoted Wednesday August
5th. But I also quoted Leslie's MV983, in turn quoting Pete's MV965 in
which he stated August 4th. Now, EFC's meetings are 'every other
Wednesday', and the 5th is a Wednesday, so it would appear that Pete made a
typo in MV965. Just to be safe, don't book your day off until we've had
confirmation.
-- Steve
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 05:57:26 EDT
Subject: MV999: Last chance to vote
Here's the latest update with thanks to Alexis, our Junior Citizen, for
putting Wall of Death out of its misery with a totally undeserved 5
(tactical?)votes. 8-))
No votes, tactical or otherwise will be accepted after I switch on at about
5.00 this evening French time (he says, trying to sound authoritative) so
digital removal is called for from last-minute ditherers among you (it doesn't
matter if you give Stranger In Town 2 votes or 3, it's dead, dead, dead).
With any luck, the final score will be sent tonight or, if not, Sunday
evening.
1. Faded Mansion On The Hill 122pts
2. Girl On A Train 109pts
3. Thief In The Night 106pts
4. Thirty Year Man 103pts
5. Perfect Moments 96pts
6. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 94pts
7. Payday Evenings 87pts
8. History And Geography 79pts
9. Canoe 65pts
10. Hypertension Kid 63pts
Last orders, please!
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 05:57:25 EDT
Subject: MV1000 Re : MV981: Top Ten
Leslie,
You could have included The Beautiful Changes as Pete sang it at Monyash so it
counts but not the others except Friendly Island. Let me know PDQ if you want
to change it for something else.
Ian C
==============================================================================
From: Dave Fisher <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 11:03:51 GMT
Subject: MV1001: top ten
Mine are all boringly obvious.
I have not included (as some have) the first song of Pete's I heard
broadcast. This probably has more to do with owning up to whose
programme it was being played on. It was Carnations on the Roof and
it was on the Noel Edmonds Sunday Show - Radio 1. There I have
admitted it. I don't feel any better though.
My number one would not have made the top ten if I had been asked
twenty years ago. Weird how tastes change.
1. Faded Mansion...........
2. Thief in the Night
3. Thirty Year Man
4. Flowers and the Wine
5. National Steel
6. BOTBS
7. Senior Citizens
8. Perfect Moments
9. Touch has a Memory
10. Canoe
I have a free spare copy of tape of various Boogie Woogie Piano
players. It includes Meade Lux Lewis playing Honky Tonk Night Train
Blues (the original original). If any MV is interested please let me
know in owning it I will send it to you.
I shall not however be in England as from tomorrow until the second
week in June. I will post it then if there are any takers.
I shall try to make Eastbourne.I feel I should at my age fit in
easily. As one wag added to a BR poster for their ferry service.
HARWICH FOR THE CONTINENT.......
and Eastbourne for the incontinent.
Best wishes
Dave Fisher
==============================================================================
From: "Bob Kingsley" <email address>
Subject: MV1002: Top Ten
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 12:12:18 +0100
Difficult, isn't it? Especially when you only have BOTBS and DTMA on CD and
you can't play the vinyl versions of the other albums because your Dansette
broke down fifteen years ago! :-)
Still, I dragged them off the shelf, blew away the dust and -- pausing for a
few moments to revel in the memories conjured up by those lovely old covers
and the feel of an LP in my hands again -- came up with my Top Ten:
1) Between Us There Is Nothing
2) Sunlight Gate
3) Girl On A Train
4) Master Of The Revels
5) Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger
6) The Faded Mansion On The Hill
7) Perfect Moments
8) Tenderfoot
9) Time And Time Again
10) Carnations On The Roof
Bob Kingsley
<email address>
http://homepages.enterprise.net/webvox/
VOICE-OVERS!
TV * RADIO * COMMERCIAL * CORPORATE * WEB
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 13:35:16 +0100
From: Carole Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV1003: Top ten
Just as the people who live near work/school are always the last to arrive,
this is my last minute effort, despite being in the next room to the
"moderator."
1 History and Geography (already mentioned)
2 Sessionman's Blues
3 Tonight Your Love is Over
4 Screen Freak
5 Carnations on the Roof (reminds me of my much-loved late Papa)
6 Tongue-tied
7 Thirty Year Man
8 Sunlight Gate
9 The Flowers and the Wine
10 Rain-Wheels
Well done Ian, this has been great fun! In the spirit of Katie Boil,
shouldn't the bummers have got "nul point"?!
Carole
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 05:46:19 -0700 (PDT)
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV1004 Re: MV1000; MV981: Top Ten
---Midnight Voices wrote:
>
> From: IChippett <email address>
> Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 05:57:25 EDT
> Subject: Re : MV981: Top Ten
>
> Leslie,
>
> You could have included The Beautiful Changes as Pete sang it at
> Monyash so it counts but not the others except Friendly Island.
> Let me know PDQ if you want to change it for something else.
>
> Ian C
>
Thanks Ian, but I'll let it ride. It's Julie's voice as much as the
song itself that makes it so special, and maybe that makes it a
different decision from the others.
Thanks for being the scorer and gatekeeper for this exercise.
Leslie
==
Gateway Consulting Group
Management and Healthcare Consultants
Tel: <phone number>
Fax: <fax number>
_________________________________________________________
DO YOU YAHOO!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com
==============================================================================
From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV1005 RE: MV999: Last chance to vote
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 08:49:40 -0400
Oh, all right.
1. Thief in the Night
2. Canoe
3. Thirty Year Man
4. Wristwatch for a Drummer
5. A King at Nightfall
6. Sessionman's Blues
7. History and Geography (I happen to like the instrumental part)
8. The Friendly Island Song (sneaks in on a technicality)
9. The Hollow and the Fluted Night (for one wonderful word-image)
10. The Wall of Death (because it's better than I originally thought)
And now, I absolutely insist that we have a top 10 of Julie's numbers,
even though I've only heard the Monyash performances. Joint no. 1:
everything she did at Monyash !
Dave Jones
Rigging charts in Rochester NY.
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:22:57 EDT
Subject: MV1006 Re: MV994: Top Ten
It's interesting that Faded Mansion is either always up there in the first two
or three - or nowhere in sight!! Can't stand it myself.
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 10:51:26 EDT
Subject: MV1007 Re : MV992; MV974 Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
Would the girl on the train be able to read at all these days? A jaded
reflection, I'm afraid, but justified by a year of teaching press attachés.
A Senior Citizen
==============================================================================
From: Dave Jones <email address>
Subject: MV1008 RE: MV1006; MV994: Top Ten
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 11:31:42 -0400
>From: Elphinking <email address>
>Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:22:57 EDT
>Subject: Re: MV994: Top Ten
>It's interesting that Faded Mansion is either always up there in
>the first two or three - or nowhere in sight!! Can't stand it myself.
I wouldn't go that far. Sometimes it seems a little overcooked,
sometimes hard to grasp, but in the right mood it can be highly
listenable. "Shadow and the Widower" is like that, but less so.
I could compare it to some of my classical collection: not
something I listen to regularly but equally something I'll take
up when the moment is right.
Dave Jones
Seizing the moment in Rochester NY.
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 11:58:57 EDT
Subject: MV1009: And the winner is... Pete Atkin!!
With a heartfelt "Never again!" and a throbbing migraine, I can now announce
the All-Time Top Ten:
1. Faded Mansion On The Hill 146pts
2. Girl On A Train 136pts
3. Thief In The Night 129pts
4. Thirty Year Man 126pts
5. Beware Of The Beautiful Stranger 116pts
6. Perfect Moments 109pts
7. Payday Evenings 87pts
8. History And Geography 83pts
Canoe 83pts
10. Flowers And The Wine 68pts
Notes:
I. History and Geography and Canoe had never been recorded before Monyash, as
far as I know and here they are in the Top Ten. Well done, Steve for rescuing
them from oblivion!
2. If you still haven't sent your Top Ten, you can send me it privately so
that I can do an occasional update.
Here are the entries for the Black Eye Of The Universe Bottom 10.
1. Luck Of The Draw 0pts
Our Lady Lowness 0pts
3. Nothing Left To Say 2pts
4. Time And Time Again 4pts
5. Be Careful When They Offer You The Moon 5pts
6. Wall Of Death 6pts
My Egoist 6pts
All The Dead Were Strangers 6pts
9. Apparition In Las Vegas 7pts
10. Frangipanni Was Her Flower 9pts
Other qualifiers for the Dustbin Of History were:
Friendly Island Song 3pts
Eye Of The Universe 5pts
Black Funk Rex 5pts
A Man Who's Been Around 6pts
What Am I supposed To Do? 7pts
but I decided that with the possible exception of Black Funk Rex, none of the
other songs have been widely distributed or even recorded except as demos or
on the Monyash CDs. It didn't seem fair, either, to include songs from Live
Libel. Plus, I voted for Black Funk Rex and I'm the ref so there!
Thanks again for your votes. I think a real Bottom Ten Contest would be fun as
these are only the Bottom Ten by default, as it were.
==============================================================================
From: Elphinking <email address>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 13:47:35 EDT
Subject: MV1010 Re: MV1007; MV992; MV974 Obsolete Poets and Unreliable Narrators
I always wondered what a press attache was...please elaborate
==============================================================================
From: Richard Corfield <email address>
Subject: MV1011 Re: MV1009: And the winner is... Pete Atkin!!
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 19:15:47 +0100 (BST)
Ian,
Thanks for a fantastic job! I wonder though when I see the list what the
standard deviation around each mean might be...? ;-)
I know, I know, accuse me of nerd speak and I have no defence. What I'm
saying is that I guess that many of our favourites are not rankable in
statistical terms.
I see stuff at the bottom - Time and time again, for example - that meant
more to me than any other song of Pete's for a period of my life. And
looking at the disclaimers as they came in, I'm sure that many of us are as
unsure of their rankings as I was.
Thanks Pete for still being there 25 years after I was sure that I would never
(ever) hear you in concert... Too young then, you see, to go with my bro and
his girlfriend to see you in London...
And; Thanks Steve for making this possible,
See you in Eastbourne and at Buxton (F15 & 16)
Best regards,
Richard Corfield
==============================================================================
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 21:56:05 +0100
From: S J Birkill <email address>
Subject: MV1012: Tunesmith to the Stars
Those of you who visited the Eastbourne Folk Club site I mentioned in MV996
http://www.brighton.co.uk/listings/folk/folk1.htm#eastbourne
will no doubt have noticed a fellow called Joe Stead, who's down for a gig
there on May 6th, next Wednesday.
Our Joe is one of a select band of, well, musicians, who have recorded
cover versions of Atkin/James songs.
Joe's own version of "Girl On The Train" should be a lesson to us all. Pete
remarks "Joe was big around the folk clubs in the early 70s. I think you'll
agree the subtle changes he makes to the song definitely enhance certain
aspects of it. For instance, if you don't really understand the lyric, much
better to do as Joe does and simply leave out the most troublesome verse.
Elsewhere, of course, just changing the odd word will do the trick. And,
hey, it's folk music, isn't it, so the tune can be anything you want."
Still, Joe was definite about that train ... Listen:
http://www.rwt.co.uk/joestead.ram
Pete does a pretty mean (but rare) impression of Joe himself.
While we're on the subject, especially since someone tried to imagine what
that great Irish troubadour Val Doonican's version of "Flowers and the
Wine" might sound like (you mean you didn't buy the record?), complete with
heavenly choir, here, for your delight if not instruction, are the others:
"Master of the Rebels" (sic) by Pete Atkinson (sick) - Don Partridge
Pete again: "This is Don Partridge, the gypsy one-man-band busker who had
the big hit with 'Rosie' which was produced by Don Paul at Essex Music who
'produced' my first three albums. This is from a Swedish-only album
recorded live in a park in Stockholm. Don was big in Sweden at one time, I
believe."
"Errant Knight" - John the Fish
"A folk-singer who ran a club in Cornwall. This is another one from an
album on a microscopically small folkie label to whose commercial expansion
I proved unable to contribute."
"The Flowers and the Wine" - John the Fish, from the same album.
"The Flowers and the Wine" - Doug Ashdown. From a Decca album. He's an
Australian folksinger who was in London for a while in the early 70s.
"The Flowers and the Wine" - Val Doonican. From the album "Quiet Moments".
Hear bits of these five, all at once through the miracle of digital
compression and to the benefit of British Telecom (or France Telecom, or
AT&T, or Nynex, or ...) at http://www.rwt.co.uk/segue.ram
Love -- Steve
==============================================================================
From: IChippett <email address>
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 04:06:11 EDT
Subject: MV1013: Bottom 3
I'm quite prepared to do a Bottom 3 but I think a Bottom 10 would be too
difficult. I mean if there are ten songs of Pete's that we dislike for varying
reasons, we would be on the Spice Girls list, not exchanging urbane
reflections via the Net!
The Definitive Top Ten wii be ready but a few errors have crept in, oh, all
right have kicked the door down and I'll have to go through all your postings
to correct it and with my O Level maths (47% 3rd attempt) and O Level
Statistics (Grade 8) this will take time. Unless someone wants to do it for
me?
My Bottom 3
1. Wall Of Death
2. Practical Man
3. Our Lady Lowness
Vitriol ready? Let's go!
Ian C
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 09:19:45 +0100
From: Leslie Moss <email address>
Subject: MV1014 Re: MV1000
Thanks to Ian's burst of inspiration the Voices have reached the millenium
milestone in only eight months. Is this a record (or even a CD)?
I'm off to celebrate with suitable liquid refreshment and musical accompaniment.
Leslie
==============================================================================
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 09:38:24 GMT
From: <email address> (Dr Jeremy Walton. Tel: <phone number>)
Subject: MV1015 Re: MV1013: Bottom 3
Hi Ian,
Thanks for compiling the top 10, which was interesting to see. The
point about standard deviations, etc (I think) is this: with such a
small sample of MV-ers, the results are somewhat sensitive. E.g. if
just seven of us had voted for the excellent "My Egoist" as the best
song (and I can't recall why I left it out of my list) it would have hit
the top 10 (I think). Which of course leaves us open to all sorts of
lobbying, campaigning, bribery, etc by the die-hard fans of various
songs once you decide to do it all again (hope your migraine's cleared
up by now).
Actually, the small population (and the relative homogeneity of PA's
work) means that we have very few disagreements in here compared to
other fan lists. Most of the effort on the Yes list, for example, is
expended in whether the stuff they did in the 70's was "better" than
what they did in the 80's, and over who's the best guitarist/keyboard
player. Somehow, I don't see either of these questions as being
relevant in here... ;-)
>> My Bottom 3
>>
>> 1. Wall Of Death
>> 2. Practical Man
>> 3. Our Lady Lowness
>>
>> Vitriol ready? Let's go!
Indeed. You already have my votes here. But let's all agree on which
way up these are. Is number 1 on a bottom 3 list better (because its
further up the list) or worse (because it's at the top of a list of worst
things) than number 3? I went for the former convention, but it
doesn't really matter as long as we all understand one another.
I'm not sure how we could combine the top 10 and bottom 3. (I had a
funny feeling when I saw "Have you got a biro I can borrow" had a single
point - this didn't come from it being at the bottom of my bottom 3,
did it?) Maybe use negative points for entries on the bottom 3 list?
Cheers,
Jeremy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jeremy Walton <email address> |
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Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 21:19:28 +0100
From: Christine Guilfoyle <email address>
Subject: MV1016 Re: MV995; MV986
>From: Mark Roberts <email address>
>Subject: RE: MV986
>Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 09:33:46 +0100
>
>
>
>>Oh, and you really wouldn't want to hear Al Stewart's 'Love Chronicles'.
>>Life's too short.
>>
>>--
>>Mike Walters
>
>Now just hold a minute......
>
>I have got all the Al Stewart albums and I think I can say quite
>definetly that Love Chronicles is a load of self indulgent twaddle. :-).
>
>
>Cheers,
>
>Mark Roberts.
>
>==========
See. Told you.
--
Mike Walters
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Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 21:38:49 +0100
From: Christine Guilfoyle <email address>
Subject: MV1017 Re: MV1012: Tunesmith to the Stars
>
>Joe's own version of "Girl On The Train" should be a lesson to us all. Pete
>remarks "Joe was big around the folk clubs in the early 70s. I think you'll
>agree the subtle changes he makes to the song definitely enhance certain
>aspects of it. For instance, if you don't really understand the lyric, much
>better to do as Joe does and simply leave out the most troublesome verse.
>Elsewhere, of course, just changing the odd word will do the trick. And,
>hey, it's folk music, isn't it, so the tune can be anything you want."
Could I just add that the Joe Stead version of 'Girl on the Train' is
one of the funniest things I've heard for a good while - to borrow one
of Pete's old lines, "What he lacks in competence, he more than makes up
for in incompetence.'
Any chance of booking him as the support at Buxton?
--
Mike Walters
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