We write about the songs that make the whole world sing, we write about the songs of love and special things, we write about the songs that make the young girls cry, we write about the songs, we write about the songs.
I was going to do a lengthy post on Simply Red, for reasons best kept to myself, but we're moving tomorrow and I still haven't got enough cardboard boxes. Tonight we're signing the contract and I'm handing over a great wad of 6000 pesos, or 1200 of the Queen's pounds, in deposits, rent and estate agents' fees. Then tomorrow I'm paying a man 250 pesos for driving a van and carrying some stuff for a couple of hours, then a further 300 pesos to another man for putting a piano in his van and driving it for 20 minutes. This, I believe, is what Brian May was talking about.
Has it really taken me three months to post my first Queen video? I just read this old interview with Peter Saville and thought you'd enjoy this snippet:
"The consumer is being manipulated as an addict," reckons Saville. "To me, pop culture's gone from being acid to crack. When people took acid in the 1970s it was likely to be a mind-expanding slightly dangerous thing but they came away from it thinking, 'Well I never saw it like that before.' As opposed to crack, which will drain everything you've got until you're dead. And there's a big difference between introducing someone to acid 25 years ago and dealing them some crack today, and I don't like being part of that system."
Saville is now creative director of the city of Manchester, which is why it looks slightly odd these days. He was also of course the designer of New Order's Blue Monday sleeve. New Order/Joy Division is my favourite band story for a band I don't listen to. (The Frank Zappa biography got packed into a cardboard box along with all my reading matter by Josefina. What am I supposed to do on the toilet now? Just sit there and wait?)
I have an idea for my 33 and a third birthday party (4 October, 2009) where everyone has to come dressed as their favourite album. I could come as Queen II, simple by making a cardboard cut out of May, Taylor and Deacon to wear around my head, while I walk round with my eyes closed and my arms crossed across my shoulders, pretending to be Freddie Mercury. Technology being what it is these days, I'd expect people to have MP3 players attached to their costumes playing a selected track from their albums. Mine wouldn't be White Queen, but it's the only passable track available on youtube, although dios Salve La Reina's March of the Black Queen comes close. Dios Salve La Reina are playing Belgrano in March, but the week after you leave. I'm sorry.
Life was good for Olivia Newton John in 1980. The men wore nice v-neck sweaters and ties, and the ladies wore long skirts and generous blouses. Everyone owned a pair of roller skates, and they weren't afraid to use them. Even the ladies who didn't own a pair of roller skates knew they could get a ride somehow. Brian May had a big cocktail umbrella and was slowly mastering the art of doing the splits. Roller skates were so cool, even the Evel Kineval was changing his act. And Olivia knew that no matter how much you dressed it up with dancing boys and a lady's voice, you could tell that this was an ELO song a mile off.
And Jeff Lynne had to live with the fact that, despite having written gems like Mr. Blue Sky, The Diary of Horace Wimp and Last Train to London, THIS would prove to be ELO's only UK number one.
I'm off to Misconception of the Uruguay for the weekend, or as I like to call it, Xanadu.
James and Daniel, or Jim and Danny to an unfortunate few, were going to be like the old men who ran 78 Records in Stockport, but writing a blog about the songs and videos they came across seemed a lot less hassle, and saved them having to move to Stockport. And so they created 78x78 Records, so that other people could know what it was like to be their friend, and what they wrote about when they wrote to each other about music. And so they will post videos of songs you might enjoy 78x78 times. And then they will stop. And then they will do something else. That's 6084 posts. They´ll endeavour to get it done quickly. They'd love to hear from you and any videos or songs you'd like them to post. You can do this by commenting in the pertinent area, or by e-mailing them your suggestions at 78discos@gmail.com
