Very Scottish, very Glasgow. Great wall of sound music. And such great lyrics (know any other songs about social workers?) –
I`ll be at your side to console
when your standing on the window ledge
I`ll talk you back from the edge
I will turn your tide
be your shepherd and your guide
when you’re lost in the deep and darkest place around
may my words walk you home safe and sound
when you say that I’m no good and you feel like walking
I need to make sure you know that’s just the prescription talking
when your feet decide to walk you on the wayward side
up upon the stairs and down the downward slide
I will turn your tide
do all that I can to heal you inside
I`ll be the angel on your shoulder
my name is geraldine, I’m your social worker
Last night I went to see Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham in concert at Falkirk Town Hall and, oh, how I enjoyed it. What a great evening’s entertainment. To be quite honest I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Scottish music which can be everything from twee to tear-jerkingly emotional but I can’t remember the last time I saw such masterly musicianship as I saw last night. The accordion is not my favourite instrument (I was amused that Celtic Connections put on a concert called “Accordion Hell” inspired by Larson’s cartoon where everyone going to heaven is given a harp, and everyone sent to hell is presented with an accordion) but in Phil Cunningham’s hands it is superb. (I’ve never seen anyone’s hands move so quickly over a keyboard of any kind actually!). He played a tune he wrote in memory of his deceased brother and it was profoundly moving. Here’s a video clip of him playing a bit of it and having it analysed to show how it works its power. I love how he says at the end that it’s music from the heart. The best of music is always music from the heart.
The Beatles were the band I grew up liking. One of the first “singles” (yes, the little, black, vinyl things!) I bought was “She Loves You”, closely followed up by “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. I don’t know how significant that is but maybe it explains a little why I am such a sucker for a good love song.
That’s part of the explanation I think, but the other is my most fundamental belief is that the world will become a better place the more love there is in it.
Anyway, here’s a song that’s new to me, and by a singer songwriter I haven’t heard before. It’s called “Better” and it’s by Tom Baxter
I’m enjoying a series on BBC Scotland just now. It’s called Scotland’s Music with Phil Cunningham. Phil’s an amazing contemporary Scottish traditional musician and each part of this short series examines the relationship between some aspect of Scotland and Scottish music. This week’s episode (Part 4) was entitled ‘Heaven and Earth’ and explored what Phil called the soul of Scottish music. I loved this and understood with every fibre of my being. I liked the way he showed such diverse ‘spiritual’ inspirations for Scottish music, from superstitions and beliefs in magical creatures like selkies, to Christian traditions both Protestant and Catholic, to the ‘spiritual’ inspiration of the land itself. It’s this last that means most to Phil, and it’s this last that means most to me, but to range over such a diversity of sources for inspiration to produce music that connects the individual to something much greater, be it Life, or God, or the Natural World is quite unusual.
Take a look at the BBC site dedicated to this series. In particular take a look at episode 4, ‘Heaven and Earth’ and play the video entitled ‘Soraidh Leis An Ait’ which is played by all the musicians appearing in this part. If you’ve any Scottish blood in you, I swear this will touch your soul! And even if you’re not Scottish, Tommy Smith playing his sax in the Hamilton Mausoleum is enchantingly beautiful.
A big part of the debate about homeopathy centres on the issue of ultra-high dilutions of medicines. One of the explanations wheeled out is something called ‘the memory of water’ – it’s a catchy phrase but very problematic. Does water have a memory and if so, how does that work? The anti-homeopathy campaigners say it can’t be explained. In short, they say it’s implausible. More than that, they say that the difference between a starting substance and a highly diluted remedy is the difference between ‘something and nothing’. But still, I think it’s more reasonable to say it’s the difference between something and something else. One of the commenters here, Andy, asked ‘does the water retain a memory of everything else it has had in solution since the dawn of time? Or just the things that the homeopath wants it to remember?’ I rather liked that question. It got me thinking…..and I’m still thinking! But amongst the things it got me thinking about were how memory isn’t physical but water is, about how human beings are meaning-seeking/meaning-creating creatures and how we enrich our physical world with meaning, how we use language, symbolism, memory and imagination, to create an incredibly powerful presence in the world, and how experience is more than physical, more than can be measured.
So here’s the non-science bit – first off, some photos of my own. I love water and water imagery and it amazes me how diverse and complex it is. Have a browse through this slide show. I wonder how these images of water will feel to you? I wonder what they’ll mean to you?
Here’s the slide show
And then, here are some of my favourite water songs. Let’s start with Rain
I can show you that when it starts to rain, everything’s still the same
When it rains and shines it’s just a state of mind
Patty Griffin next…..
Sometimes a hurt is so deep deep deep
You think that you’re gonna drown
Sometimes all I can do is weep weep weep
With all this rain falling down
Strange how hard it rains now
Rows and rows of big dark clouds
When I’m holding on underneath this shroud
Rain
And, the fabulous Eurythmics –
Here comes the rain again
Falling on my head like a memory
Falling on my head like a new emotion
I want to walk in the open wind
I want to talk like lovers do
I want to dive into your ocean
Is it raining with you
It’s amazing how much the rain can change our emotions, our state of mind, and our mood, isn’t it?
Let’s spend a little time by the river! Rivers are so important to us. How many towns and cities grow up around rivers? Think how we use metaphors like “river of life”. Here’s Alison Krauss set to a lovely montage of BBC nature videos.
A complete change of musical genre, but keeping a religious theme, with Good Charlotte,
Baptized in the river,
I’ve seen a vision of my life,
My favourite river song about the importance of place – really, a song that gives us a real understanding of psychogeography! (the way place fashions a sense of self)
And, finally, with Christmas coming, here’s Sarah McLachlan’s version of Joni Mitchell’s The River
I wish I had a river
I could skate away on
Which paintings, photos, songs, films, poems or stories come to your mind on the theme of water, and what do they mean to you?
The view from my window…….I find this very soothing.
I can’t see and a grey and pink scene like this without having one particular song play through my mind…..
OK, so this is how the web works. I sat down at my iMac and typed “Jack Kerouac writing tips”. Not sure why that came to me right at this moment but it did. I started clicking through some of the finds and came across a lovely blog called “myinneredge” where I read a post about Kerouac which mentioned Natalie Goldberg and I thought “it’s ages since I read Writing Down the Bones. I really enjoyed it” so I followed the link to her site and found she had just completed a film about Bob Dylan – “Tangled up in Bob” – what a great title! Not just because my name is Bob and I love the “tangled up” idea…….
So that’s how the web works with hops, skips and jumps. And the thing is, there is NO endpoint. As I typed “tangled up” I heard a Genesis song in my head –
Last weekend’s Sunday Herald carried an article about Edwyn Collins. The headline spread over two pages was “I’m happy basically….but before my stroke, I wasn’t really”. Well, as you might imagine, that caught my attention.
Edwyn Collins is a singer. You maybe remember his 1994 hit “A girl like you”
Just over couple of years ago, aged 44, he suffered a stroke. A serious stroke, paralysing his right side and taking away his speech. But here’s a man who doesn’t give up. Through determined rehab with incredible loving support from his wife he’s not only singing again but is about to release a new album. Although right handed he’s also taught himself how to draw again using his left hand! It’s an amazing interview.
I have a stroke to deal with. But I’m feeling positive. And feeling relaxed, and generally focussed on things. I’m relaxed and dreaming all the time. So my life is happy at the moment. I feel connected. I feel alive again.
His wife adds
I think you’re a better tempered person. You cope. And you have patience. And you’re not self-pitying at all. You’re not even depressed………We’ve got so much to feel…….
and Edwyn finishes her sentence
…..to feel grateful for.
Well, what do you think? Health and the absence of disease are not the same. It’s wrong of us to write people off who have a chronic illness or disability. You can experience “health” in both the absence and the presence of disease.
This is a story of someone who believes their life got better through the experience of recovery from illness (same kind of story Lance Armstrong tells in his autobiography, It’s Not About the Bike). Notice the elements of Edwyn’s story. All of these were involved, sorry, are involved in his recovery –
hope
loving relationships
determination
patience
an absence of self-pity
a capacity to cope
creativity
music
drawing
slowing down
reflection
dreaming
gratitude
Worth thinking about?
Finally, when I searched for him on youtube I first found A Girl Like You but then I found this – I’m sorry I can’t show that video clip here, the person who posted it to youtube has disabled embedding but please follow that link and listen to the lyrics. “Make Me Feel Again” was recorded in 1993. Don’t you think that’s amazing?
Now the trombone is not an instrument I have much affection for but this little animation I found on youtube is immensely pleasing and the music is by the Voodoo Trombones – on this track they sound like a Carribean flavoured variety of Lemonjelly
To become the hero of your own life you need to express your uniqueness and your creativity. Without uniqueness you disappear as one of the many. Without creativity you don’t express yourself and you don’t give to the world.
Here are two of my most favourite music videos. Both of them have uniqueness and creativity by the bucketload!
(just in case you are wondering, the first one is Around the World by Daft Punk, and the second one is OK Now with their amazing dance to Here It Goes Again)
I welcome constructive criticism and suggestions. I will not, however, tolerate abuse, rudeness or negativity, whether it is directed at me or other people. It has no place here. ANYONE making nasty comments will be banned.
Heroes Not Zombies 