Today's weather: 31º, NW wind 12 mph, relative temperature 21º. Way too cold for a bike ride, but I needed to move my bones. So I girded them up and went for a walk.
And to keep me from thinking about the fact that I was going for a walk in 21º weather, I took #1•'s iPod along with me. Fortunately he shares many of my admittedly outré tastes, so it only took a moment to find something I wanted to hear: Roy Harper's 1977 album, Bullinamingvase (released in the USA as One of Those Days in England, thus proving that England is 47% cooler than we are). It'd been awhile since I'd listened to it, even though I have long thought of it as one of my favorite albums.
But you know how it is, right? When I was a kid, I used to hole up in my room and listen to albums for hours. And most of the time I wasn't even stoned. But as I got older, music started to shift into the background. I listened to it in my car, or while I was doing something else. And after the kids got old enough to want to hear their own music, my car music time was cut way down, and most of my listening was done whilst doing the dishes.
Which is one of the reasons why exercising is a perfect time to listen. Walking, especially, since it requires no brain power at all to put one foot in front of the other, so the music gets full concentration.
And man, it was great to sink into Bullinamingvase. It only took a song or two before I realized that this one not just one of my favorite albums of all time, it was my favorite album of all time.
And the song "One of Those Days in England" is hands down my favorite song of all time. It's got everything. It's funny: "The government must love me, 'cause they keep me out of work. / They must be saving me for something special. / Maybe it's the job of rolling spliffs for Captain Kirk / or giving Ms. Lovelace a pubic hairdo." It's touchingly sentimental: "And those much younger cannot understand by half / The wireless living room, the faces 'round the hearth. / The ration books of Matthews out there on the wing / The corner shop that sold us almost everything. / The farthing in the change, the sirens and the planes . . . . " It's bawdy: "Well hell, girl, I don't even know your face / 'Cause you see you've been sitting on mine." It's poetic: "Stood on the ship in a dream at third slip with Britannica's tallons on Albion's grip." It's poignant: "Seeing ideals, we were one time a part of rip us apart." And it's quite long: just a hair under 23 minutes. It's divided into 10 parts, but actually parts 2 - 10 flow together without a pause, the way the second side of Abbey Road did . . . only better. And speaking of The Beatles, Paul McCartney (and Linda) do backing vocals on this song. Roy dances with the big boys. (Other people who have played on his albums and / or written songs with him for his albums include Jimmy Page, David Gilmour, John Paul Jones, Richie Blackmore, Nicky Hopkins, Keith Moon, Ian Anderson, & Kate Bush. And he sings the lead vocal on Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar.") Part 1, which is a mere 3:25 long, opens the first side of the album. It is followed by "These last Days," "Cherishing the Lonesome," "Naked Flame," and "Watford Gap." All of them are great songs, with lyrics that are sometimes funny, sometimes incisive, sometimes both simultaneously, and always poetic. For instance, here's one of my favorite bits from "The Naked Flame":
"I'm sorry that you thought of us as painful and superfluous
But please don't think I'm that thick skinned to want my seed in any
old wind
I can't believe we'll just exist as figments of each others past
Where is it at to get to this, when lawyers lurk where lovers kiss?"
That is some seriously good shit, ennit?
And "Watford Gap" . . . oh, man. I don't even know where to begin. How about this:
"The traffic jam is rattling like a five-mile cornered snake
With fuming pieces falling off and steaming in its wake
The city's like a goolie in a groupie's stagnant womb
Spaghetti Junction's target in the vinegar strokes of doom
The countryside is ravaged like a syphilitic whore . . . . "
I always thought it was "human pieces falling off" rather than "fuming," though. And since I've found that the internet sites often get lyrics wrong, I'm not giving up on it yet. But fuming is good, too. Human is just funnier.
That closes out side one. Side two opens and closes with "One of Those Days in England Parts 2 - 10," though the cd version now available adds "Breakfast With You," a song that the record company (before Roy released the album under his own banner) used to replace "Watford Gap," which caused a bit of controversy and offended some British folks.
I think I'll go listen to it again now.
BTW, I took the album sleeve with me to Clonakilty, Ireland, when I went to see Roy play, and I got him to autograph it. It's hanging in my living room even as we speak.
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