Streamlining CDs

So I’m sorting through all my stuff as I’m moving again. I’ve nowhere near as much stuff to throw out as my last move, and nowhere near as much stuff as the time before (blimey, did my ex-girlfriend collect some shit). Only a little streamlining has taken place, such as throwing away worn out socks and pants. Why do I put them back in the draw instead of chucking them out in he first place? No idea. I’ve decided to get rid of my CDs. Well that’s not strictly true. What I mean is that I’ve boxed them up and I’m going to store them in my folks garage. I probably won’t look at them again in years.
I never got into buying vinyl. Cassettes was the first format I bought as they were much cheaper than CDs. Back in the early 90s I CDs cost more than what they do now. But vinyl records did help me get into some good music, I remember the time that I properly had a look through my dads records and put on a Bob Dylan’s Bring In All Back Home. I’d never heard anything like it. The first song Subterranean Homesick Blues just blue me away. It was a watershed moment as from then on listening to Pantera and Megadeath seemed juvenile. When I go to visit them I sometimes put on Bring It All back home as the worn out crackling sound is so different from CD version that I own. But in a good way.

Subterranean Homesick Blues . Bob Dylan from ghibli on Vimeo.

Now days I seldom put on a CD. When I buy one I rip it on to my hard drive and go from there. So I don’t have much point in hoarding around boxes of them., especially when it’s CDs that I’ll probably never play again. Like the couple of jazz albums I own. A few years ago I though that I should try to get in to jazz, so I bought Miles Davis Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s record Blue Train. Classic must have albums is what I kept reading in various music publications. I played them a couple of times and really tried to like them but just couldn’t. I learnt that I don’t mind jazz for about ten minutes, and I don’t fancy revisiting them ten minutes anytime soon.
Another supposedly classic must have album that I own but have no intention of ever playing again is Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica. I like some Captain Beefheart stuff, like the early R n’ B and the more commercial sounding records.



So after that I thought I’d venture on to his apparent masterpiece. It doesn’t take long to realise that it’s an out of tune mess of a record with Beefheart spouting random nonsense that some people interoperate as surrealism. I’m sure that nobody actually listens to it.

Wanted Man In A Provincial English Town (this is not a blog about Raoul Moat)

Today for the first time in a while I listened to the song Wanted Man from the Johnny Cash live at San Quentin album. The song basically lists a load of places in America down to Mexico.



In American music but especially in country music there’s a lot of name checking of places and it got me thinking that if the narrative of Wanted Man was set in England it just wouldn’t.

Wanted man in Peterborough
Wanted man in Birmingham
Wanted man in Northampton
Wanted man in Chelmsford.

Or if The Rolling Stones in the song Jumping Jack Flash sang, “Sold it in a market down in Southampton.” It doesn’t really work for me. Maybe it’s because these provincial English towns don’t have the same romanticism as the American places. Maybe an American would feel more for a song that did name check Northampton? Maybe but I can’t see it.
Maybe it’s because of the vast size of America. So maybe if the song was wrote from an English prospective to work it would have to branch out to Europe and go something like:

Wanted man in Scandinavia
Wanted man in Portugal
Wanted man in the Low Lands
Wanted man in Germany.

Even highways in America get romanticised. The wide open roads through the desert, up through the mountains, along the river. I doubt the song Route 66 would sound as good as it does if it went. “Get your kicks out on the A12.”

But then later I heard another song that I hadn’t heard for some time from the Leeds band The Mekons where there’s a line that goes, “I'm going up to Sheffield I don't know when I'm coming home.” And that works fine.
And of course songs mentioning London work. But if The Clash wrote a song called Middlesbrough Calling then I very much doubt it would be as iconic.

No More Football Phone Ins

Well it’s been a week now and I don’t want to hear anymore about the England football team. Now I’m not of one them English people that pretend to be happy that England are out of the World Cup because they like to appear oh so contentious and edgy. But I’m not disappointed. My disappointment lasted from about when Germany's third goal hit the back of the net to when Emile Hesky came on just after their fourth went in. When needing three goals in fifteen minutes putting on Hesky seemed like a statement from Fabio Capello that said “Fuck it, who gives a shit anymore.” Sometimes I get like that when playing Fifa on the Xbox and losing by two goals near the end of the match. I start hacking over every player. Fuck it, who gives a shit anymore.

When the fourth went in I didn’t care if they got a fifth. I’m glad England went out getting a caning instead of losing of penalties and getting portrayed like heroic losers with people going to Heathrow airport waving their flags to greet the team. Because instead of bleating on about how unlucky and hard done by the England team were losing 4-1 can’t hide fundamental problems in the England set up.
Another plus is if England did go on to win the World Cup. I know it’s hard to believe right now but lets just say that Wayne Rooney stopped playing like a pub team player and changed England’s form around. And some sort of minor miracle happened and England did win it then The Sun would campaign for the team to be knighted. Sir John Terry. It just doesn’t sit right. There would be a World Cup winners song which will no doubt feature the unfunny self appointed fat cheerleader that is James Corden. Side note- Corden, you’ve had a good run but you can only get so far doing your wacky dancing party piece. Now please go away.
Imagine all the TV adverts the players would do. Imagine all the WAGS raising their profile.
Another good thing about England leaving the party early is that all the adverts using England to help sell their products are off the TV. Like that Carlsberg the best team talk in the world advert. The advert suggests that if the team are passionate and remain strong they can win the World Cup. Well I’m afraid that it takes a lot more than that. Like a good first touch and passing to your own player. It’s a Danish beer anyway.
Then there’s that Kit Kat advert (that for some reason features Sol Campbell sighing autographs) that suggests that England can win if you cross your fingers. Sorry Kit Kat but it will take a lot more than superstitious nonsense. Like a tactical gameplan and avoiding defensive howlers.

Three lions. Why? The only lions in England are in the zoo.