Self-improvement

A meagre selection of drive-in music this morning. Kraftwerk – no thanks. Floyd Wish You Were Here – much better. Two horribly low spots though – Alain Bashung, who I thought was my un-favourite francophone singer, and Arno, who promptly replaced him in the bottom spot. You wonder how people with such ghastly voices get into music, but you wonder even more about the people who buy their records.

I’m getting better at ‘chanson’. I try and follow the lyrics as best I can but eventually they always run away from me. If they catch my imagination I can Google them afterwards. You can learn a lot that way – the meaning of ‘le tintamarre du pognon’ for example (from Eiffel’s A Tout Moment la Rue, which I like very much).

Apart from Bashung, the other artist I can identify without checking the readout on the radio is Gerald de Palmas. Now him, I like, probably because his songs sound more American, country-rock-ish. On the other hand, I don’t like Cabrel when he’s trying very hard to pretend he’s an American who just happens to be singing in French. I’m told I must like Cabrel, so I’ll persevere.

Today’s featured Wikipedia article is Keats’ Ode on a Grecian Urn. I shall study it at lunchtime – I need to improve myself.

Caroline happy hour 26/01/07

It’s an occasional habit of mine to tune into Radio Caroline between 8 and 9 in the morning. Always a few nuggets in an eclectic mix and the occasional gem.

This morning’s nuggets included:
Clapton/Motherless Child
Dylan/Just Like a Woman
Paul Simon/Love Me Like a Rock
Blood, Sweat & Tears/You Made Me So Very Happy (borderline nugget - they can do much better)
Fleetwoods/Rhiannon

The gem was Sparks/Amateur Hour – not one I would normally have picked from among the more illustrious company above, but I certainly enjoyed the listen.