...and kiss me. I've quit smoking...
I'm glad you liked the Hallowe'en pics.
I should apologise actually. I do tend to blog at a helluva rate. I don't give half of you the chance to keep up with me! But I just seem to find something I want to write about each day, and can't help myself.
------------------------
So. What's got me today? Well, any Stephin Merritt fans out there? One of my favourite CDs (all three of them) is Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs. It's got to be one of the most frequently returned to CDs on my shelves, and I was playing it during lunch yesterday.
I just love the whole concept - to set out to write 69 love songs about all subjects of love, and in all musical genres. It's an amazing piece of work; critics use phrases such as 'monumental, 'masterpiece, 'God-like'. But it's the intimacy of these songs that captures you. And the way he plays with gender, so that the sexuality, even the sex, of the singers is often ambiguous.
It's not all romance, though. There is bitterness, cynicism, jealousy all wrapped up in these songs. And he parodies so many styles, you have to let them work on two levels; the beautiful romance he can convey, but also the ironic raised eyebrow he casts across the field of love songs.
The more experimental tracks tend not to get many outings. But I have so many favourites from this album, it's hard to pick any single one. 'Papa was a Rodeo' is brilliant on so many levels...
'Papa was a rodeo,
Mama was a rock n roll band
I could play guitar and rope a steer
Before I learned to stand.
Home was anywhere with diesel gas
Love was a trucker's hand
I never stuck around long enough
For a one night stand
Before you kiss me you should know
Papa was a rodeo'
'Busby Berkeley Dreams', a tale of denial and obsession wrapped in glamour. 'Acoustic Guitar' is sublime, the singer begging her guitar to bring her lover back.
But I chose 'Come back from San Fransisco', which is so lovely, knowing and funny 'Come back from San Fransicso/and kiss me/I've quit smoking...'. And because a lot of people seem to use Magnetic Fields music for school video projects. This is a very good one.
And what better than a combination of MF with the immortal Captain Jack Harkness? I find it such a warming experience to think that, with the elemental shock of Queer as Folk on our TVs in the not too distant past, we can now have an openly gay lead character, not camping it up, not indulging in tiresome humour and euphemisms. Not making his sexuality central, but just a facet of his character. Not shoved onto minor channels, late at night. But on prime time, with millions of viewers adoring him. I love that we have moved so far forward from the days of Thatcher's Clause 28 (banning any reference to homosexuality in school sex education) to being able to sit with my daughter watching two men kiss and not an eyebrow is raised. This is a beautifully romantic combination...
(sigh) I can't remember the last time anyone danced with me like that.
I'm glad you liked the Hallowe'en pics.
I should apologise actually. I do tend to blog at a helluva rate. I don't give half of you the chance to keep up with me! But I just seem to find something I want to write about each day, and can't help myself.
------------------------
So. What's got me today? Well, any Stephin Merritt fans out there? One of my favourite CDs (all three of them) is Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs. It's got to be one of the most frequently returned to CDs on my shelves, and I was playing it during lunch yesterday.
I just love the whole concept - to set out to write 69 love songs about all subjects of love, and in all musical genres. It's an amazing piece of work; critics use phrases such as 'monumental, 'masterpiece, 'God-like'. But it's the intimacy of these songs that captures you. And the way he plays with gender, so that the sexuality, even the sex, of the singers is often ambiguous.
It's not all romance, though. There is bitterness, cynicism, jealousy all wrapped up in these songs. And he parodies so many styles, you have to let them work on two levels; the beautiful romance he can convey, but also the ironic raised eyebrow he casts across the field of love songs.
The more experimental tracks tend not to get many outings. But I have so many favourites from this album, it's hard to pick any single one. 'Papa was a Rodeo' is brilliant on so many levels...
'Papa was a rodeo,
Mama was a rock n roll band
I could play guitar and rope a steer
Before I learned to stand.
Home was anywhere with diesel gas
Love was a trucker's hand
I never stuck around long enough
For a one night stand
Before you kiss me you should know
Papa was a rodeo'
'Busby Berkeley Dreams', a tale of denial and obsession wrapped in glamour. 'Acoustic Guitar' is sublime, the singer begging her guitar to bring her lover back.
But I chose 'Come back from San Fransisco', which is so lovely, knowing and funny 'Come back from San Fransicso/and kiss me/I've quit smoking...'. And because a lot of people seem to use Magnetic Fields music for school video projects. This is a very good one.
And what better than a combination of MF with the immortal Captain Jack Harkness? I find it such a warming experience to think that, with the elemental shock of Queer as Folk on our TVs in the not too distant past, we can now have an openly gay lead character, not camping it up, not indulging in tiresome humour and euphemisms. Not making his sexuality central, but just a facet of his character. Not shoved onto minor channels, late at night. But on prime time, with millions of viewers adoring him. I love that we have moved so far forward from the days of Thatcher's Clause 28 (banning any reference to homosexuality in school sex education) to being able to sit with my daughter watching two men kiss and not an eyebrow is raised. This is a beautifully romantic combination...
(sigh) I can't remember the last time anyone danced with me like that.
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XOXOXO