DJ360

Nice post PP. I moved a few housebricks yesterday. Result was my back went into spasm. Can't sit in P C chair. Ok..ish when standing or lying down. The bit between is agony. Never had this before. Oh well... It's being so cheerful keeps me going..

@ Ben, I like a bit of Bluegrass too.. although it seems that the supposed 'originator' Bill Monro was a bit of a musical fascist and a misogynist. I especially like the true Appallachian mountain stuff, which I'm sure pre-dates Monro and Co. There's a brief shot in deliverance of a band playing outside a building.. don't recall what sort of building. What I especially like is they are using a 'Hammered Dulcimer'. which is sort of like a zither. but with the strings struck with little hammers. Different to the other type of Dulcimer which is a three stringed instrment usually laid across the knee and plucked. The lovely Joni Mitchell plays one on her classic album 'Blue'. I'll see what I can find. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8nnPrGSUBs Start the above from about 2m30s. Bill Monroe, playing the classic Gibson F4 Mandolin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeZPAQRl7TA For some reason Youtube isn't cooperating today.

I've never allowed my musical taste to be dictated by fashion. Obviously I first became aware of Dylan because he was 'fashionable'. but I stuck with him because I liked his music. Same goes for many others. Conversely.. although I thought Zeppelin's first album was a revelation.. (in terms of production etc..) I soon got bored with their... and many other bands' regurgitation of the same old shite Ad Nauseam. I've always been more interested in the evolution of popular music since say... the 1930s. Also.. I've always liked certain classical/opera/folk/jazz/'World' etc.,etc. I just don't let my music taste be bounded by sad notions of what is 'cool', 'trendy' etc. Music doesn't have a 'Sell By' date..........

There are an Oboe, and Clarinet somewhere in the house. I have my Mandolin, several penny whistles and such. I can actually get a few tunes out of the whistle.. but I'm a terrifyingly long way from the effortless playing of the Irish folks whose fingers just seem to roll lightly over the whistle with phenomenal speed. The best music produced in my house is from my hi-fi..

All this talk of playing assorted instruments is quite intimidating. I never really learned music. Talk 'sevenths' and 'diminished' this or that, make about as much sense to me as do Differential Calculus, or Trigonometry. Obviously..like all young lads in the 60s I had a guitar.. but my efforts to play it never got much beyond using C, F and G7 to do rough versions of Donovan songs.. or whatever chords were required to do the Animals stylee arpeggio intro to House of thec Rising Sun. Later in my 'traditional folk period (late 70s) I acquired a Mandolin and painstakingly worked out faltering versions of various Irish jigs and reels.. However.. in the end I decided that the best contribution I could make to Music, was not to try to play it. I'm always envious of how music seems to come naturally to people of Irish descent.

No. It doesn't. Dylan's original version IS the song. It's a beautiful, poetic and uplifting work. The Byrds version is also superb.. but for entirely different reasons. It is a brilliantly crafted pop recording, with not only the unmistakable 'jangly' Rickenbacker intro and that bass .. but also the sublime vocal harmonies. It is wonderful.. it is entertaining and enjoyable.... but it isn't Dylan.

I'm not sad in the 'unhappy' sense.. just pointing out that collecting such stuff...along with all of her studio albums.. might be seen as a bit 'sad' in the 'pitiable' sense. To be honest. I thought she was a staggeringly good musician, a great painter, a ground breaking song writer etc. I also thought she was a very, very beautiful woman. Graham Nash (Hollies..Crosby Stills Nash) clearly thought the same way.. because when I saw him in Southport a year or so back.. he barely shut up about 'his time with Joni'. Clearly still besotted. Anyway..someone in another place posted this very interesting link: https://eu.detroitnews.com/story/en...ves-ex-husband-detroit-news-photo/3461832001/ And check this out. 'Joni Anderson' from 1965. I imagine Joni would disown this rather naive song now.. but in its day it was pretty cool.

I thought the same for a long time.. because I frankly couldn't keep up with Dylan and everyone else... especially after 1970. But.. in retrospect..and with more time on my hands..I've discovered that he did a lot of very worthwhile stuff after 1970..and some dross. Dylan has had probably three or four different 'periods' in his musical creativity..and all offer us something.

Yebbut.. Dylan wrote those lyrics some years before the Byrds did the song. Just a bit of 'serendipity' I suppose..

The point that people keep missing is that Covid is new. Few people have immunity.. and it is very contagious....more so than seasonal Flu. Therefore. whilst it may kill fewer of its victims... its number of available victims is much higher than those of Flu. This is not Rocket Science

So. Demolish my argument!

The above is..frankly... simplistic rubbish. Please define 'breed like rabbits'. Who are you talking about? Malthus tried this one on in the 19th C and was roundly mocked by Dickens in 'A Christmas Carol'. Thing is at the moment the only ones screaming 'overpopulation' are the wealthy..in the developed World... who see their own priveleged position under threat. Most of the Earth's surface is entirely devoid of humans. Even in the UK, we have whole swathes of land with very low population densities. Have a look here: http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160311-how-many-people-can-our-planet-really-support The issue of population is really about three things: 1. Overcrowding in Urban Centres. Both the poor and the wealthy being attracted to major urban centres.. for slightly different reasons... but creating polluting and high carbon emmission 'hotspots' 2. Less wealthy population centres demanding the priveleges we have in the developed World. You know.. clean water.. sewerage,, gas and leccy. Cheeky of them to ask I really!! 3. Pressure on natural areas such as rain forests, the oceans, the polar caps. There are many sub sets of the above.. but really anyone quoting population as the cause of Earth's problems is actually saying.. " Hang on.. I want my place by the Sea.. my Aircon and my Winter heating and my car(s) and my boat and my bike and my gadgets. And in many cases 'I want my second home,,or at least somewhere in the Pretty Places where I can go and experience 'The Wild'.. so long as I still have my Heating..and my Aircon..and my nice food.. and my motor transport... Ohh.and I want starving people around the World to grow the nice stuff I want to see on my Supermarket shelves.. rather than the stuff they need to survive.. So yes. unltimately there will be a maximum population the Earth can sustain.. but I'd argue we are well short of that yet. Our problem at the moment is that a very selfish few.are grabbing all of the planet's resources for themselves. That same few..are contributing the bulk of the Carbon Emissions which are killing the planet. We are presently 'pulling the ladder up'. We need to stop,

Evening! I'm not using cash..nor accepting receipts.. on my occasional forays into shops. Both are just another possible vector for the virus. On the other hand I do think some provision needs to be made for those who don't have, or use. cards. I'm really not bothered about being 'tracked' by the govt. There's little they can find out that they don't know already... so I don't subscribe to the assorted crackpot theories propagated by 'anti-vaxers'/David Eicke/ 'Covid-19 is a Govt Control Conspiracy dumbos' and other fruitloops who see conspiracy everywhere. Does that mean I trust our present Govt.? Absolutely not.. but they are just blatant crooks who have proven by their actions since in power, that they have no respect for the Law, Parliament, or the People. None of what they are doing is secret.. It doesn't need to be because they have no shame, conscience or morals and just shut down any controversy by Boris Johnson declaring 'this matter is closed'.. and move on. Furthermore. they are very aware that the bulk of the population is far more interested watching 'Britain's Got A Strictly Talent Voice On Ice in Essex'. than noticing the erosion of their Democracy and the Sovereignty of Parliament. Until 'yer average' voter wakes up to what Boris, Cummings and Co are up to..they'll just keep doing it. I will now take that line of argument to the Politics Thread. I have my Flu Jab booked for 23rd Sept. On very similar lines to Margie's. They are using a community space next to the Med Centre. Timed arrival.. no hanging about... masks.. easy access to upper arm/shoulder. Makes sense to me.

R.I.P.

I just went a bit daft.. Readers will know that I worship the ground Joni Mitchell walks upon.. despite all of her faults she is in the top few most significant popular artists of the last 50+ years. So.. I have ordered new vinyl and CD releases of her earliest recorded and never previously released works..which start in 1963... I am in danger of becoming a 'completist'.... which makes me a bit sad... Right.. bedtime..