Caligula would have blushed

Warning, if you have any musical taste whatsoever, this might be painful.

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The NME published this today. It probably doesn't need much comment. In some ways I am surprised that some of the more recent X-Factor efforts haven't made it on there, but perhaps we should be thankful for small mercies.

However, it is a pathetic list. Kylie aside, there really is hardly a decent pop song on there. In fact, let's not beat about the bush. There isn't. I'm not expecting it to be a list of songs that I really like - best-selling, after all, doesn't necessarily mean good and I have exquisite taste, after all. But even supposing, there have been some great pop songs released in this decade which don't feature. Where's Toxic or Crazy in Love for example. It's even more surprising given the fact that you only have to sell about 2 records to get to number one these days. The thing about this list as well is that it isn't subjective in any way - these are the records that have sold the most. There isn't any debate about it. That is why it is even more depressing.

I'd love to believe the whole "oh it is because the kids are downloading and sharing these days, rather than buying", but I'm not sure I believe it.

I'm officially depressed.

Hide on the promenade, etch a postcard

As I dozed through the Archers omnibus (ah blissful Sunday mornings), and awoke properly to the strains of Barwick Green, I did hear the announcer say "and Kirsty Young's guest on Desert Island Discs this morning is Morrissey".

I wasn't sure for a moment, but not my ears were not deceiving me. It was true. And it meant for the first time probably since George Michael was on, I could listen with a genuine interest in what he had to say and, more importantly, what records he chose. I'm not a fan, particularly, but I find him a very interesting man.

It still seems kind of odd that he was on, but he was really very funny and most of the time, Kirsty Young seemed unsure of whether he was being serious or not.

If you haven't heard it, you can get it on iPlayer. It's worth it.

Promise me baby you won't let them find us

Covers of songs can be items of wonder. They can also be lazy ways of securing a big hit for a band. Your audience are already aware of it, even subconsciously - someone else has done the hard work. However, get it right and it can be a marvel. Some improve on the original; some just try and do something a little bit different; some might just be a bit of a rehash - that's not necessarily wrong. It depends if you do it well or not. A lot might depend upon whether or not you have heard the original or not. I remember years ago buying Paul Young's debut album and on it he covers Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division. Being a young naive whippersnapper at the time, I didn't know any better and thought it was a cool song. And vaguely wondered by lots of people writing in the "serious music press" (which I was just beginning to flirt with) were appalled and aghast at his cover. Fast forward a couple of years and I soon got what they meant. Not saying that some songs are sacrosanct, but yeah some are.

One of my favourite covers is Sonic Youth's version of Superstar by the Carpenters. (OK technically not true, since the Carpenters didn't do the original, but I think theirs is the definitive version). I love the Carpenters version, even though, given the right (or perhaps wrong) amount of alcohol it can make me cry. However, the Sonic Youth version blows me away. I bought the Juno soundtrack purely to get my hands on it (yes, I know I could have bought a download, but sometimes you just want to hold something in your hot little hands). I don't know whether it's the fact that it's a male vocal, which subverts it slightly, or whether it is because although there is undoubtedly lots of noisy swirly (technical music term) and it builds up nicely, they resist the urge to do the obvious and turn it into a full on noisefest. Whatever it is, it is awesome.

Hold me now It's hard for me to say I'm sorry

Except it really isn't. Or at least, that is the way it seems to me.

In the last few days we've had Cameron and Brown apologising for having their photos taken at the Remembrance Day service. Now, call me stupid, but is that really so bad? Isn't this what happens with politicians? They get photographed at things? Surely there are worse crimes. And we've also had Katie Price apologising to the nation for the way she has been behaving for the past 7 months. I really don't care - it has nothing at all to do with me. Or anyone really, except her immediate family and friends. Why the rest of the nation?

Like when Bill Clinton apologised during the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal. My only problem with the whole thing was that he fibbed, because it was disappointing and gave his detractors even more ammunition against him. I didn't especially care whether he had been unfaithful. As far as I was concerned, it was a matter for him and his wife and perhaps daughter. It made no difference to whether he was a good president or not.

I don't often agree with Ann Widdicome, but at the height of the expenses furore, she summed it up rather aptly as having the potential of turning into a "my shirt is hairier than yours" competition. Spot on. Rather than stop to think about how maybe saying that something is "within the rules" is missing the point somewhat, even if technically true, the obsession seems to be with saying sorry. It's like a competition of who can be the most sorry. "I'm sorry". "No, I'm sorry". "Well, I'm sorrier". "No, sorry, you are wrong, I am the sorry one". It's even worse when you get one person apologising on behalf of hundreds of other people. "We're sorry, we know it is wrong....blah blah blah".

Don't get me wrong. There is a place for a sincere apology. When you've done something wrong, it is only right that you should apologise. But this mania for apologising now, well, it's all getting to be a bit too much and when it happens that often, it can begin to sound , dare I say, ever just a little bit fake. We seem to be a nation hooked on apologising. I find it all just a bit depressing.

Sorry.

I met the devil in a dark white room Said she was up for me to play the fool

I bought 3 CDs this week. I shouldn't have. But I don't care.

I bought Them Crooked Vultures, Spinnerette and Sweethead (oh, they are all eponymously titled - hmmm. lazy), and what a triumvirate. I don't think I've ever bought 3 albums at once that have been so spectacularly good. I'd normally shy away from multiple purchases as one will inevitably suffer in comparison with the others.

Not so far. I bought Them Crooked Vultures to see such a supergroup would sound like (I love the Foo Fighters and QOTSA, really don't like Led Zep); Spinnerette probably too (although I had heard Ghetto Love and loved it, so I did have a sound musical reason)was because I think Brody Dalle is cool and I had heard one of the singles and liked it; Sweethead I saw supporting The Eagles of Death Metal a few weeks ago, and I thought they were awesome (in spite of not being to hear the vocals - the O2 arena here (or whatever the hell it is called now) is renowned for bad sound).

This isn't going to be any in depth critique of the music, but I am loving the albums. The Spinnerette one today has been particularly occupying my time (the term chain-listening could apply here). It opens with a kind of My Sharona for the new generation, with a rasping hey that was missing from the Knack's song. Song of the moment is Geeking tho, which once it finishes makes me want to hit the back button so I can listen to it all over again.

I want to be Brody Dalle.

Slow change may pull us apart

Where has all the time gone? I cannot believe how long it has been since I blogged. I can only apologize to you, dear readers, and promise that I won't leave you for so long again.

What a summer it has been in terms of people dying before their time. I know it happens every year, probably every day in the real world. But I'm talking about famous people, people that you didn't know, but touched or informed your lives in some way.

It's different when you are young. I can remember when Elvis died, because when the newsreader announced it, my mum was standing in the doorway to our kitchen and she started crying. I never liked the newsreader after that but I wasn't shocked. He was in his 40s. That seemed old to me.

I remember when John Lennon died. I knew my parents liked the Beatles, so I ran and told them. I recall being vaguely shocked, but then again., I probably thought he was old.

I remember being properly shocked when River Phoenix died. He wasn't much older than me - he was young! My generation.

The worst was when Kurt Cobain died. I was in a flat in Glasgow watching the news when the newsreader said "A body has been found at the home of the lead singer of the rock group Nirvana's ..." We knew before he said anymore that this wasn't going to have a happy ending. And one of the things I remember most was that he pronounce the band's name as "near-vana". I think I might have cried for about 3 days, especially when BBC2 showed the Unplugged. And I wore my Kurt Cobain t-shirt to my first exam.


That's why this summer was interesting in terms of my reaction to the highest profile celebrity deaths. Michael Jackson died while I was on holiday, and when I was told that he had died, I didn't believe it initially - I thought it was a wind up. So, I was shocked and felt sad enough about it because it was unexpected and he wasn't that old, but it didn't really affect me. I'd never been a fan as such.

It was different when I heard John Hughes was dead. A friend said to me that she was more bummed about John Hughes dying than Michael Jackson and I totally agree with this. I hadn't probably thought about him in years, and probably hadn't seen any of his films in years (in terms of new ones). I'm not sure I could name any. But some of the films he directed or produced in the 1980s informed my film tastes quite profoundly. The Breakfast Club is a great film. I loved it when it came out and I still do. It stands up as a great film, even when you aren't the same age as the characters in it. (There may be a sight element of understanding where the teacher is coming from which was missing when I first watched it. And the scene where Emilio Estevez's character screams and the glass breaks stops it from being a truly awesome film. But this is a blog entry in its own right).

And then Patrick Swayze died. Of them all, this was the most expected. But it was still a shock and it brought me out in goosebumps when I heard it. Now, Dirty Dancing which is arguably his most famous film, was a rite-of-passage for so many women my age. They obsessed over it. Not me. I hated it when it came out and wrote a scathing review of it for the school magazine (I was a goth at the time, what would you expect really). I did however love Point Break. So for me he was always Bodhi rather than Jonny. But no matter. I've since watched Dirty Dancing and come to appreciate the sheer grace of the man. I also recently watched the Outsiders for the first time since I was about 15. I'd forgotten how heartbreaking the film was in the first instance (how I am not sure, I must have just blocked it all out), and it was all the more poignant since Swayze was so utterly young and handsome in it, and it really isn't that old a film. I felt really sad about it.

I've been thinking about all of this a lot, but I am not really sure how to end.


Stay golden.