This woman's work

The third of my "Desert Island Disc's" comes from Kate Bush's sixth album "The Sensual world". It's included for two main reasons, firstly it's a wonderfully emotive song and secondly I wanted to represent the music of Kate Bush in my list.

The song was originally written for the 1988 John Hughes film, "She's having a baby" which starred Kevin Bacon and Elizabeth McGovern. Hughes wanted a song to accompany the scene in the film where McGovern gives birth to Bacon's child.. The birth is difficult and the song reflects the thoughts of Bacon outside the maternity suite, while his wife and unborn baby are in danger during the birth. Kate is quoted as saying that it was a simple song to write once she'd seen the scene. The lyrics reflect the husbands guilt at not being able to help, regret at what he's not done and a hope that she'll have the strength to see it through. He also cries in anguish "to make it go away".

Musically it's mainly Kate on the piano with some atmospheric keyboards to give the piece dynamics. You can listen to it here

In the busy lives that we lead it's easy to miss great songs and I have to admit that this song did partly pass me by when the album was released. In fact it took an advert in 2006 by the British charity the National Society for the Protection of Children to remind me of it and for me to fall in love with it. The advert featured a toddler in a cot under threat from a violent parent with the "make it go away" refrain playing over the top. Very powerful imagery to which the emotion of the song adds that final element.

I first discovered the music of Kate Bush, like most of teenage boys of my age, with the release of the "Wuthering Heights" single in 1978. She was, to say the least, different musically and also gorgeous. While her music was more aimed at girls, boys were attracted both by her looks but also the fact that she was discovered by Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd. This gave her credibility and when she toured in 1979, there were as many male fans ( including me) in the audiences as women. The tour was a show with dancers and acting as well as a rock band and received great critical acclaim. The experience was for her, however, fairly traumatic, so much so that sadly she has never toured again

She further developed musical credibility by duetting with Peter Gabriel on a 1979 Christmas show covering Roy Harper's "Another Day". It's wonderful version and a real shame that although they discussed recording it properly, they never did & the grainy version on You tube remains the only version of it. She did however work again with Gabriel on his third solo album adding backing vocals to his "Jeux Sans Frontiers" single and through that collaboration she discovered the ground breaking Fairlight computer. This sampled sounds (very ground breaking for the 1980's) and thus both changed her music as she increasing used the effects and sounds that computers could add and opened it up to a whole new audience.

Her seminal album followed in 1985, the double platinum "Hounds of Love", which is a glorious coming together of her voice, modern music making and  song writing of the highest standard. It remains my favourite of all her albums.

Subsequent albums have never quite hit the same high water mark, but they continue to push and stretch the boundaries of her music. As she has matured she her demand for perfection has meant longer gaps between albums, (she has also married and had a son) but the release of a Kate Bush album remains an event.

Fly from here Part II - we can fly.

Sorry but this is not a D I D post, but those who know me, will know, that I'm a big Yes fan and the new album came out yesterday, so here's my thoughts. (actually if you don't know me I'm still a big Yes fan!)

I set out here my thoughts on the soap opera that is, and has been, Yes. The album has been available as a pre-order on iTunes for a couple of weeks and having listened to the previews, it didn't sound that great. I also found a stream of the track that heads this post and that sounded better, but I was familiar with it as it was the song that the Drama period Yes played live but never recorded and it appears on "The Word is Live" boxed set.

So here's the thing that I suspected, that was proven last night, be very careful with iTunes previews, they can distort an album. Last night I listened to the album on Spotify (here) and frankly I'm impressed! In short, it rocks, in both meanings of that phrase. So much so that I bought it and have played it twice since!

The trio of Steve Howe (guitar) Chris Squire (bass) and Alan White (drums) always were a tight rock unit at the heart of the band and that shows on this album. Keyboards from Geoff Downes (best known for his work with Howe in Asia) add to this and Benoit David's vocals are close enough to Jon Anderson's to keep the "Yes" sound without sounding like an impersonation.

The main piece on the album is a five part suite "Fly from Here" which is based on the "we can fly" segment but adds to it so that across the different parts various themes and melodies appear and reappear but each part remains it's own. The other tracks are better than I thought they would be (i.e. not filler), particularly "Into the storm" and "Life on a film set". There's also the obligatory Steve Howe acoustic guitar workout, a Chris Squire song and a potential single in "Hour of Need"

Steve Howe's son Dylan (an accomplished jazz drummer in his own right) tweeted recently, that having listened to an advance copy, that he though that it was a bit like "Drama" part 2, referring back to the Yes album from 1980. Indeed it is. Firstly it is produced by Trevor Horn, who sang on Drama and 4/5th's of the band that performed on Drama appear on this album too . Furthermore three of the tracks, were written by Trevor Horn & Geoff  Downes as demo's for their next Buggles release, around the time of Drama's recording. They are available as a bonus tracks on the recent reissue of the subsequent "Adventures in Modern Recording" album. If CD's had been around at that time, "Fly from here" might have made the "Drama album, but the restrictions of  vinyl meant that there simply wasn't space for it. They did however add it to the live set for the Drama tour and a live version of "Fly from here part 1" appears on the 2007 live boxed set "The Word is live"

Now I might just have get a ticket to see them in Brighton in November.

In the presence of enemies (Part 1)

So here's the second of my "Desert Island discs" and it's probably a song, with which you won't be familiar, unless you happen to spend time either in my car, house or next to me when my phone rings as the beginning is my ringtone!

The song is by American "prog-metal" band Dream Theater (DT) and is the first track on their "Systematic Chaos" album released in 2007. In true prog style the song is 9 minutes long  and is also only the first part of the piece, the second part ends the album, similar to Pink Floyd's Shine on you Crazy Diamond on their "Wish you were here" album. When DT toured the album, they played the whole piece as one and there is a full version of it the subsequent live album "Chaos in motion". The live version is a true prog track as it weighs in at 26 minutes long!

Why do I love this song? Well the answer to that is June 13th 2009, which is the night that I saw DT play live in my home city, Southampton. DT were due to play the Download Festival the following weekend and so arranged two "warm up" gigs, one in Leeds and the other (for some unknown but very welcome reason) in The Guildhall in Southampton. My friend John, who lives in Jersey, and who is also a huge DT fan, arranged to fly over and his daughter (who was on the way home from Manchester University) and my sons made up the front row of the balcony that night.

DT started the show with this song and sat where we were, it was an amazing experience. The beginning is an instrumental workout and they gave it everything, it was one of those moments for me when everything just works. You can't really put it into words but the fact that Southampton Guildhall is a fairly small venue in which to see a full on rock show and that we had the perfect view of everything certainly played a part. It was the best start to a concert I can remember.

After the show, I revisited the album to discover that the version that I bought also had a 5.1 surround sound  copy of the album and I had never played that, as when purchased I had nothing to play it on. As I had updated my DVD player with a cheap surround sound system, guess what, I gave it a blast and the surround sound brings out all the true glory of what is going on! DT use lots of very modern technology in recording their albums and keyboard player, Jordan Rudess, in particular has lots going on which this song brings out. DT drummer, Mike Portnoy, is also a fantastic user of all of his kit and cymbals and again this track is a great example of his art.

I liked the song when it first came out, but the live and surround sound  experiences took it to a new place in my affection from which it has not strayed, hence it's inclusion.

I have updated the Spotify playlist that goes with these blogs so you can hear what I'm going on about here.

PLAY IT LOUD!

Landed

So I've reduced the 42 down to 8!

First up is "Landed", a comparatively "new" song from Ben Fold's 2005 album Songs for Silverman.

I had flirted with his music when he was in the Ben Folds Five (the joke being that there were only three of them).While, therefore, I had the odd track from magazine freebies, it wasn't until he appeared on "Friday night with Jonathan Ross" playing  a live version of this song that I sat up and paid attention. His appearance on the show was to promote the album and it worked as I went out and bought the "deluxe CD version" of the album, which contains the CD, and a "making of DVD" all beautifully bound in a 40 page booklet!

It's a song that firstly shows off  Folds piano playing skills. In that respect he's got the ability of Elton John, Jamie Cullum or Billy Joel, all great songwriters who are also fantastic musicians, which some times gets overlooked until you see them play live.

Folds is also a great lyricist, which can range from well thought out stories to love songs via angry break up songs to comedy, but they always either make you think, want to hug someone or laugh!. In this case it's a story of a man leaving a love, that has run it's course and more, to fly back "home" to an unnamed  past love (?) who may have written the writer off and asking to be picked up as he's "landed".

I've linked this blog to the Spotify play list which will eventually have all 8 songs on it. This version is the album version, which is also called the "new" version, it is piano, bass and drums. I can't find an old version, but there is a video version of the song on iTunes, which I also own, and that has strings on it and actually it's that version to which the Jonathan Ross version was closer! Doesn't matter both are great.

There is one final aspect to my love for this song that earns it's place in my final eight and that is that it is one of the first songs that I liked and both my sons liked when I played it to them. In fact, Matt my eldest son is probably a bigger fan now than me and went to see him live this February when he played in Southampton. I would have gone but he was treated by his girlfriend, she's a fan too, and there are sometimes you just have to understand that three's a crowd!

You can find the playlist on Spotify here

Choices

I plan to write a series(?) of blogs around the songs that I would choose, if I were on "Desert Island Discs and link it to a playlist on Spotify.

First task, reduce my initial list of songs down from 42 to 8!

Moving on up.

So a season that started with Saints losing at home to Plymouth, finishes with us winning the return fixture (delayed through international call ups for Plymouth) and effectively winning promotion back to the Championship.

This season is our 125th anniversary and we lost our owner Marcus Liebherr when he died at the beginning of the season, which is the sad part of the promotion as no one would have been happier to see us promoted than he would have been. The pictures of him taking photos of the players with the trophy at Wembley last season, when we won the Football League trophy, will always be treasured by Saints fans. Although he was only with us for a season, he was much loved in that short time.

Anyway, a fantastic achievement and who knows this time next year we could be celebrating our return to the Premier League.

Aisle of plenty

Advertising has always fascinated me. Over the years it has changed considerably from print media and ITV, to the web site and more TV channels than you can ever watch.

Most advertising is wall paper, there but not seen in any detail. Occasionally a TV advert would strike a chord and some brands (e.g. Heineken, Mars bars, Coke, Gocompare.com and comparethe market.com ) are known by their adverts or strap lines. TV adverts are designed sometimes to be so bad that you remember them for that reason.

While they always try to sell you their product or service, some advertising now appears to have a second aim, that is to get you to go to their website or Facebook page. Which is pretty obvious as that has a much better chance of closing the deal as you can study the target detail.

It's the change of website to Facebook page as the targeted destination that I find most interesting. Some firms are now actively seeking you to go to a page on a corporate website to find their page. That firstly puts Facebook in a position of strength as in  part "the web" is becoming Facebook. Secondly it means that once you go to that Facebook page all it seems to do is direct you back to the company website!

What I actually think it means is that advertisers understand that increasingly we are all watching adverts with one eye while reading Twitter or Facebook with the other and it's far easier to get some one to go to part of the website that you're already on, than come off of it (or open a new tab).