3 minutes (or less) of Musical Joy…

I’ve written before about the often accidental joys of musical discoveries; how U2 are successors to Queen, the enormous spectrum of ‘silly love songs’. Back in The Day I was an avid fan of making Compilation Tapes, full of intensity and meaning, teenage angst and young love. However, my favourite playlist these days has a much simpler approach: all the songs are under three minutes long.

Thanks to "Anonymous Account" on Flickr for this...

Three minutes used to be a benchmark for radio-friendly pop singles. Enough time for a couple of verses and choruses, a bridge section and restatement of the main idea. Plenty of time to tell a story, evoke a mood, make us feel something. Now I like a good 6-minute epic as much as the next man: I’ve been an unapologetic fan of Queen, Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Rush & Genesis in my time. But right now, I’ll keep it brief.

Harry Connick Jr – It had to be You (2’41”). From the wonderful When Harry Met Sally soundtrack. If we’d had a first dance at our wedding, this might well have been it.

Blur – Song 2 (2’00”). A wonderful thrash of a song, beloved of sports montage compilers everywhere.

The Jam – Start (2’14”). The song that really brought The Jam to my consciousness; I love its screeching, percussive guitar and the driving bass line.

The Arctic Monkeys – Riot Van (2’14”). On their first album these guys told better stories in barely two minutes than many bands can in half an hour.

The Beatles – Paperback Writer (2’18”). The Beatles started off writing pretty much everything under 3 minutes. This isn’t my favourite song from their early singles (I think I prefer I Feel Fine) but it fits better in this list, and I love the guitar riff.

The White Stripes – Blue Orchid (2’38”). Stripped, loud, just about keeps time, another awesome riff.

The Beach Boys – Wouldn’t it be Nice (2’25”). God Only Knows is just about my all-time favourite song of any length, but this is another gem, with tremendous vocals and a wonderful evocation of young love.

Dusty Springfield – Spooky (2’35”), Does anyone sing more sexily than Dusty?

Simon & Garfunkel – 7 O’Clock News / Silent Night (2’05”). An early mash-up? Brilliant overlay of Vietnam-era news headlines over Art Garfunkel’s haunting, clear chorale.

Nina Simone – To Love Somebody (2’39”). Nina Simone is a legend. That is all.

Frank Sinatra – Fly Me to The Moon (2’29”). Fill my heart with song, let me sing forever more. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore…

Bob Dylan – I’ll be your Baby Tonight (2’41”). It took a lot for me to choose this over Subterranean Homesick Blues, but this is proof that Bob Dylan most definitely CAN sing.

Elvis Costello  – Oliver’s Army (2’57”). Apparently this was his response to ABBA’s Dancing Queen. I loved it when I was 9, and my daughters love it too. Brilliant pop music.

Stevie Wonder – You are the Sunshine of my Life (2’56”). This song will always be part of me. I’ve sung it over and over to my daughters while rocking them to sleep. And I still love it.

KT Tunstall – Black Horse and The Cherry Tree (2’52”). I saw her perform this on her own on Jools Holland’s show, recording layers of effects, percussion and backing vocals in sequence live on stage, before starting the song proper. This was her first UK TV appearance, and apparently she was only booked at 24 hours notice. Fantastic.

Aretha Franklin – You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman) (2’45”). Just listen to it, and understand.

Amy Winehouse – Love is a Losing Game (2’35”). Borrowing heavily from Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and others, Amy Winehouse tells her own tales of tragedy, beautifully. Listen to this acoustic version. She can really sing.

Nancy Sinatra – These Boots are Made for Walking (2’42”). I love how the arrangements build and build throughout the song. I defy you not to be tapping your feet and humming along by the end…

Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic (2’13”). What a start. 90 miles an hour, baby, is the speed I drive…

The Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2’53”). A wonderful companion to Riot Van, this is the start of the evening that ends being chased by men with truncheons dressed in hats. Wonderful, driving power chords and tremendous, witty lyrics. What a finish.

20 songs in less than 51 minutes.

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From sea to shining sea…

When I lived in London my friends divided pretty firmly between North & South. Some of us liked Camden, Hampstead, Highgate, Islington. Others (oh so wrongly) preferred Putney, Clapham, Wimbledon. And never the twain shall meet.

Apparently the same is often true when people talk about the Southwest of England. Friends talk about ‘their corner’ of Devon or Cornwall, where they return regularly, some to family-owned properties, others to well-trusted cottages.

My problem is that I love all of it. We’ve visited the peninsula for the past 5 years, staying near Ilfracombe, Falmouth, Kingsbridge, Fowey, Bodmin & Launceston. All of these areas have their attractions that each exert a serious pull on me to come back.

My main confession would be that we’ve barely made it down to the far South of Cornwall (St Ives, Penzance, The Lizard), but that’s partly because we love the rest of the region so much it seems a shame to stay in the car for an extra hour and a half…

Anyway, what I love about the South West

1. The Beaches – Croyde, Harlyn Bay, Constantine Bay, Crackington Haven, Hemmick Bay, Bantham Sands/Bigbury (and I’ve not even been to Watergate, Newquay et al). Rockpools to explore, acres of sand to discover your child-within, sandcastles to build and destroy…
2. The cliffs – the South West Coast is stunning. Shorter walks around headlands, or 640 miles during which you climb over 80,000 feet.
3. Precipitous, impossibly narrow lanes – around Combe Martin and Berrynarbour, through the villages on Dartmoor. The 3 mile lane to Bantham Sands is mostly a single-track lane, and navigating through the Chelsea Tractors that populate it can be hazardous. The descent to Hemmick Bay feels like driving down a drainpipe. The walls and hedges tower over the car, there is about 18 inches clearance on either side of the car, and absolutely nowhere to pass.
4. Helpful Holidays – lovely staff, loads of terrific properties, a very useful website, and their great attitude seems to attract lovely owners who love the area, and who really care about the houses they rent out.
5. The coastal villages. Now it’s true that places like Fowey, Salcombe & Padstow have been gentrified, and I’ve heard more than one of these described as Richmond-on-Sea. But it’s not all a bad thing: smaller places like Boscastle & Port Isaac have welcomed tourism in a more limited way, as their geography is so restrictive. The main car park in Port Isaac is the harbour beach at low tide. Clamping is the least of your worries if you overstay the ticket time.
6. The Moors – Dartmoor is beautiful, rugged, bleak, almost unforgiving: but it’s where I proposed to Rachel. Our latest discovery on its Western edge is Lydford Gorge, with the wonderful White Lady Waterfall.
   

   Many thanks to Rachel Slater for permission to use her tremendous photo. You can see more of her work at http://www.redbubble.com/people/fensnapz

   Exmoor seems like a smaller sibling, but can feel even more remote with its tiny lanes with walled sides that tower over your car. Bodmin also seems greener, less imposing, but boasts the highest points in Cornwall.

7. The Gardens – the mild and wet climate means the gardens are tremendous. We tend to visit in the Spring, and never cease to be amazed at the displays of spring bulbs, Camelias, Azaleas, Magnolias and Rhodedendrons. The steep-sided valleys at Cotehele, Trelissick, Glendurgan are wonderful. The Lost Gardens of Heligan are stunning, and their history almost defies description. Did I forget to mention The Eden Project…?
8. The Houses – the National Trust has done well in the South West. We’ve visited Arlington Court, Lanhydrock (amazingly preserved ‘Upstairs/Downstairs’ experience and astonishing gardens), Overbeck’s (beautiful gardens and stunning sea views) and Cotehele (wonderful valley gardens and a working mill). Perhaps my favourite is the grande folie of Castle Drogo on the Northern edge of Dartmoor. Its design by Lutyens is a thing of wonder and beauty. Its location on a precipice above the River Teign gorge is awesome.
9. The Food – just like salads taste better in France, so do cream teas and pasties down here. There may be pasty shops in every high street, but they are just better down here, like PW Coleman in Salcombe or Nicki B’s Deli in Port Isaac. The seafood can be wonderful – I recommend Denis Knight in Port Isaac for fresh crab, sole & homemade fishcakes. Rick Stein’s Fish & Chips are an expensive treat, although The Codfather in Launceston is a much cheaper and no less delicious alternative! And we’ve loved discovering two excellent vineyards too, at Camel Valley near Bodmin and Sharpham near Totnes.
10. The people – from the supermarket checkout staff to restaurateurs, the people we’ve met have been friendly and open. They seem to genuinely care that we have a good time during our time ‘down here’. They seem ‘bien dans sa peau’, at ease with themselves…

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I don’t want to sail with this ship of fools…

A couple of quick apologies…
It’s been a long time since my last post, and I’m sorry about that. Busy busy busy and then some, and then a week’s holiday without web access. I did make some time for writing while I was away, so hopefully you’ll see some more regular Reckons in the coming weeks.
Secondly, this post is unashamedly about the upcoming UK General Election. I know I have some American readers, and our election probably barely mentions a whisper in the US media (like the closure of all European air space for several days), but this is important to me.

In recent days I’ve got more interested and excited by UK politics than I have been for years, in fact since I was a Politics student 20 years ago. For the last couple of years, not just the right-leaning media in the UK have seemed to assume that the longest-serving Labour Government has been staggering to an ignominious end, and will be replaced by the Bright Young Thing that is David Cameron.

David Cameron is the leader of the Conservative (Tory) Party, whose election call to arms in 2010 is Vote for Change. I’ll pause for a moment to let that settle. Conservatives .. vote for change …?!

Anyway, Cameron rose to lead his Party in 2005, when after 8 years in opposition, losing 3 elections (2 by landslides) and 4 leaders in the previous 10 years, the Tories were at their wits’ end. He’s younger, prettier, and as his speech to their conference in 2005 showed, he can walk and talk at the same time without notes, and seem to know why he’s actually come into the room in the first place…

In short, he was the perfect vehicle to get them back into power. Just like Tony Blair had been for the Labour Party. However, Tony Blair’s ‘New’ Labour actually shared many core beliefs of the traditional UK Labour movement, and his (main) problem was that he was a bit posh for the core Party faithful. Cameron is at least as posh as his party (Eton-educated, a direct descendant of King William IV), but he’s more progressive, more liberal and tolerant, keener to be inclusive. He’s cut from the same cloth, but he thinks differently. He’s (a bit) less conservative.

Last week the UK had its first live TV political debate, featuring the three ‘main’ party leaders. Cameron was expected to easily out-perform the older, less eloquent Gordon Brown and the other one…

However, that other one (Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats) proved himself an impressive speaker and his previous anonymity worked massively in his favour to millions of voters who had barely heard of him. Now there seems to be a genuine three-way fight for votes. The Tories and Labour parties have been shaken from their complacency.

Cameron might well be attractive, moderate & modern, but many in his Party and the media that support them are definitely not. Having ignored the Liberal Democrats as an irrelevance for years, they now face the uncomfortable scenario that Nick Clegg may be a large stick in the spokes of their plans for power. And this is bringing out their true colours…

The Daily Mail outdoes even its own shoddy standards with a trivial “exposé” of the lovely Mr Clegg. He might look nice and even sound nice, but (wait for it) he’s barely even British. Look! His wife is Spanish. His Press spokesperson is German! And while he might represent a Northern City, he’s quite well-off, from a family of bankers (just like that nice Mr Cameron, oops).

Christina Odone (usually very considered) wrote a lazy, spiteful rant against Dr Evan Harris, the very excellent Lib Dem spokesman on science. Just read the comments, especially a rebuttal from Dr Harris himself.

Both main parties have shown their arrogance in assuming the traditional two-way party split. Lord Bell, a former adviser to Baroness Thatcher, said the Conservatives were “stupid” to have agreed to a debate format that gave the Liberal Democrat leader the same status as Mr Cameron and Mr Brown.

with thanks (and respect!) to "mongo" on Flickr for this great piece of work...

BBC Radio5 reported today that a sizeable part of the Labour Party view the Liberal Democrats as ‘useful fools‘. While senior Labour figures are undergoing Damascene conversions and professing a desire for electoral reform and talking about ‘a progressive alliance’, they actually look down their noses at the 3rd Party (a misguided, naive, irritating inconvenience)…

This is my 6th General Election. For 5 of these I have had to vote in constituencies where my preferred candidate / party stands absolutely NO chance of winning. As the UK Executive is effectively appointed by the Legislative Party, there is no other chance for me to get representation of my views into the national parliament. I want electoral reform.

I quite like David Cameron – he is definitely a human face in the Tory Party. But I simply can’t vote for his party which contains far more extreme views than I can tolerate. I’m naturally left-leaning. I like the idea of a progressive tax regime, and that it can help fund our National Health and other public services to protect the vulnerable, poor and weak in our society. But the Labour Party have stumbled so far up their own orifices, that I can’t support them any longer. The monolithic party mechanisms are working to their own ends, not ours.

with thanks to mydavidcameron.com

I hope there is a genuine three-way split on May 6th. (Naively?) I hope this forces the main parties into constructive debate and discussion to represent more of the views and desires of the British population. I hope it breaks the complacency and arrogance of the Conservative and Labour Parties to create a more inclusive, less adversarial politics. I hope…

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