What we can achieve as humans
Friday 5 November 2004
2308hrs. In bed. I guess I have more inclination to write tonight. Tonight I finally got Mingus. I listened to his box set a few weeks ago. I loved it, it was great and I truly needed to hear it when I did. But tonight I heard I had Mingus Ah Um on the way to the cricket ground and on the way back. I was going into town to see James play a solo gig. The first half of Ah Um was on, Mingus crying in the background as the band crescendos. On the way back the second half of the album played as I ascended the Russell Rd hill. This guy for me is a beautiful example of humanity, of what we can achieve as humans. As he solos, the drummer goes in to double time. A moment. Capturing notes. I love it and tonight I really really got it.
James was really good. He opened with, surprisingly, For The Turnstiles. It was really good to hear a Neil Young song in a different voice, a low, gravelly voice. It worked like nothing else James has sung. I was really impressed. He did songs by Grateful Dead, Buffalo Tom, Townes Van Zandt and this song about Gram Parsons that is apparently on the credits for the Who Killed Gram Parsons film. Its a really good song and James does it well (not having heard the original). I told him he should think about some Johnny Cash covers. It would really suit his voice.
I was also surprised to find that James was the best of the bill and he should have been embarrassed to be sharing the stage with the other two acts. Top of the bill was a relic freak weirdo from the cock-rock days and he does a cover of What If God Was One Of Us?
The guy after James seemed really promising after the first song which was almost Lionel Richie-esque. It was just him and a keyboard. He started introducing songs and I burst out laughing. One was about an ex-girlfriend who thought she was a clairvoyant. Anyway, he dumped her a few days later. And then the faux-strings begin.... The lyrics (I swear) featured the lines "Cosmic sailing, Supernatural failing". It was a scene, man.... Another song was about redundancy (seriously). I'm now starting to question what we can achieve as humans. Mingus, where are you now, huh?
2308hrs. In bed. I guess I have more inclination to write tonight. Tonight I finally got Mingus. I listened to his box set a few weeks ago. I loved it, it was great and I truly needed to hear it when I did. But tonight I heard I had Mingus Ah Um on the way to the cricket ground and on the way back. I was going into town to see James play a solo gig. The first half of Ah Um was on, Mingus crying in the background as the band crescendos. On the way back the second half of the album played as I ascended the Russell Rd hill. This guy for me is a beautiful example of humanity, of what we can achieve as humans. As he solos, the drummer goes in to double time. A moment. Capturing notes. I love it and tonight I really really got it.
James was really good. He opened with, surprisingly, For The Turnstiles. It was really good to hear a Neil Young song in a different voice, a low, gravelly voice. It worked like nothing else James has sung. I was really impressed. He did songs by Grateful Dead, Buffalo Tom, Townes Van Zandt and this song about Gram Parsons that is apparently on the credits for the Who Killed Gram Parsons film. Its a really good song and James does it well (not having heard the original). I told him he should think about some Johnny Cash covers. It would really suit his voice.
I was also surprised to find that James was the best of the bill and he should have been embarrassed to be sharing the stage with the other two acts. Top of the bill was a relic freak weirdo from the cock-rock days and he does a cover of What If God Was One Of Us?
The guy after James seemed really promising after the first song which was almost Lionel Richie-esque. It was just him and a keyboard. He started introducing songs and I burst out laughing. One was about an ex-girlfriend who thought she was a clairvoyant. Anyway, he dumped her a few days later. And then the faux-strings begin.... The lyrics (I swear) featured the lines "Cosmic sailing, Supernatural failing". It was a scene, man.... Another song was about redundancy (seriously). I'm now starting to question what we can achieve as humans. Mingus, where are you now, huh?
posted by Steve State at
11:27
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