Just been watching Countryfile on the BBC. Some trendy farmer on there is plugging his raw milk and raw milk cheese. Apparently it tastes much better than pasteurised - according to him. For pity's sake Pasteurisation saves millions of people from food poisoning, some kinds of which which can be life-threatening. So yeah, let's sell people the idea that raw milk is somehow better for them. After all, the NHS has nothing better to do at the moment. Let's fill those wards with raw-milk drinking idiots I'm saddened, but not surprised, that you can even sell raw milk commercially in this country.
Poor old Uncle Ben His kindly old face removed from boxes of rice because of... well, you know what. Who's next? Colonel Sanders I shouldn't wonder. Come on folks, which army was Colonel Sanders a Colonel in? Something tells me he wasn't a Yankee... Gone but not forgotten George the Hoffmeister Bear Tony the Tiger - They're Grrrreat! Honey Monster The Milky Bar Kid Ronald McDonald Somehow still hanging on Captain Birdseye
Just watching a Fathers' Day music show on BBC4. They played "Annie, I'm not your Daddy" by Kid Creole & the Coconuts. A caption appeared along the bottom of the screen during the song, saying this was the only Latin American style song to deal with the subject of adoption Someone was missing the point big time! The song is about what a slapper Annie's mother was nothing to do with adoption
TOTP 1991 (also on BBC 4 yesterday evening). Two episodes packed with utter dross. Even one of the presenters was making sarky comments about some of the pap in the charts. One track stood out a million miles above all the others; Unfinished Sympathy by Massive Attack. I had forgotten that song was 30 years old. Sounds timeless to me. Could have been recorded this year.
That’s from their album, Blue Lines, bit before my time, but seminal nonetheless. Mezzanine, released a few years later, is an incredible album. I was lucky enough to see them at Brixton in 2003.
Another 'out of the blue' question; I was going through some old movies on DVD just to pass the time... Bad movies by Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Not just poor compared to the other sequels. Lacks everything that was good about the first movie. Can anybody think of any other Spielberg Turkeys?
C4 showed the 10 worst movies ever several years ago. Plan 9 from Outer Space was the clear winner. It actually started with Bela Legosi in the lead role, but he died shortly after filming started. They kept in the footage of Legosi, but for the rest of the film he was replaced by the producer's wife's homeopathic doctor holding a cloth over his face, a cunning plan so that viewers wouldn't notice the difference. It really is a horrendous watch, anyone who sticks it out to the end deserves a medal.
Was Plan 9 from Outer Space the one where the aliens were blokes in Gorilla suits with goldfish bowls on their heads? They saved Hitler's Brain was another corker so I understand - but it's a great title though. Highlander II: The Quickening Had nothing to do with Spielberg - but nothing to do with the great first Highlander movie either.
Paul Weller was excellent last night on BBC. I forgot how many great songs he has written. The arrangements of his songs played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra was superb.
As good a songwriter and performer as McCartney (or better). No knighthood though - or any other honour as far as I'm aware. Maybe he doesn't accept them.
Wasn't Macca banned from the US for his drugs convictions? And he sang a catch little ditty about giving Ireland back to the Irish, if memory serves. Still, we know knighthoods ain't what they once were. They gave one to a Swiss tax-exile a short while ago. … We came out of it naturally the worst Beaten and bloody and I was sick down my shirt, We were no match for their untamed wit Though some of the lads said they'll be back next week… The Eton Rifles - terrific song
Can't agree with that. Musicians love playing Lennon/McCartney songs, singers love singing them and audiences love listening to them. Beatles Nights at my local open mike are a huge highlight, with the range of songs they produced. They are always packed.
Plenty of people love middle-of-the-road music That's why it's called that. McCartney songs are catchy, comfortable and safe. 'A Day in the life' I consider to be the best song ever written, But not because of McCartney's bit. In my view Paul Weller is a better songwriter, as are several others. Lennon was better, and I'd even rate Noel Gallagher and Morrissey above Macca. People like McCartney, the Gibb brothers and ABBA have written the biggest pop hits of all time, I grant that. But the best songs? Not the same thing in my book. With the exception of a few of the duller Style Council tunes (we all have our wilderness years) Weller doesn't write easy listening elevator music.
Each to their own, but there really is a lot more to Lennon/McCartney songs (and George Harrison come to that) than what you describe. The structure is what separates the sheep from the goats, and that applies whether you are talking about The Beatles, Beethoven or Duke Ellington (or my favourite composer Turlough Carolan). Beatles songs are performed to this day by top artists, and anyone who thinks it's easy to write a song like theirs should try writing one, and see whether it is that simple. The complexities are not obvious, but that is the art which conceals the art. But each to their own, there are very popular artists that I can't stand.
Granted the quality of a song is often in its deceptive simplicity - which doesn't mean it was easy to compose. Crowded House were very good at this. Four seasons in one day is a beautiful example. Another simple tune that I rate above all others by the group concerned is Wish you were here by Pink Floyd - and they set the bar very high. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields and Hey Jude are probably my favourite Beatles songs, along with A day in the life.
Lennon and McCartney were such a good songwriting partnership because they were so different. I remember John Lennon saying that if he could have written one song it would be Procul Harem's A whiter shade of Pale.
You wonder what Buddy Holly would have achieved if he had not died tragically young. He had already achieved so much.