What song is in your head?

[NikolaiI]

Thank you for telling me what I seem to know.

[Pompey Bum]

Sorry I couldn't do more for you, Nik.I think it's great, though, that these beyond obscure figures from my youth are (apparently) being remembered after all this time. I mean, musicians knew about Bert Jansch and Annie Briggs, but no one had ever heard of Vashti Bunyan. It's a bit like what I try to say on the modern classics thread--history does her own thing, and the future is often not what you think or hope it will be. Anyways, sorry.

[NikolaiI]

I much compare Jansch to Alan Watts in terms of their lives. I think you may be confusing deterioration of physical health with spiritual force and beauty of their art. The best work that Jansch ever produced was his oldest studio songs... they are simply wordlessly transcendentally beautiful. There is nothing I would rather hear many times, nor anything I would not rather play for someone, for instance, who had crazily produced a gun on me in some grocery store or convenience station.

And - oh, yeah, I was very saddened when I first learned... like, it's funny. I discovered Jansch like what, 2 years before he died? And it's much a shame. I knew he was going to die in a few years, but I only got a short time to get to know him. I don't mind though, everyone goes in their own time. And you can connect so well with a prolific artist like that.

But I realized a couple of things, in my sorting it out. One was, we wouldn't be contending, you wouldn't think it contentious of me to disagree with you, and I think that's an important distinction.

I could listen to this "From the Outside" forever... several of those songs are the best I've heard, such as Silver Raindrops, High Emotion, and Read All About It. And as far as I know, all the rest of the later studio productions of Jansch are also very good.

So, if you go about learning Bert Jansch from Youtube, you will probably go through them something like this: Fresh as a Sweet Sunday, Blackwaterside, Traveling Song, Light Flight, Pentangling, A Woman Like You.. I have listened to almost all of it, that I can find, and I have listened to most of it many, many times. I've also listened to a few, maybe 6 or 7 that I've downloaded elsewhere.. I also owned a greatest hits of Pentangle once. Usually I like to have a lot more of an artist, maybe 6-10 albums.. but not all of them I do.


I know you didn't know this, but the thing is, I love Jansch so much that when you insult him, you insult me. I know that sounds crazy or odd a bit, but it's true, in a sense. At least, it just felt like that. I hope you can understand. But all's good, no need to worry. And honestly Jackson is a very close second... so yeah.

Also, it's kind of funny really, to think of it now; I really do not at all care for Anne Briggs' voice. I am sure it is meritously good, but I am just just not into it. You say Jacqui got her voice from Anne, that's fine. I love Jacqui and if Jacqui loved Anne, then I love Anne as well. It is just that her voice reminds me of an inferior version of Jacqui's, so I just can't appreciate it really. It's not that way with Mazzy Star. Hope Sandoval, or Mazzy Star, is an absolutely lovely singer and I love her a lot.

Completely unrelated, Cara Dillon is exceptional.

[Pompey Bum]

So, if you go about learning Bert Jansch from Youtube, you will probably go through them something like this: Fresh as a Sweet Sunday, Blackwaterside, Traveling Song, Light Flight, Pentangling, A Woman Like You.. I have listened to almost all of it, that I can find, and I have listened to most of it many, many times. I've also listened to a few, maybe 6 or 7 that I've downloaded elsewhere.. I also owned a greatest hits of Pentangle once. Usually I like to have a lot more of an artist, maybe 6-10 albums.. but not all of them I do.

Ah, A Woman like You is a wonderful song! I'd forgotten all about it! I was a teenager back in the seventies, and for a while I had a girlfriend whose sister had a big collection of what we used to call "folk rock" in those days. We used to sneak into her sister's room after she'd gone to college, listen to her records, and--you know, kind of kiss. I remember there was Bert Jansch, with or without Pentangle; and Fairport Convention in various stages of dissolution: Richard and Linda Thompson, Richard Thompson alone, Fotheringay (Sandy Denny's virtual sound-alike band after she left Fairport), Sandy Denny alone; also Maddy Prior with Steeleye Span, Maddy Prior with June Tabor, and Maddy Prior by herself; and even some Annie Briggs and Jackson Frank songs on compilations. Later when I saw a copy of Diamond Day, I vaguely remembered the cover art from those days, but I'm really not too sure. I don't remember listening to anything by Vashti Bunyan or even knowing who she was.

Then the 1980s came and making out to Pentangle was as dead as love beads (it was an era of considerable cultural retrenchment--I left town). Near the end of the decade, though, I picked up a few of the old folk rock albums on CDs; they were hard to find and expensive, so I didn't buy too many. It's kind of incredible to me to find people like you today who have even heard of some of those performers.

I know you didn't know this, but the thing is, I love Jansch so much that when you insult him, you insult me. I know that sounds crazy or odd a bit, but it's true, in a sense. At least, it just felt like that. I hope you can understand. But all's good, no need to worry. And honestly Jackson is a very close second... so yeah.

...But I realized a couple of things, in my sorting it out. One was, we wouldn't be contending, you wouldn't think it contentious of me to disagree with you, and I think that's an important distinction.

Okay Nik. I'm not sure what I said about Jansch, but I would I feel bad to think that I insulted either one of you. On the other hand, I know exactly what you mean by my seemingly contentious style (I'm even worse in person. ); but you are right to see through it. I don't fear to tell people my views and I never worry about disagreeing with those I respect (and that certainly includes you). You seem like a sensitive person, though, so please don't let my critiques of things bother you. Or to put it another way (since you mentioned The Brothers Karamazov on the 25 Books thread), I can be quite a bit like Ivan at times while I think you are more the Aloysha type. But still brothers, right?

Also, it's kind of funny really, to think of it now; I really do not at all care for Anne Briggs' voice. I am sure it is meritously good, but I am just just not into it. You say Jacqui got her voice from Anne, that's fine. I love Jacqui and if Jacqui loved Anne, then I love Anne as well. It is just that her voice reminds me of an inferior version of Jacqui's, so I just can't appreciate it really. It's not that way with Mazzy Star. Hope Sandoval, or Mazzy Star, is an absolutely lovely singer and I love her a lot.

It's funny you say that because Annie Briggs apparently hated the sound of her own voice when she heard it on tape. It's supposed to have been one of the reasons she turned her back on the whole business and moved to Scotland to drink and scowl. Traditional music owes her a lot, though. Before her time, people would go find old men in old villages who would sing them the old songs in a very stilted and stylized way; and they would record them in more or less the same way. What Annie Briggs did was to personalize the lyrics, so that it was no longer the voice of a local songster singing about a woman who had been seduced by a handsome but callous man (to use Blackwaterside as an example), but the voice of the woman herself.

We take that sort of thing for granted today, but it was really a development that Briggs brought to the music. Jacqui McShee had a gorgeous soprano voice, and she could just belt it out when she wanted to; but you can see from the few Briggs recordings that exist how much McShee's songs, which were arranged by Jansch, owe to the work he did with Briggs. That's not taking anything away from McShee. She had the voice of a seraph on steroids. Personally I like Annie Brigg's voice, too. There is a certain bitterness to it that comes from her times (and that is absent from the crystalline purity of McShee's voice). But again, there's no reason we need to agree about which we prefer.

[Gilliatt Gurgle]

Jerry Jeff Walker - Mr. Bojangles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t-2GeZFDdc

[Melanie]

Idena Menzel and Michael Bublé's "Baby It's Cold Outside"
(they make a brief cameo appearance)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/maycie/idina...of-baby-its-co

[Emil Miller]

I don't think that London has ever been a beautiful sight, but with Sinatra to claim otherwise and a bottle of Pouilly-Fumé at my elbow, I could easily believe it.

http://youtu.be/TaIp54RdVrw

[NikolaiI]

Marianne Faithfull - Visions of Johanna

[NikolaiI]

Okay Nik. I'm not sure what I said about Jansch, but I would I feel bad to think that I insulted either one of you. On the other hand, I know exactly what you mean by my seemingly contentious style (I'm even worse in person. ); but you are right to see through it. I don't fear to tell people my views and I never worry about disagreeing with those I respect (and that certainly includes you). You seem like a sensitive person, though, so please don't let my critiques of things bother you. Or to put it another way (since you mentioned The Brothers Karamazov on the 25 Books thread), I can be quite a bit like Ivan at times while I think you are more the Aloysha type. But still brothers, right?

Yeah, I know.

But Pompey, I never said you were contentious. I hope you do know I am glad you are here, though.

[Pompey Bum]

But you said I like tubers, didn't you?

Oh and the song I can't get out of my head today, for some reason, is Dreaming is Free by Blondie. Somebody please make it stop.

[NikolaiI]

I feel like a lasting friendship could be a difficult thing with you, Pompey. So damn literal all the time.

[Pompey Bum]

Nothing gold can last.

[NikolaiI]

I believe this proves to the contrary.

[Pompey Bum]

Well at least it got Blondie out of my head.

[NikolaiI]

I think I need to give you some tips. Next time, just say it got "that other song" out of my head. . . otherwise, you may trigger a relapse..