Thursday 3 March 2011

Happy Birthday to all you Slippery Little Fish out there!


Hello everyone, it's my birthday today - 45 years young. I'll drink a wee toast to you all!
Happy Weekend!
Laura x

Sunday 27 February 2011

Sing, sing a song. Sing it loud, sing it long." The Carpenters

I love music. Songs are truly the soundtrack to my life. It was pointed out last October by a dear new friend that we met in Montana, that I have a song for everything. I spent the entire fortnight finding songs appropriate to every situation. I just do. It's fun.


When I was pregnant with my son Max, I had few cravings: Granny Smith apples, the colour red and classical music. Mostly Bach and Mozart - I enjoyed their ordered simplicity, it soothed me. Occasionally, when feeling particularly hormonal, I would listen to Chopin.


I have to tell you the funniest story. It happened when I was pregnant I think, or at least Max was very young. Gavin and I were driving up to Colinton in Edinburgh. I shared my mum's old Fiesta with my younger brother and it was my week for driving. We drove past a Hedgehog in the middle of the road. Being bleeding heart Art Students we decided that the only possible action was to stop the car and rescue the poor soul. 


As we stopped the car, a lorry drove past, squashing the Hedgehog flat. Yes, what's so funny about that? Well nothing. Except that as we watched this poor creature shuffle off this mortal coil, Chopin's Requiem was playing on the tape recorder.


It was too funny. I told you, God's a funny guy! Who do you imagine invented humour?


Anyway, I digress. Actually I've digressed so much that I've completely forgotten what I had to say.


Oh yes, music. You've probably gathered that I have fairly Catholic tastes in music. Funny expression that. The Catholics I've met - in real life and through study, have seemed to me pretty conservative in their tastes. Although I am happy to have had the privilege of meeting many wonderful exceptions to this rule.


I thought about it and guess that the term was coined to describe the Vatican's well read and well educated house. "know thine enemy". It comes from a good Source and for good reason. How can we control our subjects if we don't know what makes them tick?


Shame though. They missed out on a lot of fun by banning and denying all that great literature and art.
No matter of course since it only serves to make it more powerful.


My musical tastes - Catholic. Okay it's pretty safe. I like a good melody and interesting words, and a good beat, oh and the potential to sing and dance along. Not many requirements. I am innately lazy and pleasure seeking in my musical tastes. I love James Taylor and Lyle Lovett. I love Ella Fitzgerald and Joni Mitchell and Carole King and Carly Simon. I love Reggae music. What a beat. 


We watched a programme on BBC 4 and they explained the beat of Reggae music. The trick is to fuse the drums and the base into one beat, one vibration - like a heartbeat. Brilliant. My favourite is "Stir It Up". 
I had the pleasure of seeing The Wailers at the Vintage at Goodwood Festival. They were amazing. I'd been feeling a bit miserable, and behaving miserably, much to my disgust. I was standing in a long slow queue for the toilets when I heard the strains of "Stir It Up" drifting towards me in the dark. I was mesmerised - swaying and singing harmonies like a loony. I didn't care.


I watched them for as long as I could. Dancing and singing at the top of my voice, a permanent grin on my face. What's not to love? A stage full of beautiful Rastafarians full of talent and sure of who they are - their place in the world. That's very sexy. And the music is sexy - primal and rhythmic and in tune with who we are in the best sense of the word.


Mmm, I also love ballads. I'm a Balladeer at heart. I'm not a rocker, although I do fancy myself as Trailer Trash Country. I love The Dixie Chicks. My friend Cara put me onto them and I am eternally grateful.


One of my favourites is "Tonight The Heartache's on Me". It's brilliant, telling the story of a woman alone in a bar when her ex lover walks in with his new girlfriend. She looks like an angel and he looks smug as. Her answer is to take it on the chin and invite everyone to drink a toast to her - the butt of the joke.


I also adore Paul Weller - Mod Father and founder of The Jam. I first fell in love with Paul and his beautiful songs when I was about twelve. I used to make my own badges and listened to all their albums. Favourites of mine were Eton Rifles and All Mod Cons. There is a song on All Mod Cons that has my stomach turning somersaults just thinking about it. It is a song called "English Rose". I am hoping that our new friend Skyler the Cowboy will sing it when we move to Montana. It begins with the most beautiful and haunting fog horns. Yes really! And then the achingly moving and simple voice of the Mod Father himself soars quietly above the waves and the sound of trains in the distance. Exquisite.


Oh but what about Disco?! I love Disco. "Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci". I begged my mum to bring me back a bottle of Halston perfume from America. I treasured it for years, still do. It felt and smelt so glamorous - just like Studio 54. 


One of my favourites is "Young Hearts Run Free". I identified so strongly with the lyrics of that song. I used to sing it to myself while working on the shop floor as a Management Trainee for Jenners. I would day dream about a time in the future when I could go back to my first loves - sculpting and writing and singing and living in La La Land.


My list is endless and you've probably had enough now. So I will leave you with another line from a song very dear to my heart.


Perhaps a wee hymn, it being Sunday n all. "Sing Hosanna" is one of my favourites. I was a choir girl after all. God and I sing that one a lot. You can really belt it out and it sounds pretty funny, especially when I burst out involuntarily. God really does have a sense of humour.


Thank you for reading this and thank you even if you didn't.
x


PS: I've put links to some of my favourite songs on my Blog - take a look!