And when you see that perfect post and it's been up an hour and there are 39 replies and you go uh-oh.

Oh that's absolutely brilliant news after all this time Corrinne. Made up for you.

I remember there was a punky boutique just along from there on the next block, quite famous apparently. I went in and was surprised how retro and dated the punky clothes were. You could get better stuff in the Kings Rd and Ken Market at that time.

I do now after reading that FB page. Around the time I was there.

JE's face was a picture of derision and laid into the whole premise of such wanky performance pieces. I just sat there amazed at his energy. When we left I asked who was that guy. Phil said "when he puts on a concert it gets reviewed in the New York Times." My introduction to the legendary Julius.

He woke us up early. "All good boys should be up by now practising their scales" he said on the phone to my sax playing host Phil. We met him at the Ukrainian for breakfast. Phil described a Happening/Performance Art thing he'd been to see the night before called 'I have food on my shoes' >

One of the avant-gardners, as I am rarely shy of mentioning, was Julius Eastman. I didn't know who he was when me and my host met him for breakfast the first time (yes really). He was, uh, formidable shall we say with a fine tuned bullshit detector second to none. Anecdote incoming>

Just found these on FB from 1984 and 1986 respectively. Legendary bar. Victim of the gentrification wars apparently and long gone.

45 yrs ago I was in New York, staying on the corner of St Marks and 1st in the East Village and hanging out with jazzers and avant-gardners. This was the view across the road from the corner of my block. @nancykay-alt-acct.bsky.social I bet that Grill has long gone hasn't it?

Oh I get it totally. Record shops no worse than pet shops or indeed many cafes in this respect. It's yet another taken for granted aspect where infirmity or disability is rendered invisible.

When you look at the gender balance among customers in the average record shop over the last, ooh, let's say 30 yrs, it's a completely mystery why so many of them are struggling to stay in business. (That and the fact that so few are wheelchair friendly. This never ever gets mentioned.)

Bob Dylan at the beginning of part 2 of the Scorsese doc.

This is how I define it.

I'm the same with the Walker Bros Nite Flights LP. Every few years I think ok then let's not be uncharitable to the non Scott side and then 2 songs in I think, no actually, lets.

Thank you Carol. I wasn't on social media art the time so none of this got widely aired, or indeed aired at all but it did teach me a lesson or two about how superficial that whole world is. I'm 71 now and v much at the no longer give a **** stage so I'll share the full story at some point.

I've just read this thread. Fascinating. I take a slightly different approach to the concept of whiteface in PAOC and apply it to Americana but this is all great. Hank Williams of course famously turned down Grand Ole Opry bcos they wanted him by hay bales in dungarees and not in his regular suit.

You also find yourself thinking ok Rob I know it's sub-titled And Other Colours but perhaps devoting several pages to Freddie Garritty's Oliver In The Overworld in the Kinderpsych chapter is a stretch too far. I still regret that decision actually.

Ah 10 yrs since Victoria Wood & Prince is it? 10 yrs then since 2 people I knew died in similarly close proximity and grief stricken I pulled out of a gig (the only time ever did this) which sullied my relationship with my editor and effectively brought my mainstream publishing career to a close.👀

When I say 'edit' I had to cut 320,000 words to a mere 240,000. No fine tuning or pruning when it's that many. Scorched earth policy. Entire mini-themes vanish. Or you go ok Rob the world probably doesn't need 15 pages on The Byrds/Cream/The Doors but it does need 5 or 6. There's blood on every page

Absolutely true and Monod deals with these very points in the piece.

It's a fabulous piece. I discovered it while researching PAOC. It clarified/confirmed a lot of my own thoughts on the subject and has informed my own thinking ever since. And this from the conclusion, well regular readers of my stuff will need no further elaboration.

Yes. It's a brilliant book. It was quoted in my original draft for PAOC but didn't make the cut when I had to drastically edit.

even the argot title of the piece btw is a comment on the switch from marketing the blues as a city phenomena (early ads for Bessie Smith & Ma Rainey depicted them in pearls and furs in gambling casinos) to utilising 'down home' country slang. (Grand Ole' Opry was built on the same hayseed shtick)

Also great on dispelling the oral tradition theory. Most blues was heard on jukeboxes (which were as prevalent in the rural south as pubs were in 19thC Britain) and many bluesmen (eg Muddy Waters) learned from from copying records. And this on the 'manufacturing' of Blind Lemon Jefferson is sublime.

He's brilliant on periodizing the blues as we understand it (ie a lone 12 bar blues singer) only being in vogue for about 4 yrs in the late 20s (killed off by the Depression and the new vogue for swing jazz) Son House is seen as a face carved in the blues Mt Rushmore but his quote sure leaps out

Finished re-reading this. If you have Uni (or other) access to JStor or the Journal itself I urge you to read it. Probably the best demythologising of the oral tradition blues theory I've ever read. I'll quote a couple more salient bits. I crave your indulgence.

Essentially two sides of the same coin those records. Well, according to my currency anyway.

The cover and cover blurb for my latest self published novel, Drum

My novel goes deep into the nature of comedy and the relationship between art and dysfunctionality. It's no less worthy for being self-published. I don't monetise any of my other writing. It's all available on my website for free. Please consider chucking a tenner into the hat for this book.

Diana Ross - Love Hangover YouTube video by koollatter

Hit the UK charts 50 yrs ago this week. I Feel Love stole the revolutionary thunder a year later but this was probably the first record where I thought this needs to be at least 10 minutes long. Anthem.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOzO...

My first major Mojo commission was Procol Harum. Brooker was genial enough. Keith Reid wasn't unfriendly but he was obliqueness personified. I realised after 2 minutes 'you're not having this are you, you're not going to play along'. I really admired him for it. It's all a game

From experience the catering truck is the only bonus.