I turned 12 at the end of November 1982. It's weird being born so late in the year, because you're a year behind others of your age, and when people ask me how old I was in such and such a year, I really don't know what to answer!
Eddie with Michael Jackson
Beat It by Michael Jackson was released on Valentines Day, February the 14th, and made a huge difference to the music world. It made a big difference to me as well!
At the time, I was still very much forming what would become my varied taste in music! I had been brought up with the music of The Beatles, and the solo careers of them, mostly Paul. I even remember seeing the news about the death of John Lennon as a recently turned 10 year old in December of 1980!
Steve Lukather & Eddie
More music was added to my personal musical soundscape by this point, mostly through the influence of kids that I was at school with at Broughton House School (for naughty boys) in Brant Broughton, Lincolnshire (LN5 OSL - I still remember the postcode, because I would write letters to my mum maybe twice a week).
Eddie & Brian May for the Star Fleet Project
They introduced me to artists such as Iron Maiden, KISS, Meat Loaf, Pink Floyd, and Led Zeppelin. They had so much more music in their arsenal than I had! I had seen Top Of The Pops on the television, and remember liking songs by acts such as Blondie, Adam & The Ants, Ian Dury & The Blockheads... I didn't actually buy my very first single record until Take It Away by Paul McCartney later in 1982, with my copy of Coming Up being bought for me. I also purchased my very first album in 1982 as well, with the accompanying album to that single, Tug Of War.
David Lee Roth & Eddie
Anyway, we were sat watching Top Of The Pops at school, and suddenly a music video came on - Beat It by Michael Jackson. The musical backing of Toto behind that really powerful vocal by Michael, and those backing vocals, set to a very powerful almost West Side Story/Romeo & Juliet style story video, and then suddenly *knock knock knock knock*, the roller shutter door goes up on a warehouse, and I was introduced to that iconic guitar solo by Eddie Van Halen, and iconic it is!
Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony, and Eddie
Years later after leaving school, I was upping my record, tape collection, and as soon as I hear the debut album by Van Halen, that was something incredibly special. From the opening Running With The Devil all the way to the closing track On Fire, I think that this is very much a contender for the greatest debut album of all time! That's got stiff competition, but straight from the gate, so to speak, their debut album says absolutely everything that you need to know.
Tony Iommi and Eddie
With the instrumental piece Eruption, Eddie Van Halen changed the world of rock guitar. Even though other guitarists had already utilized the guitar tapping technique, Eddie took it and made it into something incredible an game changing!
Steve Vai & Eddie
Incredibly original, with a gift for the unexpected, his guitar playing over the years has influenced so many, including my own guitar playing. I use guitar tapping in my playing because of him (and Steve Hackett, who I found out years later had used guitar tapping on some early Genesis songs, as did Brian May on the odd Queen song), and his playing has always been something that, to me, said more than a lot of lyricists could say with words!
Rest in peace Eddie, you made a difference, and we will always love you.
Well, I've seemingly not posted since I blogged my thoughts on the sad passing of Robin Williams. I was thinking of writing a piece about Sir Richard Attenborough (much more than Santa in that film), but I thought it best to not follow one tribute with another. Perhaps I will look at the great Lord Attenborough, but not at this moment.
First of all - happy birthday to my dad today and to my Uncle Clive tomorrow. I won't mention ages, but they are older than me! :-)
Marks & Spencer Butterscotch Drops
Since the last blog post then I've done pretty much the same old same old... Working, sleeping, working, sleeping, grew an abscess on the right side of my face - the guess is that it was as a consequence of a filling coming out. I seem to have been self-treating well with the use of paracetamol and ibuprofen apparently, or so the dentist said (well, I'm taking those for the post-bicycle accident injuries anyway). The filling work has now been redone, and luckily it hasn't come back out yet. Mind you, my packet of sugar free butterscotch drops from M&S might not help with that. They are flaming well tasty though damn it! Damn you sweets and the like - lovely to taste, but not good for the waistline or my teeth!
My musical journey a la the songwriting challenge known as 50-90 seems to be quiet at present. I've been unable to get any actual music written lately due to work commitments, and I don't tend to work on music when Louise is at home - we don't get much time lately with us both working during completely different times, which means we take what time we can get together.
Louise went to see the film Guardians of the Galaxy with me, and I was surprised when she said that she thought it was "one of the worst films that I have ever seen!" What? Really? It's amazing how two people can have such an enormous difference of opinion about something! I thought it was one of the greatest Marvel Comics films!!! Oh well, we can't all be the same can we?!?!
Looking at my output for 50-90 this year, I can see that it isn't a lot. That's just because of the reason I explained - time! I'm sure that I will get something done very soon, but I am not sure exactly when to be honest!
I see that the comeback of Kate Bush is perhaps a little so-so in response because she isn't playing anything from her earlier period of work! Well, that is hardly surprising in some ways, but then people that really know the work of Ms Bush would understand that anyway. First and foremost - do you really think that she can get that vocal ability now that she did in her late teens/early twenties? Doubtful!
Even someone who kept on the circuit for all of those years would have trouble, because your vocal abilities can diminish over time, just as your hearing does - that's just natural!
To perform those songs (Wuthering Heights, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, Babooshka, etc) now at 56 years old would basically give people the ability to say "well, she can't sing them like she used to...", and other such things! Either way people will moan - "she didn't sing it" or "she shouldn't have sung it"! She could not win either way with that one!
She is one of a breed that is becoming a thing of the past unfortunately - a musical artist/entertainer! Rather than nowadays where it's all clones of the same manufactured pap, she is from the school of thought that thinks there is something in individuality - difference is good! She is providing a well thought out and organised show as opposed to a by-the-numbers concert (songs, some fireworks and effects perhaps - job done). She has an entire show mapped out - choreography, arrangements, video footage, costumes, a storyline perse, and so much more! If you want the best of Kate Bush live, then I am sure there is probably a tribute act somewhere?!?
Hold on... Gets journal out - yes, I keep a journal!
We have watched a few films that were from Lovefilm lately, which included... Well, funnily enough they sent us six DVDs at the same time because of some delivery problems we were having with them not arriving, so they sent six altogether;
A Long Way Down
A Long Way Down - hmm, decent film starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Colette, Aaron Paul (yes, Jesse from Breaking Bad), and some other people. A group of people meet on the roof of somewhere in London and make a pact not to commit suicide. Quite funny in places, and a decent enough film!
Monsters University - It's okay, but not as good as Monsters Inc. of course!
Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit - actually a lot better than I thought it would be! A decent thriller. Perhaps the fact that you know the main character will be okay takes away any potential sense of danger though?
This Means War - another film starring Chris Pine (he is Jack Ryan in the previous film), co-starring Tom Hardy (from the could have been better Star Trek Nemesis) and Reece Witherspoon (does she age at all?). A good enough comedy about two spies who fall for the same woman and try to outdo each other to win the girl! I kept being reminded of the fabulous Arnold Schwarzenegger film True Lies for some reason while watching this!
American Hu.. - Hold on!
American Hustle - I really enjoyed this film a lot! We watched it over two sittings in two different days to be honest, but that didn't take away from the fact that it was decent! All of the acting was great, and the script was clever. I know my friend John said it was okay, but then it was a film based on truth, so you can't really go too far with something that is based on truth can you?
We are still in the midst of watching The Railway Man, which we initially thought might be boring, but we can't wait to get the last half watched because it is a bloody good film about a guy in 1980 who still has horrific memories of being beaten and tortured in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. He has a fascination with railways, hence the title, but there is so much more to it. Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard are absolutely incredible in the film. I do think that Nicole Kidman as the main character's wife is a bit by the numbers though, but even that is good! Perhaps she gets better in the second half. We shall see! I usually like Ms Kidman too - The Others is still a cracking film!
Anyway, there you are - a blog.
Also, lest I forget...
Rest in peace Sir Richard Attenborough. You were so much - a great actor, director, producer, entrepreneur, and more. He was an incredible actor in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, Jurassic Park, Miracle on 34th Street, and I'm All Right Jack. A great director with Gandhi (seen most of it, but not all and would love to), A Bridge Too Far (cracking film), Young Winston, and Cry Freedom.
Thank you for reading, please take care.
August 30th 2014 (43 years, 9 months, and 4 days old)
Crikey, it's already February the eleventh, or eleventh of February here in the UK. I wonder why we write dates out differently here to how Americans and possibly other countries.
So it's been a long while since I last posted. I'm not sure why, but here we are anyway.
We are eleven days into February, which means that I am taking part in the wonderful FAWM (February Album Writing Month). This is a month in which many many songwriters around the world decide to go hell for leather and write "an albums worth of songs" within the 28 days of February.
My list of songs on there at present stands at thirteen, but that's not completely true because two of those are the same thing.
What happened was that recorded a quick idea I had on the baritone ukulele and whistled a melody that I had at the same time. I posted this up and, while I was asleep, someone in another country had written lyrics for it and recorded vocals over the top of my recording, and then posting it up as a separate song.
I wish in a way that they had waited because I feel like I'm cheating to get that number up. I'd better get 15 songs in then to make it. I'm almost there anyway as I have a set of lyrics from two days ago that I haven't put up yet entitled She Lies, which is yet another love song - I'm writing a fair few of those lately.
Anyway, this weekend was originally a weeks holiday, during which I was going to get some serious work in on the music writing and commenting on other people's songs. However, I am no longer off due to a surprise coming up from work, so I think I will perhaps not have the chance now to write very much. We shall see.
It's not particularly a change that I want, but it's possibly more money, so I don't have much choice.
I would love not to have to do it, but cest la vie. I'd like to be able to write songs that other people perform to make me some royalties, but that is pie in the sky thinking.
Life goes on, and I have love. What else do I need?
Anyway, I think I will go now and spend time with my sweetheart and possibly get some music done perhaps.
Thank you for reading, please take care.
February 11 2014 (43 years, 2 months, and 16 days old).
PS - rest in peace Shirley Temple, who died today.
How are you? I know, I know... Everyone's having trouble these days. I'm not discussing that today though... Well, I don't think I will. Who knows where my thoughts will take me?
It's been a while hasn't it. In my defence I've been very busy. I've been busy with the 5090 songwriting challenge, with 132 songs eventually finding their way onto my page there.
During September I took part in the on-site challenge to write, record and release an entire album during the whole month. I think I wrote the first piece for it on the first and the whole album was up on Bandcamp completed and ready to buy.
I know - I'm materialistic in that I like earning money through music. What can I say but that I'd happily give up my job if I could love off music. Who of us wouldn't?
Album link - http://projectmarv1.bandcamp.com/album/seasons
Anyway... Seasons, as it's called, is available in all of it's disjointed glory. Don't get me wrong. I think there is some good on there, but the restrictions therein caused it to become much more of a mixed bag genre wise and quality wise.
I enjoy all styles of music, and I find it difficult to stay to one area when it comes to writing. Previously I've been able to cherry pick material from a larger body of tunes I've written and give sets more time to avoid such a wide chasm of styles.
I do know that I intend to revisit some of what's on there in the future to expand on. I will be looking at somehow joining some of the "theme" pieces together into a single song somehow. By "theme" pieces I mean Autumn Leaves Fall, Leaves Are All Around and possibly Withering Away, although the latter works well as it is with being joined to Dawn Breaks.
There are other pieces I thought were good - My Sweet And Lovely Girl would be great by another artist. I think Spellbound is fantastic, although it could possibly be longer, but there is something about it as it is. Always is beautiful in it's succinctness and simplicity. Withering Away/Dawn Breaks is a great piece, albeit possibly better if I took it into a studio and got +Dean Leivers or someone else to sing on it. Running is a fantastically funky piece of instrumental cool. Walking In The Park With My Louise and Rain Outside My Window are both great lo-fi ambient pieces. Some of the "Machines Suite" is cool as well, but made up of short incidental pieces.
All that I've just said explains the quandary of the album. There's good in there, but there is so much in there that it could possibly put people off. If I possibly split it into two halves and expanded on each then there could possibly be two good albums there.
I did have two songs written but not recorded in the shape of The Summer Is Here and Seasons, both of which were intended for the album. If they had been finished, then perhaps I'd have left off the "Machines Suite" of songs (songs 12-19), and rearranged everything else into a more conventional set of mainly actual songs. It's all simple in hindsight isn't it! I'm not sure if what I would have been left with would be long enough to make an album though. It's all questions in my head. Why not go over there, spend the five pound on the 22 titles on there, and make your own mind up? ;-)
My big thing at the moment is with the release at last of One Day, the Project Marv album that's been years in the making. That's going to be available, I think, in the second week of November.
That is a more rounded set, and possibly more accessible for people. I'm looking forward to that being out there for all to hear at last. I know the others involved in it's creation are excited by it. There are some incredible pieces in there for people, such as the full length versions of Good Morning World and Daydreamer, a different version of Breakfast Song, and other stuff.
Anyway, I'd best leave this here. You know where I am now. I'll be cleaning this blog post up in a bit - blogging on my phone is trickier than on the laptop. I can't insert links the same, and pictures need to be placed better.
So, it's July the 30th and the summer hasn't been too un-sunny here in the UK has it? Of course we've seen rain, which according to the song is never seen in Southern California. Well, all I can say is that it must be blinking dry out there! Either that or they are getting from somewhere, perhaps nefariously. Someone should look into that?
My bid to continue the 50/90 songwriting challenge continues, albeit in a more relaxed mode than I was during FAWM. It wasn't popular when I went as crazy as I did for that month, but to do it for three months would not be the smartest option available to me.
As it is though I have 42 song titles up on my 50/90 page, and that's not bad for 25 or 26 days.
That is the tip of the iceberg though, as I have also put some more music ideas down, and gave the wonderful Taylor a melody idea for a progressive piece he's working on. There were words with the melody, but I'm guessing that he won't want to have a song about a mole.
I'd put links up, but I haven't quite worked out how to do that with Blogger on the phone.
There are all sorts that are in this head of mine. Some should probably stay there though!
I'm very happy about some of the songs I've been writing, but obviously I will dislike some of the material because that is just the way things are. Lennon is well known for disliking a fair bit of his Beatles writings, which is maybe more of a revisionist view after he became Mr Human Rights and backed up his wife Yoko's pro-feminist stance. We all do that, and in fact if we allow the muse to take us wherever, then we may not actually LIKE what we write, but may still think it is a good song. I know that sounds weird, but "that's art" as they say.
Out of the songs that I have written so far during 50/90, I am particularly happy with New York State, which my ex-band mate Paul was happy to tell me he liked (I liked that, and the fact that we are still great mates. If we weren't so far away from each other distance wise, we'd be gigging for sure again!
I'm looking forward to putting the song JJ down, which is a tribute to the singer/songwriter JJ Cale, who died over the weekend. The 12 track is coming out for that I think, and I am sorry that I no longer own my own drum kit, because that would have been fun.
Don't Hang Up On My Love is a great song. I'd put a musical piece I came up with on the acoustic guitar, and Pete Murphy wrote a song around that music. A lovely ballad it is too. Hearing my music being used by someone to create something so beautiful is just amazing.
I'm trying to write a few instrumental ideas as well, which is a lot of fun. I've started work on a piece I'm calling "fortyodd", as a nod to the series thirtysomething, a programme that Louise watched in the eighties and is again watching now thanks to our Lovefilm membership. Everything seems to be on DVD nowadays doesn't it...
I wrote a short "orchestral" piece for a new King (Arrival Of The King), and obviously a fair bit of other material.
I think the music I have written for Arthur Rossi's song Corporal Thomas "Cotton" Jones is really good, because I looked at the emotion in the lyrics and used key changes to deliberately enhance the emotion within those lyrics.
I like the lyrics for In Rides Evil On Horseback, which needs music. I think that Virginia State Route 251 is a grooving blues tune. The song Promises & Cliches written with Liz's lyrics was great fun, and cheeky as well. I can see the songs Blur Blur Blur Blur (again written with Arthur Rossi), Signs (Give You Away), and That Old River really working well in a full rock band setting, much as I'm Dying (another co-write with Liz's) will be based on the music I've written but not recorded for it.
Wither, a song using lyrics provided by Pete, is looking to become a slow rocking number (I'm looking at a grungy style, but usually fail when I've done that before) if I can get the recording together.
Left Right, Right Left (another co-write with Arthur) has an almost late-seventies Prince sound to it in the backing track that I have created but not finished. The big problem there for me is the same problem I have a lot of the time - my voice. Yes I am incredibly lacking in confidence at my vocal abilities, an trying to reach the heady heights of Prince's incredible falsetto is very daunting. Anyone out there who fancies it, please let me know!
There are more songs, but in this epistle I have just given you a morsel for your delectation. Enjoy; http://www.fiftyninety.fawmers.org/user/marvsmooth
Anyway, I'll sign out now and let you all get back to normality. Take care and thank you for reading.
July 30th 2013 (42 years, 8 months, and 4 days old).
