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| RTomens, 2022 |
Hello, yes, it's me, the best typewriter artist in...my road!
Against the odds (workmen next door creating dust storms from the wall of the house they're working on and subsequent noise plus a heatwave) I sat in the shady part of the garden around 9.30am and set about typing then cutting up and collaging - yes, I did.
Other Cases is the end result - is there such a thing as a middle result? No.
My neighbour's in his front garden.
I put my face to the fence.
'Psst...wanna buy a book?' The idea being to mimic a wartime spiv selling watches and silk stockings.
He often jokes about the sound of me typing in the back yard, how I should be wearing a visor like those worn by city desk editors in 40s films, with a cigar.
He invites us 'round for a beer and with his wife flicks through You Would Say That. They like it, or at least say they do. The conversation turns to music (he's in The Biz). On cue I try to explain that modern music is, basically, rubbish, or nothing compared to what's gone before - when is 'before'? Well, let's just say the 20th century up to the end of the 70s.
'It's just that you're older.' He says.
I couldn't be bothered to go into the reasoning behind my belief. I could/should have said 'Did you watch any of the Glastonbury festival?!' It's an old debate - yeah, yeah - who can stand against The Beatles, for instance? Or...the other day a gig flyer popped up on FB, for John Coltrane supported by Aretha Franklin - I mean, I rest my case. Unfair comparison? Why? Doesn't all art exist in the context of what currently surrounds it and what has gone before?
How do we judge something? With experienced ears capable of objective assessment and yes, of course, the subjective ear too - that combination. And no-one will convince me that there's the quality, or amount of quality out there today that can match the golden years (yes, I know, each genre has its golden years in the overall golden age).
I've never been stuck on a genre to the point of slavishly following it for decades. I almost envy those that do - say - still follow and enjoy, say, jangly pop...or electro...etc. I mean, they have a safe space to inhabit whilst I've cut loose from the contemporary and...OK...my safe space is the past. There I constantly find new artists to admire. Yes, it's a time machine, taking me back to places I never lived in, such as Rockabilly or Bluegrass, two relatively recent passions previously ignored.
Living in that 'foreign country' means you get labelled an 'old fart' - ha-ha! 'Stuck in the past' - ha-ha! Yes, proudly, not stuck, but wilfully inhabiting, thank you.
A documentary about the Motown label came on Sky Arts the other night. I didn't catch it all but just half an hour's worth of viewing was enough to leave my brain, ears, mind reeling at the display of talent, from writers, players, arrangers and signers. All of it happening in conjunction with The Beatles, Stones, Who, Kinks, Doors, Velvet Underground, James Brown etc.
I'll shut up. You know the score...and it's The Past: 10, The Present: 0!
TTFN
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