Were excellent in a way I wasn't expecting. Had I not bought the tickets in a fit of "I'm bored at work - let's spend cash on the internet" pique I'd have noticed that rather than a standard gig it was actually Jason Pierce, a keyboardist, three gospel singers and a string quartet. This may well be because none of the band can stand to speak to one another anymore but it had an extremely pleasant result - it sounded hauntingly beautiful.
It's a strange thing, but drug addled junkies write all the sweetest love songs. Maybe they appreciate addiction? It was true of the Velvet Underground, and it's true of Spiritualized.
It was a strange night as one of the people in our gig group, we'll call her A, is a complete commitment-phobe and she brought her new bloke. However rather than introducing him as such, A spent the evening trying to make J and I come up with reasons why he was annoying and she should dump him. As scary other people's work stuff was mentioned (maths, share portfolios, accounting.......coma) I assumed he was a work colleague and caught on way too late. I don't think it was too bad in that;
- I did describe him as "relentlessly positive". I think I can dodge this one as he's from California and compared to most people from there, most Britons are clinically depressed.
- I did allow him to believe I was serious about 'Ebony and Ivory' being such a powerful song, it should have been played into the crowd to quell the LA riots for a bit too long. This was entirely J's fault, as he mentioned Heather McCartney first.
- When he stated "You can't buy food to eat on the Tube, that's what really drunk English people do" I did say "You haven't met many of A's friends, have you?" This is just factual.
It'll be fine, she'll either dump him or I'll enjoy the photos of the wedding.
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2 comments:
"It's a strange thing, but drug addled junkies write all the sweetest love songs"
I don't know why I always disagree vociferously with this when it comes up but I do. Non-junkies are capable of of writing really sweet insightful love songs (Magnetic Fields), lots of great junkie rock-stars are completely incapable of writing anything but drivel about love (Jim Morrison)
I think we're just so programmed to think that there's something special about drug-addiction as it applies to songwriters that we take every example of good song-writing by an addict to confirm the above notion, when instead to my mind it just confirms that there are a lot of addict songwriters.
I understand your point, but I think I could have phrased myself more eloquently.
What I meant was that all these bands with hugely drug addled, dark reputations - Velvets, Spiritualized, Jesus and Mary Chain - seem to write the most innocent, almost child like love songs. "I'm Sticking With You" for example.
Most junkies in the actual state of junkiness write crap - even El Junko himself Mr P Docherty agrees with this.
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