The Fall - Middle Class Revolt

...aka The Vaporisation of Reality

My abiding memory of this record is "lacklustre". But that doesn't sum it up adequately. Much of it is very tedious (the title track and "Surmount All Obstacles" to name two). Some of it is insultingly bad (step forward the inept cover of the Groundhogs' "Junkman" and, worst of all, "Symbol Of Mordgan", which consists of someone - I read somewhere it was Craig Scanlon - talking to John Peel on the phone about Manchester City over the top of some half-hearted jamming).

But some of it is more interesting than I remembered - "15 Ways" is beautifully subtle, a skewed take on Paul Simon's "Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover" (evidently too skewed to bother the copyright lawyers). Originally I had "Hey Student" down as a pale retread of fierce 80s songs like "Lucifer Over Lancashire" and "Lay Of The Land", but I can see now it is pretty good in its own right. And "City Dweller" and "M5#1", which presumably are intended as a "town and country" pair. Though at the risk of being pedantic, I would point out that junction 1 on the M5 doesn't lead to anywhere "agrarian" - rather West Bromwich and Birmingham North-West.

The cover version of Henry Cow/Slapp Happy's "War" is OK-ish but it led me to check out the original on YouTube. Now that is fantastic.

Bartok - String Quartets Nos 1 and 2

It's good listening to Bartok's quartets again. I remember going to hear all six played by the Emerson Quartet at the QEH one Sunday afternoon in 1995: it was fantastic. I enjoyed No 1 a lot, a few weeks ago, but wasn't really in the mood for No 2.

Procol Harum - Nightriding

I first started listening to rock music around 1974, which was really the tail end of Procol Harum's career, and I couldn't work out where they fitted into the grand scheme of things. They were responsible for "Whiter Shade Of Pale", a seemingly undisputed progressive classic (which I hated, and - it's the opening track on this compilation - still hate), but they weren't really part of the prog mainstream. Listening to this, I still can't work them out. I hated most of this, although the bluesier songs like "Whiskey Train" and "Seem To Have The Blues" are a bit better. The saving grace is Robin Trower's guitar work, which even, almost, redeems dross like "Ramblin' On".

Mike & the Mechanics - "The Living Years"

My father died last week, and as I was driving to see Mum the next day I instantly recognised this song starting on the radio. I am supposed to say at this point that I was in tears by the time it finished, but actually I was laughing out loud at the screaming mawkish sentimentality. Ian Dury did the job far better in his song "My Old Man"

Though I would liked to have talked more in the last few years, luckily Dad didn't die "before we'd done much talking".

All the best, mate, from your son.