Progressive Thoughts - Day 7

A progressive rock blogathon wouldn’t be complete without a song from my favourite band of all time, the Canadian power trio that is Rush.

This song is called Mystic Rhythms from the 1985 album Power Windows.

 The album is right up there with my favourites of all time and reminds me of commuting between Manchester and London. At the time I was in a long distance relationship with my ex-wife. We weren’t married yet but she had moved to the south of England as a temporary measure.

It was a real strain and expensive too. I used to listen to the album repeatedly during the journey that, at the time, took almost four hours each way, every other week. These days the journey is a lot quicker and more enjoyable, thankfully.

I don’t regret doing so but at the time, it was a challenge.

I think this happened for about a year and during that time I ploughed through more novels than I have ever done at any time in my life. I alternated between reading and listening to music on my Sony Walkman, which bizarrely was considered the height of music technology at the time. That little device saved my sanity but the problem was I had to take a bagful of cassette tapes with me.

Alongside the novels, it made my overnight luggage heavier than expected.

These days I can take one tiny little iPod with me that contains my entire CD collection plus a Kindle that can accommodate hundreds of books. It’s so much easier, although I do have to make sure that they are both fully charged, particularly for long journeys and has made them more enjoyable as a result.

Actually, when I say “more enjoyable”, what I really mean is “less tedious”. Though I am a keen traveller, the actual travelling to my destination is not really enjoyable at all. I’ve spent many a blog post ranting about travelling, particularly long distance flying so I won’t go down that road again. To be honest, back in 1985, train travel was pretty much the same.

Worse, London is a hub and for many of the towns and cities in the south east of England, you would have to get to London, cross London and then take another train out. Getting across London these days takes almost as long as actually getting there.

And if you are unlucky enough to arrive during the rush hour then you are totally screwed. You end up standing on a platform with seemingly thousands of fellow travellers waiting for the next train.

When the train actually arrives, invariably it is full and cannot accommodate the sheer volume of people waiting to get on. This doesn’t stop everyone trying to get on board and if you are lucky enough to actually manage that, you find yourself crammed up against total strangers. Personal space is non-existent during such journeys.

Most of the time, you don’t know where to look. I tend to look up simply because it is awkward when you are pressed up against a total stranger, particularly if it is a woman. When this happens, I don’t know where to put myself – and I simply don’t have a choice.

It can be embarrassing.

Thankfully, if the train isn’t crowded, the journey is more tolerable and I can entertain myself watching my fellow passengers, in a non-creepy way of course. Some of the people who live in London or just visit are actually quite eccentric – and I love eccentricity. I particularly love places like Camden Town and Camden Market where a lot of these people are drawn too.

Campden Town

It's not everyday you see the Mad Hatter on the streets of London

People-watching is one of the things that also make travel more tolerable. It is a pastime that quite a few people enjoy and I sometimes wonder what these people make of a weirdo like me.

Do they regard me as eccentric or just plain boring.

To be honest, I regard myself as slightly weird but not excessively so, and I imagine that people ‘s eyes just gloss over me in search of a more interesting person.

And believe me there are plenty of them about.

Progressive Thoughts - Day 6

Today’s song is called Ascension by a British progressive rock band called Arena.

The song has a theatrical feel to it, something I love when listening to music. The song is the final track on what is a brilliant album and rounds it off beautifully.

I imagine that you probably won’t have heard of Arena, nor in fact many of the bands in this blogathon and that saddens me a little. I’ve mentioned this before in previous blog posts and urged people to actually go out into the world wide web and actually seek music that is not on the playlists dictated to by record companies and people like Simon Cowell, who are in my view killing music.

The internet has opened up the entire world to everybody and we should all make use of it, rather than being told what to do. This doesn’t just apply to music; it applies to everything. Whatever you are interested in there is something out there for you.

I like to cite music as an example because this is one of the most important subjects I like to pontificate about – and I do realise, dear reader, that sometimes I do preach a bit. It’s my problem really because I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve over some subjects.

Anyway, as I have vowed to remain positive in 2017, I shall try to dwell on the music itself rather than attacking Simon Cowell and his partners in crime, as well as greedy record producers.

Let me use Adele as an example.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Adele has an amazing voice and has written some good music, albeit not to my musical taste. But in Britain, a new Adele album is met with absolute delight by the music industry simply because they know that they can rake in millions. Her latest album was apparently a triumph – I don’t doubt that – but it was basically rammed down our throats here in Britain particularly. I’ll give you an example.

The BBC pride themselves in not advertising but in many ways, they are hypocritical. When I am abroad, I watch BBC World News and, in between reports they show adverts – but I guess that doesn’t count because we are in a foreign land.

Nevertheless, in the UK we can watch television programmes uninterrupted by terrible and cringeworthy advertisements.

That is, unless an Adele album is realised.

The BBC gave Adele a one hour show where, in between songs, she chatted to one of the most famous UK chat show hosts, Graham Norton, and plugged her new album mercilessly.

It was a one hour advert for her album!!!!

I don’t blame her. If I were in her position I would also have accepted this lucrative offer.

In my opinion, television and radio in the UK is flawed in this regard.

If I had any clout whatsoever, I would not allow this – or alternatively – have programmes and shows that showcased alternative music out there. With all respect to Adele, there are lots of women who have written great songs and have amazing voices yet are never heard of because nobody plugs their music on prime time television and radio shows.

I would love to be a DJ at a commercial radio station. I would play all sorts of music from various genres.

Back to Adele, I have to admit that I like her Bond theme for Skyfall. She wrote an amazing song and sung it brilliantly. She deserves all the plaudits.

However, there are other women out there who have written better songs and have equally, if not better voices. I have an example.

A year or two ago, a Dutch symphonic metal band were challenged to interpret other people’s songs and perform their own version. They were given one week per song. The band is called Within Temptation and I have mentioned them before. Their song writing is amazing but on this occasion for fun they covered other songs. One of those songs was Skyfall.

Now I know that they didn’t write it, but the singer, Sharon den Adel, sang magnificently. Yes it is a little more rocky but concentrate on the vocals. I think you will be surprised.

Judge for yourself:

Do you agree?

If so, check them out.

This is the power of the internet, ladies and gentlemen.

Progressive Thoughts - Day 5

When you first hear today’s song, you could be forgiven for thinking it is a romantic power ballad.

But listen carefully to the lyrics; the song is similar to the concept in the movie Inception, postulating that it is possible to tap into your subconscious mind and actually control your own dreams.

The song is called Silent Lucidity by a band called Queensrÿche, a progressive metal band whose music is very interesting with a wide range of themes and musical styles:

Inception is an amazing film for several reasons. First and most importantly, I love the concept of being able to invade other people’s dreams and to control your own dreams. A lot of people didn’t understand the film – I totally got it from the start. 

We watched it with some friends recently at home and one of them suddenly shouted after about an hour:

“Right – pause the film!” 

“Why?” I said.

“What the hell is happening? I just don’t get it. Who’s dreaming? Who the hell is that guy?”

I had seen the film before and took a deep breath to explain what I thought was happening. He nodded his head but the expression on his face told me that he was struggling to follow the plot. At the end of the film, he was even more confused. Whether he enjoyed it or not is unclear, but he confessed that the special effects were special. 

And that’s the second reason I love the film. The special effects are out of this world, from Paris folding over itself to the fight in the hotel that is rolling over. You have to watch the film to understand what I mean.

Finally, the musical score is immense and is an epic piece of modern classical music (apologies for the oxymoron) that appeals to more than just those who love movie themes. 

I went to see one Dream Theater a couple of years ago. They are another progressive metal band who will feature in the next few days and they introduced themselves to the crowd with a video playing to a piece from the movie called The Dream Is Collapsing. In a theatre, the music sounded intense and I can see why the band selected it.

Here are two pieces from the movie called Time and The Dream Is Collapsing. They are grandiose and magnificent:

If you haven’t seen the film, I urge you to do so. Here is the trailer:

There is another similar movie that I love from the 1980’s which has a similar idea. The movie is called Dreamscape.

The hero is able to invade and shape other people’s dreams in a similar way but comes up against a similar person whose intentions are purely evil. Here is the trailer:

Being able to invade and influence other people’s dreams would be fairly high up on my list of super powers. The only drawback would be that you would be vulnerable while you were asleep yourself and, as the movie suggests, if you die in your dream, you die in reality too.

To be honest, I wouldn’t be a nasty person – I would simply observe and enjoy. However, I would need an escape route if I were to inadvertently jump into a nightmare. The fears of most people are unleashed sometimes in dreams and I have had a few nightmares myself over the years. They aren’t pleasant.

Imagine, for example,  a dream where Donald Trump is president of the US?

Oh my God! 

Wake me up now!

Progressive Thoughts - Day 4

I love the title of today’s song but I must confess to not really understanding it. The song is by one of my most recent and favourite discoveries, a progressive rock band from Poland called Riverside, who have totally won me over in the past two years.

The song is called Lost (Why Should I Be Frightened by a Hat?).

To some people this sums up how strange progressive rock can be with weird song titles and bizarre concepts as subjects. Yet, despite the odd title, this is a beautiful song and typical of the band.

The meaning of the song is, thankfully, not weird at all. Basically, it is about somebody looking back at his younger self and picturing the innocent wonder as the boy contemplates his future life with no fear – only excitement.

I can relate to that.

I cannot remember the thoughts going through my mind as an innocent boy. Some of my friends may ask “Were you ever innocent, Dave?”, to which my answer would be “Of course!”

But as a young child, I cannot confess to ever being unafraid of the future. To be honest, I was captivated by it but also deeply scared because it was all about the unknown. My fascination with science fiction steered my imagination into a vision of the future that was as terrifying as it was amazing.

Back in 1970, most kids were looking at the year 2000 with awe. I used to love reading books and watching TV programmes about what life would be like in that amazing future. To be honest, some of it has come to pass, but equally, one or two ideas from that time are laughable.

For example, we all thought that there would be a Moonbase, like in the TV series Space 1999 and UFO, and that we would be travelling to the outer reaches of our solar system. Also, the vision of orbiting space stations crammed full of people seemed to be a distinct possibility.

Closer to home, we pictured ourselves sitting in futuristic houses, with robots as servants , We would travel around in flying cars and be able to travel to the other side of the world in aircraft that left Earth’s orbit and could, say, fly from London to Sydney in just two or three hours. Furthermore, seers predicted that we would barely have to lift a finger in our own homes, from asking the cooker to prepare dinner and switching things on and off with voice command.

Now these later items do seem possible. Certain people got it totally right, particularly with the prediction that we would be carrying or own computers with us (in the shape of a smartphone) to being able to summon our own entertainment by watching television on-demand from a vast library of movies, TV series and box sets.

I am fascinated by the future and I would love one of two things to happen. Either I somehow become immortal and can watch the development of future technology over the next few hundred years, or somebody invents a time machine that can whisk me away to the future where I can see for myself what happens.

That would be a dream if it were possible.

Of course, depending on your religion, there might be some hope that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil, I may be born again and enjoy the future that way. Sadly I won’t be able to remember this life – unless technology permits it, of course.

Who knows?

I remain optimistic.

Progressive Thoughts - Day 3

The next song is Mama by Genesis.

Before Phil Collins turned Genesis into a pop band, they were a fully-fledged progressive rock giant with Peter Gabriel as vocalist. After, two of the five members departed, there were only three members left and Phil Collins took on the additional role of vocalist to add to his drumming skills. Things started to change with the band becoming more commercial and more like a pop band. However, during that transition, there were quite a few fabulous songs that nodded to past glories – and this is one of them. I love the sinister undercurrent and it is a far cry from Phil Collins songs like You Can’t Hurry Love.

Apparently the song is about a man who is obsessed by a prostitute, whom he calls “Mama”.

What I particularly like about the song is that sinister undercurrent and, as you can see from the video, the way that Phil Collins laughs in a menacing way.

I’m fascinated by disturbing themes and I sometimes question myself about it. For example, when I watch a thriller or a horror story, I am gripped by bad guys who are particularly nasty, demonic or devoid of feeling an emotion.

The only way I can explain it is that I am the polar opposite. I love people, generally, and feel terrible about harming any creature on this planet – with the notable exception of wasps.

For example, the other day, I put something in the bin and closed the lid with slightly excessive force. Just a microsecond before the lid slammed shut I caught sight of a slug on the rim and then watched in horror as the lid landed on top of it.

I actually cried out “Oh no!” and opened the lid to see a squashed slug, retracting its antennae and curling up into a ball. I watched for a few seconds and then grimaced as it fell into the bin, dead.

I had accidentally killed a slug and I was mortified.

This is the first time I have confessed to this heinous crime and I am appalled with myself.

You would think that such a sensitive nutcase would never watch or read about evil people who behave despicably. Yet I am an enigma in that sense and am utterly captivated by such people. For example, if you have been watching the latest series of The Walking Dead, the kind of character I am talking about is somebody like Negan, who is a total sociopath.

Another example is Hannibal Lecter, a highly intelligent, even charming, psychotic and cannibalistic murderer.

Why am I fascinated by this?

I can’t really answer to be honest. I can’t even imagine what thought processes run through the mind of such a person when he is committing such a crime. It’s totally alien to me. Ah – maybe that’s it. I am also fascinated by aliens generally and, to me at least, such thoughtless acts of violence without any morality and emotion are so alien to me that they actually captivate me.

Having said that, most of these evil people are figments of somebody’s imagination and I know that there are and have been real people who have committed atrocities too.

That terrifies me but thankfully (and hopefully) these people are few and far between.

Progressive Thoughts - Day 2

Today's song is Owner of a Lonely Heart by Yes.

I love this song because it combines early 1980’s pop music with a progressive rock feel.  Here it is:

The song is about taking control of your life, rather than just allowing yourself to drift without questioning anything. I’ve certainly been guilty of this at various times during my fifty four years.

What is bizarre about this is that we all go through phases when we question, and act but also we just slot into role that society expects of us and conform with expectations.  I know that I am guilty of this.

Certainly as a child, I questioned everything. I wanted to know everything. My grandad bought me a brilliant book for Christmas containing the answers to 100 questions that every child asks about a variety of subjects, questions like “What is the biggest number?”. The reason he bought it was because I was constantly pestering him from simple questions like “Why is the sky blue?” to more awkward questions like “When will Nanna have another baby?”

The book was fascinating and as a seven year old I soaked it up. I still remember the answer to the question “What is the biggest number?” because it introduced me to two concepts.

First that there was a huge number called a “googol” which has a value of 1 followed by 100 zeroes.

Does the name sound familiar? The company Google is a misspelling of the word. It was originally meant to signify that Google could provide huge quantities of information – which of course it can via its search engine.

Secondly, I was introduced to the concept of infinity. The true answer to the question is that there is no largest number because if you were to find it, you could just add one to make a new largest number. This opened a door in my mind and I became fascinated with maths (if you are American, I mean, of course, “math”), steering me in the eventual direction I took in life.

Of course, when I went to school I conformed until my hormones kicked in and made me question everything again. I wasn’t a pleasant adolescent; I became a rebellious arse who didn’t like the rules but had to stick to them. I asked questions like “Why can’t I tell the teacher he’s a cretin?” and “Why do I have to do what you tell me to do?”

Over the years, I have taken a few chances and broken out of the drudgery that life expects me to adhere to. A controlled population is, after all, an easy society to deal with. Yes, I got a job, got married, had kids, bought a house, paid my taxes, went on holiday, blah blah blah, but there were a few blips along the way, like getting divorced.

Yet, as I get older, the non-conformist rebel is surfacing more and more and I find myself questioning the shackles that bind me again. I am desperate to escape the rat race and have been doing so for about ten to fifteen years now.

It’s not that I hate my job. In fact, when I think about work, I have a bittersweet relationship with my career. It has allowed me to travel the world and provided me with everything I have now. Yet at the same time, it has been like a sort of open prison where I have had to go to an office for almost 240 days a year since I was 21 years old and have to listen to certain people, a few of whom I have had  little respect for.  I love the social aspect of work and have made many friends over the years.

The problem is that now I’m bored with my career and want to do something else – I want more freedom. I don’t want to have to justify everything that I do for a common goal that rewards certain people more than others. The rebel has been trying to surface to get me to take a chance. As the song says: “Prove yourself, you are the move you make, take your chances, win or loser”.

If only.

Never mind. I am now fifty four years old and as the days go by I care less and less about my job. I can see a light at the end of the tunnel and the one remaining shackle to complete will, within disappear within the next decade.

The rebellious adolescent is speaking to me again – and I love it.

Progressive Thoughts - Day 1

I thought I would start the New Year, as I did five years ago, with a daily series of posts. It will also help me to forget all of the weirdness that happened in 2016, a memorable year, but for all the wrong reasons.

Anyway, enough of that! We are now in the year 2017 and this year will hopefully be much better.

Five years ago, I chose to select a pop song every day in January and talk about where and how it featured in my life at the time.

This time, I am not going to do that exactly. Instead, I am going to endeavour to introduce you to the world of Progressive Rock, my favourite music genre. I can hear you groan, dear reader, as you think “Why? What the hell IS Progressive Rock anyway?”

Don’t be despondent. My aim is to pour forth my thoughts on a number of subjects inspired by the music that you will hopefully give a little go. To be honest, Progressive Rock in itself is a weird genre because many people claim to have never heard of it, but when I mention the bands and artists, they say “Oh yeah! I never knew they were Progressive Rock!”

Take Genesis, for example. They are one of the most famous members of this elite group of artists. You will hear from them in a few days.

I want to start where it all began, way back in 1977. The very first record I ever bought was a Progressive Rock masterpiece: Fanfare For The Common Man by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. I guess the genre appealed to me even back then.

Here it is:

I’ve always regarded myself as a common man. There’s nothing that special about me, really. If you were to meet me you hopefully not think I’m an okay kind of guy. I like to think I’m a nice person and would never knowingly upset anybody.

Yes I rant about people and things but if I genuinely don’t like somebody, I simply avoid them – for their sake as well as mine. I can’t bring myself to be nasty even to so-called foes; it’s just not in my nature.

To be fair, I would prefer to listen to a song called "Fanfare For The Nice Guy" because ultimately I think that nice guys don’t always win. Nasty people exploit and use nice guys – I have been a victim of that in the past when I was a naïve youngster. Such experiences have made me cynical and that is one of my weakness and something I can’t do anything about.

I like to think that I am a good judge of character and when I meet somebody who I think has a hidden agenda, I nod and smile but am very wary of their motives. I’ve met quite a few people like this, mainly through work and usually socially.

For example, at a wedding I went to once, I met a guy who bored me senseless for about an hour, telling me how wonderful he was and how rich he was. He asked me about what I had done, but his sole purpose was one-upmanship; to basically tell me that he had done something better or something more successful. Whenever I mentioned the exploits of friends I knew, he claimed to have friends who were better than them, more famous than them or had made a bigger mess of something.

At the end of the conversation, he wanted to keep in touch – why, I don’t know because compared to his person he claimed to be, I was just a plebeian non-entity. Perhaps he thought that I would become one his army of fans and he would be able to claim that he had common men as friends.

I haven’t seen him since – and I am glad.

Most of the people I meet, I genuinely like, which tells me that most people are fine, most people are nice guys and girls and we’re all common people with normal everyday lives.

I am sure you are too, dear reader, because I like you all too – unless you are a pseudo-intellectual or a keyboard warrior, in which case I shall reserve judgement until I meet you in person.