A Word on Music

“Without music, life would be a mistake” – Friedrich Nietzsche

Poor Nietzsche; he died before most of the brilliant music was even composed. But he was right, of course. Without music, what a void there would be in our lives.
I often think it is no surprise how important music is in the final act of life, with people being quite particular about what is to be played at their funeral, and even if the music isn’t to my particular taste, it always fills me with an overwhelming spirituality at the thought that a specific piece of music was so vital and so important to a person that I have, in some way, shared my life with.

And even if the person who died has not chosen the music, someone exceedingly important in their lives has considered the mass of music in our world and has chosen something particular to commemorate the people who have passed on.

Quite a difficult choice. I really hope that those close to me let me know their musical choices as choosing from the wealth of music would be an extremely difficult task. Come to think of it, perhaps everyone should add a codicil to their Will, requesting precisely what should be played at their funeral.

As for me, I am still undecided as to what I want at my funeral. I am pretty confident that I would like a Leonard Cohen song, and I am fairly sure that I would like, “If It Be Your Will”, and if anyone at my funeral does not dissolve into tears at the point of listening, then they should be ejected from the venue. I think I might also want Bruce Springsteen’s “Fever” too because it is so evocative of a vital part of my life though it is a close call between this and “The River”. And then I might have to borrow a certain song from a French singer, that whenever I hear it makes me want to spew tears of gratitude that I too did not become a passer-by.

Even the clichéd songs at funerals, if they are chosen by a loved one, can make sense and can be so important. My dear Auntie chose “My Way” for her funeral; one that many people of a certain age has chosen, and yet on hearing it, I remembered the stories of her obstinance, her determination, her resolution to do things the way that she wanted to do, and it made sense. Of course, the particular story that sprung to mind was when she wanted to listen to Old Blue Eyes on the radio one evening and despite the fact that it was her sister’s engagement party she refused to enter into the festivities until the radio programme with her idol had finished. Bless her!

There are still certain pieces of music that I cannot hear without a rush of adrenalin, passion and emotional attachment rushing through my body reminding me of a certain time or a certain event or a certain person. The association that music inspires in the mind is an incredibly powerful tool, and I cannot imagine being without it, even if my musical tastes have developed to the point when some of these songs, as a piece of music and lyrics in their own right, resonate less with me these days.

And I have the slight disadvantage of being born at a time when musical appreciation of the teenage years did not coincide with the most capable composition time of the century, to say the least!

For instance, Carly Simon’s “The Spy Who Loved Me” theme tune is a pretty basic old song, written to a tried and tested formula. Some would even say it was schmaltzy but for me it is about a specific date, a specific place and a specific person, and however middle of the road it is, I still enjoy blasting it out on the piano, being transported back to a balmy night in 1977 when my world of desire started to open.

And there are other songs that I shared with my pupils at school because I was fed up with them singing the usual formulaic rubbish that fill assembly halls throughout the country. I introduced them to Carol King and Bob Dylan and Henry Mancini and Simon and Garfunkel and even Burt Bacharach, heaven forbid! Still, at least it took them away from “The Ink is Black” and “All Things Bright and Beautiful”.

Listening to music is one thing. Sitting or standing in a room when it is being performed live is quite another. I have been fortunate enough to do that twice this week; completely different sounds, completely different settings but both equally enjoyable. The music is one thing but the thing that really excites and energises me is the audience response to live music. I am quite mesmerised by watching people as they become alive, releasing themselves from their daily inhibitions as they allow the music to overwhelm them and enable their passions and their true selves to come to the forefront.

I was watching a friend during the first performance that I went to this week. I don’t know him that well but he comes across as slightly shy, even awkward in expressing himself musically, though clearly he has an interest. The beat was strong, the bass somewhat overpowering to the point that you could hardly avoid its thumping push to make you move but it took him until almost the penultimate song to pluck up the courage to move with the mood and allow his body to respond naturally with what he was listening to. It’s quite sad really.

And then there was an opportunity later in the week to look carefully at peoples’ response to a different type of music. I was fascinated by the diversity of culture, ethnicity and age gathered together, drawn together by an interest in a certain type of music; all individual yet all conforming. Music has that power; to enable our individuality at the same time as collectively massing us in a uniform appreciation of sound.

There was the young man who instinctively moved his feet as soon as the performer placed the harmonica to his mouth. There was the buxom brunette at the bar who passionately kissed her partner as she escaped into the rhythm and soul of the music. There was the older bloke with the pathetic pony tail; his sartorial mare at once ignored when you saw how he lit up at the sounds that he heard. There were the lovers in the corner who said nothing but felt one another’s reaction without words, without even a glance at one another. It was just there.

That is the power of music, and Nietzsche is so right to say that without it in our lives, life would be a huge mistake.

Even the poor folk who are deaf can at least see the effect that music has on others, and if I were in the horrifying position of losing my sense of hearing, I hope I would still get some delight at seeing others enjoying theirs.

As well as enjoying the delights of the Desert Island Disc site, I am also currently enjoying the most brilliant of websites ever, in that I have music of any genre at the tip of my fingers. Spotify allows me to regress, diversify and learn. It enables me to wallow, to invigorate myself, to appreciate genius and to meditate.

I woke this morning rather late to find a message from my sister to tell me that Gil Scott Heron had sadly passed away. It is always upsetting to hear about somebody’s premature death, and in some ways it is a miracle that he survived as long as he did (said someone in my house today). But for some reason, I was particularly saddened to hear about this news, partly for selfish reasons in that I put off seeing him at Womad last year, thinking that he would be touring again soon. Sadly this is not to be.

But the main source of sadness is losing another great poet and musician, losing another man who expressed his soul and fought, through his compositions, to let the sound of injustice to be heard loud and clear, as well as celebrate the joys and loves through his music.

As I said, Nietzsche never heard the likes of Gil Scott Heron or the other musicians who have long since been born and departed in the previous and current centuries. But such is their influence on our world to try and make it slightly less mad and slightly more meaningful, it is no surprise that those with a passion for music feel a little more bereft at their parting.

I remember distinctly where I was when I heard about the deaths of certain musicians: I was at the bus stop watching peoples’ sadness when I heard that Lennon had been shot. Funnily enough I was at another bus stop when I heard Bob Marley had died. I remember the exact moment when the news of Elvis Presley’s death reached me and was furious with my friends for being so uncaring that they would not leave me in peace to read his obituaries. I even remember where I was, sitting outside a school, when I heard about Kirsty MaColl’s tragic accident in Mexico, leaving two young sons without a mother.

These people enter into our lives and give so much of themselves in their creativity. The world is a complete mistake without them, and I am eternally grateful that I do have ears to listen and I have the nous to actually use them to the greatest of effect.

Books, Amazon and Desert Island Discs

It is Friday night; shortly to be Saturday. Everyone has gone to bed and I have a sudden urge to write. I don’t have a sudden urge to read at the moment. In fact I am a little perturbed by my recent lack of reading, other than excellent articles on the internet and a whole load of extremely tedious documents for work.

But that is all in the past. I have a new awakening, and I am ready to read; even discipline myself to do it regularly. And the fact that I have just been made redundant will hopefully give me a little flexibility to fit all manner of reading into my daily discipline of meditation, calm and a little dose of self-indulgence.

Which is why I am utterly delighted to have discovered a couple of things that will assist me in my task.

A few months ago, I downloaded the Amazon Kindle application to my phone. I then loaded a few free books that I thought I might like to read one of these days; “Diary of A Nobody” by George Grossmith which is a book I have been meaning to read for decades, ever since I spotted it in my Mum’s downstairs loo (the room, that is!) or a mass of books on Zen. Having read part of another book, “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder, I felt a need to look more closely at some of the philosopher’s mentioned and so I have also recently downloaded “Ethics” by Aristotle and with a healthy amount of synchronicity, “The Memorable Thoughts of Socrates” by Xenophon who just happened to be the subject of “In Our Time” on Radio Four this week. How spooky is that!

They are all there, ready to be read, as are the masses of hard copy books that are collecting at the side of my bed shouting, “read me, read me!” as I guiltily fall into my nightly coma.

Now, the thing with the phone application is that it is brilliantly convenient. When I am travelling now, I tend to read rather than play endless rounds of word games. Although the phone is relatively small it does the trick and I love flicking through the “pages” with speed as I engross myself in a book. And I am not alone. There are masses of people on the trains these days with electronic reading matter rather than a solid book in hand.

At this point, I feel a need to reiterate that nothing beats the feeling of real page flicking and holding a real book in your hands. Furthermore, I love nothing more than browsing peoples’ bookshelves to see what they are reading. Maybe that is my implicit nosiness because the books on peoples ‘shelves (or lack of them) says quite a lot about an individual or a family in my opinion. And whilst I embrace the ease of the Kindle and other electronic forms of reading, I feel it would be an immense pity to hide one’s reading material so that other’s cannot get a glimpse of who you are and what makes you tick when they walk into your house.

As it happens, the head of Amazon was on the radio this week and he mentioned that the electronic book sales had outstripped hard copies for the first time this month; an astounding amount of downloads and he carefully reminded potential customers that there are hundreds and thousands of titles that are totally free; accessible to anyone.

But, I hear you say. Not everyone has a Kindle or and iPhone that they can transport around. In fact some people would see such purchases as irrelevant.

And in some ways they would be right, for as I was researching the Kindle machine the other day, I came across a link which said you could download a programme that would turn your laptop, tablet, netbook etc into a Kindle.

I immediately downloaded the programme and as if by magic, all the books that I had purchased with my phone application appeared in front of me on my netbook computer. How brilliant is that!

Not only that but as I turned to “Sophie’s World”, the book I am currently reading, it managed to synchronise as though by default to the chapter I had been reading on the train earlier in the day via my iPhone.

I’m not a scientist and I have no desire to know how that happens but I do marvel at the brilliance of such technology and the ability for me, as the consumer, to link between phone and computer without too many unnecessary tapping on the keyboard to find my place.

So if you haven’t done so already – here is the link to the Kindle for the PC.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_mkt_lnd?docId=1000423913

But this is not all in my ongoing literary exploration. There is another website that is going to help me on my journey of learning.

Recently the BBC has developed their Desert Island Discs site. Gradually they are uploading more and more programmes from their archives and you can now see the choices that the famous and the interesting have made over the many years since Roy Plomley first introduced us to this incredible island.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/features/desert-island-discs

So, if you want to know how many people have taken Bob Dylan songs for a trip overseas to the deserted island, all you have to do is place the great man’s name in the search engine and you will find that his discs have made it to the island 90 times. The Beatles have been transported 250 times whilst Elvis has made it over 71 times.
“Land of Hope and Glory” is a top hit with some folk, making an island journey 56 times, and oh how interesting it is to see who has chosen that one!

But it is not all about music.
For instance, I now know that 43 people have chosen to take “War and Peace” by Leo Tolstoy on their deserted island, including this week’s castaway Deborah Harry.
Although Ms. Blondie didn’t ooze with personality during the interview, I did empathise with her at the end when she was horror-stricken at the thought that she could only take one book other than the bible and the complete works of Shakespeare.

“Can I take some Dostoyevsky books?” she asked. Kirsty reminded her that she could only take one. At that, Debbie decided she needed a book to keep her going so chose the infamous Russian tome that most people have not read and everyone says they will do one of these days.

So what other choices have people made?
Three people have chosen “Wuthering Heights”, dear darling Tony Benn took Das Kapital with him, five people have taken “Catch 22” (and an interesting lot they were) and Shami Chakrabarti decided to choose one of my favourites, “To Kill a Mocking Bird”.

In order to help me with my choice of reading, therefore, I can go to the website and start snooping around to see what people have read. For instance, having heard Deborah Harry discussing Dostoyevsky, I decided to look up how many people had chosen this particular author. When it then became apparent that nine people had chosen his books, seven of whom had chosen the same title, one of whom was Martin Sheen, I decided that perhaps I ought to read “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor.

And of course, where better to look for the aforementioned book in haste but to visit the Kindle bookshop on the Amazon website, whereupon I found a free copy of the book that I have now downloaded to my phone.

Isn’t life sometimes incredibly magical!

Of course, I think someone at the Beeb ought to compile these lists into some semblance of order. Perhaps with redundancy now in place, I ought to suggest myself for this task for I am sure that a compilation of books as a “Top Choices for the Island” would be a best seller – similar to the summary book that the BBC produced a few years ago, the 100 favourite books of the nation.

And here I come along to my final point of writing for the day, for it has turned well into Saturday now.

I adore listening to DID as those in the know call it. I am fascinated by the choices people make; sometimes horrified, sometimes moved to tears. The website is now calling members of the public to place their eight discs, luxury item and book on the site and one day soon I might get around to doing that, though I honestly don’t know where I would start to get a mere eight choices together, let alone choose one book.
And this made me think. Surely, it is time for Desert Island Discs to move a little with the times. As millions of people have Kindles now and that many books are at the tip of our fingers through internet downloads, then surely we should think about what could be taken on the island and what should be left behind.
I am not suggesting that Kirsty offers them an unlimited amount of Kindle downloads otherwise there would be no fun in listening to the castaway’s choices. However, I think the time has now come for them to consider giving each island dweller a loaded Kindle with 100 set texts. They could even use the 100 reads that the BBC produced a few years ago.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/bigread/top100.shtml
This would still enable the island dwellers to choose a book of their own, and it also might sort the men from mice in getting people to choose something different and not too predictable.

Also, if people desired, they could choose between this and the Bible perhaps or it could simply be an additional thing rather than an either/or. And whilst we are on the subject of the Bible, perhaps DID could be a little more flexible in the alternatives for this book. They offer the Koran when necessary but perhaps they could have a shortlist of other religious or philosophical books that castaways might like to take instead. How about, for example, a compilation of Confucius comments or Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching; neither of which, unbelievably, has made it onto the island. (I tell a lie. The pianist Lang Lang chose the Analects of Confucius last year – another piece of synchronicity as he was on the Andrew Marr show last Sunday!).

My only problem with all of this is that there are not enough hours in the day. I need to play the piano, to swim, to gym, to walk, to look up, to smell, to feel, to write, to eat, to do all the things that every human being should be doing daily; after their own individual needs and desires.

But I will try and read a little more and these two findings of mine are going to help me, and I hope they are going to help any reader of my blog also.

On Thursday 4^th August, Barack Obama is going to make his half century. It is probably a day worth celebrating. Sometimes incumbents in any role do not get the recognition that they deserve. It is only in later years that they are seen to be the genius that they clearly were all along.

I wonder if this is going to happen to Obama or are there people around the world prepared to acknowledge the incredible achievement of this man and his commitment to world economic changes and peaceful living.

Of course, he is a human being, and there are faults in all of us. He tows the US line about it being the good and the great and that God is overseeing the lives of those over there more than in any other country on the planet. And there are things that he has done that have tested our belief in him.

However, there are far more things that delight us and send chills of hope tickling along our spines with the vision, and as importantly the action that accompanies it. There are many that can speak the words but there are fewer that have the ability and the sensibility to take actions towards their visions and hopes.

This morning there was an interview with Barack Obama on the Andrew Marr show. I have to admit that like many women of a certain age and a certain political persuasion, I am ever so slightly in love with the man. Prior to the interview on television, Mark Mardell provided a short summary of life since Obama took the helm of the most powerful country in the world (apart from China possibly).

All of a sudden, I was transported back to that day in November when I kept my lap top directly next to me in bed, waiting for the news and then waiting for the man himself to walk into the Chicago night and accept the affirmation from the thousands collected there and the millions who were waiting around the world. Surrounded by glass screens, he looked out and declared his hope, his wisdom and his desire for a new world and he professed that we can change things. Yes, we can.

He reiterated this in his inauguration speech in the chilled environment of Washington on an extremely cold day in January and still the people came to see this saviour dressed in a darkened coloured skin. Was this real? Hadn’t Dr. King predicted it? That one day men and women, whatever the colour of their skin, would be free to vote and even lead a nation such as this.

Well, here we were. A black president and despite the enormity of this, it is not what makes Obama great. What makes him the man he is, is the insight, the fortitude and the desire to make real and definable changes that are going to affect generations and nations far wider than his specific domain of governance.

This indeed is a great man.

Credit also to Andrew Marr. The interview was not sycophantic despite the fact that Marr was clearly having the time of his life interviewing this icon of politics. He posed some tricky questions, some of which the 44^th President declined to answer, but yet again Obama showed more humility than many a politician by being honest enough to admit that he was resolute in not answering the questions rather than pathetically attempting to answer in such a way that it circled around the original point that was made by the interviewer.

You have to respect the man.

Marr was direct and questioned him immediately about the killing of Osama bin Laden. Had it gone to plan? Obama answered calmly. The troops had gone in with the strict instruction to come out safely. But again, he put a human touch on it all by admitting that it was the longest 40 minutes of his life.

It doesn’t fit well with me. I know that bin Laden needed to be found. I know that international law would not have allowed the USA to drag him through the streets hung, drawn and quartered but it is perfectly apparent that there must have been a Shoot to Kill policy once they finally found the man.
Of course, where there is fact, this is usually backed up by fiction and there is a fantastic episode of The West Wing where the President gives the go-ahead to assassinate a terrorist leader. It is excruciating because this command goes against everything that you believe Bartlett stood for. To an extent the same can be said of this situation. To an extent.

He continued to talk about Pakistan and the problems that face the country and the issue of realigning their concern for the biggest threats to the country lie from within and not from the Indian nation to the east. But the really significant part of the interview was his wise words on the Middle East.
Not only did he reiterate his call to look once more at the 1967 boundary and the need for a Palestinian state but he effectively said all of this without deliberately antagonising the Israelis. He managed to say it in such a way that made it look as though his strongest empathy was with the Jewish nation and not that of the Arab oppressed whilst simultaneously giving some credence to Hammas and the Palestinian cause; all very clever and indeed some might even say calculated.

He discussed the Arab Spring and all the hope and ambition of the people in this troubled part of the world. Obama made the point that peaceful demonstration, political forethought and sensible, creative negotiations were the way forward in all places of the world.

And so the interview continued. He recognised the futility of a continuing combat operation in Afghanistan. He outlined the huge leaps to equality that had come about in his country due to the health care reforms and his determination to steady the economic pressures that face the needy of his land. And he told of the delightful conversations with the queen at Buckinghaaaam but gently reminded the interviewer that it was as important and as insightful to listen to the words of a man having his breakfast in a downtown diner. Such people said as much, and implicitly much more, than the head of state of any nation.

It is good to be the beholder of greatness and to recognise the genuine humility of a man that has such promise resting on his shoulders.

So was it all in the stars for his birthday that this man should be the person that he is?

Back to my birthday book and it tells me that his meditation should be “to accept and even enjoy advancing age is one of the great arts of living”. But not until that second term is in the bag, eh Barack?

The man is an Ox, quite literally of course as far as Chinese astrology is concerned. To this effect, he is patient, perseverant, logical, methodical, hardworking, dependable, conventional, polite, and calm. He is a fast thinker and a good debater that can be stubborn, biased and demanding and can also appear cold and careless.

But this is fairly generic stuff. What about the metal Ox of August 4^th.

You stick to your principles, your loves and your projects. Your behaviour is rigorous and fierce, and you do not let anything slip out of your hands without fighting. Besides, you cannot stand failures and in that case, you show a perseverance that borders on obstinacy. Therefore, tenacity may turn into stubbornness and extremism. It doesn't matter! Your courage and stamina are unanimously praised

.

And furthermore, what does the birthday book say of the potential greatness of the man?

His tarot card is the emperor; stable and wise – rather a decent card for a man of such importance.
Those born on this day are often a “guiding light” to the political or social movement. Not always cut out to be leaders they should have a principal position nonetheless. Being able to go their own way is important to the restless people born on this day. They are quick and clever. They seek to exert influence and they have a determined strength that is formidable.

And advice for these people?
“Remember your responsibilities. Try to temper your dislike of authority and be more tactful in dealing with your superiors. Your freedom is not always the most valuable thing. Learn acceptance, concentration, awareness”

The birthday book says that but I say this. “Remember your responsibilities. Do not temper your dislike of authority. Use it to get the equalities that have so long escaped that alleged great country of yours. Use that temper to eradicate the injustices that have been inherent. Be tactful and courteous to others but be resolute. Your freedom will come with the freedom from others such is your belief in your values. Do not accept injustice. Concentrate on this awareness and progress into the second term with radical changes that will make a difference now and for future generations”.

And carry on listening Obama, and carry on believing, and carry on sounding like a good old socialist!

Of course, this is all slightly marred by the fact that Obama shares his birthday with the Queen Mother. Perhaps he will learn to enjoy a tipple of gin and stout.