"So why buy a physical cd if you can listen to the music for free?" I hear you ask. As it happens, I saw a YouTube video on this subject yesterday (even though the video discusses cassettes and not cds). Mary Spender talks about connection and ownership; a purchaser of a physical object feels a stronger connection to its creator and even a sense of commitment: after all, I spent some of my hard-earned money on this.
Although the cd comes in what might be termed a gate-leaf sleeve, designed by Daniel Halsall (presumably the brother of Matthew), not much information is given. In a smallish font one learns the names of the pieces and who played on what. Bass clarinet on 'Still waters' is played by Joel Stedman, who was the clarinettist on the livestream performance that I have referenced before; otherwise the bass clarinet is played by Arran Kent.
The most interesting piece of information on the sleeve is that the music was
recorded in August 2022 and January 2023 (by Matthew Halsall). This brings up
some interesting questions: why did it take so long between recording and
releasing? Why two sessions five months apart? There's no date on the
livestream performance save to say that it was uploaded a year ago.
On a completely different topic: John Cale wrote and recorded a song called 'Close watch' whose refrain is 'I keep a close watch on this heart of mine'. I used to hear this song played on Israeli Army radio way back in the 80s and 90s, the sort of song that would be played in the dead hours of the night. It was originally released on an album called 'Helen of Troy' in 1975, whereas the version that I have is from 'Music for a new society' from 1982 (I have this cd). As such, I was somewhat startled to hear on the radio last week the song 'I walk the line' by Johnny Cash that begins with the words 'I keep a close watch on this heart of mine'. I wondered which came first: after checking, it turns out that Cash released his song in 1964 whereas Cale's song is from 1975. Two points to Johnny Cash, although I much prefer the Cale song. To make things clear, I'm writing about two completely different songs that happen to share a line of words. Was Cale influenced by Cash?
The swimming season has started. On Saturday I swam 10 lengths (punctuated by breaks) and today I swam 14. No doubt by next week I will be upto 20 lengths.
| Title | Tags | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 593 | London log (1): Tottenham Court Road and The Beatles | Holiday, Beatles, London | |
| 1043 | Rodos log 6: The Jewish quarter | Holiday, Rodos, Holocaust, Greece | |
| 1147 | Italy 2018 - Four seasons in one day | Holiday, Torino, Italy | |
| 1515 | Italy 2022: Returning home | Holiday, Italy, Bari |
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