it is all taking much longer than he would have thought

suni mcgrath he had 3 records on adelphi: cornflower suite, the call of the morning dove and childgrove '69-73. in 2006 he recorded this song seven stars.  you can find about 25 of his pieces on youtube. 

this really is very good american primitive. 

it is all taking much longer than horsemouth would have thought to turn himself into a retired gentleman. hopefully they now have everything. horsemouth scans the email for a breakthrough (no breakthrough). 

last night he went over to minty's and they jammed for a bit. horsemouth returned with the rest is noise (alex ross) and a copy of prog magazine. horsemouth has just discovered that he left with andy's guitar (and that andy still has his). oops (and they weren't even drinking). 

in the day he read about bakhtin (who interestingly like pasternak turns out to be another child of the neo-kantians at marburg through his friend kagan). horsemouth has bakhtin's book on rabelais round here somewhere from whence the concept of the carnivalesque that gets taken up in teh discussion of music a lot. 

having finished the hawkbinge  podcast horsemouth attempted to test his toleration for other podcasts discussing music - he searched for blue oyster cult ones and was rewarded with a podcast that ostensibly compares two albums (in this case graceland by paul simon with secret treaties by the blue oyster cult - strange juxtaposition or what?).

now graceland had a big effect on opening up interest in south african music beyond south africa (and thus african music in general beyond africa). there had been some interest in african music before (as the record labels had scrambled to try and find the new bob marley following marley's death) - there were attempts to launch king sunny ade and the nigerian style of juju music with its big bands featuring many multi-layered guitars (this was one of the things horsemouth first saw and listened to). 

graceland is the one that does it however. by incorporating the african music elements in under the rubric of doo-wop, rock n'roll, zydeco, gospel, elements already familiar in the west and by making them a foil to paul simon's nervy anxious lyrics.  

it's interesting to hear all of this clumsily discussed and yet the hosts demonstrate an affection for the music. they are much more comfortable talking about the blue oyster cult's secret treaties and its snarky, sarcastic take on heavy metal. 

we have reached the weekend. this has a very notional meaning for horsemouth the retired man (it's no longer a matter of cracking a can of beer as soon as he gets in the door friday night). 

it's a decent sunshine-y morning. horsemouth should take minty's guitar back.