DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
My Fellow Americans, Life is actually just a microscopic, deluded moment in time, so let's cut to the freakin' chase. One look at our impending election debacle can solidify my case. It has been my contention since birth, that the answer to every difficulty we encounter on this sacred yet demented Stone, can be revealed with ultimate clarity through the ultra neurotic engagements of Music, Art, Literature, Film, Poetry and a good Pastrami sandwich. Why would any sane human spend so must time on a film set (Do you know how long you gotta wait until your 8 second deliverance of an edited beyond repair line gets a chance to become a professional embarrassment etched in time forever? ) or expend so much energy in a recording studio, piecing together another ode to a man or woman who could not care less how much love existed within your digestive tract? It's all about hymns and prayers and a quest for mercy and forgiveness and silence and faith. We were blessed with Charles Bukowski, Gene Chandler, Lenny Bruce, Mitch Ryder and a legion of creative explorers whose influences provided the air we breathe. So Let's Dance! This site shall explore the reaper, find a way to disarm the stench of injustice, discover some true loves and talk it all over before it's all over. So what's the worst that our desires could produce? Failure? So sue me. I'm going to require your assistance in making as much trouble for the grown-ups as possible. Let the record show that my childish heart yearns to disrupt the madness. Join me Ladies and Germs!
DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS
BILL MESNIK OF THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENTS: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #74 - BLESS THE WEATHER by John Martyn (Island, 1971)
“Bless the Weather” by Iain David McGeachy, OBE (1948-2009)— known to the public as John Martyn, is an emblem of the unfathomable mysteries of the universe: How could music so divinely comforting have emanated from one so troubled? Of course, treading the path of this maestro’s biography we find the familiar signposts of drug addiction, marital abuse, alcoholism, and psychic distress. And yet. this spiritual offering translates as only gentleness and pure peace. ’Tis a puzzlement.
Well, humans are complex, or as he himself wrote: “some people are crazy.” In 1980, after Martyn’s break up with wife and partner Beverly, this “father of TripHop” created “Grace and Danger”, which his friend and label owner, Chris Blackwell refused to release for a year because he felt it was “too disturbing”. So, I guess it wasn’t all hearts and flowers. And yet, even there, the folk-jazz improvisations, abetted by the agile bass fingerings of Danny Thompson, lull, even as they hint at a provocation.
Be that as it may, on this cut the soothing, vibrational waves of guitar and voice align my brain waves in such a way that I can feel my heart rate immediately relax. It is a meditation; a connection to the eternal one-ness.
