● Lady Percy moves me - might she move you? CLICK TO FIND OUT
● Plus my novels, stories, verse, vulgar interests, apologies, and singing.
● Most posts are 300 words. I respond to all comments/re-comments.
● See Tone Deaf in New blogger.


Sunday, 2 August 2026

Credo (Hey, look up the translation)

Music: in the end the only true division is not between categories (Pop. Classical. Folk. Jazz, und so weiter) but by quality. It's either good or bad and you make the decisions, but it does help if you're moderately well informed

You think I'm a hypocrite, wedded to Schubert, Schumann and all those dead old fogies. Perhaps I am but, in my defence, I offer this:

A concert to celebrate Paul Simon's 75th birthday. The Boxer, a moderately complex tune but backed up by words worth listening to. Simon, perfectly on the beat with quite forcefully vigorous strumming, that lightish voice ensuring we hear everything. Joan Baez, as it were playing second fiddle but with great grace, contributing a sort of descant, thus another view of a "good" song. A second guitarist, presumably doing the bass line, allowed a dozen bars of fascinating variations at the end. No essential difference between The Boxer and Gute Nacht which kicks off the Winterreise song cycle.

An emotional choice? But the mind is at work too.