Attenborough has been telling us for 30 years,but his warnings have fallen on deaf ears. I've been saying for a long time that we'd only listen when it was too late. Even now that we're listening we're not doing anything significant.
After the C4 News last night there was an Unreported World special about the lucrative trade in exotic animals to wealthy clients. I have to confess I couldn't watch it. Enough bad news already.
The Beatles have 'released' their last single, 53 years after they split up. Apparently based on some John Lennon lyrics from 1977. I've heard clips of it, and it only underlines that I just don't get AI. Artificial Intelligence was used to clean up a tape of Lennon singing, and join up other parts of the song. To merge it all together, so to speak. To me, this song sounds like exactly what it is. A computer generated and enhanced patchwork of sounds. It has no feeling to it whatsoever. No soul, no vibrancy. It does not transcend in any way the sum of its parts. The Beatles catalogue closed when they split up. I'm not sure how many of their fans will really embrace this Frankenstein style creation.
I agree up to a point. I love live music and go to at least one open Mike a week and make my own contribution, plus the odd concert, whether folk, jazz or classical. But the way this Beatles song has been compiled is not so different from the way they used to work in the studio. They were perfectionists, particularly Paul McCartney, and their later recordings often had several layers. Eventually they had to stop playing live because they couldn't hear themselves for all the screaming from hysterical young ladies. Studio recording is a lot different now from the time when Lonnie Donegan recorded Cumberland Gap in one take, and the lead guitarist didn't even know what key it was in until the recording started. I've done a small amount of studio recording, and the fussier the producer the less enjoyable I find it.
Haloween just over and the cynical Christmas adverts begin. The buy-now-pay-later brigade are the worst. That's really what poor folk who already can't make ends meet need - more debt.
Last Christmas by Wham! - so sugary and sentimental, but it never gets old for me. Stop the Cavalry by Jona Lewie - such a simple unassuming tune. Bit of brass band in there too All the others I've heard too many times. Particularly that Pogues & Kirsty one
Cliff's Mistletoe & Wine always does it for me. It never fails to evoke warm memories of 1988, my best Christmas spent at my grandparents' in Southend. I padded down the stairs at 5am to discover a snooker table in the dining room. Gawd knows where they'd stored it. Brilliant times.
To be honest, I love most Christmas tunes. I'm a huge fan of John Lennon's offering, and David Essex's A Winter's Tale. If you haven't heard it before, check out T-Rex's Christmas Bop, which is criminally underplayed.
WExford Carol, by Alison Krauss and Yoyo Ma is my favourite. My singer and I always perform A Child is Born and Oh Holy Night at The Five Bells at Christmas. I feel sorry for the shop assistants who have to listen to non-stop Christmas music for weeks on end.
I am beginning to feel physically sick being reminded of all these Christmas songs. Only one track suitable for Christmas morning. “Woe to you o earth and sea, for the devil sends the beast with wrath……..”
