BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN - I’M ON FIRE

I remember listening to this when the record came out in 1984, when I was still playing with Lego. Songs like I’m On Fire and Downbound Train made a lasting impression on me. It was like I understood what the songs were about, even if the subject matter was very grown up, and I didn’t even know the language. That’s how strong the mood of this music is. Many years on a friend of mine showed me this video, I never even knew there was one. To me the song, and it’s video, is a brilliant example of 1980s post-modern fascination with 50s rock culture. This could very well have been an Elvis song, and one of the great ones too, but it’s all very different somehow. What strikes me too is what a good actor Bruce is. He really is that guy in the song. A great piece of 80s melancholia. Enjoy!     

After having bought the book twice, and receiving it once as a gift from my friend John Agnello, I’ve finally gotten round to reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. It is not the first time I’ve tried. It is one of those books, like Celine’s Journey to the End of the Night, that I’ve always found too bleak to keep reading past those first 50 pages. Now that I’ve finally managed to sink my teeth into it, I am utterly smitten. What a dark master that man is! What a genius writer! The language is gorgeous. For lack of a better reference I’d have to say it reminds me a bit of Knut Hamsun’s early works, the lyrical, dreamlike quality of it … The story told, of course is quite different from the quirky pastoral drama of Pan and Victoria. The book is a blood drenched odyssey through the desserts and adobe towns of the American south-west of the1840s. It is a story with no heroes, non that you can vouch for anyway. Murder is commited over the small question of being denied a drink in a saloon, out of sheer necessity, or for no reason at all. There is no law, apparently no moral, and non of the light that seeps through in some of his other novels. Ultimately, you end up asking yourself: Is this who we are when no one is looking? Wholeheartedly recommended.

I’ve listened a lot to Mark Lanegan’s ‘Blues Funeral’ lately, in fact it’s the only album I’ve played around the house for the last couple of weeks. It’s a stone cold mix of kraut, blues and crooner-rock, and it’s pretty damn great. Oh, and there’s a disco tune in there too. Here’s the man himself performing four of my favorite tracks from the album with his new, apparently all Belgian, touring band. The guitar player is amazing, and of course, Lanegan’s vocals are out of this world. He really is one of the greatest singers around. Enjoy!   

Found this particularly sweet performance of Where Is My Moon?  on YouTube. The clip is from the Oslo show. Sadly we didn’t record that show. Bummer.

AUTUMN IN ARCADIA SOLO EUROPEAN TOUR PART 1.

Ladies & Gentlemen! The European tour starts in Switzerland next week. I’m really looking forward to seeing you all again. Here’s the first of three short films from the very successful Norwegian leg of the tour. Most of this episode was shot at Bergen’s Logen Teater. Filmed and edited by light engineer extraordinaire Neil McNasty. TC&BN!