Van Morrison – Live @ Real World Studios May 8, 2021
Here are the first couple of songs from a live-in-the-studio concert Van Morrison streamed last month in support of his new album, Latest Record Project Volume 1. These two songs are an "official release," so I expect the link won't go stale. I am less certain about the unofficial, audio-only recording of the complete show that can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zsLa24FH6c.
Unlike most of the dinosaur acts from the 60s and 70s, bands who come back for a "farewell" tour every five years or so, Van Morrison has never stopped making music. He puts out a new record almost every year. The new one is his eighth release since 2015! His early work, through about 1979, is the most consistent, but there are lots of good songs—and usually two or three great ones—on every album.
"Hold On" H.E.R. with Chris Stapleton 2021 CMT Music Awards
Gorgeous harmonies from a performance earlier this week. I hear two and sometimes three voices doubling and harmonizing with the two lead guitars, all in a lilting 6/8 time signature.
Lol. Talkin’ Vonnegut is cool by me. It’s been more than 20 years since I last read Slaughterhouse Five. I may have to have another go at it this year. Even the movie was quite good.
Thanks for the link. It is both a serious review and an enjoyable read. It makes the argument that Slaughterhouse Five, which uses elements of science fiction in its plot, is itself not science fiction. Rather, it is a new form of literature, which the author terms “postmodern novel.”
But I think this is too exclusive. Why can’t a book be both literature and science fiction at the same time? Slaughterhouse Five is an anti-war novel (and more) that makes its points by telling a story about time travel and aliens! I repeat: a story about time travel and aliens. And these are not just minor plot “elements.” It’s all time travel, all the time.
Graham Greene refused to call his mystery tales “novels.” Instead, he deemed them to be mere “entertainments.” The distinction emphasized that his mysteries were not literature. I think the same distinction can also be applied to science fiction. Most of the time it ain’t even close to literature. But sometimes a writer uses the tools of science fiction to produce a work of literature. When that happens, I refuse to strip off the science fiction moniker.
If you start with a prejudgement that science fiction is always an entertainment, and can never be literature, then you are forced into the “elements of science fiction” argument when faced with the best writing of authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and others. That’s fine. That won’t change the quality of the work. You can call it whatever you like. As a lover of science fiction, however, I’m going to keep on calling it science fiction.
Kurt Vonnegut and PTSD
After Kurt Vonnegut was captured by the Germans in WWII, he was assigned for a time to POW labor crews in Dresden, where he worked in a slaughterhouse. When the city was fire-bombed in February 1945, triggering a firestorm that killed as many as 25,000, Vonnegut survived by staying in the freezers of the slaughterhouse. After the conflagration had burned itself out three days later, Vonnegut emerged, and was assigned to work gangs that had the gruesome task of digging out and burying the dead.
Although I never used the term PTSD, for many years I believed the experience had affected him gravely. I was forced to revise my thinking, however, when I read Vonnegut’s denial in one of his essays (or perhaps in a preface somewhere). According to Vonnegut, the news of his mother’s death, which came to him during his time as a POW, hurt him much more than his experiences at Dresden.
Who is she?[/quote]
Marianne faithful, still alive and singing. When they were much younger she was Mick Jagger’s girlfriend for a while. There’s another video of her singing it with shots in Paris but I can’t find it. This is The Ballad of Lucy Jordan. Written by Shel Silverstein. First recorded by Dr Hook & The medicine show. This was done very shortly after.
