Monthly Archives: January 2016

Faux crock

Posted on by
Reply

I already feel as though Terse, which is a poem, and Lived Experience have a strong dose of anti-folk without knowing it, but that was always going to happen.

If I was meant to be more influenced by Michele Shocked than Pete or Peggy Seeger then I wasn’t aware of this. As for folk rock, well let’s see if the next piece manages to meet the mandate

Barbed Wire Blues

It's one way to get nimble
as you scramble for safety
through all of these obstacles
Out there barbed wire

in coils and strands
tightened neck height
and hidden 
barbed wire

It's mostly how we negotiate
where barbed wire is drawn straight
relay across hills so we relate

It's getting inbetween & not being caught up
not being stuck in a chorus of fuck
boots best placed planted astride
barbed wire

If someone can lift it off
though I'm green to the mean 
I wouldn't wager my wage on the gauge
or even settle over metal
barbed wire

Filk if

Posted on by
Reply

There are too many genres to canvas. Electronic alone would take over the entire blog. I hadn’t heard of this folk variant but apparently it’s played at sci fi and fantasy conventions and combines traditional folk instruments with an electronic keyboard. Sometimes it overlays themed lyrics using existing tunes but not always.

I don’t propose to write with any melody in mind as that is counter to how I work but I can certainly work with a large bank of comic book material stored away.

Let’s bypass The Flash and Wolverine and anyone else who has seeped into the mainstream as that no longer specifies the song as filk.

Heck with it, filk isn’t always science fiction or fantasy themed, let’s just roll

Terse

Creators were grateful  
when their creatures came good
Finely limned or lit up on screen
behaving the way they should

Artists have parted
the red, see, the green brown and blue
Colourists clarify 

Producers do so directors reflect
a stand-in's understanding
a pop culture prop assault

Vanity projects itself
with inspiration straight off the shelf
veterans can do nothing but watch

Folk: us

Posted on by
Reply

Folk music exists around the world and maintains its currency regardless of changes in musical fashion. That is, the whole globe continues to produce musical outfits that could reasonably be described as folk-oriented.

But there is no point in attempting to learn the entire cultural backdrop and different instruments when folk has at its base lived experience. We write about a place we traverse with people we recognise. Only historical reconstructions put the lie to that. And folk music is big on celebrating and documenting the past.

But, right, there is something that ‘clicks’ (in Australia’s case, shears 🙂 )

We’ve just looked at skiffle and that’s a kind of folk music. Then, for we colonials, there are Irish, Scots and Welsh folk songs aplenty. Let’s write one of those songs that is not going to satisfy any of these categories – even if accidentally

Lived Experience

I've felled forests fallowed fields 
I've worked like a jerk for minimum yield
Breaking my back and stretching my neck out
Design in my spine is there til I check out
this lived experience

The best that we can be
is the test as you can see
we make the most of mystery
it's a lived experience

A force that courses through
when they cancelled that taboo
choose who she chews
chews who she choose
set as lived experience

I've moved mountains measured mounds
I've sorted my surrounds
Bracing my shoulders facing my foes
Yes it's keeping me on my toes
such a lived experience

Scofflaw skiffle

Posted on by
Reply

Yet another piece that works as a song (though more as a poem) but not as an exemplar of the music genre that informs it.

Skiffle is another genre strong on narrative storytelling. Bands like Herman’s Hermits struck me as having remnants of the genre and, if Ray Davies wasn’t a genius, one could even point to influences on his songwriting.

It’s too knockabout to be so far above the chimney pots. It wouldn’t know what to do with dense allusion and words turning in on themselves, and neither should it have to. It doesn’t need changing; it’s already a curio.

I’m thankful this boom tish has been preserved but I’m not sure if we’d still see the appeal of songs about dustmen and window cleaners anymore than we’d watch On The Buses for more than nostalgia.

II

Current songwriters only have claim to Now since that is when they are active. The present is turning into the past as reliably as always, and this makes the poem or song age instantly; sometimes even before it’s complete.

The movement from past, present, future are all intrinsic parts of songwriting armoury. The fact that you can cover vast tracts of time in the space of a song is most useful.

The quality of music being produced in each era cannot be said to travel in one direction of time’s arrow.

III

Hoverboard Blues

Someone fetched the future 
and found this in the flames
bought a hoverboard for Christmas
and it set the house alight

All things bright and beautiful 
should not be left plugged in
recharging when not in use

Someone stretched the truth but not this time
It really was a hoverboard in the kids room
Who'd ever thought
How high does it hover?

The fireman warned us after the fact
our research said it was safe
we thought it  would be
harmless fun
Someone fetched the future 
 but we were trapped in frames                                     If we could have escaped by hoverboard oh wait