I, Joseph Ezekiel Green, am your humble servant, O Lord. It is with meekness and with reverence that I kneel here in supplication to ask you to receive this testament. Here at 23 Nelson Crescent, Brentwood, I am waiting by this telephone for your call. Outside I hear another thunder storm brewing. The trees are...
Author: chrisgregory (Chris Gregory)
Post
MUSIC BOOK REVIEW: Million Dollar Bash by Sid Griffin
Year by year the legend of The Basement Tapes grows. Here’s a few personal memories. I remember reading about the legendary Great White Wonder when I was at school in the late ‘60s. A little later, as a spotty teenager, I acquired a copy of The Little White Wonder, a white pressed bootleg album, in...
Post
THE BEATLES: Dylan, The Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night Part Two
The movie A Hard Day’s Night, despite being made in monochrome on a tiny budget, is decidedly cool, witty and fast moving. It has an ‘improvised’ atmosphere that recalls the contemporary methods of French Nouvelle Vague directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard. As such it avoids many of the clichés of framing and narrative...
Post
EXPLORING TELEVISUALITY: The Tudors
What is ‘televisuality’? The word has been bandied around rather loosely by media academics for a decade or so. Broadly speaking we can say that the word refers to the attempts that have been made to examine the fundamental nature of television as a form of communication. But there is little consensus between those...
Post
POEM: Drum Fire
my restless fingers comb the surface of this animal’s tight skin- these fingers crack, these fingers flex- sparks fly from my fingertips… summoning the sullen beast’s power into my heart, I can feel the ache of its final mournful cry- gentle bulk swaying, great udders shaking, final breath expelled in an anguished sigh ...
Post
BOB DYLAN: Waiting For You
Happiness is but a state of mind. Anytime you want, you can cross the state line…. Waiting For You was written for the soundtrack of Callie Khouri’s 2002 movie, Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, a wryly bittersweet and avowedly feminist tale centred around the complex relationship between a mother and daughter. As with...
Post
POEM: Alison
POETRY LINKS ALL POETRY COMMAFUL HELLO POETRY ARCHIVE OF THE NOW BEAT SCENE CONTEMPORARY POETRY RESEARCH CENTRE POETRY INTERNATIONAL NATIONAL POETRY LIBRARY POETRY P.F. POETRY ARCHIVE ACADEMY OF AMERICAN POETS POEMY POETIC SIDE HELLO POETRY POEM HUNTER TRY SOCIETY
Post
THE BEATLES: Who Could Ask For More extracts Part One: Dylan, The Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night
INTRODUCTION The idea that Bob Dylan was a key influence on The Beatles is very well-known and accepted one. Dylan is often credited with opening The Beatles’ minds to wider horizons and encouraging them by example to write more personal, meaningful lyrics. Yet most writers have approached this subject in a rather superficial and generalised...
Post
BOB DYLAN: Things Have Changed
…I’m in the wrong town…. I should be in Hollywood…. If you strain your eyes hard enough at a Dylan performance, you will spot a small gold figurine wobbling on top of one of his band’s amplifiers. It’s there at virtually every gig. Dylan has even been known to grasp it and hold it aloof...
Post
THE BEATLES: Who Could Ask For More: Overview and Chapter Summary
WHO COULD ASK FOR MORE: RECLAIMING THE BEATLES …When asked by a journalist whether the group intended writing any anti-war songs, John – without a moment’s hesitation – replied tartly that ALL their songs were anti-war songs. These songs articulated both the immense fear that lay just beneath the surface of the supposedly...