Not in My Name

This blog doesn't usually stray into geo-political insights. In fact it's a refuge against it. So much of political discourse today I find ill-informed and shallow, reduced to sound-bites and twitter lines to take. Great issues - immensely complex and accompanied by history hardly anyone bothers to understand - are dealt with in primary colours, simplified and glossed over.

But as I get older, and maybe this is the way of things, I can't see a war I support. I become less gung-ho and spot shallowness and bluster in arguments to blow fellow human beings to smithereens. I suppose the last couple of decades has shown the limits and problems with Western interventionism - civil wars, lawlessness, religious maniacs, a tide of immigration.

So as Parliament debates today the motion to commit British forces (air & logistics & surveillance) to Syria, I can only say, 'Not in my name'. It's an uncertain trumpet, an instinctive pull rather than a factual push, but when you're unsure, killing (and that is what bombing is however precision) is never the answer. The iron law invoked appears to be the law of unintended - and seldom good - consequences.

Of course, I'm an armchair general, my voice carries no weight nor interest from others, I have no palatable solutions to stop the spread of militant Islam, but the rush to war leaves me cold.

Tim

 

The Best Beatles Album Tracks

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The Best Beatle Album Tracks

A companion bookend to my August 25th piece on the worse Beatles album tracks. A much harder prospect than the previous article, sifting the best will be difficult but – hey! – that’s why I get paid the big bucks. Only rule is that (UK) singles are not permissible, other than that, let’s get down to it!

Please Please Me – There’s a Place

Already I’m in trouble. Some of my very favourite Beatles tracks are on this one album. The winner could have been Baby It’s You, I Saw Her Standing There, Twist and Shout or Anna (Go to him)… But on reflection, I’ll go with this introspective Lennon song. Used to play it with my group in the mid-90’s. No one cared (though the photo above is me playing the song in London).

With The Beatles – You Really Got a Hold On Me

The Beatles go Smokey Robinson. Supercharges the original, great arrangement, powerful vocals by Lennon. Edges out Money and Devil In Her Heart.

Hard Day’s Night – I’ll Be Back

Had the most trouble with this album. There’s five John songs on the album that I could have picked. He was undisputed leader of the group in all senses at this period in time. I’ll Be Back is an understated, but more powerful for it, acoustic ballad that showcases John’s early song writing.

Beatles for Sale – Baby’s In Black

Baby’s in Black is part of the strongest trio of songs ever to start off an album (No Reply and I’m a Loser being the other two). Only the Beatles could have written and performed this crazy, swinging, blues, country song. Weird but oh so right. Brilliant guitar solo from George.

Help! – You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

Lennon does Dylan. The result is pure Beatles, pure John. Acoustic, hypnotic, great tune, ambiguous lyrics and, yes I keep saying it, great Lennon vocals. Number one busker’s song.

Rubber Soul – Norwegian Wood

Acoustic guitars, sitar, understated, epic. A classic from a classic album. Nuff said.

 Revolver – She Said She Said

“She said, I know what it’s like to be dead” lyrically is a million miles away from the boy meets girl constructs of previous Beatle songs. Great stinging lead guitar from George (who also played bass as Paul threw a wobbly and walked out of the session).

Sgt Pepper – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds

I not a big subscriber to the view this is the Beatles best album. It seems to me the production overshadows the actual songs. Lucy in The Sky with Diamonds contains some of Lennon’s best images and has a cracking chorus to boot. From its haunting keyboard opening, Paul’s intelligent bass, this is the standout track.

The Beatles (White Album) – Back in The USSR

An erratic album but with some absolute gems. This McCartney rocker kicks off the album. It’s wild, badly mixed, recorded without Ringo, but it takes on the Beach Boys at their own game and gives them a beating!

Magical Mystery Tour – I Am The Walrus

Lennon snarls his way through four and a half minutes of invective, which provided the whole basis for Liam Gallagher’s career. A song only Lennon could have written. The production is amazing but what holds it together, as usual, is John’s vocal.

Abbey Road – Here Comes The Sun

Harrison’s unstoppable juggernaut takes over the Beatles and flattens Lennon and McCartney. George writes the album’s two best songs. Something could equally have been in this position but as it was the single I’ll go for Here Comes The Sun. Anyone who grew up in the 70’s would be familiar with the guitar figure as it used to the theme tune of the Holiday programme. Beautiful song.

Let It Be – I’ve Got A Feeling

The Beatles as garage band. Live and unadorned, the Beatles rock out. Appropriate that this is a Paul/John combination song showing how great they could be together (check out the version on Anthology 3 to see how John could inspire Paul). Hypnotic riff, powerful harmonies, the song gets better with age.

Who knows? I'll probably change my mind on all of these tomorrow. Or later today. That's the beauty of it, I guess.

Cheers

Tim

A la recherché du temps perdu

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Happenings ten years time ago // Situations we really know // But the knowing is in the mind // Sinking deep into the well of time

In historical terms, the day before yesterday is always the strangest and most remote.

What was it like to live in the 70’s? It wasn’t that long ago in the grand scheme of things and yet I picture the decade in sepia - populated by horse drawn carts climbing cobbled streets passing old men in bowler hats scowling back as though the image would capture their souls. The tricks of memory.

I grew up in the 1970’s. Despite the strikes, the oil crises and IRA terrorism, I remember it as a happy decade. Tim was ever to be found playing out on the street - no worries about cars or peodos in those days - endless games of football, cricket, making dens, short trousers, street parties, church parades; egg and chips.

One abiding memory is that every August my parents would take my sister and I out into the countryside around Rochdale to pick blackberries. We would go armed with huge empty margarine tubs and come back with pounds of fruit – just waiting to be boiled up and made into soon-to-be neglected pots of jam. The weather was always sunny (I’m probably picturing 1976), the blackberries always plentiful, the thorns always benign.

In honour of my upbringing, I take my kids blackberry picking. I’m lucky enough to live near the Sussex Downs and Ditchling Common. At this time of year, the bushes on the common are weighed down by juicy blackberries. My girls and I went on our bikes yesterday, Tupperware in my backpack, to grab some of nature’s high-summer bounty.

The blackberry picking has become part of the ebb and flow of seasons in my reduced family; it’s what we do and my kids look forward to it. Probably the idea more than the reality, but that is often the way. Even now though – whilst this is actually happening - I can see that my girls’ nostalgia gene is awakening – as we bike to the Common we pass new housing developments that have laid waste to what were, ever-so-recently, green fields. The world is ever churning and nothing but memory stays the same. 

But creating those memories is at the core of our humanity. The remembrance and recreation of childhood memories – sights, tastes, rituals – is something that subconsciously draws us like an alcoholic to the bottle, the moth to the late night lamp, the sinner to the pew. With artists - and I include myself loosely in this group – it is one of the central drivers of creativity. The negation of childhood memories, to veer wildly away from familiar paths, works the same way.

The quotation that starts this post is Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, a rare Yardbirds single from 1966 when the group – so briefly - boasted the duel lead guitar attack of Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page. But you knew that already, didn’t you?

And the blackberries became a rather lovely homemade ice cream.

Cheers ears,

Tim

 


It's All About You. Of Course

Here's an article I wrote recently on the human side of interviewing for a job.

Sometimes it’s easy to forget central truths in the pursuit of an objective. We all know of King Pyrrhus who won the battle against the Romans but lost the war. Interviewing for a job can be a little like this – minus the body count.

I assume that when you go for an interview you have done the correct prep: You understand the company and their products. You know whether there is a verbal reasoning test or an in-tray exercise. Will the interview be biographical or competency based or a mix of both? I'm sure you’ve  got your best suit out and given your shoes a good old polish.

But you may be neglecting your biggest asset, you!

Remember people buy from people. Now that truism may now be disputed in our internet age but it’s baby brother - people hire people – is very much true

So, let me give you a run through of some howlers I’ve committed in a selfless pursuit of authenticity for this article.

1)   Clothes. Be comfortable in what you wear. That doesn’t mean turning up in sweat pants and an AC/DC T-shirt, but give thought to your outfit before the actual day. Got a great shirt you look fabulous in? Then make sure it’s washed and ironed the day before. Hey, it’s an obvious one but I’ve been there, done that and got the (crumpled) shirt.

2)   Remember your interviewers are human too. Yes, they may have God-like powers to hire or not, but underneath their omnipotence, they’re just like you and me. Be aware of this and use the knowledge to your advantage. It’s an artificial situation, akin to speed dating. Don’t be afraid to comment on this.

3)   Just as interviewers are human, so are you. Don’t be an interview robot. Remember to change posture – don’t freeze in some ‘power pose’. Gesticulate, smile, acknowledge feedback, and ask for water if you need some. These little asides show more of the warmth and breadth of your character. But don’t push it – I’m a funny guy – but leave the observational comedy for your stand up routine.

4)   The technical and experiential stuff gets you through the door but it’s you that closes the deal. We spend about a half of our waking life in the office. Interviewers are looking for someone who can fit in, who can enrich their lives beyond the technicalities of the job. Simples things like chatting, banter, sharing. The human stuff.

5)   Lastly, believe in yourself. You know what makes you great. It would be a privilege for the employers to hire you. Don’t lose that fire in your eyes, that sense of self worth you have in your best moments – when you graduate, when you sign that massive deal, when your first child is born, when you are spontaneously altruistic. This is you. A job offer is a contract and a contract is a two way bargain that has to work for both parties. Don’t forget that.